Upon seeing the newcomer, Sanyuan immediately withdrew her gaze from the stir-fried duck with pickled radish, and leaped into Su Jiu's arms, pulling him towards the table:
"Master, you're back! Come quickly, Mother has cooked a lot of dishes!"
After a while, Sanyuan turned around in confusion, only to see Su Jiu staring intently at a woman holding a baby in the middle of a group of people.
In fact, Su Jiu regretted it as soon as he kicked open the door and before he could even see the faces of the people at the two tables inside.
The villains dared to seize his bamboo house in broad daylight and brazenly cooked dishes that smelled delicious all the way to the foot of the mountain, clearly showing their great confidence in their strength and abilities.
When he kicked open the door, he saw more than a dozen pairs of eyes staring at him, especially a few pairs that looked extremely fierce, which made Su Jiu feel uneasy.
Before Sanyuan ran over, Su Jiu was prepared to turn around and run away. It wasn't until someone grabbed his arm that he had time to take a closer look at everyone's faces.
Su Jiu glared at Ye Wenxue with mixed feelings: "...You really don't treat yourself like an outsider."
Under the intense gaze of a pair of eyes burning with anger, Ye Wenxue coughed awkwardly, a rare occurrence for her.
The others vaguely guessed that the person was the owner of the bamboo house, and they couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed.
It is indeed somewhat inappropriate to stay in someone else's house without asking the host.
The atmosphere inside and outside the house became incredibly eerie.
As Su Jiu waited for Ye Wenxue to reply and explain, Sanyuan suddenly stuffed something into his hand. He looked closely and saw that it was a tael of silver.
Sanyuan tried hard to recall how Siwang had acted coquettishly towards his mother after causing trouble, and carefully followed his example: "Master... Master, here you go, the rent."
He knew that his mother was in the wrong, but Ye Wenxue was, after all, his mother, so Sanyuan naturally had to stand on her side and help her make amends.
"Master, please don't think it's too little. I only have one tael of silver on me. How about I make up for it later?"
This tael of silver was a gift that Zhi Xing had just received from Zhi Wang as a token of their greeting.
Su Jiu shoved the tael of silver back into Sanyuan's hand and pinched his rounder face: "This must be your mother's fault. Don't try to make excuses for her."
Sanyuan was caught off guard and hesitated to speak.
Ye Wenxue slowly said, "They helped you evade an assassination attempt, and after the wildfire destroyed half of the bamboo house, it was Baldy who led his men to rebuild the bamboo house and plant a medicinal herb garden and vegetable patch."
Although half of the reason the bald man grew vegetables and herbs was to please her, the bamboo house ultimately benefited from it.
The bald man, feeling guilty and not daring to utter a word, said, "...Ah, right."
Upon hearing the word "assassination," Su Jiu's expression changed slightly. After hesitating for a moment, he still refused to sit down and eat.
He's someone important, after all. For Ye Wenxue to let bystander's words gloss over Ye Wenxue's wrongdoing makes him seem easy to bully!
Especially in front of so many people.
During the stalemate, Su Jiu was patted hard on the shoulder, and a deep voice suddenly came from behind him: "Brother, are you here to celebrate making money too? Come in and sit down, or the food will get cold."
"Celebrate? Make money?" Su Jiu's gaze was fixed on Ye Wenxue's face, and he chuckled.
Fearing that Su Jiu would become even angrier, Old Master Xu quickly called someone in:
"Wang Chun, where have you been? You're so late. Come in quickly, it's time to eat, the food is getting cold."
Wang Chun, confused, grabbed Su Jiu's shoulder and pulled him inside: "Master, I'm burning charcoal in the back. I tried adding pine needles to the charcoal, but it didn't seem to work. I need to try different methods."
Grandpa Xu watched helplessly as Wang Chun forced Su Jiu to sit down at the adults' table, right next to Ye Wenxue, and couldn't help but slap his forehead.
