Xia Xianxian stood at the door, feeling anxious. It wasn’t like she could interact with the Hekou Village Party Secretary whenever she wanted; if they missed this opportunity, she wasn’t sure there would be another chance to complete the task.
Meng Wenzhou, however, gave her a gentle shake of his head.
Before leaving, Secretary Li glanced at the furnishings in Meng Wenzhou’s main room, smiled, and patted Meng Wenzhou on the shoulder again.
“The commune will send people to interview you later. You’ll have to go up on stage to speak, so make sure you prepare well!”
After seeing the guests off, Meng Wenzhou saw Xia Xianxian sitting in the main room with a pout.
“Why does student Xia Xianxian look so unhappy? Oh? Did student Xia Xianxian discover the private stash I haven’t handed over yet?”
Meng Wenzhou stood beside her, making an exaggerated expression to tease the sulking Xia Xianxian.
“What? What private stash? Where did you get that?”
Sure enough, Xia Xianxian’s attention was immediately captured.
Meng Wenzhou pulled money and coupons out of his pocket and placed them in her hands.
“I went up the mountain with Meng Yang this morning to offload the wild boar. This is my share.”
He spoke again before Xia Xianxian could interject: “With the incident yesterday, everyone’s attention was on the fire. No one would be thinking about Dazhu’s leg injury, and this morning was the best opportunity to offload it.”
“Besides, we didn’t trade directly with the black market. We found a middleman. We didn’t get a huge amount, but it was safe.”
Xia Xianxian figured that made sense, so she didn’t say anything more and lowered her head to earnestly count the money and coupons in her hand.
Although she already had an understanding of the current purchasing power, she was, after all, someone who had seen large sums of money in the future. The 35 yuan was quickly counted and tossed aside.
However, Xia Xianxian looked at the coupons with great affection.
Tsk, tsk, tsk. If she saved these instead of using them, they would be heirlooms in a few decades.
“Hey, why did you go out without telling me!”
Once the items were put away, Xia Xianxian started settling scores with Meng Wenzhou.
Meng Wenzhou laughed and covered his face.
“Alright, it’s my fault. It was something I thought of in bed in the middle of the night, and it just happened that Meng Yang thought the same thing. We ran into each other on the way out, so we decided then and there to offload the boar. You were sleeping at the time, so I didn’t wake you up.”
Xia Xianxian gave him a suspicious look, hummed in disapproval, but didn’t dwell on it. She turned to ask Meng Wenzhou about the task.
Actually, the meeting with Zhang Sheng had been arranged with Meng Yang while fighting the fire the night before. Taking advantage of the chaos, Meng Yang had gone to connect with Zhang Sheng to set the time and place. But since the incident happened just that night, Meng Wenzhou had kept it from her, fearing Xia Xianxian would worry.
“What about the fountain pen? Do you have a plan?”
“Hmm, I have a rough idea. Let’s wait for the award ceremony. If that doesn’t work, I’ll think of something else.”
“Since you say so, then that’s that.”
Xia Xianxian tilted her chin up and shrugged, looking incredibly cute and charming.
“Uncle! Uncle!”
Hardly had the guests from Xiahe Village left when the peace of the small courtyard was broken by a chorus of shouts.
“Grandma! Hurry up!”
Huzi and Tiedan raced toward the house.
When they neared the courtyard entrance and looked back to see Wang Cuihua walking slowly behind them with Yezi from the eldest brother’s family, they became incredibly anxious and ran back to pull them forward.
“Hurry, hurry!”
Huzi’s booming voice sent the birds in the trees flying away.
Meng Wenzhou and Xia Xianxian exchanged a glance and immediately started tidying up the house. Anything breakable or hard to manage was locked away in the cabinets. The troublemakers were coming; they had to hide their things!
Before Wang Cuihua reached the door, Xia Xianxian had already come out to greet her.
Wang Cuihua had brought several little ones this time; except for the older boys who had to go to school, all the children from the old house had come along.
