Chapter 48 Lu Qi Niang's Shy Dream
"I knew you wouldn't listen. Come, drink the chicken soup. I had someone make it especially for you. You're weak, and the doctor said you need to nourish yourself."
Zhang Heyao walked to the couch with the chicken soup, squatted down on one knee, scooped a spoonful of chicken soup, tasted it himself first, and after confirming that the temperature was suitable, he brought it to her mouth and said lovingly, "Be good, open your mouth."
"I don't want to drink it. It's too greasy." The woman tilted her head and leaned on his arm.
"I've had the oil skimmed off. Look, there's not a speck of oil left."
"Then I'll drink it reluctantly. I can't bear to let your good intentions go to waste."
She said she was reluctant to drink it, but after Zhang Heyao's persuasion, the woman drank half a bowl.
Zhang Heyao handed the remaining chicken soup to the maid beside her, and took a handkerchief from another maid to wipe the corners of her mouth.
The two of them were so affectionate that the maids blushed.
"Mom, mom—" a girl's voice came from outside.
What followed was the anxious voice of the nanny.
"Miss, Miss, you can't go. You can't disturb the princess's rest."
Zhang Heyao immediately distanced himself from Princess Zhaoyang Song Mingzhen and sat upright.
Song Mingzhen found it funny and smiled, covering his lips with his hands: "You and I are already husband and wife, what are you afraid of?"
Zhang Heyao said sensibly, "Cheng Huan won't be able to accept me all at once. I'll take it step by step, at least to make sure she doesn't hate me first."
It turned out that Song Mingzhen, Princess Zhaoyang of the Zhenbei Palace, was a second bride.
Last year, she married Zhang Heyao with her seven-year-old daughter under the auspices of her father and brother.
After her divorce, her seven-year-old daughter changed her surname to Song and named herself Chenghuan.
Song Chenghuan disliked Zhang Heyao very much, and she made no secret of her dislike.
She felt that Zhang Heyao had taken her mother away and often came to see Song Mingzhen in the middle of the night.
Tonight, she came again.
As usual, Song Chenghuan rushed in and acted coquettishly in his mother's arms, insisting on sleeping with her.
Song Mingzhen is not a patient person, but she can still control her temper towards her only daughter.
"Be obedient, you have grown up and it's time for you to sleep by yourself. Go back with your nanny."
The nurse knelt on the ground, trembling, and said, "Princess, I want to stop the young lady, but..."
She couldn't stop it at all.
Song Chenghuan, who is eight years old this year, is cute and sweet-mouthed, and is spoiled by everyone in the Zhenbei Palace to the point of lawlessness.
Zhang Heyao said softly, "Princess, I suddenly remembered that I have some urgent official business to attend to, so I will sleep in the study tonight. Let Cheng Huan accompany you so that you won't be scared."
Song Chenghuan didn't appreciate it at all, and even glared at him, but turned around and smiled coquettishly at Song Mingzhen.
"Mom, Mom, please let me stay."
"Just this once, and never again."
Zhang Heyao looked at the intimate mother and daughter, smiled at Song Mingzhen, and turned to leave.
But when he reached the door, the smile in his eyes suddenly disappeared in the endless darkness, replaced by a gloom as thick and indissoluble as the night.
"Mom, I want you to sleep with me."
"Mom, you won't give me a brother or sister, will you? I don't want them. If you do, I will, I will die!"
After all, he was just a child, and he revealed all the secrets in his heart without saying a few words.
Song Mingzhen lay on the pillow and reached out to touch her daughter's head. "Don't worry, mother promised you a long time ago that you are the only child in this life."
"But what if?"
"There's no such thing as an emergency." Song Mingzhen looked at the hollow golden sachet hanging on the curtain, and a calculation flashed across his eyes.
"Mom, are we really going to the capital? I don't want to go. I want to stay here." Song Chenghuan pouted again.
"Silly child, you have never been to the capital, so you don't know how wonderful it is. When you go there, you will know that the prosperity and wealth of the capital are far beyond comparison with other places."
Song Mingzhen grew up in the capital and later came to the northwest.
She dreams of returning to Beijing.
Now I finally got what I wanted.
"I went to the capital and saw that nasty guy. There was no place to hide from him."
