Chapter 35: Earth Cement

“Young Master, what a coincidence!”

Li Chunlian approached Si Yuheng with a coy smile.

He stepped aside, a flicker of disgust passing through his eyes.

Li Chunlian noticed nothing.

“Did you come looking for Little Liu?”

“No. Fang Ning,” Si Yuheng replied indifferently as he strode inside.

Overjoyed, Li Chunlian hurried after him.

Fang Ning raised an eyebrow slightly.

One look at the spring in Li Chunlian’s eyes and the way she kept edging toward Si Yuheng, and it was obvious that his face attracted plenty of romantic attention.

Li Chunlian was Li Dayong’s daughter. Fifteen years old, with delicate, pretty features, she had always considered herself the village beauty.

But speaking without prejudice, Fang Ning thought Fang Ling and Zhao Taohua would eventually surpass Li Chunlian in beauty. It was only that the other two had not yet fully grown into their looks.

Li Chunlian especially enjoyed picking on Fang Ling.

“Fang Ling, you’re here too? Every time I come looking for Uncle Jiang, I happen to run into you. What a coincidence.”

Li Chunlian ran over and linked arms with Fang Ling, as though they were close friends. But the words she spoke were anything but friendly.

Fang Ning’s brows drew together slightly.

So this was another little innocent-looking schemer.

Fang Ling was not Fang Ning. Naturally, she could not hear the implication in Li Chunlian’s words.

She stiffly pulled her arm free. “It’s only happened once or twice.”

“If I only come by once or twice and still happen to see you, doesn’t that mean we’re fated to meet? Young Master, you probably don’t know this, but Fang Ling and Little Liu are very close.”

Jiang Xiaoliu, a complete simpleton, scratched his head and grinned foolishly. “We’re all right, all right.”

How could Si Yuheng fail to understand what Li Chunlian meant?

“Do you have no friends?” he asked coldly. “Fang Ling came with her younger brother to borrow something from the Jiang family. How did you manage to make it sound so sordid?”

Li Chunlian’s face went pale at once.

“Fang Ling, the next time you go somewhere, remember to have Fang Ning accompany you. You’re a young woman, and gossip can ruin your reputation,” Si Yuheng added, looking at Fang Ling with quiet indifference.

Fang Ling finally understood. Her eyes reddened with anger.

“Li Chunlian, you’re filthy inside!”

With that, she covered her face and ran out of the Jiang residence.

The smile vanished from Jiang Xiaoliu’s face as well.

“Li Chunlian, you’re disgusting.”

Li Chunlian’s face flushed scarlet, and tears began to fall.

“I only said that I happened to run into Fang Ling. How could you twist it into something so ugly? You’re being completely unreasonable. Young Master, you believe me, don’t you? I didn’t mean anything else.”

Si Yuheng turned his head toward her and replied, each word distinct:

“What does that have to do with me?”

Li Chunlian had never expected him to be so heartless. Her tried-and-true act of helplessness, which had worked every time before, had been utterly useless—and he had even humiliated her with such cruelty.

“I understand now. Fang Ling must have said something about me to you…”

Fang Ning interrupted her lazily.

“Sister Chunlian, you’re judging a gentleman by the standards of a petty person. My elder sister has never mentioned you. You really aren’t as important as you imagine yourself to be.

“Besides, the young master is a guest of the Fang family. Coming to him and trying to drive a wedge between us—aren’t you taking yourself a little too seriously? It’s disgusting.”

After being exposed by Fang Ning, Li Chunlian immediately covered her face and ran out crying.

Jiang Xiaoliu’s face flushed red.

“Li Chunlian went too far. I—I’ll go explain everything to Lingling right now.”

“You’d better not,” Fang Ning said. “Otherwise, do you believe that before long the whole village will be gossiping about you and my elder sister?”

Still, Fang Ning was rather surprised that Si Yuheng had seen through Li Chunlian’s act so easily.

Ordinarily, men could hardly resist a woman pretending to be delicate and vulnerable.

Could Si Yuheng really be attracted to men?

At the thought, Fang Ning felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise.

Si Yuheng did not notice the subtle change in his expression. He merely asked, “Did you manage to borrow the brick kiln?”

