The room fell silent as soon as these words were spoken.
"Mrs. Zhou hasn't seen her sister-in-law for many days, and seeing Mrs. He wholeheartedly helping today, she forgot about it at first, but now she can't stand it anymore. The fifth child said that, after they went out to talk alone, he told her he already had a sweetheart, but his mother did not agree."
Mrs. He was surprised. "Really?"
"We all know this," Mrs. Zhou sighed. "This must not be brought up in the future.”
"Such treachery. I have to ask her what she means." Mrs. He was annoyed. "I told her it was my niece, I didn't think she could still hide this from me. Isn't this harmful?"
Mrs. Zhou waved her hand hurriedly. "You should not bring up this matter. It will be the girl's family who’ll suffer from it. We’ll stay away from him in the future, otherwise, it’ll be uncomfortable."
Mrs. He apologized several times, embarrassed. "I really didn’t know about this, or else I wouldn’t have brought him to your house."
"I know you have no bad intentions. I have been troubled by making you care for my children. Thanks for all the help over the years." Mrs. Zhou smiled. "Today we're eating meat, so don't worry about these unhappy things."
There was indeed meat to eat, and Li Qinghe had deliberately set aside a dozen catties to eat by themselves. Because there were so many people today, she cut a large piece out, killed the pig, and had a good meal.
After that, everyone tacitly stopped mentioning He Hoe. For a farmer's family, eating meat like this was very rare. Zhou Chengkang had also bought some wine on purpose, and everyone who ate was very content.
It was already noon when the people were sent off. And now, since it was almost winter, it was getting dark early, and it was foggy and cold. They stood at the door to say goodbye to the Zhou family and Mrs. He. Zhou Chengkang took her in and said, "Go back and rest."
Li Qinghe shook her head and pointed at the offals in the corner of the courtyard. "No, those things need to be cleaned."
For such a large pig, there were many things to that could be removed, which would all be washed out to eat. It wouldn't be delicious if the internal organs weren’t well prepared.
"I’ll wash them." Zhou Chengkang pushed her inside with a smile. He asked, "Should we also send some to Father?"
In the end, they both washed them together. It didn't matter what work they did, they felt less tired and could talk without feeling annoyed. By the time they finished, it was already dark outside.
At night, the candles were dimly lit, and they sat in front of the brazier. Li Qinghe held the needle and thread, and Zhou Chengkang sat opposite her. He began counting the silver and copper taels they had collected during the day. After counting, he smiled and looked at her.
Those eyes sparkled like stars. As Li Qinghe looked into his smiling eyes, she couldn't help but laugh.
"What are you thinking about?" She asked.
Zhou Chengkang returned to his senses. "Previously, I'd often thought that after we were married in a quiet house like this, with no one to disturb us, and I could feed you and provide warm clothes for you, it would be the best thing in the world."
Previously?
Li Qinghe suddenly remembered the lonely back that had guarded her tombstone in her previous life. Her heart soured slightly and she couldn't help but say, "We'll be fine in the future."
Zhou Chengkang got up, went to her, and hugged her. He said softly, "I feel like I’m in a dream, and I'm afraid to push myself too hard or I will wake up."
In reply, Li Qinghe stretched out and hugged his waist. "No, I'll always be with you."
"Qinghe." He called out softly and said, "Qinghe, let's have a baby."
Li Qinghe's eyes brightened gradually, and the smile on her face turned sweet. "Okay."
On the next morning, Li Qinghe was preparing to go to Li Fu and Mrs. Zhou's house with the pig blood. No one knew how to prepare pig blood, including the butcher. Yesterday, after killing the pig, she had prepared saltwater and put the pieces of pig blood in it. When it was cooked, it became blood tofu. Yesterday, when the Zhou family ate together, they used it to make soup. It tasted good, and they liked it.
Most of the pork was sold, and there wasn't much left, but there was so much pig blood that only two of them couldn't finish it all.
Zhou Chengkang delivered it to the Zhou family, and Li Qinghe delivered it to the Li family.
It was also worth mentioning that Hu Yanxi and Zhao Wanwan both stunned her. Whatever Li Fu asked them to do, they did whatever they could and muddled through, no matter how tired they were. The food was terrible, and even if one person ate half a bun only, they never complained and never raised the issue of leaving. Since they lived here and worked every day, Li Fu could relax a bit, and Mrs. Qian had also been recently detained, so being tipped-off was not possible.
She arrived at the house as breakfast was being prepared, and the smell of meat wafted through the air. Li Fu had purchased the meat yesterday. She refused the money, but he strongly insisted she accept.
When Zhao Wanwan saw her entering the courtyard, she was very happy. "Sister."
When Zhao Wanwan saw the pig blood in her hand, her eyes lit up. "Sister, is this edible?"
"It's edible." Li Qinghe brought it into the kitchen, explained the method to her in detail, and planned to go home.
When Li Fu heard the movements, he had already come out and asked, "What did you bring?"
