Qin Rui is in poor health, and the doctor prescribed an egg every day to supplement his nutrition, but he can't seem to accumulate enough eggs.
After Zhang Guihua finished preparing the chives, she asked her second son's wife to go to the kitchen to make pancakes while she went to clean the fish that the children had brought back.
Seeing everyone busy, Yunling felt embarrassed to just sit there, so she went to the kitchen to start a fire and chatted with Qin Tiantian.
After everyone busied themselves, the meal was quickly prepared. The chive pancakes were made from a mixture of cornmeal and dark flour, so the taste wasn't very good, but Yunling still ate them with great relish.
I've been here for so many days now, and apart from the rabbit and stir-fried eggs with chives I made a few days ago, I've been eating pickled vegetables and stir-fried bok choy with hardly any oil every day. The taste is very bland, which is especially unpleasant for someone like me who likes strong flavors.
Today's chive pancakes tasted much better than the cornbread and dark steamed buns from the past few days.
After finishing the meal, Yunling went to clean up the dishes. Since there was no oil, the dishes were easy to wash. She just scrubbed them twice with a loofah and then rinsed them with water.
After finishing her meal, Yunling made an excuse to go outside to digest. She strolled around and ate several pieces of beef jerky. It was numbing, spicy, and chewy—it was so delicious that she wanted more. She opened her mouth wide to breathe in the aroma before going home.
It was getting dark, and a tall figure stood under the walnut tree outside the Qin family's house.
"Qin Chuan?"
Qin Chuan hummed in agreement, glanced at her, and cautioned, "Come back earlier at night from now on; it's not safe."
"Okay, I understand." Yunling was willing to accept the kindness offered by others.
Back home, Yunling quickly took a shower, sat outside for a while until her hair was dry, then went back to her room, lay down on the kang (a heated brick bed), moved further in, pressed herself against the wall, and prayed that she would sleep soundly that night.
After taking a shower, Qin Chuan returned to his room and saw a figure pressed tightly against the wall. He chuckled softly, turned off the light with a snap, and lay down on the bed.
Yunling closed her eyes and recited the ancient poems she had learned before in her mind. Usually, she would fall asleep halfway through reciting them, and today was no exception.
Moonlight streamed into the room through the cracks in the window. Qin Chuan heard Yun Ling's breathing become more gentle and couldn't help but marvel at her good sleep quality; despite being so restless at night, she slept soundly until dawn.
That night, when Yunling rolled over again, Qin Chuan didn't even open his eyes. He simply held her in his arms and slept soundly through the night.
When Yunling woke up the next morning, Qin Chuan was no longer on the kang (a heated brick bed).
She lay there for a while longer, and only got up and dressed after the commotion in the courtyard outside grew louder.
After changing clothes and tying up her hair in the room, she took a washbasin containing a towel, soap, and a cup containing a toothbrush and toothpaste to the well in the yard to wash up.
Liu Yun leaned closer and handed her the toothbrush.
Yunling didn't tolerate her bad habit.
He directly mocked, "Your sister-in-law is so pitiful, she can't even afford toothpaste."
She looked at Liu Yun with a sympathetic expression.
Liu Yun glared at her, "How can you be so stingy? You're supposed to be a city person."
Yunling gave her a mocking look and said, "Sister-in-law, you're quite generous. Could you share two of the peach shortbreads you had this morning with me?"
As soon as Liu Yun got close to her, he smelled a sweet peach shortbread aroma.
"I didn't eat it; it was for Rui Rui. He's not feeling well," Liu Yun said righteously.
Yunling raised her voice and said, "Sister-in-law, there are crumbs of peach shortbread on the corner of your mouth."
Zhang Guihua immediately looked over and said in an annoyed tone, "Those peach cakes were for your son to nourish his body. How could you even steal your son's food? What kind of mother is that?"
Liu Yun hurriedly wiped her mouth, and seeing her mother-in-law's angry expression, she immediately apologized: "I just tasted it, I didn't eat much."
Zhang Guihua sneered.
During the meal, Yunling sat opposite Liu Yun and could occasionally feel the resentful look in his eyes.
She smiled at the person opposite her and then buried her head in her food.
When they started work in the morning, the two girls suggested going fishing again. Yunling didn't want to go. It was the middle of the day, the hottest time of the day, and she really didn't want to be under the blazing sun. When she looked in the mirror this morning, she found that she had become much darker and her skin was not as fair and delicate as when she first arrived.
Qin Yan pouted: "Then I'll go with my sister."
Yunling looked at her and said, "You can only go if your grandparents agree to let you go to the river."
"But Grandma won't agree if an adult isn't with me," Qin Yan said, tugging at Yun Ling's clothes.
If she hadn't gone sooner, all the fish in that pond would have been snatched up by the other children, and she really wanted to eat meat.
Qin Tao glanced at her third aunt's face and tugged at Qin Yan's hand: "Xiao Yan, can we go again sometime? We haven't eaten the fish we caught yesterday yet."
Qin Yan rolled her eyes, then pouted, "Okay!"
When Qin Yan finished work at noon and returned home, she couldn't wait to pull Qin Tao along and run home. Yun Ling followed behind. As soon as they entered the door, they smelled the aroma of fish soup.
Qin Yan took a deep breath. "It smells so good, it must be delicious."
The fish were small, about the size of a palm. Since there were many people in the Qin family, they finished cooking it in one meal, making a big bowl. They also added pickled cabbage and cabbage, as well as cucumber salad and stir-fried potato shreds.
Yunling quite liked the pickled cabbage in it; it was very flavorful and went well with rice. However, there were quite a few fish bones, so she had to be careful when eating it.
She had just finished eating a piece of fish when she noticed there was an extra piece in her bowl. Looking up, she saw that all the fish in the bowl had been eaten, leaving only sauerkraut and cabbage.
Looking at the others wolfing down their food, she thought to herself that she needed to work on her eating speed, otherwise she would never have enough to eat in the future.
"Grandma Qin, we want to eat too!" a loud voice rang out.
Yunling looked over and saw the Zhao family's twins lying on the courtyard wall next door.
Zhang Guihua: "Xiaolong, Xiaohu, haven't you eaten yet? We just finished eating."
Zhao Hu shouted, "You're lying! There's clearly still some left in the bowl!"
Zhang Guihua poured the remaining vegetables from the basin into her three sons' bowls, then looked up and said, "Your three uncles have to go to work this afternoon, so make sure you eat your fill."
Zhao Hu muttered under his breath, "What a stingy guy, he won't even give a child a piece of cabbage."
Qin Hai finished his meal in a gulp, looked up, and said impatiently, "If you want to eat, ask your parents. We're not your parents."
The twins made a funny face and slid down the courtyard wall.
“These children are spoiled rotten; eight out of ten times they come to our door begging for food,” Zhang Guihua said.
Liu Yun immediately responded to her mother-in-law's words, "Mother is right. We used to give them money because they were young and the family was struggling. Who knew they would get into this habit? Whenever we cook something delicious, they come to our door asking for it, and the adults just pretend not to hear. They might as well just become beggars on the street."
Qin Baoguo also said, "Don't spoil him next time. He won't starve if he misses a meal. Besides, Zhao Wu has such a high salary every month. He's just reluctant to spend the money. Otherwise, he can eat whatever he wants."
Qin Hai muttered, "It's all because Mother used to be soft-hearted. Seeing how pitiful those two children looked, she let them in to eat something good. Now it's become a habit. They come to our door every now and then begging for food. If we don't give them any, they call us stingy."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
