RYEY – Chapter 49 The Little Fairy Almost Gave Herself Away

When Zhang Yuefang saw Cheng Qiao nod, she was overjoyed. She pulled Han Chunmei back into the line with her, and the two of them were already discussing what gifts they should prepare for Cheng Qiao—after all, she was about to get married.

Chen Weidang smiled in relief. The young men who had just helped Li Huan build his house were able to go straight into the work of repairing the riverbank, not delaying their chance to earn work points at all.

Chen Weimin, on the other hand, was torn. He also wanted to help that rascal build his house. At fifty cents a day, four days of work meant two yuan—enough for him to buy a few packs of cigarettes.

But he couldn’t swallow his pride. It was all his daughter’s fault—why did she have to pick a fight with the educated youth Cheng Qiao? Then again, if it hadn’t been for his daughter, would that rascal ever have had the chance to marry Cheng Qiao in the first place?

“Hurry up and divide the wages, the villagers are waiting.”

Chen Weidang glanced at his dazed younger brother and shook his head. His brother had always been this way since childhood—calculating too much about personal gain and loss, ending up with less instead of more.

“Village head, when it’s time to raise the ridge beam, please come and help. You’re the pillar of our village—there’s no way we can do it without you.”

Li Huan walked up to Chen Weidang, gave him a thumbs-up, and sincerely invited him to raise the beam for his new house.

Chen Weidang nodded with a smile. Raising the ridge beam was an important event, and as village head he naturally had to take part. His impression of Li Huan improved a little too—this fellow knew how to show respect.

“Li Huan, I still have to thank you for what you did on grain delivery day. I saw everything you did—it saved us a lot of trouble.”

Of course the village head knew what Li Huan had done. In other villages, the inspections were extremely strict—a single pebble in the corn was unacceptable. But when their sacks were opened, the inspectors only gave a brief glance before accepting the grain.

Li Huan nodded. It had only cost him twenty-eight cents, but if he could help the village out a little, he was glad to—he was a member of Xiangyang Village too.

Early in the morning, Skinny Monkey had been waiting outside Li Huan’s house. When he saw Li Huan carrying two full baskets of grain, and Mother Li and Li Le each with food in their hands as well, he quickly went to help.

“Skinny Monkey, you’re here, come on in.”

The Li family’s door was always open. Their home was so poor there was nothing worth stealing anyway. Still, Skinny Monkey hadn’t stepped inside on his own; he had waited at the door.

“Auntie, I came to help. I’ll sleep here tonight too.”

“Alright, but you’ll have to sleep in the main hall. Li Huan is sleeping there too for now—once the new house is built, it’ll be fine.”

“Auntie, I understand. Look, I even brought my bedding.”

Skinny Monkey grinned and pointed to the roll of bedding at his feet. He picked it up as he followed them in, pulling out two fruit candies from his pocket and handing them to Li Le.

“Thank you, Brother Skinny Monkey.”

Li Le had been living quite comfortably these days—not only eating and sleeping well every day, but her pockets were often filled with sweets and snacks. Of course, they were all from Cheng Qiao.

“Lele, come with me to the kitchen to cook.”

Just as Li Le thought of Cheng Qiao, she appeared at the doorway, carrying a huge basket on her back. The basket was nearly half as tall as she was, making Li Huan twitch at the corner of his mouth.

“Wife, let me do it—you’ll wear yourself out.”

Li Huan quickly set down his pole and rushed to take the basket, but Cheng Qiao refused. The basket was completely empty; if not for the cloth covering it, she would have been embarrassed to carry it out at all.

“Don’t touch it, I’ll go to the kitchen first.”

“I’ll go with you.”

Seeing how effortlessly Cheng Qiao shifted backwards, Li Huan realized the basket must be empty. The corners of his mouth lifted. How could he forget? His wife was a little fairy descended from heaven.

He hurried after her, determined to guard her secret with his life. His sudden behavior stunned Skinny Monkey, Mother Li, and Li Le alike.

The three of them exchanged looks—had their comrade Li Huan been swapped out for someone else? How could he turn into such a lovesick puppy at the sight of Cheng Qiao?

Cheng Qiao quickly set the basket down in the kitchen and slipped her hand inside. Before long, she pulled off the cloth cover, revealing a basket full of food.

Even though Li Huan had been mentally prepared, his heart nearly leapt out of his chest when he saw it. He had thought Cheng Qiao would only bring out enough to feed their family, but there was so much more. His hand trembled as he reached toward the basket.

“This is fifty kilos of white flour, fifty kilos of rice, fifty kilos of cornmeal, fifty kilos of millet. Here’s ten catties of pork—the fatty parts can be rendered into lard. And here’s sugar, oil, salt, cigarettes, and baijiu. Take a look for yourself.”

Li Huan quickly glanced outside. Seeing that Skinny Monkey and the others hadn’t reacted yet, he urged Cheng Qiao to put most of it away again. How could her small frame possibly carry hundreds of pounds of food?

Cheng Qiao’s cheeks flushed red. She really had been too hasty. With a wave of her hand, she left out only ten kilos of cornmeal, ten catties of rice, and ten catties of flour—the rest she put back.

Only then did Li Huan nod, though his eyes grew misty. If not for the strict crackdown on “feudal superstitions,” he would have knelt to the mountains right there and thanked the heavens for sending him a fairy for a wife.

“Waaah…”

A sudden shriek startled Li Huan so much that he almost knocked over the cornmeal. He turned his head and saw Li Le—she had caught sight of the treasures in the basket and couldn’t hold back her excitement.

Mother Li and Skinny Monkey both rushed in. When they saw the basket’s contents, they looked at Cheng Qiao with complicated expressions. They had clearly seen her carry the basket in—so this little girl was actually that strong?

“Cheng Qiao, this must weigh at least fifty or sixty jin. Your head injury hasn’t even healed yet—how could you carry so much? And when did you even buy all this?”

This…

Cheng Qiao didn’t know how to answer, but Li Huan stepped forward and told his mother that he had bought everything yesterday, just left it at the educated youth dormitory and hadn’t brought it back until now.

Skinny Monkey scratched his head in puzzlement. Had Brother Huan secretly gone to the black market? Why hadn’t he called him along? Ah, Brother Huan must have been worried for his safety. What a good brother!

Soon, white smoke curled from the Li family chimney. The men who had volunteered to help build Li Huan’s house quickly finished their meals and hurried over.

Uncle Niu also arrived, driving an ox cart piled high with logs. Normally, he didn’t work the fields—herding cattle earned him work points too, though those points could only be exchanged for coarse grains.

But he was getting older, and his teeth weren’t good anymore. Eating coarse food was difficult; he needed finer grains. But finer grains had to be bought with money.

“Uncle Niu, how do you want to trade these logs? What do you want in exchange?”

Cheng Qiao immediately ran over—so long as it was something her space contained, she could provide it.

“Girl, I won’t ask too much. Just give me eighty jin of cornmeal.”

“No way.”