Chapter 31 - 31 0031 Offering a Helping Hand 3_1

Chapter 31: Chapter 0031: Offering a Helping Hand 3_1 Chapter 31: Chapter 0031: Offering a Helping Hand 3_1 She had specifically picked out pieces of a disassembled frame at the scrap collection station. Once she cobbled them together, the bed was only missing one leg. Feng Qingxue then made a makeshift coffee table, placing it under the short end of the bed. The bed corner was now slightly elevated, but it was tolerable. As for making doors and windows, Feng Qingxue was at a loss. “Let’s leave it as is for now. After all, we don’t have anything worth stealing in our house.” Feng Qingxue clapped her hands, glancing at the sky. She had hustled an entire afternoon away, and dusk was near. Qingyun was buzzing around the bed, “Sister, we have a bed now. If only we had a quilt.” In the past, she and her sister did have a quilt; old as it was, her sister always kept it clean, with soft, fluffy cotton battings. But when they were driven from their home, their sister-in-law claimed it for herself. The sister-in-law was the worst – nasty and domineering. The oldest sister-in-law was no better, as she had seized their clothes and shoes. Feng Qingxue placed the prepared rice soup on the makeshift table, which only took up half of the supporting bed frame. “Sister will find a way to get two new quilts. Come and have some rice soup.” A thick layer of rice oil coagulated on the soup surface. Feng Qingxue and her sister ended up sharing it, each having also half a sesame cake made with black flour. After dinner, Feng Qingxue carried two jins of sorghum flour mixed with black flour and went with Qingyun to find Fen Erhu, the old carpenter from the production team. Fen Erhu was sworn brothers with Feng Qingxue’s father, a man known for being honest and loyal yet savvy. It was assumed that he agreed to help out of loyalty to his brother, but truthfully, the most imperative factor was his discretion. This was why Feng Qingxue asked his help with the doors and windows, promising an additional three jins of sweet potato flour as his wages after completion. Fen Erhu agreed without a word. Five jins of flour in total. It was enough to sustain his family for a good couple of days. Fen Erhu didn’t ask Feng Qingxue where she got the grain. These were hard times, and who didn’t have a secret or two? Besides, the sisters Feng had been having a tough time themselves; otherwise, they wouldn’t need to beg for food every day. The next morning, Fen Erhu arrived with his eldest son, Dazhu, along with the tools they had borrowed from the production team. Upon seeing a bed missing one leg and a scrubbed clean house, there was a moment of surprise in Fen Erhu’s eyes. But he quickly hid it away. Everyone knew how obsessively clean Feng Qingxue was. Dazhu, already a married man with a child, was as simple and honest as his father. He got to work as soon as he arrived. Seeing them arriving so early, Feng Qingxue figured they hadn’t had breakfast, so she made thick porridge with the remaining sweet potatoes she and Qingyun had gotten, mixed with a bit of unrefined rice and corn grains. “Uncle, you and Brother Dazhu should have some breakfast first before working,” Feng Qingxue served two full bowls of porridge, while Qingyun brought over two loaves of bread. One was made with corn flour, and the other was a mix of bran and sweet potato flour. These were, of course, what she had brought back the previous day. Because Qingyun believed every word she said, she had returned with a little extra food. The bread and buns she brought back were all different, showing that they were begged from different households. Upon seeing the thick porridge and the fist-sized loaves, Fen Erhu quickly refused, “No, no, you’ve already paid us wages, how can we eat your and Qingyun’s food? This is the kind of good stuff we can’t even afford on New Year.” Continuous natural disasters had led to extreme scarcity of resources. People hadn’t had a decent meal in a long while. Fen Erhu, being skilled, got more work points than most from the production team and had better meals, but still, even on New Year’s, they didn’t have pure wheat bread.