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After taking Chu Yue’s measurements, Yun Cuihe sent her back to her own room.
Now that the young couple’s relationship was finally progressing, she, as their mother, certainly couldn’t hold them back.
When Chu Yue returned to her room, Lu Xinghe was practicing calligraphy, dipping his brush in water on the table.
She felt a pang of sympathy for him, but also admired his perseverance. His calligraphy was truly beautiful.
After sitting on the kang for a long time, Chu Yue finally spoke. “Husband, if we earn money and you don’t have to worry about the family anymore, will you still continue to study for the Imperial exams?”
Lu Xinghe’s hand holding the brush paused. He turned to look at Chu Yue.
“Then do you want me to continue studying for the Imperial exams?”
This question caught Chu Yue off guard. She hadn’t expected Lu Xinghe to throw the question back at her.
After a while, Chu Yue replied seriously, “If taking the Imperial exams is your pursuit, then I still hope you can pursue your dreams.”
Hearing this, Lu Xinghe laughed.
This silly girl…
Oh well, with the current state of their family, the possibility of him taking the Imperial examination was probably slim anyway. He would just have to live a good life with her.
Thinking this, Lu Xinghe put down his brush, went outside to wash up, and then went to the kang.
Chu Yue nervously shifted closer to the inside of the kang.
Seeing this, Lu Xinghe quickly reassured her. “Don’t worry. You’re still young. I won’t do anything to you.”
Chu Yue stammered.
“I…I wasn’t thinking that. It’s just that this is the first time I’ve…shared a bed with you, and I’m a little nervous.”
Lu Xinghe’s handsome lips curved up slightly. He turned his back to Chu Yue and lay down on the outer side of the kang.
“It’s not the first time. I slept here last night. I just didn’t wake you up when I got up this morning because you were sleeping so soundly.”
Chu Yue looked at Lu Xinghe’s back, her heart slightly touched.
She lay down on the inner side of the bed, her back to Lu Xinghe, and huddled in the corner by the wall.
“Husband, do you know who broke our dike?”
Lu Xinghe, with his eyes closed, hummed in response. “I have a pretty good idea.”
“What are you going to do about it?” Chu Yue asked again.
Usually, when something like this happened, people would just scold and curse. The other party probably assumed that they didn’t have a woman who was willing to fight back and do whatever it takes, so they did this.
After a while, Lu Xinghe finally opened his eyes. “Before I came back today, I dismantled their entire lower dike. I think they’ll like this return gift.”
Chu Yue turned to look at Lu Xinghe in surprise.
“You dismantled their dike?”
Lu Xinghe looked back at her. In the dim moonlight, the girl’s eyes sparkled.
“Yeah. Their rice husks are all empty anyway. It wouldn’t affect their harvest whether or not the dike was there. But I at least had to vent my anger. I don’t want them to think we’re easy to bully.”
Chu Yue laughed, her eyes crinkling.
“They’re probably going to be furious.” Then she looked worried. “We got our revenge, but what if that family comes to our house to cause trouble tomorrow when they see their dike is gone?”
Looking at the little girl with her worried face, Lu Xinghe wanted to reach out and rub her head, but he retracted his hand just as it extended.
“Don’t worry. They’re the ones in the wrong. Even if the sky falls, I’m tall enough to hold it up. Don’t sleep so close to the wall. The dirt walls are dusty and will get your clothes dirty.”
With that, he turned his back to Chu Yue and went back to sleep.
Chu Yue listened and moved a little closer to the inside of the kang.
“Husband, when we earn money, let’s renovate the house. I think this roof doesn’t look very stable.”
“Okay.”
…
The next morning, Chu Yue was woken up by shouting.
“Lu Xinghe, come out! Did you break our dike? You’re capable of cutting off someone’s livelihood! Today, you have to give me an explanation, no matter what!”
When Chu Yue woke up, she saw that Lu Xinghe had already put on his shoes. She quickly got out of bed and went out with him, putting on her own shoes.
As they went out, she saw Lu Xingping and Lu Xing’an emerging from a room.
The two brothers must have been woken up by the noise.
Lu Xinghe opened the courtyard gate, and the man was about to rush in, but Lu Xinghe grabbed his arm and threw him out.
“Go talk outside. Don’t wake up my family.”
The man, not as strong as Lu Xinghe, could only follow him to the foot of the hill, a little further away, under Lu Xinghe’s intimidating gaze.
Chu Yue looked at Lu Xingping and his brother and whispered, “Do you know who that is?”
“He’s the village head’s nephew, named Lu Dagui. He’s lazy and loves to take advantage of others. He was separated from his parents right after he got married.” Lu Xingping looked at Lu Dagui with disdain. “It’s been two months of drought, and the fields have been dry for over a month. I’ve never seen him carry a single bucket of water. This isn’t the first time he’s broken a dike to divert water.”
Chu Yue nodded. Looking at Lu Dagui from afar, she saw that he wasn’t a match for Lu Xinghe at all.
This useless drunkard, how could he be Lu Xinghe’s opponent?
She washed her hands and face and went to the kitchen to make breakfast.
Chu Yue took three out of the five pounds of white flour that the grain store owner had half-sold, half-given her yesterday. She planned to make noodles for breakfast for the family.
She kneaded the dough and let it rise. She heated the pot, added some lard, and fried it until the oil came out. Then, she took one of the eggs that their neighbors had given them and cracked it into the pot. After frying it, she added water and brought it to a boil.
When the noodles were cooked, Chu Yue first poured the broth over five bowls that were already filled with garlic. Then, she added a handful of washed wild vegetables to the broth and cooked them for a moment before taking them out of the pot.
“Xing’an, you can turn off the fire now. Go call your mother and your brother to come eat. The noodles won’t be good if they sit for too long.”
“Okay.”
Lu Xing’an quickly pulled out the firewood from the stove and doused it with water before going out to call everyone.
Soon, everyone came into the kitchen together. Chu Yue pushed the only bowl of noodles with the fried egg in front of Yun Cuihe.
“Mother, you eat this. Your body needs to be replenished.”
“I’m already so old. It doesn’t matter if I eat it or not. You guys are still growing. You should eat it.”
Yun Cuihe was about to use her chopsticks to pick up the egg and put it in someone’s bowl, but she saw that everyone was covering their own bowls tightly.
“Mother, we’ll have plenty of opportunities to eat in the future. It’s just one egg. You eat it.” Lu Xingping said.
Lu Xing’an swallowed the noodles in his mouth. “Mother can eat the egg. We’ll just eat the noodles. Sister-in-law makes delicious noodles.”
Lu Xingping chuckled. “Of course! What could Sister-in-law have made that’s not delicious?”
He said this, picked up a noodle with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth. His eyes immediately lit up.
Mother’s cooking was not bad, but Sister-in-law’s cooking was truly delicious!
Lu Xinghe ate the noodles in his bowl without saying anything. Yun Cuihe shook her head, looking at her twin sons with a mixture of amusement and helplessness.
“You two, your mouths have been spoiled by your sister-in-law.” Then she turned to Chu Yue. “Yueyue, if you have to go to the fields with Xinghe this morning, don’t rush back. I’ll make lunch. You can’t always be busy with everything. I can still do some work now.”
Chu Yue looked at Lu Xinghe and nodded. “Okay.”
Yun Cuihe looked at the egg in her bowl. She couldn’t eat it by herself.
Finally, she divided the already small fried egg into five pieces and put a piece in each person’s bowl.
“Let’s eat together.”
They all looked at each other and laughed.
Even though their life was simple, they were all together, and their hearts felt warm.