Cooperation

If the mountain would not come to him, he would go to the mountain.

Li Ping decided to stay in the countryside with Zhao Danshi for a few days.

At first, Zhao Danshi had been quite welcoming toward his senior brother, but after a few more days, he realized things were not at all as he had imagined.

No carrying water, no staying under the blazing sun, no pickled vegetables, no touching cold water... Zhao Danshi received more than twenty warning looks from his senior brother every day.

Because of this, Zhao Danshi specifically sought Li Ping out for a heartfelt talk. "Senior Brother, aren't you being overly careful? Look, I'm already past the halfway point of the pregnancy. I haven't particularly avoided anything, and haven't I been fine? Besides, me being pregnant isn't the same as a woman being pregnant. You have to trust how I feel. I know my limits."

Li Ping looked into his eyes. "The further along the pregnancy is, the more careful we need to be. Before the child is born, it's better to be cautious in everything. Can we endure it for now?"

"The problem is, I can't endure it." Zhao Danshi looked miserable. "Senior Brother, forget the other things. Let me cut back on forbidden foods a little less, okay? At most, I'll eat a few fewer pickled vegetables, but you can't refuse to give me even one."

Seeing his expression, Li Ping smiled and approved. "Fine. I'll prepare three strips of pickled vegetables for you every day to satisfy your craving. No more than that."

"Three strips!" Zhao Danshi flopped backward into the thick quilt. "You might as well not let me eat any. Just when I get a taste of it, it's gone. Isn't that torture?"

Li Ping was startled by his movement and hurried over to help him up. Only when he saw that Zhao Danshi had landed in the soft bedding did he relax, though there was reproach in his eyes. "Be careful. Don't hurt yourself falling."

"It's fine. The quilt's soft." Zhao Danshi smugly patted the bedding beneath him, then turned his face toward Li Ping to negotiate. His tone was sweet and soft. "Senior Brother, how about I eat it less often, but you let me indulge each time? I promise it won't harm the baby. The baby grows on the nutrition I provide, not on the vegetables I eat."

Li Ping held his already slightly swollen foot and massaged it. "How many days apart do you want to indulge?"

Zhao Danshi kicked his foot, but failed to pull it free, so he let Li Ping continue.

His legs were long and straight, and his ankles were especially beautiful. A thin layer of flesh stretched over the bones, outlining elegant shapes.

It was only in the past ten days that Dou Dou in his belly had grown a little larger, making his legs somewhat swollen. The bones had been hidden away, and his skin was soft and smooth.

"Three days?" Zhao Danshi watched Li Ping's expression. "Or five days?"

Li Ping answered blandly, "Ten days."

"Fine, deal." Zhao Danshi cautiously made another request. "Then let's not restrict spicy food, okay?"

"Nothing too spicy. You have to finish the food I bought."

Li Ping had ordered a huge pile of pregnancy foods online—nuts, milk powder, sea fish, and more—and had SF Express rush them over. They had arrived that morning.

Zhao Danshi did not really like nuts or sea fish, especially things like red dates and goji berries. He always felt they had a strange smell. Li Ping had watched him eat them at noon, only to later discover unwashed remnants in the drainage ditch.

Zhao Danshi had been caught red-handed, then made to eat another serving. His face was practically wrinkled up.

"I'll try my best." Zhao Danshi let Li Ping switch to massaging his other leg. Covering his eyes with both hands, he said despairingly, "You have to eat with me."

He could not be the only one suffering!

The corners of Li Ping's lips curved slightly. "All right."

The vegetables in the fields were nearly ready. The old man had wanted to wait for market day and slowly carry them to the market to sell, but Zhao Danshi thought vegetable prices in town were too low. He rented a small truck in town again, intending to haul everything to the county seat and sell it all at once. Whatever remained unsold would be resold to Watcher.

Garlic shoots, scallions, tomatoes, cabbage, radishes, leafy greens, plus thirty-three jin of strawberries. With Li Ping helping this time, Zhao Danshi had loaded the truck by a little past six in the morning. Their breath steamed white as they slowly drove toward the county seat through the wilderness before dawn.

Li Ping took over the driving, while Zhao Danshi sat in the passenger seat, squinting as he tried to catch up on sleep.

Before long, he became sleepy. Seeing Li Ping beside him, he worried Li Ping might get sleepy too, so he forced himself to chat with him to keep him alert.

"Senior Brother, did you ever get up this early before?"

"I did. For a time, I was used to getting up at five-thirty to run."

"How long did you keep that up?"

"Until I came here. What about you? Were you not used to getting up early before?"

"Not really. When I was working, I usually got up after seven. That wasn't late."

"Indeed, it wasn't." Li Ping held the steering wheel steadily. "Now that you're back here and getting up so early, are you used to it?"

"It's okay. If I get up early, I sleep early too. But I got up especially early today."

As Zhao Danshi spoke, he yawned again, exposing a bit of pink tongue like a cat. His long black eyelashes were beaded with mist, and his sleepy eyelids had reddened, making them especially noticeable against his overly fair face.

It felt as though a feather had lightly brushed Li Ping's heart. His overly healthy body reacted almost immediately. He quickly steadied himself and looked away. "If you're sleepy, sleep for a while. I'll wake you when we reach the county seat."

Zhao Danshi's eyelids seemed to be glued together. Once his upper and lower lids touched, they could no longer separate. He mumbled nasally, "Then I'll sleep for a bit first."

"Cover yourself with my coat."

At that, Zhao Danshi felt around to the side with his eyes closed. Once he found it, he wrapped it around himself and fell deeply asleep in Li Ping's scent.

