While washing her face, Tong Xiaoqian felt something rubbing back and forth against her leg, emitting purring sounds from time to time.
She squinted her eyes for a look—it was a small brownish-yellow native dog, raised by the Lei family, named Wangcai, about a year and a half old.
Wiping her face, she squatted down to look at Wangcai, who sat there staring eagerly at her, his throat constantly making purring sounds as if he liked her very much.
That look of begging for pets and hugs reminded her of Li Dapu.
She wondered how he was doing.
Hopefully her brother and sister could go check on that dog mother and son.
Wang Yumei came out to pour water away and casually remarked, “Yesterday Wangcai was also looking completely listless. I thought it was because he felt sad knowing Yihong was fading fast, but today he looks lively too.”
Once Wang Yumei went inside the room, Tong Xiaoqian reached out her hand, holding two dog biscuits; she placed them on the ground and patted Wangcai’s head.
Wangcai’s eyes instantly lit up, and after devouring them at lightning speed, he looked at her pitifully again.
Tong Xiaoqian spread her hands. “No more for now. I’ll give you more when no one’s around.”
She washed her towel and splashed the water outside the yard.
Returning to a small room right next to Lei Yihong’s room, she took out some vanishing cream and applied it.
This was a small bedroom partitioned off by the Lei couple after Tong Xiaoya arrived, and it was very small.
They truly raised her as their own biological daughter, giving her everything a girl should have.
The bedroom was small, but it was much better than where she lived at the Tong family.
At the Tong family, Tong Xiaoya used to stay in the firewood shed; not freezing to death in the dead of winter was already considered fortunate.
Meals were eaten in the kitchen, where a floor table was placed with four small wooden stools.
Wang Yumei served thick porridge to the two of them, along with two steamed flower rolls. She pushed a dish of freshly scrambled eggs toward the two of them, while two small basins of dishes were placed in front of the old couple.
They looked like leftovers from yesterday’s banquet.
Wang Yumei smiled. “You two eat the eggs. Your dad and I will eat yesterday’s leftovers… We didn’t invite many tables yesterday, and the villagers carried off all the meat dishes, so this is all that’s left. The eggs were freshly scrambled this morning.”
“In a little bit, I’ll have your dad slaughter a chicken to nourish the two of you properly.”
“You guys eat together too.” Tong Xiaoqian pushed the plate of scrambled eggs toward the middle, not disdaining those banquet leftovers.
When she was little, living with Grandma Tong alongside her brother and sister was quite tough as well.
Looking at the food on the table, Lei Yihong instantly felt a bit choked up.
If he said even his family’s dog wouldn’t eat such food, would he get beaten up?
He built up his psychological mental prep for quite a while before slowly picking up that steamed flower roll—which looked bigger than his face—and taking a bite.
A rich aroma of wheat burst forth and filled his throat. For someone accustomed to delicacies from land and sea, it was a bit jarring, but after savoring it carefully, it didn’t seem to taste that bad.
Out of the corner of her eye, Tong Xiaoqian observed him. His hair had been washed and drooped down, no longer resembling yesterday’s foolish son styling. His expression was quite calm, and she even admired him for having such good psychological strength.
Little did she know that this man had already wandered on the edge of a breakdown.
Breaking down solved no problems.
For Lei Yihong, there were no busy company affairs here, far from the noisy world. Having the chance to experience a different life wasn’t bad either.
Just as the family of four finished eating, people arrived in the yard.
It was neighbors coming over to draw water.
Right now, running water had not yet been installed in the village, so they still relied on water from wells.
There were several public wells in the village, with the nearest one being two to three hundred meters away.
In the mid-1980s, the Lei family had dug a well of their own, right in their own yard.
The nearby households came to draw water almost once every two or three days, filling up two large water vats each time.
Usually, they came quite early, but this morning no one dared to come early.
Everyone knew the Lei family’s son was fading fast, and marrying a foolish wife was just to ward off bad luck.
Waiting until after breakfast, they hadn’t heard any crying sounds, nor was there any news reporting a death.
Among those who came to draw water, some were nosy, while others genuinely cared about the Lei family.
