CHAPTER 32: 32ND

The village had two ox carts, one belonged to Tao Hua’s house, and her father was the eldest brother of the village chief; the ox cart was purchased with the village chief’s own money.

One belonged to Mo Junhua’s eldest uncle.

This time, the Mo Junhua’s family was going to the market gathering, and they had specially borrowed it from his eldest uncle’s family. The villagers heading to the market gathering assembled at the entrance of the village, and Lan Tian’s family arrived late, with several families already there.

The soybeans and peanuts were just in season, and the prices were rather low. Those households with tighter budgets sold them for money to exchange for grains. Those who had more leeway were reluctant to sell, preferring to wait for a while until the prices went up before selling.

Lan Tian’s gaze swept around and saw Mo Junhua’s look pause for a second before moving on to someone else. Together with her were three children, the youngest of whom was only two or three years old, carried in a sling on her mother’s chest, sound asleep without any knowledge of the change in surroundings, snoring earnestly.

Another was Tao Hua; it was her father’s ox cart, and he was to drive it. Tao Hua’s father had five sons before he finally had such a precious daughter. He had indulged her since she was young, and anything Tao Hua wanted, he would give her. This time, going to the market, Tao Hua had pestered her father to take her along for fun, and he had no choice but to agree after not being able to dissuade her.

Tao Hua didn’t notice Lan Tian and was busy directing the loading of items onto the ox cart.

The adults from each family were loading goods onto the cart, while Lan Tian obediently stood aside, leaning against the parasol tree.

Mo Junhua climbed onto the ox cart to load his family’s goods and unintentionally looked up and saw Grandma Sun’s family arriving behind Lan Tian, bending the corner of his lips into a smile. The little one walked unsteadily, taking a hop with every step, making his heart clench as he watched. However, her hopping about like a little bunny was rather endearing.

Yuanle, carrying goods, looked both ways as if he intended to move aside, but was promptly called by Mo Junhua, "Uncle, over here."

The spot just cleared at his feet, happened to fit two sacks perfectly.

"Have you finished loading your things?" Yuanle asked, noticing there was still some space on the ox cart, but there were also two sacks on the ground, likely belonging to Mo Junhua’s family. It wouldn’t do to load their things instead, as it would be embarrassing if his own goods couldn’t fit later on.

"You haven’t finished loading yet, focus on your own goods. That other cart is almost done, I’ll go over there and check it out." Yuanle, seeing a space available on the other ox cart, picked up two sacks and headed there.

"Over there, three families have already loaded their goods, and another one, Uncle Erhu’s family, still has several sacks behind. Uncle, don’t bother going there, two sacks isn’t too much, we can squeeze them in." While speaking, people from Erhu’s household arrived at the intersection, pushing a handcart with three or four sacks on top. Once those sacks were loaded, indeed, there wouldn’t be any space left.

Mo Junhua’s mother, Wang Guiyu, and Chuntao were also going to the market gathering with Mo Junhua. Chuntao, unable to help, squatted to the side and waited. Seeing Lan Tian leaning against the parasol tree, Chuntao glanced at her third brother and then headed towards Lan Tian.

Lan Tian shot her a glance, shifting to the side slightly to make room for Chuntao to stand, and Chuntao smiled at her.

"Lan Tian, you’re going to the market too?"

"Mhm, I’ve never been before, just following grandma to take a look." The two didn’t interact much normally and ran out of things to say after exchanging a couple of sentences. Chuntao wanted to ask something but upon seeing the child whose height barely reached her chest, she changed her mind.

Wang Guiyu saw Yuanle carrying two sacks and called him over with a smile, leaving Yuanle no choice but to head towards Mo Junhua’s ox cart. Wang Guiyu was then told to rest on the side as Yuanle took over, "Sister-in-law, let me do it!"

"Alright, I’ll take break." Wang Guiyu went to talk with Grandma Sun and Zhao Li while Yuanle quickly loaded the two sacks from the ground onto the cart, passing one up and receiving another, fitting them snugly on the full cart, with his own two sacks piled on top.

Since there were quite a few goods, they had prepared ropes in advance for securing them. If there was space around the ox cart, people could sit there, or they could sit on top of the goods. If there truly was no space, they would have to follow on foot, which wouldn’t be tiring if one’s hands were free.

"Mom, Grandma Sun, come up and sit here." Mo Junhua, after loading the goods, had intentionally left some space at the rear of the cart for seating. After securing the cargo, he called everyone to come and sit. He sat at the front driving the ox cart, with both families sitting close to each other just fitting nicely.

That cart finished loading goods, leaving little space for anyone to sit, and there was a woman with nowhere to sit. Seeing this, Grandma Sun called people to come over and squeeze in. Lan Tian was sitting between Grandma Sun and Zhao Li, with no spots left on the cart; to make space, someone had to sit on her. She was small enough to sit on an adult’s lap.

Just as Zhao Li reached out and hadn’t yet picked up Lan Tian, Mo Junhua, who was driving the cart at the front, heard this and hopped down, walking to the rear, "Grandma Sun, let the child come sit with me at the front, there’s more room there, she won’t be squeezed. Don’t worry, I will take care of her, and she will not fall off."

Lan Tian didn’t even have the chance to refuse, and Grandma Sun nodded in agreement. Mo Junhua carried her to the front.

Leaning against Mo Junhua’s chest, sitting on his legs, Lan Tian was all stiff, like a puppet, her face burning red like a cloud lit by fire, the heat pressing against Mo Junhua’s back, feeling as if she was sitting on pins and needles, totally restless.

"Sit tight, don’t move." Mo Junhua wrapped one arm across Lan Tian’s chest while the other pulled on the reins and with a "Giddy up," the ox cart slowly moved forward, seemingly oblivious to the stiffness of the child in his arms, his forehead naturally rubbing against the top of Lan Tian’s head.

Because of something Mo Junhua had done in her past life, Lan Tian harbored a shadow in her heart, disliking others getting close to her—a sort of "mental cleanliness" using modern terms. Besides her family members, she repelled anyone else getting too close.

Apart from that incident during the busy farming season when she was suddenly held by Mo Junhua, at other times, Lan Tian instinctively maintained a certain distance from others—Shitou being the exception.

The fact that Mo Junhua could ruffle her hair was only because she was small and unable to resist, and the top of her head was her bottom line.

Honestly speaking, in this life, Mo Junhua had been quite good to her, always carrying a smile in his eyes whenever they met, unlike in her previous life, where a cold glance from him would freeze her to the core. He hadn’t yet met that woman, so at least for now, his kindness towards her was genuine.