The softness and resilience of it made even Song Ziyao blush.
She hurriedly released the arms that had been wrapped around Tan Jinhe’s arm, took two steps back, lowered her head, and felt her heart pounding like thunder.
A section of fair pink neck entered Tan Jinhe’s field of vision. Uncomfortably, he turned his head away. After quite a while, he took a deep breath and said: “Let’s go.”
After a pause, he turned around again and asked: “Can you walk?”
It took Song Ziyao two seconds to realize that Tan Jinhe was asking about her foot.
The twist from jumping down earlier had not been serious. It hurt a little, but walking was not a problem.
Song Ziyao pressed her lips together and shook her head. The two braids hanging to her shoulders brushed lightly across that fair pink neck.
Tan Jinhe felt unsettled and distracted.
Turning around, he strode forward with large steps.
Song Ziyao hurriedly followed after him.
Walking behind him, Song Ziyao said softly: “Let me carry some of the things too.”
After a while, she finally heard the response from ahead. “No need. We’re almost there.”
The Educated Youth Dormitory was already close to the Brigade Office, so it only took five or six minutes to arrive.
Song Ziyao felt regretful.
The journey had been too short.
At this hour, everyone was still out working. The dormitory doors were locked, and there was not a single person around.
However, Tan Jinhe merely set the items down in the courtyard and did not take a single step farther inside.
The moment he put down the things, he wanted to leave. Song Ziyao quickly called out to stop him.
She swiftly opened her room door, rummaged out a half-jin package of biscuits, grabbed a handful of candy, ran in front of Tan Jinhe, and held them out.
“Thank you for helping me move my things today. This is a token of appreciation.”
Perhaps because she had run over too quickly, the young woman was still breathing heavily. Holding the items out with both hands, she looked at him with sparkling eyes.
The dazzling light in her eyes seemed to say that there was only him within them.
Tan Jinhe suddenly felt somewhat stifled. His heart was clearly beating strongly, yet he found it difficult to breathe.
His mind told him to leave immediately, but his feet seemed nailed to the ground and refused to move.
“…There’s no need.”
Knowing that Tan Jinhe would not easily accept a gift, Song Ziyao took another two steps forward and persuaded him: “Take it. Maybe I’ll have to trouble you again in the future.”
“We’ll talk about that in the future. Right now, I haven’t earned it.” Tan Jinhe finally regained some clarity.
Song Ziyao remembered what Tan Xuesong had said that morning, that the principle Fourth Uncle had taught him was: “There is no such thing as a free pie falling from the sky.”
At this time, biscuits were genuine food purchased with grain coupons.
Half a jin of grain as a gift in return for helping move a few things was indeed excessive.
Tan Jinhe must have considered it a “free pie falling from the sky.”
Song Ziyao had no choice but to take the biscuits back.
However, she still forcibly stuffed the handful of White Rabbit candies into Tan Jinhe’s hand.
“They’re only a few pieces of candy. If you don’t accept them, I’ll feel bad about it.”
Before Tan Jinhe could refuse again, Song Ziyao turned around and busied herself organizing her belongings. Only when she saw the shadow on the ground turn away and leave did she finally let out a sigh of relief.
Sigh, she had only wanted to feed him.
It really had not been easy.
While everyone was still out working, Song Ziyao entered her space and took out some spare ribs and pork belly from the refrigerator, treating them as items she had purchased in the county.
She also mixed in some flour and rice.
Since she probably would not be going to the county very often in the future, Song Ziyao planned to take the opportunity to bring out more things from her space.
After searching through everything, she decided that dried mushrooms, dried wood ear fungus, dried bamboo shoots, red dates, sesame seeds, and similar items could also be brought out.
Just after finishing all this, the sales clerk girl from the Brigade Supply and Marketing Cooperative arrived.
The iron wok was resting on her shoulder.
Song Ziyao stared in astonishment as the young girl strode forward with the iron wok on her shoulder.
That was a large Number Eight iron wok, huge and heavy!
Purchasing things on behalf of others was a voluntary service for sales clerks.
She had never expected the girl to deliver the items directly to her door as well.
The girl set the iron wok on the ground. Inside it were also the thermos flask and enamel basin.
“The moment I saw your build, I knew you weren’t very strong, so I brought it over for you. Check everything and see whether anything’s missing.”
The count was obviously correct at a glance. Song Ziyao hurriedly nodded. “Everything’s here. Sit and rest for a bit. I’ll get you a bowl of water.”
In such hot weather, the girl was indeed thirsty and did not stand on ceremony.
Song Ziyao originally intended to make a bowl of sugar water, but after entering the room she remembered that her thermos flask had just been purchased and she had not boiled any water yet.
Previously, whenever she drank plain boiled water, she had gotten it from Liu Qingping. Now Liu Qingping had not returned yet, and her door was locked as well.
The well water could be drunk directly, but after the girl had worked so hard delivering everything to her doorstep, Song Ziyao felt embarrassed to send her away with nothing more than a bowl of well water.
