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“It’s done!” Lu Qiniang’s face lit up with joy. “What are we waiting for? I’ll take you to have a look.”
“No, that’s not it. I wanted to tell you—I can get out of bed by myself now,” Xiao Yan said.
Yesterday, seeing how lively the mother and daughters were, and with no one keeping a close watch on him, Xiao Yan had felt a bit of strength return to his body. He propped himself up against the kang and tried getting out of bed.
Although he didn’t stand for long, this time—he managed to stay steady on his feet.
He was like a toddler, learning to walk all over again.
“Really?” Lu Qiniang was overjoyed at his words. “Take a few steps. Let me see.”
Xiao Yan: “…”
Something about that sounded a bit strange.
“Come on, just walk a few steps.”
Lu Qiniang grew impatient with waiting and simply dressed Xiao Yan herself, slipping on his clothes, shoes, and socks. Then, like carrying a child, she propped him up by the armpits and carefully lifted him off the kang, setting him down gently on the ground.
“Are you sure you’re up for this? Xiao Yan, don’t push yourself too hard.”
“Better than a lame turtle, at least,” Xiao Yan murmured, steadying himself against the edge of the kang.
Huh, was he really holding a grudge over that?
“Old Hu is still impressive—he said you’d be fine, and look, you are.”
Thinking of that unreliable “divine physician,” Xiao Yan couldn’t help but feel that this time, it was like a blind cat running into a dead rat.
He suspected that someone had drugged his food before—how else could his body have gone so weak and limp?
But after just a few days of clean and fresh meals, his strength had slowly begun to return.
“Daya, Erya, Sanya—your father can stand now,” Lu Qiniang called out as she patiently supported Xiao Yan on their way out.
Erya, however, said, “Forget about that Father for a moment. Mother, come look in the pot!”
As it turned out, a thick layer of oil had solidified in the pot. When poked with a pair of chopsticks, it was nearly half a pot deep.
In their household, they wouldn’t get to eat that much oil in an entire year!
Using this to stir-fry vegetables—it would make the food so fragrant it could daze a person.
“I knew it already. Why else do you think I’ve been so busy?” Lu Qiniang said with a touch of pride as she continued to steady Xiao Yan.
She fetched the oil jar she had washed and dried the day before and poured the thick layer of beef tallow into it. Then she scooped out a small bowlful and handed it to Daya.
“Daya, take this to Great-grandmother Sun.”
Normally, Sanya was the one who ran errands for the family, but beef tallow was far too precious—Daya delivering it was more appropriate.
“Cover it with a cloth. Don’t let anyone see. If someone asks, just say you’re bringing her a piece of tofu for the New Year.”
“Mother, we’re already so poor we rattle when we walk, and we’re still giving some to Great-grandmother Sun?” Erya grumbled, clearly unhappy.
“When I was sick last time, she brought over six eggs,” Lu Qiniang said firmly, remembering clearly. “Besides, her grandson and your father were very close.”
Old Madam Sun’s grandson was named Sun Shun, just a year younger than Zhang Heyao, but he’d followed him around like a shadow. The two of them had been thick as thieves.
Even when they enlisted, they did it together.
And they died—both in the same great battle.
Old Madam Sun’s only son had died young, and her daughter-in-law had remarried, leaving behind only Sun Shun as her sole blood relative.
When Sun Shun was gone, she cried her eyes blind. Ever since, her vision had remained cloudy, everything before her a blur.
Lu Qiniang felt sorry for her, so from time to time, she would send her daughters over to check on her and bring her small gifts.
“You’re still bringing up those six eggs? They were all rotten!” Erya huffed.
Though plenty of people had brought eggs over, Erya remembered clearly who had given what and where each batch had been kept.
The ones from Old Madam Sun were all spoiled.
“She didn’t do it on purpose. It must have been hard enough for her to get her hands on a few eggs—she couldn’t bear to eat them, kept putting it off until they went bad. It’s the thought that counts. Daya, go on and deliver it.”
