Chapter 31: Setting up a stall by the bridge, cold nature

After leaving Fusheng Wine House, Liu Mingan, empty-handed, reached out to take the two packages on Jiang Ning's shoulders and put them on his back.

"Are you going to sell calligraphy and paintings now?" Jiang Ning saw that he seemed to be walking towards a certain place with a purpose, so she asked.

"Yes, it's by that bridge."

Liu Mingan pointed forward with his hand. Jiang Ning looked over and saw a small wooden bridge about 200 meters away. There were willow trees planted by the bridge. It was early autumn, and the willow leaves were dark green, swaying gently in the wind with the soft branches.

"By the way, this is for you." Liu Mingan suddenly stopped, stretched out his hand in front of Jiang Ning, and spread it out. The one or two taels of silver were lying in his palm.

"What are you doing for me? Just take it." Jiang Ning did not move.

"It should have been yours." Liu Ming'an said, and stretched out his hand to grab Jiang Ning's wrist and put the silver into her hand.

Jiang Ning thought about it and decided that it was all the same, so she didn't bother to argue and accepted it with peace of mind.

The two walked to the side of the bridge. Bluestone slabs were laid crookedly under their feet, and weeds with strong vitality grew in the cracks of the slabs.

Jiang Ning was about to ask how to set up a stall in this place when she saw Liu Ming'an walking straight towards a woman selling osmanthus cake nearby.

"Hey, take it, and take care."

The woman was receiving a guest, holding a piece of steaming osmanthus cake wrapped in butter paper, and handed it to a woman holding a child with both hands, then took a few copper coins given by the guest, put them in the pocket in front of her, and sat on a stool to take a breath.

After the woman finished her purchase and left, Liu Ming'an called out, "Aunt Hui, business is good today. You've sold so much."

The woman called "Aunt Hui" looked up, saw Liu Ming'an, and her eyes lit up with joy: "You boy, why did you come so late today? Did you oversleep?"

Liu Ming'an smiled and opened his mouth to say something when a rough male voice rang out from behind him: "Madam boss, give me two pieces of osmanthus cake!"

"Okay! Please wait a moment!" Aunt Hui responded immediately, got up from the stool, started packing with oil paper, and nodded to Liu Ming'an: "Set up the stall yourself first, and we'll talk later."

Liu Ming'an said "OK", walked into the store behind Aunt Hui as if he knew the way, and dragged out a half-person-high bamboo couch.

Seeing that he couldn't do it alone, Jiang Ning went over to help lift the other side. At Liu Ming'an's signal, the two of them worked together to put the bamboo couch five or six meters away from Aunt Hui's stall.

"I'll get another stool." Liu Ming'an said to Jiang Ning, and went back into the store.

Jiang Ning stood there waiting for Liu Ming'an, but felt a pair of eyes falling squarely on her. It was Aunt Hui. Jiang Ning looked back at her. The woman had no ill intentions, and her eyes were full of inquiry.

Aunt Hui saw Jiang Ning looking at her and greeted her generously: "Girl, you are quite energetic. Who are you to Ming'an? Why haven't I seen you before?"

Who is she to Liu Ming'an?

This question stumped Jiang Ning.

Jiang Ning lowered her eyes and said nothing, which made Aunt Hui's heart beat fast. Does this girl not know how to speak? Or she is too introverted and doesn't like dealing with strangers.

"Aunt Hui," Liu Ming'an's voice came at the right time, breaking the stalemate: "She is my sister, named Jiang Ning, and she doesn't like to talk much."

Sister?

Jiang Ning's eyebrows moved slightly when she heard it, and she looked at him meaningfully. Liu Ming'an was only nineteen years old, and she was twenty-two when she died, so she became a sister.

But on second thought, her current body looks no more than eighteen, so it is understandable for Liu Ming'an to call her sister.

Being stared at by Jiang Ning, Liu Ming'an didn't understand what was going on, smiled slightly, put two stools beside the bamboo couch, then took out the calligraphy and paintings in the package, unfolded them, spread them on the bamboo couch, sat on a stool, and put out the pen, ink, paper and inkstone.

"Jiang Ning, come."

Liu Ming'an patted another stool, motioning Jiang Ning to sit there and rest.

