Chapter 155 The Much-anticipated Child
There were people coming and going in the guesthouse, the escorts talking in rough voices, the merchants loading and unloading goods. Sui Yu did not sleep well and dozed off for an hour. She lifted the quilt and sat up, opened the door and walked out of the guesthouse. She stood by the river and felt much better after feeling the breeze.
"Sister-in-law, the sun hasn't set yet." A Shui ran over with his head poked.
"I woke up after sleeping enough." Sui Yu patted her and asked, "What are you busy with? You're sweating all over."
A Shui took out a handful of copper coins from her bosom and went to run errands for the merchant and call for help.
Sui Yu didn't want her to run around, so she led the child into the west kitchen and said, "Tomorrow, ask Yin Po to take you to buy a hundred chicks. From now on, you can help me catch insects and feed the chickens. I'll give you twenty cents a day. Do you want to do it?"
A Shui nodded heavily.
"Have you bought the meat?" Sui Yu asked.
"Now that you've bought it, are you going to start cooking now?" Grandma Yin continued.
"Cook it now and then deep-fry it. You don't need to boil the rooster, just fry it in the oil pan." Sui Yu said, "Call me when the meat is fried. I'll be checking the accounts in the warehouse next door."
Sui Yu took A Shui away and asked the girl to help her string copper coins.
When the sun sets, the aroma of meat and oil wafts from the kitchen. Sui Yu suddenly has a strong appetite. She is a little confused. She thought the fried meat was too greasy at noon, and less than half a day later, she is craving the same taste again?
Without waiting for Grandma Yin to call out, Sui Yu hurried into the kitchen and took over the work on the stove. Ah Shui followed her in and sat in front of the stove, adding firewood and lighting the fire.
The meat was fried in a pan and the rooster was thrown into the pan. Sui Yu took a spoon to scoop oil and poured it on the chicken skin. The chicken skin changed color during frying and gradually turned golden yellow.
"It smells so good." Ah Shui leaned over the stove and looked into the pot.
Sui Yu smiled and said, "Steam an extra bowl of meat later and we'll share it."
"You won't share it with others?"
"No."
Ah Shui hesitated, twisting her hands and saying in a childish voice, "Sister-in-law, you forgot about your brother."
This brother refers to Sui Liang. Sui Yu glanced at her and said, "Then give Liang brother two bites, and the rest will be for the two of us."
Ah Shui was conflicted and muttered quietly, "Leave a few for my dad too."
Sui Yu made a "tsk" sound, and she knew that Sui Liang was just a cover, and this girl had been thinking about Uncle Lao Niu from the beginning.
Seeing that Sui Yu didn't say anything, A Shui made a face behind her. When Yin Po saw it, she immediately acted well-behaved.
Cut the meat into pieces and place them in a large ceramic bowl. Chop the chicken into small pieces and fry them in the oil pan again. Finally, leave only the base oil and stir-fry the dried vegetables with the brine until they are dry. Place them in the meat bowl and put them in the steamer to steam.
After the meal was done, Sui Yu was covered in the aroma of oil. She raised her arm and took a deep breath, feeling refreshed and happy.
When the sunset was about to dissipate, the merchants came to eat. Zhao Xiaomi and Sui Liang helped to serve the dishes. Sui Yu took away a plate of braised pork and led A Shui to sit under the eaves. They took a bite of a pancake with a large piece of meat. The skin was soft and glutinous, and the lean meat was not dry. It was sandwiched with a plain flour pancake, and it tasted more and more delicious.
"Feed me a bite." Zhao Xiaomi leaned over.
Sui Liang followed closely behind. He took the chopsticks handed to him by Sui Yu and took a big bite of a piece of meat that was the length of a finger.
"Sister, why haven't you made this dish before?" he asked.
"I just remembered it. Do you want to eat?" Sui Yu stretched out her hand. "If you don't want to eat, give me the chopsticks."
Sui Liang took another bite of meat before returning the chopsticks. He heard a customer shouting and he strode over.
Zhao Xiaomi went into the house and broke off half a pancake, dipping it in the gravy. A customer saw her and beckoned, saying, "Girl, give us forty pancakes on this table."
