Rebirth Counterattack with Space-Chapter 24 - Tell

“Oh, is that it?” Shitou breathed a sigh of relief, “I promise to be at your beck and call whenever there’s work to be done.”

“You didn’t understand.” Lu Aiguo’s face was full of mirth. “My wife means that Xiaoyun is afraid to sleep alone in her room at night. She wants you to move in and sleep in the same room to keep her company. From now on, you might as well stay and work here. She’ll take care of your meals.”

“The kind without a wage.” Lu Aiguo immediately added, “But in the future, she’ll make sure you have a house and a wife. What do you think?”

“…”

Shitou looked at him, his eyes reddening. Whenever he had been with Brother Aiguo, he had never been let down.

“Give me an answer, will you? If you don’t agree, how am I supposed to explain it to my wife? I’ve made a promise, and you don’t want her to say I can’t handle even a small matter, right?” Lu Aiguo was getting impatient with Shitou’s demeanor and urged, “I’ve given my word, would you have the heart to let me disappoint my wife?”

“I don’t want a wage. Nor do I want a guaranteed house or a wife,” Shitou quickly said, then bowed his head and took a big bite of the meat bun. In the soup bowl, ripples gently spread from the blossoming water droplets.

“That won’t do, you don’t plan to eat and drink at my expense forever, do you?” Lu Aiguo hadn’t noticed Shitou’s unusual behavior and teased him, shaking his head, “If you don’t have a house later on and can’t find a wife, and you blame me forever, how is that fair for me?”

“Then I’ll just blame you,” Shitou’s voice carried a heavy nasal sound, and now Lu Aiguo couldn’t help but notice.

Lu Aiguo: “…”

After a moment of silence, Lu Aiguo said, “All right, we’ll talk about that later. Xiaoyun is still young and a girl, bound to be a bit spoiled. You’re older, so in the future, you should be more accommodating to her. If she acts out or says something unreasonable, she’s probably been fooled by others. If you hear such things, don’t hold it against her.”

Patting his shoulder, “After calling me brother and my wife sister-in-law, don’t consider yourself an outsider. I’ve only told your sister-in-law about how I got the scar on my face, and she cried, insisting that we invite you over. From now on, we’re family. There are no secrets between family, and you shouldn’t go back to that side anymore. How you’ve been treating me before, just treat me like that in front of your sister-in-law. If you’re formal with her, that’ll hurt her feelings.”

“Mm… Brother, I know what to do now,” Shitou wiped away tears, looking up at him, “Don’t worry. I’ll be considerate of Xiaoyun from now on.”

“Good brother,” Aiguo was delighted, “Quit dawdling, start eating. Do you know where these meat buns came from?”

“Was just about to ask you. The smell of these buns is amazing. How did you get them?” Shitou looked utterly baffled. He had been mixing with Aiguo for a long time now, earning money together. Aiguo’s tricks and trades were essentially his, too—what could there be that he wasn’t familiar with?

“They just appeared out of nowhere.”

Aiguo felt uneasy thinking about the incident as he frowned and recounted in detail what had happened that morning to Shitou.

“You didn’t see the huge pot full of meat buns, and all that meat, eggs, oil, rice, flour, cabbage, and watermelon. Both your sister-in-law and I were baffled. We hid them in the cellar we dug. The meat buns couldn’t be kept for long, afraid they’d go bad, I used up the ones that were given this morning to some relatives.”

Aiguo sighed, “Even when Uncle and Second Uncle asked, we managed to brush them off. Neither your sister-in-law nor I dare to tell anyone, our hearts are heavy with worry. But it surely wasn’t with malicious intent; I didn’t detect a hint of danger. Besides, nowadays there simply isn’t enough food to go around; who could possibly afford to use such things as bait in a trap? And if it’s a trap, they’ve definitely got the wrong target.”

Could it be such an extraordinary event? The brothers had struggled to find sustenance in the deep mountains for many years, honing their instincts for danger to a keener edge than most. And, just like Brother Aiguo said, what value could the two of them possibly have that someone would go to such great lengths to set them up?

Moreover, who would use such precious food for a plot to trap someone?

Shitou picked up another meat bun, turning it over in his hands, still completely puzzled.

“There’s nothing wrong with the buns. If there was, we wouldn’t dare to offer them to others so freely. Better hurry up and eat. This might not be something we can figure out anytime soon.”

Aiguo suddenly laughed, “But these buns, with their thin skins and generous fillings, and well-seasoned, taste so much better than anything we used to have back in the village. I gulped down six big ones this morning. You can eat quite a bit yourself; there’s plenty to finish here, and still more left. I brought another twenty to eat at noon when we’re up in the mountain. With wheat flour, meat, and cabbage on hand, what if we make dumplings for dinner tonight? It’s a good omen for a complete and united family.”

“This is plenty, there are quite a few eggs in the soup my sister-in-law made,” Shitou put his spoon aside and took a sip from his bowl, “Then let’s have dumplings tonight. Tell your sister-in-law, I’ll finish eating and then go knead the dough. We can let it rise, and come evening we can roll out the wrappers directly.”

“Okay, once you’re done eating, head to the kitchen. I’ll go talk to your sister-in-law. Shitou, what your sister-in-law said wasn’t wrong. If you don’t start eating more to bulk up, what are you going to do if you don’t pass the physical for military service later? Before, there was nothing to eat, but now that we have something, don’t skimp—what you eat puts flesh on your bones, and with a good physique, isn’t there nothing you can’t earn back?”

Aiguo thought about what his wife said, “blown over by a breeze,” and couldn’t help but want to laugh again. His own daughter was even more amusing. Is it that no matter how old a girl is, she doesn’t like it when people say she eats a lot?

Aiguo left, already standing and making his way out, and Shitou’s face twitched.

He silently lowered his head and cleaned up his bowl of egg soup and meat buns, touching his stomach, which hadn’t felt this full in a very long time, and he sighed. Maybe Brother Aiguo was right; he didn’t want to go through the experience of being likened to “blown over by a breeze” or a “bamboo pole” or anything similar again.

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