The Beautiful Brother of the Orion’s Family (Wearing Book)- 27

 

| TBBOTOF | 27

The bowl of noodles conquered the taste buds of the whole family. Tang Erhu had three big bowls in a row, and he was sweating all over.

"So comfortable~" he exclaimed, setting down his bowl and letting out a satisfied belch.

Liu Xiangxiang still hadn't come out of the main room, so Tang Li brought the noodles to her.

After finishing his meal and wiping his mouth, Tang Erhu glanced into the room and saw Liu Xiangxiang sitting cross-legged on the heated brick bed, holding a bowl and slurping noodles. He snorted.

Liu Xiangxiang trembled slightly and looked up at him.

Tang Erhu sat down on a chair, arms crossed, and asked, "How long do you plan to stay on the brick bed?"

Liu Xiangxiang pursed her lips, cautiously glancing at his expression.

Yesterday, Tang Erhu suddenly asked her about those things, and to be honest, Liu Xiangxiang was a little frightened. She couldn't let Tang Erhu know her secret, and even more so, she couldn't let Tang Xu find out!

So, she decided to endure it.

"I, I'll go to the fields with you this afternoon," she muttered softly.

Tang Erhu huffed and exhaled, "Let's forget about this time. If I catch you beating and scolding Xu Ge'er again, I'll beat you!"

Liu Xiangxiang responded with an "oh" and, after finishing her noodles, got off the brick bed and returned the bowl to the kitchen herself.

In the kitchen, Tang Xu was putting the cooled shredded meat into jars. The jars were small, and two bowls of shredded meat couldn't fit in at all.

"Ah Li, later take some money and go to the potter's to buy two new jars," Tang Xu said.

Heshan Village was a large village with two potters, both named Tang, although they were distant relatives, as if they had already passed the fifth degree of kinship.

Tang Xu couldn't help but think about it. The Tang family ancestors were really prolific. In the previous village of over a hundred households, at least half of them were surnamed Tang.

Tang Li nodded in agreement, "What size of jars should I buy?"

Tang Xu gestured with his hand, "Like this, not too big. Just pick out some good ones."

"Okay," Tang Li replied.

When Liu Xiangxiang came over and heard Tang Xu was going to take money, she was about to curse, but she met Tang Xu's ambiguous gaze, and the words stuck in her throat.

She dropped the bowl into the basin, didn't say a word, and went back to her room with a cold face.

Tang Li and Tang Yang looked at her leaving, puzzled. They didn't understand what was wrong with their mother, why she didn't say a word.

"How much does a jar cost?" Tang Xu now had forty-five copper coins in hand. He thought a small jar shouldn't be too expensive, as they were made by themselves, and the yellow clay could be dug up from the hill without much trouble.

Tang Li shook her head, "Our family's jars were bought by Mom, I don't know how much they cost."

Tang Xu thought for a moment and handed her forty copper coins. "Negotiate the price with him."

Tang Li was puzzled. Negotiate what price?

Tang Xu explained, "Just ask if they can be cheaper since we're buying two. Don't be shy."

Tang Li understood, "Okay, I'll go later."

In the afternoon, Tang Xu washed his clothes first and then used hemp rope to reweave a scoop net for Tang Yang.

Liu Xiangxiang said she would go to work in the fields, but her face was swollen from being beaten by Tang Erhuo, and it hadn't completely subsided yet. She didn't want to go out with her face all red, so she said she wouldn't go until it was better.

Tang Erhu didn't care. When he felt better, he picked up the hoe and went out.

When Tang Li came back with the two jars, she happened to meet Tang Erhu leaving the house. She greeted him and entered the courtyard.

"Mom..." she called out.

Liu Xiangxiang, who had been pacing in front of Tang Xu's room, heard her call and turned to see the two jars. She hurriedly asked, "How much did you stupid girl spend on these?"

"Thirty wen. Brother said we should negotiate the price, not just accept whatever he says," Tang Li hesitated a bit, then looked up and asked, "Mom, did I buy them too expensively?"

Liu Xiangxiang hesitated for a moment. No, it wasn't expensive. It was even cheaper. She had bought two for thirty-five wen before!

"The remaining money, give it to me!" She reached out her hand for the money.

Tang Li was stunned for a moment, then took out ten copper coins from her pocket, but she didn't hand them over.

"What's the matter with the money Brother gave you? His money is my money, give it here!" Liu Xiangxiang interrupted her, snatching the copper coins from her hand. "I'm your mother! How dare you disobey me!"

Liu Xiangxiang was furious. Ever since Tang Xu recovered from his illness, the two children who used to be close to her inexplicably stopped coming to her. Tang Li didn't count, but that little rascal Tang Yang, hearing his mother being beaten last night, didn't even come into the house to help! If he had cried to his father last night, she wouldn't have been beaten so badly!

The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. She stuffed the copper coins into her sleeve pocket and then saw her youngest son running out of Tang Xu's room with a scoop net in his hand, his face full of smiles.

"Tang Yang!" Liu Xiangxiang scolded angrily.

Tang Yang was startled, stopped in his tracks, and looked at her. "Mom, why are you calling me??"

"Where are you going! All you do is run outside every day. Can't you help with something?" Liu Xiangxiang put her hands on her hips, looking fierce.

Tang Yang scuffed his shoes on the ground and grumbled, "There's nothing for me to do, and besides, I've already helped Brother. He rewarded me." He waved the new scoop net in his hand. "Brother told me to catch more small fish and shrimp. He wants to dry them."

Liu Xiangxiang ground her teeth in frustration, but before she could say anything else, Tang Yang had already run off.