Three families showed up all at once.
As soon as they entered the yard, they saw Lei Wanqiang slaughtering a chicken.
One of them asked, “Brother Lei, slaughtering a chicken? How is Yihong doing?”
Lei Wanqiang greeted the visitors with a beam: “Ah, Auntie Liu, drawing water? Yihong woke up, so I’m slaughtering a chicken to celebrate.”
The speaker was Auntie Liu, the neighbor right next door to the Lei family on the left.
Auntie Liu’s eyes widened round. “Really? That’s wonderful! I’ll go inside the room to take a look!”
She shared a good relationship with the Lei family and had shed plenty of tears alongside Wang Yumei before.
“Go ahead, Xiaoya has recovered too.”
Auntie Liu instantly stopped in her tracks and asked in surprise, “Xiaoya has recovered too? Recovered from what?”
Lei Wanqiang’s smile grew even wider. “She isn’t foolish anymore!”
“Oh my goodness, the Lei family really has a double blessing at their door!” Auntie Liu happily ran into the room.
Following behind were one person from the old Chen family and one from the old Fu family, both hurriedly walking into the room as well.
Inside the room, Wang Yumei pulled out a few pieces of fabric, preparing to make new clothes for her son and daughter-in-law.
Tong Xiaoqian looked at the fabrics she brought out—a piece of printed gauze floral cloth, and a strip of dark blue fabric.
“My clothes are enough to wear, no need to make any, make them for… Yihong.”
Tong Xiaoya used to call the Lei family’s son “Brother Hong,” but this form of address was something she couldn’t bring herself to utter.
Calling him by his name without the surname felt a bit awkward to her.
Hearing her call his name, Lei Yihong felt strange as well.
“I don’t need any, don’t make them, it’s a waste of money.”
Right now, the Lei family was in financial difficulty, carrying debts outside.
Nobody knew him here anyway, so there was no need to pay so much attention to his image, which brought a sense of ease and freedom.
Wang Yumei insisted, “No way, one set for each person! You two are newlyweds after all!”
Lei Yihong and Tong Xiaoqian exchanged a glance, then both glanced away in disgust.
Coming inside, Auntie Liu saw the young couple sitting beside Wang Yumei. Although Lei Yihong still looked very frail, it was far better than when they came before and he was lying there breathing his last.
“Oh my, this truly is a miracle! It seems warding off bad luck by marriage really worked!”
“Xiaoya looks much more energetic too!”
Beside her, the woman from the old Fu family clicked her tongue and shook her head. “Sister Lei, people always say good deeds bring good returns. Look at how the Lei family adopted Xiaoya back then; isn’t she coming in handy now?”
Wang Yumei was originally beaming with joy, but hearing these words, her face slumped abruptly.
What did she mean by “coming in handy”?
It sounded as if her adopting the foolish girl back then was done with ulterior motives.
With a dark face, she didn’t even look at the woman from the old Fu family. “I didn’t raise Xiaoya as a child bride back then!”
The woman from the old Fu family slapped her own mouth. “Right, right, right, look at my big mouth not knowing how to speak! Now that Xiaoya has recovered too, your good days lie ahead!”
Wang Yumei liked hearing these words; now it could indeed be considered that bitterness had ended and sweetness had begun.
Three women make a drama; adding Wang Yumei, the four people began chatting away.
Drawing water was just a pretext; the greatest joy for these women in the village was to see whose family had news.
Lei Yihong and Tong Xiaoqian became surplus, and even less did they want to be watched here like monkeys.
Both of them walked out into the yard.
Lei Wanqiang had already finished slaughtering the chicken and was using boiling water to scald off the chicken feathers.
The three women chatted inside the room with Wang Yumei for quite a while before drawing water and leaving.
Lei Wanqiang cleaned the chicken up, chopped it into pieces, and placed it there.
He still had to go to the clinic.
Right now, the village still primarily relied on livestock to plow the fields, so his clinic business was doing pretty well.
Now that his son’s illness was cured, they would be able to save up money in the future.
Before he could step out the door, people arrived at the house again.