Lin Lan reached up, plucked a climbing rose from her neighbor’s wall, threw it on the ground, and crushed it underfoot. She shot Zhang Yazhen a wicked grin. "You’d better rember this, Zhang. Three strikes and you’re out. If there’s a next ti, I’ll make you understand why flowers are so red!" With that, she swaggered off.
Zhang Yazhen waited for Lin Lan to leave, then scrambled to the courtyard gate in a few quick steps. She hastily shut it and leaned against the door panel, cold sweat dripping down her back.
As Lin Lan erged from the Xiong family’s gate, she saw He Cuicui’s back as she hurried away. Lin Lan couldn’t be bothered to spare her a glance and walked straight ho.
Zhao Dehai and the other two n ca down from the roof. Master Xu, who was behind them, smiled and said, "We’ll be done before the afternoon is over."
"Thank you for all your trouble," Lin Lan said gratefully.
Zhao Dehai nodded politely. "It’s no trouble. We’ll be on our way."
"Take care!" Lin Lan replied politely, walking them out a few steps.
After the three n left, Lin Lan gathered so taro into a wicker basket, then added so broken tile shards from the courtyard.
She went down to the ditch, placed the basket in the water, and shook it back and forth vigorously. The taro and tile shards tumbled together, and the taro skins quickly ca off.
Lin Lan then held the basket level in the water, letting the skins that stuck to it float away with the current. After a little more cleaning with a knife, the taro was spotless.
Back ho, she cut the taro into thick slices and stir-fried them in lard until partially cooked before adding water. She covered the pot and began to simr the taro rice.
With the two remaining blocks of blood curd and a handful of pea shoots, she made a blood curd soup.
Stepping outside into the yard, she saw that the vegetable seeds she had sown were now ready to be transplanted.
This ti, she could identify carrots, green onions, bok choy, cabbage, tomatoes, spinach, and also beauty heart radishes among the seedlings.
The potatoes, rapeseed, eggplants, chili peppers, and other small vegetables she had planted had all taken root. The cowpeas, green beans, cucumbers, winter lons, and pumpkins were all climbing the trellises, and the portulaca in the broken clay pot by the edge of the yard had turned green and sprouted again.
The ramie plants under the courtyard wall had grown a few leaves, making the yard look prettier.
Lin Lan thought about how she’d dealt with those two gossips today and decided not to go look for a stall near the clothing factory after all. She would go sell her things early, finish up, and co back sooner to transplant the vegetable seedlings.
So of the taro Yang Liying had given her had already sprouted. She wanted to plant another row of taro in the furrows between the potatoes. She also wanted to sow a circle of small leafy greens around the border of the rapeseed field. Once the rapeseed was harvested, the greens would be ready to be made into salt-cured vegetables.
As Lin Lan ntally planned out every nook and cranny around her yard, she realized she had reached the old woman’s back door. She saw the old woman and Little Douzi already sitting at the table, eating.
She smiled and said, "Grand-aunt, you’ve already started eating!"
The old woman nodded cheerfully. "Yes! You can head back, we’re almost finished."
"Alright! I’ll head back then. Little Douzi, be a good boy and eat your food."
"I know!" Little Douzi shouted, adding a reminder, "Mom, rember to feed Dahuang."
"Okay, I won’t let Dahuang go hungry."
Lin Lan returned from the old woman’s house and had just finished her al when Zhao Dehai and the two masters arrived. She quickly put the food away in the cupboard and covered the pot.
The three n waited in the yard for her to finish, then climbed onto the roof and got busy.
Coming out of the kitchen, Lin Lan thought about the rooms they had been working on; they were now covered in dust that had fallen from the roof.
She turned and went to the woodshed to find a long bamboo pole. She then found a worn-out feather duster, tied it to the pole, and carried it back to the rooms.
She found a pillow towel in a chest to wrap around her head, then raised the bamboo pole to sweep all the dust and cobwebs off the beams, rafters, and purlins.
