"Cough, cough, cough, cough."
Qiao Baozhu was sitting on a small stool and burning a fire. She found that the house was full of smoke and puffs of black smoke were coming out of the house.
She ran into the house and found black smoke coming out from the cracks along the edge of the kang. She was so frightened that she quickly opened the window to ventilate.
"Is it because the person who built the kang was a bad craftsman or because I don't know how to heat the kang? Why is there smoke coming out along the edge of the kang?"
Qiao Baozhu stared at her own kang with a puzzled look on her face. It was burning fine a few days ago, but why was it emitting black smoke today?
Just as she was wondering, she saw Shen Xiao coming back, accompanied by Bai Hongmei's two children.
If Qiao Baozhu had not been mentally prepared, she would have been furious when she saw this scene.
Since she knew that Bai Hongmei was not an easy person to deal with, she had to stay calm, otherwise there would be trouble in the future.
"Uncle Shen, will Aunt be angry if we come to borrow rice? Otherwise, Wei Fang and I should go home."
When he was about to reach the door, Wei Dong suddenly grabbed Shen Xiao's sleeve and looked at him with an embarrassed look.
"Hey brother, Uncle Chen has already said that if our family has any difficulties, just tell him. Uncle Chen and we are family, why are you being polite to your own people?"
Wei Fang looked at her brother with confidence, not understanding why Wei Dong was being so pretentious.
"Fangzi, you don't understand. Uncle Shen is just being polite to us. We can't be so shameless as to ask Uncle Shen for help with everything. Besides, Uncle Shen didn't have a wife before. Now that Uncle Shen has a family, if Aunt doesn't agree, it will be very difficult for Uncle Shen."
At first glance, Wei Dong's words seemed to be for Shen Xiao's sake, but in fact, every word he said was to trample Qiao Baozhu to death.
Qiao Baozhu raised the corner of her mouth and smiled sarcastically. It seems that this little guy named Wei Dong is not just a naughty kid who throws feces.
"Wei Dong, don't make assumptions about your elders."
Wei Dong's face turned pale, he pursed his lips and said nothing, he slowed down his pace and followed Shen Xiao into the door.
While Shen Xiao wasn't paying attention to him, Wei Dong glared at him viciously.
As soon as Shen Xiao entered the house, he smelled the smell of smoke and fire. Naturally, the two children also smelled it. Wei Fang covered her nose and shouted heartlessly: "Who is so useless as to burn the kang and make it smoke?"
Shen Xiao turned around suddenly, staring at Wei Fang with a stern face and fierce eyes.
He asked sternly, "Wei Fang, didn't you hear what I just said?"
Although Shen Xiao usually has a stern face, after getting to know him, everyone knows that he is a person with a cold face but a warm heart. When dealing with the children in the family compound, he would occasionally smile, so Wei Fang and the other children were not afraid of Shen Xiao.
But at this time he had a fierce and angry look on his face, which frightened the brother and sister Wei Dong and Wei Fang so much that they stood still and dared not move.
"say!"
Wei Fang was so frightened by Shen Xiao's fierce expression that she said in a trembling voice, "Listen, I heard it."
"Yes, I'm sorry, I was wrong, I won't dare to do it again."
Seeing the awkward atmosphere, Qiao Baozhu stepped forward with a smile to smooth things over: "Hey, are you two here?"
"Why are you standing at the door and not coming in? Oh, are you afraid of choking because of the heavy smoke in the room?"
Qiao Baozhu acted as if she didn't hear Wei Fang's words. She invited the Wei siblings into the house and took out a handful of fruit candies from the cupboard.
"There is a lot of smoke in the room. You two can wait at the door for a while. I've opened the window and the smoke will dissipate in a while."
After that, he complained to Shen Xiao with a bitter face: "It was fine when I was burning the kang yesterday, but today black smoke came out. Is there something wrong with the chimney?"
Shen Xiao took a deep look at Qiao Baozhu, knowing that she was trying to save face for the two children.
Since Qiao Baozhu didn't pursue the matter, he couldn't continue scolding the brother and sister. Following Qiao Baozhu's words, he continued, "The one who built the kang is the best craftsman around, so there must be no problem with the flue."
"The firewood isn't wet, so it's definitely not the firewood's problem. So it's probably because the chimney is clogged? Could it be that there are mice in the house, and the mice crawled into the kang and blocked it?"
Shen Xiao pursed his lips and thought for a moment, "I'll go check out the chimney."
After saying that, he left the house.
Qiao Baozhu thought that maybe there really was something wrong with the chimney. After all, there are three possibilities for a kang to smoke: the kang duct is blocked, the firewood is too wet to burn, or there is a problem with the flue suction.
Thinking of this, she also left the house and saw Shen Xiao grabbing the corner of the wall and climbing onto the roof in a few steps.
She stood in the yard, looking up at Shen Xiao reaching into the chimney.
He quickly pulled out a ball of worn cotton-like stuff and couldn't help but become curious: "What is that? Cotton?"
Cotton was a very precious commodity in that era, so how could a ball of cotton end up in her chimney?
Shen Xiao jumped down from the roof holding the thing. Qiao Baozhu walked over and saw that it was a ball of reed fluff.
"It was too windy today and it blew into our chimney. Just take it out and the kang won't smoke anymore."
Shen Xiao said it calmly, but Qiao Baozhu felt something was very strange.
How could such a ball of reed fluff get into her chimney?
Is it really such a coincidence?
Shen Xiao did not bring the ball of reed fluff into the house, but threw it into the yard. When Qiao Baozhu saw his action, she frowned and her doubts grew stronger.
"You two are so good."
When Qiao Baozhu entered the room, she saw brother and sister Wei Dong and Wei Fang sitting obediently on their kang.
If it were other children, they would definitely run out to watch the fun. For example, when she was a child, she found it very novel to see adults going up to the roof.
Wei Dong and Wei Fang were well-known for their lack of manners in the staff compound. She didn't believe that these two kids could behave themselves in the house without moving.
Qiao Baozhu praised Wei Dong and Wei Fang and quickly glanced at the table. At first glance, I saw several things that were wrong.
The vanishing cream bottle had been moved, the drawer was not closed tightly, and there was a gap in the wardrobe door.
Qiao Baozhu glanced at Shen Xiao calmly, and the couple looked at each other, and Shen Xiao's face darkened.
"Do you two have anything to tell each other?"
Shen Xiao's face was livid, and Qiao Baozhu could see that he was trying his best to suppress his temper.
Wei Dong and Wei Fang both shook their heads.
"Wei Dong, Wei Fang, are you sure you don't have anything to confess to me?"
Wei Dong was still trying to be cunning, and said stubbornly: "My mother said that there are no more food coupons at home, so she asked me to borrow them. We will return them to you when the food coupons are issued next month."
Seeing that her brother didn't tell the truth, Wei Fang became bolder: "Uncle Chen, we don't have any rice at home. We can't cook tonight. My mother said that if we don't have food coupons, our whole family will be in trouble starting tomorrow."
"You're both being stubborn, aren't you? You're not telling the truth, are you?"
Shen Xiao's voice rose several degrees, and the temperature in the room suddenly dropped to freezing point.
"I'm asking you one last time, did you go through my drawers just now?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
