After settling the four children, Ye Qingyun went to find the team leader again that afternoon to ask for leave.
Her master had come up with more than a dozen excuses for her.
But Ye Qingyun chose to tell the truth.
“Team Leader, I need to go to the commune to buy a few things. I’d like to take tomorrow off.”
Wu Younian, who was leading everyone by the river in carrying stones to reinforce the field embankments, couldn’t help showing a helpless smile when he heard her repeatedly calling him “Team Leader.”
“You can take the day off, but Second Sister, could you stop calling me ‘Team Leader’ so formally?”
He didn’t know whether that was some city custom, where people only addressed each other by their titles at work, but it gave him goosebumps every time he heard it.
Ye Qingyun smiled.
“Alright. Thanks, Big Brother. I’ll head back to work now.”
Wu Younian paused for a moment before calling her back.
“You’re going alone? Do you know the way? Want someone to go with you?”
Ye Qingyun waved her hand.
“No need. I’ve walked there before. I know the road.”
“Then go early and come back early. Be careful on the way.”
He still couldn’t quite stop worrying.
After thinking for a moment, Ye Qingyun also asked her eldest brother to keep an eye on the four children while she was gone.
He didn’t have to watch them constantly—just check on them from time to time.
It was such a small request that Wu Younian naturally agreed without hesitation.
He nodded, telling her to go without worry.
With the leave request settled, she also needed to inform her “coworkers” and “supervisor.”
The person in charge of feeding the pigs was Sister Chunhua.
Her mother was also from the Wu family, making her and Ye Qingyun cousins.
She had already been looking after Ye Qingyun out of respect for Wu Younian.
Now that she’d seen how hardworking Ye Qingyun was, she liked her even more.
Calling over the two young educated youths, Sister Chunhua said,
“Xiaoyun is taking tomorrow off. You two will be responsible for cutting the pig grass.”
Mo Qiuyu nodded without saying anything.
Qi Xue, however, muttered unhappily,
“As expected of the team leader’s relative. She can take leave whenever she wants, pat herself on the back, and leave all the work for everyone else.”
Sister Chunhua’s expression stiffened.
Mo Qiuyu nudged Qi Xue with the back of her hand, signaling her to stop.
She whispered,
“We’re new here. We don’t know anyone. If we offend them, life will only become harder.”
Qi Xue looked at her once fair, delicate hands, now rough and tanned after more than half a month of farm work, and her resentment only grew stronger.
Before coming to the countryside, she had been the youngest child in her family.
Her older brothers and sisters doted on her, and her parents spoiled her.
She had never done farm work like this.
These past two weeks had been the hardest days of her life.
Then she looked at Ye Qingyun’s calm expression.
That only made her angrier.
Shaking off Mo Qiuyu’s hand, Qi Xue snapped,
“You don’t dare say anything even when you’re unhappy, but I’m not like you! If someone treats you unfairly and you just accept it, fine—but I won’t!”
She pointed at Ye Qingyun.
Ever since Ye Qingyun had started enthusiastically working so hard every day, she and Mo Qiuyu had been forced to keep up, making them work themselves half to death. As a result, Sister Chunhua now thought they weren’t diligent enough.
Qi Xue was about to vent all the grievances she’d accumulated over the past few weeks.
But before she could speak—
Ye Qingyun spoke first.
With her hands clasped behind her back, she said calmly,
“What exactly are you unhappy about?”
“If it weren’t for me these past few weeks, the little bit of pig grass the two of you gathered every day wouldn’t even have been enough to feed the pigs. They would’ve starved.”
Without giving Qi Xue a chance to interrupt, she continued,
“In a little while, I’ll take you to the new pig grass patch I found. This afternoon I’ll gather extra grass, so tomorrow morning your workload will be about the same as usual. You’ll just have a slightly harder afternoon.”
“But if either of you needs to take leave next time, I’ll help do your share of the work too.”
Qi Xue swallowed hard, forcing down the words she’d wanted to say.
Then she nodded awkwardly.
How strange.
She had been furious just moments ago.
But…
What Ye Qingyun said actually made sense.
Fine.
She and Mo Qiuyu really had benefited from Ye Qingyun’s hard work these past few weeks.
She would just consider tomorrow her way of repaying the favor.
Mo Qiuyu smiled warmly.
“It’s alright. We should help each other.”
Ye Qingyun gave her a long look.
