Sister-in-law: You Better Hurry Home and Take a Look.
The next day, Su Xiaoman woke up early with the thought of going home on her mind. She decided to get up quickly and sew a cloth bag for her mother, representing her filial piety. Su Xiaoman currently had nothing valuable, so she could only express her filial piety with handmade items.
As she prepared to visit her family, Su Xiaoman wanted to bring something meaningful back, not empty-handed.
In the past, Su Xiaoman had some embroidery skills, and she had put effort into needlework. She had previously sewn a money bag for Educated Youth Jiang, embroidering a neat and beautiful “Jiang” character on it. Another Su Xiaoman had earnestly learned Su embroidery.
Su Xiaoman dressed neatly and tied her hair into a tidy braid. Before she could find her needle and thread, she noticed a bamboo basket on the table covered with a layer of white gauze, indicating that there were many items inside.
Looking around, she didn’t see anything else, and yesterday’s honey was also gone.
Su Xiaoman lifted the white gauze and saw what was inside the bamboo basket. There were plenty of fresh wild fruits, freshly picked from the mountain, including wild pomegranates and wild pears. Su Xiaoman had eaten these fruits yesterday, and they were very sweet. The fruits seemed to have been washed already, with clean skins and alluring red pomegranates.
On the right side of the basket were the washed wild fruits and honey, while on the left was a piece of dried rabbit meat.
Su Xiaoman was shocked: “!!! ???”
Rabbit meat?!
She carefully inspected it and found that it was indeed genuine dried rabbit meat.
Su Xiaoman was extremely surprised. If the wild fruits were picked by Xie Mingtu early in the morning, then this rabbit meat??
Could it also be that he caught a wild rabbit?
But wouldn’t it take some time to dry wild rabbit meat?
Su Xiaoman: “…”
Su Xiaoman’s mind was a bit blank. Could this rabbit meat be secretly stored by the “honest and pitiful” Xie Gouzi?
It made sense. Even if he was honest, if he couldn’t eat enough at home and couldn’t keep warm, with his mother’s favouritism, after finally catching a wild rabbit in the mountains, of course, he would hide it to eat secretly.
If it were Su Xiaoman, she would probably do the same.
Yesterday, when she mentioned that she was going home and couldn’t return empty-handed, was he afraid of causing her trouble, so he generously offered his privately stored rabbit meat??
Could it be that he’s really… honest and naive?
Su Xiaoman was a bit puzzled about Xie Mingtu’s mindset. Based on his previous actions, Xie Mingtu definitely didn’t treat her as a wife, even though they slept on the same bed and he never made any inappropriate advances.
There was no hint of ambiguity between them.
Before, Su Xiaoman had despised and humiliated him, yet he still took care of her when she was sick, even cooked rice soup for her. And now, he was giving her wild fruits and rabbit meat. What did he want from her?
Yet he didn’t show any signs of lecherous behaviour towards her, so there was nothing she had that he could be after.
Was it because Xie Gouzi was just a genuinely good person?
A pure-hearted person who hadn’t been corrupted?
Looking at the rabbit meat in the bamboo basket, Su Xiaoman felt confused. She didn’t know whether to accept Xie Mingtu’s kindness. If she rejected him now, would he feel rejected…?
On the night the roof leaked, Su Xiaoman had let him share her bed, but she knew that he had secretly slept on the hay.
This was also why Su Xiaoman trusted him so much. Xie Gouzi was very well-behaved and never took advantage of her.
But thinking of Xie Mingtu’s thin body curled up by the straw, Su Xiaoman felt particularly uncomfortable.
Although she couldn’t be his true wife, she could be nicer to him in the future. They could be friends.
Su Xiaoman made a crossbody bag, embroidered with a pomegranate flower on it. Then, carrying the bamboo basket prepared by Xie Mingtu, she covered it with the newly made cloth bag. Especially for the rabbit meat inside, she wrapped it in another layer of paper.
It was tightly covered, and others couldn’t see what was inside.
Unexpectedly, before she could leave the Xie family’s door, she encountered Sun Mei, who wanted to cause trouble for her. Sun Mei reached out to lift the bamboo basket. “What’s inside? Where are you going?”
Su Xiaoman deftly dodged and covered the basket, not letting her open it. “I’m going out for a while, that’s all.”
“Where are you going? Are you secretly going back to your mother’s house? What’s inside? Are you going to take things from our Xie family?”
“You stop, what are you hiding inside?”
Su Xiaoman stopped and showed Sun Mei the side of the bag with the pattern. “I am indeed going back to my mother’s house. A few days ago, my family sent fish soup and a piece of brown sugar for me through my brother. Today, when I go back, shouldn’t you prepare some sugar and pastries for me to bring back to my parents and brother?”
Sun Mei glared at her. “You go back to your mother’s house. There’s no sugar here. I didn’t see the sugar your family sent.”
“Then I’ll be going.”
“Wait a minute, you’re taking things from our Xie family.” In the chase, Sun Mei had already seen the wild pear that Su Xiaoman had shaken out. She quickly reached out, grabbed one, and bit into it directly.
