At the end of the village, Su Dahu and his group had just finished skewering vegetables and fish balls when they turned around and saw Su Hua walking back, covered in sweat and carrying two full baskets of mushrooms. They quickly went over to help.
"Hua'er, why didn't you call us when you went to pick mushrooms?" Su Sanhu took the basket, and his arm suddenly sank down. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that the little plump mushrooms had a hint of pink underneath. "Huh, what's that? Why is it so heavy?"
The rich aroma of shiitake mushrooms, mixed with a certain sweetness, wafts straight to the tip of your nose.
“These are red berries I found while picking shiitake mushrooms just now.” Su Hua smiled and reached out to move the shiitake mushrooms aside. “I ate one and found it sweet and delicious, so I picked a few more to bring back. One portion is for my family, and the other portion is just right to send to the Qin family as a gift.”
Without the mushrooms to cover them, the round fruits were completely exposed.
The Su family members gasped in shock.
"These red berries are quite beautiful, aren't they? Just one of them is as big as my two fists!"
"Yes, this pink and tender color makes people drool just looking at it."
"Hua'er, where did you pick this fruit? The three of us brothers often go to the mountains to pick wild fruit over the years, but we've never seen fruit like this before. With this quality, it should be worth quite a bit of money if we sold it..."
Su Hua glanced at Su Erhu, raised her hand and pointed in the direction of the kitchen, lowering her voice several decibels.
“These were picked from Fuhu Mountain. My brothers used to search the outskirts but couldn’t find them. All the trees that were there are now here. I also dug up a sapling and planted it in the yard so we’ll have something to eat every year.”
Upon hearing this, Su Erhu abruptly stopped speaking.
After scrutinizing the girl from head to toe for a long time, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. When he spoke again, his voice was much lower, "Hua'er, you're too bold. If your mother finds out you went to Fuhu Mountain, I'm afraid she'll really beat you!"
Su Dahu and Su Sanhu also expressed their disapproval. Ever since they encountered wild boars in the back mountain last time, not only were Su Hua and the three children forbidden from going to Fuhu Mountain by Su Baishi, but the three of them were only allowed to wander around the hillside, for fear of accidentally provoking the tigers in the mountains.
"I only went there today because I was looking at the fruit. I'll definitely be more careful next time." Su Hua smiled sheepishly and quickly changed the subject. "We have to be careful with these saplings. Brothers, take a look and see where we can plant them. If we don't plant them soon, we don't even know if they'll survive."
Distracted by this, the three brothers didn't dwell on the matter any longer.
They started seriously looking for a place to plant trees in the yard.
Madam Qian, however, did not seem to care much about the red fruit. Instead, she wiped her hands on the hem of her dress, put on a smile, and walked up to Su Hua. “Hua’er is going to visit the Qin family today. Why don’t you take Chunhua with you, Second Sister-in-law?”
After saying that, fearing she might not agree, he quickly added something else.
"Everyone says that girls should be pampered. Chunhua will be four years old in the fall and has never seen much of the world. Now that we have such a good opportunity, why don't we go and have a look together? Second sister-in-law, I promise that my daughter and I will stay by your side and not look around or say anything out of line."
Su Hua raised her almond-shaped eyes slightly, her gaze landing precisely on the woman's slightly shimmering phoenix eyes.
A sudden realization struck her: her second sister-in-law was still plotting to pair Chunhua and Qin Yucheng together.
Qin Yucheng is at least twelve or thirteen years old, and Chunhua is only three years old this year. Qian Shi has been trying to bring the two of them together. If you didn't know better, you would probably think she was some kind of stepmother!
Thinking of this, she shook her head and refused, "No way."
"No way?!" Seeing that she was not giving her any face, Madam Qian's voice suddenly rose, "Why not?! Chunhua is usually more affectionate towards you than I am, her own mother. All I'm asking you to do is let her see the world. Why can't you even do such a small thing? Is all that pampering you usually show her what you're capable of?"
Compared to her blushing and stammering, Su Hua's expression remained unchanged. She simply raised her hand to dust off her sleeves and said in a calm tone, "Why not? Second sister-in-law can talk to Mother."
Regardless of Qian's intentions, who brings their whole family on their first visit?
It's not like Granny Liu taking Ban'er to the Grand View Garden!
Qian was speechless at this nonchalant attitude. She opened her mouth to say something, but a shrewish roar immediately rang in her ears, "What do you want to tell me?"
Turning around, I saw Su Bai standing smugly at the kitchen door.
The words that were about to come out were instantly swallowed back down, leaving only an extremely forced smile. "It's nothing. I was just talking with Hua'er about when we can have breakfast!"
"Eat, eat, eat! All you ever think about is food!" Su Bai glared at her.
Turning to look at her beloved daughter, her slanted eyes were full of tenderness. "Hua'er, Mother just cooked fish bone noodle soup, and I also put in quite a lot of fish belly meat. Come in and try it, do you like it?"
"Mother's cooking is first-rate, how could I not like it!" Su Hua chuckled as she stood up.
Before entering the house, he didn't forget to call Su Dahu and the others to come along.
This fish bone noodle soup is best enjoyed hot; once it cools down, the soup develops a fishy smell.
Standing in the courtyard, listening to the slurping sounds of fish soup coming from the kitchen, Qian felt a sharp pang of sadness. She was only trying to help her daughter; what was wrong with that?
The sun gradually rose from the thin mist.
Zuixianju (Drunken Immortal Abode)
The man sat in the private room, dressed in a dark blue brocade robe and pink-soled boots. His eyes were slightly closed, and the tea on the table was warm, with steam rising from it, which added to his carefree demeanor.
Then a series of hurried footsteps sounded.
The curtain to the private room was lifted from the outside.
"Sir! The Su family has arrived!"
The man opened his eyes and glanced at the servant with great displeasure. "They're getting more and more unruly. They don't even know to knock before coming in. If the Su family is here, tell them to wait patiently for two hours."
The thin-faced servant wiped the sweat from his forehead and stepped back to give a perfunctory two knocks on the door.
"The Su family has come, but they haven't come to our Zuixianju!"
"What do you mean by that?" Song Jiaren paused in his tea-pouring motion.
The thin-faced waiter lowered his head slightly. "The Su family has come to the entrance of Baichuan Academy, not our Zuixianju. Moreover, the business of the mala tang stall is booming right now, and the queue in front of the stall is much longer than yesterday."
"How is this possible???" Song Jiaren slammed his teacup down, his eyes filled with gloom. "Didn't you say yesterday that you had instructed all the butchers in Qingshui County? They have no offal or pork, not even pork bones for soup. Are they going to sell only boiled vegetables?"
The servant felt a chill run down his spine.
His tongue trembled slightly as he said, "I...I did tell the butchers that the Su siblings had very little offal on their stall today, but they also made chicken skewers, duck skewers, duck offal skewers, and fish ball skewers. The fish ball skewers, in particular, were even more popular than the offal!"
The air in the private room was quiet for a long time.
Song Jiaren slowly curled a sinister smile, "I thought it was an ant that would die if I stepped on it, but I didn't expect it to be so tenacious. In that case, it's even more interesting."
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