After some thought, Song Ziyao opened the canned yellow peaches she had purchased that day, filled a bowl, and carried it outside.
The girl was startled when she saw the canned yellow peaches. “I… I only need a bowl of water!”
Only after Song Ziyao repeatedly urged her did the girl finally accept the bowl awkwardly.
As she ate, Song Ziyao chatted with her.
Before long, the two became familiar with each other.
The girl’s name was Tao Chunni. She was the same age as Song Ziyao, a junior high school graduate, and the youngest daughter of the Brigade Accountant.
Above her were five older brothers, and she was the only treasured daughter of the family.
The accountant’s family was one of the wealthiest households in the brigade, and Tao Chunni, being the most pampered youngest daughter, had developed an innocent and carefree personality with little wariness toward others.
Before long, she became much more talkative.
“Don’t let the fact that I’m a girl fool you. I’m really strong. I could carry two more of those big iron woks!”
“Originally, I wanted to join the Iron Girls Team and go with the engineering crew to blast mountains and build reservoirs, but my dad absolutely refused! He made me become this lousy sales clerk instead. I sit there every day, and sometimes not a single person comes by for me to talk to all day long.”
Song Ziyao could not help but smile. “Your father must be worried about your safety. Blasting mountains and building reservoirs carries a certain degree of danger.”
“Yeah…” Tao Chunni sighed. “But it’s really boring…”
Suddenly, Tao Chunni straightened her posture and said with a blushing face: “Educated Youth Song, I think you’re a really nice person. Can I come play with you often in the future?”
“Of course you can!” Song Ziyao liked the young girl quite a bit as well.
“Great! Then I should head back now. Everyone will be getting off work soon!”
Song Ziyao walked her out. Halfway there, Tao Chunni turned back and waved at her again before finally skipping away happily into the distance.
After Tao Chunni left, Song Ziyao began preparing dinner.
In weather like this, meat could not be stored for long and had to be cooked immediately.
The marrow bones would be made into soup, and the soup could be saved for cooking noodles the next day.
The spare ribs would be made into sweet and sour ribs, while the pork belly would be sliced and stir-fried with chili peppers.
Song Ziyao first stir-fried the marrow bones in lard inside the large iron wok until fragrant, then added boiling water. Once the milky white soup began to boil, she ladled it into a clay pot.
The senior educated youths had a clay stove that she could use. However, it burned firewood and produced a lot of smoke, so it had to be moved outside.
After setting the marrow bones to simmer, she prepared to cook rice, only to be stumped.
She had always used a rice cooker before. How was rice supposed to be cooked in this kind of large rural iron wok??
With people liable to return at any moment, she could not use the rice cooker from her space either.
Forget it. She would make steamed buns instead.
Just after she had set the dough to rise, voices came from outside.
The Educated Youths were returning one after another.
“Holy crap! Who’s stewing meat?!” A head poked into the kitchen. Seeing Song Ziyao, the person asked: “Was it you who stewed the meat outside??”
Then another head poked in. “I can tell from the smell. It’s not meat, it’s bone soup!”
Both of them had the surname Shi. One was called Shi Lei, and the other Shi Changjiang. They were not biological brothers, yet because they were inseparable, people often mistook them for real brothers.
The two of them were also the Educated Youths who gave the production team the greatest headaches. They were never enthusiastic about earning work points, yet they could get up before dawn and stay out until dark stealing chickens and pilfering dogs.
However, because the chickens they stole and the dogs they caught were always shared with everyone, they enjoyed fairly good popularity among the Educated Youths.
Song Ziyao smiled and answered Shi Changjiang’s question. “I made it. I borrowed your stove. I’ll serve each of you a bowl of soup later.”
Shi Changjiang was not the least bit polite. He immediately grinned and said: “You don’t have any vegetables, right? We’ve got winter melons in our vegetable patch. How about picking one and chopping it into the soup? It’ll add some flavor!”
Song Ziyao really did not have any vegetables. The only chili peppers, ginger, and garlic she possessed had been given to her by Liu Qingping.
“Sure, go pick one!”
The two Shis happily ran off to the vegetable patch. Besides a winter melon, they also picked several tomatoes.
“The tomatoes are for you. They’re pretty tasty eaten raw!”
Song Ziyao smiled and thanked them.
Since the marrow bones did not contain even a trace of meat, the meaty aroma in the soup was rather light. Song Ziyao therefore cut several chunks of pork belly and added them to the soup.
However, pork belly cooked that way became far too greasy for her liking, and she could not eat it, so she served it all to the two Shis.
The gesture moved them so much that they nearly cried. On the spot, they swore to go through fire and water for Song Ziyao.
Song Ziyao simply smiled. She then served soup and winter melon to everyone else as well.
The only person left out was Liao Hongmei.
Song Ziyao knew that this did not conform to the proper principles of dealing with people.
No matter how much one disliked someone, at the very least one should not embarrass them publicly, especially in a collective living environment. It also served to demonstrate one’s own magnanimity.
But having returned to life once more, unless absolutely necessary, she no longer wanted to force herself to compromise for the sake of some so-called greater good.