Chapter 2: Money

 The little girl next door wasn't home, so Wei Yuanhang ran back home quickly. 

Wei Jianwei was eating noodles with his back turned away from the door, Wei Yuanhang leaned against the door to watch him. He is a little curious about his 'father'. The last time his father left, he was only two years old. A year has passed and the memory of being together was long gone. 

After watching for a while, he moved slowly and walked across the table. He was just a little higher than the table, so he put his chin on the table surface and watched his father with his head tilted. 

Wei Jianwei had his chopsticks in his hands and glanced at the chubby boy opposite of his. Wei Yuanhang looked back with his mouth full of orange candy and bulging cheeks. His big black eyes made Wei Jianweni uncomfortable. 

"Xiaohang[1], come here." He Xiaoyun just returned from changing her shoes that got wet. As soon as she came back, she found a certain chubby boy staring at someone eating, so she called him.

"Oh!" Wei Yuanhang ran out of the house, squatting by the drain in the yard and watching He Xiaoyun brushing her dirty shoes. "Mom, what do you want me to do?"

He Xiaoyun glanced at him and deliberately said, "I can't call you if I have nothing to do? Can't you just keep me company?"

Wei Yunhuang wrinkled his little brows and thought for a while, before nodding his head earnestly, "Okay."

He Xiaoyun was amused, thinking of the scene earlier, she asked, "Have you eat this morning?" 

When she woke up this morning, the child is still soundly asleep, when she came back from doing laundry, he had already run away and she had no idea if the child has eaten his fill.

"Yes. I also bought you some porridge." Wei Yuanhang held out his chest and looked proud. 

The three-year-old boy is already fluent in speaking and is often talkative. But sometimes, he couldn't say what he wanted to say. For example, he couldn't say Xiao Ming without a stutter but nothing less, it sounds cute.

"Are you hungry now?"

"I'm not hungry. I'm eating orange candies." Yuanhang opened his mouth to show his mother.

He Xiaoyun said, " Then don't stare when someone eats. They will be embarrassed you know?"

Wei Yuanhang tilted his head in wonder, "What is an embarrassment?"

He Xiaoyun immediately stopped talking. If she said that being embarrass was shy, what would she do if he asked what is being shy? She wouldn't know how to explain it to him. She simply turned her eyes to the vegetable plot in the yard. She pointed at a moth. "Get rid of that moth, it will give birth to worms who will eat our vegetable."

Sure enough, Wei Yuanhang's attention was diverted. He immediately stood up and rushed to the vegetable plot, "Get away from my food, you bad moths!"

Seeing his rushing back, He Xiaoyun gave herself a big thumbs-up in her heart.

After washing her shoes, Wei Jianwei was no longer in the main room. It can be estimated that he's tidying their room, and so, she didn't want to enter their room. She turned to the kitchen to find a basket. 

Although she was suddenly sent to the 1970s from the 21st century, He Xiaoyun adapted well. Probably because she was used to doing such chores in her previous life.

In the kitchen, Wang Chunhua is holding a bowl in her hand. Upon seeing her, she said, "Jianwei left out half of the noodles and the poached eggs weren't move. Feed this to Xiaohang."

He Xiaoyun was a little surprised. It was probably because Wei Yuanhang was staring at him so intently that he(WJ) thought the child is hungry. Otherwise, he would have finished that bowl of noodles.

The Wei family is quite well off in the whole brigade. The family has enough work points and Wei Jianwei's wage. But even so, they couldn't afford to eat rice and white noodles every day.

They don't have refined flour in the house that much and every year, they only have that enough. Wang Chunhua carefully puts it away and already planned where to used it. Every time Wei Jianwei comes back or returned, he has to eat noodles once, which means smoothness and safety. Recently, a sister-in-law got pregnant and needed to eat and she(HX) was the one who normally cooks.

Wang Chunhua put the bowl on the table and walked outside and said to her, "I'll go to the pond and see if someone is fishing today. I'll make fish soup for lunch. Guard the house."

He Xiaoyun responded and gave up the idea to go to the mountains for a while. When Wei Yuanhang came to eat noodles and when he was about to be sent out to play, he turned and asked, "Mom, why do moths give birth to insects?"

"It gives birth to eggs, and eggs will turn into small insects." He Xiaoyun casually replied while washing the bowl. 

Wei Yuanhang was even more puzzled, "But why?"

"Uh..." 

