NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 112 - 112 There's Also an Older Brother
Chapter 112: Chapter 112 There’s Also an Older Brother
Jiang Yan looked at the little girl, her eyes and brows bending into a smile, “Little friend, do you know me?”
Seeing her beaming and not angry, Zhou Wei and Wang Jiamei’s expressions immediately relaxed.
The little girl pursed her lips, her bright eyes shining, “Mm-hmm, my mom, dad, uncles, and aunts all say you’re really amazing!”
Jiang Yan couldn’t help but laugh, “Such sweet words from a little friend. Let me see if I can find some candy for you, all right?”
As she spoke, she took off the black backpack from her back, unzipped it slightly, and pretended to rummage inside.
In reality, she just needed to think about it, and a rainbow lollipop was taken out from Space.
“Oh? Lucky day! I actually found one! Here you go!” Jiang Yan said tenderly, squatting down to hand the lollipop to the little girl while casually asking:
“Little beauty, how old are you, and what’s your name?”
Zhou Wei was about to interject when he saw the girl’s eyes light up, joyfully accepting the candy, “My name is Zhou Haoyue, ‘Haoyue’ as in the bright moon in the sky, and I’m six and a half years old! I also have a brother, he’s…”
“Zhou Haoyue!” The little girl’s excited speech was suddenly cut off by Wang Jiamei’s harsh interruption.
Zhou Wei’s face suddenly turned a bit ugly.
“…” Zhou Haoyue shuddered, bit her lip, and looked down, silent.
Jiang Yan: “…”
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Su Dai also frowned slightly.
“Haoyue, you’ve received candy from your aunt, so shouldn’t you say thank you? We don’t want to be impolite children,” Wang Jiamei said, perhaps realizing her earlier loss of control and quickly tried to remedy the situation.
Holding the lollipop in her hand, Zhou Haoyue timidly looked up at Jiang Yan and said, “Thank you, Auntie.”
“You’re welcome.” After Jiang Yan replied, she gave the girl an encouraging look.
Su Dai sensed something off about the couple’s expressions and said:
“Eh, Brother Zhou, you have a little son at home? Why didn’t I see him with you last night?”
In normal times, such family situations would clearly belong to personal privacy.
Out in the world, she was someone with a strong sense of boundaries.
If the other person did not talk about it themselves, she would not ask.
But the current situation was anything but ordinary, and Su Dai found herself gossiping quite a bit more.
“Heh, yes.” Zhou Wei’s face showed a trace of embarrassment but he quickly said:
“Sorry about that, we’re going to head back home now,” and he reached to tug at Wang Jiamei’s sleeve.
Wang Jiamei looked at them with an awkward smile, “Haoyue, say goodbye to the aunts.”
“Aunt Jiang Yan, goodbye. Aunt Su Dai, goodbye.” Zhou Haoyue sniffed, hugging her toy cow a little tighter.
The three turned and walked back together.
The door to Apartment 3203 slammed shut with a bang.
Jiang Yan and Su Dai watched the troubled backs of the family of three, exchanged a glance without a word, and turned to enter the house.
In normal times, inviting neighbors over when they move would be common.
Ideally, one should give something or a red envelope as a gift.
But now, with resources scarce, these customs had fallen by the wayside.
Moreover, this wasn’t exactly a celebratory housewarming for them.
Additionally, Jiang Yan noticed that when Su Dai inquired whether Zhou Wei had a little son, his face broke into an awkward smile, but his fists were suddenly clenched tightly.
And there was also a trace of barely detectable hatred and fear in Wang Jiamei’s swollen, red eyes.
However, it wouldn’t be good to inquire too much.
After all, every family has its own difficult story.
Inside the apartment, Sun Jingtao and Tian Jiliang were working together to move a three-seater leather sofa toward the wall.
The commodities that had been piled up inside the room had been tidied up, leaving the living room much more spacious and airy.
Ye Qing was focused on adjusting a smoke outlet, his back to the door.
Near the floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room, they had built a brick and cement stove.
A large stainless-steel mesh from a steaming pot was placed as a griddle in the stove.
When burning wood, the wood could be placed on the mesh, allowing the ashes to fall through.
The middle was left hollow, increasing air contact and facilitating combustion.
The smoke outlet was in place, and two white PVC pipes had been fixed to serve as smoke ducts.
The pipes stretched diagonally toward the windowpane.
Due to the recent construction of the stove, a damp cement odor permeated the living room.
Hearing the sound of the door closing, Sun Jingtao and Tian Jiliang looked over in unison.
Ye Qing paused in his adjustments and looked up at Jiang Yan, a flash of joy that was almost imperceptible in his gaze: “Jiang Yan!”
Jiang Yan looked at him and smiled, greeting with a “Hi.”
Partly because she had been spending time with Su Dai and her husband, Jiang Yan felt that the aloofness on his face had lessened compared to before.
His overall demeanor seemed to be improving.
“Jiang Yan.”
“Jiang Yan, you’re here, come in and sit down!”
Tian Jiliang and Sun Jingtao also greeted her.
Both were long-standing residents of Shallow Bay and knew her longer than Jiang Yan did.
Jiang Yan greeted both of them in return.
Su Dai gave her a simple introduction to Tian Jiliang, saying he now lived on the 29th floor and was the only one left in his family.
But she didn’t go into the tragic circumstances of Tian Jiliang’s parents, wife, and son, who had all died successively in the extreme heat.
“Jiang Yan, why don’t you sit for a moment and rest? We’ll be ready to eat once we sweep the floor,” Sun Jingtao said politely after patting the dust from his hands and looking at Jiang Yan.
“No rush, just let me know if there’s anything I can help with.” Jiang Yan finished speaking, took out some supplies from her backpack, and handed them to Su Dai, “Su Dai, there’s not much at home to give, just a little something, heh.”
Su Dai refused without a second thought, “Jiang Yan, just coming over for a meal is enough; why did you bring so much? Especially this rice and salt, they’re pretty precious.”
For Southern people in the apocalypse, the importance of rice went without saying.
And while salt was cheap to buy on any given day and only a little was used in each meal,
without it, the most exquisite foods would taste bland.
That’s why, whenever trouble struck, table salt was always one of the first items to be frantically hoarded.
“It’s not much, and if I eat well and don’t share, I won’t need all these supplies. Just take them, or I won’t come over for a meal again,” Jiang Yan insisted, pushing the supplies back into her hands.
Hearing this, Su Dai didn’t insist anymore, but silently accepted the supplies Jiang Yan had brought into the kitchen.
With nothing else to do, Jiang Yan went to the balcony to look at the vegetables Su Dai had planted.
Having placed the supplies in the kitchen, Su Dai came out and, seeing Jiang Yan’s interest in her little vegetable garden, approached:
“Jiang Yan, I haven’t had the chance to plant the seeds you gave me last time. We still have some containers at home that could be turned into pots, but unfortunately, we’ve run out of soil.
It’s tough to rely entirely on soil-less cultivation with such low temperatures and lacking nutrient solutions, making it difficult for the vegetables to grow well.”
After saying this, she sighed, “Ah, if only we could find some soil.”