Chapter 59

As no one stayed in the house these days, it was dusty. Fortunately, they had covered the furniture before they went out. At the moment, Liu Tong went into the house first, lit up the oil lamp, and then beckoned Tangtang and Guoguo to go inside.

There were four little tails behind following Tangtang and Guoguo. Although they couldn’t bear to separate from their dad and daddy as soon as they met, they knew they still had their tasks to do. As good and obedient children, they immediately promised that they didn’t need to be taken care of and would be good and wait for them to come back home.

Of course, Liu Tong knew that they were nice children, but he was still worried about them for it was already getting dark outside.

Finally, Tangtang said, “Daddy, you can go and help dad first! You can make a fire for us so that we can sit around it and not be afraid.

Liu Tong thought that it was a good idea. As long as they could do these things, such as making sure that there was a fire in the house, locking the gate well outside, and they both adults’ taking turns to leave the house, they didn’t have to worry about what would happen to the children.

So Liu Tong made a fire, put a pot of water on it, gave the kids a few words of admonishment and hurried out of the house with a basket on his back.

When he came to the door, Xu Ran just arrived home. He was carrying not only a bag of chilies, but also a bag of wild pears, which were obviously brought back specially for Tangtang and Guoguo.

Smilingly, Xu Ran greeted Liu Tong, “Tongtong, we’ll enjoy a good time during this winter after these few days’ hard and busy work”

Hearing this, Liu Tong also laughed, “Yeah!”

The two of them staggered their time to be away from home. Thus one of them walked into the house while the other went outside. Even though they were busy and tired, they felt contented.

As soon as he entered the room, Xu Ran immediately put down the bag full of chilies from his back, and called his kids, “Tangtang and Guoguo, come here. Dad has something good for you.”

Hearing Xu Ran’s voice, Tangtang and Guoguo immediately ran over to greet him. Xu Ran handed them the cloth bag in his hand, “There are wild pears in it. You can wash them clean first and eat them. There are still many things on the mountain that need to be taken back. I have to run there a few more times.”

Xu Ran then left the house again. Tangtang shouted behind, “Dad, you should be careful and take care of yourself!”

He waved his hand, wondering if the two kids could see it while answering loudly, “Got it.”

Xu Ran could not remember how many times he had run back and forth. When everything was at last taken back, he was almost in the same state as he was in the daytime.

However, this time, Liu Tong was experienced and not as panicked as before. Following Xu Ran’s instruction, he fed him some salt water and cooked porridge to feed him.

At last, Xu Ran came back a little to himself.

It was a long time since Tangtang and Guoguo last saw their dad and daddy, so they both were very excited and refused to go to bed. Instead, they became Liu Tong’s followers. They were close behind Liu Tong wherever he went. They were afraid that their dad and daddy would disappear again.

After all, they were still children. Both Liu Tong and Xu Ran were willing to indulge them both.

They both believed that’s what children should be.

The days of hard work finally passed. When they were at last lying in bed, it was almost midnight. And they had added oil to the lamp twice.

Tonight, everyone in the family was sleeping like a log.

As expected, the next day, the whole family got up late. It was only after hearing Wu Mei’s voice outside the yard that Liu Tong woke up.

He took a look at Xu Ran still sleeping soundly by his side and got up quietly, trying not to awaken him.

After dressing and washing quickly, Liu Tong went to open the door for Wu Mei and others.

Outside there, all the three families had come, including the children.

Liu Tong greeted them, “Hello everyone! Why did you come so early? Have you had breakfast? I supposed you wouldn’t come until noon.”

“Yes, we’ve had breakfast. Hey, haven’t you got busy recently? We’ve just come over and see if you need help. You haven’t even got up yet?”

Hearing Wu Mei’s words, Liu Tong felt a little embarrassed. He then explained smilingly, “Actually, we didn’t go to bed until midnight last night, so we get up late this morning. Please come in first and sit down. I’ll go to wake them up，”

Liu Tong said as he welcomed them in.

On hearing that Liu Tong was going to wake them up, Wu Mei stopped him and said, “Oh, no. We are not strangers. Just let them sleep more! You know both Tangtang and Guoguo didn’t sleep well these days, not to mention Ran is not in good health. And at the moment, we have nothing to do anyway. ”

“Fine then. I’ll prepare breakfast first. You just make yourselves at home.” As Liu Tong spoke, he went into the room, took out some wild pears and divided them up. Then he went to the kitchen.

Since the meat of the pheasant and the hare they hunted in the mountain had not been eaten up, Liu Tong planned to make some chicken congee and fry shredded potatoes.  All these would be their breakfast today.

Although Wu Mei and the others said they had already had their breakfast, Liu Tong still planned to cook more for them. He believed even so they would be able to have one more bowl of chicken congee.

As soon as Liu Tong lit the fire, Wu Mei and the other Ge’ers came in, “Hey, Liu Tong, what are you going to prepare for the breakfast?”

Seeing them, Liu Tong asked, “Why are you here? Go outside and have a rest. Everything will be ok soon.”

“That’s all right, Liu Tong. We feel sick to have nothing to do. We feel good to be here while talking with you,” Liu Qing said. Liu Tong understood him, so he didn’t say anything. Thus, these Ge’ers worked together in the kitchen.

