With the house rented, the next step was moving.
By the time Zhou Yu and Lu Cheng returned to the village, it was already afternoon. As soon as they got home, the two of them began packing their belongings.
Zhou Yu planned to start moving the next day. Ideally, she wanted to get everything moved in a single trip. The village was still some distance from town, and making repeated trips back and forth would be a hassle.
If they couldn’t finish in one trip, then everything had to be moved by Monday at the latest. That way, it would be more convenient for Lu Cheng to start school on Monday.
There actually weren’t many things in the house worth taking.
Most of the household items had already become worn-out and shabby under the original host’s use, and she had never replaced them. Zhou Yu planned to leave those behind. If she truly needed anything after moving to town, she could always buy new ones.
Since there were many things she didn’t intend to bring, it only took her three or four hours to finish packing most of her belongings.
As for Lu Cheng, he had even less to pack. Other than a few changes of clothes and his bedding, there was practically nothing to sort through. He had finished long ago and was now sitting on a stool in a daze.
Zhou Yu glanced out the window and saw that dusk had already arrived.
It was about time to start making dinner.
She got up and walked out of her room, only to find a somewhat unfamiliar man standing in the courtyard.
Zhou Yu frowned in confusion. She searched through her memories several times but still couldn’t remember who the man was.
“Who are you?” she asked bluntly.
If she wasn’t mistaken, had this man just been trying to steal vegetables from the small vegetable patch in her yard?
The way he had been sneaking around made him look suspicious no matter how she looked at it.
“Yu’er, it’s me, Zhao Shan,” the man said happily when he saw her come out. “I heard Lu Bin died. Now we can finally be together openly and honestly…”
The way Zhao Shan addressed her made Zhou Yu feel nauseated.
Then she quickly remembered who Zhao Shan was in the original novel.
This should be the original host’s lover.
In the novel, not long after Lu Bin’s death, the original host had run away with Zhao Shan, taking the compensation money with her and abandoning six-year-old Lu Cheng to fend for himself.
What kind of taste had the original host possessed?
Setting aside the fact that Zhao Shan wasn’t handsome in the slightest, his face was shiny with grease and he gave off the unmistakable impression of a bad character.
Just looking at him made Zhou Yu lose her appetite.
Judging from what Zhao Shan had just said, it seemed the original host had already been involved with him before Lu Bin’s accident.
The original novel hadn’t gone into much detail about the relationship between the original host and Zhao Shan. After all, the original host was merely the villain’s stepmother, an extremely minor supporting character whose role had been brushed over in only a few sentences.
“Don’t come and interfere with my life again. Even if Lu Bin is dead, I don’t want anything to do with you,” Zhou Yu said bluntly, making it clear that she wanted to draw a line between them.
“Yu’er, what’s wrong with you?” Zhao Shan looked at her in disbelief. He stepped forward, trying to grab her hands. “Didn’t we agree just a few days ago that if we got the chance, we’d leave this place together and move to another city?”
“Isn’t this the perfect opportunity?” he continued. “Lu Bin’s dead, and there’s a large compensation payment. We can use the money to buy train tickets to another city, and with what remains, we can start a small business…”
Zhou Yu slapped away the hands he had reached toward her and immediately took two steps back, widening the distance between them.
Only then did she frown and say, “Stay away from me. Wasn’t I clear enough? Get out of my house right now, or I’ll start shouting that there’s a thief.”
Her gaze flicked to the tomatoes in Zhao Shan’s hands.
Sure enough, they had been freshly picked from the vegetable patch in her courtyard.
“Zhou Yu, what kind of nonsense is that?” Zhao Shan snapped. “You used to bring me whole baskets of vegetables. Half the time I couldn’t even finish them. Today I only picked a few tomatoes, and now you’re calling me a thief?”
He couldn’t understand why Zhou Yu’s personality had suddenly changed so drastically.
But at this point, he couldn’t be bothered to keep pretending.
In his eyes, Zhou Yu was nothing more than a discarded woman. The fact that he was interested in her should have been considered her good fortune. Just a few days ago, she’d been perfectly obedient. Who knew what she was trying to pull today?
“Get lost already,” Zhou Yu said, rolling her eyes.
Since they would be moving away the next day, she couldn’t be bothered wasting any more energy on him.
Turning around, she headed straight for the kitchen.
Having been scolded, Zhao Shan was also worried that Zhou Yu might actually start shouting for help, so he didn’t linger in the courtyard any longer.
Before leaving, he tossed out one last sentence.
“Don’t regret this.”
Then he turned and left.
Not forgetting to help himself to two heads of leafy greens from the vegetable plot on the way out.
From inside his room, Lu Cheng had witnessed everything clearly.
After Zhao Shan left, he pursed his lips and hesitated for a while before finally walking out and entering the kitchen.
