Chapter 4 Sows are easy to raise; they're just a dish on the table.
Upon opening the courtyard gate, a burly middle-aged woman stood at the entrance, carrying a piece of pork with both fat and lean meat in her left hand and a plump old hen in her right.
The woman had fair skin, regular features, and was dressed very simply, with a few fresh bloodstains on her apron.
She was clearly familiar with the Xu family, and didn't dress up deliberately before visiting.
Sheng An guessed which relative the Xu family they were, glanced at the roughly four or five pounds of pork and the plump old hen, and put on a warm smile:
"My husband is serving my father-in-law his meal in the room. Auntie, please come in and sit down first."
This body is so lacking in fat and oil that it can't resist the urge to eat meat.
Xu Cuilian glared at him: "What are you shouting about? I'm Jin Nian's aunt!"
As she spoke, she scanned Sheng An from head to toe with the disdainful look a mother-in-law would give a daughter-in-law, her chubby face making no attempt to hide her contempt:
"You're as skinny as a bamboo pole, with barely any flesh on your chest or buttocks. You look like you're not good at having children. I really don't know what my nephew sees in you."
Only his face is barely presentable.
Jin Nian is such a disappointment, just like those lecherous bastards who only care about looks.
Xu Cuilian became increasingly frustrated and gave Sheng An increasingly unfriendly looks.
Sheng An remained silent.
If you dislike something, just say so; why escalate it to a personal attack?
I looked down at the little dumpling on my chest. It clearly has a lot of room to grow, okay?
Sheng An never engages in internal strife; she responds with a smile:
"Sows are easy to raise, they're just a dish on the table. We women can't be so lowly as to compare ourselves to those beasts."
Xu Cuilian choked, opened her mouth but couldn't say a word.
Sheng An had no interest in arguing with her any further and accepted the heavy load of pork and old hen:
"Father's health is weak, so he needs to be properly nourished. I will accept your kind offer on his behalf."
Xu Cuilian's lips twitched as she looked at Sheng An, who was grinning like a thief of oil.
This woman is not only good-looking, but also incredibly shameless; she didn't show any politeness at all.
She's also very quick-witted; she'll definitely be able to handle any arguments with her neighbors in the future.
Xu Cuilian tried to calm herself down, barely managing to suppress her anger:
"It's hot, so let's eat pork first, and kill the chicken in a couple of days."
After saying that, Xu Cuilian snorted coldly at Sheng An, raised her double chin, and walked into the house with an arrogant expression.
Sheng An was delighted to have received pork and an old hen for free, and he didn't care about Xu Cuilian's attitude at all.
She happily put the pork in the kitchen, then took the old hen to the backyard and put it in the chicken coop in the corner.
The Xu family used to raise more than a dozen chickens. Later, when Xu Chenglin fell ill, they cooked chickens for him one after another to help him recover.
Now, the only original inhabitants of the chicken coop are two hens, and they're lucky they haven't been slaughtered because they lay eggs every day.
Perhaps Sheng An's gaze was too intense, for the two native inhabitants trembled and huddled at the innermost side.
Sheng An called out to them for a long time, but they acted as if they didn't have ears and didn't even glance at her.
"You blind fools, I'll stew you all in one pot sooner or later!"
Two hens: "..."
Clear Broth Master, they're chickens, chickens, chickens!
Who would call a chicken like they would call a dog?!
Inside the room, Xu Jinnian helped the exhausted Xu Chenglin lie down, picked up the bowl of soup that was completely empty, and went to talk to Xu Cuilian, who couldn't contain her joy.
“Jin Nian, your father’s appetite has improved a lot, so his condition must be getting better. Should we ask the doctor to come and take a look again? Don’t worry about not having enough money, your aunt is here.”
Xu Cuilian had a deep affection for her second brother, Xu Chenglin. Seeing him finish a whole bowl of dumpling soup, her heart, which had been hanging in suspense all night, finally felt a little more at ease.
