Chapter 204

Xu Ran and Gao Quan lifted the children out of the bathtub one by one and dried them off.  Then they wrapped the towels that Xu Ran specially asked Liu Tong to sew around them and carried them into the room.

After putting the two children on the bed, Xu Ran said to Gao Quan, ” It’s late now and you should go to bed, too. Get up later tomorrow morning. The fruit trees won’t be brought over so early.”

Gao Quan nodded and left.

Xu Ran thought that Liu Tong and Baozi must be sleeping soundly at this moment. He must disturb them if he went back. And Tangtang and Guoguo had just been through some pain, so he decided to stay with them.

After putting the two children into the quilt, Xu Ran also took off his clothes and went to bed. Facing their puzzled gazes, Xu Ran explained, ” Sleep in peace, Dad will accompany you! You don’t have to get up so early to practice martial arts tomorrow morning. It’s OK to be lazy occasionally and Dad will cook delicious food for you in the evening.

Tangtang and Guoguo nodded obediently and then closed their eyes to sleep.

Xu Ran slept in between them, holding one hand in each of his.

……

On the second day, Tangtang and Guoguo woke up very early but Xu Ran didn’t allow them to get up. He asked them to tuck up and continue to sleep. So they didn’t get up until Liu Tong called them for breakfast.

Tangtang and Guoguo haven’t got up so late like today for a long time, they were not used to it.

Watching their reactions, Xu Ran felt like the two children were born toiling.

It was really necessary for them to change.

After breakfast, the two children went to school. The pain they suffered last night seemed to had passed away now.

After the two children left, Xu Ran pulled Liu Tong back to their room. He rolled up his sleeves and showed his arms to him.

Seeing the tooth prints on his arm, Liu Tong asked with his lips pursed,” Are these bitten by Tangtang and Guoguo?”

Xu Ran nodded and said, “Mm, they were in great pain last night. At first, I didn’t know I could stuff something into their mouths, so I didn’t. I was afraid that they would bite themselves, so I let them bite me. Tangtang cried when he saw these last night. Fortunately, Guoguo didn’t see these.

Liu Tong was still feeling distressed at first, but when he heard Xu Ran’s words, he suddenly smiled,” How did we give birth to such two wonderful children?”

Xu Ran also smiled and said, “Yeah! They are very obedient, sensible, and smart.”

While talking to Xu Ran, Liu Tong brought the medicine kit which Xu Ran had prepared at home and put the medicine on his arms.

Although the wounds were not deep, some were bleeding, so it was better to dress his arms up.

Liu Tong said while wiping his wounds, “You’d better stay at home and not plant trees today. Otherwise the wounds will be slow to heal.”

Xu Ran disagreed, shaking his head,” Don’t worry, they are not big wounds. I don’t plant big trees but I can still plant small ones. Besides, if we plant fewer trees in the morning, we probably won’t be happy when we catch fish in the afternoon.”

Liu Tong thought about it and agreed. It was their relaxation time, they couldn’t keep worrying about the work they hadn’t finished.

He said to Xu Ran, “Then you remember to plant the small trees. You must take care of yourself!”

Xu Ran nodded his head and agreed, “I know, I definitely will. No one wants to be in pain every day!”

As they were talking, Liu Tong quickly bandaged his wounds.

Just as they were about to go downstairs when they heard Qin Shuwen’s voice calling to them from the yard.

“Xu Ran, Liu Tong, come down quickly. Someone’s delivering fruit trees.”

Xu Ran responded from upstairs and went downstairs with Liu Tong.

Gao Quan and Shao Yu were standing at the door of the yard. There were three bull carts outside, and the fruit trees were piled on each cart. There seemed to be a lot of fruit trees.

The person who came to deliver the fruit trees was the staff in Qin Shuwu’s shop, and also the one who took Tangtang and Guoguo to play on the street, so Xu Ran knew him.

But Xu Ran forgot what his name was…

However, whether he remembered his name or not, Xu Ran had to go over to greet him.

“Bro, you’re here so early. Put the fruit trees here! We’ll unload them later. Come in and have a drink of water and rest.”

Liu Tong had already prepared water, so they could drink it as soon as they went in.

Without much ceremony, they went into the house. After all, they were tired from delivering the fruit trees so early in the morning.

Xu Ran asked Liu Tong to cook them noodles. After finishing a bowl of noodles, they began to work.

They could not unload the fruit trees at the gate of the yard, but moved them to the mountain, which required them to work harder.

But having drunk their water and eaten their noodles, they felt ashamed not to carry the fruit trees. In addition, they had already gotten the money given by Qin Shuwu when they came.

After the three-car fruit trees had been moved to the mountain, it was nearly noon. Xu Ran had not expected there would be so many trees. He had even thought that they could finish planting the trees after they moved them to the mountain.

It was already noon and he was sure to keep them for lunch. Letting Shao Yu and Liu Tong go home to prepare lunch, Xu Ran began to plant trees with Gao Quan. They had to plant as many trees as they could.

The servants who were kept for lunch were embarrassed not to help. As strong men, they worked very fast. When lunch was ready, they had planted a lot.

The food Xu Ran prepared was always good and the servants all said that it was more delicious than that of the restaurant.

The food in the restaurant was so expensive, even if they went, they could not order too much food. Compared with that, the food here was naturally better than that of the restaurant.

After lunch, the servants went back in the bull carts. The Xu Ran family cleaned up and set out for the riverside of the village.

It was time for others either to have lunch at home or work in the fields, so there was no one by the riverside.

