Chapter 14: A Fight

“I’m used to getting up early. Your big brother has already cooked the porridge, and the braised meat is also cut. You can eat after you wash up.”

“Oh, okay.”

Qin Zhiyu was still a little dazed, carrying her chipped porcelain basin with a peony pattern towards the kitchen.

She saw Qin Zhishu was also up, but she wasn’t surprised.

Her second brother would get up early every day to read.

“Second Brother, good morning.”

Qin Zhishu was putting the bowls of porridge he had served out, wiping the stove with a linen cloth.

Qin Zhiyu smelled the overpowering aroma of the braised meat, and she instantly woke up.

Her stomach also started to rumble.

“Second Brother, is there any hot water… Hey, Second Brother, why is your face so red? Your ears are red too.”

Qin Zhishu awkwardly reached out to scratch his ear, he put on a serious face and said, “It’s from the heat. The hot water is in the wooden bucket outside.”

Qin Zhiyu was still a little slow, she said “Oh” and turned to walk outside.

A while later, Qin Zhifeng also got up.

The three brothers went out together after breakfast.

Qin’s mother and Qin Yan were still asleep, while Qin Zhiyu carried her clothes to the small river in the village to wash clothes.

The Qin family didn’t have a well, and most rural families didn’t have water pumps installed.

They usually had to fetch water from the well at Da Yuan’s house across the street.

Although he didn’t mind, it wasn’t good to go fetch water every day.

So they used water sparingly.

They basically wouldn’t use it if they could avoid it.

Taking advantage of the fact that no one was around, Xu Sangluo tidied up the yard.

She also watered the small vegetable garden with some spiritual spring water.

The weather was cold, and only scallions and wild garlic were still growing in the vegetable garden, but only a small patch.

The other vegetables had already been pulled out and eaten, but they must have re-sown seeds.

There was now a patch of small green seedlings.

Based on her years of experience in farming, it was clearly cabbage and radish seedlings.

But the seedlings weren’t growing well, they were a little wilted.

Some places didn’t even have seedlings, they must have died.

Her eyes lit up, and she took out some seeds and planted them in the empty space.

She only planted chicken feather vegetables and Shanghai greens.

The former has a short growth cycle, about twenty days, and the latter is also cold-resistant, perfect for planting in winter.

She thought that when she had time, she would go outside to see if she could dig up some soil, make a few wooden boxes, and plant a few boxes of vegetables under the eaves or even in the house.

This way, she could eat fresh vegetables in winter without exposing her space.

The Qin family didn’t raise poultry, …

After all, Qin’s mother had to go up the mountain to dig for wild vegetables, how could she afford to raise livestock?

Speaking of going up the mountain, she had an idea.

Maybe she could find a chance to go up the mountain and take a look.

There was a small mountain nearby, not very high, and many villagers would often go there to pick wild vegetables and mushrooms to eat.

But it was said that there were wild animals in the mountains, so they basically only dared to go to the lower part of the mountain, or pick them at the foot of the mountain.

She was pondering this when a child suddenly ran into the open courtyard.

Xu Sangluo heard the commotion and turned to look.

The child also saw her first, he was stunned for a moment, then immediately became restrained, looking around.

“Little brother, is there something you need?”

The child was about eight years old, with dark skin, and he must have been running too fast, his face had a faint blush.

“I, that…”

Seeing Xu Sangluo asking, the boy, who guessed who she was, didn’t know what to do with his hands and feet, he stammered.

“Hmm?” Seeing his nervous look, Xu Sangluo showed him a gentle smile and teased, “Don’t be nervous, I don’t eat people.”

The boy looked up, a little dazed at her smile, then his face turned even redder.

But he hadn’t forgotten why he came here, he stammered, “That, is Brother Xiaofeng here? Sister Xiaoyu is fighting with someone by the river.”

“What?” Xu Sangluo’s expression immediately turned serious.

“You said Xiaoyu is fighting with someone? What’s going on now?” She said as she walked out.

The boy was startled by her sudden change of face, he became even more nervous, but he still nodded, “Yes, I don’t know what’s going on now. There are a lot of people there, I’m afraid Sister Xiaoyu will be beaten, so I, I ran to find…”

“Please show me the way.” Xu Sangluo was immediately anxious, she quickly closed the courtyard gate and walked out.

But when she arrived, the farce had already ended.

There were quite a few people standing in the water by the river, bending over to wash clothes on the stone steps, chatting.

The river was quite large, with stone walls on both sides, the water was deep, a deep green that couldn’t be seen to the bottom.

There were rows of long stone steps or small openings carved out on both sides of the river bank, making it convenient for people to wash clothes or fetch water.

Xu Sangluo first scanned the crowded stone steps, but she couldn’t find Qin Zhiyu.

Finally, she saw her at a small opening in the distance.

She was squatting alone on the broken stone, bending over to wash clothes.

She wasn’t far from the stone steps in front and behind, and compared to their liveliness, she seemed to be isolated.

She walked quickly towards her.

As she passed the long steps, she…

Most people looked up at her.

It could only be said that Xu Sangluo’s appearance was too striking.

She wasn’t the kind of stunning beauty who could captivate a nation, but she had a gentle and elegant charm, like the water towns of the south, with a refined and graceful demeanor, every move attracting attention.

Most importantly, she was very fair.

It couldn’t be said that she glowed, but at least no one in the Luo Xi brigade could compare to her.

As the saying goes, “Fairness covers a hundred flaws,” and she was already beautiful to begin with.

She truly stood out from the crowd.

Not many people actually knew Xu Sangluo.

When they saw her, the people by the river were quite surprised and curious, they couldn’t help but poke the people next to them and ask.

Who is this female comrade? Could she be a female comrade sent from the county to inspect or deliver a notice?

Xu Sangluo walked directly over, and before she got close, she called out,

“Xiaoyu.”

Qin Zhiyu was struggling to wring out her clothes, she turned her head subconsciously when she heard this.

Then she saw Xu Sangluo walking over.

She quickly put down her clothes and stood up, raising her arm to wipe her face.

“Sister Sangluo, why are you here?”

Xu Sangluo quickly looked her over.

Fortunately, besides her braids being messed up, she didn’t seem to have any injuries.

“I heard you had a conflict with someone. What happened?”

Qin Zhiyu widened her eyes in surprise, “Sister Sangluo, how did you know?”

“Don’t worry about how I know. What happened? Are you hurt? What’s going on? Where are they?”

Xu Sangluo frowned and walked closer, scanning her from head to toe.

Qin Zhiyu couldn’t help but avoid her gaze.

“Nothing, we just had a little argument while chatting.”

Xu Sangluo narrowed her eyes, her gaze falling on the two crooked ponytails on the back of her head, her hair was still sticking out in clumps, “Is that so?”

Qin Zhiyu remembered that her hair was messed up and hadn’t been fixed yet.

She couldn’t help but grab it, she smiled awkwardly, “I accidentally got scratched by a branch.”

Seeing that she really didn’t want to talk, Xu Sangluo sighed and stopped asking.

She looked at the clothes in the bucket, “How much is left?”

She rolled up her sleeves and walked towards the stone.

Qin Zhiyu quickly said, “Not much left, I’ll be done soon. Sister Sangluo, you can go back first.”

She was afraid that those people would talk nonsense again, saying all sorts of upsetting things, and it wouldn’t be good for Sister Sangluo to hear.

The reason she had a conflict with them was because someone was talking too rudely.