Jiang Ning had just taken a step forward when a little girl holding a paper windmill ran over from the bridge in a hurry. The little girl looked about five or six years old, with two small buns of hair tied on the left and right of her head with red hair strings. She looked well-behaved and clever.

A few meters behind the little girl was a young woman, chasing her with a loving face. The two had very similar facial features, and anyone with a discerning eye could tell that they were mother and daughter.

"Yuanyuan, slow down, slow down, be careful not to fall..."

Who knew that as soon as the mother finished speaking, the child kicked a slightly raised stone slab on the ground, and her center of gravity was unstable, and her whole body flew straight forward, facing Jiang Ning.

As long as Jiang Ning didn't dodge, the child would hit her legs and would not fall. Several people present were thinking optimistically.

Unexpectedly, Jiang Ning took a step aside and avoided it.

The little girl fell heavily on the stone floor, and the windmill in her hand fell apart. The next moment, she pouted and started crying loudly.

Jiang Ning ignored her, walked around her and sat down next to Liu Mingan.

Liu Mingan looked at Jiang Ning with a complicated expression, then quickly got up, walked to the middle of the road, and picked up the child with Aunt Hui.

"Oh!" The child's mother saw her daughter crying from the fall, anxious and distressed, and rushed over in two steps, holding her crying daughter in her arms to comfort her.

"Be good, Yuanyuan, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry..."

"Mom, it hurts, wuwuwu... The windmill is broken, wuwuwu..." The child sniffed and stretched out her hand to show her mother. A small piece of skin was rubbed off on the side of her palm, and small beads of blood were oozing out.

The mother's eyes were full of pity, and she blew gently on her daughter's wound, and couldn't stop comforting her.

When the child was finally coaxed, the mother turned to look at Jiang Ning and accused: "Why did you hide just now? She is so small, how could she hurt you if she bumped into your leg? You just watched her fall to the ground, don't you have any sympathy at all?"

Seeing that she was pointing her finger at Jiang Ning, Liu Ming'an opened his mouth to explain: "This sister-in-law, my sister--"

"I didn't ask you!" The woman interrupted Liu Ming'an and looked directly at Jiang Ning, insisting that Jiang Ning give an explanation.

Hearing this, Jiang Ning's eyes glanced over casually and looked at the woman quietly, without any sadness or joy in her eyes, without a trace of emotional fluctuations.

"It wasn't me who asked her to fall, why do you care whether I hide or not?"

Jiang Ning's cold and ruthless words were like a basin of cold water poured over her head, irritating the mother so much that her breathing stagnated.

"Are you saying my daughter deserves it?" the woman asked in a stern voice, obviously furious.

Jiang Ning supported her head with her hands and looked back at her silently. The answer was self-evident.

"You!" The woman's face turned red with anger, and her chest rose and fell rapidly.

The child in her arms sensed her mother's anger and timidly called out "Mom". The

tender child's voice rang out, like a gate, releasing all the mother's resentment. Liu Ming'an saw the woman smile gently at the child, then picked up the broken windmill, picked up the child, and got up to leave.

After walking a few steps, the woman stopped, turned to look at Jiang Ning, and said earnestly: "You are young now, but one day you will have children."

Aunt Hui was shocked by Jiang Ning's strange temper. Liu Ming'an was a kind-hearted person, so how could her sister be so cold-blooded?

Aunt Hui quietly asked Liu Ming'an beside her: "Ming'an, is she really your sister?"

Liu Ming'an avoided answering and pointed at her stall and said: "Aunt Hui, someone came to buy osmanthus cake, you go quickly."

After that, she returned to the bamboo couch and sat down next to Jiang Ning.

"Jiang Ning, you are too cold." Jiang Ning heard Liu Ming'an say this.

"So what?" Jiang Ning admitted nonchalantly. She was originally such a person. Can you still expect a killer to be a kind-hearted person?

"You shouldn't be such a person." Liu Ming'an said this very seriously.

Jiang Ning stared at him, the young man's eyes were clean and pure, and the pure black pupils reflected her face, as pure as a baby.

Jiang Ning thought of He Wen, who was killed by her, and the woman who cast a spell in the middle of the night, and curled her lips, but the veil covered her face, so Liu Mingan couldn't see it.

"Liu Mingan, you just need to be a good person," Jiang Ning also responded to Liu Mingan seriously: "I will take care of the rest."

Liu Mingan didn't understand.

Jiang Ning didn't need him to understand.