Chapter 121 Stewed Wild Chicken
"Of course you're wrong. You're wrong because you've spent your whole life working for others and forgotten who you are."
As Lu Qingqing spoke, she added two ladles of water to the pot and lit the fire.
"But they are my children!" Chen Cuihua wiped away her tears with her sleeve.
I just can't figure it out.
"No matter who it is, you can't give them everything."
If you don't even care about yourself, who will care about you?
You should have taught your son what filial piety is the first time he ignored you.
But you didn't. You just kept giving and sacrificing, making them think that's what you should do, that you should dedicate everything to them, even your life.
Chen Cuihua cried, "Isn't your father the same way!"
Lu Qingqing: "...That's right, then it's probably because your children aren't genetically predisposed, they're naturally cold-hearted."
Hearing someone scold her child, Chen Cuihua instinctively became angry.
But when I think about how I am now, aren't those guys just ingrates?
At first, the two daughters-in-law were obedient, but later, when she started cursing, her son and husband joined in cursing her.
As a result, her two wives gradually stopped taking her seriously.
Especially after the birth of her grandson, things became even more extraordinary.
She doted on her grandsons like the apple of her eye, giving them all the best food, but they, instigated by their mother, cursed her behind her back as an old hag.
It's true, he spent his whole life working for others.
In the end, no one even cared about his death.
I have to go to my niece's house, whom I've been taking care of for a few days, to get a bowl of noodles.
Chen Cuihua covered her face and cried for a long time, sobbing.
After she finished crying and looked up, she saw that there was another man in the kitchen.
He was squatting in front of the stove, tending the fire.
"Is this the man your father bought for you?"
Lu Qingqing slammed the iron ladle in her hand onto the pot with a loud bang.
"Auntie, don't talk nonsense, this... oh my god!"
A swear word slipped out.
Xu Rui was completely baffled. While she was chopping scallions, he sat down in front of the stove to start a fire. Now look what happened, he's burned himself.
The trouser leg was set ablaze by the flames.
He himself hadn't even realized it!
Lu Qingqing splashed a ladle of water at her.
Chen Cuihua was speechless: "Couldn't your father have picked something out properly for you? He can't even light a fire. What's the point of buying it?"
Wearing a hat on a hot day—is this a custom from the north of Lianghe?
Lu Qingqing: "Stop talking, this is the magistrate's son!"
Chen Cuihua was in a daze by the river and didn't notice Xu Rui. She had never seen him before and therefore didn't recognize him.
Now, when people hear that the county magistrate's son is from a family that doesn't seem to believe it!
Dressed like that, why would the magistrate's son come here to cook for people?
Then suddenly she had a flash of inspiration:
There are many families of disgraced officials in Lianghe. This is the son of a county magistrate who committed a crime!
"Your dad really doesn't know how to choose. He picked one with delicate skin and tender flesh, but what good is that? He should have picked one with more strength..."
Crack!
Xu Rui broke a piece of wood as thick as an arm with his bare hands.
Lu Qingqing: Did you make someone angry?
My aunt's ears are stuffed with donkey hair, she didn't hear what she just said?
Chen Cuihua fell silent, embarrassed.
You wouldn't guess it, but this man's hands are whiter than a girl's, yet he's incredibly strong.
Don't use your strength in that way, you're just scaring people!
Soon, she stopped paying attention to Xu Rui and was completely captivated by the aroma of the noodles.
It was just a simple bowl of boiled noodles, but it made her mouth water!
She hasn't eaten white flour for years!
After rinsing the noodles in cold water, Lu Qingqing added two spoonfuls of the stir-fried meat sauce, mixed it up, and sprinkled on some chopped green onions.
Chen Cuihua wolfed down her food.
"Do you want to eat?" Lu Qingqing asked Xu Rui.
Xu Rui nodded.
Lu Qingqing found out that he had come in to freeload a meal.
The kitchen was filled with the sound of Chen Cuihua slurping noodles. Hearing this, Lu Qingqing remembered what Aunt Ding had said about her licking the eldest son's snot, and then she put down her chopsticks, unable to eat anymore.
Xu Rui ate quite earnestly.
Lu Qingqing went to boil water again.
After finishing her bowl, Chen Cuihua started crying again.
