"My apologies." Tian Jianshe clutched his handkerchief, giving Lin Lan a look of utter disappointnt. "You’re not my type!" With that, he pulled his mother along and turned to leave.
Lin Lan watched Tian Jianshe’s hips sway as he walked away, and a torrent of curses flooded her mind.
Seeing Tian Jianshe and his mother leave, Yang Lirong turned and chased after them.
With the whole morning wasted, her napti was long gone. Lin Lan closed her door and went to Grandma Yang’s to pick up Little Douzi, only to learn that she had taken him to the police station to play.
Back ho, she took out the red beans and large white beans that had been soaking in a basin and poured them into a pot. She pushed aside the ash covering the coals in the stove, added two shovelfuls of fresh coal, and after a mont, the fire slowly began to catch.
Once the fire in the stove was burning brightly, Lin Lan carried a basin out to the steps under the eaves. Before she could even sit down, Yang Liying arrived. "Our second sister-in-law, Lirong, ca running to my place to complain. She said you were completely unreasonable and scolded that woman from the Tian family away."
"..." Lin Lan recounted the entire incident to her.
After hearing the story, Yang Liying pursed her lips. "You told her that, and she still wouldn’t drop it? Then it serves her right to be humiliated!"
Lin Lan smiled. "Third Sister-in-law," she said, "Sister Zhou says it’s going to rain tomorrow, so I’m planning to visit my parents. I’ll give you my key. Could you please watch the house for one night and help feed the pigs and chickens?"
"No problem, leave it to ," Yang Liying said with a smile. "Actually, I have a favor to ask you, too. While you’re at your parents’ place, could you ask your uncle if they’re buying beans over there?"
"Sure!" Lin Lan readily agreed.
Yang Liying helped her trim the orchid beans, and Zhao Dehai ca over to help grind them.
The two sisters-in-law were getting ready to leave when Grandma Yang returned, leading Little Douzi and Dandan by the hand.
Lin Lan brought out so kidney bean rolls for the two children, along with a handful of fruit candies.
Yang Liying asked, "Grandma Yang, isn’t Dandan supposed to be in school?"
"Sigh!" The old woman sighed. "Ding Bang’s aunt had to go ho to look after her own grandson, and my legs can’t handle the stairs anymore, so I just brought Dandan here to stay with ."
Dandan, holding his kidney bean roll, looked at the old woman. "Great-Grandma, I like living here. I can play with little brother Douzi and Brother Kai. The police compound is no fun."
"I like having Brother Dandan here too!" Little Douzi chid in.
"Yes, yes, of course!" the old woman said, beaming. "You can stay here from now on."
Lin Lan watched the two children happily run off to read picture books, then turned to Grandma Yang. "Grandma Yang, we’re off to set up the stall now. There’s a piece of salt-cured pork belly in a bowl. Should I pan-fry it or make twice-cooked pork for dinner?"
Grandma Yang shook her head vigorously. "Since I have Dandan with , we won’t be eating here."
Lin Lan chided gently, "Oh, don’t be like that. How much can one little boy possibly eat?"
Grain was incredibly cheap nowadays. Rice from Li Wu only cost sixteen cents a catty, aning a hundred catties was just a little over ten yuan.
Yang Liying also tried to persuade her. "Grandma Yang, just listen to Lin Lan. It’s nice to have company for dinner."
Having worked at the stall for a few days, she knew Lin Lan could earn around ten yuan a day.
’Besides,’ she thought, ’Grandma Yang helps so much by watching Little Douzi, saving Lin Lan a lot of trouble. It would only be right for Lin Lan to support her in return.’
Seeing that they both genuinely wanted her to stay, Grandma Yang smiled and waved a dismissive hand. "Enough fussing. Now hurry up and get to your stall."
Lin Lan and Yang Liying, thinking they had convinced her, shouldered their goods and left.
After they left, Grandma Yang scooped a bowl of rice and set it to steam in the pot for Lin Lan. Then, she took Little Douzi and Dandan back to her own ho.
’She knew Lin Lan was making over twenty yuan a day now, but every cent was earned through blood, sweat, and tears. The girl woke at the rooster’s crow and was still washing clothes and feeding the pigs long after dark.’
’Little Douzi sotis had lunch at her house, so if she ate at Lin Lan’s in return, it wouldn’t be much of an extra expense.’
’But bringing Dandan along was different. If people found out, they would undoubtedly gossip about Ding Bang.’