This wild pear was intentionally shaken out by Su Xiaoman to show Sun Mei.
“What can your Xie family have? The house is empty.” Su Xiaoman quickened her pace and left the Xie family’s courtyard.
Sun Mei didn’t chase her anymore. She didn’t dare to stop Su Xiaoman either. She just wanted to see if she could take advantage. If there were sugar and peanuts or something like that in the bamboo basket, she would grab some and run.
As a result, there were only wild fruits inside, and Sun Mei took a wild pear, losing interest in causing trouble.
“Ugh, it’s just a rotten pear.” Sun Mei cursed as she walked back home.
When she had bitten into the pear just now, her teeth had bitten down hard, causing her teeth to hurt. Sun Mei held her face and winced in pain.
Su Xiaoman, carrying the bamboo basket, chuckled softly.
The two wild pears left over from last night had already begun to soften and deflate a bit in the morning. Su Xiaoman deliberately placed them in the corner to prevent others from asking what was inside the bamboo basket.
When Su Xiaoman arrived at the Su family’s house, her parents weren’t home, and her brothers weren’t there either. Only her sister-in-law, Yang Yingzi, was at home sewing clothes. As soon as Yang Yingzi saw Su Xiaoman come in, she rolled her eyes.
She was different from the other people in the Su family and looked down on Su Xiaoman, her younger sister-in-law.
“Some people really know how to pick their timing. It’s almost noon now, and they come visiting at this time, obviously just to freeload a meal.”
“People with shame wouldn’t visit at this time.”
Su Xiaoman didn’t pay much attention. In her impression, this sister-in-law was quite nice at first and had a good relationship with her eldest brother. It was just that Su Xiaoman had looked down on her before and had rubbed her the wrong way, which angered her.
This time, Su Xiaoman didn’t come to quarrel with the Su family or act like an arrogant younger sister-in-law. She didn’t want to disturb the peace of her brother’s family. It would be best to turn her sister-in-law into a friend.
“Sister-in-law, I’m back to see mom and dad.” Su Xiaoman put down the basket and smiled at Yang Yingzi.
Yang Yingzi was stunned. This younger sister-in-law, who had never shown her any respect before, was now showing her a friendly face. This made her unsure of how to respond.
It was true that you shouldn’t bite the hand that feeds you.
“Just because I brought something back.” Su sister-in-law glanced at her. “Sit down. Mom will be back soon, but dad and the others won’t be back until noon.”
Su Xiaoman sat down, and Yang Yingzi got up to pour her a glass of sweet water. Su Xiaoman noticed that Su sister-in-law had been sewing and seemed to be embroidering something. When she took a closer look, Yang Yingzi’s embroidery was a mess.
Su Xiaoman: “…”
Su sister-in-law blushed a bit. Her needlework was very poor. One of her sisters from her natal family had just given birth to a baby, so she wanted to make a small garment to send over. Baby clothes didn’t require much fabric, and she had some leftover scraps from when she got married, which were just right.
Seeing Su Xiaoman’s gaze fixed on the “spider web” she was embroidering, Su sister-in-law became angry and embarrassed. “What are you looking at, Xiaoman?”
“You think you’re so good, huh?”
As soon as she finished speaking, Yang Yingzi noticed the cloth bag covering the bamboo basket. The delicate and beautiful pomegranate flower on it made Su sister-in-law’s mind explode. This younger sister-in-law of hers might be a bit of a snob, but she was undeniably beautiful, and her needlework wasn’t bad either.
She had seen Su Xiaoman sewing a money pouch for Educated Youth Jiang before. It was done quite neatly, slightly better than hers. Later, she heard that Su Xiaoman was practicing needlework and cooking seriously to become a virtuous wife for Educated Youth Jiang.
She didn’t expect that in such a short time, she could embroider such a beautiful pattern?
—She didn’t believe it!
“Xiaoman?” Su sister-in-law pointed at the pattern on the cloth bag. “Did you embroider this?”
Su Xiaoman nodded. “Yes, I did. Sister-in-law, are you embroidering a pattern too?”
Su sister-in-law: “…Yes.”
Barely.
Su sister-in-law didn’t really believe that Su Xiaoman had embroidered it. “Xiaoman, did you really embroider this? Can you help me embroider the same pattern on this garment? Exactly the same.”
As Liu Shufeng, the head of the Women’s Association, rushed home, she was stopped by a middle-aged woman as soon as she reached her yard.
“Shufeng, you need to hurry home and see.”
Liu Shufeng: “What? What happened?”
“I just heard San Ya say that your Xiaoman is back home, and now only her sister-in-law is at home, right?”
“Oh no.” Liu Shufeng exclaimed and didn’t say anything else. She quickened her pace and hurried home.
Su Xiaoman had a bad temper and was currently unhappy with the family. Yang Yingzi also had many grievances against Su Xiaoman.
Now, with these two sisters-in-law under the same roof and no one else to mediate, it was like gunpowder meeting a spark, ready to explode at any moment.
If they started fighting, it would be a big deal.
“Shufeng, slow down. Wait for me, I’ll come with you to take a look.”
The middle-aged woman hurriedly followed behind Liu Shufeng.
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