When he saw Zhou Yu washing rice in preparation for cooking dinner, he opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something.
In the end, however, he remained silent and simply crouched behind the stove, skillfully beginning to light the fire.
“If you want to ask something, just ask,” Zhou Yu said.
She had noticed his expression earlier. She had thought the child would eventually be unable to hold back his questions.
Unexpectedly, after waiting so long, he still hadn’t said anything.
After a moment of silence, Lu Cheng finally spoke.
“Will you leave with that man?”
“No,” Zhou Yu answered seriously.
“In the past, I may have been somewhat harsh toward you. But from now on, it’ll just be the two of us relying on each other. I hope we can continue living together peacefully.”
“You know that after your father passed away, there was a large compensation payment. It may seem like a lot of money, but doesn’t it cost money for the two of us to live? Doesn’t your education cost money too?”
“Right now, everyone in the village who has even the slightest connection to us has their eyes on that money. But we can’t trust any of them.”
“A common man is innocent, but possessing treasure invites trouble.”
“Tomorrow, we’ll leave this village and begin a new life…”
Zhou Yu explained many things.
Lu Cheng understood the reasoning behind what she said.
And throughout her explanation, she had kept saying “we.”
For some reason, that made him feel that things were different.
‘Maybe Stepmother really has changed? Should I trust her one more time?’
Seeing that Lu Cheng seemed to have taken her words to heart, Zhou Yu said nothing more and focused on making dinner.
Early the next morning, Zhou Yu and Lu Cheng carried their bags and belongings onto a vehicle and headed to the new house they had rented in town.
After placing their luggage inside, the two of them thoroughly cleaned the house from top to bottom.
Zhou Yu realized that having only one bed in the house would make sleeping arrangements somewhat inconvenient for the two of them. She decided to either buy another bed or have someone make a single bed.
Fortunately, life in town was far more convenient than in the village.
Before long, Zhou Yu found a furniture shop and selected a relatively inexpensive wooden bed. After paying a little over three yuan, she asked one of the craftsmen from the shop to deliver it to the rented house.
By the time everything was finished, it was already close to noon.
Having just moved into a new home, Zhou Yu felt that she deserved a good meal to celebrate. So she took Lu Cheng into town and bought some pork, chicken, and various vegetables.
She made a plate of braised pork, stewed a whole chicken, and stir-fried a dish of eggplant.
All of the dishes were prepared according to the tutorials provided by the system. The proportions of every seasoning had been measured precisely, so the results turned out quite delicious.
Both Zhou Yu and Lu Cheng ate two large bowls of rice each and polished off every last bit of the food.
After eating and drinking their fill, Zhou Yu treated herself to a rare afternoon nap.
When she woke up, it was already around three or four o’clock in the afternoon.
She originally wanted to sleep a little longer, but then remembered that Lu Cheng’s schoolbag still hadn’t been made.
Suppressing her drowsiness, she got out of bed, found the fabric and sewing supplies she had purchased earlier, and began cutting the fabric and sewing the bag.
The schoolbag wasn’t very large, and she was making a simple square design. On top of that, the system provided detailed step-by-step instructions, so the work progressed quickly.
In less than two hours, the schoolbag was basically finished.
From the outside, it looked quite respectable.
The inside, however, was a complete disaster.
Zhou Yu remembered that there was still some lining fabric left over from when she had made Lu Cheng’s quilt.
So she spent another hour or so sewing a lining into the schoolbag.
This time, the bag looked good both inside and out.
Satisfied, Zhou Yu straightened it up and handed it to Lu Cheng.
Lu Cheng took the schoolbag and examined it carefully.
He liked it very much.
Lowering his head, he softly said, “Thank you.”
Hearing his thanks made Zhou Yu quite happy.
The child had finally shown some manners for once. It was definitely progress.
She reached out and ruffled his hair before saying with a smile, “Put your stationery inside and try it on. Let’s see whether the shoulder straps are the right length.”
Lu Cheng obediently put on the schoolbag.
He even turned around in a circle to show it to Zhou Yu.
The corners of her lips lifted slightly.
Then she noticed the numerous patches on his clothes.
They looked old and shabby, making him appear rather pitiful.
It seemed she would have to make him a new set of clothes as well.
The day after tomorrow and the day after that were the only two days left before Monday.
Would there be enough time to make a new outfit for him?
Zhou Yu planned to take Lu Cheng to the fabric shop first thing the next morning and ask about suitable materials.
Since both of them had eaten their fill at noon, Zhou Yu only cooked a pot of sweet potato porridge that evening. She also stir-fried the little bit of leftover vegetables from lunch, and the two of them ate a simple dinner together.
After a full day of work, both Zhou Yu and Lu Cheng were rather tired.
After washing up, they each went to bed.
As for making new clothes for Lu Cheng, that could wait until tomorrow.