"Are you still sleeping?" Gu Fengyan asked Ye Bao.
He was sore all over and couldn't get up at all... but Ye Bao was a child and had boundless energy, as if he had never been sleepy.
Sure enough, Ye Bao rubbed his eyes and shook his head.
Huo Duan tossed the handkerchief into the basin, smiled, and said, "Ayan, go back to sleep for a while. I'll take care of him... You had a hard night last night."
Gu Fengyan was covered with a quilt, his black hair was scattered, and his snow-white neck was exposed through the collar, which was covered with red marks... just like a few plum blossoms blooming on the snow.
"What nonsense are you spouting in front of a child?" He glared at Huo Duan and kicked him in the side with his toe.
Ye Bao looked at Gu Fengyan and then at Huo Duan, still half asleep. "Brother, I'm hungry." He tugged at Huo Duan's sleeve, completely oblivious to what they were talking about.
Huo Duan grasped Gu Fengyan's ankle and rubbed it, then suddenly covered Ye Bao's eyes... He hooked the back of Gu Fengyan's head and bit his glistening lips.
"Ugh..." Gu Fengyan struggled and pushed Huo Duan, but the back of his head was held tightly and he couldn't push him away no matter what he did.
Ye Bao was bewildered, and tugged at Huo Duan with her little hands, "Brother... I feel unwell."
After a while, Huo Duan finally let go of Gu Fengyan, covered him with the blanket, and hugged Ye Bao in a good mood. "Brother is playing with you. Aren't you hungry? What does Xiao Bao want to eat?"
As soon as Ye Bao heard about food, she stopped thinking about anything else and her little head started working.
Gu Fengyan wiped his lips, his eyes glistening with tears as he glared at Huo Duan.
"Why is Ayan glaring at me?" Huo Duan looked completely innocent, but his smile was rather smug.
A rooster crowed loudly from someone's house on the other side of the river... If I don't get some sleep soon, it will be completely bright.
As his breathing gradually calmed down, Gu Fengyan simply ignored it, wrapped himself in the blanket, and cursed, "Bastard."
Huo Duan put Ye Bao down, covered Gu Fengyan with a blanket while blocking his view, and kissed the top of his head, "Sleep well, Ayan, I'll wake you when breakfast is ready."
Ye Bao jumped around, trying to see what his two older brothers were doing. Huo Duan scooped him up, carried him outside, and said, "Don't make a fuss, how about your brother steams you an egg?"
Ye Bao's eyes lit up, and without thinking, she said, "I want two..."
When Gu Fengyan woke up, it was almost dawn... There were birds chirping outside the window. He wrapped himself in the blanket and didn't move.
A moment later, the door was pushed open, and Huo Duan came to call him to get up and have breakfast.
Huo Duan coaxed the person awake, helped them get dressed and wash their face before leaving.
A cloud of milky white mist rose from the mountaintop; in the early autumn weather, the peach leaves were still covered in water droplets.
Huo Duan wasn't very good at cooking, so he picked some wild greens from behind the house and cooked two bowls of plain noodles... There were only four eggs left in the old house, so he steamed two for Ye Bao and gave one to his father.
The last of them all ended up in Gu Fengyan's bowl.
The egg was boiled to medium-rare, with a soft, runny yolk. Gu Fengyan sat down, poked it with the tip of his chopsticks, and the golden, flowing yolk oozed out, coating the dough and vegetables. After taking a bite, he finally had some appetite.
"Where are Ye Bao and Father?" Gu Fengyan asked, engrossed in his meal. He peeled half an egg and gave it to Huo Duan. "It's too greasy, here you go."
Huo Duan picked out a few green vegetables for him and ate half an egg. "It's busy farming season, so Brother Dashan and Brother Jing have gone back to their parents' homes. Only Aunt and Uncle are left in the fields. Father sent Ye Bao back and is taking care of the family."
Although Liu Jingyu's family home was just a short walk from the village entrance, the wedding ceremony had to be conducted with the same formalities, without any omissions. Otherwise, people would gossip behind her back, saying that the Ye family did not value this son-in-law.
Gu Fengyan nodded. "Aren't we going to help?"