"Cheng Huan, that nasty man is my husband. There is no blood relationship between you. I don't ask you to treat him as your biological father, but you can't be so cold and rude to him and embarrass your mother."
"Mom, you treat him better than you treat me. I'm getting angry!"
"No. In my heart, you are the most important. No one can compare to you. But you have to know that grandpa and uncles cannot leave the northwest. We have to stay in the capital and have someone to rely on."
"Zhang Heyao is not good enough. He has nothing." Song Chenghuan called his stepfather by his name, his tone full of disgust.
"What matters to me is his future. He's very talented and rare."
"I don't see that."
"You'll know in the future. Cheng Huan, everything he and I have in the future will be yours. For this reason, please be a little more polite to him."
"Okay, I'll try."
The voices of mother and daughter gradually died down in the night, and they fell asleep without knowing when.
After Xiao Yan left, Lu Qin's mother was always thinking about him and asked San Ya to deliver a portion of whatever delicious food was cooked at home.
Later, San Ya came back with the things and said that Xiao Yan didn't allow her to send them off.
Xiao Yan said that he found a job as an accountant from Liu Xing, which allowed him to make ends meet.
"Mom, Dad is so awesome!" San Ya mentioned Xiao Yan, her eyes sparkling and full of admiration.
Of the three daughters, she was the only one who changed her ways, so she is the only one who cannot change back now.
"It's my uncle."
"Oh, mother, my uncle is so amazing," San Ya said, "He can shoot birds with a bow!"
Lu Qiniang: "...Drawing a bow? He's crazy. His bones have healed, so he draws a bow. Why doesn't he fly into the sky?"
She immediately went out to find Xiao Yan and scold him.
But after thinking about it, I decided not to go.
Xiao Yan said that he wanted to avoid suspicion. Although she felt that it was unnecessary - the favor was greater than heaven, she did not want to let Xiao Yan down.
Forget it, she let San Ya scold him.
San Ya was still excitedly imitating Xiao Yan's bow and arrows. "So many birds! Mom, there's a cooking nanny there who fried all the sparrows my dad, no, my uncle, shot down. They smell so good!"
"Did you eat?"
"We ate it!" San Ya said. "It was delicious. My uncle and Uncle Liu had some wine, and the fried sparrows went well with it."
Hearing that Xiao Yan was living well over there, Lu Qin's mother felt relieved.
Yes, how could someone like him not live a good life?
"Do you know how powerful my uncle is? He shot all the sparrows on the left wing, not a single one was missed!"
"So amazing!" Lu Qiniang also became interested. "If I knew he was so powerful, I should have asked him to teach me."
If she learns it, won’t she be able to go into the mountains to hunt?
Her brute strength is perfect for archery.
"Mother, where do we have bows and arrows?" San Ya said, "Uncle's bow and arrows were obtained from somewhere by Uncle Liu, and he used them secretly."
"Yeah, that one is not allowed to be used."
The bows and arrows that ordinary people use for hunting are all homemade and rather crude.
The kind that San Ya mentioned can be used to shoot sparrows, and it can accurately hit one side of the wing. It must be used by the military, and the arrowhead is made of fine steel.
Apart from the regular army, only people like Liu Xing, some thieves and friends who can get it.
However, there was one thing Lu Qin's mother couldn't understand. Xiao Yan's injuries were obviously not healed yet, and he was not a high-profile person. Why did he have to touch things like bows and arrows at this moment?
If someone finds out, it will definitely cause trouble.
I can't figure it out.
She warned San Ya, "Tell your uncle what I said, and tell him to stop showing off and stop taking things. If someone finds out, it'll be fatal. If he gets craving sparrows, wait for me to lend you a sieve and catch a few alive for him to eat."
There is not much sparrow meat, and it is not troublesome enough.
It's not a time of famine, so who would bother with that effort?
If you have the time, why not work for half a day and buy half a pound of pork?
But San Ya brought back Xiao Yan's words, "No, I'm just bored."
Lu Qiniang muttered, "If you don't listen to good advice, you will suffer the consequences."
The piglets in the pigpen at the back were so hungry that they kept digging their teeth in the pen. Lu Qin's mother hurried to prepare pig food to feed the pigs.
