Chapter 20: If You Don’t Work, You Won’t Eat (3)  

She did not eat much, just half a pancake, and a few mouthfuls of porridge.

The red braised pork had been polished off. If Gu Qingyao had not quickly taken a few more pieces for Grandfather and Grandma, most of it would have gone into Zhang Xiaohui and Gu Ruoqing’s stomachs.

After dinner, Gu Ruoqing vanished. She had gone out to play.

Zhang Xiaohui was in the kitchen washing the dishes, scraping pots, and boiling water to wash their feet because her father had forced her to. Usually, either Gu Qingyao or Grandma Wen Ruyu attended to these things. Zhang Xiaohui and Gu Qingyao acted like they were the family ancestors.

Gu Qingyao returned to her room and thought for a while before searching through the warehouse of her interspace for some wool.

She had collected these in her previous life, and still had plenty. So she took out some black wool to knit a sweater for Mo Beihan. He would have to leave after his furlough came to an end. She would finish knitting it so that he could take it with him.

Then she remembered that she had plenty of time in her interspace. She could probably knit several sweaters before Mo Beihan left!

The sky gradually darkened. Most farmers went to bed early because kerosene was too expensive, and they could not afford it.

After everyone slept, Gu Qingyao took her wool and entered her living interspace.

The fact that her interspace was divided into two portions was perfect for Gu Qingyao.

One part was used as a warehouse to store goods, while she could freely enter the other half, which was the living interspace. The ten acres of land in the living interspace included a natural pond. A small row of houses stood by the pond.

For the sake of convenience, the houses there had all been constructed outside, and were the kind of temporary houses that construction workers lived in at the construction site.

However, she had used good materials and had them made to order, so that their exterior was much prettier.

They looked just like small villas that could be found in villages, and were particularly rustic and idyllic.

Gu Qingyao had placed a rocking chair under a cherry tree next to the pond. She sat there to knit and when she grew tired of it, she pottered around her fruit trees and plucked the ripe fruits.

After that, she carefully inventoried the resources in her interspace and recorded them in a book. Then she recalled in detail the events and people she had encountered recently, and planned for the future. Only then did she rest.

Gu Qingyao rose early the next morning, prepared to go to the kitchen to make breakfast. But when she entered the kitchen, she realized that much of the meat in the kitchen was missing.

A portion of the pork ribs had disappeared. Approximately three kilograms of the fish she had caught yesterday was gone. The largest fish were still there, probably because it would be too obvious if she took them. So she had only taken the medium-sized ones.

Six whole buns were missing from the kitchen shelf. There had been ten left, and now she had taken six of them.

Gu Qingyao ground her teeth in anger. Zhang Xiaohui was a despicable wretch!

She must have taken them to supplement her natal home.

Gu Yunshen happened to wake up at the same time. He saw Gu Qingyao standing in the kitchen and said, “Yao Yao, why are you up so early?”

Gu Ruoqing had also risen early and happened to enter the kitchen at the same time. When she saw Gu Yunshen emerge, she immediately stopped and said, “Father, I have to go out!”

Then she hurriedly fled the house.

This was not the busy season, and there was no morning meal, so she did not want to linger at home where she would have to work.

When he heard Gu Ruoqing’s voice, Gu Qingyao immediately turned and shouted, “Don’t move!”

She lunged for Gu Ruoqing and caught hold of her.

“Don’t you dare run out. You stay here and work. You’ve been a freeloader all your life. The Gu family hasn’t raised you to play all day at your age. Tidy the courtyard and wash everyone’s dirty clothes from yesterday. Then wash the radish sprouts. If you don’t finish everything by the end of the morning, you won’t get any lunch!”