Chapter 98: Worth the Effort
The man who had stood up was like an eagle, filled with a masculine assertiveness. Even though Bai Naihan had deliberately restrained himself, the sudden dominance of this male hormone in their shared space made Yun Qinghuan quite uneasy.
Especially now that she had to tilt her head slightly to talk to him, and if she got a little closer, she could even feel his shallow breath drifting over her head.
It wasn’t like before, when the man was in a wheelchair and barely reached her shoulder, and she could speak somewhat carelessly.
Now, without needing any specific reminder, Yun Qinghuan was mindful of keeping her distance from him.
For example, at this moment, Yun Qinghuan had just finished cooking and was about to call her mother-in-law for dinner. She carried chairs and placed them around the table, first inviting the man to eat.
The man stood up from beside the stove, leaning on his crutches, and walked a few steps towards her. Yun Qinghuan subconsciously took a step back, feeling relieved when the distance seemed to be within a safe range.
She lowered her head slightly, her toes shifting back a little more, and then looked up at the man. “What’s wrong?”
Bai Naihan paused, his hand gripping the crutches a bit tighter. His amber eyes looked as deep as ancient wells. “Sister-in-law, the desk I made for you last time is finished. It’s in my room. Take a look later and tell me if there’s anything you want to change.”
“Ah?” Yun Qinghuan didn’t react for a moment, then nodded sharply. “Oh, oh, oh, I remember now. Thank you, Naihan. I’ll go take a look after I eat.”
If he hadn’t reminded her, she would have almost forgotten about asking him to make a desk for her.
She patted her head, feeling like she had become muddled from writing recently.
It was because the editor-in-chief had sent over the royalties for the previous two issues of her stories, amounting to twenty or thirty yuan. He said the stories had received a great response, and sales had increased a lot, so her commission was also higher.
The editor was now urging her to finish writing and send the manuscript for the second novel as soon as possible, aiming for a seamless transition from the first novel. He also said that her pen name, Yun Danfeng Qing (Clouds and Breeze), had already gained a reputation and a certain readership. As long as she wrote good stories, she would definitely become very popular in the future.
He also mentioned that a publishing house had taken a liking to her first novel and was in negotiations, trying to give Yun Qinghuan the highest possible royalties.
In short, the editor-in-chief had painted quite a few promising prospects, so Yun Qinghuan had been full of energy recently, spending her days either reading high school books and doing exercises or writing her manuscript, busy from morning till night, and had forgotten about the desk.
She only vaguely remembered that her younger brother-in-law liked to carve wood whenever he had free time.
Fortunately, at this moment, An’an, with his dog-like sensitive nose, smelled the food and came over, taking a deep sniff and saying happily, “Mom, there’s meat!”
The little guy unknowingly broke the awkward atmosphere, running excitedly to the table to look, clutching his stomach and feeling even hungrier.
“Hurry up and wash your hands and eat,” Yun Qinghuan said, trying to ignore the man’s gaze and urging him to wash his hands quickly.
Even though she now had royalties, Yun Qinghuan couldn’t afford to feed her family meat every day. After all, meat not only cost money but also required meat coupons, otherwise, you couldn’t buy it even if you had money.
So, usually, they would buy it every two or three days when they craved it. But even so, the Bai family’s living conditions were much better than before.
At least almost every meal consisted of rice or white flour. As for the rough wheat bran, they no longer ate it.
Mainly because Yun Qinghuan couldn’t eat that stuff.
She also went to the yard, stood in front of her mother-in-law’s room, and called out to her to eat.
Liu Yuzhi had worked in the fields until past ten in the morning. She had also gotten up early, going to the fields before dawn. One had to know that it was summer now, and the sky was already bright around five in the morning. So, usually, Liu Yuzhi would be quite tired after finishing her work and would take a nap in her room, otherwise, she wouldn’t be able to handle it.
Now, Yun Qinghuan had changed her routine to deliver food to Liu Yuzhi in the morning.
She had only called out once when a rustling sound came from the room, and Liu Yuzhi responded.
For lunch, they had stir-fried shredded potatoes with vinegar, stir-fried lotus root slices with pork, steamed rice, and tomato and egg soup. The four of them managed to finish all the dishes, not leaving a single grain of rice, their stomachs full to bursting.
After eating, Liu Yuzhi didn’t let the two of them wash the dishes and pots. She had rested enough at noon, and since there was nothing else to do in this hot weather, she simply started washing the dishes.
Yun Qinghuan didn’t want to stay in the kitchen either. It was too hot. After cooking and eating, she was covered in sweat, feeling sticky and uncomfortable, thinking of getting some water to wipe herself down and change her clothes.
Summer clothes were thin. Besides the smell of sweat, there wasn’t much else. She could just rub them with some soap by hand, and they would dry by the afternoon.
Without air conditioning and having to cook, it was easy to sweat, and Yun Qinghuan had gotten used to changing her clothes twice a day.
After eating, the man led her into his room.
To be honest, Bai Naihan’s room was very tidy, excessively tidy. She had only seen it when An’an was sick last time, but she hadn’t looked closely. She hadn’t seen it at other times. Now that she was in the room, she only glanced around a few times before looking away and then at the desk leaning against the window.
One could tell it was a brand-newly made desk, with even some intricate patterns carved on it, very beautiful. It retained the natural wood color, with only wood wax oil applied after carving the patterns to prevent any fine wood splinters from pricking people.
When Yun Qinghuan saw the finished product, she stared in astonishment, stunned for a long while before reacting. Then, she walked around the desk. “Heavens, it’s so beautiful!”
It was so beautiful that it didn’t look like a desk at all, more like a work of art.
She hadn’t thought much when she asked Bai Naihan to make a desk for her, just thinking that it would be usable. She really hadn’t expected him to make it so beautiful!
Such a high-quality, purely handmade desk, in modern times, would cost at least ten or twenty thousand yuan, especially with the man carefully carving so many patterns on it. Even with money, it would be difficult to buy.
No wonder she often saw the man carving wood and wondered what he was doing. It turned out all the results were here.
Seeing that she liked it, the man’s tense body relaxed slightly, and he said with a smile, “It’s good that Sister-in-law likes it.”
It was worth all the effort he had put in.
“I like it, I really like it!”
Her eyes were bright, like a starry river. “Naihan, who did you learn carpentry from? You can even do hand carving, you’re so amazing!”
The man’s expression became a bit dim. “I learned it from an old master craftsman.”
Because he had suffered hardship from a young age, after Bai Naihan became more sensible, besides going to school, he thought about making a living all day long.
It just so happened that at that time, a university professor had been sent down to this area. He was a knowledgeable old craftsman with superb carving skills. This old master knew all the traditional Chinese carving patterns.
At this time, carpentry was still a sought-after skill. Even if it didn’t earn a fortune, at least one wouldn’t have to worry about food and drink.
Bai Naihan didn’t know at first that the old master could carve. He only knew that he was pitiful and would occasionally bring him some food.
Even though he himself wasn’t living well, he couldn’t bear to see others suffer.
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