Sure Enough, It Was Them

This program was produced by Tomato Listening. Episode 43: Getting Old Has Its Benefits. Aunt Li blushed at being called old, irritation rising in her heart. This girl was calling her thick-skinned!

Lin Yuzhu gripped her sickle, rolled up her sleeves, and stared coldly at Aunt Li.

The meaning was clear: Come on, then. Keep going!

Aunt Li stared at the sharply honed sickle in Lin Yuzhu's hand.

She chickened out. Even Auntie Li Si had gotten nowhere against this girl, so she had better forget it.

This time, the old Small Team Leader had learned his lesson and firmly paired Song Zhigao with Lin Yuzhu.

He had noticed that Lin Yuzhu clashed with all the village women. Even when she worked honestly, she somehow managed to stir up trouble. It was better to pair Educated Youths with Educated Youths.

Lin Yuzhu no longer minded Xiao Song being around. After all, the kid had good judgment. Though he was not much use at work, at least he knew how to be grateful.

Did they think harvesting the wheat meant the work was over?

They still had to thresh the wheat. For those two days, there was not a single spot on Lin Yuzhu's body that was not covered in wheat chaff. Her face and hair were all coated in it, making her look like a living wheat stalk. If she had not had Thatched Cottage, even bathing would have been a major problem.

After the wheat came sorghum, then millet. After the millet came peanuts, then soybeans, corn, and more.

It turned cold early around Shanshui Village, and the snow melted late in spring. Unlike the south, where many crops could be planted multiple times, the crops here could only be planted once a year. So during the autumn harvest, the crops lined up like a long queue waiting to be gathered.

By the time the autumn harvest ended, Lin Yuzhu truly looked like a dead dog.

After the harvest, the village gave the team members two days off. Once the grain had dried enough, they would be busy bagging it again.

Another round of work was waiting for them. Lin Yuzhu had planned to sleep for two days and two nights, but Wang Xiaomei, who usually loved joining the fun, had not come over. Finding that strange, she specifically went to see what was wrong with the girl.

Had they not agreed to be partners?

When she knocked, she heard Wang Xiaomei call weakly for her to come in. Lin Yuzhu raised a brow and pushed open the door.

Good grief. Wang Xiaomei was lying on the kang as though she were at death's door, with a towel draped over her forehead.

"Are you sick?"

Lin Yuzhu blinked and asked.

Wang Xiaomei said irritably,

"I've been sick for a whole day, and you're only coming to see me now."

Lin Yuzhu kept shaking her head and said leisurely,

"I never expected it. You can actually get sick."

"Why can't I get sick? I'm a person too, and I'm a girl."

As she spoke, her voice took on a crying tone.

Perhaps people became emotionally fragile when they were sick.

Wang Xiaomei's tears suddenly began to fall. After all, she was only twenty, at the age when girls bloomed like flowers. Her crying even softened Lin Yuzhu's heart a little.

Lin Yuzhu pulled over a stool and sat by the kang. The towel had already dried out. She touched Wang Xiaomei's forehead and found it burning hot.

"Oh, you have a fever. Have you taken any medicine?"

Huang Xiaomei shook her head. Her fever had started during the night. In her groggy state, she had put on a wet towel, but by daytime, she had no strength to get up.

Lin Yuzhu was speechless. That meant she had been burning up for most of the day. This was no joke.

Lin Yuzhu told her to wait in the room while she went to think of something.

The village had an Ox Cart, but it had to be kept for transporting grain to the commune in a few days.

The village chief did not want to lend out the Ox Cart at the moment, afraid something might happen.

Lin Yuzhu took a deep breath, not knowing what to say. Left with no choice, she asked the old man to write two letters of introduction. She was taking Wang Xiaomei to town to see a doctor.

After frowning and thinking it over, the village chief helped her borrow a bicycle and wrote the two letters of introduction.

At times like this, the drawbacks of not having a clinic in the village became obvious. Even a minor illness had to be endured. Looking at the twenty-eight-inch bicycle, Lin Yuzhu broke into a cold sweat. If Wang Xiaomei got thrown to her death, it could only be blamed on bad luck.

Wang Xiaomei had been hit hard by her illness. She was not tall, but she was heavy as a rock. Lin Yuzhu carried her outside alone, then worried over how to get her onto the bicycle. The key was that she had to get on too. At only five foot three, she really was not tall enough for this, so she called Xiao Song over with great fanfare.

With Xiao Song's help, Lin Yuzhu wobbled along with Wang Xiaomei for several meters before finally steadying the bicycle.

Xiao Song wiped the sweat from his forehead, thinking that Lin Yuzhu's bicycle skills were not very good.

Hopefully Huang Xiaomei would not fall into a ditch before even seeing the doctor.

Wang Xiaomei had been holding on purely by force of will, waiting for Lin Yuzhu to arrive. Once Lin Yuzhu came, that last breath of strength vanished, and she truly fell asleep. She leaned against Lin Yuzhu, sleeping soundly, utterly unaware that she could be flung off at any moment.

If not for the strip of cloth tying the two of them together, she really might have been thrown off.

Lin Yuzhu wanted to cry. If she had known Wang Xiaomei was this useless, she would never have chosen her as a partner. Once she recovered, they were breaking up.

A bicycle was still much faster than an Ox Cart.

Lin Yuzhu panted as she delivered Wang Xiaomei to the town hospital. It had only taken half an hour.

After examining her, the doctor said it was fortunate they had arrived early. Otherwise, it might have developed into pneumonia.

Lin Yuzhu resigned herself to paying the bill and running up and down the stairs. Only after Wang Xiaomei was lying in a hospital bed with an IV drip did she finally let out a breath.

