"If you don’t come over, your mother is going to die of thirst!"

Mrs. Lin muttered at Mu Dalang as she spoke, without moving a muscle.

She was clearly waiting for Mu Dalang to bring the tea right up to her mouth.

But instead of doing what Mrs. Lin expected, Mu Dalang put the tea on the table.

"Mother, the tea is still hot. Wait a bit till it cools, then you can come down and drink it yourself!"

Mu Dalang’s tone wasn’t exactly warm, and as soon as Mrs. Lin heard it, she blew up.

"What do you mean by that? Asking you to bring a bowl of water is such a hardship, huh? You forget, when you were sick as a child, who was it that raised you with your shit and piss?"

Mrs. Lin copied the lines Old Mrs. Mu loved to use, originally wanting to move Mu Dalang so he’d pour her some water to drink.

But because she altered Old Mrs. Mu’s words on her own, what sounded somewhat sincere from Old Mrs. Mu turned ridiculous coming from her!

Mu Dalang glanced at Mrs. Lin lying on the kang, then walked out of her room without looking back.

Mrs. Lin started cursing loudly in the room: "Get back here, you heartless thing, where are you going? Mu Dalang, you bastard Wang Ba..."

Her curses grew louder and more foul.

Just as Mrs. Lin was about to stop and catch her breath, the door opened again and Mu Dalang came in holding a bowl.

The bowl was full of cold water he had just gone to ask from Mrs. Liu.

In the end, he didn’t want to see his own mother turn into a shrew over one mouthful of water.

"Drink." Mu Dalang handed the bowl to Mrs. Lin, and she grabbed it and gulped down several mouthfuls of tea in one go.

She drained the bowl clean, then without even looking at Mu Dalang, flopped back and went to sleep.

Mu Dalang sighed, took the tea bowl, and went to the kitchen.

After washing the bowl clean and putting it into the cupboard, Mu Dalang finally headed toward the third branch.

He had only meant to tell Mu Shuangshuang that he hadn’t managed to get the money and was planning to go back.

Who knew that before he even reached the third branch’s kitchen, a mouth-watering smell hit his nose.

It was fish soup. Mu Dalang sniffed and couldn’t help sighing: this smell was amazing; it had to be Shuangshuang cooking.

Mu Dalang thought for a moment and decided not to go into the third branch’s kitchen.

So he wouldn’t get dragged to stay for a meal by Shuangshuang.

But just as he turned around, Mu Shuangshuang came out hugging a wooden basin. The basin was full of vegetable wash water she was going to pour into the latrine.

In a farming household, water for daily use was never wasted.

Most of it was poured into the latrine; once the latrine was full, they’d collect that slurry and pour it onto the fields as fertilizer.

"Big cousin, where are you going?" Mu Shuangshuang called out to Mu Dalang.

Mu Dalang turned around and scratched his head, a bit embarrassed.

"I...I just came to tell you, Shuangshuang, that I’m heading back first!"

"Heading back? What for? I’ve already finished cooking!"

"Shuangshuang, I...Bita is still at home, I don’t feel easy leaving her alone." Mu Dalang came up with an excuse, hoping Shuangshuang would let him off.

"Oh, I already thought of that. When I was cooking, I made some for cousin-in-law too. We’ll just go call her over later, won’t that do?"

Mu Dalang froze, and had just opened his mouth when Mu Shuangshuang beat him to it: "Big cousin, if you and cousin-in-law don’t eat here today, then in the future when Fengzi and I go to your place, we won’t stay for meals either!"

"O-okay! Then I’ll go back to call Bita first!" Unable to win against Mu Shuangshuang, Mu Dalang could only nod.

He looked at the wooden basin in Mu Shuangshuang’s hands and added, "Give me the basin, then. This goes into the latrine, right?"

Mu Shuangshuang nodded. "Then I’ll trouble you with that, big cousin. I’ll get back to cooking!"

In fact, Shuangshuang was almost done cooking. She had only worried the cold noodles might not be enough, so she hurried to knead some more dough to make cold noodles.

By now, the noodles were ready; all that was left was to boil water and cook them.

She added firewood into the stove, then poured half a pot of water into the big iron pot she had washed clean.

While the water was heating up, Mu Dalang came into the kitchen with the wooden basin.

He didn’t stay long; after saying a few words to Shuangshuang, he headed to Tie Dao Village to fetch Huang Bita.

By this time, the water had boiled, and Shuangshuang started putting noodles into the pot.

She scooped the cooked noodles out bit by bit and put them into a wooden basin full of cold water.

Very soon, Shuangshuang had a big basin of noodles all done.

The seasonings for the cold noodles and cold noodles she had long prepared.

Peanuts, shredded cucumber, garlic and vinegar, plus the chili oil she had rendered herself—guaranteed that once the cold noodles were mixed, they’d be sour, spicy, and fragrant.

Shuangshuang went into the house and called Xiao Han out.

The kid, even injured, still held onto a book and wouldn’t let go.

A real studious one; who knows, he might truly make something of himself in the future.

As she was thinking that, there was suddenly a commotion outside the yard.

Mu Dashan came back with Lu Yuanfeng and Xing Beichen. The three men all looked a bit bedraggled, faces dirty, clothes soaked through.

Shuangshuang hurriedly picked up two wooden buckets and went outside.

"This is water I just heated earlier, there’s still some warmth in it. You all can wash up." As she spoke, Shuangshuang took another wooden basin out.

Back in the house, she took out Mu Dashan’s towel; she had one prepared for Lu Yuanfeng as well. But as for Xing Beichen, he came to the third branch less often than Lu Yuanfeng, so Shuangshuang hadn’t set one aside for him.

She said, "Xing Beichen, you can use Fengzi’s towel later. If you aren’t used to that, I can tear off a piece of cloth for you."

Xing Beichen grinned and laughed aloud. "No need, I’ll just use Fengzi’s! By the way, Shuangshuang, what good stuff did you make? We could smell the aroma from far away!"

Shuangshuang smiled. "Take a guess!"

"How are we supposed to guess that? Right, Fengzi?" Xing Beichen turned to look at Lu Yuanfeng beside him.

Who knew Lu Yuanfeng would just open his mouth and say, "Mushrooms, fish, and meat. Seems like there’s wild greens too."

Shuangshuang gave Lu Yuanfeng a big thumbs-up. "Awesome! That’s exactly it. Once you’re all washed up, you can go wait in my dad’s room for a bit. We’ll eat lunch in his room."

Eating in the kitchen was fine in winter, but in summer, it was no different from sitting beside a stove.

Once the three men had washed, Yu Si Niang came back with a hoe on her back.

Since she’d gone to the dry fields, she actually looked much better than the three men.

She had just stepped into the house when, right behind her, Mu Dalang arrived with Huang Bita. Little Zhi and Yuanbao trailed after them, hopping and skipping like two little rabbits.

With everyone here, it was naturally time to get the meal ready.

Shuangshuang used two big sea bowls to ladle out two bowls of fish and mushroom soup. The men had done heavy work and used up a lot of strength, so she’d made a braised meat dish.

The cold-mixed wild greens were brought to the table, and then there were the cold noodles and cold noodles, which she needed to mix herself.

Everyone gathered together, and in no time at all, they carried the whole tableful of dishes in.

Seeing the dishes on the table, it was obvious everyone was in a very good mood.

There was fish and meat on the table; for a farming family, this was clearly a table full of substantial dishes, quite generous.