The doubt didn't last long; Shen Niannian's exclamation pulled her back to reality. Jiang Yu looked in the direction she was looking and saw that Xiao Hei outside the yard was completely buried in the snow.
She hurriedly put down the bowl in her hand and was about to rush out when the man grabbed her arm.
"It's not safe outside, I'll go check it out."
His voice gave the impression that one had no choice but to obey. Jiang Yu stopped in her tracks, staring blankly at the man's next move.
Suddenly, an image flashed into her mind. Three years ago, around this time, she had a difficult childbirth and gave birth to a stillborn child.
If that child were alive, he would probably be two or three years old now. The midwife said it was a boy, fair-skinned, with ears and a mouth that looked just like hers.
However, due to her extreme weakness at the time, she did not even get to see her child one last time, and Jiang Meier hastily buried her child on the grounds of bad luck.
Even though I'm not the original owner of this body, I still feel sad for some reason. It's probably because my maternal instincts have been triggered; otherwise, it's hard to explain.
When Shen Ying carried Xiao Hei into the house, Shen Suisui put some noodles into the dog bowl. Xiao Hei looked at them, sniffed them tentatively, sensed no danger, and then wolfed them down.
The east room wasn't big and already felt cramped; with a dog in the room, moving around was difficult. Fortunately, everyone was family, and no one objected to Xiao Hei's arrival.
After clearing away the dishes, Shen Ying placed the gas cylinder in the corner. The two children looked around curiously, but when the flames ignited, they were so frightened that they backed away.
Jiang Yu smiled and explained that the snow outside had been falling steadily all night, showing no sign of stopping.
......
The next morning, the snow outside had accumulated to a considerable thickness. A thick layer of snow had piled up around the windows, and it felt as if a clump of snow would roll into the house if the windows were opened.
When Jiang Yu got up, the man had already cleared a path in the yard. Although the path was covered with a thin layer of snow, it was still easy to walk on.
Zhao Meiyun tucked the children into their blankets with hot water bottles, touched their icy little feet, and sighed softly.
She exchanged a few words with Jiang Yu, then turned around and went to make breakfast.
Having gotten used to being busy for the past few days, it felt a bit strange to suddenly have so much free time. Jiang Yu tidied her hair haphazardly, tied it into a low ponytail, and went to get the basin from her mother-in-law.
"Mom, let me do it. The weather's not good today, let's have a stew in an iron pot."
With gas now available, we won't need firewood for a while. The whole family is crammed into this small room, barely able to stretch out. Jiang Yu plans to burn all the wood to make room for some movement.
She got right to work, and after she had prepared the ingredients and put them in the pot, she heard a lot of chattering outside the door.
“Brother Shen Ying, I saw it. Yesterday you and your wife bought a lot of food. As a soldier, you can’t eat alone in this kind of weather. Otherwise, we’ll report this to our superiors and have them give you a major demerit for not thinking about the people.”
Zhang Xinhua's voice was extremely loud, piercing the eardrums of those around her. Shen Ying didn't want to pay attention, but the villagers behind him started echoing her.
Everyone initially didn't take the village chief's notice seriously, but when they got up this morning, they found that the snow outside was up to their thighs, making it difficult to even go outside.
As the heavy snow continued to fall, many people became worried. If what the loudspeaker said was true, they might starve to death.
Just when everyone was at a loss, Zhang Xinhua recounted what she had seen when she left Jiang Yu's house the day before. The villagers unanimously believed that Shen Ying must have received advance notice from the army and was only concerned with himself, disregarding the rest of the village.
"Because we don't have time to go to the market, we usually buy enough grain to last three to five days and store it at home for convenience. It's not like what the villagers think."
"Eating alone?" Those words are an insult to him.
Although Shen Ying's explanation was perfectly reasonable, no one seemed to believe him. They probably knew his personality; he had been quiet and reserved since childhood and would never lay a hand on anyone. So they simply stayed outside his house and refused to leave.
Besides, with such thick snow, even taking a few steps is difficult. Since they decided to come here for food, they must have been well-prepared.
“You always have vegetables in your backyard, why would you go out of your way to store food? If you didn’t know something you weren’t keeping quiet about, we wouldn’t have risked coming here.”
Several women who usually colluded with Zhang Xinhua were clearly not going to let him off the hook, and they started gossiping about him. Fearing that they would be turned away, some of them had already stuck their feet into the yard.
"What's going on outside? Why is it so noisy?"
Shen Wan stretched and yawned. Seeing her nephew and niece staring blankly out the window, she put on her shoes and looked outside.
"You stay inside, I'll go out and take a look."
Jiang Yu put the pot lid on, untied her apron, and was about to walk out. Zhao Meiyun, worried that her daughter-in-law might get hurt, reached out and grabbed her arm to stop her.
"Mom, thanks to Zhang Xinhua, I'm quite experienced in handling these kinds of things now. After the pot boils, cook it for another fifteen minutes, then you can lift the lid and stick the pancakes on top."
Having said that, he ignored the attempts to stop him and walked towards the door.
At this moment, Shen Ying was surrounded by a group of women. He was blushing and had no choice but to block the door to prevent them from entering the courtyard.
Sometimes I really can't understand what these people are thinking. They won't listen to a word of explanation and insist on thinking according to their own ideas.
"Hey, what wind blew you aunties here? Could it be that you're bored in this snowy weather and came to our house to play cards? What a coincidence, I'm bored too."
"It's a pity the house is too small to fit so many people. How about this, the aunties, each go home and get your shovels to shovel snow in our yard? That way we can pass the time."
Jiang Yu smiled slightly and said calmly, "No matter what, let's put our attitude here first, and talk about the rest later."
"You little vixen, stop being so smug. We already know that you and your husband got the information from the army but didn't tell anyone, and instead secretly hid the food. You're truly heartless."
Most of the people who came this time were like Zhang Xinhua. So when they heard her say there was a bargain to be had, they all rushed to argue, afraid of being taken advantage of.
With these people backing her up, Zhang Xinhua was naturally fearless.
"Secretly hiding food? What makes you say that?"
Jiang Yu suppressed her anger and stared at Zhang Xinhua with a forced smile, clearly looking like someone not to be trifled with.
"I earn my own money and buy my own food, and you call that 'stealing'? There are so many strange things in the world, and this is the first time I've ever heard of anything like this. Anyway, I still have to thank you for teaching me a lesson and showing me just how shameless people can be."
As soon as he spoke, he subtly signaled to everyone at the door.
Some people in the crowd, still angry, reached out to bang on the door.
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