"Okay, I'll be right there." Zhao Xiaomi responded loudly.
Ah Shui stretched her head to look outside, but her father still didn't come. She was so anxious that she had no appetite to eat meat.
Sui Yu looked at her quietly, but he didn't stop picking up the meat. He even urged her deliberately: "A Shui, eat quickly. Are you full? The rest will be all mine."
"I'm not full yet, sister-in-law, please leave two pieces for me."
"No, that won't work. You have to eat hot meat. If it's cold, it'll upset your stomach."
Ah Shui stared at the meat on the plate eagerly, and then looked out anxiously. She wanted to go out to look for someone, but she was afraid that the meat would be gone when she came back, so she could only pretend to coax her, "Sister-in-law, please eat slowly. You can't eat meat too fast. If you eat it too fast, it will be wasted."
Sui Yu didn't say anything.
"Oh!" She sighed like a child, and said calmly, "You really don't listen to advice."
Sui Yu restrained herself from laughing. She put down her chopsticks and said, "I'm full. Leave the rest for your brother to eat when he comes back."
Ah Shui quickly put two pieces of meat on the pancake. She gave Sui Yu a cunning smile and ran out with the meat and pancake in her hands.
"Little mischievous creature." Sui Yu suddenly realized the joy of raising a child.
A man strode in from outside the door. It was Zhao Xiping who had returned from evening training.
"We ate first and didn't wait for you." Sui Yu said.
"If you don't want to wait, then don't." Zhao Xiping walked over and asked, "Are you feeling unwell?"
Sui Yu shook her head. She made way for him to sit down and eat. "Would you like to have pancakes or soup noodles?"
"Soup noodles, I'll eat them with meat soup." Zhao Xiping took the meat plate away, went into the house and asked Yin Po to cook him a plate of soup noodles.
As the sky gradually darkened, the merchants left after eating their fill. Those who planned to leave the next morning came to confirm with Sui Yu the dry food they wanted to take with them, so that she wouldn't forget.
"Can you make braised pork belly tomorrow morning?" Someone saw Zhao Xiping mixing noodles with gravy and felt greedy again after just finishing his meal.
"No, come and eat when you return." The three servants in charge of the kitchen are busy all day long, and Sui Yu does not intend to exploit their sleep time anymore.
"Make us five pounds of braised pork for lunch tomorrow." Another merchant said, "We are the caravan staying in the fourth guesthouse."
Sui Yu had an impression of it. She took another look at it and said, "Okay, I'll remember it."
After all the merchants in the dining hall had left, Sui Yu went over to help clear the tables and collect the bowls and plates, allowing the other servants and helpers who had been busy all day to sit down and have a meal.
Zhao Xiping put down his bowl and chopsticks after he was full and went to help. There was a lot of oil and water tonight, so he used the slop with meat oil to cook radishes with bran. When Gan Da and Gan Er went to feed the pigs, he followed them and watched. The ten pigs were eating loudly.
"Sir, we will take care of the rest, you guys go back first." Gan Da said.
"How's the farm work going?"
"I'm planting wheat."
"Okay, I'll go there after I finish morning training tomorrow." Although he didn't rely on the harvest from the fields to make a living, Zhao Xiping still couldn't let go of the crops in the fields.
"Brother-in-law, it's time for us to go back." Sui Liang ran over and said, "My sister asked me to lead the camels. She wants to ride them back. I will only lead one, and she will ride. We should run back."
Sui Yu rode on a camel holding a torch to illuminate the way, followed by three people jogging slowly. After running back and forth for half a year, the whole family had practiced it, and now they could jog all the way back from the guesthouse without even breathing heavily.
After arriving home, Sui Yu boiled water to take a bath and wash her hair. After washing, she sat at the table and let the man wipe her hair.
"Why aren't you talking?" Zhao Xiping felt strange.
Sui Yu chuckled a few times.
"What are you laughing at?"
Sui Yu felt a kind of joy and pride that only she knew of, as if she was carrying a treasure. After her hair was dried, she turned around and hugged the man, burying her head of black hair in his chest.
