Chapter 134

The little horse ran quickly and happened to be back at lunchtime. Xu Ran and the others laughed because of that.

After lunch, Zhuo Yun went home, and Xu Ran led a group of people to work on sausage making business in the kitchen.

Two men went to marinate the fat meat, which was actually not difficult. They just had to apply salt on the meat and wipe it evenly. In general, it was much simpler than to stuff sausages.

These two men were also efficient workers in Zhuo Yun’s house. Xu Ran taught them only once, and they could pick it up.

As for stuffing sausages, Xu Ran initially wanted to cut the lean meat into pieces first, and no matter whether the amount of small intestines was enough or not, prepare the condiments in advance. Then they could wait for the pig slaughterer to send the small intestines over to continue stuffing work.

These Ge’ers had never made sausages before. They watched the meat going into the bamboo tube bit by bit, and then the intestines bulged. They all felt interested and scrambled to do it themselves.

Seeing them arguing, Xu Ran just let them take turns and decide by rock-paper-scissors. This workload was not small. He was afraid that their passion would soon wear off, and then they would not want to do it anymore.

Fortunately, these Ge’ers’ passion for this lasted for a long time.

When the intestines were all stuffed, they still haven’t complained about tiredness, which was kind of impressive.

At night, the pig slaughterer brought Xu Ran three small baskets of small intestines. Xu Ran paid nine pence according to the price that they had agreed, and told them to bring more intestines over tomorrow if they had more.

The lean meat of one hog for suasage making needed at least two baskets of intestines. There were three hogs that could be used to make sausages, so it should be enough if Xu Ran got more intestines tomorrow.

If there was more than enough, he could still use the rest to make other dishes. The intestines wouldn’t be wasted anyway.

When the bedtime came at night, Xu Ran told these people about their rooms. He could not care much about the two men, but the three Ge’ers needed more attention. He added two oil lamps to their room, and he was worried they might feel cold, so he brought them an extra piece of quilt.

Such an attentive person naturally caught the eyes of these Ge’ers. Even though they knew that Xu Ran had a spouse and children, they still wanted to attract him.

Xu Ran was different from Zhuo Yun. They had been in the Zhuo Mansion for several years, and they all knew that young master Zhuo was only focused on Qin Shuwen. Even if they had the intention, they wouldn’t get any attention from Zhuo Yun.

However, Xu Ran treated them very well, and he was gentle and considerate. In addition, his spouse was pregnant now, so he definitely couldn’t serve Xu Ran anymore. Besides, very few men were likely not to cheat on their spouses. They looked better than Liu Tong, so they didn’t believe that Xu Ran could resist the temptation.

The three of them didn’t say it out, but they just thought about the same thing, which could be considered as a fantasy or something else.

Xu Ran had been sneezing ever since he returned to his room. Liu Tong thought that he caught cold and even wanted to look for a doctor.

Xu Ran hurriedly stopped Liu Tong who was about to going out and rubbed his own nose. “Tongtong, I’m fine. I just feel a little itchy on my nose. Maybe someone might be talking about me.”

Liu Tong streatched out his hand and touched Xu Ran’s forehead. He only felt relieved after confirming Xu Ran didn’t have a fever.

Then he asked Xu Ran, “Ran, who do you think is talking about you? Did you think too much?”

Xu Ran continued to rub his nose, “It’s scarier that I don’t even know why they’re thinking about me. I wish I know. All right, you don’t have overthink it. I was just saying. Let’s sleep early. Your stomach is getting bigger and bigger. You have to rest well.”

“Okay.” Liu Tong nodded and lay down beside Xu Ran when he saw that Xu Ran didn’t want to talk more about this.

Both of them didn’t sleep well all night.

…

Zhuo Yun went to Xu Ran’s house five days in a row, and Xu Ran didn’t go out for five days, either. He stayed in the kitchen, and only finished an initial process of dealing with all the big pieces of meat. As for the other inner organs, there was no time to deal with them. Only a few of them got cleaned up and kept in the containers. He didn’t have time to soak those things in water and handle them.

These Ge’ers didn’t know that those things had to be processed first, and the smell was also poignant so Xu Ran didn’t let them do it. He just took the two men to clean it up.

It took two more days to finish all that work.

Xu Ran felt that it was almost done, so he intended to send these people back.

Those three Ge’ers were stunned when they heard that they were going back. They hadn’t found a chance to get close to Xu Ran yet. If they returned to Zhuo Mansion, they wouldn’t have any chance either because they had to work in the backyard while Xu Ran wouldn’t go in there.

The two men had no objection. They were originally sold to Zhuo Mansion, and the contracts of selling them was also in Zhuo Yun’s hands. They should go back without doubt.

Xu Ran told them in the afternoon,indicating that they should go back tomorrow. In the eyes of these three Ge’ers, tonight was the only chance.

After dinner, they said they want to wander around in the yard and asked Xu Ran to go with them. Xu Ran didn’t have much temper and never put on the airs when he were with them. Since they said so, he went with them but didn’t let Liu Tong go as well. After all, the yard was dark. It would be bad if Liu Tong stepped on something like cobbles and got injured.

