Chapter 903 Newcomers and Old-timers
Ouyang Rong finally understood what Aunt Zhu meant when she said Wu Cui was "just like him".
Oh, so it's the same thing.
I thought she could bully Lady Zhi Shuang too.
However, these middle-aged women's gossip really travels faster than anyone else's.
It's clear that the unassuming old ladies in the kitchen are the most well-informed people in Yunmeng Sword Marsh.
You should make friends with them.
Wu Cui ignored her and continued to disregard Aunt Zhu's side, simply picking up some melon seeds and placing them on the windowsill.
Ouyang Rong suddenly spoke, his voice hoarse:
"Sister Zhu, studying is a good thing. When I was young, my family also pressured me to study and learn to read, but unfortunately I was not cut out for it."
"What kind of education does she have? She doesn't know a single word, she just looks at pictures of swordsmanship... Hey, what did you just call me?"
Aunt Zhu chuckled, then turned her head suddenly, her tone surprised, halfway through her sentence.
Ouyang Rong, with a blank expression and a normal tone, waved his hand and said:
"That shows a rare thirst for knowledge. Let's not disturb them. Everyone has their own ambitions, don't you agree, Sister Zhu?"
Aunt Zhu grinned as she looked the robust young man in front of her up and down, who neither called her "aunt" nor "mother."
The more I look at it, the more pleasing it becomes.
"Yes, yes, Brother Liang is right. Come on, put your things down and have some melon seeds."
As he spoke, he pulled Ouyang Rong over to the stove, moved a stool for him to sit on, and handed him some melon seeds.
Ouyang Rong came to the stove and looked around.
After doing odd jobs for two days, this was his first time cooking.
Aunt Zhu asked casually:
"Where is Ah Liang from?"
Ouyang Rong said calmly:
"It's quite far from Yunmeng. My family is poor. I live in a temple and used to help the abbot ring the bell."
Aunt Zhu marveled:
"No wonder he's got such a muscular build..."
Ouyang Rong had prepared an explanation, but Aunt Zhu didn't press further. Instead, she sighed:
"Since you've come here, you're either lucky or unlucky. I heard that Fairy Peach Hall mention that you were also rejected by Bamboo Hall. So, your fate is both good and bad, just like Xiao Cui's."
Ouyang Rong grunted an "Mmm" and didn't say anything more.
Aunt Zhu pointed to the young woman in an apron by the window and said regretfully:
"When Xiao Cui entered Jianze, she was even younger than you. She was the youngest among the new brides of that year. As a result, she was not selected either. She failed to be selected from Taotang and Zhutang. Tang, the head of Taotang, saw that she was upright, hardworking, and willing to endure hardship, so he kept her in Jianze to do odd jobs with us ordinary people, to settle down for a few years, and then wait for the next round."
"After waiting a few more years, I finally made it, but I still failed to be selected... and then it was your year, and it was the same again... eh."
Aunt Zhu cracked open some melon seeds and shook her head:
“I speak very bluntly, which may sound harsh, but don’t say that I’m bullying her. The principle is that you can’t force fate. She’s clearly not cut out for this. Why is she being so stubborn and staying here to suffer with us?”
“She’s not like us, old and faded, we all fled to the mountain and have nowhere to go down. She’s young and hardworking, it would be so good for her to go down the mountain and marry into a good family, or she could be shameless enough to ask the fairy benefactor for a job down the mountain…”
Ouyang Rong saw that Aunt Zhu covered her mouth with her hand, glanced at Wu Cui, and lowered her voice to say:
"I heard that the fairies have some businesses and connections down the mountain, working for Jianze. However, it's not difficult for them to achieve the wealth and status that ordinary people would consider. We are just foolish village women, we can't go, but she can go, yet she doesn't cherish it at all, and she's so arrogant..."
Ouyang Rong listened blankly, while his eyes scanned Zhu Da Niang's expression, as if preparing to ask her questions.
Aunt Zhu suddenly changed the subject:
"Brother Liang, aren't you afraid I'll take advantage of you since you're standing so close?"
Ouyang Rong paused for a moment, observed the woman's winking expression, and immediately understood that she must have seen what the head cook, Auntie Changsun, was doing while she was making lunch.
He hesitated for a moment, then said in a low voice:
"Sister Zhu is different. The more she talks, the less she does. She's just talking. On the contrary, the less she talks, the more likely she is to do it."
Aunt Zhu was surprised to hear this, chewed for a moment, and then asked with a smile:
“That makes sense. That’s how the hypocritical Sun family is…” She paused, then changed the subject and asked, “And what about you, Brother Liang? You’re also a quiet type, and seem easy to bully. Is it true that the more honest a person looks, the more ruthless they are?”
Ouyang Rong remained expressionless, paused for a moment, and was about to speak when Aunt Zhu changed the subject.
