Chapter 36: Going Too Far

The elderly couple from the Lin family were unaware of what had happened in the village today. When the captain and accountant Sun arrived, they were puzzled. After Sun explained the situation, tears welled up in the eyes of the Lin couple.

During this period, they had actually run out of grain. Last autumn, they hadn’t received much grain to begin with. The old man couldn’t work due to his injury, and Lin’s wife, in poor health, couldn’t handle high workloads either.

The captain, with a kind heart, assigned her to manage the livestock entering and leaving the breeding farm. It was not physically demanding but required literacy for record-keeping, something Lin’s wife could manage despite her health issues. The villagers couldn’t say much about it.

It was just that when their second daughter returned last year, she mentioned that the children at home were numerous and often went hungry. When she left, she took away a lot of grain, and since then, the elderly couple hadn’t had a decent meal.

Fortunately, they now had wild vegetables; otherwise, it would have been even harder for them to endure.

The Zhao family’s affairs were known to them, and they had seen their daughter from afar a few times, but they had never interacted. Unexpectedly, it was during this most difficult time that this girl gave them hope.

After the captain and accountant Sun left, the elderly Lin couple were filled with gratitude towards Luo Qiao. They had been surviving on wild vegetables for the past two or three days.

Old Lin comforted his wife, saying, “Perhaps we can still endure for a few more years with these old bones, maybe we’ll even see our son again.”

After speaking, both of them had tears in their eyes.

—

As the sky darkened, Luo Qiao packed up and entered the space.

The bupleurum and dandelions she had thrown in earlier were now planted in the space, saving the effort of finding them when needed.

The space was now full of life, with crops planted in the fields already sprouting. After exercising and practicing military exercises, Luo Qiao took a hot bath in the space.

After tidying herself up, she went to the study and started reading books on embroidery techniques. She had already read several of these books, which covered the four famous embroidery styles: Suzhou embroidery, Hunan embroidery, Guangdong embroidery, and Sichuan embroidery.

Luo Qiao was increasingly fond of embroidery now. After planning to finish this book, she intended to try embroidering herself with a frame. In her previous life, she had studied fashion design, which also involved some aspects of embroidery.

She had learned embroidery herself, but her skill level was average. Now, after reading so many embroidery techniques, she thought maybe she could embroider something exquisite.

Haha, just kidding. Embroidery is too taxing on the eyes. It’s fine as a hobby. Just reading about embroidery techniques without a master’s guidance might not be enough. Nevertheless, she could ponder it more in her spare time.

Just as she finished reading the book and found her embroidery cloth and threads, she heard a knocking at the door outside. Luo Qiao quickly tidied herself up and left the space. After listening carefully for a while, she recognized it was someone from the Zhao family.

Luo Qiao knew their purpose for coming, but the Zhao family was being quite inconsiderate, coming over when it was already dark. Regardless of their reasons, this was simply too much.

Luo Qiao decided not to open the door. Anyway, she could come up with plenty of excuses tomorrow—she could say she was afraid and didn’t dare open the door, or that she was sound asleep and didn’t hear them. They couldn’t do anything about it.

Just as she had made up her mind not to open the door, she heard another group of people arriving. She recognized the voices of the captain and his wife, along with the accountant Sun, coming together.

The captain asked, “Why aren’t you all staying at home in the middle of the night? Why have you come to Luo Qiao’s doorstep?”

The Zhao family hadn’t expected that their carefully discussed plan would fall apart before they even met Luo Qiao. It was truly embarrassing beyond words.