Zhang Xiuqing looked at her, unwilling to part. "Little Lan, the Dragon Boat Festival is only a few days away. If you weren’t running your business, you could have stayed to celebrate with us before leaving."
Lin Lan smiled. "I’ll be back for the Mid-Autumn Festival. When you’re not so busy, you two should co visit ."
The two won nodded readily. "Okay. We’ll co to the city for the New Year."
Lin Guoliang returned after borrowing so wheelbarrows. He and his brothers loaded a sack of beans onto each one, then added a barrel of rapeseed oil. The rest of the goods would be taken to town tomorrow.
By the ti Lin Changyou ca out holding Little Douzi’s hand, all the goods had been loaded onto the three wheelbarrows and tied down.
Lin Guoliang looked at the lingering group and said with a smile, "Little Lan, let’s go! If we’re late, we’ll miss the noon bus."
"Let’s go!" Lin Changyou nodded. He held Little Douzi’s hand with one hand and carried a bag of dried sweet potato strips with the other. Adding a handful when making porridge would make it sweet and save grain.
Lin Lan said goodbye to her two sisters-in-law, hoisted her back-basket onto her shoulder, and took Wu Shufen’s arm as they walked out.
The old couple gave Lin Lan final instructions as they walked, only parting reluctantly once they had escorted her and her son to the junction.
Lin Guoqiang lifted Little Douzi onto a wheelbarrow, pulled the tow rope over his shoulder, and began pushing it down the mountain.
Lin Lan looked back and saw the old couple still standing there, watching them. Wu Shufen was waving nonstop, occasionally wiping her eyes with her sleeve.
Seeing this, Lin Lan felt her spirits sink. She climbed onto a nearby ridge, waved, and shouted to them, "Dad, Mom, go on back! I’ll be fine!"
"Go on!" Lin Changyou waved, then turned to leave with his wife.
When Lin Lan saw them leave, she scrambled down the ridge and ran to catch up with Lin Guoliang and her two brothers.
The siblings set off early in the morning. After crossing the ferry, Lin Lan went to a bamboo-ware shop and bought a stear basket. Seeing so carved wooden mooncake molds, a flour sifter, a skimr, and a sh sieve, she bought those as well. They arrived at the station just in ti to catch the bus.
Lin Lan took out the prepared mushrooms and large white beans from her back-basket. She smiled at Li Hongi and Old Chen and said, "Here are so mushrooms and white beans. We dried them ourselves. Please have so."
The two happily accepted the gift. Old Chen said, "This is good stuff. People used to sell it on the streets, but it’s hard to find these days."
Li Hongi looked at the mushrooms and beans in the basket and found Lin Lan to be quite savvy. Even the basket she used for the gift was pretty.
Lin Lan then introduced Lin Guoliang and her other two brothers to the pair, to make future deliveries more convenient.
Lin Guoliang smiled and offered a cigarette to Old Chen. "Master Chen, we don’t have much in the mountains, but we have plenty of local produce like this. If you like it, I can pick so more and bring it to you."
Old Chen laughed. "You’re too kind. This will last us a long ti."
Lin Guoliang smiled good-naturedly. "My sister has been so much trouble for you. A little local produce is nothing."
After accepting the mushrooms and beans from Lin Lan, Li Hongi and Old Chen saw that there were only about ten people on the bus. They readily allowed the three brothers to move the sacks onto the bus and place them in the empty space behind the driver’s seat.
Lin Guoqiang picked up Little Douzi and said to Lin Lan in his deep, rumbling voice, "If anyone bullies you, just send word ho. We’ll co over."
Her heart ward, Lin Lan looked at him and nodded emphatically. "Okay!"
Lin Guoqiang gently pinched Little Douzi’s nose. "Be a good boy. Next ti, your uncle will take you rowing and fishing."
Little Douzi bead and gave him a kiss. "Uncle, Douzi is a very good boy."
Lin Guoqiang didn’t hand Little Douzi back to Lin Lan until the bus engine started. He and his two brothers got off, watched the bus drive away, and then turned to leave.
Little Douzi leaned against Lin Lan. He rembered the red envelope his grandpa had given him, took it out of his pocket, and placed it in her hand. "Mama, Grandpa gave this to to buy picture books."
