Seeing her great-uncle eating so heartily and able to take care of himself completely, Yu Yao finally relaxed and went with Liang Hui and Xiaoyong to eat in the main room.
It wasn’t even noon yet, so lunch was a little early, but Xiaoyong was already starving.
He hadn’t eaten a full meal in several meals.
“Slow down. There’s still plenty left in the pot,” Yu Yao reminded him.
Xiaoyong kept stuffing cured-meat rice into his mouth nonstop. It was just too delicious.
“Cousin… your cooking is so good!”
Every dish tasted amazing. He simply couldn’t stop moving his chopsticks.
Liang Hui also praised her cooking lavishly.
“The food you make really does taste exceptionally good.”
Yu Yao blinked at him.
“You really profited by marrying me as your wife.”
Liang Hui chuckled softly and gave her a deep look.
The little kid only focused on eating and didn’t notice the flirtatious interaction between the newlyweds at all.
After lunch ended, Liang Hui voluntarily got up to clean the dishes and chopsticks.
Yu Yao plucked several thin twigs from a broom and sharpened them with a small knife, making homemade toothpicks.
As she picked her teeth, she thought that when she had time, she should make some dental floss instead—it would work even better than toothpicks.
Just then, Yu Hongyuan walked out from the inner room.
“Great-Uncle! Why did you get out of bed?” Yu Yao asked in surprise.
Yu Hongyuan took down the hunting knife hanging on the wall, regaining some of his old imposing aura.
“I’m going to settle accounts with that beast Hao Lizhi.”
“Don’t think I’ll spare him just because you ended up marrying well!”
“I already heard everything. At first, he planned to sell you to that old bachelor in Hukeng Village!”
“Luckily your husband saved you. Otherwise…”
He didn’t even dare imagine his beautiful grandniece being ruined by an old bachelor. The thought alone made him want to kill someone.
Yu Yao quickly stood up and stopped him.
“Great-Uncle, your health only just improved a little. There’s no need to lower yourself to that scumbag right now.”
“Even if you want to teach him a lesson, there’ll be plenty of chances later.”
“Once your body fully recovers, you’ll have more strength to beat him up properly!”
Yu Hongyuan felt her words made sense, and only then did he hang the hunting knife back in place.
“Hmph! Then I’ll let him off for now! But sooner or later, I absolutely won’t spare that bastard!”
Yu Yao coaxed him back into the inner room to rest, then gathered a pile of dirty clothes and started washing them in the courtyard.
She normally never hand-washed clothes and found scrubbing exhausting, so she secretly thought she’d have to find a way to buy a washing machine someday.
Fortunately, her great-uncle’s courtyard had a hand-pump well, so fetching water was easy.
Liang Hui didn’t sit idle either. He picked up a hoe and started clearing weeds, leveling the ground, and tidying the courtyard.
Xiaoyong set up a fire stove in the yard and quickly boiled a kettle of hot water.
By the time Yu Yao finished washing clothes and Liang Hui finished cleaning the courtyard, the neighbors had returned from work for lunch.
It was already 1988, and farmland had long been contracted to individual households.
However, the villages in this mountainous region had very little fertile farmland due to the terrain. Most people mainly survived by hunting in the mountains and digging medicinal herbs.
There was also a large forestry farm nearby that supported many temporary workers.
Hearing movement in the courtyard, neighboring villagers peeked through the half-open gate and saw Yu Yao hanging freshly washed clothes to dry.
The courtyard, once overgrown with weeds, had been cleaned spotless. A handsome young man was chopping firewood shirtless nearby.
Xiaoyong carried over freshly boiled water to make tea and called out,
“Cousin! Brother-in-law! Tea’s ready!”
The neighbors could hardly believe their eyes and pushed open the gate to ask about Yu Hongyuan’s condition.
Hadn’t they heard his condition was critical? Yet the atmosphere here looked harmonious and lively.
Yu Yao finished hanging the clothes, while Liang Hui split a pile of firewood before calmly buttoning up his shirt.
He had noticed Yu Yao secretly glancing at him several times, and the corners of his lips subtly pressed downward as he pretended not to notice.
When the neighbors asked about Yu Hongyuan, Yu Yao explained,
“Great-Uncle is much better now. Thank you all for your concern.”
“When I’m not around, I’ll still have to trouble everyone to look after my great-uncle and younger cousin.”
A neighbor asked about Liang Hui’s identity, and Yu Yao openly introduced him.
“This is my husband. He’s from Hukeng Village. His surname is Liang.”
One older neighborhood aunt lowered her voice and asked,
“I heard your father originally planned to sell you to an old bachelor in Hukeng Village?”
“False!” Yu Yao denied it immediately.
But then she firmly confirmed another rumor instead:
“But it’s true that my husband paid a bride price of 2,800 yuan!”
Besides visiting her great-uncle, Yu Yao had another purpose for returning home—
She had come to demand her dowry.
What kind of father accepted bride price money without giving his daughter any dowry?
Did they think they could squeeze her dry and devour her whole?
Dream on.
Everything they took from her would be spat back out.
Everything they owed her would be repaid.
And the deaths of her mother and grandfather were suspicious too. She intended to slowly uncover every truth.
Inside the inner room, Feng Xueqing heard that a handsome young man had ridden her bicycle while carrying Yu Yao back to the village. She immediately guessed that the man was Liang Hui.
Thinking about everything she suffered yesterday—and the bicycle that had been stolen from her—she nearly ground her teeth to pieces.
Wang Yuelan became alarmed as though facing a great enemy.
“What is Yu Yao coming back to the village for?”
In her eyes, the transaction had already been completed. She truly didn’t want to see Yu Yao return to her maiden home ever again.
The neighbor gave her a complicated look.
Only then did Wang Yuelan remember she still needed to maintain the image of a virtuous stepmother.
She hurriedly explained,
“I mean, it’s only the second day after her wedding. Why did she come back already? Isn’t the formal return visit supposed to happen on the third day?”
“I didn’t prepare anything here. She came back so suddenly, I don’t even know what to cook for lunch.”
“Her father is still at the butcher shop selling meat and isn’t home either!”
The neighbor shook her head and turned away.
Feng Xueqing walked out from the inner room.
“Mom, I think Yu Yao isn’t the same as before. I suspect she might’ve been reborn too…”
“What reborn?” Wang Yuelan asked, utterly confused.
Feng Xueqing swallowed back the words she had nearly blurted out and changed her wording instead.
“I suspect she came back with bad intentions. She’s definitely here to stir up trouble!”
Wang Yuelan nodded with a grave expression.
“We need to send word to your father immediately so he can prepare himself.”