The Comeback of the Cannon-Fodder Supporting Actress

”Dad.”

Anning hurried over.

Yang Erchou quickly got off the car.

He had a big bag on the back seat, filled with lots of food.

”Why are you outside?”

Yang Erchou asked Anning with a grin: ”It’s hot today, you’re feeling alright, right?”

Anning shook her head: ”I’m fine, not dizzy.”

She followed Yang Erchou as he pushed the car back.

Anning looked at the big bag in the back: ”Dad, what did you buy?”

Yang Erchou laughed as soon as he heard: ”Bought a watermelon, some small apples, and two bags of milk powder for you. On the way back, I met your brother-in-law. He gave me some walnuts to bring back for you.”

”Let’s hurry back and eat the watermelon then.”

Anning was quite happy to hear there’s watermelon.

The father and daughter chatted and laughed all the way home.

Just in time, Li Cuixia had finished cooking.

Yang Erchou washed his hands to eat.

Li Cuixia made cucumber cold noodles and stir-fried a few dishes.

”The food’s pretty good today.”

Yang Erchou smiled when he saw several dishes on the table: ”Thanks to my daughter.”

Anning helped Li Cuixia serve the food, she took a big bowl, filled it with cold noodles, added cucumber slices, and finally drizzled some sesame sauce, then handed it over to Yang Erchou.

Yang Erchou took the bowl and said to Li Cuixia: ”The dishes are really good today, let me have two cups of wine.”

Li Cuixia instructed Anning: ”Go bring out the remaining two taels of wine for your dad.”

Anning smiled as she went inside, found the wine bottle in the cabinet, now only a little was left at the bottom, so Anning took out the wine bottle, and also grabbed a wine glass.

Yang Erchou poured himself a glass of wine, took a bite of the stir-fried meat, and a sip of wine: ”Life like this, with wine and meat, wouldn’t trade even with an immortal.”

Li Cuixia laughed: ”Hurry up and eat your meal.”

After the meal, Li Cuixia cut half a watermelon, Anning held a piece and munched on it, saying while munching: ”Dad, this watermelon is tasty, juicy and sweet, where did you buy it? Let’s buy another one tomorrow.”

”Alright, I’ll buy it for you tomorrow.”

Yang Erchou replied with a smile.

After finishing the meal, Anning helped Li Cuixia clean up before going back inside.

Yang Erchou handed the books he brought back to Anning: ”Take it to your room and organize it. Your teacher also asked me to bring some test papers for you, do them at home, then I’ll take them to school for the teacher to see how many points you can get.”

”Okay.”

Anning took the books and papers to her room.

She gathered the books together, sorted them by subject, and placed the test papers on the desk.

Then Anning started answering the papers, finished math and physics, and noticed Yang Erchou and Li Cuixia had gone to sleep, so Anning put the papers aside.

She waited for a while, watched the two of them fall sound asleep, then quietly ran to the east room. The east room was vacant now, with a bed, a wardrobe, and some miscellaneous items stored there.

Anning knew that during this period, rural women tend to sew shoe soles after harvesting wheat in the summer, making all the soles the family needs for the year, then slowly making the shoes, usually finishing the winter cotton shoes before summer ends.

Anning remembered Li Cuixia had also been sewing shoe soles lately.

Li Cuixia was a diligent person, efficient and quick, she sewed many soles, all kept in the cabinet in the east room.

Anning entered the east room with a flashlight, opened the cabinet and found the shoe soles.

She was looking for Yang Erchou’s shoe soles.

Yang Erchou was tall with large feet, Anning guessed that his feet were about the same size as Xiao Yuan’s.

In the cabinet, there was a box filled with shoe soles.

The smaller soles on top were obviously Anning’s, followed by Li Cuixia’s, and Yang Erchou’s soles at the bottom.

Anning pulled them out, took out two pairs, searched the cabinet again, found some black corduroy fabric, and also looked for needles and thread.

Having gathered everything, Anning took it back to her room.

The lamp in Anning’s room was very bright, because Yang Erchou didn’t want her to strain her eyes studying at night, the bulbs installed were high wattage, and he prepared a desk lamp for her.

Anning turned on the desk lamp and sat under it to start making the shoes.

She first measured and cut the shoe top with scissors, sealed the edges, then started assembling the shoes.

After spending almost the entire night, Anning finally finished making the two pairs of shoes, hid them, returned the needles and such to the east room, erased all traces, and then went to bed.

Xiao Family

Xiao Yuan herded the sheep back home, where dinner was already prepared.

The Xiao Family was poor, reluctant to light the lamps, usually having dinner while it’s still daylight.

Xiao Yuan herded the sheep into the pen, washed his hands, and went to eat.

Xiao Yuan’s mother, He Fangfang, nagged while serving the food: ”Everyone just knows to rush back to eat, but no one helps me, do I owe you all or what.”

Seeing Xiao Qi reach out for the flatbread, He Fangfang angrily scolded: ”You asking for trouble? Your father hasn’t sat down yet, and you’re already eating, put it down quickly, shameful...”

Xiao Xiu immediately went to pull Xiao Qi back.

Xiao Qin hurried over to help He Fangfang serve food.

After a while, Xiao Qun came back, he washed his hands, and sat down, then He Fangfang said: ”Alright, hurry up and eat, soon it’ll be too dark to see, don’t end up eating into your nose.”

Only then did Xiao Yuan pick up his bowl to eat.

He Fangfang’s cooking was always just about getting by, for dinner she boiled a pot of porridge, steamed some cornbread, and the dish was simply cutting and salting a few cucumbers.

Xiao Yuan hadn’t eaten like this in ages.

He wasn’t quite used to it.

The Xiao Family had many children, used to scramble for food, Xiao Yuan sat surrounded by Xiao Qin and Xiao Hei, those two ate quickly, finished in no time.

After eating, it was Xiao Li’s turn to do the dishes today, he gathered the bowls to the yard, got a basin and water to wash.

Xiao Yuan watched Xiao Li wash the dishes sloppy, just rinsing them in the water before taking them out, not cleaned properly, the bowls weren’t clean.

He was quite annoyed.

Xiao Yuan was a meticulous person, if conditions allowed, he truly enjoyed aesthetics, mindful of his mannerisms, even the utensils for serving food were carefully chosen.

Now reduced to this state, not to mention the hunger, even the bowls for eating weren’t clean, really frustrated him.

After Xiao Li finished the dishes, the whole family headed to their rooms, some went out to find playmates, Xiao Yuan just wore shorts, took off his clothes to wash.

No choice, the family was poor, in summer each brother had only one set of clothes, wearing them out during the day, washing them clean at night to dry, and wearing them again in the morning.

Xiao Yuan washed his clothes, hung them to dry, and went back to his room to sleep.

He lay on the bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep.

He pondered how to improve the environment, living like this for a while is fine, but after years, he couldn’t take it.

Moreover, he wanted to marry Anning.

With his family’s condition, reputation, Yang Erchou even if insane wouldn’t let Anning marry him.

So he urgently needed to earn money, then find a way to venture out.

But right now, making money was really hard.

Especially with his background, little education, hardly literate, never traveled, just farming, what can he do to make money?

Does he have skills? Of course, but they can’t be shown, at least not in Yangjiazhuang.