As soon as Sun Lan'er arrived, Xia Zhi pulled her down to sit on the edge of the kang. "Lanzi sister, thank you for helping me clean up these days when I'm not around."

  Sun Lan'er took a glance at Xia Qiao and guessed that he was the one who had spoken to Xia Zhi. Then she smiled and said to Xia Zhi, "This doesn't count as anything, I can clean it up easily. I love cleaning this place."

  Xia Zhi didn't exchange many polite words with Sun Lan'er. When their relationship reached a certain level, too many polite words would only make them feel distant from each other. So she opened her bundle and let Sun Lan'er see the things she had brought back for her from the prefectural city.

  Xia Zhi never failed to bring things for Sun Lan'er, a whole set of new combs, silk flowers, hair ribbons, and small trinkets that girls like, as long as Xia Zhi bought them, there was always one for Sun Lan'er.

  Sun Lan'er had never seen so many exquisite and beautiful trinkets before, her eyes widened, and she rubbed her hands over each item, she could hardly believe it was real.

  "Sixteen... are all these for me?" After a while, Sun Lan'er raised her eyes to ask Xia Zhi. In this short period of time, Sun Lan'er's eyes had become somewhat moist.

  "Of course, it's all for you, Sister Lanzhu. I also got some for the twelfth month, and I bought one portion for each of us." Xia Zhi said with a smile to Sun Lan'er.

  Lai Yue was also on the side, echoing and handing over the large red banana leaf to Sun Lan'er for her to see. "This is also what Fourth Sister bought for us, saying that we should each make one to wear as a jacket. Hehe, I've never worn a jacket before."

  Sun Lan'er touched the ruler handed over by Rui Yue, and for a moment she was so excited that she didn't know what to say. "Sixteen, where did you get so much money?" It took her a long time to ask this sentence.

  Xia Zhi didn't plan on explaining in detail either, just saying that it was money she earned by helping others with work.

  "I'm sixteen, I always take your things. I have nothing." Sun Lan'er felt that Xia Zhi had given her too many things, she was a bit embarrassed and also felt indebted to Xia Zhi. She was older than Xia Zhi, but Xia Zhi took care of her in all aspects.

  "Lanzi sister, you're being too polite. I've already bought it for you, you have to take it. Otherwise, I'll get angry." Xia Zhi pouted on purpose.

  Laiyue was beside Sun Lan'er, persuading her to put things away.

  Xiaqiao didn't leave, he sat on the long bench on the ground and smiled at several girls talking. At this time, he also advised Sun Lan'er: "This is a heartfelt gift from sixteen, Lanzi, you just accept it. You usually take care of sixteen too. Sixteen treats you as her own sister."

  Xia Zhi nodded: "My elder brother is right."

  Sun Lan's eyes became increasingly moist. This girl had a hard life since childhood, so she would be particularly moved when treated slightly better. Xia Zhi was sincere and genuine, and looking at Xia Zhi, it seemed like he really did have money now, Sun Lan said she accepted the gift.

  "I won't take it back, I'll leave it with you." Sun Lan'er said to Xia Zhi.

  "Alright." Xia Zhi agreed readily, knowing what Sun Lan'er was concerned about.

  The bundle of Xia Zhi was opened, and inside were many things that belonged to her, such as the new clothes she had just bought, and that exquisite and beautiful dressing case.

  Lan Yue and Sun Lan'er couldn't take their eyes off, Xia Zhi opened all the packages and let them see. She also asked Sun Lan'er if she had eaten enough for dinner.

  Sun Lan'er just said she was full, but Xia Zhi knew she wasn't telling the truth. Sun Lan'er often went hungry at home, so that meal had filled her up, and to her, it was being full.

  "Big brother......" Xia Zhi was called Xia Qiao.

  Xia Qiao immediately understood and hurriedly went out to make arrangements. Xia Zhi looked at Xia Qiao's back and pursed his lips. Xia Qiao's temper was actually that of a good older brother.

  Lan Yue and Sun Lan'er looked at the things Xia Zhi had brought, and they were a little surprised. Xia Zhi patiently explained each one to them, and the two little girls felt like their horizons had been broadened.

  They took turns asking Xia Zhi about her life in the imperial city, and Xia Zhi also chose interesting things to say. Until Xia Qiao came in with a bowl and chopsticks.

  Xiaqiao filled a full bowl of rice for Sun Lan'er and also brought over the half bowl of dishes that he had left behind, letting Sun Lan'er eat. In fact, Xia Zhi was somewhat suspicious. Xiaqiao wasn't the kind of big man who didn't do household chores; he could handle all kinds of housework and knew that food couldn't be left overnight during this season.

  Everyone in the family has had a good meal except for Tian Shi, who refused to eat. Xia Qiao deliberately left half of it behind, was it meant for Sun Lan'er?

