CH 67

Old Lady Han, fine, you don’t have to hand it out; I’ll catch you later. At any rate, we don’t have much food for now and I can’t afford to unconditionally feed everyone. We still have winter to get through, after all.

But the next day, Han Qingsong came back with two little ducklings that he brought back from someone else’s place. They were a creamy shade of butter-yellow and were especially adorable.

Xiaowang and the other children liked them very much.

“Mother, the little ducklings are good. When they grow up, they can go to the river to find fish and shrimp to eat on their own and they eat less food than chickens.”

“Yes, ducks are easy to rear and not easy to die.”

It was normal for five chickens to die out of ten.

Lin Lan smiled and said, “Remember to dig out young and leafy vegetables for them to eat.”

Xiaowang raised his hand, “I’ll have the ducklings eat grass and insects in order to lay eggs for mother to eat.”

Sanwang smiled and said, “Someone has to watch over them when they’re out or they will run away with other big ducks. We’ll have to be careful when they lay their eggs.”

He had seen a lot of such occurrences. There would be one or two little ducklings reared at home, but when the ducklings ventured out the house, they would trail behind other adult ducks from other homes— it was so stupid.

As soon as Xiaowang heard that they were going to face a big enemy, he immediately chased the two little ducklings to educate them about love, “Big duck and little duck, I will sing while you lay eggs,” Then, he began to sing, “Under the bridge in front of the gate, a group of ducks are swimming…”

Erwang asked, “Mother, where did he learn this song?”

Lin Lan refused to admit it, “How would I know? I don’t know where he heard it.”

On another side, Maisui was calculating the price of a few cents for a duck egg. She was trying to count how many they needed to sell for a pair of leather shoes.

Lin Lan couldn’t help sighing when she saw her longing look, but then, she turned her head to meet Han Qingsong’s gaze.

He was using branches to make a duck pen. That way, the ducklings would have space to roam around but still be restricted within their compounds.

When he looked at her, his eyes were filled with a complicated hint of emotions and slight doubt, but Lin Lan couldn’t identify the actual emotion itself.

Thinking that she was having a cold war with him, she turned her head sideways coldly.

Han Qingsong, “…”

Returning from work in the evening, Lin Lan went back to the new house to clean up as usual. She checked on the ducklings and helped Han Qingsong grow vegetables that could still be nurtured this season.

“Ask the old lady if I can make a small bowl of noodles for Xiaowang? He has a weak stomach and he just had diarrhea, so coarse grains won’t be easy for him to digest,” Though he practically emptied his stomach’s contents, Xiaowang didn’t have an appetite to eat.

Lin Lan felt sorry for him and wanted to get some finer grains to eat, but the old lady stored all the food at home.

Han Qingsong was also very concerned about Xiaowang, “I’ll talk to my mother.”

Although he didn’t say anything, he saw Lin Lan dressed in tattered clothes. She was so thin that there was practically no excess flesh on her body and her waist was so thin that it looked like he could snap it off with one hand. One by one, he looked at the yellowing faces and thin skin of every single child of his. Dawang disappeared all the time like a wild child and although Erwang and Maisui were a little cleaner than most, their clothes were unsightly. Not to mention Sanwang, who soaked himself in the river all day, was now only left with a pair of torn trousers on his body. Xiaowang’s eyes were not good but his body was in even worse conditions— he was so thin and petite that it made others feel pity for him.