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Ger Yan’s sister-in-law, Song Qiao’er, pushed open the wooden door and walked inside. Song Qiao’er was a tall woman with thick arms and waist. She wore a gray cotton jacket. From the eyes of an ordinary person, or at least from Lin Lixuan’s eyes, she wasn’t ugly. Song Qiao’er had good facial features. Her round face was healthy and vibrant, and she loved to laugh. When she laughed, she revealed two rows of small sharp and neat white teeth. Compared with her strong figure, her teeth were the most delicate part of her.
She showed a mouthful of small white teeth and happily greeted Ger Yan and Lin Lixuan. Li Yue’e beckoned her daughter-in-law to sit down to rest for a while. “You don’t have to bother with those prey. Rest for a while.”
“Ah, okay.” When Song Qiao’er smiled, you couldn’t see her eyes. Her eyes were already small and it turned into a slit when she smiled. She picked up a wooden bench that had fallen to the ground. This small wooden bench was made of three wooden planks, and the two load-bearing planks were already uneven. The stool wasn’t stable. Li Yue’e saw her take the wooden stool and reminded her, “Don’t sit on this stool. It’s unstable. You have to take care of your body.”
“It’s fine. I’m strong. I won’t fall. I’m used to sitting on it.” Song Qiao’er used her rough index finger to pull her fallen hair from her forehead and pushed it behind her ear. “Don’t treat me like I’m Ger Yu… Ger Yu, does it still hurt from when you fell a few days ago…”
“…” Ger Yu opened his round and dark eyes and shook his head silently. He was used to falling. Squatting on the ground, he patted his butt and stood up silently.
Li Yue’e shook her head. “How can that be…”
Lin Lixuan stood up. “Sit here.”
“No, no. Son-in-law, you sit. I’ll go grab a stool,” Li Yue’e couldn’t help but say, then turned around and brought over a stable chair with four legs.
When Song Qiao’er walked in, she didn’t even glance at Ji Qian, who was leisurely swallowing melon seeds and pinching the seeds with his slender fingers and threw the seed shell to the ground by the table. “Qiao’Er, pour me a glass of water…”
“Okay.” Song Qiao’er got up to get the kettle and tested the temperature of the water with her hands. “It’s a bit cold. I’ll go warm it up.” On such a cold day, it was easy for the water to get cold. Cold water would make your stomach uncomfortable.
Li Yue’e just returned with a stool. “Why are you heading out again?”
…
Lin Lixuan was shy and waited for Ger Yan to finish speaking with her mother. After sitting for more than half an hour, Ger Yan said that he was heading home. When she heard they were leaving, Song Qiao’er took the initiative to give them a rabbit to take back. “My father sent over a lot of prey. You should take a rabbit back…”
Song Qiao’er Song Qiao’er grabbed the rabbit. Lin Lixuan leaned into Ger Yan and whispered a few words to him. Ger Yan nodded his small face and went to the utility room to talk to his sister-in-law.
The words Lin Lixuan wanted Ger Yan to say to his sister-in-law didn’t have much meaning. He just wanted to let her know that now she was pregnant, she could be “delicate and frail”. Even if she quarreled with Ji Qian, Ji Youcai and his wife would definitely be on her side…
Song Qiao’er was scared of fighting with Ji Qian. She loved Ji Qian. As long as Ji Qian’s words weren’t too harsh, she would endure it. She was a diligent woman who couldn’t stay still. She would take the initiative to help out around the house. She would give Ji Qian whatever he wanted. Besides her lacking appearance, she took care of Ji Qian in every way.
“Sister-in-law, you’re pregnant now. You can have your brother do a lot more…”
Song Qiao’er pondered Ger Yan’s words. Although she was a woman, her way of thinking had been similar to a man’s since she was young. She had always been self-reliant and unwilling to be taken care of. However, she took Ger Yan’s words to heart. She also thought it would be a good idea to act weak in front of the person she liked. She wanted to be cherished by him.
Her appearance wasn’t good, so how could she have the face to act like that, but now… The people around her encouraged her. Song Qiao’er decided to give this method a try. Afterwards, she would find little things for Ji Qian to help her with, but Ji Qian would refuse. She didn’t fight with him and would only speak out how this place and that place hurt.
Song Qiao’er happily watched the other party work hard for herself. Ji Qian could only admit defeat. His parents also thought he should do these things. Eldest Ji’s wife thought that he was starting a family. They were about to hold their grandchildren, so they couldn’t continue treating their son like a child.
Lin Lixuan secretly suggested they could use a fierce woman from a neighboring village to set an example. Have her make contact with Ji Qian, then go to their house to cause a fuss and cause a fight. Afterwards, the Shuang’ers and women would definitely avoid Ji Qian in the future. You couldn’t clap with one hand. If he couldn’t find another one to tango with, then Ji Qian would have to go solo.
In Jade Creek Village, Ji Qian already had a bad reputation. Some of the beautiful girls avoided him and didn’t want to interact with him. Later on, even the middle-aged women ran away from him, looking as if they’d seen a ghost and leaving the area like lightning had just struck.
Ji Qian’s days of suffering were behind him. Lin Lixuan and Ger Yan took the drying rabbit on the iron hook and returned to the Lin residence hand-in-hand.
“Sister-in-law Qiao’Er is very good, so why doesn’t my brother like her…” Ger Yan carried the rabbit meat. The wind was a bit strong, blowing his hair all over the place.
