After the couple left, Lu Wanzhou looked around the empty house and sighed. Yu Mian glanced at him, his eyes darting about. Limping on one leg, he wiped down a chair with a timid, almost fawning expression. “Brother, sit, sit,” he said quietly.
Looking at the little fellow, Lu Wanzhou felt a pang in his heart. As if being all alone wasn't enough, he now had a little dependent to look after. What kind of fate was this?
Yet looking at the little fool's expression, he didn't seem quite so foolish now. Lu Wanzhou felt a flicker of irritation and deliberately spoke fiercely. “Your father and mother don't want you anymore.”
Yu Mian blinked. Then his lips curved upward, and he gave Lu Wanzhou a silly grin.
“Hee, hee, hee! They don't want me. Brother wants me. Brother wants Mianmian!”
“You really are a little fool.”
“Hungry. Brother, I'm hungry.” Yu Mian blinked pitifully, both hands clutching his little stomach.
Lu Wanzhou was hungry, too. He carried the things his second uncle had bought into the kitchen and decided to make something to eat first.
But after struggling for ages, he hadn't even managed to light the fire. The little fool stood beside him, watching expectantly. Finally, Lu Wanzhou gave up. “Do you know how to light a stove?” he asked quietly.
Yu Mian nodded, a smile tugging at his lips. “Yes!”
“Then why did you just stand there and watch me struggle instead of helping?”
Yu Mian blinked innocently. Lu Wanzhou rubbed his forehead. He wasn't going to argue with a little fool.
He handed Yu Mian the fire-lighting stick, and the boy soon had a flame going. Lu Wanzhou looked at the rice, flour, and oil, then settled on the simplest thing he could make: little flour dumplings in soup.
He made a large bowl for each of them. The dumplings were white and soft and somewhat sticky, with a few wild scallions scattered over the top.
“Delicious!”
Lu Wanzhou sighed. Seeing the little fool so happy over a mere bowl of flour dumplings that he swung his legs, he didn't know what to say.
In truth, the dumplings hardly had any flavor, just a little saltiness and the taste of wild scallions. Lu Wanzhou couldn't honestly call them delicious. But he really was hungry, and like the little fool beside him, he slurped down the entire bowl.
After the meal, the little fool obediently washed the dishes while Lu Wanzhou cleaned the kitchen. No one had used the Lu family's kitchen for a very long time. They'd cooked in it earlier only because they were starving. If they meant to live here, everything would have to be cleaned properly.
The little fool might not be bright, but he worked efficiently. Once the two boys finished tidying the kitchen, they moved on to the bedrooms. The Lu house had a main hall and two inner rooms. Lu Wanzhou cleaned the room he intended to sleep in first. As for the room his parents had once occupied, he simply didn't have the strength left to deal with it.
By the time he made the bed and put away his books and clothes, he looked up to find that night had already fallen. Turning around, he saw the little fool crouched on the ground, earnestly wiping the door to the main hall.
“Little fool.”
“I'm Mianmian!” Yu Mian frowned and glared at him. Then, for some reason, he pouted again and said nothing more.
Lu Wanzhou couldn't help laughing at his puffed-up expression. This little fellow had quite a temper, but his anger lasted only a moment. He would cheer up again without even needing to be coaxed.
“Are you hungry?”
“Mm!”
After hesitating a moment, Lu Wanzhou said, “Could you go outside and pick some wild greens? I'll stay here and cook some vegetable porridge, all right?”
“All right!”
“Light the stove first.”
“Mm.” Yu Mian obediently went to the kitchen. Lu Wanzhou might not know how to light a fire, but he was a decent cook. The wild greens Yu Mian brought back were tender, and after cooking them, Lu Wanzhou added just a little pork fat. The porridge was thick and had a pleasant, earthy flavor, much better than any meal he'd eaten at the Yu house.
He finished a full bowl, and Yu Mian did the same. By the time they finished eating, it was dark. The two little ones lit a pine-resin lamp, washed their faces and feet, and climbed into bed.
Early the next morning, Lu Wanzhou took the little fool to the village head's house and said he wanted to rent out his family's fields to other villagers. After all, he and Yu Mian were still children. There was no way they could farm the land themselves.