"Pig blood." Li Qinghe looked inside and saw Hu Yanxi reading seriously from the book, while Mrs. Qian worked on the soles of the shoes. "There isn't much, so try some."
Seeing her walking out of the courtyard, Li Fu hurriedly said, "Come back later for lunch."
Li Qinghe didn't want to stay for lunch, and refused with a smile, "No, I'm going to visit Yan'er."
At this moment, Mrs. Qian walked to her with the soles of her shoes in her hand and asked mysteriously, "Qinghe, Miss Yu wouldn't really want to marry that man, would she? He is a beggar, he has no house, no food, no silver, not even clothes. A newborn child still has milk, but he is even poorer than a newborn child."
The remarks made by Mrs. Qian were also very reasonable.
The premise was that Yu Yan's craftsmanship was not a problem for her to support herself, and aside from that, a thousand taels of silver couldn’t buy a good heart. It was likely that no one could persuade her to change her decision if she was truly happy.
Li Qinghe left the house and went straight to the next door and outside. There was a young man with a slender body who was standing under a tree with his hands behind his back. This was the man Yu Yan had rescued.
On such a cold day, he stood outside, unfazed by the cold.
Seeing Li Qinghe enter the door, he smiled lightly. His eyebrows and eyes stretched, giving off the impression of warmth like jade, and seemed as delicate as pictures. He really looked good!
He took two steps forward, bowed his body, and said, "I heard from Miss Yu someone saved me with her that day. It should be you. I want to thank you, Little Sister-in-law, for saving my life."
As Li Qinghe heard him call her Little Sister-in-law, she immediately thought of the girl Xun'er who had come to search for Hu Yanxi. In Louyue Town, people usually didn’t refer to young women in such a way– they called them Sister or Elder Sister instead.
So, is this person from the county?
Li Qinghe smiled and said, "No need to thank me. Yan'er wanted to save you that day. Just thank her."
Hearing the movement, Yu Yan came out of the house and saw the person standing under the tree. Frowning, she said, "You aren't yet fully recovered, so be careful not to catch a cold again."
Then Li Qinghe saw that the man's fair face was gradually turning red.
Is he so shy?
Yu Yan looked at him with interest for several minutes, watching his face become even redder and brighter. Only then did she urge him again. "Go in and lie down, don't you know that you are weak?"
The man then bowed to Li Qinghe and went inside.
Yu Yan walked to her side, didn't invite her into the house, and did not say anything. Instead, she took her arm and started walking out of the yard. After she got outside, she said, "I want to buy land and build a house like you."
Hearing this, Li Qinghe was full of surprise. "Do you really want to marry him?"
Yu Yan glared at her, also a little shy. "I don't know him, and it's not just because of that."
She became depressed. "This house isn’t very big, and you also live far away, so you probably don't know some things. In the past, Godfather's nephew hoped that the house would be given to him in a hundred years; however, when my godmother rescued her, I also expressed my desire to help them in their retirement. It used to be okay before, and occasionally they prickled me with their words. Perhaps they still didn’t believe I would marry a son-in-law into the family. Now I have saved Min Rui… in any case, we’ve had several arguments, and my godmother is going through a hard time. I don't think they’re reliable, but the houses are separated by a yard. It's too close, and whenever I see people watching us all day, I feel annoyed."
"In any case, I’ll live comfortably and avoid the people I dislike. It's better to stay far away. Now that I have a lot of money saved up, I'll just buy some land, move further away from them, and have a bigger house. In the future, I will bring my godmother and godfather to live with me. The house will be locked, so they’ll have to run for half an hour if they don't want to be embarrassed. That should be much better."
In the end, she sneered. "In this weather, if they can still travel so far to sneer and point at Min Rui, I'll be convinced of their ability."
Li Qinghe laughed. She did hear before that the third aunt didn't get along with her sisters-in-law. She thought about it for a moment and replied, "There is still about two acres of land in the mountain behind me. That should be enough to build a house and a vegetable field. At first, I didn't have enough money to buy it all together. If I had, I would have bought it all together."
Upon hearing this, Yu Yan hurriedly said, "Show me. If possible, I will buy it from the village chief. Otherwise, it will be too late to regret it if someone else buys it."
Li Qinghe originally wanted to go to the Zhou's house but couldn't go there at the moment. Yu Yan dragged her to see the field. The wasteland was barren during winter, and they could see what was going on without looking very closely.
After looking at it, Yu Yan went to the village chief. The next morning, the official measured the land, and then she received the title deed.
It was faster than Li Qinghe's land purchase, and she didn't ask for any advice, so she handled it herself. It wasn't until the village people saw the official who measured the land that they found out Yu Yan had acquired the land.
On the very day she bought the land, someone knocked on the door of Li Qinghe's house, and the visitor was surprisingly Yang Lanrou.
It was the first time she had been back since Zhou Chengkang had fed the dogs the buns she had sent.