After packing up her stall, Lin Lan found Li Wu to buy a few bags of brown sugar. Then, she sought out Li Xiangyang and asked him to deliver a few catties of at to the Eucalyptus Forest early the next morning.
When the two sisters-in-law got ho, they found the courtyard gate already locked.
Lin Lan knew the fiercely independent old woman must have gone ho. She unlocked the gate, let Yang Liying go inside, and then headed over to Grandma Yang’s house.
Reaching the back door, she saw the old woman and the two little boys gathered around a small table, already having their dinner.
Little Douzi saw Lin Lan and ran happily to the door. "Mama, Great-Grandma made stead egg custard for us!"
"Go finish your dinner," Lin Lan said, smiling and patting his head. She walked inside and faced the old woman. "Grandma Yang, if you’re not going to eat at my house, then I’ll have to start paying you for Little Douzi’s als whenever he eats here."
The old woman retorted, "In that case, you can just stop bringing him over."
Lin Lan laughed. "Alright, alright! I won’t pay, is that better?"
’In this day and age, every family’s grain rations were limited. If Grandma Yang refused to accept anything, Lin Lan really couldn’t keep sending Little Douzi over in good conscience.’
Grandma Yang nodded with a smile. "You haven’t been back in several years. It really is ti for you to go and see them."
"Mhm," Lin Lan said. "I’ll co back the day after tomorrow. I’ve asked my third sister-in-law to watch the house for ."
The body’s original owner had run away from ho to live with the youngest Yang son. When her parents dragged her back, she beca the subject of gossip for the entire brigade, bringing such sha upon the Lin family that they couldn’t hold their heads high.
Her furious father had given her a harsh beating, screaming that she was willingly debasing herself.
She had vowed that even if she were reduced to begging, she would never pass through Shilian Brigade again. True to her word, after marrying into the Yang family, she never went ho to complain, not even when her husband beat her.
After Little Douzi was born, it was her husband who went to her family’s ho to share the news. Her parents had her elder brother and his wife bring the traditional postpartum gifts, but they only left them at the door before leaving.
Only after her husband’s death did her parents finally co to her door, bringing her two brothers with them once they heard the news.
Wu Shufen had hugged the original Lin Lan, crying as if her heart would break. And for the first ti, the young woman had wept tears of regret before her parents.
Lin Lan waited for Little Douzi to finish his al, then led him by the hand from Grandma Yang’s house. They had just finished their own dinner back ho when a light drizzle started to fall.
The next morning, Lin Lan got up early to make more kidney bean rolls and orchid beans. After preparing breakfast, she woke Little Douzi and dressed him in the new set of clothes and shoes that Wu Shufen had made for him.
After mother and son finished their al and cleaned up, they grabbed an umbrella, ready to go to the Eucalyptus Forest to get the at. Just as they closed the courtyard gate, they heard the clear ring of a bicycle bell.
Looking up, she saw Li Xiangyang braking to a stop, one hand holding an umbrella and the other on the handlebars, with one foot planted firmly on the ground.
Li Xiangyang lifted a bamboo basket off his bicycle’s rear rack and pulled out three strips of fatty pork, each a good two fingers thick. He handed them to Lin Lan with a smile. "Freshly butchered this morning. They’re still warm."
"Wow, look at that fat!" Lin Lan put the at in her own basket, then smiled as she paid him. "Thank you for the trouble, Master Li."
"I was delivering so pig’s trotters to Grandma Yang, so it was on my way," Li Xiangyang said, taking the money with a smile. He reached out and ruffled the hair of Little Douzi, who was staring at him curiously, then got back on his bike and headed toward Shiqiao.
Lin Lan carried the at back into the courtyard. Just as she finished packing her things for the trip, Yang Liying arrived.
Little Douzi looked at her joyfully. "Third Auntie, I’m going to my grandma’s house! I’ve never been there before!"
Yang Liying smiled and patted his cheek. "You look so handso today, Little Douzi!" Then, turning to Lin Lan, she said, "The roads are all wet. I’ll carry Little Douzi on my back and see you to the station."
Lin Lan smiled and nodded. "I was just about to ask if you’d walk with us."
"Co on, let your auntie carry you!"
Yang Liying smiled, bent down, and lifted Little Douzi onto her back. The three of them then left together.
They walked out of the alley, turned right, and after a little more than fifteen minutes, they arrived at the bus station.
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