Chapter 9 - 009 Sister
Over at Ge Sanmei's side, the family had started to distribute food. The men at home were all eating thick corn mush, and as a son-in-law, Yuan Cheng also got the thick stuff when he came to work. There was no need to mention the eldest daughter, who was pregnant and naturally needed to be fed well.
Ge Sanmei and Li Xianglu had to make do with thin soup; the steamed bread made from two-mixed flour was placed on a winnowing basket, where the men got their fill, and Li Xianglu could at most have one piece.
The whole family sat down at the table, but Li Jianwen hadn't returned yet, so Ge Sanmei saved some food for him.
Just after the food was served, they saw Li Jianqing come back with a happy face. He was about to speak to Li Xianglu when he noticed that everyone was at home.
He hurriedly washed his hands and sat down. Upon seeing his younger son's return, Li Erfu frowned and chided: "You loiter outside all day long, as a young man you should help around the house more."
Li Jianqing was about to respond when Ge Sanmei suddenly slammed her chopsticks down on the table and said, "Enough! What are you talking about? Jianqing is still partly a child. There's no work in the fields now, so what do you expect him to do?"
Li Erfu glanced at his wife, took a big gulp of corn mush, and slowly said, "You always spoil the children, he's fifteen already, and in a few years, he'll be an adult."
Ge Sanmei glanced at her son, robust and well-proportioned, and couldn't help but smile proudly, thinking her son was wonderful in every way.
Li Erfu looked at his thin, small daughter sipping porridge without taking any vegetables and reached over to grab a piece of pig fat stir-fried with Old Huang cucumbers for her, "Eat more, look how thin you are. In a few days when we slaughter a pig at home, I'll have your mom exchange some cloth tickets to make you a cotton-padded coat, it's hard to get through winter without one."