"Wow, this color is so pretty!"
Yaoyao, Qingqing, and a few other girls admired the dyed and dried shuttlecocks with delight.
"I want one that's fluffy. Even if it's harder to kick, it’ll look nice displayed on the windowsill so I can see it every day."
Qian Jiabao suddenly spoke up.
"Should we give it a try?"
The girls wasted no time and got to work, sifting through a pile of feathers to pick ones with just a tiny tip of feather and the rest all soft fluff.
"Won’t these be too short?"
Qingqing held a handful of feathers—fluffy and pleasant to touch, like a burst of blooming flowers in her palm.
"It does seem a bit short. Let’s pick some longer ones, even if they have less fluff. Layering them will look nice."
The girls carefully selected feathers of varying lengths, stacking them layer by layer before tightly wrapping them with thread.
"Li Wen, I want mine dyed pink!"
Miaomiao, clutching the new shuttlecock her sister Yaoyao had made for her, came running over.
"Alright."
Now that they knew how to dye the feathers properly, they had to hurry and finish coloring the shuttlecocks they’d already made.
"We actually made five hundred shuttlecocks!"
After a week of work, they had dyed them in five colors: red, pink, yellow, green, and blue.
"One shuttlecock sells for twenty cents, ten would be two yuan, a hundred would be twenty yuan—so five hundred would be a hundred yuan!"
Yaoyao quickly did the math. A hundred yuan was a lot of money for them.
"They still need to be sold, though."
Hu Zhenghao eyed the colorful shuttlecocks, considering where to start selling them.
"Me! Me! I said I’d handle the selling!"
Qian Jiabao eagerly chimed in—she’d been waiting for this moment.
"Qingqing and I will take care of sales. I already talked to my dad—he visits me every ten days, and today’s the eighth day. He’ll definitely come the day after tomorrow, and I’ll take them all then. Let’s work hard these next two days to make more—our shuttlecocks will sell out for sure!"
Qian Jiabao spoke with confidence.
"Five hundred is already a lot," Qingqing reminded her.
"Five hundred seems like a lot if we sell them ourselves, but if we distribute them to others to help sell, it won’t be enough."
"Distribute to who?" Qingqing asked, puzzled.
"My cousins," Qian Jiabao answered without hesitation.
"Wait—didn’t you say you had no one to play with growing up? You have cousins? I’ve never seen them."
Qingqing was shocked.
"I got sick too easily as a kid. My cousins were too wild, and Grandpa was afraid they’d be a bad influence, so they weren’t allowed near me. But they’d still do anything I asked."
Qian Jiabao sounded slightly guilty.
"How many cousins do you have?" Qingqing asked, purely curious.
"Not that many—just nine." Qian Jiabao tapped her fingers together.
"Nine isn’t many?!"
The others couldn’t hide their surprise.
"I have five uncles. My three oldest cousins are much older—we didn’t really play together."
"Do you have younger cousins too?"
"Only five." Qian Jiabao held up five fingers, but no one thought that was "only."
"Fourteen cousins?! Is your family just you when it comes to girls?"
Wang Xing couldn’t help but ask—and Qian Jiabao nodded.
Truthfully, it wasn’t that her cousins refused to play with her. It was just that every time she cried, her grandpa would immediately blame and punish them, no questions asked. And as a child, she cried at the slightest thing—she couldn’t help it. So her cousins and younger cousins kept their distance, afraid to even try playing with her.
"Your mom was the only girl in her family, and now you’re the only girl in both families?"
Wang Xing guessed again, and Qian Jiabao nodded once more.
"Leave it to her. Let’s work hard and make as many as we can—there’s no way we’ll fail."
Wang Xing immediately pulled everyone back to work.
Only Qingqing remained stunned, unable to process what she’d just heard.
"Good sister, are you mad at me?"
Qian Jiabao carefully looped her arm around Qingqing’s.
"No," Qingqing shook her head, unsure how to respond.
"Qingqing, I didn’t mean to hide it from you. I really didn’t spend much time with my cousins—I was too frail. It’s only been better these past two years. Usually, if anyone tried to get close to me, my cousins or younger cousins would keep them away, worried they’d hurt me."
"Last time, at your dad and Aunt Lianxiang’s wedding, why didn’t your cousins come?"
Though young, Qingqing had been through enough to be sharper and more mature than most girls her age.
"They did come—but to avoid scaring Aunt Lianxiang, only my third and fifth cousins showed up."
"Qingqing, please don’t be upset. I’ll take you to meet them—they’re really nice."
Qian Jiabao genuinely adored Qingqing.
"Just don’t lie to me again. I hate being deceived."
Qingqing spoke firmly, her eyes locked on Qian Jiabao’s face.
"I swear I’ll never lie to you again, or else I—"
"That’s enough. Just don’t lie." Qingqing quickly cut her off.
"Come on, let’s go help."
Boss Qian sought out his former brother-in-law.
"You want to rent a shop? What’s the sudden change? What are you planning to do?"
"It’s not for me—it’s for Lianxiang."
"Your new wife? No problem there. Aren’t you two planning on another child?"
"The reason I came to you about the shop’s location is that Jiabao’s things are hers alone. I already have Jiabao—that’s enough for me."
Boss Qian replied calmly.
"We’re family—no need to talk about renting. Bring your wife over for dinner sometime. Honestly, Jiabao could use a little sibling."
"We’ll see. But business is business."
"When are you bringing Jiabao back? Her grandpa misses her. Why hasn’t she come to visit during the break?"
"She’s grown now—she makes her own decisions."
He knew just how well his father-in-law’s family had protected his daughter. But the last time Jiabao got cornered, it happened precisely because she didn’t want to be constantly watched over.
He couldn’t say his in-laws were wrong, but he respected his daughter’s wishes.
Professor Wen eyed a large tree stump.
"This stump has great shape—it’d make a beautiful table."
"It’s cedar—good wood, nice grain. There are plenty more big stumps like this, just dug up and left here."
Yang Yufen studied it, thinking it’d also make a fine cutting board. But since Professor Wen wanted a table, she didn’t want to dampen her enthusiasm.
"Call Little Zhang over—let’s take this stump back, smooth it out, and coat it with tung oil. How about keeping it natural? We’ll put it under the gourd trellis."
"Sounds perfect. That spot’s nice and cool."
Professor Wen was thrilled.
Ever since arriving at the orchard, she’d taken a liking to the pond, mentioning how nice the fish were and how long it’d been since she last fished. That same day, Yang Yufen had fashioned her a bamboo fishing rod—unlike Old Hu, who was always too busy.
