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“Blood replenishment—eat two or three a day, and it’ll last a long time,” Su Niannian said with a smile.
From the moment she entered the courtyard, Su Niannian hadn’t looked at Gu Nan again.
At this moment, Gu Nan was wearing long pants, but for the sake of convenience while working, he had only put on a gray vest.
The muscles in his arms were perfectly outlined.
His vest was partially soaked with sweat.
Around his waist and abdomen, the faint outline of well-defined abs could be seen.
With his perfect jawline and the occasional drop of sweat sliding down, Su Niannian didn’t dare to take another glance.
She was afraid she might start drooling.
On the other hand, Gu Nan had been discreetly glancing at Su Niannian ever since she entered.
Seeing that she wouldn’t even spare him a proper look, a strange sense of disappointment welled up in his heart.
At this moment, Su Niannian took out a bundle of herbal medicine from her basket.
“Auntie, there are a total of ten packets here. One packet can be brewed and consumed over two days.”
“I’ll brew the first batch for you in a bit. You can start drinking it after dinner.”
As Su Niannian handed over the medicine packets, Gu’s mother took them from her.
“Was the money enough?”
“It was enough.” Su Niannian continued taking out more things.
“There’s also five kilograms of rice and some white flour for you to eat.”
“This won’t do. You should take the food back and eat it yourself.”
How could Gu Zhi possibly accept food from Su Niannian? Fine grains like these were precious and expensive.
Just five kilograms of rice and five kilograms of white flour would cost six or seven yuan.
“You’re recovering from an illness, so you need to eat more nutritious food. Ningning’s health is important too. You both should eat this first, and next time I go to the county, I’ll buy more for you.”
As she spoke, Su Niannian placed the food in the kitchen without giving them a chance to refuse.
She wore a look that brooked no refusal.
Seeing that Gu Zhi was still unwilling to accept it, Su Niannian pouted and said, “If you keep this up, I won’t dare to stay for meals anymore.”
Her expression clearly conveyed—if you refuse, I won’t come again.
Gu Zhi was momentarily at a loss for words; her refusal stuck in her throat. From the way this young girl spoke, it seemed like she intended to come by often in the future.
Well, that was certainly a good thing—what was there to refuse?
Standing at the kitchen door, Gu Zhi glanced toward Gu Nan, who was still in the courtyard.
Hearing Su Niannian’s words and watching her busily take out one item after another, Gu Nan couldn’t say he wasn’t affected.
Money didn’t just fall from the sky—yet she was willing to do this. It seemed she truly didn’t mind his family’s situation.
Gu Zhi noticed Gu Nan nodding and found it a bit strange.
Her second son had always been the type to never take advantage of others.
Yet now, he was accepting Su Niannian’s things without hesitation… Did he have some thoughts about her?
But since Gu Nan had already nodded in agreement, Gu Zhi no longer insisted on refusing.
Su Niannian took out more than fifteen kilograms of pork offal.
“Auntie, I’ll prepare this here. There are too many people at the educated youth spot, and it’s not very convenient,” she said casually.
Seeing how at ease Su Niannian was, Gu Zhi smile grew even warmer.
She didn’t know if it was because seeing Su Niannian made her happy, but she felt like her condition was already improving today.
Even her coughing spells had lessened compared to before.
And looking at her young daughter, she seemed much more energetic as well.
It was as if Su Niannian’s presence had brought sunlight into their home.
“Alright, but this stuff might not taste very good once it’s cooked. Why did you buy so much?”
Gu’s mother certainly didn’t mind Su Niannian preparing it at their home. She was just worried that pork offal wouldn’t turn out very tasty. Had this young girl been tricked into buying so much?
“It’ll taste good! I also bought plenty of seasonings,” Su Niannian said confidently.
As she spoke, she took out a variety of spices from her basket.
Then, she retrieved the remaining nine meat buns from inside and placed seven of them into a large bowl.
She kept two buns, wrapped them up again, and placed them back into her basket.
“I bought these meat buns from the state-run restaurant. These two are for Comrade Song, and the rest are for you,” Su Niannian said as she handed one bun to Gu Zhi.
Then, she took two more and gave them to Gu Ningning.
“Take one to Brother Gu Zhendong as well,” Su Niannian instructed.
This time, Gu Ningning hesitated, unsure if she should accept.
After all, the buns smelled incredibly fragrant, and just by looking at them, it was clear they were filled with meat.
Gu Ningning turned to look at Gu Nan.
At that moment, his eyes were deep and unreadable, his face completely expressionless.
He looked a bit intimidating, didn’t he?
Gu Ningning wondered—could Second Brother be angry?
That thought made her even more hesitant to take the buns.
But in truth, Gu Nan’s change in expression had nothing to do with the buns at all.
He had just heard the name “Comrade Song” again.
By default, he had assumed that Comrade Song was a man.
Looks like he needed to find out tomorrow—who exactly was this Comrade Song? A man or a woman?
“Hurry and take it. I need to go brew the medicine,” Su Niannian said, not bothering with the hesitation. She shoved the bun into Gu Ningning’s hands and turned to head back into the kitchen.
Yesterday, while cooking, Su Niannian had noticed a large clay pot in the kitchen specifically for brewing herbal medicine. It was quite big, too.
One packet of medicine could be brewed into four bowls, enough for two days.
Su Niannian cleaned the clay pot thoroughly before adding the herbal medicine. When pouring in the water, she secretly replaced the regular water with spiritual spring water.
With this, the medicinal effect would surely be twice as effective.
She set it to simmer over low heat.
While waiting, Su Niannian went to clean the pork offal.
Only the intestines and stomach required repeated washing; the rest were much easier to clean.
Su Niannian squatted on the ground, frowning slightly as she prepared to clean the pig intestines.
Seeing this, Gu Nan immediately put down his work, bent over, and took the basin to his side, squatting down to wash them himself.
Su Niannian saw this but didn’t argue with him. After all, he was going to eat it anyway. So, she simply went to prepare the seasonings for braising the offal.
Gu Nan noticed that since she arrived, Su Niannian hadn’t spoken a single word to him. Even though he was helping, she still didn’t acknowledge him. His expression darkened even further.
This little girl—wasn’t she completely different yesterday?
Yesterday, she had smiled at him so brightly, like sunshine.
But today, she hadn’t said a single word to him.
As Gu Nan thought about it, he wondered if it had something to do with that “Song Zhaodi.” The more he thought, the worse he felt.
Mechanically, he continued washing the pig intestines and stomach over and over again.
Perhaps because he was in a bad mood, his movements became rough, nearly scrubbing the outer layer clean off.
By the time Su Niannian came out, the pig intestines and stomach were so clean that she almost doubted reality.
“They’re good now,” she said, picking up the basin and heading into the kitchen.
Only then did Gu Nan slowly stand up, his gaze following her into the kitchen.
“Second Brother, did you do something to upset Sister Niannian?” Gu Ningning leaned in close to Gu Nan, tapping her chin thoughtfully as she asked.
Seeing that Gu Nan didn’t respond, she continued talking to herself.
“Just now, Sister Niannian gave Mother a bun and gave me and Big Brother a bun, but she didn’t offer you one at all, huh?”
“I remember last night when Sister Niannian was having dinner at our house, she was smiling at you the whole time. But why is she ignoring you today? Could it be that you did something wrong when you walked her home yesterday?”
That one sentence was like a wake-up call!