Early the next morning, just as Tian Jing was sleeping soundly, Li Zhengguo woke her up.
She rolled around in her quilt for a long time, unwilling to get out. It was too difficult. She had been lacking sleep for many years, and it wouldn't be easy to catch up in a short while.
But it was okay. Once she bought what she needed, she would sleep and sleep all winter, treating herself like an animal that needed to hibernate.
Watching the little girl on the kang struggling against the warm quilt, Li Zhengguo longed to pull her into his arms, kiss her, hug her, and lift her high.
He suppressed his urge and threatened the little girl on the kang, "If we don't leave now, we'll only get to the county town by noon, and the black market will be closed."
"Oh dear, oh dear!" Tian Jing sat up abruptly. "Give me some cold water to wash my face."
Li Zhengguo couldn't bear to. "I've already prepared warm water for you to wash your face. Take my thin quilt, you can sleep on the way."
"How can I sleep?"
"I'll carry you on my back with a cloth strap."
Like packing up a baby? She had seen the village women tie their babies to their backs with cloth straps.
She refused. "No, I'd rather sleep in the basket than be packed onto you."
"If you sleep in the basket, I'll have to push the unicycle steadily, and bending over will slow me down."
"Then let's walk together." Tian Jing was unyielding, holding her toothbrush and squatting by the main hall door, brushing her teeth by the light of the oil lamp.
After washing her face back in the room, Li Zhengguo stuffed a handful of ration coupons and thirty yuan into her hand. "This is all I have for now. I exchanged those coupons with someone. You can keep them with your money."
When Tian Jing took them, he took out the cloth bundle containing the ginseng. He even opened it and saw that it looked no different from freshly dug, then he rolled it up again with peace of mind.
Tian Jing blinked her large, dazzling eyes. She had been nourishing it with her wood element ability through the cloth bundle twice a day. Could it possibly be damaged?
When they set off, it was pitch dark outside. Without the oil lamp to light the way, they wouldn't even be able to find the path.
After walking about two or three li out of the village, they reached the Ku River. Li Zhengguo, worried about her, wanted to carry her across. Tian Jing agreed.
Lying on his back, illuminated by the oil lamp, she saw that his feet were stepping on round, large stones. No wonder he was worried about her walking alone.
On stones like these, if one wasn't careful, they could easily slip and fall into the river. Of course, that was for ordinary people, not her, an ability user.
After setting her down on the other side of the river, Li Zhengguo took the oil lamp and returned to the other bank to push the unicycle.
Under Tian Jing's worried gaze, he pushed it across precariously and then went back to carry the baskets, two baskets and a back basket.
Tian Jing was quite interested in the bamboo back basket. "Is this borrowed too?"
"Yes." Seeing that she liked it, Li Zhengguo said, "When we get back, I'll weave a smaller one for you."
"Okay, and I'll weave a bigger one for you to carry. It will be convenient to hide things when we go up the mountain to get good stuff."
"Good." Li Zhengguo smiled at her gently and tied the baskets with a rope. "Are you still going to sleep?"
"No more," Tian Jing waved the oil lamp and said, "Let's go."
After passing Wang Er Production Team, the sky brightened. Li Zhengguo took the oil lamp, blew it out, and hung it on the handlebars. He then placed Tian Jing in front of the unicycle, which was covered with quilts, and took out two eggs from his pocket. "Eat this, it's still warm."
Holding the warm eggs, she looked at Li Zhengguo, who was only wearing a military green jacket. Had he put these eggs in his pocket right after they were boiled?
Li Zhengguo understood her thoughts. He took out a new towel from his pocket. "I'm not stupid."
"Not stupid? What about your breakfast?"
"I'm not hungry."
Tian Jing stopped talking, cracked the eggs on the handlebars, carefully peeled them, and beckoned to Li Zhengguo, who was standing nearby. "I want some water."
"Okay." Li Zhengguo walked over and took out a bamboo tube from his pocket, bending down to hand it to Tian Jing.
Tian Jing grabbed his collar and stuffed the peeled egg into his mouth. "Eat, one for each of us."
Li Zhengguo was stunned, then opened his mouth and bit into the egg, his eyes already curved with a smile. Was Tian Tian feeling sorry for him?
Tian Jing lowered her head to peel the other egg and then slowly began to eat.
After eating, they rested for a while and continued on their way. Ahead was the S-shaped five-li slope. After climbing the slope, Li Zhengguo asked Tian Jing if she could keep going.
"Yes," Tian Jing waved her hand. "Let's keep moving."
After about ten li, they passed Li Shi Production Team, and another ten li brought them to Zhang Shan Production Team. The two exchanged a look and quickly passed through.
Even though it was still a few li from the village to the road, judging by the sun's height, it should be around nine o'clock. If they encountered acquaintances, it would be difficult to negotiate the price of breaking off the engagement with the Tian family.
Another two li ahead was the brigade's yard. The two also accelerated through it and slowed down only after passing the brigade.
Li Zhengguo was again worried if Tian Jing was tired. Tian Jing poked her head in front of him. "Look, I'm not sweating, so I'm not tired."
A person whose back was already drenched in sweat kept asking her, an ability user who wasn't sweating, if she was tired.
Seeing that the little face in front of him was indeed fresh and clean, Li Zhengguo smiled with relief. "It's good that you're not tired."
Staring at his dimples, Tian Jing asked a silly question, "Do you drink?"
After asking, she herself started to laugh.
Li Zhengguo looked at her smile, and his own smile deepened. "I'm not much of a drinker."
In fact, he could hold his liquor very well, but Tian Tian disliked the smell of alcohol on people, so he had to pretend he couldn't drink.
"Oh, I thought having dimples meant you could drink."
Tian Jing couldn't help but laugh again. This was a question she had heard when she was a child, and it had later been proven baseless. Since it was a trivial question, few people bothered to correct it, and they would often joke with friends who had dimples. Sudan Novel Network.
"There's no basis for that. Drinking capacity is related to one's constitution."
"Mmm," Tian Jing nodded and stopped talking. They still had a few li to reach the commune, and another twenty li to the county town. They needed to conserve their energy.
Around eleven o'clock, the two entered the county town. Li Zhengguo led Tian Jing to knock on the courtyard gate of a house. Footsteps could be heard from inside.
"Who is it?" a voice sounded, somewhat aged.
"It's me, Zhengguo," Li Zhengguo replied.
The door opened quickly, revealing an old man. He looked at Li Zhengguo, then at Tian Jing beside him. "Who is this?"
"This is my wife, Tian Jing. Tian Jing, this is Grandpa Song," Li Zhengguo introduced them briefly.
"Grandpa Song."
"Hello, hello," Grandpa Song replied with a smile, then looked at Li Zhengguo. "You finally decided to get married, you rascal? Come in quickly." Grandpa Song opened the courtyard gate.
Li Zhengguo pushed the unicycle into the courtyard. "Grandpa Song, may I borrow a back basket?"
"Take whatever you want," Grandpa Song gestured to the back baskets in the corner of the courtyard.
Li Zhengguo handed the bamboo back basket to Tian Jing and picked up a back basket from the corner. "Grandpa Song, we're going to buy things first. We'll eat out at noon."
"Okay."
After Li Zhengguo and Tian Jing left the courtyard, Grandpa Song quickly closed the gate.