The Boy

Another weekend arrived. The children in the village were riding their bicycles wildly along the road, Zhao Luxing among them. When he saw Zhao Danshi coming over with a hoe slung over his shoulder, he obediently stopped his bike and greeted him.

"Where are you off to play?"

"We're going fishing at Teapot Pool."

Zhao Danshi smiled and asked, "Did you go collect river snails last time? Were they good?"

"We did." Zhao Luxing's face creased slightly. "They weren't very tasty."

His family did not know how to cook them well. The river snails they stir-fried were a little fishy and lacked flavor.

Zhao Danshi smiled. "How about helping your uncle with something?"

"What is it?"

"You kids don't have much to do, right? How about collecting a few jin of river snails for me? Five yuan per jin. It'd be best if you could get fifteen or sixteen jin."

That was the going price for river snails in town, though people only occasionally brought them in to sell. Zhao Danshi had thought of it on a whim, putting these half-grown boys to work.

As they spoke, Zhao Luxing's friends also stopped their bicycles and gathered around them at a respectful distance.

At the suggestion, before Zhao Luxing could say anything, one of his friends spoke first. "Uncle, do you really want to buy river snails?"

"Mm, but you have to be honest. Don't use other snails to pass them off, and don't bring me ones that are too small."

"Don't worry, we definitely won't cheat you!" The dark-skinned boy in the lead was brimming with excitement.

Zhao Luxing nodded too. "Then we'll go collect some."

Zhao Danshi raised his voice. "Remember to bring them over before tonight."

The boys waved their hands and pedaled away like the wind.

When Zhao Danshi got home, Li Ping had already arrived. Seeing him, he pumped water for him to wash his hands and face. "Why are you back so late? Did something hold you up?"

"Mm, I ran into Zhao Luxing and the others. Senior Brother, we don't need to collect river snails tomorrow. I asked them to bring some over—five yuan per jin."

Li Ping raised an eyebrow. "Those kids have that much free time?"

As he washed his face, Zhao Danshi said in a muffled voice, "Mm, they attend middle school in town. Things aren't too strict around here, and they don't have much homework on weekends. Every weekend, they run from village to village playing like crazy."

"Do they get much pocket money?"

"Probably not much. I haven't heard of any parents especially spoiling their kids. They give them enough for meals, and at most five yuan a week." Zhao Danshi caught on. "Senior Brother, what are you planning?"

"Nothing. Just giving them a chance to make some money." Li Ping smiled. Once Zhao Danshi had finished washing his face, he cleaned the towel, poured out the water from the basin, and washed the basin clean. "Let's make lunch. I'll help you."

The old man had taken Dou Dou out to play and had not returned yet.

Zhao Danshi had recently been practicing his knife skills. He was still striving to cut vegetables into even thicknesses and widths, equal lengths, neat rows that did not stick together.

He used to enjoy cooking, especially on weekends. Every now and then, he would cook a couple of good dishes himself, carefully store them in the refrigerator, and enjoy good food for most of the following week.

Now that he was being made to cook professionally, he found it a little too much to bear.

To achieve anything in any line of work, one had to put in grueling effort. It was manageable normally, but having to work so hard while burdened with heavy farm work was truly torturous.

Zhao Danshi sighed. "Senior Brother, how about shredded vegetables in cold dressing, hand-torn cabbage, and stir-fried pork for lunch?"

"Sure."

When they came back from work that afternoon, a large group of boys was already noisily waiting in the yard. A big bamboo basket stood in the middle of the courtyard, filled with thumb-sized river snails. Every one of them looked plump and meaty.

Seeing such a tiny, fair little dumpling of a baby in Dou Dou, the boys crowded around his cradle to tease him.

Dou Dou cooperated too, occasionally splitting into a wide grin and letting out a series of delighted laughs, his eyes curving like an angel's.

The old man was talking with the boys while holding Dou Dou. When he saw Zhao Danshi and Li Ping return, he called out, "Yun Yun, A-Ping, Blackie and the others brought over the river snails."

"Okay, got it." Zhao Danshi said to the boys, "Have a seat. I'll wash up first."

Zhao Danshi took Li Ping's hoe and put it together with his own in the storage room. Then he came back out and washed his hands and face with the water Li Ping had pumped.

Blackie, who had spoken with him that morning, answered loudly, "Okay!" Then he turned back to play with Dou Dou.

After Zhao Danshi finished washing his face, he went into the living room and brought out the scale. He set down a bucket, pressed the tare button, then poured in the river snails. "That's a lot. Where did you collect them?"

"We collected them all the way upstream along Teapot Pool."

The electronic scale flickered, then quickly displayed a number. Zhao Danshi glanced at it. "Oh, twenty-one jin?"

The dark-skinned boy looked a little nervous. "Yeah, we accidentally collected too many. Uncle, if you don't want them, we can take them back."

"It's fine." Zhao Danshi reassured him, then went inside and brought out 105 yuan. "You can divide it among yourselves."

The boys packed into the courtyard immediately became excited. Blackie said, "Uncle, if you need more river snails collected next time, you can ask us."

"I won't need any for a while. Five yuan per jin isn't cheap." Zhao Danshi smiled at them. "But I have another job. I don't know whether you'd be interested."

"What job?"

"Watering the vegetable plots, fertilizing, pulling weeds, building a fence around the pond. Fifty yuan a day. But I won't take just anyone. I'll only hire you if you work well. So, do you want to give it a try?"

Li Ping had come up with the idea. Around here, adults only earned eighty yuan a day doing construction work, so this was a very generous price.

They had wanted to hire adults, but every household was busy with farm work, and they could not find suitable workers for the moment.