"What's going on?" Zhao Xiping felt something was amiss. He picked her up and carried her sideways. They both lay down on the mattress. He kissed her and said, "Making money again? Look how happy you are."
Sui Yu pulled his hand and pressed it against her belly, then said mysteriously, "I didn't have my period this month."
Zhao Xiping didn't understand what he meant. He even calculated the days and asked in confusion, "What's going on? Shouldn't it have come yesterday?"
"I might be pregnant." Sui Yu couldn't help herself and finally broke the news. "I thought about it and I'm about 80% sure."
Zhao Xiping was stunned, and his hand stroking his belly froze. He asked in disbelief, "Really?"
Sui Yu responded with a laugh.
Zhao Xiping fell backwards, bursting into laughter and patting the bed proudly, saying, "What did I say? Seeds need to be planted in spring to sprout, and here they are."
"Vulgar," Sui Yu scolded him. She looked at the dark roof and said in disbelief, "I'm actually going to give birth to a child. He was brought into this world by me."
Zhao Xiping turned sideways and hugged her. He and she were going to have a child? After being married for four or five years, he suddenly felt it was magical that two strangers could produce a child that was related to both of them. From now on, he and Sui Yu would not only be husband and wife, but also the child's parents.
There was only the sound of breathing in the room. Listening to the heartbeat beside her ear, Sui Yu felt sleepy and the waves in her heart slowly subsided. She thought that since she could gain a foothold in this dynasty, she would naturally be able to let the child in her belly live a stable and comfortable life.
Zhao Xiping sat up only after she fell asleep. He got off the bed and blew out the dim candlelight. In the darkness, he put his ear to Sui Yu's lower abdomen. Her stomach was still flat and there was no movement inside.
"Hey, you're in there, right?" he asked in a low voice, but felt stupid the moment he said it. He pulled down the mattress and lay down flat, closing and opening his eyes again.
Oh! He couldn't sleep.
When the rooster crowed three times, Zhao Xiping lifted the mattress and got out of bed. He took his clothes and opened the door quietly. It was still early for morning training, so he went to the kitchen to boil a pot of hot water, picked up a stick from the firewood pile and practiced kung fu in the yard.
Sui Liang heard the noise and opened the door. He was still sleepy and was squatting on the doorstep with his hands on his face, watching the people in the yard practicing martial arts. His eyes were fixed on them, but his mind was already wandering.
"Did I disturb you?" Zhao Xiping asked in a low voice, "Come here, I want to tell you something."
"Brother-in-law, you train every morning and evening, aren't you tired?" Sui Liang walked over, "What do you want to talk about?"
"You're going to be an uncle," Zhao Xiping said, his face full of satisfaction. He put his arm around Sui Liang's shoulders and said, "From now on, you'll stay with your sister in the guesthouse. If she's not able to do that, you can take care of the accounts, the grocery shopping, and the entertaining of guests."
"My sister is pregnant?" Sui Liang was surprised.
"right."
Zhao Xiaomi came over from the backyard and asked, "What are you two so happy about so early in the morning?"
"I'm going to be an uncle." Sui Liang said boastfully.
"My third sister-in-law is pregnant?" Zhao Xiaomi was surprised. "Good news, good news. The baby is finally here."
Sui Yu heard the sound while lying in bed. When she opened her eyes, she heard the good news about herself. She was filled with joy and felt refreshed early in the morning.
"I'm not sure yet. Don't tell anyone about this for now. I'll go see a doctor to check your pulse in a month." Sui Yu shouted at the top of his voice.
As soon as he finished speaking, the door opened and the three people outside walked in. Sui Yu saw their excitement, she smiled and touched her belly, this child was so lucky, she was deeply anticipated and loved by everyone while still in the belly.
"Third sister-in-law, you should rest at home. Sui Liang and I will take care of the guesthouse together." Zhao Xiaomi said.
"That won't do." Sui Yu shook her head. "Having a child makes it even more important to make money. I'm not feeling unwell, so I don't need to rest."
Zhao Xiping heard the door next door open. He was going to the training ground. He also had to practice martial arts well, strive to make more achievements and get promoted, and provide support for Sui Yu and the child.
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