In the room, Xu Ran was still sleeping soundly, while Tangtang and Guoguo were just awake. Since they were young, the two kids were able to dress themselves, so the adults didn’t have to take care of them when they got up. At the moment, they got dressed and did washing by themselves, after which, they went out to say hello to their guests in the yard and then ran to wake Xu Ran up.

“Dad, dad, get up. Many people are here outside.”

“Dad, dad, get up. Daddy Wu Mei and others are all here. Get up quickly.”

“Dad, dad…”

The two children, like singing duet, kept calling in Xu Ran’s ears and finally woke him up.

Obviously, Xu Ran didn’t have enough sleep and still felt very sleepy. With a stiff face, he sat up holding a quilt in his arms while glaring at the front. Tangtang and Guoguo were so frightened by his appearance that they ran away immediately, hand in hand..

As soon as the two brothers left, Xu Ran immediately lay down again and went on sleeping, unaware what had happened just now.

Tangtang and Guoguo stood outside for a while and found that Xu Ran didn’t come out. After discussing, they tiptoed in again. However, what they saw was that the person who had been sitting was lying down and sleeping again. This time, he even covered his head with the quilt.

Seeing this, the two children could only gently open their mouths and marvel at their dad’s great sleeping skills.

Tangtang stuck out his tongue and said to Guoguo, “Brother, let’s go! Dad will definitely not wake up now.”

Guoguo took a look at the tightly wrapped quilt on the bed, nodded and replied, “Okay.”

When the two brothers were going out, they met Liu Tong, who was coming to wake Xu Ran up. Tangtang stopped Liu Tong directly, “Daddy, you don’t have to go. Dad won’t get up now.”

“Have you tried to wake him up then?”

Thus Tangtang and Guoguo recounted what had just happened, but they had just stopped their story when a voice suddenly came from behind,

“You little brats, is your dad really that terrible?”

Xu Ran suddenly spoke, and both Tangtang and Guoguo were so startled that they screamed and hid behind Liu Tong.

Liu Tong helplessly looked at Xu Ran, “Ran, you know these two children are timid, but you still frighten them.”

Xu Ran scratched his head with embarrassment. How could he know they were so timid! When he himself was a child, he dared to get up and beat ghosts in the middle of the night.

Oh, really, how could such a fine gene not be inherited?

However, on second thought, Xu Ran felt the fool might be different from him,  so he was relieved.

“All right, let’s get washed and prepare for breakfast! Wu Mei and other friends are all here. Didn’t you just have something to discuss with them? ”

“Alright,” Xu Ran walked past Liu Tong while rubbing his eyes.

After he left, the two children came out from Liu Tong’s back. In fact, they were not really afraid of Xu Ran. They just felt it was fun that way. At the moment, they did not show any sign of fear at all. This speed of change surprised Liu Tong.

Although the guests claimed that they had had breakfast, since Wu Mei and the others were here to help, Liu Tong still invited all of them to the table for breakfast together.

Xu Ran’s family ate rice during every meal. Although Wu Mei’s and the other two families were not very poor, they couldn’t eat rice every day, let alone meat at Xu Ran’s. The adults today, however, were able to resist the temptation of good food, and they talked while eating, so they did not eat much. The children, however, were different. They all ate a hearty meal.

Even Tangtang and Guoguo were moved and got excited.

‘This hot porridge is suitable for eating in this weather, especially if there are pickles,’

Xu Ran thought while eating porridge. He was planning to try making pickles.

After breakfast, the Ge’ers went to the kitchen to clean up the bowls. The kids went to play with the dogs and the rabbit, while Xu Ran took a few Xiaozis to see his simple and easy handcart.

Because there were no tools, the handcart was small and ugly, but Xu Ran pointed at it and said to the others, “Don’t think it’s ugly. It can be used for many purposes. As long as Xu An spends more time on it, it will be more than what it looks like now. In the future, it can be used to harvest corn and wheat. It is not only labor-saving but also fast. In the future, many people will buy this kind of cart. ”

Xu Ran turned to the other three people present and went on, “It’s almost winter now. We’ll have nothing to do except grow radishes. Anyway, we’ll all have to stay at home, so why not make use of this time to make this cart? In this way, when the new year’s busy time comes, we can sell this kind of carts to the town or the neighboring villages. At least, we can sell one for one or two taels of silver. Surely, we will not lose money. ”

“You three brothers have helped me a lot during my most difficult time. Naturally, I also hope that you will all have a better life. If you can trust me, we can go to the mountain to cut some wood and start our work as soon as the wheat is planted.”

“Of course we believe you. However, this kind of carts has never appeared before, so it’s better for you to think of anyone you want to make for you than to simply tell us about it. Xu Ran, I, Xu An, thank you for your kindness. When everything is settled at home, I’ll go up the mountain with you. ”

“I…I’m gonna go.”

“Consider me one.”

Xu An just expressed his idea, when Xu Fa and Xu Zhen also agreed. They had all witnessed how the life of Xu Ran’s family came to this scene. At the time when they were driven out of the Xu Family, they had nothing, but now their family enjoyed rice every meal, which was unique in this village. Now that Xu Ran was willing to help them, they understood it and felt very much grateful. They were the backbone of their family, and they were not stupid.

After the matter was decided, Xu Ran began to tell Xu An in detail about the design of his handcart. As a carpenter, Xu An knew better than Xu Ran how to connect the parts of the cart firmly and make it more beautiful. Hearing Xu Ran’s blueprint, Xu An was very happy and confident.