Daya carried the bowl out.
Seeing that Erya was still a bit upset, Lu Qiniang gently patted her on the head. “Everyone grows old one day. How many more years do you think she has left? Just think of it as doing a good deed. We’ll have plenty of time to eat well and live comfortably in the future, won’t we? Mother’s counting on enjoying life with her Erya!”
“Mother, my name is Zhuozhuo!”
Ever since she’d gotten her name, Erya had been especially proud of it.
She turned to Xiao Yan and started talking about the Sun family again.
“She’s pitiful too. She actually received fifteen taels of condolence silver, but it ended up being swindled away by a grandnephew from her maternal family. I couldn’t stand it, so I stood up for her and helped her get ten taels back. These past few years, she’s been surviving on that silver. She still has that house, and once she passes, it’ll go back to the clan. So for now, she gets a little aid from the clan as well—just enough to scrape by.”
If it hadn’t been for Xiao Yan, Old Madam Sun would’ve already joined the dead.
That was why Lu Qiniang wanted to tell him all of it.
“You’ve done a truly virtuous deed,” she said sincerely. “One day, you’ll surely be rewarded for it. What you’re going through now—it’s nothing. Everyone has their mountains and valleys in life, but all of it passes, doesn’t it?”
The way she spoke was just like how she had coaxed Erya earlier.
“Mm.” Xiao Yan nodded, though deep down, he didn’t believe a word of it.
After skimming off the oil, Lu Qiniang stoked the fire under the stove again and brought the pot back to a boil. Then she picked off what little meat was still clinging to the bones.
Early in the morning, the whole family gathered around to enjoy steaming, fragrant beef soup.
“Mother, it’s so good! I want more at lunch,” Sanya said, setting down her bowl and licking her lips, clearly still craving more.
“You little glutton,” Lu Qiniang chuckled, patting her rounded belly. “You’ve had two big bowls already—you’re about to turn into a little watermelon.”
She didn’t plan to serve the remaining broth right away.
Once it solidified, she would cut it into small cubes and use a piece each day during the New Year to stew with cabbage—now that would be truly delicious!
After the meal, Lu Qiniang said, “You girls tidy up the house and get ready for the New Year. I’m heading out for a bit.”
“Mother, don’t go looking for more work now—it’s already the twenty-eighth of the twelfth lunar month. Who’s not home preparing for the festival?” Daya said, a bit worried.
“I’m done working. I’ll think about it again next year,” Lu Qiniang replied with a smile.
With more than one tael of silver in hand, she no longer felt that same panic.
“I just want to take a walk up the mountain,” Lu Qiniang said. “It’s been snowing for days, and now that the weather’s clear, I figure the wild hares and pheasants will be out foraging. I’ll go set a few snares—who knows, maybe I’ll get lucky!”
“You’d better not go,” Erya said. “When I went out earlier, I saw a bunch of men already heading up the mountain to hunt rabbits. There’re more people up there than animals right now.”
“I’ll just go deeper into the woods,” Lu Qiniang replied.
“No way,” Daya objected. “Mother, there are wolves in the forest.”
“Wolves? I’m not even scared of tigers! I’d welcome something big!”
Her daughters all grabbed onto her arms, refusing to let her go.
In the end, Lu Qiniang promised them she wouldn’t venture into the deep mountains, and only then did they reluctantly agree.
But once she left, the promised return by afternoon never came. Even as night fell, there was still no sign of her.
The three daughters were so worried they started crying.
Xiao Yan suspected that Lu Qiniang had ventured into the deeper parts of the mountain.
Normally, it wouldn’t be such a big deal, but with the thick snow everywhere now, it would be easy to get lost.
In the deep mountains, if someone got lost and couldn’t find their way back in time, in this kind of weather, it wouldn’t take long before things turned dire.