Chapter 17: All Thanks to Walnuts
Madam Gu stared intently at Xingnong.
This girl’s temperament has changed since the beating!
If she didn’t look the same, have the same birthmark on her bottom, and inherit her husband’s immense strength, she would think she was a different person!
Xingnong hadn’t spoken yet.
Xinghui was the first to speak, “Wasn’t Big Sister working as a vegetable washer at the restaurant in town before? When she was working as a vegetable and dish washer at the restaurant, the head chef would sometimes ask her to help cook when he was busy or wanted to slack off. That’s how she learned! You know how smart Big Sister is, she can draw inferences from one instance. She learned from the head chef’s dishes and researched new recipes on her own, so she had recipes to sell!”
Xingnong: “. . .”
From now on, she would leave the explaining to him.
She only needed to say a word, and Xinghui could make up a detailed explanation!
Madam Gu still had doubts, “But I haven’t noticed your cooking being particularly delicious on ordinary days?”
Xinghui: “Grandma, we have no salt or oil at home, everything is boiled in plain water, how do you expect it to be delicious? Besides, the vegetables Big Sister cooks are at least green, the ones you cook turn yellow, like pig feed.”
Their family could make one tael of salt last a year, and they never had oil!
Without oil and salt, how could the dishes be delicious?
Xingqing deeply agreed and nodded, “Yeah, Grandma’s cooking is simply inedible. Big Sister and Aunt’s cooking is much better.”
Madam Gu: “. . .”
These two little brats, she thought their cooking wasn’t even cooked through! Of course it was green, not only green but also full of life!
She had diarrhea every time she ate it.
These ungrateful children, she raised them for nothing!
Forget about them!
Madam Gu used a flint to light some bamboo leaves, stuffed them into the stove, and started boiling water to cook rice.
She was still worried in her heart, not knowing if the ten taels of silver could be kept safe.
~
Not long after, Shen Ruoxi woke up and had returned to her normal state, completely normal.
When she heard that Xingnong had earned ten taels of silver, she was filled with joy, “My Xingnong is so smart!”
Xingnong felt a little strange. The cases of this illness she had seen before weren’t like this. And her intelligence seemed to be becoming more and more childlike. Could it be that Shen Ruoxi didn’t go crazy because of excessive fright?
It seemed she needed to find a doctor to examine her.
Xinghui nodded, “Big Sister is indeed very smart! It’s all thanks to the walnuts.”
Shen Ruoxi asked in surprise, “Why are the walnuts to thank? Isn’t it thanks to me?”
Xingnong was born from her, right?
“Eating lots of walnuts nourishes the brain and improves intelligence!”
Shen Ruoxi thought about it, “Then I’ll eat more too!”
If she ate more, her brain might get better!
She immediately took out a few walnuts and started cracking them open to eat.
The whole family laughed.
A slight smile appeared on Xingnong’s lips as she thought about her plan, “Grandma, how about we move to Peach Blossom Village? Village Chief Gu said his family has an old house that I want to buy.”
The family was stunned for a moment and looked at her in surprise.
“Why do we have to move?” Xingqing asked.
Xinghui immediately said, “I know, Village Chief Gu suggested we move.”
Then, he recounted Village Chief Gu’s words, adding his own imagination and embellishments, and told them the story vividly.
With such a talkative little brother by her side, Xingnong suddenly felt much more at ease.
After Xinghui finished speaking, Xingnong said, “This house is too dark and damp, living here long-term is bad for our health, and Plum Blossom Village isn’t suitable for my mother’s recuperation.”
Madam Gu knew this all too well, “But this house was entrusted to me by your grandfather, what should we do with it if we move? If your great-aunt occupies it, it will be demolished.”
Although this house was said to be the Shen family’s ancestral home, she knew that it was built brick by brick after the Shen family acknowledged Shen Chongshan.
The house the Shen family used to live in had long since collapsed.
✿✿✿
Even one of the sections of the blue brick and tile house in front, belonging to the Shen family, was built with the money Shen Chongshan earned. However, they hadn’t separated the family back then, they were all one family.
