Tong Xiaoqian nodded. “Once it’s sold to you, it’s yours to decide what to do with. You can do whatever you like. Consider those two thousand two hundred yuan already paid, and you can just pay the rest in installments.”
Lei Wanguo looked at Lei Wanqiang, who wanted to say something but was held back by Wang Yumei.
After thinking it over, Lei Wanguo asked again, “Do you have a bottom line in mind for how much you want to sell this house for? Right now, someone in the village offered eight thousand, but if we wait a bit longer, someone might offer even higher…”
It had only been one morning and already several people were inquiring about the house. Houses were in real short supply right now, and if things went on, the price might even get raised to ten thousand.
If Tong Xiaoqian wanted a bit more, he could give it to her.
After all, it wasn’t going to an outsider.
“Let’s just settle on eight thousand. We’re all family.” Tong Xiaoqian also knew that if they waited another two days, there would definitely be higher offers.
However, Lei Wanguo’s family had offered a lot of help to the Lei family over the years.
Every year during spring planting and autumn harvesting, he and his younger siblings’ families all pitched in to help.
Otherwise, with so much farmland, how could Lei Wanqiang’s family—with one simple-minded and one sick—have ever managed to farm it all?
“Then I’ll still pay five thousand now, and give you the remaining eight hundred next month.”
Tong Xiaoqian smiled. “No rush. If it’s inconvenient for you, you can give even less for now. We can go to town tomorrow to transfer the title, and I’ll go reclaim the house in a bit.”
Lei Wanguo quickly added, “Then I’ll bring my eldest son along with the ones from third and fourth brother’s families to go with you.”
Tong Xiaoqian waved her hand. “No need. You just wait to move in when the time comes.”
Lei Wanguo didn’t push any further, but he had already made up his mind. That Tian Juhua was quite a piece of work—wouldn’t this young girl end up suffering a loss if she went alone?
Seeing that they had finished discussing their business, Lei Yihong started asking his own question.
“Eldest Uncle, how many watermelons did you plant this year?”
“I planted two *mu*. When it’s harvest time, I’ll bring some over for you.”
Wang Yumei hastily waved her hands. “No need, no need! We planted some ourselves.”
Lei Yihong continued, “I want all the watermelons. Save them for me when the time comes.”
“What?!” Everyone in the room was shocked.
Lei Wanguo said, “Yihong, two *mu* of land yields over ten thousand jin of watermelons. Are you planning to sell watermelons?”
Wang Yumei added, “Our family planted a few watermelons too. What are you going to do with so many watermelons?”
“Just keep them for me. I’ll pay you market price when the time comes.”
Lei Wanguo looked at Lei Wanqiang and Wang Yumei, completely at a loss as to what his eldest nephew had up his sleeve.
Now that he was recovered, was he planning to give up on taking the college entrance exam and switch careers to selling watermelons instead?
Anyway, there was still some time before the watermelon harvest. If Lei Yihong didn’t want them then, they could just go ahead and sell them as usual.
When leaving, he called Lei Wanqiang outside to talk. “Second Brother, once you folks get back on your feet, you still need to give this money to Xiaoya. We can’t let the villagers poke at our backbones and say our Lei family takes advantage of an orphan girl and exploits her.”
Lei Wanqiang nodded. “Eldest Brother, rest assured, I understand.”
After Lei Wanguo left, the couple discussed it further in the yard.
They thought the silly girl might have regained her senses and felt indebted to the Lei family, which was why she helped pay off the debt.
Who knew how things would turn out between this girl and their son in the future; regardless of whether it worked out or not, this money ought to be given to the child.
Lunch was already prepared. Seeing that they hadn’t eaten yet, Wang Yumei fried another egg.
Right now, the vegetables in the garden hadn’t grown out yet, so eggs were the best and most nutritious dish available.
Lei Yihong’s appetite was noticeably larger now than when he had first woken up.
His current physical weakness was partly due to his previous inability to keep food down, but since he was just recovering, he still couldn’t eat too much at once.