"I'll go after I finish eating. If you stay home, someone will probably come asking for medicinal herb seeds again after this afternoon." Huo Duan ate a few bites of rice, then cleared away the dishes and watched him eat.
Gu Fengyan felt uneasy under the stare, and slowly picked at the noodles, saying, "Oh... don't look at me like that."
Huo Duan chuckled, "Not having an appetite?"
"I don't seem to have much energy." Gu Fengyan nodded, drank a few sips of soup, and put down the bowl without eating.
Apart from the greens and half an egg, the bowl was barely touched.
Huo Duan didn't force him to eat, and took the bowl away. "Don't cook this afternoon either. I brought some from your aunt's house."
It was just a lack of appetite, acting like she was being overly delicate. Gu Fengyan found it both funny and exasperating.
But he didn't refuse; he was indeed a bit lazy and didn't really want to cook for himself.
"I'll clean up the dishes. You go before the sun comes up." He got up, took the bowls, and went inside.
Huo Duan verbally agreed and followed closely to the kitchen, where he began adding water to the pot.
"What are you doing?" Gu Fengyan raised an eyebrow.
Huo Duan smiled and said, "The two of you can pack quickly. Just stand next to me and let me know so I can see you."
Feeling sleepy after eating, Gu Fengyan was too lazy to argue with him and simply stood by and watched Huo Duan finish washing the dishes.
"Why are you so sleepy?" Huo Duan noticed that he seemed a bit off and wondered if he was sick. He immediately became more serious. "Why don't you go see a doctor?"
Gu Fengyan thought he was making a mountain out of a molehill.
"I'll be fine after a nap at noon." He yawned. "You should hurry up, it's getting late."
Harvesting crops is best done when the sun is out, to avoid them getting scorched. During the busy farming season, you have to wait until the morning. If Huo Duan arrives late, he won't be of much help.
At this moment, the milky mist on the mountaintop dispersed, gradually revealing a touch of crimson dawn, a sign that the sun was about to rise above the mountains.
Huo Duan looked through the window... and it seemed he could go.
"Tell me if you're not feeling well. It's fine if you don't have to work today..." He hugged Gu Fengyan for a while and gave her his detailed instructions.
"He's not a child." Gu Fengyan complained, but her heart was filled with tenderness and warmth.
"I understand," he chuckled. "Mr. Huo, you're like an old lady's foot-binding cloth, always nagging..."
Huo Duan said seriously, "Ayan, you have to listen."
Gu Fengyan smiled and said, "I understand. Go quickly."
The sun was high in the sky, and it was going to get hot in just a few hours... Even though it was early autumn, the sun's intensity was still undiminished.
Gu Fengyan picked a handful of tender bamboo shoots from behind the house, brewed a large pot of water, and asked them to take it to Ye Bixian and Huo Xiuling.
Huo Duancai left with the water...
Since Gu Fengyan had nothing to do, he swept the yard and pulled some weeds from the vegetable garden in the backyard that he hadn't had time to harvest.
As the sun grew stronger, Gu Fengyan's face turned red from the heat. After drinking a few sips of the refreshing tea he had brewed that morning, he took out the dried medicinal herbs that had been piled up in the past few days and put them on the rack to dry.
He sat under the eaves for a while, then felt sleepy. Since the sun was so bright, he figured no one would come, so he went back inside and took a nap.
After sleeping until the afternoon, when the sun was a little weaker, Gu Fengyan sat under the peach tree again to wait for someone to come.
There are only so many people in the village. Apart from some who are hesitant and don't want to spend money, most of them have already taken the medicinal herb seeds.
Not many people came in the afternoon. Gu Fengyan carefully instructed them to sort the medicinal herb seeds by type and collected the corresponding money.
With few people coming, Gu Fengyan began packing his things inside the house.
When I returned, I was organizing the accounts when I heard someone come in.
He turned around and saw that it was Jiang Xuerui.
"Why are you here? Come, come sit down..." Without even unpacking, Gu Fengyan immediately stepped forward to help Jiang Xuerui sit down.
She was about five or six months pregnant and her pregnancy was already showing. Unlike a woman, a young man's pregnancy was not like that of a married woman. Jiang Xuerui's lower abdomen was only slightly protruding and not very noticeable. However, he was thin, and when his belly got bigger, it was easy to tell that he was pregnant.
