Chapter 79 Prejudice
The kitchen, with its missing roof, was drafty. Chen managed to whip up a dinner, and after finishing, she took Lin Yuesha straight to Chen Tieniu's house.
Having not seen her for half a month, Lin Yuesha missed her straightforward second cousin. When she saw Chen Xiaohua now, she almost didn't recognize her.
"Cousin, you've lost so much weight!"
Lin Yuesha hesitated, not daring to recognize her. In just half a month, Chen Xiaohua had lost at least ten kilograms. Her chubby chin had become a V-shaped face, and her eyes were even bigger.
She's a bit thin, but she looks to be in good spirits.
"You've been so busy with things at home, but you seem to have gained weight?"
Chen Xiaohua pinched her little cousin's cheek, and sure enough, it was smooth and tender and very nice to touch.
"Where am I fat? You must be mistaken."
Lin Yuesha said almost reflexively.
In her past life, she was a chef, and she was on the heavier side. She ate delicious, high-calorie foods every day, making it extremely difficult for her to lose weight. Often, after half a month of dieting, she would end up gaining several pounds.
Therefore, Lin Yuesha is very sensitive to others saying she is fat, completely forgetting that she is now a withered bean sprout that could be blown over by the wind.
"You little rascal, isn't it good to be a little chubby? You're more adorable when you're chubby."
Chen Xiaohua glanced at Lin Yuesha in surprise, and seeing that the elder had something to say, she pulled Lin Yuesha into her room.
The family was in dire straits for a while, and Chen Xiaohua was in a daze until the family got the recipe for roasted peanuts. Only then did the whole family get busy and temporarily forget the pain in their hearts.
However, it was only a temporary forgetting; her eldest sister would never come back.
"Sister Xiaohua, the dead cannot be brought back to life, we need to think more positively."
When Chen Dahua was mentioned, Lin Yuesha realized that she was just talking without understanding the pain. The pain of losing a loved one is something that outsiders can never truly empathize with.
"I know."
Chen Xiaohua brought over a plate of roasted peanuts, and the two sisters leaned together, eating and chatting.
"These peanuts taste different; they have a five-spice flavor and... a garlic flavor?"
Lin Yuesha was surprised; she had only told her family the recipe for spiced peanuts.
"I figured it out myself. The garlic flavor comes from boiling garlic in water."
When Chen Xiaohua heard that her cousin had come up with the idea for the dish, she also spent two days thinking about it. She started to try making some. Chen Lin tasted it and found that the garlic flavor was more fragrant as a snack with alcohol.
"Yeah, my cousin is really something."
The wisdom of the ancients should not be underestimated. Lin Yuesha only provided one idea, and Chen Xiaohua immediately applied it to other situations.
"Little sister, I gave the silk flowers you bought for me to my older sister."
The atmosphere suddenly froze for a moment, then Chen Xiaohua said softly.
She knew that this would disappoint her cousin, but her eldest sister had always loved peonies.
"I'll buy you another one when I meet the peddler from the south."
Lin Yuesha didn't mind at all, and didn't feel it was unlucky. On the contrary, she felt more sorry for her second cousin.
"You might not know this since you're not in the village, but my marriage proposal fell through."
Before Chen Dahua's accident, the Chen family was arranging a marriage for Chen Xiaohua and had asked a matchmaker to look at some good families.
Before Chen Dahua was even buried, the matchmaker came to the Chen family to inform them that the marriage was off.
Chen Dahua was a victim, and her death was dishonorable. The Chen family's daughter's reputation was tarnished, and it will be difficult for her to find a husband in the neighborhood in the future.
Before the marriage, the groom's family would ask around to find out who was in charge, and no one would be indifferent to such matters.
"I really want to make money and leave the village."
Chen Xiaohua looked exhausted and slumped back in her chair. The villagers initially felt sorry for Chen Xiaohua's plight.
After the Ma family was almost wiped out, Jin's children were left homeless and accidentally ate rat poison in their house, which killed them.
After the incident, the villagers changed their tune, spreading rumors that Chen Dahua and Ma Laowu had an affair, which angered the Ma family and led to the tragedy.
Lin Yuesha understands that people are always prejudiced about some things. Even in a highly civilized modern society, biased public opinion is still unavoidable.
For example, if a woman is raped, some people will always blame the woman, saying she was dressed provocatively, had an alluring appearance, and that flies don't land on eggs without cracks—a typical victim-blaming argument.
"It will be alright."
After a moment of silence, Lin Yuesha spoke with certainty.
It's inevitable that villagers will gossip; once the family makes money, there will be even more people getting jealous.
"That gossipy old woman, Wang, even spread rumors that I went to town to be a child bride for a rich man's mentally challenged son!"
Lin Yuesha pouted; she didn't care anyway. People have mouths, and she couldn't exactly shut them up, even though she really wanted to gag Wang Pozi with a foot-binding cloth.
"When you were suddenly sent to town, I almost thought you had been sold."
The wealthy family that took Lin Yuesha away had no dealings with the villagers. Some villagers went to the clan chief's house to ask, but they couldn't get any information out of him.
If Chen Xiaohua hadn't known how much her aunt doted on Xiaoya, she would have also thought that her cousin had been sold.
"Are you doing well in town? Will you stay in town from now on?"
The two sisters had been together since childhood, and were practically like blood sisters. These days, with Lin Yuesha gone, Chen Xiaohua had become more silent than usual, unsure of who to confide in.
"I guess so."
Lin Yuesha wasn't sure either. If her family could make money and cooperate with the Jiang family, then she wouldn't go to the Jiang residence after the New Year. In that case, she shouldn't take the two taels of silver she received each month.
Jiang Baozhu has a somewhat eccentric personality, but she is a good person, and the two get along very well as friends.
"Are you going to accompany that young lady?"
Chen Xiaohua looked surprised. Her little cousin was quite unconventional. She was very lucky to be chosen by the Jiang family without having to sign a contract.
Chen Xiaohua was extremely envious of the good job that paid two taels of silver a month.
"Sister Xiaohua, wait for me. I'm going to do something big after the New Year. If we start a business at home, we definitely won't have enough manpower. You'll have to come to town and come with me then."
Lin Yuesha patted her chest, saying that if she ate meat, her family should eat meat with her, not the other way around, where she ate meat and her family drank soup.
Her maternal uncle's family took special care of her. Her dead father left the village for his future, leaving her a fatherless child. She was raised entirely by the Chen family.
"What kind of life do wealthy people live? Do they eat meat every meal?"
Chen Xiaohua had rarely left the village, and her understanding of the lives of the wealthy was entirely based on her own imagination.
"We don't eat it every meal. The Jiang family is already tired of it. Sometimes they need some light side dishes."
In winter, those who eat meat are not wealthy; those who are truly willing to spend money eat vegetables that are not commonly found in the north.
Some families with a penchant for good food even set up greenhouses in their homes just to grow vegetables for a treat.
"Don't think that growing vegetables in a greenhouse is just a matter of leaving the house; the real challenge lies in the firewood."
Lin Yuesha looked on with longing. Jiang Huai was from the south, and his food was quite bland. It was only because Jiang Baozhu liked spicy food that she could eat some of the stronger flavors.
The lives of the rich were different from what she had imagined. Chen Xiaohua listened intently, and was deeply shocked to learn that the rich man spent several hundred coins a day on firewood.
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