The youngest, Xu Duoyu, had already expressed his stance, but Xu Zhicheng hadn't spoken up yet. When Yang Cuihua saw this, she wanted to lecture him.
Before she could speak, Xu Zhicheng choked up and said, "I will be good to my sister."
As long as sister stays this way, not becoming like she was before, always bullying him and Duoyu, he would definitely be good to her.
Only then did Yang Cuihua feel satisfied.
Xu Niannian's eyes crinkled with a smile, "Then I'll thank you guys in advance. Hurry up and change your clothes, and wash and hang the dirty ones."
Xu Duoyu had been eager to change into new clothes; hearing Xu Niannian's words, he clutched the clothes and trotted toward the room, and Xu Zhicheng followed him in.
Xu Niannian crouched down, intending to pick beans with Yang Cuihua, who quickly stopped her, "Niannian, what are you doing?"
"Picking beans with Mom, right?" Xu Niannian said with a smile.
Yang Cuihua exclaimed, "How can I let you do that, it's dirty, Mom would feel pained."
"If Mom can do it, why can't Niannian?" Xu Niannian said with a laugh, her clear eyes gleaming with mirth.
Yang Cuihua was immediately moved, "My good Niannian."
Although Yang Cuihua wasn't very nice to others, and could even be said to be excessive, she truly doted on Xu Niannian with all her heart.
In just a few days, Yang Cuihua had shown Xu Niannian what it felt like to be cherished by a mother.
For Xu Niannian, who longed for familial affection, this was more precious than any wealth.
Xu Duoyu and Xu Zhicheng entered the room and soon came out, wearing well-fitting blue coarse cloth clothes.
Yang Cuihua was puzzled; she remembered Niannian's two garments weren't that small.
And they didn't have a cinched waist either.
With a doubt in her heart, Yang Cuihua couldn't help but ask, "Niannian, how did these clothes shrink so much? I don't remember them being this small originally?"
Xu Niannian's heart jolted, suddenly recalling that the original owner was a lazybones who couldn't do anything.
Worried that Yang Cuihua would grow suspicious, Xu Niannian quickly said, "Oh, I cut them and altered them to fit Duoyu's and Zhiqiang's sizes."
As she spoke, Xu Niannian turned her palm up to show Yang Cuihua, feigning a pitiful tone, "To make these two pieces of clothing, look, Mom, my fingers got pricked by the needle so many times. I worked all night long, stitching and undoing, undoing and stitching again; it really tired me to death, this mending job is really not meant for humans."
To sound more credible, Xu Niannian even started to complain.
Upon hearing this, Yang Cuihua, no longer harboring any suspicions, took Xu Niannian's hand and said with concern, "Look at you, I told you not to do chores, and now you've hurt yourself. Don't do this kind of work in the future, Mom will sew for you."
Seeing that she had gotten past this issue, Xu Niannian nodded repeatedly, "Thank you, Mom."
But she had no real intention of letting Yang Cuihua do the work; she was already working hard enough every day.
Xu Niannian didn't know that her explanation, concocted to avoid Yang Cuihua's suspicions, had thoroughly moved Xu Zhicheng.
The young boy swore to himself in secrecy that he would be good to his sister from now on.
Yang Cuihua pulled Xu Zhicheng and Xu Duoyu over to take a closer look at the seams.
Seeing they were stitched as finely as if done by a sewing machine, Yang Cuihua was so pleased she couldn't stop praising her daughter's ability, boasting that she had learned it all in a day.
Luckily, Yang Cuihua and Xu Dawei blindly believed in their daughter's brilliance; otherwise, anyone else would surely have been suspicious.
Soon, the sky cleared up outside. Xu Duoyu helped Yang Cuihua pick beans, while Xu Zhicheng went to wash the clothes they had changed out of.
Because Xu Niannian had mentioned being pricked by the needle, Yang Cuihua absolutely wouldn't let her pick any more beans.
