Sizzle!

Fine cotton cloth is flammable when exposed to fire.

The girl watched as the sky-blue strips of cloth were slowly consumed by the flames, her beautiful eyes showing an unprecedented sense of relaxation.

From their first meeting, she found Su Hua and the cold-faced man beside her extremely annoying. In the past fifteen years, no man had ever shown her such disrespect. Su Hua even publicly humiliated her maid, utterly disgracing her.

When they met again, it was at the school gate with Yu Cheng. Yu Cheng treated her very differently. Later, at the Qin family mansion, Su Hua managed to win over the entire Qin family, which made her even more detestable.

She had only intended to embarrass Su Hua at the Hundred Flowers Banquet, but Su Hua not only escaped unscathed but also became the center of attention. How could she tolerate her now?

This time, she even picked up the last bit of SOS message left by Su Hua. No matter if Su's brothers or that cold-faced lover were to fly or disappear, they could no longer save her.

Su Hua will finally stop getting in her way, that's good.

Wei Jianjia felt more and more at ease. After the shredded cloth burned out, she got up and went to the small kitchen in Tingnuan Pavilion. Yu Cheng liked sweets, so she would make some red bean soup and some pear syrup. When he returned from Tangshan Prefecture, he would be able to eat them.

As the sun gradually slid down from the sky, it landed on the edge of the mountains, gradually turning the vegetation in the mountains orange-red.

Shanghe Village, a small courtyard at the end of the village.

The women and children were still busy in the kitchen, cutting off the fish, removing the fish bones, mincing the fish, making fish balls, frying tofu puffs, and skewering mushrooms.

Su Baishi stood by the stove, looking at the tofu puffs tumbling in the oil, somewhat restless. She stirred the tofu puffs in the oil with a spatula while standing on tiptoe to look out the window.

She looked again and again, but the gate outside the courtyard remained empty and silent.

"Sizzle sizzle sizzle!"

Su Bai was a little distracted, and the spatula spun around on the edge of the pan, splashing a lot of oil.

"Mother, be careful!" Zhao had just finished removing the last grass carp bone when she heard the noise and turned around. She happened to see oil splattering towards Su Bai's face and quickly pulled her aside.

But no matter how fast she moved, she couldn't outrun the speed of the oil.

There was still a lot of oil splattered on Su Bai's face and neck. Zhao frowned as she looked at the absent-minded person and quickly wrung out a wet cloth to apply it to her.

"Mother, you've had a long day, so take a rest. Let your daughter-in-law fry these tofu puffs."

Stimulated by the icy water, Su Bai finally regained some of her senses, covered her face with her handkerchief, and looked out the window. "Why haven't Hua'er and Da Hu returned yet? It's almost dark."

Upon hearing this, Zhao smiled gently at her, "Mother must be missing Hua'er. These days, Da Hu and the others have been busy with the restaurant's renovations, and they come back late every day."

When they return, Hua'er will surely come back with them, so Mother, don't worry too much.

"Yes, I know." Su Bai nodded. She knew all of this, but she always felt uneasy as long as she couldn't see the person.

Moreover, for some reason, her eyelids had been twitching since the afternoon, and even covering them with a spoon didn't help.

If she had known, she should have gone with Hua'er to see Lin Qin off.

Seeing this, Su Dalang's three little radish heads quickly spoke up to comfort him.

"Don't worry, Grandma, the sun hasn't set yet. These past few days, Dad and the others have been coming back only after the sun has completely set."

"That's right, with Daddy, Second Uncle, and Third Uncle around, Auntie will definitely not lose a single hair!"

"That's right, eldest brother and second brother are right..."

Qian grimaced. Zhao Dongmei was usually very quiet, but she liked to act all high and mighty. Taking fish bones and frying tofu puffs were easy tasks for her.

After taking the fish, she didn't even help her chop the fish paste. Instead, she went to Su Bai's side to curry favor. Even her two sons were shrewd and knew how to please people at such a young age.

Unlike her own child, who's just a wooden gourd with a wooden mouth, all he can say is "yes, yes, yes."

As she watched her hands constantly chopping fish paste, her phoenix eyes gradually filled with dissatisfaction. For the past eight days, she had been the one to gather all the wild grass for the rabbits and chickens of all sizes in the house, wash the pig offal, and even chop the most difficult part, fish paste.

If she didn't want to chop grass, Su Bai would just send her back to her parents' home. If she didn't wash the offal or chop fish paste, she wouldn't get her daily wage of ten copper coins. She was really feeling suffocated.

If it weren't for the decent daily meals, she really wouldn't want to live like this at all.

"Da da da—"

Just then, the sound of horses' hooves clattered from outside the courtyard.

Su Bai suddenly stood up and shot out like an arrow, rushing to Mo Bao's side.

Seeing Su Sanhu's neat and tidy appearance on the carriage shaft, she felt a little relieved, but her slanted eyes still held a sharp edge.

"Look at you all, why don't you know to come back sooner!"

It's fine for you grown men to walk alone at night, but Hua'er is a young girl. Don't you brothers know how to be more considerate?

"You're such a grown man, are you just eating for nothing, only knowing how to eat and not how to use your brain!"

Su Sanhu slumped his head after being scolded. "Mother, as you know, the restaurant is opening in a few days. After we close our stall, we have to go to the restaurant every day to keep an eye on it. There's a lot to do inside and out, so we've been coming back a bit late. Hua'er, she..."

The boy paused abruptly when he mentioned "Hua'er," and then asked, "What did Mother just say? What happened to Hua'er? Hasn't Hua'er been staying at home these past few days? She didn't come to Qingshui County with us today..."

"What did you say?!" Upon hearing this, Madam Su's voice rose sharply, followed by her eyelids twitching uncontrollably, her heart feeling as if it would leap out of her chest. "You said Hua'er didn't go to Qingshui County? How is that possible..."

She yanked open the car curtain and saw her two sons, who were also stunned inside. Suddenly, everything went black.

“Hua’er didn’t go to Qingshui County? How could that be? Where did she go? That’s impossible. She said she would come back with you after delivering Lin Qin to the Qin residence…”

"Mother, don't panic. Tell us what happened." The three Su brothers, no longer caring about moving the things in the carriage, jumped off and helped the woman up.

The mud house was not soundproof, and any noise outside the courtyard could be heard into the kitchen. Upon hearing the noise, Zhao and the others hurriedly ran out.

"Father, Second Uncle, Third Uncle, why are you the only ones here? Where is Aunt?"

"My aunt said that after delivering the apples today, she will go to buy fruit tree saplings. Is my aunt still picking out fruit tree saplings?"

"Chunhua even specially saved a big bowl of raspberries for her aunt today..."

Seeing that the atmosphere in the courtyard was not right, Zhao quickly pulled the three little ones aside to stop them from making any more noise.