Li Xiuju put down the broken porcelain basin, looked at her tenderly, and touched her face: "Things are broken, but it's best if you're alright. It's well past dinner time, but the food is still warm in the pot. You two should wash your hands quickly, and the three of us will eat together."
Although the old lady didn't say anything, Zhou Chenyu still felt uneasy.
Tonight, Li Xiuju made their favorite dish: stir-fried pork with garlic sprouts and chili peppers. She also soaked some dried bamboo shoots and stir-fried them with the pork.
Both dishes were stir-fried beforehand and kept warm in the pot, so they can be served directly when needed.
After Zhou Chenyu and Baoyu washed their hands, they sat down at the dining table. Baoyu's eyes lit up when he saw the two meat dishes. "Great! They're all my favorites!"
Li Xiuju was still cooking the last of the vegetable and tofu soup in the kitchen. She didn't sit down at the table, and neither Zhou Chenyu nor Baoyu touched their chopsticks. It wasn't until Li Xiuju brought out a steaming pot of vegetable and tofu soup that she said, "Didn't I tell you not to wait for me and to eat first? You're all tired, how can you go hungry?"
“We get up early and work late to sell sweet soup, and you get up even earlier than us. Let’s not say anything to each other, okay?” Zhou Chenyu ladled a bowl of soup for Li Xiuju before adding a bowl for himself.
Although this vegetable soup can't compare to a slow-cooked soup, the combination of a few leafy greens and tender white tofu makes for a very delicious soup.
Li Xiuju smiled with relief, blew on the steam from the bowl, and blinked as she asked, "Tell me quickly, what exactly happened today?"
Zhou Chenyu and Baoyu glanced at each other, originally thinking they might as well just find some greasy-looking guy to fool them.
But since today's events have become so big, Li Xiuju wanted to know the truth. She figured she could find out by asking the people around her, so they didn't hide anything and told her everything in detail.
"It's Qian Rushan again!" Li Xiuju spilled the soup from her bowl, not even noticing the heat, only her anger: "We're just setting up our stall, not blocking their way, he's trying to drive us to ruin!"
With his mouth full of rice, Baoyu chimed in, "That's right!"
The matter is over, and besides, they can't do anything to Qian Rushan.
Zhou Chenyu smiled and said, "Grandma, don't get upset over this bastard. At worst, we'll just stop setting up our stall. I don't believe he can come to our house."
Can't set up a stall?
Baoyu was furious. What a great way to make money! If he didn't take it, he would miss out. "Sister, I'm not afraid of him. I'll go and set up the stall by myself! I don't believe he dares to do anything to me!"
Zhou Chenyu was also somewhat unwilling, and after Baoyu said that, she began to waver again.
Should this dessert stall continue to operate?
Otherwise, if she doesn't sell sweet soup, what else can she do?
Before she could speak, Li Xiuju, who had been silent for a long time, spoke up first, "Mother doesn't care about making money or not. Before we set up our stall, our family's life was slowly getting better. Why should we take this risk just to earn more money?"
Then, her words were more resolute than ever before: "On this day when money is as plentiful as a mountain, the stall will not be set up. This time, you all listen to me! None of you can go!"
After the old lady said all that, Zhou Chenyu had no choice but to give up on the idea.
After dinner and a bath, Li Xiuju somehow got hold of a folk remedy and boiled a pot of dark green herbal water for her to soak in.
Zhou Chenyu was pressed down in front of the wooden tub by Li Xiuju, and a wet cloth covered her feet under the tub, with the steam from the scalding Chinese medicine juice hitting her toes directly.
She looked at her feet, which were already bleeding, and her face was flushed from the heat. "Hot, hot, hot! Grandma, my feet are so hot! I can't do this anymore! Help!"
"You silly child, you're not afraid of pain, but you're afraid of burning your feet." Li Xiuju not only didn't feel the heat, but also put her hand in to soak the cloth and wipe it on her wound.
"Ahhh!" Zhou Chenyu was scalded by the hot water and shuffled up from the bench barefoot. "It's too hot!"
"Hahaha, hahaha." Baoyu sat to the side, laughing uncontrollably at his sister's reaction. Even after Li Xiuju hit him, his laughter still filled the room; he couldn't hold it in no matter what.
After enduring untold torment and suffering, Zhou Chenyu, leaning on crutches, lay back down on the bed with swollen, red feet. This time, not only were her ankles swollen, but her calves were also swollen.
She lifted the plump, white, and red pig's trotter and examined it closely. "Won't this folk remedy have crippled my trotter? If I really become disabled, then I'd rather..."
Zhou Chenyu buried herself in the blanket, her heart bleeding as she thought of the hundreds of copper coins she had lost that day.
That's all her money, her little bit of money!
"Qian Rushan, you bastard! Don't ever fall into my hands again!" Zhou Chenyu cursed through gritted teeth. Exhausted from all the commotion, he covered himself with the thin blanket and remained quiet for a moment.
Feeling powerless in the face of reality, she sighed, "Forget it, how could I possibly fight him? I think it's best to stay far away and save my own life."
However, if we can't see Qian Rushan anymore, then there's no need to see that other person either, right?
"This man is too difficult to deal with." Zhou Chenyu stretched and muttered, "I just can't handle him."
During the long night, mist permeated the area around the flowers, grass, and trees, gradually condensing into dewdrops of varying sizes. These dewdrops clung to the leaves, and as the moonlight shone down, the dewdrops in the grass refracted the light, making it seem as if the ground was covered with shattered diamonds.
That night, Zhou Chenyu didn't sleep well. She had several nightmares on and off. In the last dream, she dreamed that Qian Rushan was chasing her with a knife, and a series of actions woke her up in fright.
It was just dawn, and she should have gone back to sleep, but she just couldn't fall asleep no matter what she did.
The sound of villagers talking could be heard outside the house; they were villagers who had finished harvesting the rice early in the morning.
They didn't have to go out to set up their stall today, so Li Xiuju hadn't gotten up yet, and she was unusually sleeping in a little late.
Zhou Chenyu got dressed and stood up. Her feet seemed to be less swollen. Apart from still being a little sore, they were no different from usual.
After washing up, she secretly rinsed the rice, put the pot on, and slowly cooked it.
The morning air filled her senses, and a cool, damp feeling seemed to flow through her body. Zhou Chenyu was fully awake. Leaning on her cane, she took Xiaohuangdou with her and the dog and quietly walked towards the vegetable garden behind the house.
As dawn broke, the sound of roosters crowing echoed through the village. The entire back mountain was shrouded in a thick, white mist. The uneven grassland stretched out to the foot of the distant mountain. The grassland nearby was a deep blue, while the sky in the distance was a light blue. Above the sky were pale yellow clouds. As you looked from near to far, the colors changed from dark to light, like a dream, until finally all of them merged into the vast, misty dawn.
Watching this scene, Zhou Chenyu thought of a classic scene from the movie Pride and Prejudice, where the male protagonist runs towards the female protagonist through the morning mist.
She hadn't watched the whole movie, but this part stuck with her for a long time.
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