Chapter 17 - 17 0017 Entering the County Town Again 1_1

Chapter 17: Chapter 0017: Entering the County Town Again 1_1 Chapter 17: Chapter 0017: Entering the County Town Again 1_1 Feng Qingxue carried back to her home more than a dozen bundles of firewood in one breath and brought a few bundles of thatch. Once at home, she quickly built a mud stove with stones at one side of the door, setting a pottery pot on it. The water in the pottery pot had been scooped from the river. The fire was lit with matches, which, she told Qingyun, were given to her by a kind person. But were they? In reality, she was afraid that the lighter might become unusable one day, so she stored a lot of matches in her space for such an eventuality. Now, they were coming into use. It wasn’t due to her foresight, but because she understood the fact that an ordinary lighter becomes useless once its liquid fuel is used up. Qingyun squatted in front of the stove, lighting the fire, and the flame reflected on her excited face. “Sister, that kind hearted person was so nice!” she exclaimed. Feng Qingxue shook her head and smiled faintly. While Qingyun was busy watching the water boil, she made a rough clean up of the room, laying a thick layer of thatch in the corner of the east wall. This pile of straw was to be their temporary bed. When the hot water was ready, it was poured into a wooden tub, mixed with some cool water, and used for Qingyun’s bath. Qingyun was then helped into the floral underpants that Feng Qingxue had sewn on the way home, and then she put on the cotton suit and outerwear she purchased that day. It wasn’t because she had no regard for cleanliness that she would have Qingyun wear the newly purchased clothes immediately. It was because Qingyun was in dire need of clothes. However, the tunic to be worn by Qingyun wasn’t an unpatched one, instead it was patched. The clothes seemed a little loose on Qingyun and looked a bit baggy, but Feng Qingxue couldn’t help it. She had no experience with sizes, and without any standard measurements, her estimates might not be accurate. Also, Qingyun was growing, so the size being a bit large was just perfect. Qingyun tugged at the collar of her new clothes, stamped her feet, and grinned from ear to ear. “Sister, Sister, I have clothes now, I have shoes now!” she repeated impatiently, over and over again. “If anybody asks you where you got your clothes from, tell them that I got them from begging from various households,” Feng Qingxue advised. “Sister, we did beg for them!” Feng Qingxue just smiled. “Yes, we did beg for them. However, do not tell anyone about how we got buns, eggs and rice too. If anyone asks what delicious food we managed to get, simply tell them that we’d been given steamed buns made of sweet potato mixed with sorghum flour.” Qingyun nodded her head, “I understand, Sister. If they knew that we begged for good food, they’d also start begging. Then there will be more people begging, and we’d get less food. I would not tell them! The steamed buns made of sweet potato mixed with sorghum are delicious too. I would simply say that we got them from our own dining hall.” Food from the dining hall? Feng Qingxue was confused. Soon, she remembered. The collective dining hall had just been disbanded. Previously, everyone ate from the same large pot. The steamed buns there were made of sweet potato mixed with corn and straw stalks boiled together, and these stalks took up two-thirds of the total ingredients. Even though such buns were that mix, everyone treasured them like a precious item, only managing to eat them during busy farming seasons, while usual meals comprised a thin gruel. “You are such a clever girl!” Feng Qingxue patted Qingyun’s head. Despite only having spent half a night and half a day with her, Feng Qingxue had realised that the little girl before her was extremely sharp-minded. Such a smart child deserves to be in a school. It would be a pity otherwise. Feng Qingxue resolved to send her to school when she was a couple of years older. When the university entrance exams doors opened, she herself would be well into her thirties, thus she might not get a chance to take them, but Qingyun would be in her early twenties, just the perfect age for university. It was only this way that the latter could have a better future.