"I saw a doctor the day before yesterday, and the doctor changed the prescription. Perhaps the medicine is working."
Xu Jinnian guessed the reason for her father's improved appetite, but knew that her aunt wouldn't believe it, so she attributed it to the doctor's revised prescription.
"Thank God, your father, who has been ill for several months, is finally going to get better."
Xu Cuilian's eyes reddened with emotion, and she clasped her hands together and bowed several times to the void.
After calming down, Xu Cuilian wiped the tears from her eyes and instructed her nephew:
"The imperial examination is only a few months away. Now that your wife is taking care of your father, you should focus on your studies and strive to pass the examination to become a Xiucai (a successful candidate in the county-level imperial examination) so that your father can be happy."
Xu Jinnian knew her aunt's temperament well, so she agreed, "Okay."
It is inconvenient for a daughter-in-law to take care of her father-in-law, and taking care of a sick person is exhausting. What if the wife is delicate and weak and gets sick from exhaustion?
Seeing that her nephew had forgotten his father by not getting married, Xu Cuilian's anger, stirred up by Sheng An, dissipated somewhat, and her voice rose even higher:
“Every girl you’ve been introduced to in the past is better than your wife. I don’t know what kind of bewitching potion she gave you to marry a country girl who’s only good-looking and has a mouth that can kill.”
Xu Jinnian frowned slightly and spoke gently on Sheng An's behalf:
"Aunt, your wife is very good, and Father likes her very much as his daughter-in-law."
Xu Cuilian choked up, then said angrily, "Your father is delirious from illness, his eyesight is bad!"
Xu Jinnian: "..."
Is the aunt subtly insulting him for being blind?
Xu Cuilian, oblivious to her nephew's thoughts, continued to nag loudly:
"Forget it, we've already married her, there's no point in saying anything more. From now on, I'll save a few pork bones for her every day, and you can have your wife get them from the butcher to nourish her little body."
If this isn't fixed soon, what's the difference between her nephew sleeping with a skeleton and him sleeping with a skeleton?
I'm afraid that if I exert even a little force on the bed, that skeleton will break in half.
"Alright, I have a lot of things to do at home, I have to go back. Tell your wife to take good care of your father, and if you need money, just come to me."
After giving a long, rambling lecture, Xu Cuilian, her mouth dry, picked up her cup, drank it all in one gulp, and then got up and left.
The man she married was surnamed Zhang. He was a butcher, a profession he inherited from his father, and was well-known in the surrounding area.
Because of his thorough business dealings and never shortchanging customers, villagers liked to sell their pigs to Zhang the butcher, while city dwellers preferred to buy meat from Zhang's pork stall.
On average, she can sell three pigs a day, so Xu Cuilian is always busy.
The aunt and niece had just stepped out of the main room when Sheng An appeared out of nowhere:
"Auntie, why don't you stay for lunch? I'm an excellent cook, I guarantee you'll crave it for three years to come."
Xu Cuilian rolled her eyes, taking it as Sheng An bragging:
"Take good care of your father-in-law, and you can live off me for three years."
After saying that, Xu Cuilian didn't even look at Sheng An, waved to Xu Jinnian, and left in a hurry.
Watching Xu Cuilian's figure disappear into the distance, Sheng An poked Xu Jinnian's lower back with his index finger:
"Did my aunt say anything bad about me?"
Xu Jinnian held his wife's hand, chuckled, and shook his head:
"Your aunt praised you for being good-looking and for being a good cook. The dumpling soup you made made Dad very hungry and he ate a whole bowl."
Sheng An pulled her hand away and rolled her eyes at the man: "I believe the first half of what you said, but you definitely added the second half."
"Your aunt meant you no harm." Xu Jinnian's handsome face showed no embarrassment at being exposed as he repeated her parting words.
Sheng An was somewhat surprised that he was asked to go to Zhang's meat stall every day to get pork bones to nourish his body.
My aunt is strange and has a lot of nagging.
Next time she argues with someone, she'll say less.
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