Shao Yu was busy too, so he did not go with Xu Ran. Naturally, Gao Quan stayed with Shao Yu.

The two children said it was cold and they wanted to keep warm in the bed.

The two men were playing Chinese chess with Mr. Hu. They picked it up in the past few days at Xu Ran’s house.

Therefore, the only ones left were Xu Ran and the three Ge’ers. These Ge’ers were younger than Xu Ran. Besides, Xu Ran had a family, so he never thought too much.

When he arrived at the yard, Xu Ran felt something was wrong.

Originally, they were sitting at the stone table in the yard and chatting, while enjoying the breeze and appreciating the moon, although it was not suitable to do this at this time of the year.

However, since the three Ge’ers didn’t say anything, Xu Ran couldn’t speak, but things got weird later.

The Ge’ers complained about the coldness and leaned closer to Xu Ran.

They had their own plans in their minds. Nonetheless, seeing the other two also leaning closer to Xu Ran, they all wanted to fight over it.

Xu Ran found that quite baffling, but he quickly reacted. He pushed all of them away and said, “Please respect yourselves. If it’s really that cold, go back to your room and go to sleep. Now that the weather is cold, it’s not suitable to sit in the yard and let the cool breeze blow.”

Xu Ran didn’t say it out clearly, but letting them go back on their own was a tactful refusal. However, there were always a person who did not know chalk from cheese.

Two of the Ge’ers understood what Xu Ran was saying and wanted to go back, but the other one was about to take off his clothes in front of Xu Ran.

Xu Ran would really be a pushover if he didn’t get angry now. He slapped off the hand of the Ge’er who was trying to unbutton the clothes and said angrily, “Either you go back to your room now and go back to Zhuo Mansion tomorrow, or you leave my house right now and do whatever you want to do. No one will stop you if you want to go crazy at night, but don’t do that at my house.”

Xu Ran’s words were a bit harsh. No matter how reckless the Ge’er was, he could tell that Xu Ran didn’t like him. What’s more, Xu Ran threatened to chase him out. It was so late. There was no telling what would happen if he got chased out. He couldn’t let that happen.

The Ge’er felt wronged and ran to the room upstairs. When he was running, he happened to meet Liu Tong, who came to bring Xu Ran some clothes, and even bumped into him. Fortunately, there was a handrail on the stairs. Liu Tong stood quite steadily and did not fall down.

Being hit out of no reason, Liu Tong felt also unhappy. He would not care in the past, but now he had a baby. What if that hurt the baby? Liu Tong hurriedly went downstairs to find Xu Ran and asked him what had happened.

The other two Ge’ers who had just got back from the yard saw Liu Tong and felt embarrassed, so they went upstairs without saying a word. Liu Tong held the clothes in his hand tighter and felt even more baffled.

Xu Ran was still angry in the yard. When Liu Tong put the clothes on him, he almost accidentally hurt Liu Tong.

Xu Ran pinched Liu Tong’s wrist tightly and it even hurt a little. Liu Tong struggled and asked, “Ran, what’s wrong? Why are you so angry?”

Xu Ran turned around and hugged Liu Tong. “Tongtong, I know who was thinking about me now. I also know what they were thinking about, but I would rather not know. I am very unhappy.”

Liu Tong leaned in his arms obediently and patted his chest. “Alright, Ran, don’t be angry. How about we go back to the room? It’s so cold outside. What if we caught a cold? Don’t forget that out baby is about to be born.”

Hearing Liu Tong’s words, Xu Ran calmed down. He held Liu Tong’s hand and walked into the house. After closing the door, they went upstairs together.

When they got into the room, Xu Ran still pulled a long face. He didn’t want to show his anger to Liu Tong. He was just simply angry. Before this, Zhang Yue had already made Tongtong unhappy. Now there were three more shameless people who had just lived in their house for a few days and began to covet him.

Xu Ran looked at Liu Tong’s big belly and gentle face under the light. He didn’t know if he should tell Liu Tong because he didn’t want Liu Tong to be sad. Although nothing happened, he wouldn’t want to hide it from Liu Tong either.

After thinking for a while, Xu Ran decided to come clean with Liu Tong. He was worried that if he didn’t say it clearly, the three Ge’ers might find an opportunity to provoke Liu Tong. By then, it would be a big problem.

Xu Ran led Liu Tong hand in hand to sat down on the bed, then kissed him on the forehead and said, “Tongtong, I’ll tell you something about me. You promise that you won’t be angry no matter what you hear later. If you are going to be angry, then I won’t tell you.”

Liu Tong shook his head. “Ran, how can I be angry out of no reason? I promise I won’t be angry no matter what you say. If I am really angry, I will save that until after the baby is born.”

Xu Ran smiled when he heard Liu Tong say this. “That’s nonsense. As long as you promise that you won’t be angry, let me tell you that…”