Toon Chapter 14

14

The kitchen still had hot water left from the stove, stored in a large red thermos. By the time Zhou Lingchun went out to fetch water, Grandma had already shelled a small bowl of edamame. The beans were a bit old, tinged yellow.

Grandma was over 80 years old, and her eyes and ears were failing, yet she couldn’t sit still, always wanting to do something. She sat leaning against the wall of her own room, noticed a figure, scrutinized it, and realized it was Zhou Lingchun. “Lingchun, has Liansheng taken his medicine?” she asked.

“Not yet, he’ll take it after dinner,” Zhou Lingchun replied. He looked at Grandma’s hunched body, feeling a pang of sadness. “Grandma, don’t work. I’m here to take care of things. You just look after yourself.”

Two years ago, Grandma was diagnosed with heart failure. She usually took medicine prescribed by the doctor Zhou Lingchun found at the town hospital. Currently, her body seemed relatively sturdy.

Grandma heard him clearly, and the little old woman chuckled happily. “Ah, a person’s fate is decided by the heavens.” The elderly viewed life and death with acceptance.

Zhou Lingchun leaned close to her ear and said, “Even so, you have to take care of yourself. Liansheng will definitely cry if he knows you’re sick.”

Grandma’s eyebrows drooped, and the wrinkles on her face became more pronounced. She sighed. “Oh, don’t tell Liansheng. If he cries, my head will start aching.”

“Then you can’t collapse.”

Grandma snorted. “You brat, daring to threaten me with Liansheng, are you?” She reached for the walking stick propped against the wall and tapped Zhou Lingchun’s leg a few times. “Go do your own business!”

Zhou Lingchun’s eyes curved for a moment. He went to the kitchen, fetched the hot water, and carried it back into the room.

As requested, he meticulously wiped Liansheng’s body with a towel, then wiped himself. After that, he applied face cream to Liansheng, making his skin smooth and tender. They messed around for a while, and by the time they changed into clean clothes, it was almost noon. Before Zhou Lingchun went to cook, he took the candy from the top of the cabinet and popped one into Liansheng’s mouth.

Liansheng sat propped up in bed, one cheek bulging. “You’re just taking advantage of the fact that I can’t reach the top of the cabinet, aren’t you? Next time, I’ll climb up on a stool.”

“Don’t you dare.”

Zhou Lingchun’s voice was firm. After saying that, he went to the kitchen to cook. Neither of them could eat strong flavors right now, so he cooked very lightly. For lunch, he cooked the edamame Grandma had shelled, stewed a steamed egg, and the third dish was the white-cut chicken they had packed back from the market.

Previously, Aunt Sun had dropped by and was utterly shocked to see Zhou Lingchun cooking. She remarked that men should be in charge of external affairs and women internal, but Liansheng wasn’t in charge of either internal or external affairs. Aunt Sun loved to gossip, and before long, Zhou Lingchun became known as the best husband in the neighboring villages.

In less than half an hour, Zhou Lingchun brought the food to the dining table. He went into the room to call Liansheng for dinner, only to find him asleep in bed.

Liansheng’s face was peaceful. His cold hadn’t fully cleared, and his breathing was slightly congested, causing a faint humming sound. Zhou Lingchun walked over, sat by the bed, and watched him for a few seconds. Then, he pinched Liansheng’s face to wake him up for dinner.

Liansheng impatiently swatted Zhou Lingchun’s arm, then kept his eyes tightly shut, sleeping soundly. Unable to do anything, Zhou Lingchun inserted two fingers into Liansheng’s lips, stirred them around, found the half-melted candy, hooked it out, wrapped it in paper, and threw it into the trash can.

As his fingers withdrew, Liansheng smacked his lips, seemingly sensing something was wrong, but he only frowned, wrapped himself in the quilt,

wb@葡萄的蒲桃

turned over, and faced away. The faint, impatient murmuring was quite noticeable.

Liansheng slept for a full three hours. In a daze, he heard Zhou Lingchun anxiously calling his name.

He thought Zhou Lingchun was trying to summon his soul. He opened his sleepy eyes, everything blurry, only able to make out a figure. He rubbed his eyes, sat up in bed, and yawned. “Why are you calling me so early? Is it morning?”

Zhou Lingchun said, “It’s the afternoon.”

After eating and seeing Liansheng still asleep, Zhou Lingchun figured he had woken up early. So, after washing the dishes, Zhou Lingchun first carried two bags of fertilizer and scattered them in the fields. When he returned, Liansheng was still sleeping. He went to call him again, and it took a long time before Liansheng finally woke up.

