Chapter 6

The next morning, when Li Long got up, he felt the temperature in the room was already very low. He rubbed his hands and feet, put on his clothes in a flash, walked to the stove, poked it with a fire hook, and found that the fire in the stove had long since gone out.

After coming back last night, he was exhausted and didn't add coal from the coal shed, so now he had to rebuild the fire.

Pushing the door open, Li Long rubbed his hands, trotted to the coal shed, pulled a few reeds for kindling, grabbed a handful of corn cobs, and hurried back to the room with two pieces of firewood.

In just this short while, his ears were already frozen red.

Opening the stove door, he used the fire hook to clear out the ash inside, placed the reeds, spread the corn cobs, added the firewood, covered the stove lid, took out his kerosene lighter, bent down to light the reed fluff he had specifically set aside from the stove door, and seeing the fire catch, he closed the stove door.

He was just tidying up the ash when the door was pushed open, and Li Qiang walked in, rubbing his hands:

"Uncle, Mom is calling you over to wash your face and get ready to eat."

"What's for breakfast?" Li Long asked while scooping up the ash.

"Cornmeal porridge, pickled vegetables, cornmeal pancakes, and oh, there's steamed buns too!" Li Qiang's eyes were bright.

"That's pretty good." Li Long said with a smile.

"It's not good, I still want to eat meat." Li Qiang whispered, "My sister won't let me say it, but actually I know, she wants to too..."

"Then we'll eat meat at noon." Li Long said, carrying the ash in a dustpan and walking out, "How about that?"

"Good! Uncle, what meat are we eating?" Li Qiang asked, tilting his head up, his eyes shining, "Are we eating sparrow meat again? That's delicious, but there's too little meat."

"Guagua chicken." Li Long patted Li Qiang's head and said, "Don't be impatient, eat breakfast first."

"What's a guagua chicken? Mom won't let us slaughter the chickens at home, saying they'll lay eggs next year."

"It's not the ones at home." Li Long went out, dumped the ash, put the dustpan at the door, and led Li Qiang into the west room.

The steam from cooking and boiling water made the outer kitchen a bit damp. Liang Wenyu was stir-frying pickled vegetables, and seeing Li Long come in, she said while stir-frying:

"Without Xiao Long, hurry up and wash your face, it's time to eat."

"Okay." Li Long responded, went to the washbasin stand in the corner, saw that the water inside had been changed to fresh water, and hurriedly washed his face.

Li Qiang had already run into the room he shared with Li Juan and said loudly to his sister:

"Sister, Uncle said we're eating guagua chicken at noon!"

"What?" Li Juan was tidying up her and Li Qiang's pillows and quilts and didn't hear clearly.

But Li Jianguo outside heard it and scolded:

"Eat what guagua chicken? Where are you going to catch guagua chickens now?"

Li Qiang felt a bit wronged, walked over to Li Jianguo, and said stubbornly:

"It's what my uncle said, my uncle said we're eating guagua chicken at noon."

Li Jianguo and Liang Wenyu both looked at Li Long.

"I caught a few last night." Li Long pointed outside, "I left them in the snow. I plan to pluck and clean them after breakfast."

"How many?" Li Jianguo looked surprised. He knew his younger brother's character very well. Let alone catching guagua chickens, he wouldn't even step up to help when they slaughtered chickens at home. What had possessed him?

"Five." Li Long said proudly, holding up five fingers.

"Let's go, let's take a look!" Li Jianguo didn't quite believe it.

"I want to see too!" Li Qiang shouted, then followed behind Li Long.

Li Juan didn't say anything, but she followed behind too.

Liang Wenyu also wanted to follow, but there were dishes in the pot, so she had to listen to the commotion.

Li Long walked to the snow pile by the yard wall, uncovered the snow crust with a wooden shovel, raked it twice, and revealed the guagua chickens placed inside.

"One, two, three... five! Sister, there really are five!" Li Qiang watched Li Long lay out the guagua chickens one by one and counted happily.

"Alright, alright, stop talking." Li Jianguo glared at him and whispered to Li Long:

"Without Xiao Long, where did you catch them?" "At the edge of the field." Li Long pointed to the east and was just about to tell the detailed location when footsteps and dog barking came from outside.

By the time Li Long wanted to put the guagua chickens away as quickly as possible, it was already too late.

A girl appeared at the gate.

Li Long glanced at her and didn't speak.

Li Jianguo smiled and took the initiative to greet her:

"Shufen, you're here?"

Wu Shufen didn't expect the Li Jianguo and Li Long brothers, plus the two children, to all be outside the house, and she was stunned for a moment.

When she saw the few guagua chickens at Li Long's feet, she couldn't help but swallow her saliva.

She had thought for a long time on the road just now and prepared what she wanted to say, but at this moment, she couldn't say it.

Hearing Li Jianguo's greeting, Wu Shufen's expression was slightly flustered; she didn't know what to say.

Looking at the guagua chickens, Wu Shufen thought to herself that if she wanted to break up, it wouldn't matter if it was a day or two later.

!.

To tell the truth, Wu Shufen was still quite pretty. Although she was wearing a large floral cotton-padded jacket now, her cotton-padded trousers were obviously tailored to be slim-fitting, she was wearing trendy cotton-padded rubber shoes, and the floral headscarf she wore was also very fashionable—Li Long had also taken a fancy to this pretty face and her ability to dress up at the time.

It's just a pity that he didn't see clearly at the time that behind this pretty face was a fickle heart that despised poverty and loved wealth.

Seeing Wu Shufen staring intently at the guagua chickens, Li Jianguo thought this was his brother's partner, so he said with a smile:

"That... Shufen, look, these guagua chickens were caught by Without Xiao Long yesterday, how about..."

"Big Brother," Li Long knew Li Jianguo's thoughts as soon as he heard him, so he immediately interrupted him, glanced at Wu Shufen, and continued:

"Big Brother, wait for me to ask a few questions."

Li Jianguo knew that Li Long and Wu Shufen were dating, and his brother was in a weak position. After all, Wu Shufen was pretty and had many suitors. Now that his brother was suddenly taking the initiative, he actually felt it was quite good, so he said:

"You ask."

Then he turned his head and said to Li Juan and Li Qiang:

"You two hurry inside."

Then he turned his head and walked toward the house himself.

It's better to hear less when two people are talking about dating.

However, Li Long didn't care whether others were there or not, and he asked Wu Shufen directly:

"Did you hear from Gu Ermao that I was fired, so you came over to break up with me?"

What? Break up?

Li Jianguo stopped abruptly, turned his head to look at Li Long with some surprise, and then looked at Wu Shufen.

Wu Shufen didn't expect Li Long to bring up this topic first, and she immediately fell into a passive position.

But breaking up was definitely going to happen. Worried that Li Long would say something unpleasant, she hurriedly spoke:

"Yes, let's break up. You were fired, you must not have done anything good! We were dating, and it was you who pursued me in the first place. I thought you were sincere and had a future. I just didn't expect your character to be so bad. Being fired is a matter that affects a lifetime, and I don't want to be... implicated... later..."

Having said this, Wu Shufen didn't continue.

She knew Li Long's temper—vain and face-conscious. Breaking up was fine, it was just a pity about these guagua chickens—if they hadn't broken up, Li Long would definitely have given her two or even three chickens.

Perhaps, to win her back, he would even give her a chicken directly? Should she take it or not?

Li Long knew what the girl was thinking just by looking at her expression.

You want to break up with me, but you want to eat my chicken?

No way!

(End of chapter)