Standing at the door, Zhao listened for a while, then stammered, "This Ruyan must be Liu's sister. I didn't expect her to be so pretty!"
"Woof! Woof!"
The sound of Big Black came from the yard. Big Black was always very accurate; it wouldn't bark if no one was home. Did someone come to visit?
Zhao walked over with a smile: "Oh, I wanted to ask you something, so I came!"
Zhao's eyes darted around, and she noticed there were chickens in the yard. Her gaze settled on them, and she asked with a smile, "Did your mother-in-law buy these? Do they lay eggs?"
"My mother said it would lay an egg, but it hasn't yet!"
Liu was a little curious: "What do you want to ask me, Aunt? Just ask!"
Zhao laughed and said, "I heard you brought your mother and sister here. A few days ago I heard that your mother was going to marry your sister to Sanwang. Is that true?"
Liu's face immediately darkened: "Auntie, who told you this? I don't even know anything about our family affairs, yet you seem to know more than I, your own family member?"
Liu's mouth was truly something else; with just one sentence, she left Zhao speechless.
"Anyway, your aunt came here today for your sister's sake. Don't you know what kind of person Sanwang is in the village?"
Zhao thought that Liu was talking about her mother-in-law to everyone she met, just like before, so she brought up the matter. She wanted to introduce Ruyan to her son, Jin Wufu.
"Auntie, what are you saying? You're deliberately trying to stir up trouble. What's wrong with our Sanwang? He's hardworking and clever. What's wrong with him? Why are you saying such things to him, Auntie?"
Zhao hurriedly pulled Liu aside: "I'm speaking seriously, don't be angry. Look, even when your mother goes out to do business, she favors your sister-in-law. Think about it, sooner or later she'll have to separate you from the family. Why are you still so stubborn? Why don't you tell me your family's recipe for cold noodles? Your second aunt will give you half the money when she makes the cold noodles. How about that?"
Liu knew that Zhao had no good intentions, so she suddenly shouted, "Second Aunt, why are you trying to sow discord between me and my mother-in-law? My mother-in-law and my sister-in-law are doing business for the sake of our family. If I give you the recipe for this cold jelly, my mother will kill me!"
Niu Niu ran out of the house and grabbed Liu Shi: "Second sister-in-law, we can't tell her! She wants to steal our prescription so we won't have any money to earn and will have to earn money ourselves!"
Li Lanfang came out of the house, pointed at Zhao Shi and cursed, "You little slut, what kind of devil are you plotting? Don't think I don't know. You're not going to clear the land because you want to steal our family's jelly recipe, aren't you?"
"Alright, don't think I'm afraid of you. You're siding with my sister-in-law's family now, and you're making me work like a slave to clear land, while making my sister-in-law do such easy work. Do you really think I'm stupid?"
Liu's lips twitched twice, and then she said, "Grandma, if my second aunt wants it, we might as well give it to her. Anyway, my mother said that it's not easy to dry potatoes now. Since my second aunt wants it, let's give it to her!"
Upon hearing this, Zhao said happily, "Erniu's wife is so sensible! Quick, tell your aunt how to make this jelly!"
Liu hesitated for a moment, then whispered a few words into Zhao's ear before saying, "Second Aunt, I'm telling you this secretly while my mother-in-law isn't around, so please remember it well. Otherwise, you can't blame me if there are any problems."
Li Lanfang stomped her cane angrily, saying, "Erniu's wife, this is such an important prescription, it's a wonderful thing your mother developed, how could you just give it to someone else like that?"
Zhao said, word by word, "Well, so you really do care about my sister-in-law. You're treating us like outsiders. Just you wait, once I make money from cold noodles, your whole family will regret it!"
After Zhao finished speaking, she left happily.
Niu Niu was furious, her eyes fixed on Liu Shi: "Second sister-in-law, how could you do this? I'll have Mother come back and divorce you!"
The old lady was also very angry: "I said, Erniu's wife, how can you be such an ingrate? Do you know how this family will live without the recipe for jelly? Are you even a member of our Jin family?"
"Grandma, of course I'm not stupid. My mother treated me like that, I would never do anything to betray her or this family. My second aunt took a fake, and we'll just wait and see how she makes the jelly."
"You little rascal, why didn't you say so sooner? You made Grandma wrongly accuse you, and Niu Niu is angry with you too?"
Madam Liu smiled slightly: "It's alright, Grandma. I imagine my second aunt is already home and starting to pack things up to make jelly."
Zhao ran back triumphantly, slammed the gate to the courtyard as soon as she entered, and shouted loudly, "Chunyan, hurry up and bring down the potato slices, grind them into powder, and I'll make some jelly for us right away!"
Just then, there was a loud knocking on the door, and a familiar voice called out from outside: "Auntie, Auntie, open the door!"
Just as Zhao was about to make cold noodles, she heard her nephew from her maternal family arrive, carrying two bamboo baskets.
"Auntie, Grandma said the harvest wasn't good this year, so we've come to borrow some grain!"
What kind of era is this? Her own children have barely enough to eat, so why are they carrying loads of food to borrow from her?
"It's the lean season, and your grandma wants to borrow grain from me right away. Who am I supposed to borrow grain from? Let's wait until autumn!"
The nephew didn't even get through the door before being dismissed by Zhao's words.
The sun gradually rose, and a ray of golden sunlight shone on Qingfeng Town.
Upon arriving in town, Erniu said, "Mother, this time, we'll drive the donkey cart. Maybe we can speed things up. The donkeys are pitiful, getting sunburned all day at the blacksmith's shop."
Liang Shuyan nodded. The village didn't have many potato slices, so she and her daughter-in-law made three large wooden buckets of jelly in one night. To save time, she specially bought a small tool in the system that could directly stretch the jelly into thin strips and put them in a bowl, saving the time of cutting it with a knife. As for the seasoning water, a whole wooden bucket was already prepared, so all they had to do was scoop it out with a spoon.
Because she had a donkey cart, Liang Shuyan decided to sell her wares at the market in Qingfeng Town for a while, and then visit Shengming Academy along the way. Since she had time today, she thought she could see if she could visit Dashan.
Zhang said excitedly, "Mother, we...we can really see the mountains?"
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