Chapter 46: Finally Eating Meat

Passersby simply ignored the scene. It wasn’t until dusk that the villagers dragged Liu Shi out and found an ox cart to send her home.

Liu Shi slowly regained consciousness inside the cart. When she saw that she had arrived at her doorstep, she immediately rolled off the cart.

Crawling and stumbling her way to the house, she was desperate to find some water to clean herself up. But the moment she pushed open the door, she was met with the sight of Du Dajiang tangled up in bed with another woman.

“Ah! Du Dajiang! What are you doing?!” Liu Shi screamed, her entire body trembling with rage.

Du Dajiang hurriedly pulled on his clothes, his face filled with annoyance. “Didn’t you leave? Why are you back?”

Liu Shi pointed at the woman on the bed, her voice filled with fury. “Who is this woman? What are you two doing?!”

The woman on the bed lazily got dressed, arching her brows with a smirk. “Sister Liu, can’t you tell? Surely, you of all people should understand.”

Back when Liu Shi was scheming to marry Du Dajiang, she had already been secretly involved with him—even before Du Wanchun’s mother had passed away. Everyone in the village had known about it.

And now, she was witnessing her own man entangled with another woman.

Karma had come full circle.

Liu Shi lost control and lunged at the woman. “You wretched slut! I’ll beat you to death!”

Seeing that Liu Shi was covered in filth and reeking horribly, the woman quickly hid behind Du Dajiang, whining coquettishly, “Brother Du, save me!”

Du Dajiang looked at Liu Shi with pure disgust and, without hesitation, slapped her hard across the face.

The force of the slap sent Liu Shi reeling, making her dizzy as she crashed to the ground.

Holding her cheek, she burst into tears. “Du Dajiang, I’ve been with you for years! I even gave you a daughter! How can you treat me like this?!”

Du Dajiang pointed at her angrily. “And you dare to bring up that daughter? I married you because I wanted a son, but you went and gave me another useless daughter! Since you can’t bear me a son, don’t blame me for finding someone who can!”

These were the exact words Du Dajiang had once said to Du Wanchun’s mother when he had abandoned her for Liu Shi.

At the time, Wanchun’s mother had already been in poor health. Hearing those words had caused her to cough up blood.

And now, it was Liu Shi’s turn to do the same.

Clutching her chest, she screamed in fury, “You adulterous pair! Just you wait—I won’t leave so easily! I’ll cling to this house even if it kills me!”

Seeing her making such a scene, Du Dajiang simply lost patience. “Stay if you want, but don’t expect me to give you a single bite of food!”

Liu Shi didn’t believe he would really abandon her like that. She sprawled on the ground, stubbornly refusing to leave. “Fine! I’ll stay here and see who gives in first!”

Du Dajiang, uninterested in arguing further, scooped up the woman in his arms and kicked Liu Shi aside before heading into the adjacent room.

The walls of the house weren’t particularly soundproof.

Lying on the floor, Liu Shi could hear everything happening in the next room, and she ground her teeth in hatred.

While the Du household was in complete chaos, over at the Zhou family, things were much more peaceful. The entire family sat together, happily counting their silver.

Madam Zhou’s eyes gleamed as she looked at the neatly stacked silver ingots. “Madam Fang is truly a kind person. If not for her, we might not have been able to sell this scented dew at all.”

Du Wanchun nodded. “Yes, Madam Fang has seen the world.”

Madam Zhou took Wanchun’s hand and said, “But most importantly, we have you to thank, Wanchun.”

Wanchun quickly shook her head. “Why thank me? You’re the one who made the scented dew, Mother. Without your skills, Madam Fang might not have liked it at all.”

“Nonsense, I absolutely must thank you. If not for you, I would never have thought of making scented dew in the first place.” Madam Zhou spoke with genuine gratitude.

Wanchun chuckled. “It’s nothing. The key was that you trusted me. If you hadn’t believed in me, you wouldn’t have been willing to try making scented dew at all.”

Madam Zhou sighed, smiling even as tears glistened in her eyes. “You’re such a good child.”

Watching the two women shower each other with praise, the Zhou brothers standing nearby couldn’t help but laugh.

Early the next morning, Madam Zhou took the silver and went to the neighboring village. She bought half a pig, cotton, fabric, household necessities like pots and bowls, and some salt.

Using the cotton, she made two new quilts. Then, she sewed new clothes for each of the children.

For Du Wanchun, she made a pleated skirt in a fresh shade of green.

This time, the fabric was much better than the pale yellow one she had before.

When Wanchun put it on, she looked completely different. Her fair complexion looked even more radiant.

Back in the Du family, she had never worn such fine clothing. Even when she got slightly better fabric, it was always in dull colors like grayish purple. The coarse hemp dresses were not only ugly but also uncomfortable to wear.

The dress Madam Zhou made for her had delicate, layered pleats. As she walked, it fluttered softly, and when the spring breeze blew, the hem of the skirt swayed like flowing water.

The more Wanchun looked at it, the more she liked it. She twirled around the courtyard several times, unable to contain her joy.

Many villagers passing by paused to glance at her, murmuring about how beautiful the young girl was.

Hearing this from inside the house, Madam Zhou was overjoyed. She thought about buying a nice piece of jewelry for her daughter-in-law once they earned more silver.

By noon, Madam Zhou had divided up the pork.

The large cuts of meat were hung in the woodshed to be smoked into cured pork. The trotters and bones were used to make a rich stew.

The remaining silver was handed over to Du Wanchun.

Wanchun carefully put the money away, planning to save up enough to build a new house for the family.

Before long, the Zhou household was filled with the smell of cooked meat.

In the neighboring Chen household, Chen Tieniu caught a whiff of the delicious scent and was surprised. He grabbed his wife’s arm and said, “Jiang Qiujue, do you smell that? It smells like meat.”

Jiang Qiujue nodded. “I smell it too. Who’s cooking meat today?”

Changliu Village wasn’t poor, but not many families could afford to eat meat often.

The Chen family was doing fine, but their crops hadn’t been growing well lately, their chickens were gone, and their piglets had died. It had already been nearly half a month since they last had meat.

Jiang Qiujue was practically drooling at the scent. These past few days, her hands had been injured, and she hadn’t eaten anything good.

“Must be the Meng family,” Chen Tieniu said as he ladled a bowl of plain porridge for her.

At that moment, their eldest son, Chen Laoda, walked in from outside and said, “Father, Mother, it’s actually Second Aunt’s family next door who’s eating meat.”

Jiang Qiujue was stunned. “Her family can afford to eat meat now?”