Since they had come all the way to town, Lin Yuzhu felt a little restless, wondering whether she should sell some things. But seeing Wang Xiaomei asleep like the dead, she decided against it. After all, Wang Xiaomei was a girl, and Lin Yuzhu did not know what the people in town were like. What if someone saw that no one was watching over her and tried to take advantage of her?

Sigh, her heart was just too soft. This time, she absolutely had to get some brown sugar back. No wonder Wang Xiaomei had such a good constitution.

After one bottle of IV fluid, Wang Xiaomei's fever broke, and she woke up. Her eyes brimmed with tears as she looked at Lin Yuzhu, deeply grateful.

Lin Yuzhu rolled her eyes. "That IV cost me quite a bit of money. Remember to pay me back."

"Come over here."

The young nurse removing the needle covered her mouth and smiled. Cheerfully, she said, "Although the fever has gone down, it may still come back. The doctor prescribed fever medicine for you. You need to pay for it before you can collect it."

After saying that, she specifically told Wang Xiaomei, "You two have such a good relationship. Your friend ran all over the place for you and is exhausted."

Lin Yuzhu coughed for quite a while. Something about that sounded off. This was a romance novel, not a girls' love novel.

Wang Xiaomei's tears started flowing again as she gazed at Lin Yuzhu affectionately.

Lin Yuzhu was speechless. "I'm going to pay. Rest here for a while."

After saying that, she rubbed at the goosebumps all over her body.

Once she had paid and collected the medicine, Lin Yuzhu turned toward the doctor. She wanted a certificate to buy pork ribs and large bones.

The doctor understood what she meant and laughed. "Only an orthopedic doctor can write you that certificate."

The implication was clear: a patient with a fever could not get a certificate for bone soup and braised ribs. Forget it.

Lin Yuzhu shook her head in disappointment. Why did someone have to break a bone just to buy pork ribs these days? Maybe she should break Wang Xiaomei's bones. They were in a hospital anyway, so it would be easy to get treatment.

Wang Xiaomei sneezed in the ward. Why did she suddenly feel even colder?

Huang Xiaomei had been hungry all day, and Lin Yuzhu had been busy for most of the afternoon, so she was starving too.

The fever had gone down, and the medicine had been prescribed. The doctor said they could leave, but if the fever did not go down after taking the medicine, they should come back.

By the time the two left the hospital, it was already dark, and both their stomachs were growling.

At the thought of cycling back to the village on an empty stomach, Lin Yuzhu's vision went dark. No, she decided to take Wang Xiaomei to the State-Run Restaurant and try their luck.

When they reached the entrance, they saw it was not closed yet. The two hurriedly pushed the door open and went inside.

As soon as they entered, they saw a fat man chatting with the server at the service window. Lin Yuzhu motioned for Wang Xiaomei to sit and wait, then went over herself. The fat man was smiling ingratiatingly at the server, who had clearly lost patience with him. She snorted and said, "The chef has already gone home. At this hour, I can only make you two bowls of dough-drop soup. I'm not making anything else."

The fat man immediately beamed. "Sure, sure, dough-drop soup is fine. Who doesn't know that the dough-drop soup at this State-Run Restaurant is best when made by a pretty young lady like you?"

After saying that, he gave a foolish grin.

A bowl of dough-drop soup cost two liang of grain coupons and thirty cents.

The fat man promptly took out sixty cents and two two-liang grain coupons.

Lin Yuzhu took the opportunity to hand her money and grain coupons to the server as well. Smiling sweetly, she said, "Miss, give me two bowls too. My sister has a fever and really wants to drink your dough-drop soup."

The server looked at Lin Yuzhu, who was clearly younger than herself. Being called "miss" pleased her; apparently, she looked young. She accepted the money and coupons with a proud expression, then said lazily, "You people sit at one table. It'll be easier for me to clean up later."

Lin Yuzhu and the fat man nodded repeatedly, not daring to say a word in objection.

The two looked at each other and froze. Why did the other seem familiar?

"Huh?"

"Hey, aren't you the girl who ate a whole plate of braised pork here last time?"

The fat man thought of Lin Yuzhu, and Lin Yuzhu remembered the fat man too. She looked around the restaurant but did not see anyone else. The postal worker probably had not arrived yet.

Not long after the three sat at the same table, the postman Lin Yuzhu had been thinking of entered, dusty from travel. Seeing the fat man seated with two girls, he paused, then continued walking over.

"Sit."

The fat man muttered a few words to him in a low voice. Only then did Shen Bojun understand what had happened. He looked up at Lin Yuzhu and thought that they really were fated to meet. "I happen to have a letter for you. I was planning to deliver it tomorrow."

The fat man was stunned, then laughed. "Oh, Brother, you two know each other?"

The gossip in his eyes was practically spilling over.

"I delivered a parcel to her some time ago."

Shen Bojun explained expressionlessly. It concerned a young woman's reputation, and he did not want others to misunderstand.

The fat man addressed Lin Yuzhu in a slick tone. "Miss, it seems you know my brother too. You clearly recognized him just now. You remembered him after meeting only once?"

Lin Yuzhu replied with a smile,

"There's only one postman delivering letters around here. If I didn't recognize him, I'd have to be blind."

The fat man got nowhere. Sure enough, this girl was fierce. She might be smiling sweetly today, but she had been vicious last time. Then he thought of something and shouted, "Wait, Brother, you deliver so many letters every day. Why do you remember this young lady's name?"

"If there's nothing suspicious about that, who would believe it?"

Shen Bojun stared coldly at the fat man. He had never seen anyone so stupid. There were not many people surnamed Lin. After saying that, he lowered his head and searched through his bag for the letter.