Chapter 64 Han Chuang

Afternoon.

As it was nearing two o'clock, Chen Ling finished planting the saplings.

He laid down his hoe, patted the dust off his hands, and was just about to relieve himself when the little white calf grazing nearby suddenly let out a soft moo, ran over, and hid behind him. Its dark, round eyes stared intently toward the direction of the graveyard, filled with nervousness and fear.

"You really are as timid as a young maiden, getting this scared in broad daylight."

Seeing the calf like this, Chen Ling couldn't help but chuckle. He reached out to stroke its head and looked over toward the graveyard.

He saw the bushes in the graveyard gently swaying, and a gray figure flashed through them and vanished in an instant. Chen Ling didn't get a clear look, only sensing that it was about the size of a mongrel dog.

"What on earth was that?"

Chen Ling frowned, stood on tiptoe, and peered into the distance, but in the blink of an eye, there was no trace left.

Feeling puzzled, he walked into the graveyard to search around, but found nothing.

He had no idea where the creature had hidden itself; it certainly slipped away fast.

However, as he walked back out, Chen Ling spotted a large hole beside one of the grave mounds. Near the opening were a few strands of gray hair with a coarse, stiff texture.

Chen Ling picked up a couple of the hairs to examine them, but he couldn't recognize what kind of creature they belonged to.

Yet, considering it had frightened the little white calf so badly, it definitely wasn't a rabbit.

"Forget it, I'll worry about it later. Time to go home and eat."

Pushing his doubts to the back of his mind, Chen Ling walked out of the graveyard, harnessed the ox cart, and headed home.

Halfway there, he ran into Wang Laishun tending to his rapeseed seedlings in the field.

Wang's family had planted their rapeseed late this year, and because the land had just been re-allocated, they hadn't managed it very closely. As a result, after a few rounds of rain, the rapeseed seedlings had grown so densely they were clumped together, and each stalk was still very thin and frail. He had no choice but to come out and thin out the seedlings.

Seeing Chen Ling driving the ox cart by, Wang hurriedly stopped him and forced two large bundles of seedlings onto him before letting him leave.

This left Chen Ling rather amused and helpless.

He already had more than enough vegetables at home, yet people kept stuffing extra produce onto his cart.

Oh well, he could just think of it as a fresh treat.

Rapeseed seedlings like these, when stir-fried, tasted quite similar to tender young bok choy, and the flavor wasn't bad at all.

Chen Ling had often eaten them during his childhood.

In his past life, while in university, he had learned a recipe from a northern classmate: making savory pancakes with rapeseed seedlings, served with minced garlic and vinegar. It tasted even better than stir-fried dishes.

Chen Ling had fallen in love with it after trying it just once.

"I'll make some savory pancakes for Susu tonight and let her taste a unique northern flour dish," he thought to himself.

When he arrived home, the grandfather clock in the room chimed twice—it was exactly two o'clock.

Wang Susu saw that he had returned so late and asked about the saplings. Upon learning that Chen Ling had gone to the fields all by himself to plant them, she couldn't help giving him a gentle scolding.

She even playfully pinched him with her small hand, looking slightly upset.

Chen Ling feigned surrender for a moment before smiling and grabbing her little hand.

Wang Susu tried to pull away but failed, and he pulled her right into his arms.

After some playful teasing, they spent a long while whispering sweet nothings to each other, cheek to cheek.

After a long while, Wang Susu raised her head from Chen Ling's embrace, stared intently at him for a moment, and suddenly sighed with a hint of melancholy:

"Ah-ling, the better you treat me, the more uneasy I feel inside."

Hearing this, Chen Ling smiled and kissed her fair, delicate hand. "They always say bitterness fades and sweetness follows. When a young couple lives their lives, they're always striving for things to get better and better. Why would that feel uneasy?"

"But I..."

Wang Susu trailed off, stopping herself. Yet, thinking of Chen Ling's recent behavior—how thoughtful and immensely caring he was toward her—made her feel as happy as if she were soaking in a jar of honey.

Yet the more it was like this, the more unreal it felt, as if she were living in a dream or floating on the clouds.

She continued, "But I don't do anything around the house, leaving you to handle everything inside and out. How is that right? I'm not some lazy woman who refuses to do a stroke of work."

Lately, she only made clothes and cleaned up the house, rarely even cooking. She already felt quite unsettled by this, and today Chen Ling had actually gone off to plant trees in the fields all by himself. With so many saplings—not just one or two—just imagining the scene made her heart ache terribly.