Although Mo Qiuyu was smiling, the corners of her mouth were a little stiff, as though she thought Ye Qingyun had seen through something.
But Ye Qingyun soon looked away, picked up her basket and sickle, and headed off to cut pig grass.
“Come on!” Qi Xue called.
After all, she was only an eighteen-year-old girl.
The moment she remembered Ye Qingyun was taking them to a brand-new patch where they could finish their work more easily, all her earlier unhappiness disappeared.
Mo Qiuyu nodded with a smile and followed behind.
The two of them followed Ye Qingyun to a hillside covered in clover.
Their eyes widened in delight.
“So much!”
This patch alone would last them for quite some time.
Ye Qingyun gave the beaming pair a slight nod.
Then they got to work.
To carry back one more load of pig grass, Ye Qingyun finished work an hour later than usual that day.
As soon as she got home, the four children surrounded her, crying that they were hungry.
They also declared that they wanted to eat sweet potatoes that tasted like meat again.
Right on cue, Wang Tiezhu appeared and took down the basket of stone frogs from his back.
Tonight’s “sweet potatoes” were taken care of.
Ye Qingyun went to cook dinner.
Meanwhile, Fu Min led her younger siblings in surrounding Wang Tiezhu, interrogating him about why he kept coming to their house for meals.
Because Xinyu, Xinyang, and Fu Xiangdong were still young, they had stayed close to the little mud house ever since moving to the countryside and had never gone to the production team’s gathering area.
Fu Min was different.
She was older, could roam farther, and her mother allowed her to go out by herself.
So she had already learned from the village children exactly who Wang Tiezhu was.
Her cousin had told her that Old Wang was the laziest man in the village.
His character was terrible.
He stole other people’s things.
He even liked bullying children.
“Don’t you cook your own meals?”
“Why do you keep eating at our house every day?”
“Are you planning to kidnap us and sell us while the grown-ups aren’t home?”
“I’m telling you—my eldest uncle is a team leader! If you bully us, he’ll have you arrested!”
Leaning against the doorway with one leg crossed over the other, Wang Tiezhu listened to the children’s threats and warnings.
Unable to hold it in any longer—
He burst into laughter.
Fu Min glared at him.
“You’re not allowed to laugh!”
The twins immediately echoed her.
“You’re not allowed to laugh!”
Fu Xiangdong didn’t really understand what was going on, but he still stammered,
“You’re… a bad… person!”
All four little ones wore extremely serious expressions.
Holding back his laughter, Wang Tiezhu said with a perfectly straight face,
“I’m your mother’s master. It’s only natural for a master to eat at his disciple’s house. Not only am I here today—I’ll be here every day from now on. I’ll eat your family into poverty.”
Fu Min frowned.
Her cousin had been right.
This man was terrifying.
She hurriedly led her younger siblings half a step backward.
Smirking proudly, Wang Tiezhu asked,
“Do you know what a master is?”
Fu Xiangdong remembered one of the bedtime stories his mother had told him.
Stretching his neck forward and tilting his head, he asked,
“Tang Seng?”
“What Seng?” Wang Tiezhu asked in confusion.
Xinyang wanted to explain, but Xinyu grabbed his arm and shook her head.
Don’t fall into the bad man’s trap.
As the oldest, Fu Min felt she had to set an example for her younger siblings.
Standing up straight, she declared,
“Fu Xiangdong is asking if you’re Tang Sanzang. Tang Sanzang is Sun Wukong’s master. Tang Sanzang is terrible. He keeps chanting the Tightening Spell until the Monkey King is in unbearable pain.”
“Oh?”
“The little girl’s even using idioms. Not bad.”
Wang Tiezhu wagged a finger.
“Wrong, wrong.”
“I am Patriarch Bodhi.”
“I was the one who taught Sun Wukong all his abilities.”
“Now that’s what a master is.”
Fu Min’s eyes lit up.
She quickly glanced toward her mother, who was busy cooking by the stove.
Seeing that the children finally seemed interested, Wang Tiezhu waved his hand to draw all four pairs of eyes back to him.
With a mysterious wink, he suddenly reached into the air as though grabbing something invisible.
He shook his clenched fist in front of the children.
Then opened his hand.
A little yellow sparrow fluttered out of his palm.
The four children stared with wide eyes as the tiny bird flew farther and farther away…
Until it disappeared into the mountains, never to be seen again.