However, a second group soon ca to the kitchen looking for sothing to eat: Qingmu and Zhang Huai.
Juhua asked in astonishnt, "Brother, you didn’t get enough to eat either?"
Qingmu and Zhang Huai exchanged a helpless smile. "Everyone was practically fighting over the food. We couldn’t eat as fast as them and only got two bowls. They had three bowls each and even snatched a piece of the rice crust. I just don’t get it—it’s like those guys don’t even have throats."
Juhua and Liu Xiaoi found this hilarious.
Hearing this, Mrs. Yang hurried to the main hall to ask if everyone had eaten their fill. If not, she said she would bring out the fruit pastries for them and make a new batch in the afternoon.
Everyone insisted they were full, saying that fighting for the food just made it more fun and taste better.
Zhao San laughed. "Don’t you worry about us, Sister-in-law. When you get a big group of guys together, they’ll make a ruckus over nothing. A man could be stuffed, but the second he sees soone else grabbing for food, he suddenly thinks he can fit another two bowls and jumps right in. It makes for a lively, friendly atmosphere."
Li Changxing let out a burp and chuckled. "Oh, man! I’m stuffed to bursting. Good thing I was quick enough to snatch a big piece of that rice crust. Auntie, please stop asking if we’re full. You’re making feel embarrassed."
Everyone teased him for having the capacity to feel embarrassed when he fought for food like two n in one. Seeing them all in such good spirits, Mrs. Yang finally relaxed.
In the kitchen, Juhua asked Qingmu and Zhang Huai, "Do you two want the dry rice crust, or would you prefer the fruit pastries?"
Zhang Huai quickly replied, "I’ll have the dry rice crust. It’s great soaked in soup."
Just then, Huai Zi’s mother, He, entered the courtyard. She was leading a young girl about izi’s age who looked very delicate and quiet, and she carried a small sewing basket in her hand.
He smiled. "Still eating? Juhua, you must be exhausted. I’ll co and help tomorrow. Cooking for this many people is no easy task."
Juhua quickly thanked her and offered her a seat, saying that with i helping, she was managing just fine.
The young girl saw Zhang Huai and, with a small smile, called out, "Cousin."
Zhang Huai asked in surprise, "Didn’t you say you were going ho today?"
He laughed. "I wasn’t comfortable with Yu Qin going ho alone, so I thought we’d wait for you to finish up and take her back. Or, we could just wait two more days for your grandmother and aunt to arrive, and she can go ho with them."
Qingmu noticed Yu Qin blushing as she gazed at Huai Zi, and he imdiately grew wary. He sized her up from head to toe, so focused that he didn’t even hear Huai Zi trying to shoo him into the main hall. He asked He, "Have you eaten, Auntie? Would you and the young lady like a bite? This must be Huai Zi’s cousin, right?"
Seeing her brother suddenly so attentive to a girl he’d never t, Juhua started paying closer attention to her as well.
He laughed. "We had nothing to do at ho, so we just made sothing and ate already. This is the daughter of Huai Zi’s fourth uncle, her na is Yu Qin. Yu Qin, this is Juhua, this is her brother Qingmu, and this is Liu Xiaoi, from our village."
Juhua and i greeted her. Yu Qin shyly exchanged a few pleasantries, then took a pair of gloves from her sewing basket. She turned to Zhang Huai, who was still eating in the kitchen, and said, "Cousin, I heard from Yangzi that his brother Qingmu has a pair of very warm gloves. I tried to copy the design from his description and made a pair for you and for Yangzi. You can wear these while you work so you won’t get cold."
Zhang Huai was taken aback. He glanced at Juhua with a bitter expression. ’Normally, if she made gloves for Qingmu, she would have definitely made a pair for , too. But now... it’s my cousin making them for .’ He thanked Yu Qin, telling her the weather wasn’t cold enough to need them for work. Besides, he said, the fields were filthy, and it would be a sha to ruin the gloves. He suggested he should save them to wear when he was studying instead.
Yu Qin smiled, nodded, and put the gloves away.
This made Qingmu even more displeased. He couldn’t very well tell Zhang Huai to refuse the gloves, so all he could do was glare daggers at this Yu Qin, feeling a profound sense of threat.
Juhua and i went to look at the gloves, imdiately showering them with praise. Juhua’s complints were genuine. ’Look at her needlework,’ she thought, ’the stitches are so neat. Nothing like my own clumsy, uneven sewing.’
He was pleased by their praise and said to them, "She stayed up late last night working on them. And she’d never even seen your pair, she was just going off of Yangzi’s hand-waving descriptions. It’s a good thing they turned out okay. Is the style right?"
Juhua quickly replied, "Yes, this is exactly it. They’re much better than the ones I made. The pair I made for my brother already has a tear in it, all because my stitching was so uneven."
Liu Xiaoi laughed. "If you were good at needlework on top of everything else, I’d just about die of jealousy." Her comnt made everyone laugh.
Juhua noticed her brother glaring relentlessly at Yu Qin, and she began to ponder. ’What is he up to?’
A mont later, Qingmu and Zhang Huai finished their food, put down their bowls and chopsticks, and followed the others out to the fields.
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