Chapter 65 left a rather unpleasant feeling.
When did I say that?
Song Chunxue immediately denied it, stuffed the floral fabric into her cloth bag, and walked out.
"My older brother said this before he got married, and you often said it when we were kids..."
“That was all in the past. Can’t I change my mind now?” Song Chunxue felt like someone had stepped on her tail and jumped up in frustration. “You must never say that again, especially don’t let Mulan know.”
Sanwa couldn't help but laugh. "My sister said you treat Mulan better than your own daughter. But if you marry her and live with her in the future, you definitely won't treat her well. My sister told me to advise you to calm down, so you don't get so angry that you want to take back all the nice things you gave her."
"..." That was indeed the case in her past life. At first, she admired Mulan very much, but later, after eating from the same pot every day and working around the same stove, she couldn't stand Mulan no matter how she looked at her, thinking she was stupid and ignorant.
“Your sister just complained that I didn’t make her any clothes. I’ll go buy some more fabric.” Song Chunxue suddenly stopped and turned to walk towards the fabric shop. “I didn’t have time to make clothes for Xiujuan either. The child is growing up and shouldn’t always wear ripped pants. After all, she’s a girl.”
"Sigh..." Sanwa wanted to say something, but then he saw his mother had already gone into the clothing shop.
He smiled helplessly and squatted by the roadside to wait for his mother to come out.
The houses in the county town are tidier. Wealthy people build houses with blue bricks, which look grand and clean, and the windows are also larger. However, the roads in the middle are full of potholes. No matter how compacted the dirt is, without the paving of sand, it will become muddy and impassable after it rains.
The passing horse-drawn carriages and donkey carts left very clear ruts, which looked quite ugly after drying.
"Sanwa, what are you doing squatting here? Where's your mother?"
Just then, Jiang Hongying's voice rang out from behind.
Sanwa looked up and saw the fourth child, who was holding Xiujuan, playing with other children by the roadside.
"Mom went to buy some cloth. Where did you all go for a stroll? Did you have fun?"
Jiang Hongying handed a candy wrapped in paper to Sanwa, saying, "Of course it's fun! City people are so rich. I saw all kinds of rouge shops and jewelry shops up ahead. They're so beautiful."
A jewelry shop?
Sanwa stood up and asked, "Where is it?"
Jiang Hongying instantly understood why he asked that question, and couldn't help but laugh and tease, "You want to buy one for your Mulan? I'll take you there."
"Where are you going? Aren't you hungry?"
The fourth child was so hot from the sun that he could barely open his eyes, and his arms were aching from holding the baby for an hour. He didn't want to move at all. "It's not too late to go see her after we eat. Let's eat together when Mom comes out. I'm so hungry."
"Of course you're hungry since you didn't eat anything this morning. I offered you some steamed buns to tide you over, but you didn't want to," Jiang Hongying laughed at him. "But since we're here in the county today, we should at least have a good meal. Did you bring any money?"
The fourth son muttered, "Where am I going to get money? Mother won't give me any."
As Song Chunxue came out of the clothing store, she heard them discussing money.
During this period, she indeed did not give the fourth son a single copper coin.
But since we've come all the way to the county today, it must be uncomfortable for Lao Si not to have any money on him.
“Our family has had a lot of expenses this year, so we don’t have much money to give you. Take these five coins for now, and we’ll give you more when we sell the sheep next time.”
The fourth son looked at the five copper coins in his hand and couldn't believe that his mother was so stingy with him.
What can you buy with five copper coins?
"There are plenty of things you can buy. I'll take you there and you'll find out."
As she spoke, Song Chunxue pointed to the vendor's stall in front of her, "You can buy two ounces of Sichuan peppercorns, a lot of coarse salt, two feet of coarse cloth, and a bowl of noodles. It takes me three days of shoveling wormwood to exchange for five copper coins. Do you think that's too little?"
The fourth brother fell silent.
"I used to think that you were the only one in our family who could pass the imperial examination and become a scholar. I didn't know how carefree you were outside. No matter how tight my finances were, I still gave you a lot of money every month. But what about you?"
"You don't know the cost of firewood and rice until you're in charge of the household. You don't know how much you can buy with a hundred copper coins. I can eat and drink well and live comfortably for two months, while what about you?"
Song Chunxue said bluntly, "I originally wanted to give you ten copper coins, but you didn't herd the sheep properly last time and lost five copper coins to someone else. I have to teach you a lesson."
"If you behave well these days, I'll give you thirty copper coins next month, how about that?"
The fourth brother looked displeased but couldn't find the words to refute him. He lowered his head and kicked at the clods of dirt on the ground, muttering, "Hmm."
Song Chunxue stepped forward and patted his head. "Don't be angry with me. I was too trusting of you before and forgot that children are naturally playful. No one is sensible from the start."
“I’m already very pleased that you’ve been able to herd sheep properly lately.” With that, Song Chunxue gave him three more copper coins. “I didn’t bring much money with me today, so take these and buy something you like.”
The fourth son reached out and took it, saying, "Thank you, Mother."
Sanwa had three coins in his pocket, but he didn't want to spend them and didn't know what to buy.
They arrived at a noodle shop, and Song Chunxue ordered four bowls of mutton noodles.
When the noodles were served, Jiang Hongying took a deep breath and exclaimed, "Mmm, it smells so good!"
“It tastes even better,” Song Chunxue said with a smile. “If it’s not enough, I’ll buy another bowl.”
Sanwa was also eating it for the first time. He picked up his chopsticks and took a bite. "Hmm, it is indeed very fragrant and not gamey at all."
Song Chunxue smiled and handed him a clove of garlic, saying, "It tastes even better with garlic."
The fourth brother had eaten mutton noodles before. Although the village was not as good as the county, there were still many delicious food stalls on the street.
He had eaten a lot of good food in the past two years, such as mutton soup, mutton noodles, mutton fried noodles, and minced meat noodles.
The noodles at this restaurant were delicious, but not as fragrant as the ones he had eaten before.
But for some reason, seeing that Sanwa had never eaten before, he felt quite uneasy.
He used to think it was only natural; since Sanwa didn't study and loved herding sheep, he just let him herd them.
None of the educated children thought they should treat Sanwa better. Their tuition money came from Sanwa's earnings, so they should treat him better.
The eldest son didn't have it, the second son didn't have it, and he certainly wouldn't have it himself.
Because he never cares what others do; he's the youngest, so he only needs to take care of himself.
But now, seeing Sanwa who is completely different from two months ago, he feels resentful and jealous, as well as regretful and guilty.
They are brothers, yet they are worse than strangers.
They rarely sit down to chat, and they rarely go out together.
These days, while herding sheep on the mountain, he ran into an old man herding sheep in the neighboring village. The old man kept telling him how filial Sanwa was, how sensible Sanwa was, and how serious Sanwa was when herding sheep.
Thinking about it carefully, in the past ten years, Sanwa has only been to the township a handful of times, let alone the county.
He had never eaten these things before, nor had he ever seen such novelties, so he probably only went to see them because his sister persuaded him.
"Sanwa, would you like to go up to the city wall and take a look?" Song Chunxue asked. "You haven't seen the Wenchang Pagoda in the city yet, have you?"
Although Zhuanglang County is not large, it is a city surrounded by high walls. The city itself is not large; you can walk to the end in half an hour.
The reason she didn't ask about the fourth brother was because she knew that he had come with his classmates on a day off.
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