Tang Li quickly took the jars to wash them, feeling very embarrassed as she went to apologize to Tang Xu, saying that her mother had taken the remaining ten wen.

"I heard that," Tang Xu smiled at her, without blaming her.

Tang Li sat down next to Tang Xu, watching him quickly weave fine linen with two thin wooden sticks and hemp thread. In no time, he had woven a piece of cloth.

"It's not exactly cloth," she remarked. "This fabric has larger pores and is thicker than the cloth we buy."

Tang Xu nodded. Seeing her serious expression, he asked, "Do you want to learn?"

"Yes, I do. Please teach me, Brother. I've never seen anyone weave like this before," Tang Li replied eagerly. Young girls always enjoy handicrafts.

Tang Xu thought to himself that knitting sweaters or the like wouldn't be mentioned in this book; it's not a period drama!

"I'll teach you. It's easy to learn as long as you don't make mistakes in the winding," he said as he found two branches for Tang Li, peeled off the bark, sharpened the ends, hung the thread, made a start, and wound the thread. "Got it?"

As Tang Li followed his movements and repeated, "Over one, under one, over one, under one..."

Seeing her quick progress, Tang Xu smiled satisfactorily. "First weave a piece directly, then weave another piece separately, and sew them together."

But Tang Li got distracted and made a mistake in her weaving.

Setting aside his work, Tang Xu stood up and stretched in the yard, loosening his shoulders.

Glancing up at the sky, he said, "Ah Li, I'm going into the mountains for a bit. I've made the dough; steam the steamed buns later."

"Okay, Brother. Shall I stir-fry the vegetables when you come back?" Tang Li asked.

"Yeah, I'll go dig up some bamboo shoots," Tang Xu replied, taking a small hoe and a basket on his back as he stepped out of the door.

The last time he went into Yuanbao Mountain, he discovered a bamboo forest. The bamboo in the forest wasn't thick, but it grew quite densely. Recently, he had seen women from the village going into the mountains to dig bamboo shoots.

He wanted to try digging some himself, as it was said to be a good stress reliever.

Although he had never done it before, he was eager to try.

However, after struggling for half a day and getting tired, he only managed to dig up two shoots that weren't even as long as his palm.

Feeling defeated, Tang Xu sat on a dirt slope, wiping the sweat from his brow.

Suddenly, there was a rustling sound behind him.

Tang Xu turned around and his eyes widened in surprise. "Ah! It's you!"

Wei Dong hadn't expected to see Tang Xu here either. He nodded in response to Tang Xu's greeting. "Hmm."

Hmm?

Tang Xu was instantly puzzled by his response.

How should he continue the conversation?

Tang Xu, who considered himself quite good at talking, watched Wei Dong chop down a bamboo with a single swing of his machete, feeling somewhat curious.

With a few swift chops, three bamboos fell.

Wei Dong bound the bamboos together with branches and lifted them up. "Let's go."

Tang Xu: ...Does 'let's go' mean I should go with him?

Wei Dong turned and headed down the mountain. Tang Xu thought for a moment and then got up to follow.

After a few steps, Wei Dong heard the sound behind him and turned around, noticing Tang Xu following him with some confusion in his eyes.

But he didn't ask anything and continued walking down the mountain.

"Um, what's your name?" Tang Xu hurried to catch up and walked alongside him. "I'm Tang Xu. Want to be friends?"

Wei Dong stopped and looked down at him. "Wei Dong. Be friends?"

"Yeah, yeah! Since we've met like this, why not be friends?" Tang Xu smiled, feeling quite cheerful. He silently repeated Wei Dong's name a couple of times in his mind. Then he adjusted the basket on his shoulder and asked, "I'm going up the mountain to dig bamboo shoots. What are you cutting bamboo for?"

"Making baskets," Wei Dong replied briefly. After a moment, he nodded in a direction. "There are bamboo shoots over there."

Tang Xu's eyes lit up, and he headed in the direction Wei Dong pointed. "Then I'll go dig bamboo shoots. See you next time."

Wei Dong stayed behind, his gaze following Tang Xu as he discovered the bamboo shoots and then squatted down. With one swing of his hoe, the bamboo shoot was severed.

Tang Xu dug around and managed to find four palm-sized bamboo shoots.

Wei Dong: "..." Is this how you dig bamboo shoots?

Tang Xu rubbed his nose and turned to look at Wei Dong standing there, feeling somewhat embarrassed. He asked him awkwardly, "Did I do it wrong?"

Wei Dong cleared his throat and suppressed a laugh. "Yeah, you did. You should first dig the soil away. These bamboo shoots are buried deep underground."

Tang Xu scratched his head. "But I was digging downward... I just didn't aim properly."

Oh no, how embarrassing.

Wei Dong sighed as Tang Xu stared at him, then he put down the bamboo he was holding and walked over to Tang Xu. "Give it to me."

Tang Xu handed him the small hoe he was holding.

The hoe was indeed small, and Wei Dong held it as if it were a toy.

"The wooden handle broke?" The hoe was not small, but the handle was short.

Tang Xu nodded. "Yeah, my dad has another hoe with a wooden handle, so I didn't rush to replace it."

Wei Dong said, "A short handle makes it inconvenient to exert force." He went to chop down a bamboo tree nearby, quickly replaced the short handle with a new one, and waved it around to test it. Then, he scraped a few times at the ground around the bamboo shoot, revealing the part buried in the soil.

"This long? And quite thick!" Tang Xu reached out to scrape away the soil, grasped the bamboo shoot with both hands, gave it a slight shake, and it snapped easily.

He looked up at Wei Dong, their eyes meeting.

"...Is it supposed to be this... brittle?" Tang Xu asked.

Wei Dong: "..." 

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