  Xia Zhi thought for a moment and felt it was very likely.

  Xiaqiao asked Sun Lan'er to eat, but Sun Lan'er was too embarrassed and refused. Xia Zhi persuaded her: "Lan'er sister, you're being polite again. You'll get sick if you keep starving yourself like this. If we didn't have any food, that would be one thing, but our family isn't lacking a single bowl of rice."

  "I always eat here. Dàniáng and Dàqiáo Gē always leave me food." Sun Lan'er said. It seems that during this period, the Tian family and Xia Qiao have been treating her very well. Knowing this, Xia Zhi felt at ease.

  Sun Lan'er felt embarrassed, but after all, she was still very close to Xia Zhi and the others. After being persuaded for a while, she also felt that refusing again would be pretentious. So Sun Lan'er picked up her rice bowl and started eating.

  Xiaqiao then let her finish the dishes as well. "If we leave them until tomorrow morning, they'll go bad and can't be eaten. These are good dishes that Liu brought back from the prefectural city, you try some too."

  After finishing speaking, Xiaqiao left.

  Sun Lan'er finished eating and went out to wash the bowls and chopsticks, only then did she return to the west room. Xia Qiao was not in this house, so the little girls were no longer restrained.

  Three little girls took off their outer clothes and sat on the kang wearing only their undershirts, chatting. Sun Lan'er also brought out the jacket from the summer solstice and carefully compared it with others, discussing with Lao Yue to cut the fabric tomorrow to make a jacket.

  Xia Zhi also gave Sun Lan'er two pairs of shoe uppers, letting her make two new pairs to wear. Sun Lan'er agreed. In Xia Zhi's basket, there were many needlework pieces made by Sun Lan'er.

  Sun Lan'er let Xia Zhi see the lotus bags she had made in recent days. Sun Lan'er's lotus bags had already filled up a whole box. "Just wait for you to come back and take them to town to sell, then it will be up to you to decide what to do with the money." This was her plan to hand over all the money from selling the lotus bags to Xia Zhi.

  "Sixteen, I think there's enough fabric left to make two more pieces besides the one for Jia. Let me make you a bellyband too. What pattern do you want? Tell me and I'll embroider it nicely for you."

  "It's all right." Xia Zhi smiled, "The main thing is that you and Dongyue can make do with the clothes. As for belly bands and whatnot, we can buy fabric to make them later."

  "It's definitely enough, I have a count in my heart. What you bought must be with surplus." Sun Lan'er said.

  It's better to buy more fabric on summer solstice than not enough, even if it means having some leftover.

  The sky outside had long since darkened, and the three little girls had watched something for a while before extinguishing the candle. Then, they lay down one by one on the kang, still not willing to close their eyes and sleep, chattering away with no end of things to say.

  This situation is somewhat like a slumber party in the dormitory before summer vacation when I was in school.

  They asked Xia Zhi about many things in the city, and also talked about some family and village matters. Because they mentioned that Xia Zhu had been engaged, Sun Lan'er and Lao Yue told Xia Zhi which family's daughter got married during this time, and whose son took a wife.

  There aren't many people getting married this season.

  Larou told Xiazhi that Old Man Xia personally went to pull weeds in Second Uncle Xia's field. Then Third Uncle Xia and Third Aunt Xia took pity on Old Man Xia, so they also went over to help.

  "Daqiao and I also went to help, we were exhausted. Who knows what Erbo was thinking, his own land, the grass on the surface was cleared, but inside the land the grass was very tall." Lanyue pouted, "Grandpa said he's just fooling himself."

  Whenever they mentioned Xia Ershu, Lao Yue would also talk about how they left Xia Yang to be taken care of by Old Man Xia and Old Lady Xia. "At first, for those few days, Xia Yang cried all day long, and the worst was at midnight. Not just our grandparents, even we couldn't sleep."

  "Second Uncle and Second Aunt are really heartless." This is how Lao Yue evaluated it. It's not just her evaluation, everyone in the village who knows about this matter says so.

  In fact, Xia Er Shu and Xia Er Shu did not completely do this out of cruelty. Xia Zhi always felt that these two were somewhat silly or unreliable to some extent.

  "May and July won't be back either." Sun Lan'er also asked a sentence. She just heard Xia Zhi say that Xia Ershu's family lived in the prefectural city.

  "They must not want to come back." Xia Zhi said. Looking at Xia Er Shu and Xia Er Shu's meaning, they wanted to find a husband for Wu Yue in the prefecture city, and also wanted to ask Zhang Qiao'er and Tian Jian Sheng to find one with good conditions.

  Several girls lowered their voices to talk, but in the main room, they could still vaguely hear what they were saying. Mrs. Tian didn't know how she ended up walking into the main room and didn't know how much she had heard, but then she loudly said to the west room: "It's getting late, you few hurry up and rest, stop chattering on and on."

