Chapter 10 The Roasted Sweet Potatoes My Husband Gave Me
As night deepened, Zhou Ruiyuan gradually felt sleepy. He held onto the edge of the table with both hands, straightened his back, and lifted his two legs, which he could not move, onto the bed.
Although his legs are crippled, he has developed a strong back, and he can manage simple tasks like getting in and out of bed on his own.
If you take off his clothes, you can see his strong and powerful abdominal muscles, which is completely different from his sickly appearance in front of others.
After Zhou Ruiyuan got into bed, he sat against the wall, turned his head and quietly looked at the sleeping Du Wanchun. Unconsciously, a tender feeling appeared in his unfathomable eyes.
The person in front of me was like a rare treasure that had suddenly appeared, illuminating the entire room, yet so bright that no one dared to approach.
He stared at her for a long time, and then Du Wanchun suddenly turned over, kicking off the blanket and revealing a small section of her thin forearm.
Seeing the pity gradually appear on Zhou Ruiyuan's face, he bent down and carefully covered her with the blanket.
The candlelight flickered, the small window of the Orchid Pavilion, the dilapidated wooden bed, the bright red quilt, and the soft breathing of the sleeping girl made the originally dark and cold little house feel inexplicably warm.
Zhou Ruiyuan lay in bed fully clothed and couldn't fall asleep for a long time.
Early the next morning.
The Zhou family was awakened by the cursing from the Jiang family next door.
When Du Wanchun woke up, she found that Zhou Ruiyuan was no longer in the room. She got dressed, got out of bed and went outside, only to see Aunt Zhou watching a play with Zhou Zhao and Zhou Feng at the door.
"Mother, what happened at my aunt's house?" Du Wanchun looked towards the direction next door.
With a smile on her face, Aunt Zhou said, "Jiang Qiuju next door had all her chickens killed by weasels in her backyard yesterday afternoon. And when she woke up this morning, she found that the piglets she had just bought had run away."
Standing at the gate of the courtyard, Jiang pointed at Chen Tieniu and scolded, "I told you to lock the pigsty, but you wouldn't listen. Look, the piglets have run away. What meat are we going to eat this year?"
Every year, the Chen family would buy a piglet, and during the Lunar New Year, they would slaughter the pig and eat cured meat.
Every time Jiang slaughtered a pig, she would bring a basin of leftover pig bones and dump it at the Zhou family's door to humiliate them.
Over time, the bones would start to rot in the ground, and Aunt Zhou would have to take her sons to remove them.
The Jiang family's piglet has gone missing, so they probably won't be able to slaughter a pig for the New Year this year. Buying a piglet will cost a lot of money.
Aunt Zhou felt pleased to see this, and turned to go into the kitchen to call the children to eat breakfast. "Wanchun, I made steamed duck eggs, have a taste."
Du Wanchun turned around and saw a bowl of soft, golden steamed eggs. She hadn't eaten this kind of food for several years.
Aunt Zhou placed the bowl on the table, her face full of smiles. "Those two skinny ducks laid several more duck eggs last night. Not only are there enough to eat, but we can also sell them."
As she spoke, she took out twenty copper coins from her pocket and continued, "I was lucky, really. When I went to the Hu family in the west of the village to borrow rice, their daughter-in-law was pregnant and had a miscarriage. She wanted to eat duck eggs to relieve her internal heat, so I sold them all the duck eggs I had left. I got these copper coins, and then they gave us a bowl of rice."
Having rice, eggs, and copper coins was a great joy for the Zhou family, who were so poor they could barely afford to cook.
Du Wanchun became happy, picked up the bowl, and ate the egg inside.
The whole duck egg melts in your mouth. Although not much salt was added, it still has a subtle salty aroma.
Zhou Zhao and Zhou Feng also came over to eat breakfast. They respected their sister-in-law very much, giving her everything and only daring to eat themselves after seeing her eat first.
At this moment, Zhou Ruiyuan returned, slowly pushing the chair he was carrying towards the table.
Upon seeing this, Zhou Zhao quickly stepped forward to help push the chair and asked, "Big brother, why did you come out?"
Zhou Ruiyuan took out a few roasted sweet potatoes from his pocket and said, "These are the sweet potatoes that my third aunt sent a few days ago. I roasted them."
Du Wanchun smelled the aroma and quickly looked at the roasted sweet potato in his hand. She was pleasantly surprised. In a farmhouse, such a big, juicy roasted sweet potato was a real delicacy.
Zhou Ruiyuan gave one to Zhou Feng and one to Zhou Zhao, and then picked the one with the best appearance and patiently peeled off the still steaming skin.
His hands were beautiful, unlike the rough hands of a farmer; they were fair and slender, but not at all effeminate, and his large palms were full of strength.
Du Wanchun watched him peel sweet potatoes quietly, momentarily lost in thought.
After a while, Zhou Ruiyuan handed her the peeled sweet potato, saying, "Here you go."
"Thank you, sir." Du Wanchun took the sweet potato and found it was a little hot. Looking at Zhou Ruiyuan, she noticed that his fingertips were slightly red.
She was slightly surprised and wondered how Zhou Ruiyuan managed to endure the heat and pretend to be nonchalant while peeling the sweet potato.
She took a bite of the sweet potato; it was soft and chewy, sweeter than anything she had ever eaten.
After breakfast, Aunt Zhou took Zhou Zhao and Du Wanchun to the Chen family's land.
Zhou Feng and Zhou Ruiyuan originally wanted to go along, but they couldn't persuade Aunt Zhou and Du Wanchun, so they had to stay at home for the time being.
Since Zhou Zhao's hearing improved, he has become much more alert, and coupled with his height, he is quite capable when he goes out.
When Jiang saw the Zhou family arrive, she was furious. Hands on her hips, she arrogantly yelled at them, "Chen Yue'e, what are you doing here?! Do you want to see our family make a fool of themselves?!"
Aunt Zhou was too lazy to waste words with her and said bluntly, "Jiang Qiuju, your family has been occupying our land for two years now, it's time to return it to us."
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