Like Xu Ran said, they went there to catch fish. They wanted both big fish and small fish. Xu Ran asked Gao Quan and Liu Tong to catch fish as his hand was inconvenient. Shao Yu and Qin Shuwen looked after the baby and he coducted them from the side.

Not a single person came in the afternoon, which gave them a great harvest.

Although there weren’t many big fish, they got a bucket of small fish and shrimps.

Looking at the shrimps in the bucket, Liu Tong asked Xu Ran, ” Ran, they are too small and not delicious. Why do you keep them?”

What Xu Ran wanted was just the shrimps and his idea was from the crispy meat Liu Tong cooked.

Fried small fish!

Fried the small fish in oil, and then added some seasonings and sesame seeds, then the dish would be both beautiful and delicious.

Xu Ran still remembered that when he was a child, the fried fish was very expensive. Because he was clamoring for it and his family couldn’t buy it for him very often, so his mother fried the fish for him.

At the beginning, his mother didn’t know how to cook it well and the fried fish wasn’t delicious, but Xu Ran didn’t mind. He ate up all the fish because there were no other snacks to eat.

Later on, as his mother cooked it more and more, he became more skillful, so the fish became more and more delicious.

The little fish didn’t cost anything. There was a large swallow pool with many fish in it near their home. Xu Ran couldn’t catch the big fish, so he just looked for shrimps by the side. Then he brought the shrimps back home and asked his mother to fry them for him.

If Liu Tong hadn’t fried the crispy meat, he wouldn’t think of this and there must be someone selling small fish in town. As long as he knew how to cook them delicious, it would be OK.

The fish must be expensive, and he could also sell it in Mr. Chen’s shop.

There were three dishes, small fish, cool noodles and bean jellys. It was enough for them now and he would look for other food when summer came. Maybe he could find other food then.

The more Xu Ran thought about it, the happier he felt and even couldn’t close his mouth.

Liu Tong was about to ask him how to cook the little fish, seeing how happy Xu Ran was, he didn’t ask him. He thought, ‘Ran must know it. I just need to wait to eat, because Ran always comes up with some outlandish ideas.”

When they went back, the sun didn’t set yet, so they went to plant trees again. They didn’t go home to prepare dinner until Tangtang and Guoguo arrived at home.

Although the trees Xu Ran planted were small, he still took some effort, so his hand couldn’t move freely at the moment. In order not to be found by Tangtang and Guoguo , Xu Ran could only stiffly hold Baozi, motionless.

Playing with their brother for a while, Liu Tong asked Tangtang and Guoguo to go back to study in their room . Xu Ran felt relieved finally. Giving the baby to Shao Yu, he went to cook the fish with Liu Tong.

“Ran, are you going to fry so many small fish at once?” Liu Tong asked.

Xu Ran nodded,”Mm, all of them. It is not very hot now and it can be given to children as snacks. We can also give some to Big Brother Qin and the others if we can’t eat up. Besides, I’m going to sell it.”

“Oh, that’s all right. In that case, I’ll clean all the fish. But how will you fry it? What seasonings do you need?”

Xu Ran said, ” I forgot this, but it should be the same as your fried crisp meat, with less starch and some chilli. Mm, just try the way you fried the meat.”

Hearing Xu Ran’s words, Liu Tong nodded and began to think about how to get rid of the fishy smell, or it would not taste good.

Then Xu Ran went on, “Tongtong, keep the fishy smell and don’t get rid of it, otherwise it will taste different.

Liu Tong believed that everything Ran said was right,  so he had no objection. Nodding his head to indicate that he knew it, he went on with his work.

At night, there was another dish that they hadn’t eaten before.

Tangtang and Guoguo were very happy. They still remembered Xu Ran said last night that he would catch fish for them today.

Although it was too small to be called a fish, the two children were still happy.

Xu Ran gave each of them some fish with his chopsticks and said,” Try it, this’s a new dish. If you like it, we will often make it in the future and buy more fish.”

It was just at this moment Xu Ran realized that they had eaten very little fish. He didn’t like to eat fish because he was lazy to pick fish bones, but his family loved to eat it. They had eaten a lot during the New Year’s Eve, but he didn’t notice it at that time. It was his negligence, after all, fish was very nutritious.

Especially the fish soup, Xu Ran thought that maybe they could build a pond to keep some fish by themselves, not too many, just enough to feed her family.

While he was thinking about it, the others had started to eat, as Tangtang and Guoguo all said it was delicious.

Liu Tong touched Xu Ran who was in a daze and asked,” Ran, why don’t you eat? Think about the other things tomorrow! You’re so tired today.”

As soon as Liu Tong finished speaking, Xu Ran felt Tangtang looking towards him. The child still remembered the tooth print.

Xu Ran hurriedly smiled and said,  “Nothing, I’m just thinking whether you like the fish or not. It seems that you all like it.”

Guoguo, who didn’t know this, kept nodding his head in praise the little fish.

Xu Ran added, “If you like it, eat more. In the future, I will buy more fish for you. You will be smarter if you eat more fish.”

“Okay, okay!” Guoguo agreed at once and even Tangtang was looking forward to it.

Xu Ran felt that they were clever enough and couldn’t be smarter, but the two children didn’t seem satisfied.

Seeing that he had successfully diverted Tangtang’s attention, Xu Ran was relieved to have dinner. It was not good for a child to be too sensitive, and his Dad even had to keep something from him.

Alas! What if a father was not as smart as his son? Please! Waiting online!

It was a pity that no one could answer his question right now. Holding the bowl, Xu Ran ate the rice quickly and thought about how to improve his IQ. He wondered if he could become wiser if he ate more bowls of rice.

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