When the sound of the firecrackers disappeared, the flames also went out. A trace of disappointment flashed through Yun Jiu’s eyes. But he was still very satisfied, and he happily said to Lin Ye, “It’s really beautiful.”
Perhaps infected by Yun Jiu’s brilliant smile, Lin Ye was also in a particularly good mood. “If you like it, I’ll buy more in the future. How about I surround you with them in a circle and let you stand in the middle?”
Yun Jiu was just about to readily agree, but when he heard the word “buy,” he could not help asking worriedly, “It’s expensive, right? I heard other people say that this is very expensive.”
“Not expensive. During the Lantern Festival, I’ll buy you lots of them.”
The two of them chatted back and forth as they walked home together.
Lin Amo had already placed the food on the table. It was the first time Yun Jiu had seen such a large plate, so he could not help looking at it a couple of times. The big-plate chicken made by Lin Amo also had several flat cakes stuck around it according to Lin Ye’s preference.
Lin Ye first put a chicken leg into Lin Amo’s bowl, then obediently said, “Amo, Happy New Year. I wish Amo good health and that everything goes as you wish in the new year.”
Hearing this, Yun Jiu imitated him and put a piece of braised pork into Lin Amo’s bowl. “Yun Jiu also wishes Amo good health and that everything goes as you wish.”
Lin Amo smiled as he looked at Yun Jiu and could not help praising him, “Isn’t he quite clever? I think our Yun Jiu isn’t stupid at all.”
After saying that, Lin Amo took out two small red pouches.
“Happy New Year. These are your lucky-money gifts.”
Lin Ye thanked him as he took one and handed it to Yun Jiu. Yun Jiu took the pouch, carefully touched it, and then thanked Lin Amo.
Yun Jiu ate very heartily during this meal, and it seemed that he could handle spicy food quite well.
When Lin Amo saw this, he could not help saying, “Being able to eat spicy food means you can manage a household. In the future, our Yun Jiu will definitely be able to manage this family well.”
Yun Jiu smiled with a red face. How could he manage a household well? He did not understand anything.
After the New Year’s Eve dinner, the three of them cleaned up the dining table together.
Lin Amo felt tired, so he went back to his room to sleep.
Lin Ye and Yun Jiu opened the small red pouches and discovered that, besides some money, there was actually a pendant for each of them. These pendants were clearly a pair, the kind that could perfectly fit together. Their meaning was self-evident.
When the sky was just beginning to brighten, other families went to pay New Year’s respects to their elders. The Lin family did not have any elders in Yunjia Village, so Lin Ye took Yun Jiu to pay New Year’s respects to the old village chief, the village chief, and some respected elderly people in Yunjia Village.
When the old village chief saw that Yun Jiu’s complexion had improved a lot, he could not help feeling happy. This child had grown up under his watch, and he knew his personality better than anyone. Now that he saw Lin Ye treated him quite well, he felt very relieved.
“Lin family, have you decided when you’re going to hold the wedding?”
Lin Ye smiled and said, “I’m planning to do it on the eighth day of the first month. I heard from my Amo that it’s a good day. At that time, Old Village Chief, you must honor us by coming over for the wedding banquet.”
When the old village chief heard that Lin Ye was also going to hold a wedding banquet, the smile on his face became even wider.
“Good, good, good. I’ll definitely come then.”
The old village chief genuinely treated Yun Jiu well. Yun Jiu and Lin Ye could both feel it. Neither of them had any elders, so they wanted to spend more time with the old village chief in the future. That way, they would also have another elder.
At every elder’s home that Lin Ye visited, he carried gifts. The gifts were all the same: one bottle of liquor and twenty eggs. Lin Ye did not really understand these social customs. Originally, he wanted to bring some meat, but Lin Amo stopped him.
During the New Year, many people would visit the village chief and the elders’ homes. If Lin Ye brought gifts that were too valuable, it would inevitably make other families jealous. Someone might even think that Lin Ye was deliberately trying to curry favor with the elders.
Although they had already reduced the gifts again and again, twenty eggs were still far too conspicuous in the eyes of these farming families. Except for the village chief’s family, who kept everything, some of the other families only accepted the liquor, while some only accepted the eggs.
After the two finished paying their New Year’s respects, Yun Jiu was already extremely sleepy. After they returned home, the two went back to their room to catch up on sleep.
They slept until the afternoon before waking up.
Lin Ye was awakened by hunger. He got up in a daze and immediately ran toward the kitchen. There were still two plates of potatoes stewed with meat warming on the kitchen stove. While eating, Lin Ye also cooked two large bowls of dumplings.
When he carried the dumplings and brought the meal to Yun Jiu’s room, Yun Jiu finally woke up with a yawn. After waking up, Yun Jiu remained confused for quite a while. Sitting on the bed, he blinked, but his eyes were still vacant.
Lin Ye waved the bowl of dumplings in front of him. When Yun Jiu came back to his senses, he was stunned at first, then suddenly became extremely remorseful. As Lin Ye’s husband, he had actually slept until now before getting up, and even made Lin Ye cook for him?
Although Yun Jiu was very annoyed with himself in his heart, the moment his eyes touched Lin Ye’s smile, he immediately forgot everything else. After obediently washing up, he began eating the dumplings.
After finishing the dumplings, Lin Ye brought over the potatoes stewed with meat again.
Although Yun Jiu knew this was not right, the feeling of being spoiled was simply too wonderful. He was almost forgetting who he was. He thought, Let me indulge myself for once.
According to the customs here, from after the New Year until the fifth day of the first month, people could not use knives. Therefore, for the next few days, Lin Ye lived on all kinds of salty soups and porridge, occasionally having a meal of peanuts stewed with pig’s feet. When the fifth day finally passed, Lin Ye felt like he was about to throw up from eating them.