Li Ping drove very smoothly. When they reached the county seat, it was only seven fifteen.

Zhao Danshi sensed it himself and struggled to open his eyes. "Let's sell vegetables beside Ninggai Market. I went there last time."

Li Ping set the navigation and drove toward Ninggai Market.

Zhao Danshi pulled out a thermos from beside him and took a sip of the hot red date, angelica, and goji drink for replenishing energy and blood. Only then did he wake up a little.

After parking the truck, he and Li Ping got out and opened the iron panels on three sides of the truck bed. Then Zhao Danshi carried over a chair and sat in the truck bed, ready to start business as soon as customers came by.

Just like last time, he put a sign on every kind of vegetable, listing the prices—garlic shoots eight yuan, scallions eight yuan, tomatoes four fifty, cabbage three yuan, radishes two yuan, leafy greens six yuan, strawberries thirty yuan. Every vegetable was one or two yuan more expensive than at the market.

Li Ping had never bought vegetables, so he did not know their prices were high. He watched many customers come over, ask about the prices, shake their heads, and leave. He felt somewhat anxious.

Zhao Danshi remained calm, sitting in the truck bed with his thermos in hand. "Senior Brother, don't worry. Customers will come soon. If we can't sell everything this morning, we'll try again in the afternoon."

Li Ping touched his hand and asked worriedly, "Are you cold?"

Zhao Danshi froze, the tips of his ears turning faintly red. He quickly shook his head. "No. I'm dressed warmly."

Soon, an older woman came over. "Handsome, you're selling vegetables again?"

Zhao Danshi greeted the customer cheerfully. "Yep, they're all vegetables grown by my family. The taste is unbeatable. There are more varieties this time. What would you like?"

The woman picked through the vegetables and took a radish, five tomatoes, and a bundle of leafy greens for Zhao Danshi to weigh.

As Zhao Danshi weighed them, he rapidly called out the prices. "The radish is one jin two liang, two forty. The tomatoes are two jin one liang, nine forty. The leafy greens are one jin one liang, six sixty. That's eighteen forty total. I'll waive the change, so eighteen is fine. Alipay or WeChat?"

"Alipay." The woman aimed her already prepared phone at the QR code and scanned it, paying readily. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. I'll throw in two scallions for you. Miss, would you like to try my family's strawberries? They're fragrant and sweet, with a rich strawberry flavor. They taste much better than the ones sold elsewhere."

The woman laughed at his words. "But you're selling these outside too. Are they really that good?"

"Buy a jin and try them. You'll know."

"All right, give me a jin."

Before Zhao Danshi could move, Li Ping pulled over a bag and lightly began filling it with strawberries.

Zhao Danshi took the bag and weighed it, making sure it was a full jin. He handed it to the woman with a smile. "Here."

The woman paid another thirty yuan, smiling as she carried away the bag.

Zhao Danshi raised his brows at Li Ping. Li Ping reached out and lightly patted his back. "Sit properly. Is there still water in your thermos?"

Zhao Danshi shook his cup, and a soft sloshing sound came from inside.

People gradually came to buy their vegetables throughout the morning. At noon, the two bought fast food and ate it, rested in the truck for a while, then continued waiting there.

Zhao Danshi had kept smiling, but selling vegetables was no easy task. It was freezing cold, and sitting in the truck with the cold wind blowing over him nonstop could not have been comfortable, no matter how warmly he was dressed.

They did not finish selling their vegetables until after five in the afternoon, thanks to quite a few returning customers.

Their strawberries were the most popular. They had sold out shortly after three in the afternoon. After that, people kept coming to ask for them, and when they learned there were none left, they looked quite regretful and asked when they would return next time.

After selling out, the two drove home. Zhao Danshi sat in the passenger seat calculating that day's income. All the vegetables together had brought in 8,556.70 yuan. Compared to their expenses, that was already a very good price.

If he had not been pregnant, Zhao Danshi believed that after half a year of growing vegetables, he would earn even more after costs than he had as a designer.

Li Ping watched his eyes curve like those of a little bear that had stolen honey and laughed at him. "You're that happy?"

"I am. I made money." Zhao Danshi shook his phone. "Senior Brother, when we get back, shall we buy some food and have an extra dish tonight?"

"Sure. What do you want to eat?"

"Roast goose!"

It was a shared favorite of his and the old man's.

There was a family in their town that had made roast goose for generations. Their roast goose was especially delicious, but it was also expensive—forty-five yuan per jin. Buying a little casually would cost over a hundred yuan. Zhao Danshi liked it, but he could not afford to eat it often.

"Besides roast goose, what else do you want to eat?"

"Nothing else, I guess. It's already afternoon, and the meat dishes won't be fresh. We can buy them another day. What do you want to eat, Senior Brother?"

"Anything is fine. There's nothing I particularly want."

When they reached town, they happily returned the truck, bought roast goose, and then took a three-wheeler back to the village.

The two walked shoulder to shoulder along the small path toward home. Seeing how happy Zhao Danshi was, Li Ping said gently, "Danshi, I need to return to X City for a trip in the next couple of days."

"Huh?" Most of the happiness on Zhao Danshi's face immediately drained away. Reluctance appeared on his face, and when his clear eyes looked over, they were filled entirely with Li Ping's figure. "Senior Brother, you're going home?"

Seeing even his steps become heavier, Li Ping patted his shoulder. "I'm going back to the company to handle some matters. I'll come back once they're dealt with."

Zhao Danshi nodded in understanding. "Okay."

Though he said that, the rest of the way, that same bright excitement never returned to his eyes, and his steps never became light again.