After finishing his meal, he still had to drink the Chinese herbal medicine for replenishing *qi* and blood.
When the two asked Wang Yumei for the household register, Wang Yumei instantly grew nervous. Her immediate reaction was that the two were going to get a divorce.
Tong Xiaoqian quickly explained, “I’m taking the household register to apply for an identity card. Besides, we found jobs in the city.”
“Found jobs? What kind of jobs?”
How could villagers like them find any good jobs going out nowadays?
It was all heavy physical labor.
On top of that, except for extremely exhausting jobs, some employers weren’t even willing to hire rural folk.
Furthermore, they still had to hand over the agricultural tax grain, and every household needed labor; during spring planting and autumn harvesting, many migrant workers had to return home to tend to the fields.
“We’re working as tour guides at a travel agency.”
“What does a tour guide do?”
The villagers were still extremely unfamiliar with this trendy profession.
Tong Xiaoqian had no choice but to explain it to her.
However, she omitted the part about needing to speak Russian. If she woke up no longer foolish and then claimed to know Russian on top of that, it would scare people half to death.
Wang Yumei looked at her with some suspicion. “You two better not trick me. How could such a good job fall to rural folk like us? Neither of you… ever attended college…”
Speaking of this brought a wave of sadness.
Her son had once been single-mindedly set on taking the college entrance exam, only to fall ill, while her daughter-in-law had never had the chance to attend school, not even finishing primary school. No matter how one looked at it, this job shouldn’t have fallen into their hands.
She wasn’t afraid of the two kids looking for work in the city; she was afraid they were hiding it from her and going to the city to perform heavy manual labor.
Take the work Xiaoyuan did, for instance—it sounded like it earned a lot, but it was truly exhausting.
Noticing her concerns, Lei Yihong hastily explained, “It’s true. Xiaoya has a good appearance, and the travel agency didn’t look at educational qualifications. We still need pre-job training, and we can only start working after completing the training.”
Wang Yumei smiled and touched Tong Xiaoqian’s face. “That’s true. Once our Xiaoya walks out there, none of those city girls are as pretty as her.”
“Alright, go give it a try. I don’t understand these matters of you young people either.”
In her heart, she didn’t want the two children staying in the village either, bending over the dirt with their backs to the sky to scrape a living from the soil.
If they could carve out a path for themselves in the city, it would be better than staying in the village no matter what.
“Mom, I’m going to reclaim the house now.”
Tong Xiaoqian had come to address her as “Mom” quite smoothly now. Previously, she had been extremely unfamiliar with this form of address, having never called anyone Mom or Dad growing up.
The first word she had learned to say was “Grandma.”
The original host had followed the Lei family son in calling them Mom and Dad later on, but could only utter repeated syllables or single words, behaving worse than a two- or three-year-old child.
And even that was the result of painstaking care from the Lei couple.
“Mom will go with you. Your eldest uncle said to call him when you go to reclaim the house, and he would come along too.”
Lei Yihong stood up and straightened his clothes. “No need, I’ll go with her.”
Wang Yumei glanced at him. “What are you going along for? To extort another sum from them?”
Lei Yihong: “…”
Tong Xiaoqian put her arm around Wang Yumei. “Mom, you can’t call it extortion. This is what they owe me. They raised me for a year previously without giving me much to eat, took away my year’s work points, and ordered me around to do chores. This is merely compensation.”
She then looked at Lei Yihong. “Let him walk around more. It’s not good to keep lying down all the time.”
She could tell that this young master, who used to live above mundane affairs, found everything in the countryside novel now.
Deep down, he possessed a gossiping streak just like those village women.
As soon as the two stepped into the courtyard, Wangcai began jumping up and down eagerly, as if wanting to tag along with them.
Tong Xiaoqian didn’t know whether Wangcai had been close to the original host before or what, but ever since she transmigrated over, it attached itself to her incessantly.
It always liked to hover right around her feet, making her trip with nearly every step.
When Wang Yumei refused to let it into the room, it would lie by the doorway, staring at her with wide, yearning eyes.