Tonight it’s Second Sister’s turn to sneak out again.
Big Brother said he’s too drained to watch her; another blast of the cold wind and he’d catch a cold.
Qin San Lang was startled at first, then laughed.
Bai Cai? Pig? Was he the pig rooting for Bai Cai? If he could root out Xiao Yu, that stalk of Bai Cai, he wouldn’t mind being a pig once.
Gu Jinli’s voice ca through: "I didn’t do anything. I just felt the charcoal fire was a bit too hot and went out for a walk. What’s all this about Bai Cai and pigs? I am not Bai Cai, I am Xiao Yu."
Qin San Lang: Mm, Xiao Yu is fish, and he’s a fisherman.
Brother Cheng said, "Sneaking out in the middle of the night to catch the cold wind, Second Sister, your lies are getting more and more half-hearted."
Gu Jinli: "Kids sure talk a lot, hurry back and go to sleep~"
The voices of the two siblings faded away. Qin San Lang stood in the alley between the two houses for a while, and after he couldn’t hear their voices, he went back ho to sleep.
At night, he had a dream.
In the dream, he sat by the river fishing, using Bai Cai as bait to catch a small fish.
The fish was only the width of three fingers. He caught it and placed it in a wooden bucket, carrying it ho. Just as he was about to cook it, it started flopping around, fell to the floor, and with a pop, it turned into a pretty young girl looking like Xiao Yu.
She pointed at him fiercely and scolded, "You thief! You actually used Bai Cai to lure ashore. Put back in the river right now. There’s silver in the river, and I was about to take it back ho."
He looked at her and blinked, saying, "Since you’re here, don’t go back. Live at my place, I’ll feed you Bai Cai every day."
Xiao Yu was not pleased: "How much is Bai Cai worth? I want silver!"
He smiled, nodding in agreent: "Fine, I’ll earn silver for you, just don’t leave."
She reluctantly agreed, and in his dream, he earned silver for her, a lot and a lot of silver. She slept in a pile of silver every day, extrely happy.
Later, she found him very obedient, so she married him, and gave him several children... no, not fish, several children.
He was delighted. While looking after the children, he earned silver for her, and they lived happily for many years...
Bang bang!
"San Lang, what are you laughing about? Get up quickly, we have to hurry to the Military Office." Elder Qin frowned as he knocked on Qin San Lang’s room door. The boy was acting strange today; he usually got up early when he needed to go to the Military Office, but today he was late and Elder Qin had to co knock on his door.
Qin San Lang woke up, and upon realizing it was a dream, felt quite disappointed... He really wanted to continue sleeping, to see Xiao Yu give birth to their fifth child.
But a dream is, after all, a dream; he had to get up and hurry to the Military Office: "Coming."
Qin San Lang rolled out of bed, quickly changed clothes, opened his room door: "Grandfather, it’s not dawn yet; you go back to sleep a little longer."
Elder Qin nodded, gave Qin San Lang a few instructions, and with a yawn, went back to the front yard to continue sleeping.
After gulping down a cup of hot salt water, Qin San Lang led his horse out and stood waiting not far from Gu Family’s front gate.
A short while later, the Gu Family gate opened, and Gu Jinli ca out wearing a thick jacket and a hooded cloak, carrying two big cloth bags.
For a mont, Qin San Lang was reminded of the dream. In the dream, she was holding a child in one arm and the silver he’d earned in the other, using the silver to boil and eat.
That’s right, the Xiao Yu in the dream was a special fish; she ate silver.
"Brother Qin." Gu Jinli called out to Qin San Lang: "Quick, co help. I’ve brought you so tasty treats."
Qin San Lang snapped back to reality, hurried over, and took the cloth bags from her hands, as heavy as ever. It seems that this ti Xiao Yu had made him lots of delicious food again.
Gu Jinli said, "This year, Feng Jin and the others brought back a lot of sheep. I saved you a lot of rib racks, made roasted rib racks, all dry and fragrant. The weather’s cold; you’ll have sothing to eat for a good while at the Military Office."
Qin San Lang laughed, "So that’s what you’ve made. I wondered why it slled so good."
During the New Year’s Eve dinner, there was this roast lamb chop, and it was extrely delicious then.
Gu Jinli looked up, smiled proudly, and said, "Of course, who else made it? Can’t it be delicious if I’m the one who made it?"
He added, "Wait a mont; there are also two bags of beef jerky and pork jerky. I’ll go get them for you."
"More?" Qin San Lang said, "No need to bring those, just the roast lamb chops will suffice."
Gu Jinli turned his head and glared at him: "How could that suffice? It’s the New Year, we should eat more at. You went to the Military Office today, right? They only give you a fixed amount of at there, one at al every ten days. Just thinking about it makes feel sorry for you. I’ll bring you more so you won’t have to wait for at so pitifully."
Qin San Lang couldn’t help but laugh. In truth, he wanted to say that although the at and vegetables supplied by the governnt office weren’t plentiful, the Military Office often went hunting in the mountains, so they weren’t short of at. But since Xiao Yu was worried about him, he would take it – however much she gave, he would take.
Gu Jinli went ho, and soon ca out carrying two cloth bags full of dried at.
Qin San Lang hurried over to take them, lifting the dried at onto the horse’s back. He turned around and said to Gu Jinli, "Thank you, Xiao Yu, for bringing so much delicious food every ti."
Gu Jinli’s eyes narrowed with a smile: "You know I treat you well, don’t you?"
Qin San Lang nodded, his heart felt as if it were filled with sugary sweetness: "Mhm, Xiao Yu treats the best."
Aside from his parents, two older brothers, and grandfather, Xiao Yu was the one who treated him the best, and he liked how she treated him well.
Gu Jinli said, "Good that you know. You’ll have to repay in the future."
Upon hearing this, Qin San Lang blurted out, "I’ll definitely repay you. I’ll earn lots and lots of silver to bring back to you, so you can cook with it."
Gu Jinli said, "Are you crazy? I eat at, not silver."
Is silver sothing edible?
Qin San Lang paused, and in an instant, he managed to mix up dreams with reality.
He lowered his head to look at Gu Jinli and after a while, said, "I had a dream last night."
Gu Jinli blinked, "A nightmare? I had one recently too."
Qin San Lang shook his head; it wasn’t a nightmare, it was a beautiful dream: "In my dream, we got married and had five kids."
"Five kids!" Gu Jinli’s eyes went wide, "I’m not a pig, how could I possibly have five children? That’s simply a nightmare."
After hearing this, Qin San Lang felt a little hurt and asked her, "Does Xiao Yu not like kids?"
Or does she not want to have kids with him?
Gu Jinli said, "I like kids, but having five is just too many. Which family has five kids?"
Qin San Lang replied, "Almost every woman in the village has that many."
Gu Jinli was speechless; indeed, in ancient tis, there wasn’t much to do, and the nights were long. Without engaging in the business of having children, the won often got through the night by being pregnant.
But still...
"I don’t want to have that many."
Qin San Lang coaxed her, "Alright, then we won’t have that many. Xiao Yu can have as many as she wants."
Gu Jinli was taken aback. She tiptoed, raised her hand, and smacked his head with a slap, "You brat, you’re trying to trick again!"
To actually talk about having kids with her, aren’t you jumping the gun a bit too much?
Qin San Lang, who had been called out on his ’tricks’ twice, now fully understood what ’tricking’ ant. He didn’t deny it but just looked at her with a smile that spoke volus.
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