“Feelings need to be cultivated. Maybe in a few months, your brother will like her…” Lin Lixuan laughed for a bit. He thought the idea the Ji family’s second aunt gave to Eldest Ji’s wife was a good one. Ji Qian, being that kind of person, it was best for him to marry a powerful wife. If she wasn’t powerful enough, he wouldn’t be able to be controlled.
Ger Yan nodded, feeling that Lin Lixuan was correct. He looked at the other party’s smiling eyes. He liked him so much he couldn’t help but look a little longer.
“Your hair is a mess.” Lin Lixuan did Ger Yan’s hair himself. It looked good on the surface, but it was loose and unstable on the inside. When Ger Yan heard his words, he hurriedly grabbed his hairpin.
Lin Lixuan stopped him. “Don’t use your hands. It’s oily.” Ger Yan was carrying in the rabbit, so his hands were stained with ash and oil. Lin Lixuan simply brushed back his hair and combed it with his hands. Ger Yan stood obediently and let him take care of it. He’d never cared about his image, even as a kid. He often appeared unkempt, but in front of Lin Lixuan, he didn’t want to be like that.
“I’ll help you fix it when we get back. The wind is too strong right now.”
“Mn. Let’s eat rabbit tonight.”
Lin Lixuan glanced at the stiff corpse that was half shaved. It was black and if it weren’t for Ger Yan and Song Qiao’er saying that it was a rabbit, he wouldn’t have connected this with those white velvet rabbits with two long ears and red eyes. He didn’t know they looked like this when skinned.
Speaking of rabbit meat, Ger Yan remembered that they were slaughtering pigs soon. “They might slaughter the pigs next to the osmanthus tree tomorrow. It should be very lively. Should we go take a look?”
Lin Lixuan had never seen pigs being killed before. “Of course we should. We also bought forty to fifty catties of meat…”
When they returned to the Lin residence, Zhao Liniang hurriedly took the rabbit and took it to the kitchen. As she worked, she asked about the situation in the Ji family. After learning that it had nothing to do with Eldest Ji, she commented that she hadn’t eaten rabbit meat in a long time. She wanted to fry it together with the taro they dug up a while ago. The taro was peeled, then the purple flesh was cut into cubes. The taro was purple and white. The knife flew down, and the juice flowed. Their family wasn’t short o f oil or meat now, so Lin Lixuan proposed to try the taro first, then cook it with the rabbit meat.
The diced taro sizzled in the oil. When stir-frying, the burst of aroma spread through the room, causing the people inside to turn their heads to it. After being fried together with the rabbit meat, the flavor became even more attractive. Their close neighbors even smelled it and became curious about what the Lin residence was doing. The smell was so strong and fragrant.
Old Lady Ge pushed her husband. “Hey, what do you think Sister Zhao’s family is doing? Why does it smell so good?” They rarely used that much oil for their cooking. Most things were boiled, so how could they do something so extravagant.
Old Man Ge swallowed his saliva. “Who knows… You have a good relationship with Zhao Liniang, should should head over and ask…”
“I can’t do that. I don’t have the face to do that.”
The newly cooked fried rabbit meat was crispy and delicious. Lin Lixuan sandwiched it with a piece of taro and put it in his mouth. He commented, “I’ll say, it’s better with more oil. Ger Yan is good at cooking, but he’s reluctant to use more oil.” This time Lin Lixuan held the oil jar as he watched Ger Yan continue to fry the food. When he found a moment, he added more oil into the pot.
“It’s delicious, but…it wastes too much oil.” Ger Yan sandwiched another plate of vegetables that had been stir-fried. The leaves were verdant, shining under the candlelight. There was visible oil residue on the plate. It was such a waste to eat like this!
“It’ll be too greasy if we eat it often, but once in a while is okay.” Since it was the end of the year, Zhao Liniang didn’t feel sorry about the money anymore. Lin Lixuan wasn’t going to study or take the imperial examination next year, so she didn’t know what to spend the money on even if she did save it. She’d given up on that front, so they should just eat it like this.
Lin Lixuan picked up some rabbit meat for Ger Yan and Zhao Liniang. “Did you hear that, Ger Yan? Mother has spoken. You should use more oil when cooking in the future.”
“Okay…” Ger Yan silently cooked. Compared to other people, the Lin family used enough oil and water. They even put extra oil… Ger Yan had no choice but to stay silent.
“You had us eat meat, but why are you staring at the taro for yourself?”
“I like eating these.” The fried taro was crispy on the outside and fragrant on the inside. Mixed with the umami of the rabbit meat, it was so delicious that it made people want to stuff themselves.
“Then we should plant more next year…” Zhao Liniang’s vegetable garden was messy and planted many different things.
“We grew these ourselves?” Lin Lixuan was surprised. He thought they had dug them up in the mountains.
“How else? It fell from the sky? You should come to the vegetable garden and take a look one of these days.” The Lin family had a piece of dry land at the foot of the mountains. It was used to grow vegetables.
They say villagers were poor, but in reality, the ground was full of treasures. But it was a shame most people didn’t cook it properly, so it was impossible to bring out their true deliciousness. Adding on the fact that the risk of farming was too high. If they were able to eat, all relied on the heavens. If they had a bad year, their yields wouldn’t be enough to feed them.
The next afternoon, the villagers slaughtered the pigs.