  The twelfth lunar month had just begun, and Tongue-Head was already vomiting. The three little girls looked at each other, then fell silent.

  In the summer night, there was a cool breeze. Along with the cool breeze, the faint scent of jasmine flowers wafted in from the windowsill outside. The white jasmine planted at the beginning of summer had bloomed.

  Summer solstice is sleeping in this faint jasmine fragrance.

  The next day, they woke up to a brand new day. Lao Yue and Sun Lan'er both refused to eat breakfast at Xia Zhi's place, so after tidying up a bit, they each returned to their own homes.

  Tian picked up a block of tofu, in the local dialect of Daxingzhuang, "picking tofu" means buying tofu. This block of tofu, plus a handful of freshly picked scallions and a bowl of sauce just scooped out of the sauce jar, made for a summer solstice breakfast dish at the Tian household. As for staple food, Mrs. Tian had prepared several large pancakes made from corn flour.

  There were still some eggs in the gourd of the hall, but Tian Shi didn't bear to take them out for everyone to eat. Even though Xia Xiucai rarely came back this time. Tian Shi's reason was very sufficient.

  This time Xiaxiucai changed all the things in his hands into silver, so there was no gift to give to his father-in-law's family. Tian Shi, however, was not willing to return empty-handed to her natal home. Her plan was that even if there were no other gifts, she could take back the eggs she had saved as a gift for Old Man Tian and Old Lady Tian to celebrate the festival.

  "Take this egg over to your grandma, she can pickle it and eat it slowly." Tian said at the breakfast table, then she took a special glance at Xiaoshu.

  The little tree bowed its head and peeled rice, without lifting its head once.

  "We're going back to see your grandma and grandpa, we can't go empty-handed, this is a gift. We'd rather not eat ourselves than shortchange the old folks, or else people will say we're unfilial." Tian Shi said with an air of righteousness.

  It's as if only Old Man Tían and Old Lady Tián are old people, but not Old Master Xià and Old Lady Xià.

  Tian himself was used to saying so and didn't think there was anything wrong, but when he saw Xia Zhi's eyes with a hint of abnormality, he realized that his words had loopholes.

  "Your maternal family is poor and relies on our support. The old couple in the backyard doesn't lack anything. They don't need these little things from us." Tian Shi still had an air of righteousness about her.

  Everyone was silent, Tian's recognized truth, especially this truth, no one could persuade her otherwise.

  Tian saw that no one was speaking, so she thought she had intimidated everyone. She then consulted with Xia Xiucui: "I still have some money in my hand. It's not good to just take eggs back, let's pass by Linshui Town later and buy something for his grandparents."

  Xia Xiuren responded in a low voice, saying everything would be done according to Tian's wishes.

  "Listen up, you're always able to bring back a lot of money for me to spend. If it weren't for my frugal ways, there wouldn't even be any money left over for socializing!"

  As for those thirty taels of silver, I don't know how Tian calculated it. She simply ignored it directly.

  After dinner, Xia Zhi put away the bowls and chopsticks, and Tian Shi let Da Qiao go to the general store entrance to hire a car. The village's young daughters-in-law usually return to their parents' home on foot if it's not too far, such as 10 or 8 miles away. If it's farther away and can't be walked, they often hitch a ride.

  Tian's family would hire a car every time they returned to Kao Shan Tun.

  Xiaqiao left, and Tian's family began to pack up their bundles. As they packed, they complained that there was nothing good to bring back to their mother's home, implying that Xiaxiucai was not good.

  Then, Tian also took a look at Xia Zhi.

  Today on Xia Zhi, she originally wanted to change into her old clothes with patches this morning. However, after some thought, she gave up the idea.

  Today, Xia Zhi wore a goose-yellow cheongsam dress, took off the hairpin on her head, but still wore the earrings. The collar of summer clothes is slightly larger, and you can still see the silver pendant hanging around her neck.

  Tian's family was angry because they had no money and nothing good to bring back to their maternal home, and seeing Xia Zhi dressed like that made them even angrier.

  "Sixteen and you're done," Tian said with a huff. "The old Tian family can't afford to entertain a Miss Thousand Gold."

  "The children all went, how can sixteen not go?" Xia Xiuzai kindly persuaded Tian Shi.

  "Girl, you really won't let me go." Xia Zhi put on an attitude of indifference, "If I'm seen by the people in my grandma's village, when you go back to see my grandma, you can't even bring all the family members with you, who knows what they'll say."

  Tian's family was very concerned about their reputation in the village, and after Xia Zhi said this, she no longer mentioned not bringing Xia Zhi to Kao Shan Tun.

  "Sixteen, you have money, give some to your mother first." Tian Shi said to Xia Zhi.

  (。)