Poor thing: She Must Have Heard It.
The decision was made for several daughters-in-law at home to take turns delivering meals, and the first one to take the turn was Su Xiaoman. At lunchtime, Sun Mei stared at Su Xiaoman with a nose in the air several times, and also warned her several times.
“You can’t steal food. If I catch you…”
Su Xiaoman completely treated her words as if they were blowing in the wind.
“Here.”
Su Xiaoman carried the bamboo basket filled with food and walked out the door under the watchful eyes of Mrs. Xie, who thought to herself that a leopard can’t change its spots.
She was waiting for Su Xiaoman to make a fool of herself for Educated Youth Jiang.
Carrying the food, Su Xiaoman headed towards the mountain. The path she walked on was a narrow path along the field, almost only allowing one person to pass at a time, so she had to be careful as it was easy to slip.
After crossing several acres of paddy fields, Su Xiaoman climbed up a dirt slope with the bamboo basket in her hand, pulling herself up with a tree branch.
Upon reaching the top, she found several mulberry trees at the foot of the mountain. In April and May, they bore clusters of dark red mulberries, which were very sweet. Many children in the village liked to pick them, and in just a few days, they would be picked clean.
Mulberry trees were female mulberry trees, which could be used for raising silkworms. There were few people in Qinghe Brigade who raised silkworms, only a few from Linxian County who loved raising silkworms and had the skills for it.
Su Xiaoman picked a few mulberry leaves and rubbed her fingers over the texture of the leaves, suddenly remembering the silly things she had done in the past.
The former wealthy fake daughter, Su Xiaoman, had personally raised silkworms. In order to celebrate her mother’s birthday and to show her filial piety, she followed the master to learn and raised a batch of silkworms herself. The silkworms spun silk, which was woven into brocade. She made a set of clothes for her parents and younger brother, and also made herself a qipao.
However, in the end, she didn’t get anything good, but instead received a mocking remark:
– The one covered in luxurious silk is not a silkworm raiser.
These two lines of poetry were used to mock her for not living up to her status as a young lady, but instead willingly degrading herself to do manual labour.
Su Xiaoman casually covered the bamboo basket with a few mulberry leaves and continued on her way to where the members were working.
When she arrived, many people were sitting under the trees, resting in the shade. Some wore straw hats, some wrapped their heads in towels, and tools such as hoes and sickles were casually thrown on the ground. There were quite a few people coming to deliver food at this moment, and the aroma of food floated in the air.
Su Xiaoman greeted Su Big Brother, and then, without much effort, she spotted the dirty and dishevelled “Xie Dog” among the crowd. He was tall, with a proud stature and a scary thin frame. Old man Xie and his second and third sons were standing not far from him.
“Today you came to deliver food, huh?” Old man Xie squinted under the sunlight and nodded at her.
Su Xiaoman nodded and distributed the food she brought to the Xie family. She divided it very fairly, with the portions for the laborers being almost the same, without any noticeable differences. In the end, she left herself a small portion.
Old man Xie looked at the food in his bowl and nodded in satisfaction.
Xie’s third brother ate quietly, keeping his head down.
Xie’s second brother frowned at the two or three pieces of preserved meat in his bowl. No matter how they were distributed before, he used to get the most.
Xie Mingtu held the bowl of food in his hands. It was the first time he had received so much food, and there were even a few pieces of meat in it. Usually, he never got any meat in his bowl.
After distributing the meals, Su Xiaoman sat down next to Xie Mingtu, picked up her chopsticks, and ate. Although Xie’s sister-in-law wasn’t a great cook, at least today’s food didn’t have the stale taste like yesterday’s.
The pots and bowls were all cleaned.
She also took a piece of preserved meat for herself. Although it was salty and tough, it was at least meat, with a bit of oiliness. People in this era were all lacking in oil and craving for meat, and Su Xiaoman was no exception.
The Xie family’s preserved meat was extremely salty. After finishing eating, Su Xiaoman couldn’t help but feel thirsty. She placed her bowl aside and tilted her head back to drink from the bamboo tube filled with water.
After she finished drinking, she picked up the bowl again and found three more pieces of preserved meat inside, still with a mix of lean and fat.
Su Xiaoman was stunned for a moment, and then her gaze turned to Xie Gouzi, who was bowing his head and eating quietly. There was no need for further explanation; she knew where these pieces of meat had come from.
Su Xiaoman: “…”
She thought this kid was too silly. He was thin, with hardly any meat on his bones, yet he still gave her meat.
Su Xiaoman knew that Xie Mingtu definitely didn’t have any ambiguous feelings towards her at the moment. Giving her the meat was just an act of kindness from a “poor little guy.”
Su Xiaoman wanted to give back the pieces of meat to him, but she felt bad about rejecting his kindness.
This antagonist, who hadn’t turned bad yet, was truly simple and kind.
He was only seventeen or eighteen years old, just reached adulthood not long ago. If placed decades later, at his age, he would just be a freshman in college.
Su Xiaoman’s lips twitched as she picked up her chopsticks and ate the pieces of meat. She felt that in the future, she could treat Xie Gouzi as a younger brother. Just like Chunjuan, although he looked unkempt and rustic on the outside, his kindness towards her was genuine.
Xie Second Brother held his bowl of food, feeling very dissatisfied. He couldn’t help but take a few more glances at Su Xiaoman.
