Su Luo disagreed, saying, "They're at the age where they love to play, so let them play as much as they want. With me here, they won't go astray."
Su Luo took out the seven taels of silver she had left over from shopping and gave them to Zhao Ruyun: "Grandma, this is the silver we have left over today. Please take it."
Zhao Ruyun looked at the silver in her hand. She used to earn only two taels of silver a year from selling a litter of piglets. Su Luo could earn so much money in just two days and give it all to her. How much trust did Su Luo have in her?
"Luo Luo!"
Su Luo looked up: "What's wrong?"
Zhao Ruyun choked up: "Luo Luo, I... Now that you're normal, I want to tell you about your background. Although you were bought by the Chen family, there was no indenture. Your brother is illiterate. When he came to our family, it was just like a normal marriage. It's just that you were wronged. There were no proper etiquettes. You suffered."
So that's how it is!
However, all of this is owed to the original owner by the Chen family.
"Mother-in-law, that's all in the past, let's not talk about it anymore."
Zhao Ruyun handed the silver in her hand to Su Luo again and said, "Luo Luo, this silver is yours to keep. I'm old, and I trust you can take good care of it."
Su Luo bought everything in the house, and she paid for it.
"Okay, just tell me if you need anything."
Zhao Ruyun hummed in agreement.
Yan Chuan and Yi Huan each took a puppy to play in the village. The puppies were so cute that seven or eight children gathered around them.
"Yanchuan, how come you have a puppy? It's so cute!"
Another person said, "My family used to have a dog too, but we didn't have enough food for it, so my dad killed it."
Wang Tiezhu adored Yan Chuan's dog and reached out to pet it, but Yan Chuan stopped him.
"Yanchuan, let me play with your dog."
Yan Chuan looked arrogant; his dog was only for them to see, not to be touched.
"You can touch my stone if you want, but you'll have to get Tiezhu to trade something for it."
Seven or eight little boys surrounded Yan Chuan, all wanting to play with the stones.
"Tiezhu, hurry up and exchange things with Yanchuan, we all want to play with the dog."
Several children urged Wang Tiezhu, who had nothing and wondered what Yan Chuan wanted from him.
"Yanchuan, what do you want me to give you in exchange?"
Yan Chuan approached Wang Tiezhu and said, "I heard that your grandfather knows several characters. He must have taught you. If you teach me a character, I will let you and everyone else touch a stone once."
Upon hearing this, Wang Tiezhu thought, "That's great! I won't lose anything."
"Okay, I'll teach you to recognize a word now."
Wang Tiezhu picked up a twig and wrote the character '人' (person) on the ground.
"Yan Chuan, this character is simple, it's called 'person,' the human being."
Yan Chuan carefully examined the characters on the ground. There were only two strokes. He would be able to recognize one character after practicing more when he got back.
"I understand. You can all touch the stone."
The other children only wanted to play with the dog, and they trampled the character "人" (person) that Wang Tiezhu had written on it.
Although Yi Huan is the same age as Yan Chuan, she doesn't have as many ulterior motives and lets the two little girls play with her flowers together.
...
Su Luo put the silver into her space; there was no place in the world safer than her space.
As the sun was about to set, Su Luo started a fire to render the lard. She also needed to feed two dogs and cook extra rice.
Zhao Ruyun was so happy to see the two bolts of cloth that Su Luo had bought that she couldn't sit still. She was comparing the two bolts of cloth with her old clothes, wondering whether they were better for making outerwear or innerwear, and how to save more fabric.
As long as she's happy, Su Luo will let her do whatever she wants.
In half an hour, Su Luo rendered a large pot of lard. She took out a bag of salt from her spatial storage, put a little into the lard, and poured the rest into a newly bought salt jar. She threw the packaging bag into the fire and burned it away.
Put the cracklings in a large bowl, and put the lard into a wide-mouthed jar after it has cooled down a bit.
While waiting for the oil to cool, Su Luo first processed the ribs, and then went to the dry land to see what side dishes were available.
When Su Luo arrived at the field, she discovered that Zhao Ruyun had planted quite a variety of things, including ginger, garlic, and scallions. The plot of land was about sixty square meters, and a small portion of it was planted with soybeans.
She used bamboo to support the cucumber vines, and they were growing vigorously. Su Luo flipped over the cucumber leaves and saw that many cucumbers were as big as fingers, and a few were as big as Yi Huan's wrist. In another two or three days, they should be ready to be picked and eaten.
She picked a handful of June beans. These were the beans that Su Luo had carefully selected, only picking a handful that were slightly larger. Her family was too poor, and the vegetables were eaten before they were fully grown.
There's another plot of dry land, a little over a meter wide and two meters long, that's already been dug up. I don't know what Zhao Ruyun originally wanted to plant, but it's probably reserved for her to plant eggplants now.
I picked some ginger, scallions, and garlic to take home.
The lard can be jarred now. Reserve a little for the cracklings, add scallions, ginger, and garlic, and stir-fry with shallots.
After preparing the dish, Su Luo chopped the ribs into small pieces, put them in a pot to simmer, and added ginger slices to remove any unpleasant smell.
The aroma of meat filled the kilns at the foot of the mountain when suddenly someone appeared outside the fence.
"Second sister-in-law, are you home?"
Seeing Su Luo cooking, he called out, "Su Luo, is your mother-in-law home?"
Su Luo recognized this person; she was Liu Fangfang, the wife of Chen Ping'an, the third son of the Chen family.
Su Luo opened the fence gate: "Oh, it's Auntie. Come in, my mother-in-law is home."
Zhao Ruyun came out of the kiln after hearing the sound.
"Fangfang, what brings you here? Stay for dinner tonight, don't leave."
Liu Fangfang smelled the aroma of meat wafting from the kiln and swallowed, but knowing that Zhao Ruyun's family had no surplus food, she still spoke up.
"No, Xiaoxiao and her dad are still waiting for me at home. I made a pair of shoes for Xiaoxiao, but she can't wear them anymore. Children grow too fast. Give these shoes to Huanhuan; she should be able to wear them."
Chen Xiaoxiao is Chen Ping'an's daughter; she is six years old, one year older than Yi Huan. The shoes Liu Fangfang brought were cloth shoes, which were just right for this season.
Zhao Ruyun: "I can't accept this. I thank you on behalf of Yi Huan."
Su Luo brought out a stool and invited Liu Fangfang to sit down. The uncle and aunt usually took good care of them.
"Auntie, we can't just take your things for nothing. Please stay for dinner tonight, I just cooked too much rice."
Su Luo disliked owing favors to others, so at Zhao Ruyun's strong invitation, she asked Liu Fangfang to invite Chen Ping'an and her daughter to their house for dinner.
Su Luo scooped the rice from the pot into a bowl, and fearing it wouldn't be enough, she cooked another pot and set it aside. When Yan Chuan and Yi Huan returned from walking the dog, Su Luo told them to wash their hands and get ready to eat.
Liu Fangfang and her family also arrived, and Zhao Ruyun greeted them at the gate of the fence.
"Uncle, Fangfang, come in quickly. Xiaoxiao, go sit with Huanhuan," Zhao Ruyun called out.
Liu Fangfang also brought a plate of pickled vegetables from their home. When she saw Su Luo's stir-fried beans with pork cracklings, a big pot of braised pork ribs, and stir-fried shepherd's purse with lard, she suddenly felt that the pickled vegetables she had were not presentable.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com