Aunt Yang and Fang Rou both knew that she was a clean person, so they rinsed the bowls and chopsticks used for her and the children twice with hot water. They put a soup spoon in the stewed goose meat pot and placed an empty bowl in front of each person. Whoever wanted to eat could use the spoon to scoop the food into their own bowl and not put their chopsticks into the porcelain pot.
In rural households, the dining table is usually a long table, and people sit far apart. Fang Rou also followed Xiao Yunying's example and divided the other dishes into two portions on a plate so that everyone could reach them without having to stand up.
Some things don't need to be said; you can feel whether someone cares about you or not from the details. It's not something that can be compared to just saying a few words.
Xiao Yunying truly didn't consider herself an outsider, and ate goose meat to her heart's content at the dinner table.
After the meal, Uncle Yang took his two sons back to the house, leaving the main room for the women to talk.
After the children had eaten their fill, the two younger ones and the Yang twins squatted on the ground playing with the puppy, while the two older ones stood by and watched over them.
Xiao Yunying patted her slightly protruding belly: "Sure enough, winter is not a good season for losing weight."
We chatted about everyday things while eating, and before we knew it, we were stuffed.
Fang Rou knew what losing weight meant, so she brought her a bowl of hawthorn water with rock sugar: "Why are you losing weight? You've already lost so much weight. If you lose any more, you'll be nothing but skin and bones."
Xiao Yunying took the bowl: "You're just trying to flatter me. I'm much fatter than you."
Fang Rou sat down next to her: "I'm different from you. I can eat as much as I want and I won't gain weight."
Aunt Yang brought over some melon seeds and peanuts: "That's right. When my eldest daughter-in-law first married into the family, I steamed rice and stewed meat for her every day. I fed her for more than a month, but she didn't gain any weight at all. I felt like I was wasting my time feeding her."
Xiao Yunying was speechless: "You know that saying that will make me jealous."
A body type that allows you to eat without gaining weight—that's what so many girls dream of!
"What are you jealous of? I'm jealous of you! You have such fair skin and are so good-looking. Not to mention our village, you can't find many people as good-looking as you in the surrounding villages combined."
Xiao Yunying looked at the back of her hand: "Whether it looks good or not is a matter of personal opinion. You may think it looks good, but others may not. However, I am quite fair-skinned because I don't work in the fields. I used to stay indoors and didn't go out much, so I didn't get much sun. If you stay covered up all winter, you will also become fairer."
In this era, even married women from ordinary families had to work in the fields. Not only did they work in the fields, but they also had to wash clothes by the river, dig wild vegetables and gather pig feed in the mountains. They were exposed to the sun a lot, and even the fairest people would get tanned.
Aunt Yang said to Fang Rou, "You can lose weight if you're fat, but don't even think about being fair-skinned. Yun Ying is naturally fair-skinned. She was fair-skinned when she was little, and she can't get tanned no matter how much sun she gets. In the middle of summer, other people get tanned after a few hours in the sun, but Yun Ying's skin will turn red, and once the redness fades, it will still be fair."
The term "innate" generally refers to what one inherits from their parents; the professional term is heredity.
Fang Rou asked, "Really? Why aren't Aunt Mu, Uncle Xiao, and Yun Ying's two brothers so fair-skinned?"
Including her nephews and nieces from her maternal family, none of them were as fair-skinned as Xiao Yunying.
Xiao Yunying couldn't explain dominant and recessive genes to them, so she laughed and said, "There's nothing I can do, I'm just naturally beautiful."
Aunt Yang said, "Your Aunt Mu was fair-skinned when she was young. She could get her fair skin back after getting tanned by covering up her tan. But now that she's older and often works in the fields, she's always busy and never has a moment to rest, so she can't get her fair skin back."
Fang Rou said, "Yun Ying is lucky; she inherited Mu Da Niang's good fortune."
Aunt Yang laughed and replied, "It's just good luck. Her three older brothers and sisters all took after her father, and their skin wasn't very fair when they were born."
Aunt Yang turned to Xiao Yunying and said, "Your sister is a little better off, but your two brothers are really dark-skinned. According to your mother, you can't even see where the children are at night without a light. Fortunately, they've grown up and aren't as dark as they were when they were little."
Xiao Yunying knew that her father wasn't fair-skinned; it wasn't from tanning, but rather he had a naturally bronze complexion.
There's no such way to describe skin color here; anything that's not fair is generally referred to as black.
Her two older brothers also resembled their father, but their skin was lighter than his.
As for her sister...
Emma, she'd completely forgotten she had an older sister.
Aunt Yang thought for a moment and then said, "But you were much fairer than your mother was when she was younger. Your hair was so white it seemed to glow in the sun."
She hadn't noticed it before, but now that someone brought it up, Xiao Yunying thought about it carefully and realized it was indeed true.
While others get tanned after prolonged sun exposure, she gets redder.
This is a genetic issue. Although there is a certain probability, it's unlikely that she would be the only one in the whole family to inherit the gene for fair skin. The odds are indeed quite small.
Remembering the birthmark on her back, she asked casually, "Auntie, I have a crescent-shaped birthmark on my left shoulder, about the size of a coin. There are some scars on the birthmark. My dad said it was because he didn't hold me up, and I slipped out of my swaddling clothes and fell onto his unfinished bamboo basket, where I got scratched by bamboo strips. Do you know about this, Auntie?"
Aunt Yang peeled peanuts: "I know, a lot of people in the village know about this. Your father was scolded by your mother for a long time because of this. For a long time afterward, whenever a family had a newborn baby, the elders in the family would not let the baby's father hold the baby, for fear that the father's rough hands would bump into and drop the baby."
"Did Auntie see me being dropped to the ground by my dad?"
Aunt Yang said, "No, I wasn't in the village the day you were born. I took the child and your Uncle Yang back to my parents' house for two days. When we got back to the village, I saw your father carrying you and rushing toward Uncle San. He was going to treat your injuries."
That's when I found out your mother had given birth. I put down my things and went to your mother's house. She was already awake, constantly cursing your father, saying that you were born prematurely and had a difficult delivery but you were alright, while your father almost fell to his death.
Aunt Yang recalled the past and couldn't help but laugh: "When I first heard that your mother had a premature birth, I was quite worried. After all, childbirth is a major event for women. Every childbirth is like taking a trip to the gates of hell, let alone premature birth. It is dangerous for both the child and her."
When I got to your mother's house and heard her scolding your father with such vigor and energy, I immediately realized I had worried for nothing.
Fang Rou exclaimed in surprise, "You were born prematurely?"
Xiao Yunying knew nothing about this and had no memory of it, indicating that the original owner of the body was also unaware of it: "I don't know about this, Aunt Yang. Can you tell me what happened?"
She was hearing about this for the first time and was very curious.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com