Chapter 161: A Comparison

Under the willow tree by the river, Lu Songli and Qin Sheng sat side by side.

Qin Sheng somehow produced a handful of raspberries and handed them to her to eat.

Lu Songli smiled and asked him, “Am I the only one who has them?”

This handful of raspberries was large and plump. Lu Songli recognized them as palm leaf raspberries, the best variety of raspberries with the freshest and sweetest taste.

The most dissatisfying thing for Lu Songli about this exile was the lack of fruit to eat. In fact, even without the exile, there were not many fruits available in this era, especially in the middle of winter.

“Eat up.” Qin Sheng did not answer, but instead picked one up and fed it to her.

Lu Songli ate it from his hand and asked, “Save some for the children?” These raspberries were also very attractive to children.

Qin Sheng said seriously, “These are too sour, not good for the teeth if children eat them.” So he didn’t save any.

“Are you not worried about my teeth?” Lu Songli teased.

Qin Sheng looked at her with a hint of complaint. She was so smart, she must have caught on. He had searched for a long time on the mountain to find this handful of raspberries. If they shared them, each would not get enough. She was teasing him.

Clearly delicious, Lu Songli leaned against his shoulder and couldn’t stop smiling.

Qin Sheng wrapped his arm around her shoulder, feeling his ears turn red involuntarily.

Lu Songli ate one herself and then fed him one. Qin Sheng only ate one and refused when she tried to feed him again. He had searched for a long time to find this small handful and didn’t want to eat too much.

Ignoring his refusal, Lu Songli ate two more and tried to feed him another. In the end, they finished sharing the handful of raspberries.

As the sky darkened, Lu Songli stood up, holding his hand, and they walked back together. To prevent Old Madam Qin from worrying, they returned before anyone came looking for them.

When they arrived back at the rundown house they were staying in, Old Madam Qin was standing in the yard, smiling as she watched the two of them holding hands. “Back already?”

Qin Sheng tried to pull away, but Lu Songli didn’t let go of his hand. He stood still, afraid of accidentally hurting her.

Nonchalantly, Lu Songli replied, “Yes, Mother—”

Qin Sheng’s face turned red, trying to maintain his composure.

“Mother, we’ll go in first.” Lu Songli pulled him away, releasing his hand only after they entered the house.

It was another night of peaceful sleep.

In the early morning, while it was still dark, Qin Sheng felt pressure on his right shoulder and warm breath near his neck. His right hand was resting on a soft waist.

Qin Sheng was already familiar with this situation. Since their wedding night, he had experienced his wife’s poor sleeping posture. During this period of exile, as long as they slept side by side, she would inevitably end up in his arms the next morning.

The house was quiet, and Qin Sheng was half-asleep, not wanting to move. However, something unexpected soon made him wide awake.

In the morning, his younger brother was always full of energy. Then, perhaps because it was pressing against her, she, still lost in her sleep, pushed it away with one hand. It, like a top, righted itself, and the two of them engaged in a tug-of-war.

Qin Sheng was woken up by her actions and was at a loss for what to do.

Finally, the mischievous little brother was…

He widened his eyes and looked at the person in his arms. The person in his arms, who had been agitated, calmed down for a moment, then slowly opened her eyes.

Their eyes met, and in her hand…

At that moment, their breathing slowed.

Fortunately, they were both covered in blankets, and this dilapidated Taoist temple was large enough that their beds were far apart. Otherwise, with their behavior, anyone who had been through this before would be able to guess what had happened.

“Good morning, heh heh…” Lu Songli slowly let go of her hand.

Qin Sheng felt it. He felt a sense of relief, but also a little bit of disappointment?

Unexpectedly, after releasing her hand, she did a U-turn and slapped it again?

Qin Sheng, caught off guard, widened his eyes, then his handsome face turned crimson. “You…”

“What about me?” Lu Songli looked at him defiantly, thinking to herself, her big baby’s big baby was really quite substantial.

“How can you do that?” Qin Sheng’s face was red as if blood was about to drip from it.

“What did I do?” Lu Songli teased him. She was patting her own thing, what was wrong with that? “Or, do you want me to touch it back?”