The Lu family had originally owned about one acre of irrigated fields and three plots of dry land. Lu Wanzhou had recovered about half an acre of paddy fields and one plot of dry land. He figured he could grow vegetables on the dry plot, but the paddy fields were another matter…
The village head didn't object when he heard that Lu Wanzhou wanted to rent the land out. He only asked, “How do you want to arrange the rent?”
Worried the boy wouldn't know the customary arrangements, the village head explained, “Some people in our village rent other people's land. Some pay money, while others give a share of the harvest—twenty percent.”
Lu Wanzhou thought it over. He needed money urgently, and who knew what his situation would be by autumn? He smiled. “Uncle Village Head, I'd like money.”
The village head nodded. “Your family’s fields have had fairly good harvests these past few years. Last year, each one-sixth of an acre should have yielded about three hundred catties. If you want cash rent, you can get two hundred and forty copper coins for each one-sixth of an acre. So for half an acre, that’s…”
“Seven hundred and twenty copper coins,” Lu Wanzhou supplied.
“Right.”
“If you agree, I'll find someone to rent them.”
“Mm.” Lu Wanzhou nodded. “All right. Thank you, Uncle Village Head.”
Hearing this, the village head's wife said softly, “In that case, why not let my younger brother farm them? He's strong and an excellent farmer. I'm sure he can manage all three mu.”
“Well…” The village head was an extremely fair man. Lu Wanzhou had come to him for help, and if he arranged for his own brother-in-law to take the fields, people might think he'd only done it to benefit his relatives.
Seeing the village head fall silent, Lu Wanzhou understood his concerns. He smiled. “Uncle Village Head, please don't worry about that. It doesn't matter who rents them. I just need payment in cash.”
The village head looked at his wife again and nodded. “Then go and fetch Shitou. We'll see whether he's willing to farm them.”
“All right.” Madam Fang went off cheerfully to find her younger brother. Everyone in the village depended on farming to survive, and any family with land cultivated it themselves. Now that a parcel had finally become available to rent, of course she wanted to think of her own relatives first.
Fang Shitou was delighted when he heard the news. He happily brought the copper coins to the village head's house. Lu Wanzhou smiled. “Uncle Village Head and Auntie have helped me so much already. I'll waive twenty copper coins.”
“How could that be right?” The village head waved a hand. “An agreement is an agreement.”
Lu Wanzhou smiled. “Without your help, I might have been cheated if I'd tried finding a tenant myself. Please don't stand on ceremony with me.”
Seeing how generous Lu Wanzhou was, Fang Shitou laughed. “If young Lu insists, then when harvest time comes, I'll carry a basket of grain over to you.”
“That sounds wonderful.”
The village head saw that they'd reached an agreement and stopped insisting. Madam Fang felt a little embarrassed, too. The child was far too courteous.
But they weren't the sort to come up short when someone treated them well. When the two boys left, their basket held some salted vegetables, ten eggs, a slab of cured pork, and two chicks. The chicks had only just hatched. Still covered in fine down, they looked like little wild birds.
Yu Mian cradled them carefully in his palms, taking every step with great caution.
Back home, Yu Mian set the chicks down in the courtyard. His eyes shone and his voice lifted slightly. “Brother, baby chickens!”
“Mm. Do you want to raise them?”
“Raise them! Fatten them up and eat the meat!”
Lu Wanzhou rubbed Yu Mian's head and laughed softly. “Then you'd better raise them well.”
“Mm!”
Lu Wanzhou put the cured pork and eggs he'd just brought home into the kitchen, then counted his money. His second uncle had given him five hundred copper coins. He'd spent twenty on medicine for the little fool, and now he had another seven hundred. Altogether, that came to one thousand one hundred and eighty copper coins.
Lu Wanzhou took out two hundred and eighty copper coins, then hid the remaining eight hundred away.
Lu Wanzhou sighed. They had so little food at home that there was no way it would last. He still needed to go to town and buy some supplies to stock up.
========== Author's Note: ==========
A gentle reminder:
The characters take a long time to grow up in this story.
The setting is historical, and adulthood begins at sixteen.
Thank you for finding this story. Love every—
