The next day, Wu Shi got up early in the morning and wanted to find Su Qingyu to ask for clarification, but she didn’t expect Su Qingyu to go out without even having breakfast, so she didn’t meet her. This made her very upset.

“Father.”

Father Su was walking towards Lu’s residence on West Street when he heard Su Qingyu calling him and stopped in a hurry.

“Didn’t I tell you to wait at home? Why did you have to come out and get some fresh air?”

Su Qingyu walked up to him with a smile, took his arm, and pulled him to a small noodle stall.

Father Su refused: “Hey, hey, Dad has already eaten at home.”

“Have another bowl after you’ve eaten that. You’ve come such a long way. Besides, I haven’t eaten yet. Dad, please accompany me to eat more. Shopkeeper, give me a bowl of wontons and a bowl of meat noodle soup.”

“Okay, I’ll be right there.”

Father Su felt warm in his heart: “Child, why do you want meat soup noodles? Daddy will just eat vegetarian noodles.” When the noodles were served, he insisted on putting the meat into Su Qingyu’s bowl.

After they finished eating, they boarded the oxcart heading to Suqingliu Village. After wandering around for more than half an hour, they finally arrived.

When they arrived, the family was having lunch. Farmers didn’t have breakfast, they always ate lunch early, which was no later than the middle of the Si hour.

“In-laws, are you having dinner?” Father Su greeted the Cui family.

When the Cui family heard the sound, they all looked over.

Su Qingyu also followed into the yard and saw that all the Cui family members, young and old, were sitting around two tables in the yard eating, except for her sister and Yaya.

They started looking around.

“My dear relative, why are you here?” Old Man Cui stood up in a daze.

“Well, I just came to see Qingliu on my way. Are you eating?” Father Su glanced around the table and frowned when he didn’t see Qingliu.

“Yes, yes, we’re having dinner. Would you like to join us for a meal, in-laws?” Old Man Cui also noticed the gaze of Father Su and felt quite uncomfortable.

“No, no, we had breakfast in town, you guys can eat it.”

Su Qingyu looked around but didn’t see her sister. Seeing that her father was only trying to save face and just laughed it off, she didn’t plan to do that. She asked coldly, “Where are my sister and Yaya? This family is having a meal together, but my sister is the only one left out?”

“Well, she, she…” Old Man Cui looked at Old Woman Cui and stammered, unable to speak.

A middle-aged woman next to her replied, “Your sister is slow. She has been washing clothes for the whole morning and still hasn’t finished. This family of old and young cannot starve. Do you want the whole family to wait for her?”

Su Qingyu looked at her coldly and said, “Can there be anyone younger than Yaya?”

The woman was frightened by Su Qingyu’s cold eyes. She lowered her head, picked up a piece of food with chopsticks, and handed it to her grandson next to her. She said, “Eat quickly. You are so slow. Do you want your family to wait for you?”

She was making indirect accusations. Didn’t Su Qingyu hear it?

This family was amazing. She even dared to complain about her sister’s slowness.

Her elder sister was the most skillful, she didn’t delay her work even when carrying Yaya on her back. It was obvious that this family didn’t take her elder sister seriously.

Can’t wait for either the young or the old? Or neither the old nor the young?

Su Qingyu sneered, strode forward, and was about to wave her hand when she was grabbed by Father Su.

He was so scared. This girl was getting more and more aggressive. She even dared to flip the table at a relative’s house?

He glared at her fiercely.

Su Qingyu then calmed down and glanced coldly at the people at the table. The children were all frightened by her eyes and lowered their heads, not daring to eat.

“Dad, I’m going to find my sister.”

She broke free from Father Su’s tightly grasped hand and walked out. She was too lazy to take another look at this family, angry.

With the guidance of the villagers, she came to a river.

From a distance, she saw her sister squatting on a stone slab by the river washing clothes. Next to her was a large wooden basin, half of which was still unwashed. There were many washed clothes piled on the stone slab. This amount of clothes meant that all the family’s clothes were thrown to her sister.

Looking at her sister again, she turned back to glance at Yaya while washing.