Everything grows in spring, and there are many wild vegetables.
It can be eaten by humans, and many types can be fed to pigs.
Lu Qiniang took her three daughters to the mountains to collect grass for pigs. People who saw her were surprised that she was still doing such work.
Lu Qiniang laughed and said, "How can I not do it? There are so many mouths waiting to be fed! What are you talking about my husband? Well, being an official has its own difficulties. Even an official can't make money, so he has to spend money everywhere."
Even in slums like Tongyifang, there used to be officials from other places who came to Beijing and rented houses with their families!
The idea that being an official does not mean getting rich has been ingrained in Lu Qinniang's mind since then.
So, although she said that she benefited from Zhang Heyao, in fact, she did not think that she would have mountains of gold and silver in the future.
Maybe Zhang Heyao doesn’t make much money, but instead has to pay tribute.
In short, it is always a good idea to make more money within your ability.
Who would complain about having too much money?
Erya really didn't want to go up the mountain or feed the pigs, so she found the owner of the rouge shop and helped sell rouge.
Lu Qiniang was too lazy to care about her, but she told her that she could only do it until Zhang Heyao came back.
When he comes back, Arya must go home.
Lu Qiniang didn't think it was embarrassing to sell things.
But she worries that someone might bribe her in this way.
Although Zhang Heyao may not be a high-ranking official, Lu Qiniang thinks a lot!
She felt that Zhang Heyao would go far in the future, so she had to nip any potential problems in the bud and plug any possible loopholes. She couldn't lose sight of the big picture and ruin her reputation.
Lu Qiniang actually had a small wish in her heart.
She wants to buy a new set of bedding.
When Zhang Heyao left, she was still young and her body had not yet grown, and the two had not yet consummated their marriage.
Now……
If she doesn't have a child soon, she will be a grandmother.
——Daya will be married and have children in two or three years.
Lu Qiniang didn't know what a sense of ritual was, and she didn't care about it.
But she felt in her heart that she had to buy a set of bright red bedding, and she would be happy.
However, even though she only ate one meal a day for a month, she only lost more than 20 pounds.
She went to see Dr. Hu, but he scolded her - if it weren't for the effect of the medicine, you would have lost twenty pounds in a month and you would have died. How much faster do you expect to lose?
Lu Qiniang was defeated and returned in disgrace.
She already only eats one meal a day. She can't skip this meal too. Wouldn't she starve to death?
No, no.
But now she still weighs 180 kilograms!
She is so fat.
Looking at the fat on her body, Lu Qiniang even wanted to find a knife to cut off a large piece.
She actually doesn't care about her figure, especially when she is busy making a living.
It can be said that from the moment she learned of Zhang Heyao's death, all the girl's thoughts had left him, leaving only the embarrassment of running around in exhaustion.
But now it’s different, Zhang Heyao is back.
Lu Qiniang would feel inferior about her current appearance.
She actually had the idea that she hoped Zhang Heyao would come back a few months later, and by then, she would be better.
But I'm hungry, really hungry.
When Lu Qin's mother was feeding the pigs, she couldn't help but feel even hungrier when she saw the pigs scrambling for food.
She is so useless that she even craved the pig food...
No, she can’t just think about food, she has to find a way to earn some money to buy her new bedding.
The bedding is a bit expensive...
Or, should she just buy a new sheet and make a new duvet cover?
This way you only need to buy cloth and not cotton, saving a lot of money.
She suddenly remembered that she didn't need to buy fabric!
She had bought some red cotton cloth when it was cheap, thinking of leaving it for Daya as a dowry.
Daya, I'll lend you some first and then I'll make you a better one!
So Lu Qiniang went back and took it out and started doing needlework herself.
Seeing this, Daya smiled and said, "Mom, what do you want to do? Let me do it."
Lu Qinniang's embroidery skills are really not commendable.
"No need, I can do it myself. You go and do your work, you go and do your work--" Lu Qin's mother blushed with guilt and chased Daya out.
She thought that this was her dowry and she would do it herself.
Despite experiencing many vicissitudes of life, she still retains a little bit of her girlish dream in her heart and has never been completely extinguished.
That was her beautiful imagination of marrying Zhang Heyao.
Now, after all the hard work, the sweet rewards are finally coming true.
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