Chapter 19

It rained the night before, when He Xiaoyun got up in the morning, the ground was still a little wet. Wei Jianguo went up the mountain before dawn and brought half a sack of green bamboo shoots back. After breakfast, He Xiaoyun and Feng Qiuyue peeled the bamboo shoots in the yard.

Only the two of them were at home in the morning, the three men were called by the team to repair the canal. Wang Chunhua took Wei Yuanhang to the commune to have a drink and be a guest. Without the little talker, the house was quite deserted.

"Xiaoyuan always sticks to you but suddenly, he's not by your side, which definitely makes you unaccustomed."

He Xiaoyun said, "I feel pure without him twittering."

"Look at you, had a hard mouth but a soft heart didn't see that for a while" Feng Qiuyue laughed at her.

"Sister-in-law, don't laugh at me. When you become a mother in the future, I will laugh at you too." He Xiaoyun countered.

Feng Qiuyue happily said, "Then I will wait."

They talked and laughed while they finished the work quickly. The stripped bamboo shoots were cut into strips, then they were blanched in a pot, leaving a bowl of minced pickles for noon stir-fry, and most of the rest was spread out and dried on the stone wall.

"Xiaoyun."

He Xiaoyun was standing next to a half-person high stone wall, when she suddenly heard someone calling her, she looked up and found that it was her elder sister He Xiaofen and her little niece.

"Sister? Why are you here? Come in quickly." She hurriedly walked around the door and greeted them both.

He Xiaofen walked in with her daughter, and took a look at the hall, "Your mother-in-law is not at home?"

He Xiaoyun stretched out her hand to take her little niece, "Someone got married today, she took Xiaoyuan to drink a wedding cup." He Xiaoyun lowered her head and teased the little dumpling in her arms, "Huihui, I am your auntie, do you remember me?"

The little girl is only a few months old. She looked at He Xiaoyun with her eyes open and her mother again. She didn't cry or make trouble, she was very cute. She teased for a while, then remembered, "Sister, come sit in the house with me."

Feng Qiuyue heard the voice and walked out of her room, "Xiaoyun, does your eldest sister eaten breakfast?"

He Xiaofen hurriedly said: "I have eaten, You don't need to prepare."

He Xiaoyun said: "Sister-in-law, please rest, my eldest sister is not an outsider, so don't be so polite."

Feng Qiuyue smiled, "Well, you sisters speak very well. Okay, I won't bother."

He Xiaoyun took her sister back to their bedroom and let her little niece sit on Xiaoyuan's bed to play, and the two of them sat on the edge of the bed.

"Your room is really clean," He Xiaofen surveyed the room. "It's not like my house, which is like a pigsty."

"Why do you say that? If your room is a pigsty, what have you become?" He Xiaoyun laughed.

He Xiaofen scoffed at her and said, "If I talk like that, you can just listen to it, don't think about it."

He Xiaoyun smiled and shook her head, and took a building block to tease the little child, "How's your family going? How are brother-in-law and the two children?"

"What can be wrong with them? It's you I'm worried about, brother-in-law has been back for a while, you two quarreled again this time?"

"Nope."

"It's fine if you don't have it. Where's your husband?"

He Xiaoyun said: "He went to the ground to build a canal."

He Xiaofen nodded: "Last time I went home, I wanted to come and find you but the time was a bit rushed, so it didn't happen. Next month is our mother's birthday. I want to surprise her, can you help?"

"Yes." He Xiaoyun nodded in response.

"It's better to take advantage of brother-in-law's at home and give mom a birthday in advance. I've made an appointment to go back together."

After hearing this, He Xiaoyun couldn't help but calculate it in her heart. Wei Jianwei's vacation, excluding the time on the road, was a month. He returned in mid-April, and now it is almost mid-May. There are only five or six days left before he goes. It turned out that he was leaving. She suddenly realized this problem.

"Do you need to discuss it with brother-in-law in the evening?" He Xiaofen asked.