He Xiaoyun has no phone or popular science books to show him, so she decided to find him something to do, lest he asked more ridiculous questions. 

She pulled out a wooden box in a corner, took the curious son out, and said, "Let's catch a few eggs. You can observe how the eggs turned into insects. And then you'll tell me, ok?"

"Okay!" The child felt eager when he heard the plan and was enthusiastic, "Get eggs!"

In Wei's small plot, He Xiaoyun found a lot of yellow and white eggs on the back of the leaves. She trampled most of the eggs to death while only leaving a few for Wei Yuanhang to play with. 

"Mom, there's more here! There's one here!" The child's immature voice sounded from time to time.

Wei Jianwei finally finished organizing his luggage and walked out of the room. He saw both mother and son squatting on the vegetable plot looking for worm eggs. 

Wei Yuanhang quickly discovered him and showed off his little box, "Dad, Mom caught me a lot of worm eggs!"

With that said, the boy ran over to show him but he ran too fast. With both hands holding the box, he tripped and had a mouthful of mud, and the box also fell on the ground. 

He Xioayun was going to pretend to be a mushroom because of Wei Jianwei's presence but heard the little guy tripped. She didn't care about being a mushroom anymore and rushed to the child, "Why did you fall? Hurry and get up!" 

She lifted the child off the ground and checked his hands and knees. Fortunately, the floor of the yard is flat, there were no broken stones either. The little palms were rubbed a little, not too serious.

Wei Yuanhang lips trembled while standing before crying out, "Wa--"

"It's okay, nothing's wrong. You just scrape it a little, it didn't bleed. I blow it for you," 

As a result, the boy cried out, "My box! My eggs!" 

Wei Jianwei walked over and picked up the box. It was completely broken, and the wood had been left so long that it was rotting and falling apart. It couldn't be put together again. 

"My box!" Wei Yuanhang cried even harder after it saw this. 

He Xiaoyun was about to say 'Don't cry' when Wei Jianwei made a move first. "I'll made you a box again."

The cry stopped abruptly, Wei Yuanhang sniffed loudly before demanding, "I want a big box."

Wei Jianwei nodded and the little brat added, "I want Mom to find eggs."

"Okay, I'll get those eggs again." He Xiayun responded, seeing that the child still want to bargain, she opened her mouth, "Go wash your snot and tears, When Yanyan sees it, you be ashamed." 

Yanyan was the little girl next door, about the same age as Wei Yuanhang, who likes to play together with him. Her threat worked as Wei Yuanhang obediently followed her to the house to clean himself up.

When he came out again, the broken wood and leaves of vegetables had already been swept away, and Wei Jianwei was holding a wooden board and saw in his hand, and he seemed to have to make a box now.

Wei Yuanhang ran over and watched, asking him what is what for. Wei Jianwei's answer was short and concise. It was obviously for the making of a new box. 

Usually, the little brat would surround her, He Xiaoyun feels that the brat was annoying but now that he wasn't around her, her heart became sour. 'Little brat with no conscience.' 

She looked up for a moment and stared at the sky. It was still too early to make lunch, but the weather was fine today. She could take out the blankets and winter clothes to dry. Otherwise, the clothes in the cupboard would surely get moldy in the rainy season.

When she entered the room, she spread out the quilt, folded it in half, so that she could move it out to dry, and Wei Jianwei came in. Pretending not to know, He Xiaoyun glanced furtively at him and saw him rummaging out of his luggage bag. She saw him dig out a pen, which was probably used as a marker for the wooden board.

She waited for him to go out first, but he put the pencil in his pocket and continue rummaging in his luggage, pull out an envelope, and walked towards her. He Xiaoyun quickly retracted her gaze and pretended to be very serious in folding the quilts and then hurried up to the locker.

As soon as she turned around, an envelope was handed to her. She unconsciously took a step back and awkwardly sat on the bed. "Wait, what?"

"Living expenses." Wei Jianwei's tone was rather calm. Because once upon a time, he arrived home, the other party would ask him about money and he had to take it out on the spot. After that experience, he learned to distribute it in advance and put money in a separate envelope for the family, so she would not get involved again. Surprisingly, she did not seem to be in a hurry this time.

There are three brothers in the Wei Family that had not separated yet. Wang Chaunhua is in charge of the family's finance and they all had to eat and live together. 

She took the envelope with a touch of hesitation. As soon as it fell into her hand, her face burned as if the money were burning hot. "Well, thank you."

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T/N: This is really hard;-; but still ok.

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