“Your mother… Jingshan’s mother said two days ago that she was going to the county town to redeem Jinglan. I wonder if you ran into her?” Facing this whole family whom he had driven out of the house, Lu Ping also felt somewhat awkward.
However, for the sake of his wife and daughter, he had no choice but to make this trip.
Lu Ping then looked at Lu Zimo: “Zimo, I heard you went after the people from Yingchun Brothel. Did you fail to catch up, or…”
At the mention of Lady Zhao, Lady Yang flew into a rage on the spot: “Lady Zhao is a wolf-hearted, ungrateful hag! My three boys fought with the people of Yingchun Brothel to save Jinglan, and Zifeng was even thrown into prison and injured. Yet Lady Zhao had the nerve to bring her maiden family members and nearly beat us to death!”
Lu Ping’s face turned pale.
Lady Zhao took her maiden family to the county town?
Lu Zifeng limped out, speaking in a sarcastic tone: “We can only blame our own stupidity. If we had known earlier that Lady Zhao sold her own daughter, why would we have been so self-important, getting ourselves thrown into jail and nearly becoming cripples!”
Lu Ping finally understood where the unease in his heart came from, and asked with great difficulty: “Then… do you know where Lady Zhao is now?”
“Lady Zhao made a scene at the inn, so naturally she was handed over to the government officials!” Lady Yang sneered.
The last sliver of hope in Lu Ping’s heart was extinguished.
This useless Lady Zhao, who could accomplish nothing but ruin everything!
Watching Lu Ping’s stooped back as he departed, Lu Jinghai felt a sense of discomfort in his heart.
“Father,” Lu Zimo seemed to sense his father’s mood, “Father, Second Uncle already lost his life for them, and you gave everything for them too. We no longer owe them anything!”
What father-son affection?
What grandfather-grandson bond?
It had long been worn away in his repeated tolerance toward Lady Zhao!
Lu Jinghai remained silent for a long time before finally letting out a long sigh: “Alright, let’s go up the mountain to chop timber.”
Lu Jinghai took Lu Zimo and Lu Zibin up the mountain to chop timber, while Yun Zhu and Lady Yang didn’t stay idle either, taking Lu Yiyi to the river to scoop sand and to the back mountain to dig yellow clay.
This was a unique advantage of Houtu Village; behind the village stood a mountain of yellow clay.
Yellow clay had great stickiness, so every household in the village built their walls using earth bricks made from the yellow clay of the back mountain.
The courtyard at the foot of the mountain was very large, but most of the walls were ruined. Repairing it was not much different from building a brand-new courtyard, which was why this courtyard had been abandoned for so long with no one living in it.
Yun Zhu truly didn’t want to use the stars as a blanket every night anymore. After discussing it with Lu Jinghai, she went to the village chief’s house to ask for his help in calling a few fellow villagers over to assist.
Early the next morning, eight men from the village arrived at the courtyard at the foot of the mountain.
It had to be said that the village chief was very reliable in doing things—the few villagers he called over were all people who were usually close with Lu Jinghai.
The men worked extremely hard. Yun Zhu and Lady Yang saw all of this, and for both lunch and dinner, they cooked coarse rice for them, with one meat dish, one vegetable dish, and a clear soup.
“Eating solid food for lunch is fine, but there’s no need to make dinner so grand—just cooking some vegetable porridge will do,” several of the villagers who came to help said to Lu Jinghai’s family with embarrassment during dinner.
According to village customs, helping fellow villagers build a house didn’t require wages, but two meals were expected.
Lunch was usually two coarse grain mantou buns, or at best, coarse rice with pickled vegetables. Dinner was universally plain rice porridge or vegetable porridge.
“It’s nothing, it’s nothing,” Lady Yang said with a smile. “Our family’s work is heavy; if you don’t eat your fill, where will you get the strength to work?”
Yun Zhu sighed inwardly.
It was just one meat dish and one vegetable dish, yet it made these farmers so moved, showing that the villagers’ daily lives were not easy either.