After cleaning the dust from the ceiling, she pulled down the oilcloth that covered the top of the canopy bed and placed it in the yard. Then she went back inside and tore off the ruined newspaper that was pasted over the windows.
She fetched a bucket of water from the ditch, found a rag, and wiped down the three main rooms inside and out. Standing inside, she looked around and felt that they were much brighter.
Once the house was clean, Lin Lan swept the yard and the area behind the house. Only then did she drag the oilcloth to the ditch to scrub it clean. By the ti she had finished everything, she could see children heading to school one after another with their backpacks on.
Lin Lan said to Zhao Dehai, who had co down to get more tiles, "Third Brother-in-law, I have to go cut grass. You’ll probably be finished by the ti I get back, so I’ll give you the wages now. Can you please give it to the two masters for ?"
Zhao Dehai nodded. "The tiles are two and a half cents each, and the masters are three yuan a day if you don’t provide als. Just give one more yuan and that’ll be enough."
Lin Lan knew Zhao Dehai was helping for free and didn’t argue. She handed him a yuan and said with a grateful smile, "I’ll have to trouble you then, Third Brother-in-law."
In this era, building a three-room tiled house only cost a few hundred yuan. Relatives and friends who ca to help would never accept paynt. If you insisted on paying them, they would think you were looking down on them and wanted to sever ties.
Zhao Dehai grinned, showing a mouth full of white teeth. "We’re family. Just say the word if you need help with anything I can do." ’As long as Lin Lan doesn’t cause trouble or try to borrow money from my Liying,’ he thought, ’I’ve got plenty of strength to spare. A little work is no big deal.’
"Then I won’t stand on ceremony," Lin Lan said with a frank smile. She then gave him the key. "Please give this to Grand-aunt for later. I’ll pick it up from her place when I’m done with work. Also, please ask Third Sister to stop by my place when she has a mont. I have sothing to talk to her about."
Zhao Dehai smiled and nodded. "She was actually planning to co over this afternoon to take a look, but Second Sister-in-law ca and called her away. I’ll tell her when she gets back." With that, he picked up the wicker basket and climbed the wooden ladder.
"Tell her when she’s not busy anymore!" Lin Lan went to the woodshed, slung a carrying basket on her back, grabbed a sickle, and headed to the foot of the mountain. She put down the basket, took the sickle, and bent over to start cutting.
At noon, the sun beat down rcilessly on the earth. The rough edges of the oat grass scraped against the back of her hand, leaving a trail of scratches that stung fiercely when her sweat touched them.
She took out a handkerchief to wipe away her sweat and quickened her pace, cutting the cattle fodder for the afternoon and piling it to one side. After several trips, she had carried all the fodder back, spread it out on the drying ground to sun, and returned ho with her basket.
The courtyard gate was open. When Lin Lan went in, she saw the old woman sitting on a small stool, trimming broad beans. She smiled and walked over. "Grand-aunt, you ca over!"
The old woman nodded. "When you get old, if you sleep too much during the day, you can’t sleep at night. Little Douzi wanted to nap, so I just brought him back with . If I just sit there, I’ll doze off again, so I thought I’d help you trim these broad beans to pass the ti."
As she spoke, she took the key from her pocket and handed it to Lin Lan. "Zhao Dehai gave this to . He said they finished repairing the roof and even cleaned out the chimney for you."
Lin Lan took the key and stood in the yard, looking up at the repaired roof with a satisfied smile. "Third Brother-in-law and the two masters are fast and ticulous with their work."
"A craftsman has to be fast and ticulous. Who would dare hire soone who’s sloppy and slacks off?"
"You have a point."
Lin Lan poured so water to wash up, then found the pillow towel again to wrap up her hair. She used the bamboo pole to sweep the dust from the kitchen ceiling, wiped the stove and cupboard clean, and then started a fire to boil red beans and steam large white beans.
She put the soaked red beans in the bottom part of the stear and the large white beans in the top part. That way, by the ti the red beans were cooked into a paste, the white beans would be stead soft too—killing two birds with one stone.
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