Chen Ling hadn't expected her to say such things, and he froze for a moment upon hearing them.

Then, he let out a soft sigh and said with deep affection, "You silly girl, for the past couple of years, you're the one who bore the brunt of the household chores, worrying and toiling away. You suffered far more hardship and exhaustion than I did. It's wonderful for you to just rest obediently at home and take care of your health. The novels I bought back from the county town were just so you wouldn't be bored at home and could flip through them..."

At this point, seeing the rims of Wang Susu's eyes grow slightly red, he quickly added, "However, since you aren't willing to rest, from now on, whenever there's work around the house, we'll do it together."

"As the old saying goes: you plow the field and I weave the cloth, I draw the water and you water the garden. When men and women work as a team, it doesn't feel tiring at all."

With eyes still red, Wang Susu burst into laughter, wrinkled her cute nose at him, and huffed, "Hmph, stinky Ah-ling, you're always talking nonsense!"

With that, she twisted her body and wriggled out of his arms.

"Hurry up and wash your hands. The food has been kept warm on the stove the whole time, I'll go bring it over."

Only then did Chen Ling remember that he hadn't eaten his midday meal yet.

After lunch, Chen Ling bathed in the warm spring sunshine and read a book for a while. Perhaps it was simply too comfortable, as he dozed off and fell asleep in the courtyard for a good little while.

Unknowingly, the day passed just like that.

...

The first day of the fourth lunar month, Sunday.

Chen Ling and his wife had finished planting all twelve hundred fruit tree saplings two days prior.

Afterward, under the pretext of preventing plant diseases and insect pests, Chen Ling shouldered a sprayer and went over the fields twice with diluted water from the mystic cave stream.

In less than half a day, all the fruit tree saplings sprouted tender new buds.

Seeing this, Chen Ling stopped worrying about them and drove the ox cart to the county town early in the morning.

He was going to deliver peanuts to the oil mill owner he had made arrangements with last week.

Upon reaching the county town, he delivered two thousand catties to him, and another two thousand catties to Liu Xingeng's side.

After making eight trips back and forth, another four thousand and more yuan was safely in his pocket.

Just past noon, Chen Ling found a nearby restaurant and grabbed a simple bite to eat.

After filling his stomach, he was just about to head back to the newly rented courtyard in the south of the city when a loud, booming voice called out from beside him.

"Lingzi!"

Turning his head, he saw a tall, robust young man rushing over from a street food stall, holding a large bowl.

The fellow was slurping down the braised-noodle soup in his bowl as he ran, covering a dozen paces right up to Chen Ling without spilling a single drop of broth.

"Haven't laid eyes on you for two months, where on earth have you been?"

This guy's name was Han Chuang. Standing at one meter ninety, dark and sturdy, he was a regular at the arcade and billiard hall and used to run around with the old Chen Ling quite a bit.

"Wh-wh-why are you even driving an ox cart? It almost made me not dare recognize you at first glance..."

Han Chuang had a habit: whenever he spoke in a rush, he would stutter.

"Long time no see, Chuangzi. I came into town to take care of some business."

Chen Ling patted his thick shoulder and asked with a smile, "What are you up to here?"

"Hehe, came to watch some videotapes for a bit."

Han Chuang winked at him, flashing a knowing, man-to-man smile.

As he spoke, the noodles in his large bowl had been completely devoured. He casually wiped the corners of his mouth with his hand and set the bowl down on the long table of the stall.

"Wanna head over to the Cultural Palace in a bit? I recently l-learned a super move, the two of us can practice..."

The Workers' Cultural Palace in the south of the city mainly housed a cinema.

However, on the outer floors, there were also things like cabinet-style arcade games and billiard halls.

As a craze that had exploded in recent years, arcade games were the entertainment of choice for everyone from elementary school students to young men.

Since a single yuan could get you ten game tokens that lasted quite a while, the trend had spread like wildfire. The old Chen Ling used to be utterly obsessed with the stuff, refusing to stop playing until dark.

"Some other day. I still have things to take care of today, so I won't play. But I'm heading to the south of the city too, I can give you a ride along the way."

Chen Ling flicked his ox whip and said.

Having been tempered by the online games of later generations, Chen Ling couldn't summon any interest in the current arcade games.

If he had free time, going there for a bit of nostalgia might be nice.

The crucial point was that he still needed to tidy up the small courtyard in the south of the city today. Since he had proper business to attend to, he'd better pass.