“When you lived at my house as a child, I wasn’t nice to you either, but you still fed me…”
It's not good.
Despite having the grain that Old Man Lu had given her, he was stingy and gave her the spoiled food.
It was as if she was eating her own family's food.
Most of that food ended up in the stomachs of Chen Cuihua's family.
However, Lu Qingqing also secretly did a lot of bad things, damaging a lot of things for her family.
Besides, at least I never hit her.
On one occasion, when Lu Xingde was about to beat her up, Chen Cuihua stopped him.
Chen Cuihua wasn't exactly kind-hearted, but she was a mother and couldn't bring herself to hit her child.
"If it's not enough, eat my bowl too," Lu Qingqing said.
So Chen Cuihua ate another bowl.
After eating my fill, I felt my body, which had been weak for two days, slowly regain its strength.
Before the water even boiled, they heard someone outside calling for Chen Cuihua.
"Mom, I've come to take you home!"
"It's the second son!" Chen Cuihua couldn't hide her surprise and joy.
My cloudy eyes almost welled up with tears again.
"At least there's still someone to remember me. My second brother came to pick me up! Qingqing, I'm not washing anymore, I'm going home."
Fearing that her second son would get impatient, Chen Cuihua told Lu Qingqing and then shamelessly ran out.
“You wasted your time talking to her,” Xu Rui said.
"She still didn't recognize that family."
If the second son really cared about his mother, he would have gone to the riverbank already; why would he have waited until now?
Lu Qingqing wasn't angry, but his voice carried a hint of dissatisfaction at his ungratefulness.
“I’ll say what I want to say, whether she listens or not is her business, and what choice she makes is also her business.”
After all, we're not strangers. It's only right to help someone in trouble. Even if she jumps into the fire herself, I won't stop her.
They're not my family.
Aside from her family, no one else deserves her so much emotional investment.
Chen Cuihua had lived this kind of life her whole life; how could she easily understand it?
What urgent matter do you have to tell me?
Let's leave quickly after we've finished speaking.
She needs to take a shower, and so does he.
"Take a shower first, and I'll tell you after you're done."
Lu Qingqing: "A man and a woman alone together, you want me to take a shower at this time?"
Oh, right.
Chen Cuihua ran away, leaving only the two of them at home.
Xu Rui suddenly stood up.
"I'm going out for a bit. Lock the door behind you."
After he left, Lu Qingqing quickly started packing; she was feeling extremely uncomfortable.
He fell into the water and then rescued someone under the blazing sun, working up a sweat and exhausting himself for half a day.
She has her own bath tub at home, but her two older brothers used to help her carry it to her room and then help her fill and empty the tub.
She's not home now, and too lazy to do the work, so she used a wooden basin, soaked a cloth in it, and scrubbed herself.
I finally washed my hair.
After washing and drying my hair, I gathered it all up in front of me and went outside to lean against the wall to dry it.
She dozed off while sunbathing.
She dreamed of her mother.
Her mother's face was already blurry in her memory, but she knew she was beautiful.
She dreamt that her mother taught her to read and held her while she slept.
She dreamt of her mother's reluctant gaze as she looked at them before she died.
A tear rolled down Lu Qingqing's cheek, only to be dried by the sun.
Her mother died at the same time she went to another world, and neither of them saw her off on her final journey.
"Miss Qingqing... Miss Qingqing..."
The knocking on the door woke Lu Qingqing from her sorrowful dream.
Lu Qingqing washed her face again and went to open the door.
Xu Rui came in carrying a small iron pot.
"Xiao Zhang just stewed a pheasant, but it's too much for him to finish by himself. You can have some."
Lu Qingqing took a look and saw that there was indeed a lot, with chicken legs, chicken wings, and chicken breast, half a pot!
Xiao Zhang likes to eat chicken heads and chicken feet? Maybe he's hunted too much and is tired of eating meat!
She was really hungry right now!
Without standing on ceremony with Xu Rui, she set out two sets of bowls and chopsticks, saying, "Have some more!"
"Okay." Xu Rui's voice sounded pleased.
When I held the bowl with my left index finger, I retracted it and hid it.
Lu Qingqing picked up a chicken leg and took a big bite.
He frowned and said, "Xiao Zhang has really had a tough time. Is this how he's been eating all these years? He's turned perfectly good chickens into pig swill."
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