Chapter 19: Scheming
“They wanted to take the opportunity to extort something else. I played dumb and muddled through, didn’t take their bait, and even brought the things back, so they didn’t get any advantage at all.”
Su Yaoguang spoke, lifting her sweet little face, waiting for Zhaodi to praise her.
A smile appeared on Zhaodi’s haggard face, and she poked her forehead: “You’re the clever one.”
Su Yaoguang rolled up her sleeves and said, “Leave this to me. Mom, you go rest first. I’ll call you when dinner is ready.”
“Your hands are full of wounds. Go apply medicine first. Although we got a wild boar today, I don’t want this kind of thing to happen again. It’s too scary and too dangerous.”
“This kind of thing won’t happen often. If it could happen often, Wangshu and I wouldn’t do anything else, just stay on that mountain waiting for wild boars to appear, then kill wild boars and sell them every day.”
Zhaodi was amused by her.
With her smile, the harsh appearance shaped by life became much gentler.
“Mom, let me handle it. Wild boar meat has a strong gamey smell, but I have a special secret recipe that can turn it into something delicious. Just wait and see. Watch me show off my skills for you.”
“Alright then, you do it.” Zhaodi untied the apron made from cut-up old clothes.
She didn’t go back to the room to rest, but sat in front of the stove tending the fire.
The sound of chopping wood came from the courtyard. Clearly, Zhou Wangshu was chopping wood there.
Zhaodi said, “This Wangshu is indeed diligent, just a bit weak in body. Once we earn money from this batch of cosmetics, we’ll buy more good food to nourish him. He’s still young now. As long as we take good care of him, he’ll definitely grow stronger and sturdier later. Daughter, men still need to be sturdy. Otherwise, if a gust of wind blows and he falls over, how can he become the pillar of the family?”
“Mom doesn’t dislike him anymore?”
“He still has a conscience, much better than many cowardly and fearful men.”
While speaking, Zhaodi saw Su Yaoguang marinating the meat with some herbs and asked, “Can you eat these things? These are medicines!”
“Mom, these are all warming and tonifying medicines that can remove the gamey smell from the wild boar meat. Eat them with confidence; they’re only good for the body and have no harm.”
Zhaodi was busy taking on work and often left Su Yaoguang alone at home for days at a time. It was like this when Su Yaoguang was little, and even more frequent after she grew up. Some more particular masters would even take her over to wait for the mistress of the house to give birth, staying for one or two months. She could only spend some money to have the auntie next door help look after Yaoguang a bit.
Zhaodi looked at her diligent and capable daughter, as if meeting her for the first time. No matter how she looked, she couldn’t get enough. She felt she owed her daughter too much, but the daughter never complained about her.
If Su Yaoguang knew what Zhaodi said, she would definitely feel ashamed. In her previous life, she had complained at first and also desperately craved companionship, so she clung to Xiao Yanci like a lifeline. When Xiao Yanci was slightly gentle with her, she wished she could dig out her heart for him. When Xiao Yanci showed any dissatisfaction, she tried every way to please him.
But now, Su Yaoguang had a fifteen-year-old body but a thirty-year-old soul. She had seen too much, lost too much, and knew even more clearly what she should cherish most.
“Dinner’s ready.” Su Yaoguang shouted toward the courtyard. “Wangshu, come wash your hands and eat.”
Zhou Wangshu washed his hands and came in to help. He saw that Su Yaoguang had not only made braised pork today, but also twice-cooked pork.
While serving white rice, Zhaodi said heartbrokenly, “Daughter, you eat so much meat in one meal, and still eat white rice. How are we supposed to get by like this?”
“Such good meat naturally has to be paired with white rice.” Su Yaoguang said, “Mom, don’t worry. In a few days, we’ll be able to earn money.”
“It’s not certain if the things will sell or not, so we still need to be frugal.” Zhaodi said, “But selling this wild boar today will bring in one or two taels of silver! We can catch our breath now.”
Dinner was delicious. Zhou Wangshu always ate refinedly, but today he couldn’t help eating a few more bites of braised pork.
Zhaodi picked some meat for Zhou Wangshu.
Zhou Wangshu looked at Zhaodi gratefully: “Thank you, auntie.”
Zhaodi had felt a bit awkward at first, but stared at by those eyes, a flood of maternal love suddenly surged up.
She picked a few more pieces and said, “Eat more. This frame of yours is too thin; you must nourish it well.”
“Auntie, you’re so good to me.” Zhou Wangshu’s eyes reddened. “No one has ever been as good to me as you and Yaoguang.”
Zhaodi looked at Zhou Wangshu heartbrokenly: “Poor child, this is your home from now on. Yaoguang and I are your family. Whatever we eat, you eat. We won’t let you feel aggrieved.”
It was extremely warm here for Su Yaoguang, but Second Uncle Su was fuming over there.
Not only did they not get to eat the wild boar meat, they also got a reputation for bullying a widow and her niece. Most importantly, he felt Su Yaoguang had changed, become uncontrollable and hard to manage.
“We need to quickly get that stinky girl Su Yaoguang over to be Mutou’s daughter-in-law. Otherwise, if she keeps opposing us like this every day, we won’t be able to live like this.” Second Aunt Su said angrily.
“Doesn’t Su Yaoguang already have a little husband? If we get her to be Mutou’s daughter-in-law, everyone in the village will point at our backs.” Grandpa Su, who didn’t manage things, said.
“That little husband of hers was seriously injured before, and now he looks recovered, but he’s still young. They haven’t held a wedding banquet or written a marriage certificate, so they definitely haven’t consummated yet. We can only take action before they hold the wedding banquet. If they hold the banquet and write the certificate, then it’ll really be too late.” Second Uncle Su said viciously, “Tomorrow I’ll go pick up Mutou.”
“What are you picking up Mutou for?” Second Aunt Su’s expression was ugly. “He’s an idiot. If we bring him over, we’ll have to serve him.”
“Have little sister come over too.” Second Uncle Su said, “We’ve racked our brains over his son’s marriage engagement. As his mom, she has to do something.”
The Su family great-granddaughter, that is, Su Guilan, had only this one idiot son and was still waiting for him to carry on the family line. Her man was honest and simple-minded, tightly controlled by her. Over the years, the couple had saved some money, planning to use it as betrothal gift to marry a daughter-in-law for their son. The first target was Su Yaoguang—after all, this girl had no father and was easy to control.
“I want to eat meat, I want to eat meat…” Su family treasure Su Dabao stomped his feet and wailed. “Little Chun’s family is eating meat, Huaqiang’s family is also eating meat, only I didn’t get any meat.”
“Alright, Dabao be good. Tomorrow grandma will find meat for you to eat.” Grandma Su comforted him heartbrokenly. “It’s all that cheap girl Su Yaoguang’s fault. She got such a big wild boar and didn’t even show filial respect by bringing some over for grandpa and grandma. Bringing that little bit earlier was like dismissing beggars? Money-losing goods. Sure enough, raising her was useless. She doesn’t care at all about her own family.”
“Once she marries Mutou, we’ll have little sister clean her up every day and teach her how to show filial respect to elders.” Second Aunt Su seemed to already see Su Yaoguang being ridden and beaten by an idiot, her eyes full of schadenfreude.
