Chapter 39

Zhou Da-ye glanced at Shen Wu, chuckling with a kind smile, “The third son isn’t as thoughtful as you.”

“This third son married a good wife, she’s a smooth talker.”

Many villagers, both men and women, thought she would suffer a miserable fate for not doing any work. In his opinion, that wasn’t necessarily true. Sometimes those who only knew how to work silently weren’t necessarily better than those who could speak and act charmingly. This was a lesson he had learned from his own experiences.

However, everyone had their own personality. He was just this way, and at his age, there was no need to change. If anything, his own child could learn from her.

Zhou Lao-tou lowered his head and ate his steamed bun. It had been years since he had eaten a white steamed bun. It was indeed more fragrant than the yellow steamed bun.

Shen Wu didn’t know what Da-ye was thinking. She handed him the white steamed bun and waited for the others to return. Fortunately, not many people would eat outside at this time, and even those who stayed out for a long time wouldn’t think about buying anything. They would just bring a cornbread from home and drink some cold water. Everyone came back around ten o’clock.

When Zhou Da-ye drove the donkey cart towards the county, there were a few hooligans at the entrance, looking around, but not very seriously.

A strong man sat under a nearby tree, his backside crooked.

“Boss, I think we won’t find them!” said the blind man.

Hearing this, the man immediately threw a clod of earth at him, “You little bastard, find them! If we can’t find them… I… ouch!”

He shifted his position, putting pressure on the other side of his rear end, and the pain made him break out in a cold sweat.

“Did I take that arrow for nothing?” He was in so much pain that he almost cried, “It’s a disgrace, a disgrace!”

His subordinates suppressed their laughter.

The blind man, who had been hit by the clod of earth, also felt the pain. He grimaced and tried to explain, “Boss, that’s not what I meant. I mean, those people must be afraid of you, they haven’t dared to enter the city for a while.”

“Besides, it’s dark every night, and it’s not easy to find them. We’re all here, wasting time, not to mention the police have been here several times today.”

As he spoke, the blind man saw Shen Wu sitting on the donkey cart from afar. Her bright face, her skin whiter than a peeled egg.

He felt a tingling sensation in his heart, like feathers scratching. He swallowed hard.

Lu Su-lan.

Su-lan.

Lan-lan.

She was beautiful, and her name was beautiful too.

“What are you looking at?”

The blind man immediately turned his head, thinking that Su-lan had smiled at him, that she had him in her heart. He couldn’t stay here, “Boss, think about it, what if we can’t find them and get caught by the police? We’ll be losing both our wife and our army!”

Everyone was sunburned and looked like frostbitten eggplants. They thought the blind man’s words made sense.

Shen Wu and Xu Yin returned home. Lu Lao-tai first checked if there was enough meat.

“It’s quite a lot.” Lu Lao-tai scanned Shen Wu and Xu Yin. Seeing that they seemed to have quarreled, their faces were cold and indifferent. She curiously asked, “What’s wrong with you two?”

Xu Yin had eaten her fill and was now willing to talk to Lu Lao-tai, “She wanted to go to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy hair ties, using the money you gave her.”

“I stopped her.”

Lu Lao-tai looked at Shen Wu, then at Xu Yin, thinking to herself that she was right to let them go together. These two didn’t get along, but they were quite good to her. Originally, she wanted to encourage a good relationship between her two daughters-in-law, but now she thought that a bad relationship would allow her to control them.

This was the strategy that Shen Wu and Xu Yin had discussed. Since they didn’t get along, Lu Lao-tai would definitely want to find someone to keep an eye on them.

Unexpectedly, Lu Lao-tai was actually thinking about ways to balance them.

Unfortunately, she was still outmaneuvered.

“Your second brother hasn’t come back yet. We’ll eat this meat tonight. Go cook quickly.” This time, Lu Lao-tai didn’t try to reconcile them.

Both of them had eaten their fill, so they simply picked some beans and stir-fried them with some lard, then made noodles.

She said in a pleasant tone, “Just make do with this for lunch. Mother said we’ll have a feast tonight when second uncle comes back. We bought meat!”

Everyone was happy to hear about the meat, and they looked forward to dinner. Besides, bean noodles weren’t bad for a farmer’s family, and Shen Wu’s cooking was good.

The happiest one was Lu Pan-er, “Mother, father is coming back, and we’ll have meat!”

Wang Hua, who usually didn’t smile much, had a smile on her face. Her eyes softened as she looked at her child and rubbed her head, “Yes, your father is coming back.”

After lunch, Lu Xuan and Lu Ye went to the back mountain.

Li Ping went to the kitchen to wash the dishes.

Wang Hua swept the floor with a broom, and Shen Wu went to fetch water to wash the dust off her face and hands.

She heard Lu Lao-tai nagging to Wang Hua, “It’s not easy for the second son to come back once. You should seize this opportunity and quickly give us Lu Family a grandson.”

“Did you hear that?”

Wang Hua often worked in the fields and didn’t cover herself as tightly as Shen Wu, so her skin was slightly darker. Under Lu Lao-tai’s words, her face turned red under her dark complexion.

“I know, Mother, but this matter of having a child is also about fate. I think having Pan-er is pretty good.” Wang Hua said softly.

Lu Lao-tai, however, snorted in disdain, “What’s good about a girl? Quickly give birth to a son, that’s the right thing to do.”

“Don’t you all end up like your family, with no sons to carry on the lineage…”

“Splash!”

“Ouch, third son’s wife, what are you doing!”

Shen Wu chuckled awkwardly, “Mother, I was so engrossed in your conversation that I accidentally spilled the water.”

As she spoke, Shen Wu patted the water off her, “Mother, don’t mind. Don’t worry, I’ll give birth to a son for the third brother, a big, fat boy.”

“Just wait to hold a big grandson, eighteen treasures in one litter!”

Lu Lao-tai listened to her nonsensical words and felt a sharp pain where Shen Wu had hit her.

“Stop hitting me! I’m going to change clothes.”

How could she be so strong when she looked so delicate and weak?

Shen Wu didn’t mean to hit her. The old lady’s clothes were quite dirty. Hearing this, she quickly let go and went to fetch water to wash her hands again.

Wang Hua looked at Shen Wu.

Shen Wu felt her gaze and smiled at her.

Wang Hua knew that her third sister-in-law had just helped her out, “Sister-in-law, thank you.”

Shen Wu shrugged. She finished washing up, and Lu Xuan came back, carrying a bag of something in his hand.

Shen Wu looked over, “What did you bring?”

She walked over and weighed it in her hand. It was light and fluffy. When she opened it, she saw white cotton, soft to the touch, like sinking into a cloud.

“Why did you suddenly buy cotton?”

Lu Xuan lowered his voice, “Didn’t you say it was uncomfortable?”

“I’ll make a small quilt with this, to pad under you, so you won’t feel uncomfortable anymore.”

Shen Wu saw the unnatural expression on his face and knew that he wasn’t thinking about anything good, “What are you thinking about?”

Thinking about things that shouldn’t be mentioned, Lu Xuan coughed, “Nothing, I’ll go back to the room.”

He said and went back with the cotton. Shen Wu had also washed her face and nodded to Wang Hua. She quickly followed Lu Xuan to the room and locked the door as soon as they entered.

Now it was Lu Xuan’s turn to turn around and stare at her –