On the sixth day, Lin Amo made a list and had the two of them buy the things according to it. Originally, Lin Amo wanted to go with them, but when he heard they were going to Yuecheng, he no longer wanted to join the crowd.
The sixth day was the first market day. Whether in the city or the town, it was packed with people. Lin Amo did not like places that were too lively.
Lin Ye tied up the horse carriage and then left the house with Yun Jiu.
When someone saw Lin Ye come out, they planned to ride along in the Lin family’s carriage. Although there were also ox carts in the village, the ox carts not only charged money but were also much slower than a horse carriage.
Therefore, early in the morning, quite a few people had been watching the Lin family’s gate. As soon as they saw Lin Ye go to lead the horse, they immediately came out and waited at the gate.
Lin Ye’s horse carriage could only carry four or five people. In his heart, Lin Ye did not want to take anyone at all, but he also did not want to offend everyone. In the end, he chose a few people who had a good relationship with him.
Before they got into the carriage, Lin Ye told them, “We’re going to Yuecheng. When we come back, we won’t be able to take you with us because we have a lot of things to buy.”
When two of them heard that they were going to Yuecheng, they decided not to go with Lin Ye. Things in Yuecheng were too expensive, and ordinary farming families could not afford them.
In the end, he only took four people. Besides Yun Mengyang and Sanzi, who had a good relationship with Lin Ye, he also brought Chen Yinling and the village chief’s little ge’er, Yun Ahao.
Actually, there were also some people who wanted to go to Yuecheng, but because they were not familiar with Lin Ye, they were too embarrassed to shamelessly ask to come along.
Lin Ye brought a soft cushion, which he had prepared for Yun Jiu. As soon as Yun Ahao got into the carriage, he and Chen Yinling occupied the soft cushion.
Not only did the two occupy the soft cushion, they also took up a seat with the small bundles they had brought. When the two men got in, the men consciously sat near the entrance. In order to avoid suspicion, they could not sit too close to the ge’er.
When Yun Jiu got on afterward, there was no seat left for him to choose. He could only sit beside Chen Yinling.
Yun Jiu was tall, so when he entered the carriage, he had to lower his head slightly. He carefully walked over to Chen Yinling’s side and was just about to sit down when Chen Yinling suddenly said, “What smell? It really stinks.”
Yun Jiu’s movement paused for a moment. Seeing everyone looking at him, he could not help smelling himself.
There was not even the slightest smell on his body. Ever since coming to the Lin family, he often bathed and frequently changed into clean clothes.
Yun Jiu thought he definitely was not talking about him, so he obediently sat down to the side.
Seeing Yun Jiu’s foolish appearance, Yun Ahao could not help laughing quietly, then glanced at Yun Jiu from across Chen Yinling.
Yun Jiu awkwardly looked at his clothes. Lin Ye had picked them out for him, and there was nothing wrong with them. So why had Yun A-Hao been laughing at him?
Before Lin Ye set off, he lifted the curtain and glanced inside. He had originally wanted to ask whether Yun Jiu would get carsick, but what he saw immediately made his expression darken.
Chen Yinling and Yun A-Hao had occupied most of the space, while the much larger Yun Jiu had been forced to squeeze himself into a corner. That alone would have been bad enough, but they had even placed their little bundles on the carriage, taking up even more room.
Yun Jiu had kept shrinking himself so that he wouldn’t accidentally brush against Chen Yinling, afraid that Chen Yinling would say something unpleasant to him again.
Lin Ye’s face darkened, and he scolded, “Yun Jiu, whose carriage is this?”
Yun Jiu froze for a moment, not understanding why Lin Ye had suddenly become angry.
He glanced at Lin Ye and whispered uncertainly, “Yours?”
Seeing that Lin Ye still looked displeased, Yun Jiu pointed at himself and looked at him hesitantly.
Chen Yinling and Yun A-Hao’s expressions changed. They reacted faster than Yun Jiu.
Yun A-Hao hurriedly pulled Chen Yinling to the side and said with a smile, “Ah, why is Yun Jiu sitting all the way over there? Come on, Yinling, let’s make some room for him. Yun Jiu is so big; the two of us can squeeze together and give him some space.”
Yun A-Hao put on the appearance of being considerate, but there was obvious mockery hidden in his words.
When Lin Ye saw them move aside, revealing the cushion they had been sitting on, his expression became even uglier.
If this had been before the apocalypse, Lin Ye probably wouldn’t have bothered arguing over something so trivial. But things were different here.
First of all, Yun Jiu was his husband. Naturally, the best things should go to his own husband. Secondly, they were all ge’er in this world, belonging to the same social group. Why should Yun Jiu be the one who obediently endured being bullied?
The more Lin Ye thought about it, the more he wanted to settle the matter with them.
“Yun Jiu, this is our family’s carriage. Even if we don’t give anyone else a ride, that’s perfectly reasonable.”
Although the words were directed at Yun Jiu, anyone could tell that Lin Ye was deliberately saying them for the two ge’er to hear.
The meaning was very clear: This is our family’s carriage. If you’re unhappy about it, we can simply ask you to get off.
Chen Yinling’s face turned slightly pale. He didn’t like Lin Ye speaking to him this way, with every word carrying a sharp edge.
In the past, although Lin Ye had been rather indifferent, he had still treated them kindly out of consideration for their status as ge’er. But today’s Lin Ye seemed unusually different, and even his words carried a sting.
Yet Chen Yinling only knew that he disliked being spoken to this way by Lin Ye.
He failed to realize that he himself had been using similarly cutting words to hurt someone else.
Moonlightjie On RUHIP Chapter 025