Lin Lan looked at the money inside, her heart warm. She nodded. "Okay, Mama will keep it safe and buy you picture books with it."
"Tickets! Get your tickets if you haven’t already!"
Li Hongi started calling out and selling tickets. Lin Lan pulled her aside and insisted on buying a freight ticket for her goods as well, so as not to put them in an awkward position.
Old Chen and Li Hongi were even more impressed with how Lin Lan handled things. When they reached the city, the passengers gradually got off. Old Chen then helped Lin Lan carry her things to her doorstep.
Seeing the courtyard gate was open, Lin Lan quickly got off the bus holding Little Douzi. She called over to Yang Liying and her husband, and together they unloaded the sacks and the barrel of rapeseed oil.
Only then did Old Chen and Li Hongi drive away.
Yang Liying smiled. "I just got back from work. I’ve already cut enough grass for the cattle today, so I don’t have to go out again this afternoon."
Lin Lan grinned and nodded. "Great!"
The three of them moved the beans and rapeseed oil into an empty main room. They poured one sack of peas into the grain cabinet and emptied the rest into large baskets, freeing up the sacks for Zhao Dehai to take back to Shilian.
After coming out, Yang Liying asked Lin Lan, "That driver... is he a relative of yours?"
"Not a relative!" Lin Lan smiled and explained what had happened. "It’s good to be on friendly terms with them. It’ll be much more convenient for us to transport things in the future."
"So that’s how it is!" Yang Liying looked at her happily. "So, did your father manage to get the soybeans for us?"
Lin Lan nodded. "There’s a lot of land in the mountains, and the controls haven’t been as strict these past two years. Many families have secretly cleared wasteland in the hills to grow beans, sweet potatoes, and regular potatoes—things that can fill your belly.
"As soon as my dad ntioned it to the production team, people started bringing beans over. It would be best if your husband could make a trip to my family’s ho tomorrow to return these sacks. My dad borrowed them from the brigade’s storeroom."
Yang Liying was both happy and envious. "Life in the mountains really is better! They were even able to eat their fill during the famine years."
Lin Lan looked at her and thought, ’Just wait another two years, and you won’t be envious of the mountain folk anymore. By then, as long as you have the money, you can tear down this house and build a multi-story building. You’ll have more than enough to live on just from the rental inco.’
Zhao Dehai was incredibly grateful. He rubbed his hands together and said with a simple smile, "Lin Lan, your father has really done us a huge favor. Liying and I asked around all day yesterday but couldn’t buy many soybeans. We were about to halt production."
Lin Lan smiled. "My dad said we’re all family, and we should help each other out whenever we can."
"Your father is a man of great foresight," Yang Liying said. She then urged Zhao Dehai to go buy new sacks to take to Shilian first thing in the morning and to also repay the money Lin Changyou had fronted.
Zhao Dehai left cheerfully. Yang Liying looked at Lin Lan. "You’ve traveled so far. You must be hungry, right?"
Lin Lan glanced at Little Douzi, who was playing with Dahuang, and nodded with a smile. "I am actually a little hungry."
"I’ll go cook so noodles for you," she said, hurrying toward the kitchen.
Seeing her rush off, Lin Lan pulled two hens out of her back-basket, untied the straw ropes from their legs, and placed the basket upside down over them to keep them contained.
She then got so straw and spread it in the chicken coop, making a nest for them so they would have a place to lay their eggs.
Only then did she say to Little Douzi, who was playing with Dahuang, "Son, co with Mama to wash your face and hands. It’s ti to eat."
Little Douzi nodded and headed to the kitchen with his shadow, Dahuang, in tow.
The three of them ate noodles together, and soon Zhao Dehai returned with the new sacks. "There’s another bus this afternoon. I think I’ll head to Shilian right away." He didn’t want to waste a single mont, as a day’s delay ant a day’s lost earnings.
Yang Liying looked at him. "Do you know the way?"
Zhao Dehai nodded. "I do. I went there for our wedding procession, rember?"
"You’re right, I’d completely forgotten." Yang Liying cooked him a bowl of noodles as well. Once he finished, Zhao Dehai took the sacks and money and strode off.
Yang Liying also went ho to do her chores, carrying the mushrooms Lin Lan had given her.
User Comments
0 comments from readers