He Xiaoyun came back to her senses and nodded, "Okay."

The two sisters agreed on a specific time and what to do that day. He Xiaofen came directly from her house and had to return to her family's house and left soon. Near noon, He Xiaoyun and Feng Qiuyue went into the kitchen to cook lunch.

Feng Qiuyue asked her: "Why didn't you keep your eldest sister for dinner?"

 "My sister's personality is always up and running. If she doesn't want to stay, no one can keep her."

"Looking at her gentle appearance, she's as beautiful as you, but you can't see that she has such a temper."

"Sister-in-law's words, I take it as a compliment to me." He Xiaoyun smiled.

Feng Qiuyue also laughed: "Isn't it just complimenting you."

The lunch is ready, it was still delivered by He Xiaoyun. The canal on the team is drawn from the Qingshui River to irrigate the crops far away from the river. The entire canal runs across the field and is more than two kilometers long.

The three of Wei's men were not in the same place. He Xiaoyun sent Wei Zhenxing and Wei Jianguo's portion first before finding Wei Jianwei. The two looked for a willow tree, sat down in the shade, and brought out the food.

"Have you eaten?" Wei Jianwei asked her.

"Yeah, Dad and Big Brother also ate already, the rest is yours." Only then did Wei Jianwei picked up the bowl and ate the rice.

 He Xiaoyun sat aside, picked up a branch boredly, and tossed it in her hand. She told about He Xiaofen's coming home in the morning, "My sister wants to go back to my mother together the day after tomorrow. Is it convenient for you?"

Wei Jianwei nodded and swallowed the food in his mouth, he then said, "The canal will be repaired tomorrow, it will be fine the day after tomorrow."

"Then it's settled." She gave a final word. The noon sun was bright and dazzling, the cicadas were screaming, and the shade was quite refreshing. The breeze blew, and a few leaves fell. He Xiaoyun picked up one and played with it, and suddenly muttered, "I don't know if the little chubby kid had a good meal at noon."

It took a few seconds for Wei Jianwei to understand that the little chubby kid in her mouth was their son, he comforted, "His body shape is normal."

He Xiaoyun glanced at him, "Be honest. You can't blindly ignore the facts just because you are his own father."

Wei Jianwei didn't think so and said: "I can hold him with one hand."

He Xiaoyun didn't even glance at him, "Then you can still carry a bag of rice with the other hand."

Wei Jianwei was a little helpless, "The two are not comparable."

"If I said it can be compared, it can compare." He Xiaoyun waved her hand, "You eat quickly or else the leaves will fall to the rice."

After speaking, she lowered her head as if she was earnestly studying the leaves in her hand, she no longer gave him a chance to wrestle.

He Xiaoyun remembers that when she was watching TV, she often saw the protagonist sitting under a tree and playing music with leaves. Although she's not the protagonist, she's the protagonist’s mother. She should have this skill too, right?

Thinking like this, with a bit of self-confidence, she put the leaf in her mouth and blew it hard.

"Puff--" (T/N: The second-hand embarrassment I got because I once also thought I could do it just like that (ノへ￣、))

He Xiaoyun immediately put down her hand and glanced at Wei Jianwei nonchalantly. Seeing that he continued to lower his head to eat, he seemed to haven't paid attention to her movement, so she was relieved and quietly threw the leaves away.

Wei Jianwei finished eating. She put the dishes and chopsticks away and put them in the basket. She was just about to stand up when a melodious tune like a saxophone suddenly sounded in her ears.

He Xiaoyun raised her head and saw that he pinched the leaf with both hands and placed it in his mouth, blowing out a tune easily. His eyes were still looking at her, the twinkling in those eyes was obviously mocking her!

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T/N: Lol, you think you're not going to be busted, Xiaoyun? Jianwei's always watching you~ Ok that sounds creepy. Now...(￣﹏￣；) I humbly apologize for not updating per my schedule. I'm very sorry! I was preparing for our presentation and thesis defense so hard that I didn't remember updating at all. 

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