Touch, touch it back? Qin Sheng was defeated. Who could blame him for not being as thick-skinned as her?

Qin Sheng was about to say something else when he caught sight of Qin Jia rubbing his eyes and getting up.

“Get up.” Qin Sheng motioned for her to get up.

“Don’t want to!” Lu Songli played the role of a spoiled child.

Qin Sheng gestured for her to look at Qin Jia’s side. When Lu Songli looked over, she met Qin Jia’s curious gaze, which was looking over from afar.

Finally, Lu Songli stopped teasing him, and the two of them got up smoothly.

Their breakfast that morning was wild vegetable and lean meat porridge, white steamed buns, small pickles, and salted duck eggs.

There was something dry, something wet, and side dishes, everyone was satisfied.

These pickles were bought from Liu Erxi’s uncle’s village, Yuqian Village. A family in their village made particularly delicious pickles, famous far and wide. When he went there, he bought all the pickles they had made this year. Because he was generous, the family didn’t even keep a single jar for themselves, they sold it all to him.

The Niuza candy and rice cakes were also made by his aunt, who asked the skilled women in the village to help.

He taught his aunt the method, and she, after learning it, began to busy herself with the other women. Knowing that he needed them urgently, they worked overtime to make them for him.

Of course, it is also related to the generous wages he gave, not only did he settle their wages later, he also left twenty catties of cowhide sugar and twenty catties of rice cakes for them to share. Twenty catties is not a lot, each person can probably get about half a catty of each.

For his cousin-in-law, he also gave a generous gift separately.

So when he had to leave later, many families came out to see him off, very reluctant to part with this generous person.

Finally, the steward of Yuqian Zhuang told him that if there were any similar tasks in the future, he could come directly to their Yuqian Zhuang, and they would specifically assign it to him.

Liu Erxi himself did not expect things to turn out this way.

Unlike the peaceful days of Lu Songli and his group, the Xie and Zhao families were living very difficult lives.

Xie Nan handed the small basin of hot water she was holding to Zhao Yutan, “Eldest Sister-in-law, why don’t you wipe Eldest Brother’s body?”

This small basin of hot water was heated in the pottery jar they had salvaged.

Xie Nan knew that Eldest Brother Xie Zhan had always been a clean person, but since they came out of prison, they had been on the run and hadn’t had a bath.

At first, Eldest Brother was in poor health due to the punishment he received, and with the tense relationship between the prison guards and the convicts of the Xie and Zhao families at that time, there was no opportunity for a hot bath.

After Eldest Brother’s health improved, he would use a piece of cloth soaked in snow water to wipe his body.

Now that the weather had turned hot, Xie Nan knew that Eldest Brother Xie Zhan was feeling uncomfortable, so she decided to heat some water for him.

In fact, she could have personally taken the water to Eldest Brother, and even served him, but she couldn’t stand Zhao Yutan and deliberately made her do it. After all, Eldest Brother was her husband, so shouldn’t she take care of him?

Xie Nan was dissatisfied with Eldest Sister-in-law Zhao Yutan, feeling that she was not worthy of her Eldest Brother.

Since the Xie family fell on hard times, she had been in a daze, lacking any resilience. When the clan was brought down, she was brought down too. Furthermore, as a wife, with Eldest Brother suffering so much, her care was also very negligent. In short, she couldn’t do anything right.

Most importantly, she felt that if it weren’t for Zhao Yutan, if Eldest Sister-in-law had always been Lu Songli, then this disaster could have been avoided by the Xie family, or even, the Xie family could have progressed further.

Because the one who brought the Xie family from a high position to the mud pit was none other than Lu Songli. If the other party was the young mistress of the Xie family, would she still do this?

Zhao Yutan slowly took the wooden basin, knowing that she was not accepted by the Xie family clan members, Xie Nan’s dissatisfaction was relatively mild, but others showed it more clearly.

She knew that the people of the Xie family did not look highly upon her, firstly because she was thrown into prison shortly after getting married, she didn’t have a chance to show her abilities: secondly, these people were just despicable, they knew it was Lu Songli who caused them to end up like this in front of the prison gates, yet they still valued her.

But why didn’t they consider that, if Lu Songli was so capable, why did the Qin family still get exiled?