Chapter 23: Chance Encounter with Yao Nian

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Wang Tian, who had been in the village for the longest time, was the current dormitory head of the youth dormitory. When he saw Yu Yan when he went out, he reminded her, “Yu Yan, it’s your turn to cook tomorrow. Remember to collect rice with everyone in advance at night.”

The younth dormitory operated on rotation. Everyone was on rotation, which meant that on the day of rotation, other than doing farm work, they were also responsible for cooking three meals a day. The rice was also collected by the people on duty the next night.

Yu Yan didn’t want to cook, so she held Xu Ling’s hand and said intimately, “Xu Ling, my cooking isn’t good. Can you help me cook? Of course, I won’t let you work for nothing. The rice you eat tomorrow will come from me.” As she spoke, she took out the fruit candies she had bought from the supply company this morning and stuffed a few into Xu Ling’s hand.

Xu Ling smiled and said with the candies in her hand, “No problem. We hit it off so well. It’s only right that I take care of your when you’re younger than me.”

Of course, Yu Yan knew that this was just superficial talk. If she didn’t contribute a day’s worth of rice, even if she was Xu Ling’s biological sister, she might not be able to get her to work for her. In the past half a month, she had used the candies and pastries that she had brought from home to get on the good side of the people in the youth dormitory. Everyone fawned over her. Yu Yan enjoyed this feeling very much.

To Yu Yan, it was very worth it to spend some money in exchange for ease. In any case, her parents were afraid that she would suffer, so they would send money and stamps every month.

Just as Yu Bing was about to leave impatiently, Xiao Sheng returned.

After knowing Yu Bing’s intentions, Xiao Sheng sold it to Yu Bing at the price he sold it to the supply company. A basket that could hold more than twenty apples cost 0.22 yuan each, a wooden basin cost 1 yuan, and a wooden bucket cost 1.5 yuan each.

Yu Bing was very satisfied. The supply company was in the county city, and she had to carry so many heavy things back. The price would definitely be more expensive as well. After all, the supply company had to earn money.

After Yu Bing and Jiang Chun returned home and had just settled their things, Xiao Lin sent a large basket of vegetables over. He said that he was celebrating their move-in. This happened to provide them enough vegetables for the next few days.

The new batch of youths who were building the village settled down in the He Mountain Brigade.

After harvesting, the difficulty of farming wasn’t as high. Yu Bing began to run again every night to exercise. However, she didn’t run far and just ran in circles at the end of the village.

During the harvesting period, people in the countryside worked for six days and rested for one day. After enduring for a week, Yu Bing and Jiang Chun went to the county city to buy some supplies on this week’s day off.

Yu Bing bought many condiments at the supply company. She bought 2 pounds of white sugar, 2 empty glass bottles, 1 jar of pickled vegetables, and 500 grams of fruit candy. She spent 3.5 yuan, which was quite a lot to Yu Bingxin.

Jiang Chun didn’t buy anything. She only spent 4 taels of meat stamps and 0.35 yuan to buy a pound of pork bones to make soup.

When the two of them turned around and were about to leave, they saw Yao Nian queuing up behind them to buy meat. Actually, Yao Nian had already discovered Yu Bing.

When Yao Nian saw Yu Bing looking at him, he raised his head slightly and waited proudly for Yu Bing to greet him.

Back then, when the two of them were still in their mother’s womb, their parents had verbally arranged a betrothal. However, the Yao family later discovered that Yu Bing wasn’t in good health, so they treated the betrothal as a joke. For the sake of their reputation, the Yu family didn’t insist on clinging to the Yao family, so the two families treated it as nothing. However, from then on, the relationship between the two families was only superficial.

In Yao Nian’s opinion, how could a sickly person like Yu Bing marry into a good family? He was certain that Yu Bing would definitely come forward to talk to him when she saw him.

However, Yao Nian also made up his mind that he couldn’t talk to Yu Bing when she came up later. Otherwise, it would be bad if the surrounding people misunderstood.

However, if Yu Bing planned to give him the food in her hands, he could say a word or two to her and treat it as him being kind enough to relieve her yearning for him.

However, Yao Nian thought about how Yu Bing was indeed quite good-looking and was a little tempted. In the end, he hesitated and decided that he couldn’t marry a scrawny and sickly person to drag him down. After all, he was so outstanding. Only a beautiful wife with a good family background was worthy of him.

In fact, Yu Bing didn’t even look at Yao Nian. She walked out of the supply company with Jiang Chun. Yao Nian waited for a minute but no one called him. Only then did he realize that Yu Bing had long disappeared.