Chapter 14
Jun Qingmo blinked. They had been here for quite some time. The courtyard, which had been deserted just now, was now filled with voices.
He had just thought the owner wasn't home. But it sounded like the voice was being amplified?
"My little yellow flowers, you are such great little hens today! You laid ten eggs."
"You are such obedient children. I will give you a snack tonight. I will mix shredded cabbage leaves with cornmeal and feed you well."
"One for the old man, one for me; one for Kang'er, one for me; one for Yan'er, one for me; one for Erwa, one for me; one for Sunsun, one for me.
Just enough, just right, a full bowl of egg soup! Hey, I want to drink egg soup tonight."
The woman counted the eggs in the basket and arranged everything clearly.
"Puchi, Xiao Shunshun, there's a bowl of egg soup. Can grandma still find which egg is hers?"
"Eggs, eat them, grandma! Eat them until you're full!"
After a while, there was a sound as if something fell to the ground.
"Oh, mother, Black Claw is being naughty again, look at him."
"Hey, you little brat, you're making trouble again. Pick up what you spilled yourself."
"Meow meow meow."
"It's no use meowing, pick it up quickly."
"Meow meow, meow meow, meow meow, meow meow, meow."
The woman grabbed the kitten, lifted its two front paws, and picked up the half-dried radish strips on the ground.
The noises in the house kept coming out through the courtyard wall, and the old man lay on the wall and watched with relish.
After a while, the woman seemed to have entered the house. The old man then reluctantly walked down the steps and looked at Zhang Yunniang.
"Come on, open it and smell it, go out and pretend."
The old man picked up his load and walked out. When he reached the main road, he put it down.
"Same old style?"
"Same old, two servings!"
Zhang Yunniang hadn't come for some time, so the old man didn't say much, but he deliberately gave her a bigger portion.
Just as he was packing for a while, two more young men came over from a distance to buy. After packing for a few people, the old man ran away quickly with his shoulder pole. He didn't want to sell too quickly because he still had half a day to go.
Jun Qingmo was filled with curiosity about the old man. He was clearly homesick, yet he was still running away. The aroma of the stew lingering in his nose further whetted his appetite.
He smacked his lips, wanting to eat.
Eat when you want, what are you waiting for? He wiped his hands on his inner collar, took out a duck wing and started to gnaw on it.
Zhang Yunniang laughed when she saw the monkey's anxious look. What's the point of being so reserved about everything? This is how life should be. Eat when you want to eat, drink when you want to drink, and sleep when you want to sleep.
She had eaten there often before, so she was much calmer than others. She pushed the other person to a secluded place, found a small stone block to sit on, and then started eating.
"Are you familiar with that old man?"
Jun Qingmo's nose tip was red, and he was gnawing on half of a duck neck.
"I can't say I'm familiar with him, but I feel like I know him a little bit."
Once, Zhang Yunniang accidentally bought some braised food from the old man when she passed by. She couldn't forget it after eating it, but she never came across it again.
After asking someone, she learned that the old man did what he wanted. After many attempts at searching, she finally met the old man again.
When they met again, she bought a bag of food and followed the old man. She didn't believe in evil and wanted to figure out some secrets.
The old man had a new follower following him, and he didn't pay much attention to it at first. But she kept following him and he couldn't stop her. Seeing how persistent she was, he told her the pattern of his way home.
The old man initially climbed the wall to spy on his wife, but his son secretly built a two-step stone ladder for him to avoid him falling. The old man thought he had kept his little secret well, but in fact, everyone in the family knew about it.
Everyone was playing with him.
The old lady is old and talkative, and she can't sit still. When the old man is at home, she can't help but chatter all the time, so she just lets him do what he wants.
"This family has such a good relationship and a harmonious family. It's really enviable."
"Hey, who says it's not?"
Jun Qingmo changed the subject without leaving any trace, "Did you come out often before?"
"Uh, not really, just occasionally, occasionally."
Zhang Yunniang looked at the obvious disbelief in the eyes of the people over there, raised her head to the sky and sighed. She was not caught when she was slacking off, but was discovered when her job was about to be lost.
"You seem to be very familiar with these places outside." He even knows where the alleys are, where there are many people, and where there are few people. Most people would not remember such details unless they have been there thirty or fifty times.
Zhang Yunniang felt at ease in every place she visited today, as if she was at home. It seemed that she had been there many times.
Zhang Yunniang did come here quite often, and she even bought a house here.
The prices here are much lower in the civilian area. She used the money saved by the original owner and her own savings to buy a house with a courtyard.
I can still earn some rent every year from renting it out, but the rent here is not high. Not long ago, the tenant said he had something to do and wanted to leave Beijing and stop renting the house, so my income will be affected again.
Seeing that no one was talking, Jun Qingmo thought that Zhang Yunniang was afraid of being punished for sneaking out of the house, so he didn't dare to say anything. "It's good to go out for a walk. I didn't say anything to you."
