Yang Liying nodded and walked out of the vegetable patch. Glancing at the basket in Lin Lan’s hand, she asked, "What’s up?" She was worried Lin Lan had co to borrow money.
Lin Lan smiled. "I have sothing to tell you."
"Co on in and sit down." Yang Liying led Little Douzi inside. "Little Yun, Little Li, your aunt is here."
Yang Liying once had a son, but he died of pneumonia when he was two. Her two daughters were delicate and pretty, and the sisters knew how to do everything—from cooking to laundry, they could handle any chore.
The two girls ca out of the kitchen and called out politely, "Auntie, Auntie."
Lin Lan smiled and nodded. "Good girls." She passed the sisters the candy she had in her pocket.
Little Yun blushed. "Auntie, I’m a big girl now. I don’t eat candy anymore."
Little Li’s eyes lit up when she saw the candy in Lin Lan’s hand, but she didn’t reach for it. Instead, she turned to look at Yang Liying. "Mooom..."
Yang Liying smiled. "If your auntie is giving them to you, just take them. And take your cousin outside to play."
The sisters took the candy, put it in their pockets, and led Little Douzi out to the courtyard to play.
Yang Liying brought over a bamboo chair. "Sit!"
After they both sat down, Lin Lan looked at her and spoke softly. "Third Sister, I went to the foot of the mountain today... I want you to co with tomorrow morning. I want to see just who is trying to ruin my na."
Yang Liying shot to her feet in anger. "Fine. Tomorrow we’ll go see which son of a bitch is causing trouble." In her opinion, whether Lin Lan wanted to find a husband to move in or remarry, she should at least wait until the first anniversary of their youngest brother’s death had passed.
Lin Lan said coldly, "I don’t care who it is. If I catch them, I won’t let them get away with it." ’In this life, all I want to do is make good money to raise my kid. If I have extra, I’ll buy a house and a shop and be a landlady again, living a life with plenty of money and free ti.’
"Alright, I’ll co get you early tomorrow," Yang Liying said, heading for the kitchen. "I’m going to start dinner. You two should eat here before you leave."
Lin Lan quickly pulled her back. "Third Sister, Mom’s visiting. She’s already made dinner and is waiting for at ho!"
Yang Liying nodded. "Oh, Mom’s here. In that case, I won’t keep you."
"Third Sister, these eggs are for Little Yun and Little Li." Lin Lan started taking the eggs out of her basket.
Yang Liying quickly grabbed her hand. "We have hens laying eggs here. Take them back for Little Douzi to eat."
Lin Lan laughed. "What you have is yours. They call ’Auntie,’ so what’s the big deal if they eat a few of my eggs?" Before Yang Liying could object, she took the eggs out and put them in a shabby-looking basket nearby.
"Fine, I’ll take the eggs. But you wait a minute. I’ll go to the garden and pull up so celtuce and radishes for you." Yang Liying said, happily heading toward the vegetable patch by the door.
’Lin Lan has been married into the family for over four years,’ she thought, ’and this is the first ti she’s ever bought the kids candy, the first ti she’s ever brought a gift to the door. We’ll see if the Zhao family still dares to call our family a bunch of skinflints, an endless, bottomless pit.’
Lin Lan walked into the courtyard and saw Little Douzi watching his two older cousins play with knucklebones. The "bones" were just small stones of a similar size. She rembered playing the sa ga as a child.
Back then, she and her friends would go to the main road across from her house to find pebbles that had been flattened by car tires. Each one was carefully chosen. Besides her textbooks, her schoolbag was always full of stones.
"Little Douzi, say goodbye to your cousins. We’re heading ho now."
"Okay!" Little Douzi stood up and waved to them. "Goodbye, Little Yun! Goodbye, Little Li!"
The sisters stood up. "Co play again soon, Little Douzi!"
Yang Liying erged from the garden holding a bundle of seven or eight celtuce stalks and four or five radishes. She took out a kitchen knife, trimd the roots, stripped off the old outer leaves, and packed the vegetables into Lin Lan’s basket.
