Strongest Worker

"Can't you sleep?"

Xinya nodded without trace and sat down beside Li Qing. She seemed to hesitate for a while before carefully opening her mouth: "are you thinking of her?"

"Yes."

"Your wife?"

Li Qing smiled with a gentle look in her eyes: "it's not a wife, but it's a woman who is very important to me. How to say, I owe her a love debt."

"She looks good."

Li Qing took the picture in her hand to the girl. Her voice was very light: "like this."

Xinya took the photo and lit the flashlight.

"It's beautiful," she said with a small mouth. "You must like her very much."

Li Qingshu sighed: "yes, I really like her."

"Then why not marry her?" Xinya's eyes showed a trace of doubt, "doesn't she like you?"

"Not at all." Li Qing took the photo back and shook his head. "Xinya, in many parts of the world, a man can only marry one woman in his life. Do you understand? I have a wife and children in Lingang, so..."

"Do you like your wife?"

"Of course." Li Qing nodded without hesitation and then smiled bitterly, "am I too playful?"

Xinya tilted her little head: "I don't understand. If you like both, why can't you want both? It's unfair to them."

Li Qingsi measured it and whispered, "Xinya, think about it. If a woman has two husbands..."

"How can there be such a thing." the girl shook her head again and again. "This is ridiculous, this is unforgivable..."

"Yes," said Li Qing, "if a woman can't have two husbands at the same time, why can a man have two wives at the same time?"

Xinya frowned two beautiful eyebrows: "that's different."

Li Qing asked, "what's different?"

"I don't know, but I just think it's different. Men and women are different. There's no way to restrict them with the same rules."

"Ha ha, you are about to become a philosopher." Li Qing rubbed her small head with a smile and didn't continue the discussion.

How could it be different.

The night gradually faded. At dawn, Xinya snuggled up in Li Qing's arms and was sleeping soundly.

"Well, you're having an affair behind my back?" Du Huasheng came out and looked indignant. "Li Qing, didn't you say you wouldn't do it to a minor girl!"

Li Qing was stunned and forced: "what did I do?"

"You've all gone in your arms, haven't you done less?"

"Do you think everyone is like you?"

The dispute between the two woke up Xinya, who slept soundly. She wiped her mouth and raised her pretty face: "she's already seventeen."

Du Huasheng pointed to Li Qing and said, "he's Chinese. The rules have to be Chinese. A woman can't be an adult until she's 18."

"But I'm Malays. I've grown up at the age of 14. That's what the doctrine says..."

"That set has long been out of date." Du Huasheng curled his mouth and leaned forward slightly, "but Xinya has been... Very early at the age of 14."

Xinya puffed her pink cheeks and couldn't help blushing.

Taking advantage of the convenience of the little girl running into the woods, Li Qing asked with a confused face, "what were you talking about just now?"

"This girl's family is religious." Du Huasheng grinned. "According to their rules, a girl's first menstruation is considered an adult."

"Is there such a thing?" Li Qing felt a little incredible. "Do their teachings also stipulate that mothers can sell their children?"

Du Huasheng seemed to hate the guy who didn't open the pot. He shrugged his shoulders and turned to pack his things.

"Mosquitoes were so fierce last night." he pulled down the plastic cloth and folded it. He took out a box of antipruritic powder from his canvas bag. "Do you need it?"

Li Qing rolled up her sleeves and looked: "although she was bitten, there was no redness and swelling."

"Your damn blood," Du Huasheng said, but he couldn't help showing a touch of jealousy at the bottom of his eyes.

After Xinya's convenience, he tiptoed back. He saw that he was patting antipruritic powder on his body and gathered together.

Du Huasheng "tut" said, "you're not badly bitten."

Xinya raised her coat with a red face and showed him the fist sized circle on her white belly.

"Smearing his blood can drive away mosquitoes. It's really easy to use."

"Fuck me." Du Huasheng crooked his mouth in an instant. "Li Qing, are you going too far? Take care of women so well that I suffer alone?"

Li Qing was eating. When he heard what he said, he blinked: "you are a big man. Is it okay to be sucked by mosquitoes?"

"That's what I said, but it's troublesome to catch malaria." Du Huasheng frowned slightly, "but then again, since your blood is so easy to use, why do mosquitoes bite you?"

"Well, have you heard the story of sharks eating people?"

Du Huasheng couldn't help but be stunned: "what?"

