Chapter 19 - 019 White-faced Meat Bun
Li Jianqing's stomach growled at the sight of the buns, his excitement palpable. He felt a bit embarrassed to take one, but it was a white flour bun and, biting into it, he found it was filled with pure meat. Oil was dripping from it, so he quickly licked around his lips with his tongue, afraid to let a drop spill. Li Xianglu didn't mind at all, smiling instead. These days, people were short of oils and fats, and everyone was this careful with food.
Li Jianqing asked his sister if she had eaten, then found out she had gobbled down four buns non-stop before halting. He looked at the remaining three and wanted to eat more but thought of their Daddy waiting in the cold wind and resisted, shaking his head, "Little sister, pack them up. We'll bring them to Daddy later."
Li Xianglu nodded, "Okay, let's hurry. After buying notebooks and pencils, we'll rush back before the buns cool down."
Upon leaving Xinhua Bookstore, Li Jianqing said with a somewhat flushed face to Li Xianglu, "Little sister, how can you be so bold?"
Li Xianglu asked in confusion, "Are you talking about buying things just now?"
Li Jianqing nodded. He had been too nervous to speak when he went in because the staff looked down on them and tried to shoo them away. But his sister had directly asked for a diary and pencils, which made the staff fetch the items quickly.
Li Xianglu was taken aback for a moment and said, "Brother, in the future, you have to join the army and defend the country, how can you be so timid? We're not stealing or robbing. What's there to be afraid of saying? We all just do different work. Without us farmers planting crops, what would these people eat?"
Although Li Jianqing agreed with her, he was still intimidated by city folks. But then he thought, if his slender little sister could be so brave, he should never be that cowardly in the future.
The siblings were the first to arrive. Li Erfu was sitting behind a wind-shielded wall basking in the sun, his face flushed red. Seeing his children return, he waved at them, all smiles.