"Sister, do your hands hurt?" Gong Ruwen saw Gong Ruini stop hitting and his first reaction was to ask if her hands hurt.
As for the strength his sister used when she hit him just now, although it hurt a bit, he is a man, how could he admit to pain?
Gong Ruwen grabbed Gong Ruini's hand and unsurprisingly saw that her small hand was already red.
"Brother, can you blow on it for me?"
"This will make it stop hurting." As Gong Ruwen blew, he instructed Gong Ruini, "Don't use your hands in the future, it'll make them hurt."
"Next time, use your feet, okay?"
"Don't worry, your brother has thick skin, it's fine."
Can you believe it? Knowing this boy loves to protect his sister, I didn't expect he could go this far. Usually, guys don't like to bring girls along to play, especially a delicate girl.
In the memories of the original Gong Ruini, her brother Gong Ruwen would take her wherever he went, no matter how annoying he found it, no matter how many times his friends ridiculed him. If he couldn't take Gong Ruini, he simply wouldn't go out to play.
Gong Ruini would never really kick Gong Ruwen. Even if she did, people might smile on the surface but who knows what they'd say behind her back. "Then you can't lie to me in the future."
Some things can be just for show, but shouldn't be done excessively. Gong Ruwen might be spoiling his sister now, but if he keeps getting bullied by her, as a brother, he'll eventually be unhappy.
"Sure, sure." That's what Gong Ruwen said, but who would really be happy to be punched and kicked? It's not like he's got a mental condition.
"Sister, this place is really nice. In a few days, we need to collect honey. Brother said we can have honey to drink in the future. I won't drink it so you can have it all." His sister's in poor health and needs proper nutrition.
Clearly, just now, Gong Ruini was beating and hitting him constantly, but in just a moment, they're all good again. Zhao Guangran was dumbfounded, "Does he have a mental illness?"
The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. If he wasn't mentally unwell, why would he tell a girl to use her feet instead of her hands to hit? No sane person would say that.
Foolish kid is a foolish kid. "You need to take good care of your sister in the future." Although a bit spoiled, it's still okay. This allowed Zhao Xuran to relax a bit.
Even though the parents say Uncle Gong's family is nice, Zhao Xuran still had his doubts. After being apart for so long and only communicating through letters, who really knows what Uncle Gong's family is like?
Take good care of the sister? Really? Zhao Guangran was dumbfounded. This girl with such strong combat power still needs his care?
"You know you're the brother, right?" Zhao Xuran didn't expect Zhao Guangran to be exceptionally good to Gong Ruini. Besides, the girl never thought anyone other than the Gong Family would treat her well.
Zhao Xuran just hoped his silly brother could learn how to be a good older sibling by taking care of Gong Ruini so that when the baby in their mom's belly comes out, they can take better care of the child.
They used to have grandma to look after mom, but now grandma is in the distant home village. Even if she's worried about mom's health, she can't come over, and the parents wouldn't allow it anyway.
Now they feel having Aunt Cai here is a relief as at least she can help take care of mom during her postpartum period. Otherwise, with dad's cooking skills, they'd only be able to say people wouldn't starve to death.
"All right, time to eat." After Cai Meina returned, she started preparing lunch. Even though it's winter in the Northeast and they usually eat two meals a day because they stay indoors longer, it's also to save food.
Thinking about food made Cai Meina anxious. She's not sure if she can buy grains nearby; otherwise, they can't rely on Zhao Family's food supply for the winter.
Gong Tao, upon hearing it's time to eat, touched his already growling stomach and went to the well to wash his hands, "It's not easy to fetch water in winter."
"I later dug a well in the backroom, I did it privately," Zhao Gang quietly said. "In the first winter when we came here, fetching water was a real problem. Later, I also thought about renovating the bathroom, so during the winter break, we dug a well."
Hearing that they won't need to fetch water in winter, Gong Tao sighed in relief. Otherwise, having his wife fetch water in the harsh winter would be quite the chore.
"Let's eat, let's eat." Zhao Gang called everyone to the table from the kang, "Yesterday's meal was a bit formal to welcome you, but we're not at the level to eat like that all the time."
Worried the Gong siblings would notice a steep drop in the quality of meals, Zhao Gang explained.
"It's quite good; at least we have enough white rice to eat." Gong Tao, concerned his silly son might say something inappropriate, quickly spoke before Gong Ruwen.
Gong Ruwen felt a bit disappointed that there was only shredded meat stir-fried with cabbage, far from yesterday's feast, but he remembered his parents' words from their journey here, that they were intruding on Uncle Zhao and shouldn't have too many demands.
"These meals are fine, but Uncle Zhao, won't eating white rice every meal eventually make us hungry?" Gong Ruwen worriedly asked while holding a big bowl of rice.
He wasn't demanding meat, but they couldn't starve.
Gong Ruini also anxiously looked at Zhao Gang, hoping he wouldn't say there was no more white rice to eat. The feeling of starving wasn't good; she could actually accept eating mixed grain rice.
"We have national food coupons. We'll go to purchase grains with them later." Cai Meina placed the last fish soup on the table, suddenly realizing she hadn't taken out the food coupons.
Cai Meina initially thought that if they got along well with the Zhao Family in the Northeast, they could live in their house and eat separately. However, Zhao Gang and his wife were clear about not separating meals, so they needed to use the food coupons.
National food coupons are quite valuable, "Keep them, I'll help exchange them for cash later if needed, or save them for future use since there's no time limit." Zhao Gang said using national food coupons to buy grains was quite wasteful.
"As for rice, don't worry, I have a lot of grains stored, enough for all of us to eat until next October; feel free to eat as much as you like."
"Especially by the end of the year, we'll also have our food rations." Zhao Gang assured everyone with a smile that they could eat heartily without worrying about going hungry.
Thank goodness, they won't go hungry. This put Gong Ruini at ease, but then she thought something was off. How could there be so much food?
The place wasn't that big. Gong Ruini had toured the not-so-large house yesterday and today, and there was no hidden place for grains. It wasn't like they had a basement.
In such a desolate area, and with a house that doesn't look impressive—despite being made of large green bricks, it doesn't resemble a wealthy home. If it's built by poor folks, how could there be something as mysterious as a basement?
Could it be Zhao Gang is deceiving them?
This suspicion wasn't only in Gong Ruini's mind; the rest of the Gong Family had similar thoughts. However, no matter how they skeptically looked at Zhao Gang, he remained relaxed, leaving the Gong family to just focus on eating. If there's not enough, they'd just use the food coupons to buy more grains.