Chapter 128 Lin Shulan had some complaints

Xia Wenwen was too lazy to argue with her, so she spat and turned to leave, heading straight for Lin Shulan's house with brisk steps.

Lin Shulan was squatting by the stove, rubbing salt on a skinned wild rabbit.

This rabbit was just hunted by Damin in the mountains; it was skinny with hardly any meat, but it was still a rare treat.

She planned to stew the rabbit head first, and then marinate the remaining meat with salt to eat sparingly.

She rubbed coarse salt into the rabbit meat, a smile on her face, thinking that at least it would nourish her body.

Just then, Xia Wenwen's voice suddenly came from outside the courtyard gate. Lin Shulan's hand paused abruptly, she frowned, and her heart was filled with mixed feelings.

Although the child spread rumors outside, saying that the old couple mistreated her, she was still the one who had nursed her from infancy. When she heard that her family had been sent down to Xiangyang Village and were living a miserable life, she still worried about them at night.

Lin Shulan wiped her hands and got up to open the door.

The door creaked open a crack, and Xia Wenwen rushed forward, grabbing Lin Shulan's arm, her voice trembling with tears: "Aunt Lin! I missed you so much!"

Lin Shulan was pulled so hard she stumbled. When she looked up and saw who it was, her heart clenched.

Xia Wenwen was so thin that her cheeks were sunken, and her faded coarse cloth jacket hung loosely on her body, making her look like a reed that had been withered by frost.

Is this really the same delicate girl who used to eat fine food every meal?

Lin Shulan unconsciously touched her sunken cheek, and all the resentment she had felt from the rumors vanished in an instant, replaced by heartache.

"Come inside, come inside!" She pulled the girl inside, and noticed two cornbreads still warming on the stove. She was about to pick them up and hand them over when she suddenly remembered how this girl used to frown whenever she saw coarse grains, saying that swallowing them was "like swallowing sand."

Lin Shulan paused, awkwardly wiping her hands on her apron, her eyes darting around: "There's nothing good at home... just two flatbreads left. If you don't mind..."

"I don't mind! How could I not mind!" Xia Wenwen shook off Lin Shulan's hand and rushed towards the stove. "Where are the pancakes? I'll get them myself!"

Madam Xia had followed her in at some point. When she saw Lin Shulan looking over, she smiled at her and grabbed a pancake.

Without bothering with pleasantries, they grabbed the flatbread and started munching on it.

The cornmeal stung her throat, but she wolfed it down as if it were a delicacy, mumbling incoherently, "Sister Lin, your pancakes are really delicious."

Seeing her choking and rolling her eyes, Lin Shulan sighed, turned around and poured two glasses of water: "Eat slowly, don't choke."

The two of them devoured the cornbread, even picking up the crumbs that fell on their clothes and stuffing them into their mouths. Xia Wenwen licked the burnt bits from the corners of her mouth, her eyes scanning the room like searchlights, and she sniffed hard. A faint fishy smell mixed with the taste of salt wafted from the kitchen.

It tastes like meat!

Back when she lived in the Xia family, she would cover her nose whenever she saw raw meat, finding the smell of blood too strong. But now, the fishy smell mixed with coarse salt was like a hook scratching at her stomach, making her drool.

Xia Wenwen jumped up suddenly and rushed into the kitchen. Sure enough, she saw a skinned wild rabbit on the cutting board, covered in salt and with fine bloodstains on the red meat.

Her eyes widened in surprise. She grabbed the rabbit leg, turned around, and waved the rabbit in her hand at Mrs. Xia: "Mom! We're in for a treat!"

Mrs. Xia was so excited that the wrinkles at the corners of her mouth smoothed out.

Xia Wenwen then turned to look at Lin Shulan, her face adopting a self-righteous expression: "Aunt Lin, to be honest, our family has been out of food for a long time."

She shook the rabbit in her hand: "You said before that you would never forget our great kindness, but now that we're in trouble, you can't just pretend to be stupid, can you?"

Madam Xia quickly replied, wiping away imaginary tears, her voice choked with emotion: "Sister Shulan, I only came to you because I had no other choice. You can't just watch me starve to death, can you?"

Lin Shulan looked at the rabbit, then at the undisguised greed in Xia Wenwen's eyes, and the warmth that had just begun to rise in her heart suddenly cooled down.

“But this rabbit… was just hunted by Damin, and I wanted to save it for Qingshan to help him recover…”

“Uncle Xia, you’re not as hungry as we are!” Xia Wenwen immediately interrupted. “My parents raised your own daughter for over ten years! Aunt Lin, you can’t forget your roots!”

Madam Xia sighed as well, lowering her head even further: "Yes, Qianqian is heartless and doesn't acknowledge us, but you can't be like her. Wenwen was raised by you, after all. Can you bear to see her suffer with us?"

The mother and daughter spoke in unison, their words implying that "you owe us," leaving Lin Shulan speechless.

Indeed, no matter what, Madam Xia had raised Qianqian, and she couldn't just stand by and watch them go hungry. Besides, she couldn't bear to see Wenwen so thin.

"Alright, you can take the rabbit." She turned and dragged half a bag of cornmeal from the corner. "We don't have much food at home, so if you don't mind this half bag..."

Before she could finish speaking, Xia Wenwen rushed over and hugged the bag. Madam Xia, having been a lady in the city, could not hide her joy, but she still tried to maintain her composure. She quickly exchanged a glance with her daughter, and then the smile on her lips could no longer be concealed.

"Lin Daiyu, you are such a kind person."

Madam Xia stepped forward and gently pressed Lin Shulan's arm, her tone carrying a familiar intimacy: "I knew you had the softest heart, and you would never watch us be left with no way out."

Xia Wenwen then tapped the rabbit against the stove, the blood from the rabbit meat dripping down the cutting board, but she didn't seem to care, her tone carrying a false intimacy.

"Where's my brother? I haven't seen him in ages. Did he hunt this rabbit?" She licked her lips, her eyes gleaming with longing. "If you catch a pheasant, you have to save me a drumstick! I'm practically craving one!"

Lin Shulan had just scooped a ladle of water from the vat when she heard this, and her hand paused, causing the cold water to spill over the ladle and wet the soil in front of the stove.

Madam Xia then adopted some of her former airs, her gaze sweeping over the furnishings in the room, and slowly said, "Speaking of which, Damin isn't young anymore, is he? In his early twenties? He should have been engaged by now."

She tilted her head slightly, her tone carrying the advice of someone with experience: "There aren't many good girls in your rural area, so you'd better hurry up and find one."

"If it's a wedding, I should come and help with the arrangements according to custom. Back in the day in the city, which wedding didn't have a three-day feast with plenty of chicken, duck, fish, and meat..."

She stopped abruptly halfway through her sentence, her Adam's apple bobbing almost imperceptibly, clearly indicating that she was thinking of those days of feasting on meat and fish.

Upon hearing this, Lin Shulan sighed; Damin's marriage had become a major worry for her.

Previously, her son and Li Aiqin got together. Although it wasn't a done deal yet, she already considered Li Aiqin as her daughter-in-law in her heart.

But who knew that after the two went to Xiangyang Village, Li Aiqin and Peng Fei actually hit it off and were about to get married.