"But you should be careful not to fall out with her, otherwise you won't have a good time in the dining hall. Although she can't kick you out, it's easy for her to make things difficult for you."
Ouyang Rong noticed that she remained composed when changing the subject, seemingly just being talkative and speaking on a whim.
"However, it's normal that she can't stand it. She lost her husband early on and has been a widow for a long time. It's normal for her to be a little thirsty."
The woman surnamed Zhu offered her analysis, then covered her mouth with a laugh:
"Why don't you just go along with her? Dry wood meeting a raging fire, it's not like you're losing out."
Ouyang Rong shook his head:
"I have a wife."
Aunt Zhu asked in surprise, "Where? Down the mountain?"
"Um."
Aunt Zhu asked in confusion, "Then why are you staying in the dining hall? You didn't pass the test, and you're not young anymore, you look to be twenty. Why don't you go down the mountain?"
Ouyang Rong shook his head again and said in a muffled voice:
"I went up the mountain to ring the bell and earn some silver, but the fairy said I didn't need it for the time being, so she told me to come here."
Aunt Zhu sized him up, somewhat puzzled:
"Your thought process is really weird. Are you stupid? Why did you have to come here to ring the bell? I thought you were like us, a poor soul rescued by a fairy passing by the foot of the mountain. She gave you a chance to take the Bamboo Hall test because you were young, but you didn't seize it..."
Ouyang Rong thought for a moment and said:
“The fairy has indeed been kind to me, and I have come to repay her kindness.”
Aunt Zhu popped a melon seed into her mouth and said, her words slightly slurred:
"Yes, yes, just cook good meals for the fairies. The fairies work very hard in their cultivation."
Ouyang Rong nodded silently.
Compared to Wu Cui, who was quietly reading, Aunt Zhu was a restless person. Seeing that Ouyang Rong had become sullen, she turned around and went to chat and gossip with the other women who were butchers.
Seeing this, Ouyang Rong was worried that she might reveal the affair between Granny Sun and him.
But then I thought about it again. Although Aunt Zhu seemed straightforward, she wasn't lacking in emotional intelligence. She would probably be afraid that Aunt Sun would make things difficult for her, so she wouldn't dare to gossip.
As dinner preparation time approached, Ouyang Rong checked the ingredients and asked Aunt Zhu in a low voice.
"Sister Zhu, do the goddesses upstairs eat the same food as the fairies in the various halls? Why don't we see them ordering food? Do they have a private chef?"
Aunt Zhu casually said:
"There are no private chefs. Just these few dining halls are responsible for the meals of the entire Sword Swamp. This is a rule set by the Great Goddess. Everyone in Sword Swamp eats the same food. No one is given any special treatment..."
"However, there are exceptions. If a fairy is injured and recuperating, or a goddess needs to nourish her body after seclusion, they will send someone to inform the dining hall to prepare some dishes they like. But these special connections are rare; I've hardly ever seen them..."
"By the way, why did you ask that?"
Aunt Zhu looked at him curiously, then remembered:
"Oh, you can make soup, right? Was it praised by the goddess? I think I heard Sun mention that the Sixth Goddess liked your soup-making skills and would let you serve sometime if needed... But I guess we'll have to wait again. The Sixth Goddess seems to be very busy. She often takes the fairies of Qiutang out and only spends a few days a month at Jianze."
Ouyang Rong nodded:
"Understood."
He then asked, "When was the last time a goddess needed special dietary supplements?"
Aunt Zhu shook her head:
"How would I know? Usually, the head cook receives the goddess's decree and then arranges for people to prepare the food in private. We are only responsible for the daily communal meals."
She pondered again:
"Moreover, there are more than just our dining hall. The goddesses may have instructed the dining halls next door to prepare the dishes. It can only be said that the dishes were arranged according to proximity. As far as I know, our side is closer to the Fifth and Sixth Goddesses, but they ordered less."
Ouyang Rong nodded, as if he were saying it casually:
"I see. When I came over this morning, I saw that the stove fire seemed to have been lit last night. I thought that a goddess was hungry late at night and specially asked someone to cook for her."
Aunt Zhu asked subconsciously:
"You mean last night? Oh, that was the food prepared for the water dungeon. There was indeed a goddess there, I think she was the fifth goddess, but the food wasn't specially prepared. It was the same communal meal as during the day, nothing special."
Ouyang Rong asked calmly:
"Does our dining hall still have night shifts? Are there any requirements...?"
Suddenly, Aunt Zhu raised her hand and slapped Ouyang Rong's shoulder hard:
"Brother Liang, I advise you not to have such thoughts, it's useless."
Ouyang Rong slowly raised his head, glanced at Aunt Zhu's ambiguous smile, and asked slowly:
"What is Sister Zhu saying, and what are she thinking?"
Aunt Zhu smiled and shook her head, then pointed at Wu Cui:
"Just like Xiao Cui, do you know where she got that swordsmanship manual?"