This kid is really clueless and straightforward.
Ye Wenxue sighed helplessly, "Alright, let's talk about it while we eat."
If you leave it any longer, the food will get cold.
Still seething with anger, Su fiercely picked up a piece of radish from the stir-fried duck with pickled radish, chewing it with a particularly crisp sound, as if venting her anger on the radish.
Ye Wenxue ignored him and carefully scooped two spoonfuls of pork rib soup for Yuanyuan in her arms. She specially picked some radish and yam, mashed them into a paste, and added a few small square pieces of tofu, feeding them to Yuanyuan spoonful by spoonful.
The atmosphere in the room was still a bit stiff. Dazhuang buried his head in his rice, thinking that he should finish eating quickly so that he could hug Yuanyuan and free his mother's hands to eat.
But today's meal... was really delicious.
Xu Lin couldn't see, so his parents and Lan Qing helped him put food into his bowl before he slowly started eating. Hearing Zhi Wu and Wang Chun slurping their food on his left, he inexplicably felt a little anticipation for the meal.
"Yes, Madam Ye's cooking skills are really good. She can make money with her cooking skills anywhere," Baldy's mother praised sincerely.
Ye Wenxue's lips couldn't help but curve upwards.
Su Jiu quickly finished a piece of candied sweet potato, then couldn't resist picking up two more. He gave one to Sanyuan, who was sitting behind him, and reluctantly replied, "This... dessert is pretty good, but the rest is just so-so!"
Ye Wenxue glanced at him, knowing she was in the wrong, and didn't refute him.
Sanyuan was afraid that Su Jiu would anger his mother if he continued talking, so he quickly pulled him aside and told him in detail what happened after Su Jiu went down the mountain.
Su Jiu treated it as if she were listening to a story, leaning to the side to listen while quickly grabbing the last piece of candied sweet potato.
"...When the wildfire struck, many hilltops were burned down...so I came up with the idea of selling charcoal together, so at least we wouldn't have to worry about charcoal for the winter at home, and we also made quite a bit of money."
While the people at both tables were engrossed in eating, they were also listening quietly to Sanyuan's words. It felt like only a month had passed, yet a lot had happened.
Dazhuang took Yuanyuan, who was gurgling with a bulging belly, from Ye Wenxue's hands. He glanced at Sanyuan out of the corner of his eye and thought to himself that he was really being treated unfairly.
After finally finishing his explanation, Sanyuan immediately shut up, looking completely dejected.
Su Jiu quickly noticed that Sanyuan had received a gift after arriving at the bamboo house, and looked sharply at the bald man who was grabbing vegetables with great strength: "Old acquaintance... Sanyuan is my apprentice and Ye Wenxue's son. You didn't even give him a gift. Isn't that a bit unreasonable?"
Ye Wenxue, who had just taken a bite of stir-fried bamboo shoots with cured pork, squinted at the bald man.
Stared at by two burning gazes, the bald man couldn't eat anymore. He quickly picked up the bowl containing the hot braised pig's trotters, poured all the remaining broth into the rice, stirred it, and ate it all.
He slammed the bowl down, glanced hesitantly at Ye Wenxue, said "wait" and ran to the storeroom to get a wooden cradle, specially for babies who couldn't walk yet, with a stack of square bibs inside.
“I made this myself. My mother sewed the handkerchief herself. It’s a gift for your Yuanyuan.”
Ye Wenxue was surprised to find such an unexpected gain and raised an eyebrow: "Why didn't you take it out sooner?"
The bald man glanced at her hesitantly, but didn't say anything.
Baldy's mother had to speak up for him: "He was afraid you'd think he was being perfunctory, so he used this excuse..."
The old lady looked at Ye Wenxue with a troubled expression, without finishing her sentence.
Su Jiu: "...Sigh."
Isn't it just that they've been beaten up and are afraid to offend people again?
He understands.
The Xu family, who remained uninvolved: "???"
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