"..." If her previous work was not easy and there was no end to the fish she could catch, why would she be so reluctant to give up this job? Now she works so hard like a slave, just for this employer to be able to hire her?
"Then what can you say about me? Did I seem a bit perfunctory and sloppy in the work assigned to me? I'm not being lazy or slacking off, I'm really capable. Isn't this just handling the work in an orderly manner?"
Jun Qingmo looked at the man, who was confident and yet guilty, and laughed in his heart, "I didn't say anything."
"I'm a little curious. We've only been together for two or three years. How did you develop your current personality when you were so cautious and timid before?"
"No rules, no respect for elders, no redeeming qualities except for a good heart?"
"...Everyone says the Second Young Master is a man of high moral character and humble spirit. But now he's being so petty and calculating. Isn't he completely different from the rumors?"
Jun Qingmo looked carefully at the person in front of him. He had a very good memory and he still remembered that when he first met him, this person was timid and his voice was as quiet as a mosquito, as if the wind would scare the leaves.
Only three or four years have passed, and she seems like a completely different person. What happened during this time? Or, in other words, which side of her is the real her?
There were also some strange remarks popping up from time to time. Perhaps, this person was still the one he brought back?
Zhang Yunniang allowed herself to be stared at without any fear. If she had not encountered it herself, she would not have understood what was going on.
Anyway, she is Zhang Yunniang now, absolutely the real one. Even if her personality has changed drastically, what does it matter?
Who would believe that the shell is the same but the core is? It's not a toy liner, it can be disassembled.
"Maybe he was just one step away from death, so he came to terms with it?" Zhang Yunniang looked thoughtful, touching her chin, walking around Jun Qingmo, as if she was a little confused herself.
"You were one step away from death? When was it? What happened? Were there servants oppressing you?"
How could he not have known about the near-murder in the yard? It couldn't have happened before he lost power, so it must have happened after he lost power?
Zhang Yunniang waved her hands up and down in front of her, trying to soothe her. "Don't get excited, don't get excited. This is no one's fault. It's just bad luck."
Every time she thought of this, she felt sorry for the original owner. It was so pitiful and miserable.
She took out the last duck claw and stuffed it into her mouth angrily, feeling really aggrieved and sad for the original owner.
"One summer day two years ago, I accidentally knocked over a cabinet in the house. It fell on my head and I fainted immediately.
At that time, I was timid and afraid of people, and rarely interacted with others, so I was never discovered.
I was lucky. I don't know how long I was unconscious, but I woke up from the cold. I forced myself to stop the bleeding on my forehead, and then fell asleep again. I guess I was unconscious for two or three days, and I managed to make it through.
Zhang Yunniang brushed her hair aside and said, "Here, that's it. The cabinet fell on my head and everything went black. I lost consciousness."
There is an obvious scar on the right corner of her temple. Perhaps it was so serious because it was not treated at the time. Later, she bought a lot of scar removal medicine, but unfortunately, none of them worked.
Fortunately, her hair on her forehead can cover it up, so it doesn't affect the appearance too much. She is also open-minded and doesn't care too much about her appearance, as long as it doesn't hurt the appearance.
Whether it looks good or not is not something that a commoner like her needs to consider. Besides, she is a powerless little follower who just wants to make a living and has no big ambitions.
I've saved my life for free and can live a few more decades, so it's a gain no matter how you look at it.
At that time, making money was easy and not tiring, and her only focus was on saving money.
She planned to go out and travel when she had saved enough for her retirement. When she was tired of playing, she could use the remaining money to open a shop and live a leisurely life like this. She would wake up laughing in her dreams.
The only miscalculation was that she didn't have any unrealistic ideas and wanted to be a small screw in the office until she was old, but she didn't realize that her employer was about to go bankrupt.
Alas, this is the true version of unexpected storms.
Jun Qingmo looked at the scar on the woman's forehead. If it were someone else, it would be an irrecoverable blow for a woman to be disfigured, but this person didn't care at all.
Listening to her talk about life and death so calmly, could it be that past experiences can really change a person so quickly?
A woman who was so timid before can now stand on her own. As a man, should I complain to myself after suffering a little setback?
The places Zhang Yunniang took him to were all places he had never set foot on before. It was not until this time that he truly understood the allusion of "Why not eat meat porridge?"
He believed that the catastrophic disaster he had suffered and the miserable situation in which he could not survive could barely be considered a good life compared to the rest of the world.
Now, listening to Zhang Yunniang's past experiences, he began to examine himself more and more.
I came to the conclusion in my heart that perhaps since I was born, except for the pain of my mother's death, all my life has been smooth sailing, which is why I have developed such a fragile character.
"What happened next? Did you suddenly stop being timid?"
Zhang Yunniang recalled the original owner's state of mind when he was dying, and thought about how to make the story more convincing and reasonable.
"As I lay on the ground, I felt the blood draining away and my body temperature dropping, and the fear in my heart grew stronger and stronger. This fear was different from the fear I usually have towards people."
"What's that like?"
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