Gu Fengyan found it quite amazing that the man was pregnant.
He took some dried plum water from the house, made a cup, and cooled it to the right temperature before giving it to Jiang Xuerui. "Why didn't you call Brother Shen if something happened? You should rest properly and not overwork yourself."
The ripe plum juice was sweet and sour, and Jiang Xuerui craved sour things after becoming pregnant, so this was just what she liked.
"Don't even mention resting. I've been at home for months and I'm practically rusting. It was only after much persuasion that you finally let me come and chat with you." Jiang Xuerui sipped her plum juice slowly.
The birth of the boy was very difficult, and Shen Zhuo put a lot of effort into it. After Jiang Xuerui became pregnant, he stopped asking him to run around.
Gu Fengyan couldn't help but look at his belly, "Giving birth to him wasn't easy either, so it's right for Second Brother Shen to be careful."
Jiang Xuerui loved the sweet and sour taste of plum juice and finished a cup in no time. Gu Fengyan continued, smiling a little embarrassedly, "Shen Zhuo and I went back to my parents' place and only got back this morning. I heard that since you were here, Shen Zhuo should be able to agree to me visiting, so I came."
No wonder I didn't see Shen Zhuo and Jiang Xuerui yesterday; they went back to their parents' home.
Gu Fengyan smiled and said, "Come on, Huo Duan and I have been in the village these past few days."
As Jiang Xuerui drank her water, she noticed the ledgers on the table that hadn't been put away yet.
“But you haven’t finished with the medicinal herbs yet,” he sighed. “Even with this little thing, it’s a pity I can’t help much.”
Gu Fengyan smiled and said, "Don't mention it... We don't need to worry about the medicinal herbs as my elder brother is taking care of them. It's just that Huo Duan and I are looking for people to grow the herbs in the village these days, so we'll have to stay for a few days."
"Growing medicinal herbs?" Jiang Xuerui and Shen Zhuo had just returned to her parents' home, and the news hadn't reached them yet, so they were somewhat surprised.
Gu Fengyan only then remembered this.
However, the Shen family had several acres of land that were lying fallow.
A note from the author:
Thank you, little Lulalalu, for the nutrient solution! (smacks)
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Jiang Xuerui is pregnant, and Shen Zhuo has to go out to work. In addition to taking care of Jiang Xuerui, it is feared that those few acres of land will remain abandoned.
It's a bit wasteful. Gu Fengyan thought for a moment, then explained the whole story to Jiang Xuerui, concluding, "You're pregnant, and with Brother Shen having to take care of you and work in the county, the fields will probably be left uncultivated, which is a real shame..."
Hearing him say that, Jiang Xuerui put down her cup and nodded repeatedly.
"Huo Duan and I have only leased a few acres of land on the back mountain, and we still have more than half of the medicinal herb seeds left to plant. I think..." Gu Fengyan said, "Why don't you lease your land to us to grow medicinal herbs, and then you can take over after the baby is born?"
The land is just lying fallow anyway, but renting it out could earn some money, which would help supplement the family income... and the birth of a child would also require a considerable amount of money.
Jiang Xuerui was naturally delighted and hurriedly agreed with a smile, "Shen Zhuo doesn't manage things at home. Since you're so willing, we'll lease this land to you... You can pay the price, Shen Zhuo and I are at ease."
With his words, Gu Fengyan naturally couldn't possibly trick him, so he gave Jiang Xuerui a price, which she readily agreed to.
The Shen family's few acres of land were all in the ditch, next to the Huo family's few acres, and also the Ye Bixian family's ancestral property.
Today, Huo Duan was helping to harvest the crops in the ditch.
Earlier, in February or March, Father Huo asked Huo Duan to plant some corn and wheat, which will be ready for harvest by now... After the wheat and corn are harvested, the medicinal herbs can be planted.
Jiang Xuerui chatted with Gu Fengyan for a while longer. Seeing that it was getting late, he turned to leave. Gu Fengyan noticed that he liked the plum juice, so he packed a jar for him to take with him and told him to come back after he finished it, as a small gift for the child.
Jiang Xuerui was pregnant, and Gu Fengyan really didn't dare to let him go back alone, so he brought a jar of cooled plum water from the well to see him off.