Left with no choice, Xu Niannian grabbed a stool and sat in the courtyard to bask in the sun.
After the rain had stopped, the sun came out, and the temperature was just right, warm and cozy.
Xu Niannian glanced over and saw two clumps of chive roots in the corner of the wall; they were from wild chives cut a few days ago. The chives had been made into egg pancakes, but these roots had been left and not thrown away.
Thinking about how the backyard was full of nothing but green vegetables and cabbages, Xu Niannian grabbed some leek roots and headed to the backyard, planting them in the vegetable plot.
Leeks could grow several harvests.
Xu Zhiqiang happened to come over to fertilize the vegetables when he saw Xu Niannian planting the leek roots.
"Sister, what are you doing with that stuff?" Xu Zhiqiang didn't like Xu Niannian too much, but he always called her 'sister'.
Xu Niannian turned around, wiping her face, "Of course I'm planting them to eat, so we don't have to go so far to cut leeks anymore."
Xu Zhiqiang had never thought of that, although they all knew that wild leeks could grow back after being cut, he had never considered keeping the roots to plant in the yard.
It wasn't just him; Yang Cuihua hadn't thought of this either.
It wasn't only Yang Cuihua and Xu Zhiqiang who hadn't considered this; at that time, the people in the village had little exposure and fixed ways of thinking.
In every household's yard, only green vegetables and cabbages were grown, and nobody planted anything else, so nobody had thought about it.
The fact that Xu Niannian was planting leek roots in the yard startled both Yang Cuihua and Xu Dawei.
Yang Cuihua slapped her forehead, "How come I didn't think of that? Niannian is really smart."
Xu Dawei was also beaming with joy.
That evening, as the family sat around the dinner table, there was a little bit of the cold wood ear salad from two days ago, and since Xu Niannian didn't go out that day, she made a fried egg.
She used a lot of oil, too.
It distressed Yang Cuihua immensely.
"Niannian, you don't need to make eggs. Just save them for yourself to eat," she said.
The family was poor, and the two eggs laid daily by the old hens were the only delicacy Yang Cuihua could give her daughter.
"How could that be? Duoyu and Zhicheng are still growing," Xu Niannian replied.
Yang Cuihua's lips moved; she wanted to say that those two brats didn't deserve eggs and would be lucky just to have rice to eat.
However, she could only swallow those words, fearing they might hurt her daughter.
She still remembered the dream Xu Niannian had shared.
Xu Duoyu was eating and licking his lips as if he wanted to swallow his tongue, too.
Xu Niannian fried four eggs, and along with the cold wood ear salad, the family ate their fill.
Xu Duoyu and Xu Zhicheng had greasy mouths.
In the past few days, Xu Niannian's kindness towards her two brothers didn't escape Xu Zhiqiang's notice, and he stopped bullying them.
However, thinking about how Xu Niannian scooped out a big spoonful of oil to fry the eggs that day, Xu Zhiqiang felt exceedingly distressed.
If they continued like this, their home would soon run out of oil.
Xu Niannian, wanting to earn money and openly improve the family's situation, naturally had to tell Yang Cuihua and Xu Dawei.
After dinner, she disclosed her intention to start a business to the two, and the family had not yet returned to their rooms; they were sitting in the hall.
After hearing Xu Niannian's words, Yang Cuihua exclaimed in surprise, "What? You want to do business?"
Xu Niannian nodded seriously, "Yes, mother, I want to do business to make some money for a proper dowry in the future."
With no other excuse at hand, Xu Niannian had to use a dowry as her shield.
Hearing Xu Niannian talk about doing business, Xu Dawei was so startled that his smoking pipe dropped to the floor.
"Niannian, listen to dad, you can't get involved in speculative ventures. If you get caught, you could be made to wear a dunce cap and have your tails cut off," he said.
Yang Cuihua also cautiously added, "Exactly, Niannian, I can't let you do this. You don't need to worry about your dowry; your father and I will find a way."