Zhao Dahu responded, and without hesitation, went under the car to check the oil tank. The actual inspection matched the oil gauge; the tank was almost out of oil.
They were on a long journey, and each car carried spare fuel.
Once the fuel theft was confird, Zhao Dahu didn’t wait for Ling Chengyan to say more and added the spare fuel into the tank.
Ling Chengyan invited Ma Dajun, who had just gotten up, to go out and buy breakfast.
Liu Xianghu and Zhang Wanxiang, who woke up slightly later, asked Zhao Dahu and then went to the breakfast shop to eat.
Zhao Guangrong watched as the two groups headed to the breakfast shop, and with a grim face, he signaled Zhao Dahu to follow. If he didn’t tag along, he wouldn’t know what they might say behind his back. If they conspired and returned to give him trouble together, he wouldn’t be able to explain himself well no matter what.
After a day and night, the snow on the road hadn’t lted; instead, it was pressed more firmly, forming a layer of ice that beca a smooth surface. Vehicles were hesitant to speed on the road, and braking suddenly was not an option; they could only inch forward slowly.
Fortunately, with the anti-slip chains equipped, the tires weren’t sliding too badly. Six n in three vehicles spent an entire day before finally returning to the base at dusk.
Once the car stopped steadily, Ling Chengyan jumped off and realized that her entire body—bones and muscles—were stiff.
Ma Dajun exaggeratedly raised his arms and stretched his legs while exclaiming, "This whole day has been exhausting; I was scared to breathe deeply, and now my body is numb..."
Ling Chengyan looked at him and the others, Zhang Wanxiang and Liu Xianghu, and chuckled, "You guys go back, stamp each other’s feet, and ease the fatigue. All right, we’ve made it ho safely; ti to take a break."
Arriving at the base, there were guards on duty, so even if the goods weren’t unloaded from the vehicle, they didn’t need to stay alert and didn’t have to wake up for shifts in the middle of the night.
Dragging their stiff and aching bodies, they headed back.
Just as they crossed the small gate, they could see from afar two figures, one large and one small—Wang Liansheng holding Shi Tou. The adult and child were both wrapped up and standing under the gable of their row of houses, looking eagerly.
"Mom!" Shi Tou shouted clearly, reaching out to Ling Chengyan for a hug.
Ling Chengyan quickly walked a few steps forward, picking up Shi Tou, who was wrapped like a small cotton ball. Seeing the child’s cheeks a bit red, she said, "What’s up with your face? Is it red from the wind?"
Wang Liansheng took her shoulder bag and luggage, saying, "He cried last night..."
Ling Chengyan didn’t think much about it and teased Shi Tou, asking, "Why did you cry? As a man, when Mom isn’t ho, you should protect your Aunt and Sister. How co you ended up crying?"
Shi Tou was very eager when learning to walk, but he was lazy with his words. He could call mom at seven months but still couldn’t clearly call sister or aunt, and said very few other words.
Upon hearing Ling Chengyan inquire, the little one, perhaps shy or sothing, tightly hugged Ling Chengyan’s neck, burying his face into her coat collar, refusing to look up or speak.
Playing possum.
"Hey, playing possum, huh? Playing possum won’t help later when I ask Aunt and Sister..."
A chubby little hand covered Ling Chengyan’s mouth: "No!"
"Alright, I won’t ask, I won’t ask." Faced with Shi Tou’s threat, Ling Chengyan could only compromise, "Then tell , Shi Tou, why did you cry?"
Shi Tou seed to forget and tilted his head, thinking for a while before suddenly saying one word: "Pain!"
Ling Chengyan frowned slightly, continuing to ask, "Where does it hurt? Is it your stomach that hurts because you didn’t eat properly?"
Shi Tou was stumped this ti, tilting his head and thinking but couldn’t rember if his stomach hurt. Feeling a bit aggrieved, he pounced to hug his mom’s neck again, playing possum, and didn’t speak.
Returning ho, removing the bulky outer clothes, Ling Chengyan took little Shi Tou to wash hands and face, took off his shoes, and directly put him onto the bed to play for a while.
While playing, she inspected the child. She didn’t remove Shi Tou’s clothes, just felt around and asked, but the little one shook his head for everything; no pain, no pain, none.
Ling Chengyan felt relieved, while Wang Liansheng helped Xiao Yu set up the al, and the family gathered joyfully for dinner.
Ling Chengyan took out the biscuits bought on the road: "If it weren’t for the snow, I could have bought so donkey at jelly for you to taste..."
Wang Liansheng handed her a bowl of porridge, saying, "There’ll be plenty of chances when you drive out in the future."
Ling Chengyan nodded, watching as Wang Liansheng took Shi Tou to feed him, "I’ll feed him; you eat while it’s hot. After the poor eating along the way, drink more soup to cleanse your stomach."
Ling Chengyan sipped a mouthful of thick rice soup, sighed, "Hmm, ho-cooked als taste best."
Then laughed, "It wasn’t as tough as you say. Mainly, it snowed these days, the weather was cold, worried the car would stall frozen if idle too long, wouldn’t dare linger."
After dinner, Xiao Yu said due to heavy snow, night school was temporarily canceled.
Ling Chengyan then asked her and Xiao Xing to study and do howork and write characters together. Wang Liansheng looked after Shi Tou, assisting her in preparing water for washing hair and soaking feet.
"After you wash your hands and feet with hot water, apply this." Wang Liansheng handed over a round small tin box.
Ling Chengyan recognized it from the departnt store—a balm better than the five-cent clamshell oil sold by the co-op, with a new thin layer of tin foil, the cream inside was pure and fragrant.
Ling Chengyan had bought snow cream for her face, but she only used it at ho, not while on the road staying out; typically, she didn’t bother with applying things and typically didn’t bring them.
"It’s specifically for moisturizing the hands; it prevents chapping," Wang Liansheng whispered, "I bought oil for face protection for Shi Tou; the sales clerk gave this."
Listening to his sowhat redundant explanation, Ling Chengyan smiled, simply thanking him: "Thank you."
After drying her hands and feet, she actually used the balm on them. Shi Tou, like a puppy, chased her scent, and she applied a bit of children’s cream on him, rubbing it onto his red cheeks and little hands. With fragrant little hands raised joyously, he finally stopped chasing her feet for scent.
Playing a while, Shi Tou nestled in Ling Chengyan’s arms and started dozing. She took off his padded coat and trousers, leaving only a small autumn shirt, preparing to tuck him into bed.
The little one, once inside the bed, flipped over like a fish, fallen asleep with his butt up.
Covering him with a quilt, Ling Chengyan suddenly noticed under his bottom, on the pale chubby leg, it had several noticeable red pinhole-like marks.
Ling Chengyan hurriedly leaned down for a closer look, counted ticulously; only one leg had these red pinhole-like marks, almost equally spread on the inside of the chubby leg... Ling Chengyan counted, a total of eleven.
Quietly, she covered the sleeping Shi Tou with the quilt, tidied clothes, put on shoes and descended to the floor, sitting on the chair, waiting for Wang Liansheng to return from fetching water.
He said Shi Tou ’cried,’ Shi Tou had said it was ’painful’ leading to crying. Ling Chengyan hoped to hear a reasonable explanation.
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