Chapter 53

The dogs’ names were thus decided. The three males were called Peach, Plum and Orange, while the female was called Peanut.

Although the names of the dogs had been settled, there was an uneasy relationship between Xu Ran and Liu Tong.

Since Xu Ran said sorry yesterday, both of them had not talked to each other. Xu Ran was guilty, but Liu Tong was scared by Xu Ran. Last time the one who had said sorry to him was his daddy, but the next day after that, his daddy left with his dad.

Ever since then, these three words had become an untouchable wound in his heart

Today, Ran went out early in the morning. No one even knew when he left, much less where he went.

It was noon now and he hadn’t come back. After Liu Tong had finished his chores at home, Xu Ran still didn’t come back. After the lunch was ready, Liu Tong walked around the courtyard. Still, he saw no one out there.

Originally, Liu Tong wanted to wait for Xu Ran for lunch, but he was afraid that the two kids would be hungry, so he let them eat first. After feeding the dogs, Liu Tong went into the room.

He took out the small bag hidden in the soil under the bed. There was money from selling chili paste these days. Liu Tong poured out all the money and counted it carefully. There were still one hundred taels of silver and seven taels of small change in it, which could support their whole family for a long time.

Liu Tong put the silver back into the small bag and held it tightly in his hand. With this money, he could bring up Tangtang and Guoguo. Besideds, he could earn money himself, too. Their life would not be difficult in the future. The only thing that made Liu Tong sad was that Tangtang and Guoguo would suffer again. They would be harassed by others’ gossip.

However, he didn’t think about himself at all, nor did he think about keeping Xu Ran, let alone the fact that Xu Ran would not even want to leave them.

Xu Ran came back in the afternoon. At the gate, he called, “Hey, Tongtong, is there water? I am so thirsty.”

As he spoke, he walked in, and after entering the house, he found a bench and sat down, his head covered with sweat.

Liu Tong was staring blankly at the food left by Tangtang and Guoguo. Hearing Xu Ran’s words, he responded at once, went to pour him bowl of water and sent to him at the door.

Xu Ran quickly gulped all of it, and then handed the bowl to Liu Tong, indicating that he wanted more.

Liu Tong took it and poured another bowl of water for him. He didn’t come back to himself until he drank a few bowls of water.

Liu Tong then went to fetch a basin of water for Xu Ran. Watching Xu Ran washing his face, Liu Tong asked, “Ran, what were you doing? How did you get so sweaty?”

Xu Ran breathed a sigh of relief, and then he told Liu Tong what he had done outside. He first went to Xiaobudian’s granddaddy’s house to send money to them. Then he went to the village head’s house to talk about the issue of growing wheat. Finally, he went to several families to find some long-term workers. He told Liu Tong that all the work in the field would be contracted out to the workers in the future. And because of these businesses, he forgot the time by running here and there. Besides, the weather was so hot today that he was wet all over.

Hearing these, Liu Tong felt relieved. Although Ran hadn’t waken him up in the morning and hadn’t reported where he was going, at least he was now back at home.

Xu Ran turned around and explained to Liu Tong, “I didn’t wake you up this morning because I saw you were sleeping soundly then. I was considering to settle the issue of hiring long-term workers while we were not so busy at the time being. These days, we’ll make a trip to the mountain.”

Liu Tong also realized that he really got up late in the morning. He stayed up all night because of something on his mind. He didn’t fall asleep until dawn. No wonder that he didn’t know when Ran went out this morning.

Hearing that they were going to the mountain these two days, Liu Tong hurriedly said, “It’s too dangerous in the mountain. We can’t bring Tangtang and Guoguo with us this time.”

Xu Ran nodded, “Of course. We will send Tangtang, Guoguo and the four dogs to Wu Mei’s house. Let’s pay them some money and let them take care of them for a few days. When we get ready for solid food, we will go up the mountain. ”

“Okay, we’ll make some steamed bread tomorrow morning and take it with us.”

They discussed their work in tacit agreement, as if they had never had any estrangement. Actually, nothing had ever changed. It was just that Liu Tong himself had overthought it.

After the discussion, Xu Ran suddenly asked, “Tongtong, do we still have any rice? I’m so hungry. ”

It was not until he saw Xu Ran’s pitiful look that Liu Tong realized that he didn’t eat anything either.

He looked at the dishes on the table in the room and replied, “Wait a moment. I’m going to heat the food. I didn’t know when you would come back, so I’ve let the kids eat first.”

“Alright, I’ll have a break first.”

Xu Ran was really tired. He sat there in a daze and soon fell asleep leaning agaist the wall.

When Liu Tong came out, he found Xu Ran was sleeping soundly. He wanted to wake him up for dinner. However, looking at the fatigue on his face, Liu Tong kept back his words. He walked over to pick up Xu Ran gently and laid him on the bed. Then he sat down by the bed with a fan in his hand and lightly shook it to fan him.