Ye Beiping finished cooking an hour later.
Seeing that Su Xinyi and Grandma Qiu were talking in hushed tones and glancing in his direction every now and then, and noticing that nothing else was amiss, he felt relieved.
He invited the two of them to eat.
Grandma Qiu remained silent throughout the meal, seemingly embodying the principle of "no talking while eating."
Whether it was because Ye Beiping's cooking was bad or because Grandma Qiu was too old to eat much, she quickly finished the small bowl of rice.
She got up, walked back to her room neatly and cleanly, and didn't say anything.
Two minutes later, when he came out, he had two keys in his hand.
Grandma Qiu placed two keys on the dining table, glanced at Ye Beiping, and said, "Here are the keys to the upstairs apartment. You can leave after you wash the dishes."
"Oh." Facing the unfamiliar old lady, Ye Beiping didn't say much, but simply nodded obediently in agreement.
Su Xinyi seemed about to say something, but then shut her mouth and continued eating.
While the two were eating, Grandma Qiu brought out a broom and some cloths and placed them at the door.
Without saying a word, he turned around and went back to his room.
She never came out again this time.
Ye Beiping was a little confused, but Su Xinyi put down her chopsticks and said, "Grandma just said we shouldn't buy these things, she has them here. Besides, the house upstairs isn't dirty, she cleans it from time to time."
"good."
Upon hearing this, Ye Beiping nodded. Seeing that Su Xinyi had finished eating, he quickly ate a couple of mouthfuls of rice from his bowl.
Then came washing the dishes and pots.
Ye Beiping didn't let Su Xinyi do these things, not because she couldn't, but simply because he dotes on his wife.
Before leaving, Ye Beiping thoughtfully cleaned up the entire living room and kitchen.
Su Xinyi saw all of this, and a slight smile appeared on her lips; she felt very warm inside.
He thought to himself, 'As expected, Grandma Qiu was right.'
After leaving Grandma Qiu's house, Ye Beiping took Su Xinyi to their newly rented house.
Only then did he have time to ask, "What were you two talking about just now?"
Actually, Ye Beiping wanted to ask that question downstairs, but it wasn't convenient, since it was someone else's house and it wasn't appropriate to discuss such things.
"What?" Su Xinyi didn't understand at first, but shook her head when she realized what she meant. "Nothing, I just asked you some questions and inquired about Pingba Village."
"The matter of Pingba Village?"
Ye Beiping was taken aback, then muttered to himself, "Why are you asking about this?"
Pfft!
Looking at Ye Beiping like this, Su Xinyi burst out laughing: "Grandma Qiu said you're a clever little fox."
She was overjoyed when she recalled Grandma Qiu's gritted teeth as she spoke of Ye Beiping.
After spending an hour with her, Su Xinyi realized that Grandma Qiu was indeed the kind of old lady Ye Beiping had described—cold on the outside but warm on the inside.
Perhaps it really is related to elderly people living alone, who are afraid of being bullied.
“Little fox, interesting.” Ye Beiping did not refute the word. After all, Grandma Qiu was a shrewd old woman. With enough time spent with her, the old tree spirit would naturally reveal the story she had told before.
Su Xinyi, on the other hand, kept talking nonstop.
"Grandma Qiu is still quite curious about you. For example, when I asked how you earned five thousand yuan in half a month, she directly said that you were a liar."
"And you bring me meat every day..." Su Xinyi's voice trailed off as she spoke, her face flushed with embarrassment, "She said you're a big liar."
It seems that she also strongly agrees with Grandma Qiu's assessment.
Anyway, he had a big smile on his face when he said these things.
Ye Beiping was unhappy.
What makes someone a liar, a big liar?
Those are all legitimate ways to pursue girls, and they make money. Who are you kidding? Isn't that just... effective marketing?
Suddenly, Su Xinyi's smile froze, and she said with some disappointment, "Ye Beiping, will you be good to me for the rest of my life?"
Um?
Ye Beiping paused in his sweeping, frowning as he looked at Su Xinyi's melancholy expression.
"Did Grandma Qiu say something to you?"
When asked the question, Su Xinyi stared directly into Ye Beiping's eyes without looking away.
In the past, she might have shyly looked away.
The two remained like that for a long, long time. Perhaps Su Xinyi was sleepy, because she blinked her eyelids before speaking: "Grandma Qiu just told me her story. She used to be a rich young lady, and then she met a poor but very learned young man."
"She eloped with this poor boy, and in 1937, the poor boy, full of love, went to the streets with his classmates to participate in demonstrations and then joined the army. Grandma Qiu also joined the army without hesitation for the man she loved and became a nurse on the battlefield."
"She said it was the first time she had witnessed the horrors of war, with countless wounded soldiers being sent to their field hospital. When she first went on a mission, she was stunned to see soldiers whose hands and feet had been blown off by bombs."
As she spoke of these things, Su Xinyi's eyes reddened, as if she were experiencing them firsthand.
Ye Beiping was dumbfounded. The two of them had only talked for an hour, how could they have talked about so much, even the War of Resistance against Japan?
However, he did not interrupt Su Xinyi, but let her continue speaking.
"The first time I assisted the doctors in performing surgery, many of the soldiers whose intestines were exposed died from the excruciating pain because they didn't have penicillin to stop the pain."
"It wasn't until several months later that Grandma Qiu saw her beloved husband at the field hospital. He was being carried off the battlefield covered in blood. Grandma Qiu said that her world collapsed at that time. Seeing her beloved husband on the verge of death, he didn't utter a single word until he died. Perhaps the only word he wanted to say at that time was 'pain'."
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