When the meal was served, Lei Tie shut up.
Qin Mian was very angry, but he added two dishes and a bowl of rice.
After eating, he paid before leaving. Lei Tie followed like a mute person and took over the stand in his hand. Qin Mian didn’t refuse, but didn’t say a word to him all the way.
Lei Tie was about to speak, but said nothing. His eyes fell on the thin back of the teenager. Recently, they ate good food, so the wife had been raised well. While his body was still thin, he had more meat on his face than before. His dry hair was soft and black which was tied into a high ponytail that swayed as if it was afraid that people wouldn’t know its master had a hot-temper.
Thinking of the teenager’s angry expression, Lei Tie’s corner of the lips slightly cocked but disappeared in a flash. He was not used to the teenager being uncommunicative. However, if he was to coax, he was really helpless.
As Qin Mian walked, he listened to the movement behind him, but he didn’t hear anything. He wasn’t really angry, but it was true that he was dejected and there was a part of unreconciled at the bottom of his heart. He actually wanted to see who gave in first.
Thinking of this, he relaxed a lot and his footsteps became more brisk.
Whether he walked fast or slow, Lei Tie always kept the same distance with him.
Passersby on the street noticed that the two—one at the front and the other at the back—looked as if they were fighting, and they amusedly pointed fingers at the duo.
As if unaware of it, Qin Mian bought two packages of snacks and 2 Jin of sugar before leaving the town.
No words were said along the way.
When they got home, Qin Mian gave the snacks to Xiao Hu and Gou Dan and went out with the basket on his back.
“Where to?” Lei Tie asked.
Qin Mian looked at him with a smile, but didn’t speak. He went to the back of the mountain.
Lei Tie was taken aback. He fetched the bow set, locked the door and quickly followed.
Xiao Hu and Gou Dan sensed the strange atmosphere and looked at each other inexplicably before eating the snacks with relish.
Qin Mian walked very fast, but when he got into the mountain, his strong-willed deflated. He looked around and couldn’t make up his mind. He planned to pick more hawthorn and wild apple, but he didn’t know where hawthorn and apple trees were.
“What are you looking for?” Lei Tie asked again with a flat voice without a thread of emotion.
Qin Mian opened his mouth but closed it immediately. He took out a hawthorn fruit and an apple from the basket and waved them at Lei Tie.
At this moment, Lei Tie finally understood that his wife was acting in a fit of pique with him. It was a bit funny, but he was never a person who easily showed emotions. Nothing could be seen on his face, only a pair of deep and frightening black eyes covered with a layer of softness. He took Qin Mian’s hand, looked around and walked in one direction without hesitation.
Led by the other man, Qin Mian looked around leisurely but he still didn’t speak.
After picking a lot of hawthorn and wild apple, the basket was full. But of course, the basket was on Lei Tie’s back.
Once at home, Qin Mian sent Xiao Hu and Gou Dan away. Then, he ladled up water into a basin to wash the hawthorns and apples. Lei Tie went to take a look in the water vat before he went out with an empty bucket.
Upon seeing him go far, Qin Mian spat out a mouthful of breath, “I almost suffocated! How can that guy manage not saying three sentences a day?”
It was really a chore for a talkative person like him to refrain from talking for such a long time.
In a distance, Lei Tie turned his head and looked back.
Qin Mian didn’t notice it as he was cleaning the fruits quickly and neatly. Today’s tanghulu had sold for more than 100 Wen, almost equivalent to more than 100 yuan in modern times. It didn’t sound like much but in this era, it was not a small amount and it was enough to buy many things. However, selling tanghulu was not a long-term thing after all. If he wanted to get rich, he had to think of other ways.
As he was thinking, he heard the sound of pouring water.
After Lei Tie filled the water vat, he brought in the planks and found the carpentry tools. He moved a wooden log and sat at the door in the central room. His head lowered as he hammered with a look of concentration.
Qin Mian gave him a furtive look.
After washing the fruits, he put them in a sieve and let dry under the sun, mainly to drain the water. Then he took out yesterday’s cut off bamboos and continued to make bamboo sticks.
Upon seeing this, Lei Tie took over Qin Mian’s work without saying a word.
It was exactly what Qin Mian wanted as it was easy to get his hand scratched if the bamboo stick was not smooth. Yet, he was not idle. He turned over the grain for drying, led the ox to the pond to drink water before tying it back and dragged over a bundle of straw.
When the fruits had drained, he made more than sixty skewers of tanghulu.
After dinner was done, he didn’t call Lei Tie but sat down and ate. Minced meat with eggplant was very appetizing.
Lei Tie was thinking about how to nail the planks more firmly when he heard the clinking sound of chopsticks colliding with dishware and only then found out that the wife had already started eating. After a brief pause, he silently washed his hands and came to eat.
Qin Mian snickered and almost choked on food.
Lei Tie was steady and stable, clipped a dish to eat neither tense nor slow and glanced at Qin Mian with an uncertain meaning.
Qin Mian’s stone face made out a look of indifferent.
He didn’t say a word to Lei Tie until he went to bed at night. As for the matter of squeezing into Lei Tie’s embrace after sleeping, he ignored it breezily.
The next day was just like yesterday; Lei Tie went to plow the land till about 10 o’clock before they set out for the town.
When Qin Mian got to the previous place, he greeted the owners of the left and right stalls. Qin Mian was about to start hawking when Lei Tie suddenly stood in front of the stand and without looking at him, Lei Tie brusquely said to the passersby: “Delicious tanghulu, 2 Wen for a skewer.”
An elderly woman who was going to come over with her little granddaughter was frightened by his expressionless face and she stepped back while looking at him hesitantly.
Stunned, Qin Mian couldn’t help laughing and quickly lowered his head, “Puff…”
Lei Tie turned to look at him with his dull gaze full of emotions that seemed to be unknown.
Qin Mian couldn’t say what it was, but he was in a good mood. He didn’t intend to embarrass Lei Tie anymore, but he couldn’t help laughing a few times. “Hahaha. Stop, I’ll do it.”
In fact, this “confrontation” was also a kind of test for Lei Tie. Qin Mian was satisfied with the result.
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