Jiang Qingli suddenly pulled Shen Xiaohua into her arms. Gently patting the little girl’s back, she spoke in a voice so soft it seemed to drip with warmth.
“It’s okay, it’s okay. Everything’s fine now. Does it hurt? Just hold on a little longer…”
The voice seemed to possess a magical power.
Shen Xiaohua’s crying stopped instantly.
She lifted her little face in a daze, so stunned that she forgot to wipe away the bubble of snot hanging from the tip of her nose.
Sister-in-law…
Hadn’t hit her? She was even hugging her?
The little girl secretly sniffled.
Not only did Sister-in-law smell faintly of soapberry, but there was also a delicate scent of pear blossoms clinging to her. It smelled far better than Shen Xiaohua had imagined.
“It… it doesn’t hurt anymore…”
Shen Xiaohua hurriedly shook her head, but her small hands honestly tightened around Jiang Qingli’s clothes, afraid that this gentle embrace might suddenly disappear.
A trace of heartache flashed through Jiang Qingli’s eyes.
She turned and brought over two wooden boards she had prepared earlier.
Only then did everyone notice that she had already fashioned splints from old cloth strips, even padding the edges with soft fabric.
“Come on, once we secure your leg, it won’t hurt anymore.”
Her movements were gentle yet efficient.
Before long, Shen Xiaohua’s injuries had been fully treated.
Watching Jiang Qingli’s lowered eyelashes, Shen Xiaohua suddenly felt that tonight’s Sister-in-law resembled a fairy descended from the heavens…
Now that Shen Xiaohua was awake, no matter how many questions remained in everyone’s minds, they could only leave reluctantly.
Several women kept turning back as they walked away, their eyes filled with curiosity and confusion.
The happiest person of all was undoubtedly Wang Dagou.
Thankfully, he wasn’t going to end up hauling a corpse home. Otherwise, what terrible luck that would have been.
The moment he thought about the fierce wife waiting for him at home, he instinctively shrank his neck.
Wiping away the cold sweat covering his body, he was about to push his cart away when a voice suddenly called from behind him.
“Brother Wang, the tofu seller, please wait a moment…”
Wang Dagou slowly turned around and saw Jiang Qingli jogging toward him. Her round cheeks were flushed red from exertion.
It’s over! It’s over!
She’s about to pin this on me!
His heart immediately leapt into his throat.
All the comments people had made about her flashed through his mind.
Overbearing! Unreasonable!
Always looking to take advantage of others.
Wang Dagou wailed inwardly. He could practically see his own wife chasing him around the house with a broom.
Frantically waving his hands, he stammered, “I really didn’t push little Xiaohua! I only saw her lying in the ditch because I happened to be coming home late today…”
Before he could finish speaking, a cloth bundle was pressed into his hands.
Wang Dagou lowered his head.
Inside were ten plump eggs arranged neatly together, their smooth shells glowing softly in the dim light.
“This…”
For a moment, he was speechless.
His dark face was filled with confusion.
Breathing slightly heavily, Jiang Qingli brushed aside the damp strands of hair stuck to her forehead and said sincerely,
“Brother Wang, thank you for saving Xiaohua today. Please take these eggs. Tomorrow, when it’s light out, I’ll come personally to thank you again.”
The evening breeze drifted through the courtyard, carrying the fragrance of locust blossoms.
Wang Dagou was stunned.
Hadn’t everyone said Shen Li’s wife was a shameless shrew?
Wasn’t she actually quite a good person?
Looking at the ten eggs in his hands, his heart warmed.
Xiao Jun had been begging for eggs for days, yet Wang Dagou had never been willing to spend the money.
Thinking of that, his face reddened.
“H… how can I possibly accept these…”
After speaking, he secretly pinched his own thigh.
Was he really not dreaming?
“Brother Dagou, please take them. Otherwise, I’ll feel terrible about it. Xiaohua is still waiting for me, so I’ll head back inside.”
Without giving him another chance to refuse, Jiang Qingli turned and left.
People in this era were generally simple and honest.