From a distance, Xia Xianxian sweetly called out, “Mother!” then walked forward to link her arm with Wang Cuihua’s to walk back in, occasionally chatting with Yezi and Huzi to buy Meng Wenzhou time to finish cleaning.
Unlike last time, Wang Cuihua was beaming today. Her son had achieved something great—the village head from the neighboring village had come with gifts to commend him, and she heard they were even going to hold a commendation meeting for him!
The news made Wang Cuihua’s heart burn with pride. Before she had even left, the children were already waiting at the gate, eager to follow her to see their uncle.
“Mother, have some water.”
Xia Xianxian handed the sweetened water to Wang Cuihua and took a handful of candies from the drawer to pass out to the children.
Tiedan and Huzi’s eyes lit up at the sight of the candy, and they happily popped them into their mouths. Yezi was much shyer; she took the candy, blushed, and didn’t dare to eat it, tucking it into her pocket to save for later.
Tiedan and Huzi couldn’t sit still and soon started clamoring to go outside to play war games. Meng Wenzhou took them out, and in no time at all, the two were happily playing on their own, requiring no supervision.
“Quick, quick! Those two boys are finally out. Let me see the certificate of merit.”
Looking at the paper with black characters on a red background, Wang Cuihua felt tears of joy welling up in her eyes. This was the honor of a hero; their Meng family had produced someone truly extraordinary!
Although she couldn’t read, it didn’t hinder Wang Cuihua’s happiness.
Xia Xianxian took the initiative to pick up the items Secretary Li had brought for Wang Cuihua to see.
“Mother, this is the reward the Hekou Village Party Secretary gave Wenzhou.”
Wang Cuihua touched the rewards over and over. She didn’t dare touch the certificate for fear of accidentally smudging it, but the items were sturdier—they couldn’t be broken or spoiled by touch.
“This fabric is perfect for making an upper garment for Wenzhou. We’ll start making it now, and by the time the award ceremony comes, it will be ready to wear. He can go receive his award looking sharp!”
Wang Cuihua held the fabric and made the final decision.
Even if Wang Cuihua hadn’t come today, Xia Xianxian and Meng Wenzhou would have had to take the fabric to her anyway—otherwise, how were they going to make the clothes?
“By the way, how is your needlework coming along? Bring it here and let me see. You can learn a bit more from me these next two days.”
Hearing this, Xia Xianxian felt numb!
Why couldn’t she be spared? Her fingers were already swollen from pricks; she really didn’t want to do needlework!
(╥╯^╰╥)
“Mother, didn’t you only just start teaching me yesterday? And with everything that happened last night, where would I have found the time to practice!”
Meng Wenzhou entered the room, heard Wang Cuihua, and quickly stepped in to smooth things over.
“Oh, yes, yes. My mistake.”
Suddenly, Xia Xianxian, looking rather sickly, sprang up from her chair and enthusiastically took the needlework basket out of the cabinet.
“Mother, please, teach me now!”
Meng Wenzhou: Hm? Did the system issue another task?
It turned out that the insoles she had exchanged earlier were so ugly that even the system had been mocked for it, so the moment Wang Cuihua appeared, the system had silently prepared this task!
“Ding!”
【System task updated. Please complete the solo task, Host!】
【Task: Collect a pair of handmade insoles.】
【Reward: Spicy cold-pot rabbit (3 servings).】
【No time limit, but the system has a standard for quality. (Note: Substandard work will not be accepted.)】
Hm? It even had quality requirements? Xia Xianxian felt this was making things difficult for her.
She couldn’t speak out loud while others were around, so she had to communicate with the system via brain waves. Xia Xianxian found it quite uncomfortable!
“System baby…”
Before Xia Xianxian could finish, the system interrupted her.
【Ahem, you haven’t spun the Daily Wheel yet!】
“So…”
【The Host can also make a wish in her heart. Perhaps your luck will be good today and you’ll hit the jackpot!】
Heh, deal!
Regardless, she didn’t want to do it, but the system wouldn’t cancel the task anyway. Wuu-wuu.
System: A system’s face is a face too!