Bai Nuo knew nothing about what had happened in the Bai family. She was unaware that Chen Qiuling was speaking well of her on the surface but was actually causing misunderstandings. She was also unaware of the children's education that had taken place in the Bai family, and even less aware that Chen Zhi had stolen money and run away.
She went to comfort the old woman early in the morning.
Grandma was injured, and quite seriously so, so Bai Nuo has been taking care of her three meals a day. She hasn't gone out to work for so many days, just staying at home to take care of her and observe her mood.
"Am I unable to move?" This was the question the old woman asked when she was changing her dressing.
"Huh?" Bai Nuo didn't quite understand what he meant when he suddenly said that.
"Is it that I can't move anymore?" The old woman felt like a dead fish that couldn't move every day, being turned over and over by Bai Nuo until she couldn't move—no, no, she could still move her hands, but she couldn't move her feet. Every day when she needed to relieve herself, Bai Nuo and Bai Yu had to carry her to the toilet. Wasn't this just a little bit of proof that she was a useless person or something?
"No—" Bai Nuo was about to deny it when her voice trailed off—interrupted by her grandmother's stern voice, "How long are you going to keep this from me?"
When Bai Nuo looked up, she met the old woman's cloudy but shrewd eyes. Looking into those eyes, Bai Nuo knew she couldn't hide it from her anymore. "I originally planned to tell you when you were feeling better."
Bai Nuo applied the medicine patch to the old woman's injured area, put down her clothes, and then helped the old woman turn over—because she was afraid that the old woman would be uncomfortable if she stayed in one position for too long.
"Go out, let me have some peace and quiet." The old woman's face was turned to the side, and she could only see Bai Nuo's gray pants. She glanced up at her granddaughter, who was very pretty, with red lips and white teeth, and a peaceful and focused gaze. Her hands moved very gently, and no matter what, she could feel that she was very attentive and not impatient at all. However, she just felt very irritated.
She couldn't tell whether the throbbing pain from her wounds was making her irritable or whether the fact that she had become completely useless was making her irritable.
She just wanted to be alone.
She had been strong-willed for nearly sixty years. She lost her father when she was young, her husband in middle age, and raised her two children alone in her later years. None of the hardships she had experienced had broken her. But now, she felt a strong sense of defeat. She couldn't bear the thought of a strong-willed person having to rely on others for care in her old age.
"Okay, I'll go check if your porridge is ready." Bai Nuo nodded obediently, not forcing the old woman to let her stay, nor comforting her. She simply turned the old woman back over, but the old woman stopped her, saying, "Don't touch me."
So Bai Nuo went out, but she neither looked at the porridge nor left. She just stood by the door, silently watching the old woman.
"Ah...ah..." After Bai Nuo left, the old woman's eyes immediately turned red, and she kept patting the unresponsive thigh with her hand at her side.
Bai Nuo observed for a while and, seeing that the old woman didn't have any extreme reactions, felt a little more at ease and stopped watching over her.
"Ah Yu..." When she arrived at the kitchen, she found that Ah Yu had already gone to the river and brought back more than half a bucket of river clams, as well as snails and some fresh and tender river shrimp.
There was almost a bucketful. Bai Nuo quickly went out to help him. Seeing that A Yu's little face was flushed, Bai Nuo couldn't help but ask, "How did you pick up so much?"
"Why not pick them up? There's plenty of these things in the river now." Ah Yu took a breath. "Besides, we haven't been out for days, so we need to get things moving, right?"
Now that Grandma is sick again, it's clear that she'll be spending money all the time. They only have three hundred taels of silver, that's all they have. If they don't go out to work, will they just sit around and eat their savings away? "I want to go out."
“Okay, let’s go out…” Bai Nuo nodded and separated the river shrimp, snails, and clams into one bucket each. The river shrimp were in one bucket, the clams in another, and the snails in yet another – the river shrimp and snails filled more than half a basin. Bai Nuo then kept them in water to let them expel all the mud and sand before stir-frying them.
"There's no water left. I'll take these things to wash and get some water while I'm at it," Bai Nuo said to A Yu. "You stay home and look after Grandma, okay? She's not feeling very well."
"I'll go..." Ah Yu quickly said, "You don't need to go..."
"Why?" Bai Nuo didn't quite understand. She held up her hand to compare her height with A Yu's. "Kid, I'm much taller than you, and I'm stronger than you. Wouldn't it be much better for me to go than for you?"
"Anyway, you're not going!" Ah Yu picked up the bucket and left.
Bai Nuo pulled Bai Yu back and looked at him coldly, "Why can't I go? Explain yourself."
Ah Yu hesitated, his eyes darting around, clearly hiding something from her. Bai Nuo slapped Ah Yu on the back, "Hurry up and tell me, don't dawdle."
“I don’t want to look after Grandma. I can’t take good care of her. I’d rather work,” A-Yu said.
"Isn't that your grandma?" Bai Nuo was speechless. What did he mean by not wanting to take care of her anymore? One of them had to look after Grandma, right? Otherwise, if Grandma was left in the house, she wouldn't even have a sip of water.
"Hurry up and go, or I'll deal with you..." Bai Nuo threatened Bai Yu, and seeing Bai Yu's terrified expression, she took the bucket and left with satisfaction.
Ah Yu also hurriedly chased after him.
Along the riverbank, the water gurgled and its coolness refreshed the summer heat. At this time, many women were squatting on the rocks by the river washing clothes. Bai Nuo had come to wash river mussels and fetch water, but since others were washing clothes, he couldn't stay upstream while washing river mussels. So, Bai Nuo rolled up his trousers and went downstream.
"Hey, Bai Nuo, why are you picking this up? Are you going to eat it?" Bai Nuo poured out all the river clams, and an old lady washing clothes next to her saw it and said to her directly, "These things don't taste good, there's little meat and they're fishy."
Bai Nuo didn't explain, but just smiled and said, "There's nothing we can do. We don't have money to buy meat, so we can only eat this to satisfy our cravings."
"Really?" the middle-aged woman asked, puzzled. "Didn't you know a rich young man? How come you don't have any money?"
Bai Nuo looked at her in confusion, not quite understanding what she was talking about. What rich young master? Where did this rich young master come from?
"No!"
"Stop pretending..." another middle-aged woman laughed. "Look at you all, you don't need your parents to support you anymore, you just moved out and lived here. You're dressed better than us, did you meet some rich young master or something? Why are you eating this stuff? Didn't that young master give you money?"
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