To someone from the twenty-first century like Jiang Qingli, ten eggs might not seem like much.
But in an age when many people regularly struggled to fill their stomachs, those ten eggs were a completely different matter.
Watching Jiang Qingli hurry away, Wang Dagou’s eyes reddened.
He had truly judged a gentleman by the measure of a petty man.
Shen Li’s wife clearly knew how to repay kindness.
Carefully storing away the eggs, he thought about how Xiao Jun would finally get to eat the steamed eggs he had been longing for tomorrow morning.
His steps unconsciously quickened.
After returning to the room, Jiang Qingli changed Shen Xiaohua into clean clothes before finally lying down again.
At first, the little girl had twisted and squirmed in embarrassment, refusing to cooperate.
In the end, Jiang Qingli put on a stern face and warned her that if she kept moving, the splint would have to be reapplied from the beginning.
Only then did Shen Xiaohua obediently settle down.
After a night of endless commotion, it was nearly ten o’clock the next morning when Jiang Qingli finally woke up.
Still half asleep, she instinctively reached out toward the space beside her.
Empty?
She became fully alert in an instant.
“Xiaohua!”
Jiang Qingli sat upright abruptly.
To her shock, Shen Xiaohua was lying on the floor beside the stove, struggling to push firewood into the firebox.
Because of her injured leg, the little girl’s thin body was twisted into an awkward position.
Jiang Qingli’s heart tightened.
Crossing the room in a few quick strides, she rushed over.
“Who told you to get out of bed?!”
The sudden reprimand made Shen Xiaohua jump.
The bundle of firewood slipped from her hands and fell to the floor with a clatter.
Shrinking her neck, she blinked back tears that immediately welled up in her eyes.
Just as expected…
She hadn’t finished making breakfast because she had woken up too late.
Sister-in-law must be angry…
The moment Jiang Qingli saw the girl’s frightened expression, regret washed over her.
Squatting down, she gently helped Shen Xiaohua to her feet.
“Xiaohua, Sister-in-law isn’t scolding you.”
She pointed at the splinted leg.
“This leg is injured. You can’t move around carelessly. If the bone heals crookedly, it’ll hurt whenever you walk in the future.”
Shen Xiaohua blinked through watery eyes, looking at Jiang Qingli with partial understanding.
She didn’t fully grasp what Sister-in-law was saying.
But it sounded like…
She wasn’t angry because breakfast wasn’t ready?
“But… breakfast…”
The little girl spoke timidly.
The instant the words left her mouth, Jiang Qingli’s stomach growled loudly.
She couldn’t help laughing.
“The reason Sister-in-law never cooked before was because I didn’t know how.”
Squatting down so their eyes were level, she looked into Shen Xiaohua’s tear-filled gaze.
“But Sister-in-law learns quickly. How about Xiaohua becoming Sister-in-law’s teacher?”
Shen Xiaohua froze.
Become…
A teacher?
She secretly raised her eyes and saw the gentle smile resting on Jiang Qingli’s lips.
Compared to the cold-faced woman she used to be, she seemed like a completely different person.
“What? You don’t want to?” Jiang Qingli deliberately put on a stern expression.
“I do!”
Shen Xiaohua nodded frantically, terrified that if she responded too slowly, Sister-in-law would transform back into the fierce person she used to be.
At that moment, she suddenly felt that as long as Sister-in-law kept smiling like this, she would be willing to do anything.
And so, under Shen Xiaohua’s “guidance,” Jiang Qingli began her very first experience cooking with a traditional earthen stove.
Although the original owner had been lazy and gluttonous, she had never been careless when it came to buying food.
The cupboard contained salt, lard, chili powder, a bag of flour, half a sack of rice, and cornmeal.
In this era, very few people could afford to eat refined salt or cook with lard.
The original owner didn’t know how to cook, and no matter how capable Shen Xiaohua was, she was still only a child. Being able to make food edible was already an accomplishment.
As a result, the supplies in the cupboard greatly relieved Jiang Qingli.
At the very least, she wouldn’t have to worry about starving for the next three days.