Chapter 6: You don't want me, you want my chicken?

Early the next morning, when Li Long got up, he felt the temperature in the room had dropped significantly. He rubbed his hands and feet together, quickly put on his clothes, and walked over to the stove. He poked at it with a fire hook, only to find that the fire had long since gone out.

He had been exhausted when he returned last night and hadn't replenished the coal from the shed, so now he had to rebuild the fire from scratch.

Pushing the door open to head outside, Li Long rubbed his hands together and trotted over to the coal shed. He grabbed a few reeds for kindling, a handful of corncobs, and two pieces of firewood before hurrying back inside.

In that short time, his ears had already turned red from the cold.

He opened the stove door, cleared out the ash with the fire hook, laid down the reeds, spread the corncobs on top, and added the firewood. After closing the stove lid, he took out his kerosene lighter, bent down, and lit the tufts of reeds he had set aside at the stove mouth. Seeing the fire catch, he shut the door.

Just as he was cleaning up the ash, the door was pushed open and Li Qiang walked in, rubbing his hands

"Uncle, Mom says to come over and wash your face, breakfast is ready."

"What's for breakfast?" Li Long asked while scooping up the ash.

"Cornmeal porridge, pickled vegetables, cornmeal cakes, and oh, steamed buns too!" Li Qiang’s eyes were bright.

"That sounds good," Li Long said with a smile.

"It's not good, I wanted meat," Li Qiang whispered. "My sister told me not to say anything, but I know she wanted some too..."

"Then we'll have meat for lunch," Li Long said as he carried the dustpan of ash outside. "How about that?"

"Great! Uncle, what kind of meat?" Li Qiang asked, looking up with sparkling eyes. "Are we having 'quack-quack chicken' again? That tastes good, but there’s so little meat on them."

"Quack-quack chicken," Li Long said, patting Li Qiang on the head. "Don't rush, let's eat breakfast first."

"What's a quack-quack chicken? Mom won't let us kill the chickens at home; she says they'll lay eggs next year."

"It's not from home." Li Long went out to dump the ash, left the dustpan by the door, and led Li Qiang into the west room.

The steam from cooking and boiling water made the outer kitchen feel damp. Liang Yuemei was stir-frying pickled vegetables; seeing Li Long enter, she said while tossing the pan

"Xiao Long, go wash your face quickly, it's time to eat."

"Alright." Li Long replied, heading to the washbasin stand in the corner. Seeing that the water had been changed, he gave his face a quick wash.

Li Qiang had already run into the room he shared with Li Juan and shouted to his sister

"Sister, Uncle said we're having quack-quack chicken for lunch!"

"What?" Li Juan was tidying up their pillows and quilts and hadn't heard clearly.

But Li Jianguo, who was outside, heard it and scolded

"What quack-quack chicken? Where are you going to catch quack-quack chickens now?"

Li Qiang felt a bit wronged. He walked over to Li Jianguo and said stubbornly

"It was my uncle who said it. My uncle said we're having quack-quack chicken for lunch."

Li Jianguo and Liang Yuemei both looked at Li Long.

"I caught a few last night," Li Long said, gesturing outside. "I left them in the snow. I plan to pluck and clean them after breakfast."

"A few?" Li Jianguo looked astonished. He knew exactly what his younger brother was capable of. Forget catching quack-quack chickens; even when the family slaughtered a chicken, he wouldn't lift a finger to help. What had gotten into him?

"Five." Li Long held up his hand, proudly gesturing with his five fingers.

"Let's go take a look!" Li Jianguo was skeptical.

"I want to see too!" Li Qiang shouted, following behind Li Long.

Li Juan didn't say anything, but she followed along as well.

Liang Yuemei wanted to go too, but with the vegetables still in the pan, she had to stay and listen to the commotion.

Li Long walked to the snow pile against the courtyard wall, used a wooden shovel to break the crust of snow, and dug around a bit, revealing the quack-quack chickens hidden inside.

"One, two, three... five! Sister, there really are five!" Li Qiang counted happily as Li Long laid them out one by one.

"Alright, alright, that's enough," Li Jianguo glared at him, then whispered to Li Long

"Xiao Long, where did you catch these?"

"At the edge of the field." Li Long pointed toward the east, but just as he was about to give more details, the sound of footsteps and barking dogs came from outside.

Li Long wanted to put the chickens away as quickly as possible, but it was too late.

A girl appeared at the main gate.

Li Long glanced at her but said nothing.

Li Jianguo smiled and took the initiative to greet her

"Shufen, you're here?"

Wu Shufen hadn't expected to see the two Li brothers and both children outside. She froze for a moment.

When she saw the quack-quack chickens at Li Long's feet, she couldn't help but swallow hard.

The words she had prepared on the road for a while now suddenly wouldn't come out.

Hearing Li Jianguo's greeting, Wu Shufen looked flustered; she didn't know what to say.

Looking at the chickens, Wu Shufen thought to herself that breaking up could actually wait a day or two.

To be fair, Wu Shufen was quite pretty. Although she was wearing a large floral cotton-padded jacket, her cotton trousers were clearly tailored to be slim-fitting, she wore trendy cotton-rubber shoes, and the floral headscarf on her head was quite stylish—Li Long had been attracted to that pretty face and her sense of style back then.

It was just a pity that he hadn't seen the fickle, gold-digging heart behind that pretty face at the time.

Seeing Wu Shufen staring intently at the chickens, Li Jianguo thought that since she was his brother's girlfriend, he should be polite

"Well... Shufen, look, Xiao Long caught these quack-quack chickens yesterday. Why don't you..."

"Big Brother," Li Long knew what Li Jianguo was thinking the moment he heard him, so he immediately interrupted. He glanced at Wu Shufen and continued

"Big Brother, wait for me to ask a few questions."

Li Jianguo knew that in the relationship between his brother and Wu Shufen, his brother was the one in the weaker position. After all, Wu Shufen was pretty and had many suitors. Seeing his brother suddenly take the initiative, he thought it was a good thing, so he said

"Go ahead and ask."

Then he turned to Li Juan and Li Qiang and said

"You two, get inside the house."

He then turned and walked toward the house himself.

It was better not to listen to a couple talking.

However, Li Long didn't care who was around. He asked Wu Shufen directly

"Did you hear from Gu Ermao that I got fired, so you came over to break up with me?"

What? Break up?

Li Jianguo stopped in his tracks, turned his head to look at Li Long in surprise, and then looked at Wu Shufen.

Wu Shufen hadn't expected Li Long to bring up the topic first, and she was immediately put on the defensive.

But she definitely wanted to break up. Worried that Li Long might say something unpleasant, she hurriedly spoke

"Yes, let's break up. You got fired, so you must have done something bad! We started dating because you pursued me, and at the time, I thought you were sincere and had a future. I just didn't expect your character to be so poor. Being fired is something that affects your whole life; I don't want to be... implicated... later on."

Having said that, Wu Shufen didn't continue.

She knew Li Long's temper—he was vain and cared about his reputation. Breaking up was fine, but it was a pity about the chickens—if they hadn't broken up, Li Long would surely have given her two or even three of them.

Perhaps, to win her back, he would just give her one? Should she take it?

Li Long knew exactly what the girl was thinking just by looking at her expression.

You want to break up with me, but you want to eat my chickens?

Not a chance!