As for little Lu Yiyi, aside from the first two nights when she slept directly on the temporary wooden board due to novelty, there were simply too many mosquitoes, and lighting mosquito coils didn’t help either.
By the third night, Yun Zhu forced her into the tent.
Before going to sleep, Yun Zhu mixed a glass of powdered milk for her daughter.
The little girl took small sips, reluctant to finish it all at once.
Over these past few days, Yun Zhu washed her daughter’s body and hair every night.
The little girl’s hair, which used to be so dirty that it was matted in knots, was now very silky and smooth. Her usually filthy clothes were replaced with clean new garments, and her complexion looked much better than a few days ago.
During the day, Lady Yang even jokingly remarked that the little girl looked like a little fairy from the heavens!
Yun Zhu waited patiently for her daughter to finish drinking, then wiped her mouth: “Mother can conjure up many more delicious things, so don’t be reluctant to drink it.”
The little girl’s face was full of guilt, and she stammered: “Mother… Uncle, Aunt, and my cousins always save delicious food for me whenever they have any, but I… but I eat tasty things in secret behind their backs…”
Yun Zhu pulled her daughter affectionately into her arms: “Tomorrow Mother will cook delicious food for your Uncle and the others, alright?”
This child always kept the eldest branch in mind whenever she had something good.
The little girl’s eyes suddenly lit up: “Really, Mother?”
Seeing her daughter happy, Yun Zhu smiled as well: “Really!”
“Wow, braised fish, spiced stewed chicken, braised pig trotters, oil-braised prawns, meatball soup…” The next day at noon, as soon as Yun Zhu laid out the food on the long table in the courtyard, Lu Zifeng limped over and began shouting in amazement, “Second Aunt, are we not going to live through the future days anymore?”
As Lu Zifeng spoke, he reached his hand into a bowl, pinched a piece of spiced chicken, and tossed it into his mouth: “Not to mention, the flavor of the meat Second Aunt cooked today is really good. Having seasonings really makes a difference, huh!”
Yun Zhu waved her hand at Lu Zifeng as if chasing away a fly: “Go, go, go! How can a person like you who didn’t do any work have the nerve to eat first? Hurry up and call your father and the others to eat!”
On the other side, Lu Yiyi had already brought Lady Yang over by the hand, speaking in a soft and sweet voice: “Aunt, Mother made lots of delicious food today, you must eat more!”
This morning, she and her mother had merely taken a trip around town, and all these dishes were conjured up by her mother.
“Aunt, these meatballs are so delicious, hurry and taste them.” Lu Yiyi climbed onto the stool and used a soup spoon to scoop two meatballs into Lady Yang’s bowl.
Ah, how could little Yiyi be so endearing?
Lady Yang was grinning so broadly her eyes narrowed into slits, and she also picked up a meatball and placed it in Yiyi’s bowl: “Yiyi eat too.”
Not to mention Yun Zhu, even Lu Zifeng felt a bit jealous. He held his bowl out: “Yiyi, what about Third Brother’s?”
With a *smack*, Lady Yang’s chopsticks tapped on Lu Zifeng’s arm, and she said in annoyance: “Can’t you pick it up yourself?”
Lu Yiyi pressed her lips together and giggled softly, then looked over at her mother.
Yun Zhu smiled and nodded at her.
As if encouraged, the little girl giggled and called out to everyone one by one: “Mother please eat, Uncle and Aunt please eat, Eldest Brother, Second Brother, Third Brother please eat, Uncles please eat.”
“Yiyi is so good!” Several villagers also sighed inwardly with emotion.
In the past, Yiyi would hide whenever she saw people, wearing a cowering look. Ever since they severed ties with the old Lu family, she seemed like a completely different person. It was obvious how severely she had been mistreated by Lady Zhao before.
A villager named Lu Dahu suddenly remembered something and said, “By the way, Jinghai, have you heard? Lady Zhao is back.”