“Yes, I did. Uncle Jiang has already gone ahead. Let’s head back and move everything over there.”

Fang Ning turned and walked outside.

Jiang Xiaoliu wanted to follow, but he was afraid the villagers really would start gossiping about him and Fang Ling.

“Fang Ning.” He called out to stop him. “When you get back, talk to Lingling and tell her not to take Li Chunlian’s nonsense to heart.”

“No problem.”

Fang Ning waved without looking back.

Jiang Xiaoliu felt that Fang Ning was unreliable, so he grabbed Si Yuheng instead.

“Young—”

Si Yuheng dodged his touch, leaving Jiang Xiaoliu’s hand suspended awkwardly in midair.

Si Yuheng then strode after Fang Ning, ignoring Jiang Xiaoliu completely.

Jiang Xiaoliu stamped his foot hard.

It was all that woman Li Chunlian’s fault. If not for her, he could have spoken with Fang Ling a little longer.

At this rate, Fang Ling might not even speak to him anymore.

The more Jiang Xiaoliu thought about it, the angrier he became.

When Fang Ning returned home and asked what had happened, Old Madam Fang glared at him.

“Did you bully your elder sister? Why did she come home crying?”

Fang Ning protested, “Grandmother, I didn’t! That woman Li Chunlian was spouting nonsense and made my elder sister cry. Don’t worry, Grandmother—Li Chunlian cried too after I scolded her. I avenged my elder sister.”

Old Madam Fang was speechless.

Now that this grandson of hers had stopped being a delinquent, was he turning into a shrew instead?

What a calamity.

“Grandmother, what’s with that expression? I scolded Li Chunlian because she bullied my elder sister. I’m not some bad child who curses at people for no reason.”

“Leave the scolding to your grandmother from now on. You’re a boy—how can you go around cursing at women? Aren’t you afraid people will call you a gossip?”

“I don’t care.”

Fang Ning gave a disdainful snort.

“Whoever bullies someone from the Fang family, I’ll make them cry.”

Si Yuheng said, “...Weren’t you supposed to take that pile of things in the courtyard to the brick kiln?”

“Yes, yes. Second Uncle, Third Uncle, come help!”

Fang Ning ran into the house.

Everyone in the village was picking bayberries these days, so Fang Ning had arranged for them to sort and gather the bayberries at home.

“All right.”

Fang Wenqin and Fang Wenchang came out of the house.

There were nearly two hundred pounds of material. Each man carried a hundred pounds over.

Fang Ning explained the important details to Uncle Jiang. Having fired mud bricks for so many years, he quickly grasped the essentials.

They were short on firewood, however, so they still needed to go up the mountain and chop more.

Although Fang Ning claimed she was borrowing the kiln, she was actually paying Uncle Jiang to do the work.

The temperature required for firing bricks was roughly the same as that needed to calcine the raw material into clinker, so Uncle Jiang should be able to produce the clinker she wanted.

—

Six days later.

Uncle Jiang arrived at the Fang family’s old residence first thing in the morning and excitedly woke everyone.

“Ningning, I think I may have fired the cement you described!”

When Fang Ning heard this, she immediately got up and nudged Si Yuheng.

“Come on, come on! Let’s go see the cement!”

Si Yuheng had already woken before Uncle Jiang even reached the Fang residence.

The moment Fang Ning called for him, he leaped out of bed and ran to open the door for Uncle Jiang.

“Uncle Jiang, wait a moment. I’ll wash up and then go with you.”

“Don’t rush. I don’t know whether it worked, either. We’ll only know once we go over and take a look.”

After Fang Ning and Si Yuheng washed up, they followed Uncle Jiang to the brick kiln.

Uncle Jiang had already carried the clinker out of the kiln.

Fang Ning mixed it with gypsum in the proper proportions, then had Uncle Jiang grind it into powder. Afterward, she fetched water and found some river sand. She mixed the cement and sand together, then added water.

Since she had little strength, she left the kneading to Uncle Jiang.

Once it had been thoroughly mixed, Fang Ning carried over twenty bricks and had Uncle Jiang use the cement to build them into a wall.