For a moment, all the boys in the yard looked at Blackie, including Zhao Luxing.

Blackie asked, "How long is a day? What time do we start and finish?"

"From seven thirty in the morning to five thirty in the afternoon, with a two-hour break in the middle, and lunch is included." Zhao Danshi smiled. "Go home and think it over carefully. Talk to your parents too. If it works, come over tomorrow morning and we'll try it for a day. You're just sitting around at home anyway, so you might as well earn some pocket money."

Blackie and the others nodded. After saying goodbye to Zhao Danshi, the large group of them whooshed out of the yard again.

The old man asked, "How did you come up with that idea?"

Zhao Danshi pointed at Li Ping. "Senior Brother thought of it."

Once he said that, the old man indeed had nothing more to say.

Zhao Danshi went inside and brought out both his and Li Ping's cups. He gulped down more than half a cup of water, wiped his mouth, and only then asked the old man, "Grandpa, when is Uncle Wende coming over?"

"He said he'd come in a couple of days, after he finishes dealing with his family's fields."

Zhao Danshi set his cup aside and went to play with Dou Dou. "Dou Dou, were all those big brothers playing with you just now? Was it fun?"

Dou Dou understood nothing. Seeing his father poke his cheek, he thought his father was playing with him. Suddenly, he pushed himself up with his little hands, rolled over, and with an "ah-woo," bit Zhao Danshi's finger into his mouth.

"Hiss!" Zhao Danshi jumped in fright, but he did not dare pull his hand out too forcefully for fear of hurting Dou Dou's mouth.

Dou Dou puffed out his cheeks and looked at him innocently.

"That actually hurts." He gently pinched Dou Dou's mouth. "Dou Dou, let go. How about Daddy makes you some formula?"

Dou Dou tilted his little head, but he still refused to release Zhao Danshi's hand.

Zhao Danshi slowly drew out his hand. His wet fingertip had a red mark on it.

Zhao Danshi looked him over and asked Li Ping doubtfully, "Senior Brother, is Dou Dou teething?"

"Let me see." Li Ping calmly wiped his hands and walked over, gently prying open Dou Dou's mouth.

Dou Dou waved his little hands and feet, laughing a few times. Sure enough, a sliver of white could be seen on his lower gums.

The old man leaned over too. "Oh, our Dou Dou is getting teeth so early."

"Will Dou Dou be uncomfortable like this?"

The old man was very experienced. "It's fine. Babies like to bite things more when they're teething. Just keep an eye on him and don't let him bite anything dirty."

Li Ping and Zhao Danshi exchanged a glance and decided to sanitize the things around Dou Dou more often.

Zhao Danshi carried the bucket into the kitchen. After keeping the river snails overnight, they could stir-fry them for lunch tomorrow.

The next day, Zhao Danshi and Li Ping got up as usual just after five to pick strawberries. After they had finished picking and watered the fields once, the two returned home to prepare breakfast.

By then, Blackie and the others had already arrived. One after another, they were carefully using buckets and pliers to clip off the tails of the river snails.

Seeing them, Zhao Danshi greeted them. "You're here?"

"Mm." As the leader, Blackie came over to speak with him. "Uncle Danshi, what are we doing today?"

There were five of them in total. Besides Blackie and Zhao Luxing, the other three were Chengtou, Maolin, and Zhenglian.

Zhao Danshi gestured for them to sit. "How about pulling weeds today?"

"Sure." Blackie agreed immediately.

"Have you eaten breakfast?"

The boys shook their heads sheepishly. They had all heard from Zhao Luxing that the food at Zhao Danshi's house was especially delicious. They had come so early because they were determined to mooch a meal.

Zhao Danshi did not mind. "Then sit for a while and help finish clipping the river snails. I'll go make breakfast."

Farm work consumed a lot of energy, so people in the countryside generally ate solid food in the morning. Even if they had porridge, they would steam some buns and stir-fry a few dishes.

Zhao Danshi went into the kitchen to get busy.

Stir-fried carrots with pork, fried eggs with scallions, pork belly with pickled cabbage, stir-fried sweet potato leaves, and hand-torn cabbage. Zhao Danshi chopped and sliced in the kitchen, working up a sweat as he followed Watcher's instructions.

Li Ping sat outside chatting with the boys. Before long, he learned that none of them had particularly good grades. They had nothing much to do at home, so every weekend they rode their bicycles around to play. When they heard there was work here, every one of their parents was happy to let them come.

Blackie tried to fish for information from Li Ping. "Uncle Li, is there a lot of work here? Will you be hiring people all the time?"

"There is quite a bit. But whether we hire you depends on the quality of your work. If you don't work well, Uncle Danshi and I will just do it ourselves."

"Uncle Li, don't worry. We do chores at home all the time. We'll definitely do a good job."

There were not enough pliers at home, so Zhao Luxing specifically took Blackie to borrow several pairs from nearby households. With everyone working together, they had already clipped more than half of the twenty-odd jin of river snails in one morning.

"Come eat. We'll deal with the rest after we get back at noon." Zhao Danshi called for them to wipe the table and carry the dishes, then turned and took out eight bowls and eight pairs of chopsticks from the disinfecting cabinet.

Before they ate, Zhao Danshi still had to make formula for Dou Dou.

Otherwise, when Dou Dou smelled the delicious food but had nothing to eat, he would keep staring at them without blinking with his big round eyes.

"Time to eat." Zhao Danshi called out. Zhao Luxing obediently took their bowls to serve rice, while the other boys each found a seat.

The old man chuckled happily. "It's been a long time since the house was this lively."