Later, Shen Chongshan went to serve in the army and was gone for several years. He eventually died on the battlefield. They, the widowed mother and orphaned children, were then separated from the family, and they didn’t receive anything.
This house was something Shen Chongshan told her to guard before he went to serve in the army.
That’s why she hadn’t thought about moving all these years.
Xingnong: “Even if we move, this house is still ours, how can she demolish it at will?”
Shen Ruoxi also said, “They just want us to move out, they didn’t say anything about demolishing the house! We can use the house to store firewood, right? Besides, wouldn’t it be easier for the children to find marriage proposals if we change houses?”
The Shen family’s main branch had made a fuss about the house several times, and she was always afraid.
Madam Gu had been worried that the seven taels of silver Xingnong earned would bring trouble, but if they bought a house, wouldn’t the silver be spent?
As long as the newly bought house was in Xingnong’s name, she looked at the other three, “Then let’s go see the old house at your Uncle Gu’s place now!”
She really didn’t want to keep those seven taels of silver by her side overnight.
~
Xingnong carried a piece of meat and walked towards Peach Blossom Village with Madam Gu and Xingqing.
Xinghui volunteered to stay home and take care of Shen Ruoxi. He would sometimes go to Peach Blossom Village to seek advice from Gu Zesen, so he often went there.
The two villages were connected at their ends, they took the back mountain road, didn’t encounter anyone along the way, and arrived quickly.
Peach Blossom Village and Plum Blossom Village were separated by a large banyan tree.
The banyan tree was huge, probably centuries old.
Usually, the villagers of Peach Blossom Village liked to gather around here. Now, it was evening, every household had smoke rising from their chimneys, and there was no one around.
Madam Gu felt a bit apprehensive about returning to her home village. .
If Xingnong hadn’t suddenly earned ten taels of silver, she wouldn’t have thought about returning to Peach Blossom Village.
Or rather, she wouldn’t have had the face to return to Peach Blossom Village.
Back then, Madam Gu’s father didn’t agree with her marrying Shen Chongshan and moving to Plum Blossom Village.
Her father said Shen Chongshan was just someone of unknown origin that Old Master Shen had saved in the mountains. He didn’t know why Shen Chongshan was suddenly claimed as Old Master Shen’s long-lost son.
Whether he was truly a member of the Shen family, only they knew. Anyway, her father didn’t believe it.
He felt Shen Chongshan wouldn’t be welcomed in the Shen family. Old Master Shen only treated him well because of his abilities. To put it bluntly, it was exploiting Shen Chongshan, not true kindness!
Moreover, the people in Plum Blossom Village had a bad reputation. Her father didn’t agree with her marrying him, but she insisted. Her father directly severed ties with her, telling her never to return to Peach Blossom Village.
Back then, both father and daughter had similar temperaments. Once they made a decision, ten oxen couldn’t pull them back.
Later, after they got married, Shen Chongshan often took Madam Gu back to visit, but they were always shut out by Old Man Gu, unable to even see him. This went on for several years.
After Shen Chongshan went to serve in the army, Madam Gu didn’t have the courage or the face to go back. A few years later, news of Shen Chongshan’s death on the battlefield came back. Madam Gu became even more afraid to go back, lest her parents feel heartbroken and her brother and sister-in-law think she was going back to sponge off them.
Madam Gu only dared to secretly go to the back mountain to peek at her parents when they went to work in the fields. Sometimes, she would secretly go to the fields and help them with the farm work.
Later, when Shen Ruoxi had her breakdown, she didn’t dare to go back at all. Only after her father and mother passed away, did she go back, but only those two times.
Usually, it wasn’t that she didn’t want to go back, but she didn’t dare to. She didn’t want to burden her family, after all, they had become the target of everyone’s scorn in Plum Blossom Village.
Fortunately, they didn’t encounter anyone along the way. They soon arrived at the village chief’s house, and Madam Gu secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
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