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In that era, you needed tickets to buy everything. You needed grain tickets to buy grain, cloth tickets to buy cloth, and coal tickets to buy coal.

Last time, people from Qingshan Brigade came together to buy coal, but because each household had few tickets and little money, no one bought much coal.

Before Xie Zhuo set out for Southern Province, he had already exchanged coal tickets with Lao He. So now he was not in a situation where he had money but no tickets, or had tickets but no money.

One person directly bought the total amount of several households in the Qingshan Brigade. Liu Mancang and Zhao Jisheng were also shocked by his generosity.

"Third brother, why are you buying so many?" Liu Mancang asked, looking at the coal briquettes in the sacks on the ground that could not be loaded into the truck.

"Your sister-in-law is afraid of the cold. Besides, we still have Dabao and Xiaobao," Xie Zhuo said. "If children catch a cold in winter, it will not be easy to recover."

Liu Mancang nodded, that’s true.

However, another person who came to buy coal and heard his words looked at Xie Zhuo several times.

Are you buying so much because you are afraid of the cold?

Whose house isn’t cold?

Who doesn’t have children?

It’s just that I don’t have money or tickets.

Since Xie Zhuo bought a lot of coal, the ox cart could no longer carry it, so he asked at the coal factory and hired a horse-drawn carriage to help transport the coal home.

After Xie Zhuo and the others left, Xu Yan made a cup of tea with boiling water. The tea leaves were the jasmine tea that Xie Zhuo brought back from South Province.

Put a little in an enamel jar and soak it in water. The jasmine flowers that were originally curled up will spread out their petals and float on the water.

It's quite fragrant.

Smelling the fragrance of tea, Xu Yan took a book and sat down by the stove. When he looked up again, several hours had passed.

After washing his hands, Xie Zhuo held her chin, bent down and kissed the corner of her lips, and she came back to her senses.

"Huh? Are you back?" Xu Yan tilted his head back and went over to kiss Xie Zhuo on the corner of his mouth.

"Yeah," Xie Zhuo felt a little better because of her unintentional little action, "What do you want to eat? I'll make it."

"Anything is fine," Xu Yan didn't have anything particular she wanted to eat, as long as it was cooked by Xie Zhuo, she would be fine. During the few days Xie Zhuo was not at home, she was a little tired of eating the meals she cooked.

"You're so easy to feed," Xie Zhuo smiled and bent down to kiss her on the tip of her nose.

For lunch, Xie Zhuo made braised pork, cabbage with vinegar, potatoes stewed with vermicelli, a pot of rice, and some pickled vegetables in autumn.

Dabao and Xiaobao came back from school and sat around the table drooling.

"My cooking is terrible," Xu Yan looked at them, "I feel like you two can eat this enamel plate now."

"It's not bad," Dabao said, trying hard to hold back his saliva. "Third Aunt's cooking is also delicious."

"Yes," Xiaobao nodded beside him, "but Uncle San's is more delicious."

"You are just sweet-talkers," Xu Yan smiled and went to get a bowl to serve rice.

Because we needed to boil water, there was a fire burning in the stove, so the table was placed next to the stove and it wasn't very cold.

Although Dabao and Xiaobao were extremely greedy before they started eating, their eating manners were pretty good when they actually started eating. They basically kept their mouths closed and chewed and swallowed each bite before taking the second bite.

This is rare in rural areas in this era.

Xie Zhuo said that his mother taught him this.

But Xu Yan felt that the Xie family was well-off and they could provide the children with enough food and drink, so the children were not so anxious about eating.

If this were a family that couldn't eat meat all year round, when a plate of braised pork like this was served on the table, which child could resist?

Even adults may not be able to bear it.

After the family of four finished their meal, Dabao and Xiaobao went to Xu Yan and Xie Zhuo's room and stayed around the stove for a while.

Because they had to go to school in the afternoon, the stove in their room was not lit yet.

Xie Zhuo calculated that it would be just right to light the fire an hour before they got out of school in the afternoon so that the house would be warm by the time they came back.

However, Xu Yan felt that the school was cold and there was no need to go back and suffer the cold. It would be the same if he studied at home.

But Dabao and Xiaobao were very enthusiastic. No matter how cold the weather was, they would rush to school on time every day. Sometimes Xie Zhuo would send them there, and sometimes the two of them would run there.

"Is school so good?" Xu Yan applied cold cream on their two red faces with a distressed look.

"It's fun," said Dabao.

"During Chinese class, the teacher told us a lot of stories we didn't know, and in math class, doing math was also very interesting."

“Xiaobao also thinks it’s fun,” Xiaobao said.

"As long as it's fun," Xie Zhuo said.

He didn't know when he went to the city hospital and bought two glass bottles for infusion. He washed them, filled them with boiling water, and then packed them separately in bags made of rags.

"When the bottle is no longer hot, ask the teacher to refill it with hot water," Xie Zhuo reminded him, "Do you remember?"

"Remember," Dabao and Xiaobao nodded.

By the time the first snow started to fall, it was almost mid-December. This year the snow came late but lasted longer.

It rained intermittently for two or three days before it officially stopped.

The weather was so cold that people couldn't go out.

The sun was shining brightly and some of the snow had melted, but the biting cold wind made people want to turn around and go back into the house immediately.

Xie Zhuo woke up quite early, but he didn't want to get out of bed while holding Xu Yan, and his hand gently squeezed her inside her pajamas.

Xu Yan was disturbed by his actions and couldn't fall asleep anymore. He pushed him in annoyance and said, "What are you doing? I'm still sleepy."

Xie Zhuo stopped moving his hands. He lowered his head and touched the slightly protruding cervical vertebra at the back of her neck with his lips, as if to comfort her.

But Xu Yan couldn't sleep either. He yawned, turned over and lay face to face with Xie Zhuo.

"We are going to the city this morning. What are you doing in the afternoon?" Xu Yan asked.

Xie Zhuo said last night that the snow on the road had almost melted and the ground was almost dry. He had to go and deliver the repaired radio and watch to Lao He, and also ask him about his previous investment.

"In the afternoon, I'll talk to Dabao and Xiaobao," Xie Zhuo said, "I've been busy recently and haven't had time to chat properly."

"Didn't you say that they knew why I went to the Southern Province?"

"Well," Xu Yan sighed, "the two kids are really good at keeping it to themselves. When you went there, they clearly knew about it, but they never said anything. Now that you have been back from Southern Province for such a long time, they still haven't asked about the result."

"I don't agree with that," Xie Zhuo said. "If I had any questions, I would have asked right away."

Xu Yan raised his eyebrows.

"Don't believe it?" Xie Zhuo looked at her.

Xu Yan didn't say anything, but the expression on his face clearly meant, listen for yourself, do you believe it?

Xie Zhuo smiled, then slid his hand down a little, then rubbed the fabric a little, and when Xu Yan dodged backwards, he hooked his fingers and rubbed it.

"Is there... water?"