"Sharks eat people." Li Qing repeated, "in fact, sharks are very picky and don't like human flesh at all, but some people are torn by sharks. Guess why?"

Xinya also twisted her head and thought about it curiously. The early morning sun passed through the dense branches and hit her pretty white face with a glittering luster.

Du Huasheng shook his head with some annoyance: "I don't know. You'll sell off less, OK?"

Li Qing laughed: "you think, if sharks don't taste a bite, how can they know that human flesh tastes bad? These mosquitoes are the same to me. As long as they smell the smell of blood, they will know in advance that it's not delicious and will give up."

"Alas, it's really a simple truth." Du Huasheng rolled his eyes, collected the antipruritic powder, and took out a compass for positioning.

"In this direction," he pointed out, "we'll follow the plan in the direction of penyou. In this way, maybe we can make awan and them empty."

The three ate some food, packed their bags and continued to set out in the dew.

For the next three days, they walked through the mountains and lived a boring and primitive jungle life.

At noon on the fourth day, a small river lay in front of me.

"Finally there's water." Du Huasheng was a little excited. He threw down the canvas bag on his shoulder, pushed aside the weeds, jumped into the river, lifted up a handful of water and washed his face.

Li Qing shouted, "be careful! What if there are water snakes in this place?"

"Do you think I'm afraid of that kind of thing?" Du Huasheng exclaimed indifferently. "I only have two wishes now. The first is to have a good bath and the second is to let me shave my beard. We've been walking in the mountains and forests for so many days. I really miss the women on amai island."

Xinya knocked over the weeds with a stick and took out a bottle of water from her canvas bag.

"It's OK to be busy later. Let's have a rest here." Li Qing said faintly and immediately looked up. "The weather is getting more and more stuffy. It seems to rain."

"I hope this rain won't last too long, otherwise..." Du Huasheng's body suddenly stagnated and soon changed his face.

Li Qing hurriedly asked, "what's the matter? Can't there really be a water snake?"

"I seem to have stepped on something good." Du Huasheng suddenly reached out and touched it in the river, then spread out his palm, "look what this is?"

Li Qing stretched her head to see that it was a bullet.

"Hiss." he gently took a breath, picked up the hair, looked at it carefully, and his eyes couldn't help showing joy. "There's no rust at all. It should have been left recently. It seems that we've found the right place."

Du Huasheng jumped ashore, took off his coat and put it on the trees: "next, go along the river. If Kuzhi bandits pass here, they will not give up the river."

Li Qing nodded: "you take care of Xinya. I'll go around. Maybe there will be other clues."

Xinya quickly stood up and opened her mouth slightly, as if she wanted to stop talking.

Du Huasheng sighed helplessly: "forget it, people don't like to stay with me. Take her with you."

Li Qing couldn't help smiling and waving, "well, you come with me."

The girl's eyes suddenly brightened with joy, trotted over and followed him.

"Crazy." Du Huasheng left his mouth angrily, sat down and smoked his last cigarette.

"You've been walking all day. I want you to have a rest." Li Qing walked in front and said softly, "don't you feel tired."

Xinya shook her head, but then the man turned his back to her and couldn't see it at all, so he added: "not tired."

"Don't you feel tired? Even I feel hard..."

The girl suddenly stopped and beichi gently bit her lips: "I want to take a bath..."

"Hmm?" Li Qing turned her head and looked at her, "what?"

"Water... Want to take a bath..."

Staring at the girl's blushing face in front of her, Li Qing smiled: "yes, you said earlier. I wonder why you have to come out with me."

Xinya tooted her mouth and said seriously, "that man... May peek."

Li Qing was slightly stunned. She immediately understood that the "that person" in her mouth meant Du Huasheng, so she joked and asked, "then you're not afraid of me peeking?"

"Not afraid." Xinya shook her head, "I'm your man."

"Er..." Li Qing twitched fiercely in the corners of his eyes and looked at the river close at hand. "Go, I'll watch the wind for you here. But you should be careful not to be bitten by water snakes, poisonous insects and so on."

"HMM." Xinya nodded her chin heavily, and then ran towards the river happily.

Hearing the rustling sound of stripping behind him, Li Qing solemnly cleared her throat and took a few steps forward to try to control the impulse to turn around and watch. This novel has been translated by www.readwn.com and if you are reading this somewhere, they have stayed our translation