"Lin Lan, I planted so red radishes. In a few days, they’ll be ready for pickling. I’ll bring so over for you when they are."
"Okay, Third Sister, we’ll be going now." Lin Lan lifted the basket; it felt like it weighed at least nine or ten pounds. ’Yang Liying really has a green thumb,’ she thought.
Yang Liying walked the mother and son outside. "Be a good boy, Little Douzi, and listen to your mother, okay?"
Little Douzi nodded. "I know, Third Aunt."
They had only taken a few steps when they saw a man of dium height walking toward them, a hoe slung over his shoulder. "Mom, Third Uncle is here."
From a distance, Zhao Dehai saw Lin Lan’s basket, which was stuffed to the brim. He cursed under his breath. ’That wasteful woman. We finally have a little sothing in the house, and she imdiately gives it away to fill that bottomless pit.’
"Third Brother-in-law, just getting off work?" Lin Lan called out a greeting.
"Mmhmm." Zhao Dehai’s face was grim. ’Here to take more things,’ he thought. ’Just the other day, Liying was saying how she’s changed. Only a fool like my wife would believe soone who’s been lazy and greedy for more than ten years could change overnight. Not unless you swapped out her brain and heart, like in one of those old ghost stories.’
Yang Liying gave Lin Lan an embarrassed smile. "You two take care on your way back."
"We will!" Lin Lan, also feeling a bit awkward, took Little Douzi’s hand and left.
Yang Liying watched them until they were out of sight, then turned and went to the vegetable patch to haul out the manure buckets. She called out to her daughter, who was still squatting on the ground playing with the stones, "Little Yun, go grab so firewood. I’m about to start cooking."
"Okay!" Little Yun gathered her stones and ran toward the woodshed.
Zhao Dehai leaned his hoe against the corner of the wall and frowned at Yang Liying. "What was she here for? Did she ask to borrow money again?"
Yang Liying, annoyed by his disrespect toward her family, retorted angrily, "And so what if she did? Don’t you forget, that’s *my* family you’re talking about!"
Zhao Dehai glared at her, displeased. "Your family is a bottomless pit."
Yang Liying rolled her eyes. "Well, I like filling a bottomless pit! It’s my money, and I’ll do what I want with it!"
Her retort left him speechless. He plopped down onto a chair and glared at Yang Liying, not saying a word.
Xiaoli ca over from the courtyard and snuggled up beside him. She took two pieces of candy from her pocket and placed them in his hand. "Daddy, Auntie didn’t borrow money. She gave candy to and my sister."
Zhao Dehai put the candy back in her pocket. "You’re a good girl. Daddy doesn’t need any. Don’t eat more than two a day, or you’ll get cavities." He then walked over to the stove and gave Yang Liying a sheepish grin. "I just assud she was here to borrow money again."
Yang Liying shot him a glare. "From now on, your na shouldn’t be Zhao Dehai. It should be Zhao the Miser."
"Heh heh," Zhao Dehai chuckled good-naturedly. "If I count as a miser, then everyone in our production team is a miser."
Xiaoli pointed to the basket on the table. "Daddy, look! There are so many eggs in the basket! I want a boiled egg!"
Zhao Dehai smiled and nodded. "Alright, boiled eggs it is. Daddy will go wash them. You can each have one."
Yang Liying threw him a sideways glance. "Just so you know, Lin Lan brought those eggs, too!"
Zhao Dehai stared at the eggs in the basket, looking as if he’d been struck by lightning. "Whoa! That’s a lot! So the iron rooster is finally willing to pluck one of its own feathers, huh? I bet next ti she visits, she’ll be asking you for a loan."
"Pah!" Yang Liying spat in his direction. She quickly told him what Lin Lan had said, and before he could get a word in, she pointed a finger at him. "I told you before, Lin Lan isn’t the sa person she used to be. You’re such a petty man. The next ti you see her, you’re forbidden from snorting at her like that."
"I got it," Zhao Dehai said. ’As long as she doesn’t ask for money,’ he thought, ’I don’t care what she does.’
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