Liansheng said “Oh,” his expression slightly bewildered. Zhou Lingchun scooped a bowl of porridge from the pot, took a spoonful, and brought it to Liansheng’s mouth. “Eat first.”

Liansheng opened his mouth and ate. Just like that, spoon by spoon, he finished the entire bowl of porridge.

After taking his medicine, Liansheng finally regained his energy, reversing his earlier gentle and quiet demeanor, and started playfully clinging to Zhou Lingchun’s back.

Zhou Lingchun carried him around the room for about fifteen minutes. He needed to go work in the fields. It was the busy farming season, and the family still relied on those few acres of land for sustenance. Zhou Lingchun couldn’t truly abandon the fields this year. He needed to scatter the fertilizer on the remaining three acres so the wheat seedlings would grow strong.

He pushed the cart out from behind the house and loaded the bags of fertilizer he had bought a few days ago, which were stacked against the wall, onto the cart one by one. After moving all of them, he turned around and saw Liansheng, like a cat, suddenly climbing onto the cart and sitting on the fertilizer bags.

He was wearing a straw hat and old clothes. He looked at Zhou Lingchun, who was about to send him away, and said, “Hurry up and push! Let’s finish early and go home early.”

Seeing his excited look, Zhou Lingchun said nothing more. His strong hands gripped the cart handles and pressed down. Liansheng, sitting on the cart, slowly rose along with the fertilizer bags until the cart was level. Then, with the sound of the wheels being forcefully pushed, they started moving.

The leaves of the trees planted along the road were yellowing in the autumn, and the sky was gray and misty, looking like it might rain. They passed a large jujube tree with some remaining fruit. Zhou Lingchun reached up, picked some, and placed them in Liansheng’s palm.

The jujubes were bright red and small, resting quietly in Liansheng’s hand.

Some fields that were planted earlier already showed a layer of green growth.

The cart was pushed to the edge of the field. Zhou Lingchun took out the bucket he had brought and quickly mixed the different bags of fertilizer inside. Then, he hung the bucket strap over his arm and began to scatter the fertilizer evenly across the field.

Liansheng walked alongside Zhou Lingchun, his feet stumbling over the hard clods of dirt. During a pause in Zhou Lingchun’s scattering, he reached into the bucket, grabbed a handful, and scattered it around with a serious look.

“See, isn’t mine scattered evenly?” Liansheng looked pleased with himself.

It was actually not bad, but Zhou Lingchun pushed him slightly away. “Go sit on the field ridge.”

Liansheng protested, “What? Just say it if you think I’m not doing a good job.”

He stomped over to the nearby field ridge in a huff, pulled up a handful of grass to cushion the ground, and plopped down on it.

Zhou Lingchun continued walking forward. Liansheng watched Zhou Lingchun’s figure gradually blur, so he ran a few steps forward. He noticed a raised mound of dirt in the field, stepped on it, and walked diagonally up to the very top.

Zhou Lingchun finished scattering and turned around, seeing Liansheng sitting on a grave mound. He frowned, quickened his pace, and said to Liansheng sitting on the dirt mound, “Why did you climb up here? Get down quickly.”

Liansheng rarely went to the fields. This area was near the mountains, the land was uneven, and the mound didn’t have a tombstone like other graves, so he naturally didn’t know what the dirt mound in this field was. He said, “What’s wrong? Why is there a dirt mound in your field? Why don’t you level it and plant more wheat?”

Zhou Lingchun reached out and carried him down. “Don’t talk nonsense. That’s a grave.”

This land wasn’t Zhou Lingchun’s own; it was rented from other villagers who had gone out to work and stopped farming it.

A dead person was buried in the grave, naturally.

Liansheng’s eyes instantly widened, and he let out a gasp, whispering to the grave mound, “I’m sorry!”

As dusk approached, a drop of water suddenly fell from the sky and hit Liansheng’s face as he sat on the cart. He blinked and shouted to the man still scattering fertilizer, “It’s raining! Let’s go home quickly!”

But the rain only lasted for a few drops and then stopped. The clouds had drifted southward. Zhou Lingchun rushed back, looked at the one remaining bucket of fertilizer, and decided to scatter it completely. Once finished, he pushed the cart, carrying Liansheng, and headed home.

It wasn’t until the middle of the night that Liansheng suddenly developed a high fever.