At first, he was disgusted by this fifth daughter-in-law, thinking she was troublesome. But after taking a few more glances, he realized that Su Xiaoman was actually very beautiful.
Slim waist and ample buttocks.
He swallowed his saliva and discreetly kept his gaze on her.
At noon, besides the bit of wax meat, there was only green vegetables and tofu soup. Eldest Mrs. Xie’s cooking skills were exceptionally poor. The tofu soup was very unappetizing, or perhaps the tofu itself was of poor quality, emitting a strong bean smell.
Halfway through the meal, Su Xiaoman couldn’t eat anymore. She would rather drink some rice soup, which at least was sweet.
The hard and unappetizing sweet potato rice and tofu soup were still half full, and she didn’t know how to deal with them. If she took them back, Sun Mei would probably make her save them for dinner. Su Xiaoman absolutely couldn’t eat them. If she threw them away, it would be too shameful to waste food in this era.
Su Xiaoman nudged Xie Mingtu’s arm. “I’ll give you half of the food. I haven’t touched that half, and I don’t want it. I’ve lost my appetite.”
Xie Mingtu, sitting beside her, knew that she was finding it very difficult to eat. Without saying a word, he took away the other half of the food.
Xie Mingtu knew that she definitely didn’t eat this kind of food at the Su family’s house.
Seeing him obediently following her instructions, Su Xiaoman couldn’t help but feel like she was feeding a pig with bran. Although the “pig” seemed to be enjoying the food and wasn’t picky, she felt extremely guilty.
Thinking that Xie Mingtu had never had a piece of meat to himself since he was young, and now that he finally got some, he didn’t complain and just ate “pig food” obediently…
He was really pitiful.
“Have you shared a meal with anyone else?”
“No.”
Xie Mingtu ate his food with his head down, thinking who wouldn’t want to eat everything themselves, let alone leave some for a second person.
He ate quickly, and soon finished his food. Su Xiaoman estimated that he was still not full.
At Xie Gouzi’s age, it was the time when his appetite was big.
“The comb on the table, did you bring it? Thank you.” Because of what happened just now, Su Xiaoman felt a little embarrassed and found it awkward, so she chatted with him to break the silence.
Xie Mingtu kept his head low and softly responded with a “yeah,” his voice artificially stable with a subtle upward inflection.
Observing him with her chin resting on her hand, Su Xiaoman couldn’t help but ponder the descriptions from the novels again… of the dark, handsome man.
The darkness wasn’t evident at the moment, but there was a slight resemblance to the image of a pitiable victim of bullying.
As for being handsome…
After imagining how Xie Gouzi might look cleaned up, Su Xiaoman was indeed very curious.
The noon sunlight was just right, and Su Xiaoman observed closely. She noticed that Xie Mingtu had a high nose bridge, long eyelashes, and despite his unkempt appearance, his bone structure was exquisite. The Adam’s apple on his neck protruded slightly, and due to his thinness, his collarbones were particularly defined.
Xie Mingtu had a pair of very beautiful peach blossom eyes, but he always kept his head down, not letting anyone see those eyes.
Su Xiaoman: “…”
After staring at Xie Mingtu for a while, Su Xiaoman began to doubt whether she was being too subjective. How could she see a shadow of a handsome guy from this unkempt, scruffy guy in front of her?
If he really was a handsome man, did he intentionally present himself like this, or for what reason?
Su Xiaoman’s curiosity grew even more.
But she was an exceptionally odd person. The more curious she was, the more she could resist the urge to investigate.
If it were someone else, they might have already pushed Xie Gouzi into the water for a bath, cut his hair, shaved his beard, just to see what he really looked like. But Su Xiaoman wouldn’t do that.
She didn’t want to know the truth too soon.
Xie Mingtu kept his head down, unable to ignore the gaze that was fixated on him. His hands and feet were stiff, and he dared not move at all. If he lifted his eyes slightly, he could catch a glimpse of the woman’s snow-white neck.
He dared not lift his head again, and his cheeks blushed unconsciously. Fortunately, the scruff on his face covered it up, so no one noticed.
Xie Mingtu was stiff as a stone. He would rather Su Xiaoman, this woman, still treated him like she did a few days ago, either with mockery or disdain, rather than staring at him like this.
…Clearly, she used to stare at another man like that.
“Educated Youth Jiang, Educated Youth Jiang! Educated Youth Lin! Come over here!”
“Come and get something!”
Hearing these calls, Xie Mingtu blinked and looked up to see a group of people approaching.
The one leading the group was indeed Educated Youth Jiang.
Xie Mingtu’s heart sank, and something seemed to be settling in his pitch-black eyes.
The young workers were coming here to pick up tools under the trees, coincidentally where Xie Mingtu and Su Xiaoman were seated. It was unclear whether the person distributing the tools did it intentionally, but Liu Laizi called out several times, and many people looked over with curious eyes.
Just a few days ago, Su Xiaoman was still pestering Educated Youth Jiang. After finally getting some rest, encountering Su Xiaoman again today, it was initially expected that she would come over and cause trouble. However, she sat quietly near the Xie family without even approaching Educated Youth Jiang.
Hadn’t she noticed that Educated Youth Jiang was also here today?
Now that Liu Laizi had called out several times, she must have heard.
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