She kept talking to Yaya: “Be good, Yaya. Mommy will wash clothes for you. When you are done, I will take you home for dinner…”

Looking at Yaya again, her sister tied her with a rope around her small waist and then tied her to a nearby tree. She then let Yaya sit under the tree and pull grass tips for fun, with her face and hands covered in mud.

Su Qingyu felt a lump in her throat and suddenly wanted to cry.

She raised her head and blinked away the tears, then called softly, “Sister.”

Su Qingliu was busy washing clothes and talking to Yaya, so she didn’t hear anything. Su Qingyu called out again, and she looked up blankly.

“Qingyu?” She thought she had seen it wrong. She stood up blankly and blinked a few times without putting down the clothes in her hands.

“Why.”

“It’s really Qingyu! Why are you here?” Su Qingliu put down her clothes, wiped her hands on the hem of her clothes, and took two steps towards her.

“Sister, just stand there and don’t move. I’ll come over.”

Su Qingyu didn’t rush to walk towards her, but walked towards Yaya and untied the rope around her waist. Yaya seemed to still remember her, stared at her for a while, and then grinned at her.

“Oh, Yaya, you still remember your aunt, right?” She picked her up and bounced her up. It’s only been a few days and she had lost weight again.

“I’m asking you, why are you here? Did something happen at home?” Su Qingliu was a little nervous because her family members would not come here easily.

“No, everything is fine at home.” She hugged Yaya and teased her.

“Then why are you here? You let it go as soon as mèifū ^[1]husband of younger sister left? Aren’t you afraid of what your in-laws will say about you?”

“What can you say about me? It’s not like your in-laws, where the whole family won’t even wait for you when they’re having dinner.”

Su Qingliu was silent for a moment: “You, you’re home?”

Su Qingyu rolled her eyes at her, feeling very disappointed with her: “Dad is here too, he’s in the yard.”

“Ah, Dad is here? Why is Dad here?” She was so anxious that she wanted to turn around and take the basin back.

Su Qingmei walked over and held her down: “Why are you in such a hurry? Take your time to wash and let Daddy talk to them. Daddy will stand there and see if they can eat. The whole family is eating, and you are the only one to work. It’s embarrassing. There are half-grown girls in the family, but no one comes out to help you. It’s really that you are the only one who can be wasted.”

“Someone has to do the housework. There are only a few acres of land left, so how can we eat if we don’t rush to do it? We have not separated yet, and we all eat with the eldest room. If we don’t do more, others will talk about it.”

Su Qingliu defended herself in a low voice while pounding her clothes.

“Sister, you are really… I’m not saying you can’t do the work, but I can’t let you do it all by yourself! You won’t even be allowed to rest at mealtime, is this something that ordinary people would do?”

Su Qingliu stopped talking. Yaya was a girl. If it was a boy, her grandparents might have taken care of her.

Su Qingyu saw her squatting there with a blank look in her eyes, but her hands did not stop, and she sighed deeply. She half-hugged Yaya, drew water from the river, and washed her hands and feet.

“Yaya, you’ve become such a dirty cat that I can hardly recognize you.”

As soon as Yaya touched the water, she started laughing, twisted her body to go into the river, and put her little feet in the water.

Su Qingliu smiled at her daughter’s appearance.

She said to Su Qingyu, “You have to hold her tight. This girl loves playing in the water. I didn’t tie her up before, I just put her next to me so I could watch her closely. But she slipped into the water and didn’t cry when she choked on the water. She insisted on playing in the water and refused to get up. She cried even when I carried her home.”

“Is that so? Yaya loves playing in the water so much.”

Seeing the little thing twisting her body to get into the water, Su Qingyu rolled up her trouser legs, took off her straw sandals, picked her up from under her arms, and carried her into the water. When her feet reached the water, she lifted her up and slid her back and forth to play with her…

The little thing was not afraid at all, and it kept laughing, flapping its little feet and splashing water at her for fun.

Su Qingliu watched while washing, and laughed and scolded Su Qingyu for being like a child who had never grown up.

(End of this chapter)