Ouyang Rong looked puzzled.
Aunt Zhu, with an expression that said, "You little rascal, I knew you all along," bluntly stated:
"Once, the fairies had something to do and asked her to deliver food to the water dungeon. She met the Five Goddesses there and probably took the opportunity to chat with them for a few minutes. The Five Goddesses gave her this gift, and after she returned, she looked at it every day."
Ouyang Rong was somewhat speechless.
Aunt Zhu looked at him with a cold smile:
"You little brat, do you also want to get close to the goddess, just like Xiao Cui, still harboring fantasies, wanting to ascend to the Sword Swamp?"
She waved her hand and said:
"It's no use. Xiao Cui has been trying for so long and it still didn't work. As for you... you're in trouble."
"You should think this through. Going to the dining hall with such ulterior motives is a waste of time. You'll regret it when you get older. You'd be better off going down the mountain to spend time with your family and wife. You young people just don't go home when you have one. You only realize the bitterness of life when you have no home left."
Aunt Zhu shook her head, giving you a look that said, "Go away."
However, seeing that Ouyang Rong had that signature dull and silent expression again, she didn't bother to say anything more.
Soon, people came in from outside; it was Granny Sun and the others returning to the dining hall.
Preparations for dinner were about to begin, and everyone stopped chatting and returned to their places. The atmosphere in the dining hall gradually became "lively" again...
In fact, Ouyang Rong was not "stubborn"; his silence just now was simply because he was thinking of some countermeasures.
He had roughly figured out the current situation of the dining hall.
Some things didn't go as he expected before he came.
First, it's difficult to find any clues about the embroiderer, as Xue Zhongzhu and Yu Nianyuan don't seem to offer special tutoring often.
Moreover, the closest people to the Qingliang Valley Dining Hall are, as far as we know, the Fifth Lady Yun Xiangyi and the Sixth Lady Hua Xiangrong.
If the embroiderer is imprisoned or in a coma while recovering from illness, she may be far away.
Of course, there is also the possibility that Ouyang Rong guessed after hearing the name "water dungeon," and guessed that the embroiderer might also be "detained" here by her senior sisters, and perhaps even guarded by the Fifth Lady whom she had never met before...
The specifics still need to be verified. It would be great if I could have the opportunity to deliver food to the water prison, just like Wu Cui.
A thoughtful look appeared in Ouyang Rong's eyes.
Preparing dinner in the afternoon was far less troublesome than preparing lunch; soon, steamed dishes were coming out of the oven one after another…
As dusk fell, Ouyang Rong was about to finish his second shift.
Ouyang Rong was still not among those who remained in the dining hall tonight.
Ouyang Rong didn't know how Aunt Sun had arranged things, so he didn't feel comfortable asking any further questions at the moment.
The awkward atmosphere from the daytime incident, where the man refused to take advantage of her, was still there; the two barely made eye contact or spoke to each other all afternoon.
Even in front of Granny Sun and others, Granny Zhu spoke very little to him, acting strictly as if she didn't know him...
After hanging his towel on the shelf, Ouyang Rong left the dining hall, carrying a bamboo tube at his waist and a bundle on his back, heading to his lodgings.
Wu Cui and the others waited at the door, ready to lead him the way.
Ouyang Rong doesn't need to go back to the original island today; he'll be moving to a new place tonight.
The island where the new residence is located is also very close to Qingliang Valley; it's just a short walk across a wooden boardwalk.
Ouyang Rong followed Wu Cui in silence until they arrived at the island. The entire island was lush and green, with red maple forests in the north corner and verdant bamboo forests in the rest.
A stream flows through the small island, and on both banks stand rows of courtyards, with moss climbing all over the walls.
Ouyang Rong saw many laborers like himself in these courtyards, who had just arrived home and were busy with their work.
However, most of them were women.
Judging from Wu Cui's familiarity with the area, this must be the area where she lives with Aunt Sun and Aunt Zhu.
Ouyang Rong looked around.
On both sides of the stream, women of all ages were washing clothes, and many of them secretly cast curious glances at him; wisps of smoke rose from some rooftops, towards the setting sun... full of the breath of life.
Wu Cui led him up the winding stone steps along the stream, all the way to the upper reaches, where they stopped in front of a thatched courtyard near the edge of the red maple forest.
"We're here, this is the room."
She said calmly.
Ouyang Rong stepped forward and pushed open the door to enter.
Wu Cui gave a few words of advice and then turned to leave.
Ouyang Rong's arrival also attracted the attention of the neighbors.
In the courtyard, Ouyang Rong put down his bundle and looked around when a joyful shout came from behind him:
"Brother Liang!"
Ouyang Rong turned his head and saw a familiar woman's figure.
Li Wan was standing in the neighboring courtyard, smiling at him.
(End of this chapter)
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