Chapter 104 – Jealousy (5)
There was a shallow smile on Li Hua’s lips as he stood by the stove with his right hand raised.
Little Five was leaning on the side of the stove. Seeing his fourth brother like this, he tried to keep his own smile a secret, but he couldn’t stop the laughter from escaping his mouth. He hurriedly covered his mouth.
Li Hua had already heard him and turned his head to look at Little Five. The smile on Li Hua’s face deepened, then he gestured for Little Five to keep silent by placing his finger against his lips.
Little Five nodded and tactfully sat back down and pretended that he was just empty air.
At this time, there was the sound of someone approaching here in a hasty walk. Li Hua raised his head and saw that Li Man had come back with a clean and old piece of clothing.
While he was feeling slightly stunned, Li Man had already stuffed the old clothing into his other hand. “I couldn’t find much. Just use this to wipe off the water.”
After that, she dipped a cotton wad into the alcohol, lifted his other hand higher, and carefully helped him clean his wounds.
When the cool alcohol seeped into the wounds, it felt as if countless needles were stabbing into his fingers. And yet, Li Hua suddenly felt that he liked this type of feeling. He even wished that he could feel this sensation forever.
Once the wounds were cleaned, Li Man tossed the cotton wads into the bottom of the pot. Then, she used tiny strips of clean cloth to wrap up his fingers and tied up the makeshift bandages with string.
“Done.” Seeing the disinfected fingers, Li Man let out a long sigh and felt quite accomplished.
“En.” Li Hua’s heart felt comfortably warm. Seeing her smiling face, he felt a bit giddy too.
However, as soon as Li Man raised her head and saw that there was still water dripping down his forehead, she furrowed her brow. Displeased, she asked, “Why didn’t you dry yourself off?” After asking this, she took the old piece of clothing from his hand, stood on her tiptoes, and wiped the water from his forehead to his cheeks. At the end, she even patted his shoulders, chest, and back with the old clothing to help him remove the excess moisture.
After having done this, she tossed the old clothing into his arms and said, “Hold onto this.”
Water was bubbling out from underneath the lid. Li Man was worried that the noodles were going to be overcooked, so she hurriedly went over, lifted up the lid, and used the spatula to stir the noodles around. Then, as she sprinkled some of the already minced garlic into the pot, she asked, “Where’s everyone else? Call them over to eat.”
“En.” Li Hua deeply looked at her for a moment. Then, he looked at Little Five, who was tending to the cooking fire, and smiled at him before turning around and walking out.
Repairing a roof took time. The parts of the ruined thatched roof had to be completely removed and that area had to be cleaned. Li Mo along with Li Yan and Li Shu had been busy with this work for quite a while, but the work was only half done. They didn’t come down from the roof until Li Hua came over and told them it was lunchtime. They washed their hands and got ready to eat.
Li Man had already taken out the noodles and portioned it out into bowls on the table. There was one large bowl of noodles for each person, and there was still steam wafting above each bowl.
Li Shu had gotten hungry a while ago. He started eating as soon as he picked up his chopsticks and ate half of his bowl without pausing. Once he was done, he raised his head and smiled at Li Man, “Wife, how did you make these noodles? They smell really good.”
“This is called knife-cut noodles. There’s no meat at home. If there was meat, I could have added braised minced pork…” Li Man amicably explained. However, when she reached halfway, she remembered that she was still feeling annoyed that he kept calling her wife, so she closed her mouth and stopped talking.
Since she had trailed off, Li Shu couldn’t resist asking, “Braised? What’s that?”
Li Man diligently ate her noodles and didn’t say anything.
Li Mo took a sip of the noodle soup and said, “Let’s eat. There’s still work left to do after lunch. The rain will most likely get worse in late afternoon.”
“Oh.” Li Shu nodded as he ate. He didn’t want to climb back onto the roof when the rain got worse. It was really uncomfortable to work when it was pouring outside.
At this time, Li Yan looked at Li Hua and asked, “Fourth brother, is your hand okay?”
Li Hua’s fingers instinctively stiffened for a moment. “It’s fine.”
