She spent the whole night tossing and turning, unable to sleep, and finally mustered the courage today.

Unknowingly, her sense of superiority from being from the capital had completely vanished in front of Lin Shu.

At this point, she couldn’t help but be a bit ingratiating when she saw her.

Lin Shu, despite her injured ankle and toe, which weren’t broken but still painful, refused to stay on the bed as Lu Shaotang suggested.

Instead, she was busy teaching Lu Xiuxiu how to make clothes.

When Zhao Meifeng came over, Lin Shu greeted her warmly, not showing any displeasure.

During the New Year, everyone preferred a festive atmosphere.

“I already told you he was coming back, didn’t I? Why did you only believe it today? You said you didn’t trust me and kept hanging around me,” Lin Shu said.

Zhao Meifeng hurriedly replied, “I didn’t doubt it. It’s good that he’s back. Really good.”

Lin Shu asked, “Do you have any fabric? I can help you make clothes.”

Zhao Meifeng quickly refused, “No, no need.”

Although Zhao Meifeng was known for her sharp tongue, she couldn’t show her usual attitude in front of Lin Shu.

Lu Xiuxiu was surprised.

How could Third Aunt manage to handle Zhao Meifeng, who was known to be harsh and opportunistic, so smoothly?

Even Second Aunt was wary of her.

Zhao Meifeng, seeing that Lin Shu was busy, soon went out to watch the pig slaughter.

Lin Shu continued teaching Lu Xiuxiu how to make clothes.

She noticed that over the past two years, Lu Xiuxiu hadn’t learned much.

Perhaps her master had started with the basics first.

Lu Xiuxiu’s hand-stitching and machine-sewing skills were decent, and she could generally meet Lin Shu’s requirements.

However, Lu Xiuxiu still couldn’t sew a complete garment on her own, let alone handle more complex tasks like cutting patterns.

She didn’t know how to do those.

When asked, Lu Xiuxiu explained that the tailor only let her and another girl do basic tasks, such as sewing, hemming, and attaching buttons.

The more complicated skills, like setting sleeves, collars, pants hems, waistbands, and pockets, were not taught yet.

The master said they would learn these skills in the third year, after they had mastered the basics.

Lin Shu guessed that the most complex techniques would probably be taught in the last few days of that year.

She found that Lu Xiuxiu wasn’t particularly quick to learn and wasn’t very smart, but she had a good quality—she was patient and didn’t get flustered.

Whatever Lin Shu said, she listened, didn’t argue or question, and showed no signs of displeasure.

Whether this was her nature or a result of her master’s influence, Lin Shu wasn’t sure.

“Xiuxiu, let’s take a break,” Lin Shu said, feeling a bit parched.

It took several repetitions for Xiuxiu to understand each technique Lin Shu taught her.

Lu Xiuxiu got up to pour tea for Lin Shu and also brought her a few red dates. “Third Aunt, take a break.”

She then sat back down, continuing to practice the method Lin Shu had taught her with scraps of cloth.

Lin Shu drank her tea and chewed on the red dates, watching Lu Xiuxiu work with the needle and thread.

She couldn’t help but reflect on Lu family has good genes.

Lu Xiuxiu just turned 15 after the New Year, and she’s already 170 cm tall.

Lin Shu, at 165 cm, is considered tall when standing among others.

During this time, most people are malnourished, and for women, being 160 cm is already considered tall.

Some men are only about 165 cm, and being 170 cm is considered quite tall.

Compared to the Lu family, Lin Shu looks short.

Both Fang Yihua and Lu Da Sao are tall, and it seems that if the mother is tall, most of the children aren’t short either.

Lu Xiuxiu looks like Lu Dage, with a very delicate and pretty appearance, but her eyes take after Lu Da —very black and bright, full of vitality.

She is tall and slender, with a quiet demeanor and a touch of classical beauty, making her pleasant to look at.

Lin Shu really likes her appearance and wants to style her hair in an ancient fashion and dress her in a Hanfu costume.

She would surely look like a gentle and classically beautiful woman.

However, the beautiful girl seems… a bit downcast?

Despite being only fourteen, she doesn’t seem to have much spirit or vitality.

Lin Shu told Lu Xiuxiu, “Don’t work anymore. Go out and play for a while. Didn’t you sew a shuttlecock? Go kick it with your younger siblings.”

Lu Xiuxiu felt a bit embarrassed.

Although Lin Shu spoke gently, she still felt guilty, fearing her third aunt would criticize her.

The shuttlecock she made wasn’t the usual feathered kind but was made by sewing fabric into small square pouches filled with corn or beans.

There were six small pouches sewn at the corners to form a delicate ball-like shuttlecock when turned inside out.

Who would dare use fabric to make a shuttlecock in these times?

Adults would definitely scold if they saw it.

However, the Lu family didn’t mind.

Fang Yihua herself was very open-hearted.

As long as the kids didn’t go hungry, she was happy to indulge them.

She didn’t even mention it when Lu Xiuxiu sewed a shuttlecock.

But since Lu Xiuxiu spent a lot of time at her eldest aunt’s and master’s places, she learned to impose other families’ strict rules on herself, making her nervous.

Lin Shu noticed that instead of going out to play, Lu Xiuxiu just stood there, lowering her head and fiddling with her clothes like she had done something wrong.

The tall girl stood there, head down like an elementary school student, making Lin Shu feel a bit pressured.

“Xiuxiu, what’s wrong?”

Lu Xiuxiu said quietly, “I won’t… I won’t waste food or play frivolously anymore.”

Lin Shu felt sorry for her.

The Lu family’s children were mostly raised freely.

Even Lu Cuicui, who was often scolded by her mother, wasn’t as cautious.

Despite never being reprimanded, sensible Lu Xiuxiu still behaved timidly.

“If you’re not happy learning the craft, you don’t have to continue,” Lin Shu suggested with a smile.

“What are you talking about? Where’s the waste of food? This isn’t called playing around; it’s called balancing work and rest. If you didn’t learn a craft, you’d just be cooking and doing needlework at home, which would still be considered leisure,” Lin Shu said.

Seeing that Lin Shu wasn’t going to criticize her, Lu Xiuxiu went out to play.

Outside, Tiantian, Panpan, and Xu Xiaoyou were playing toss with bean bags.

Because Lu Hehuan didn’t visit her mother and father yesterday, Xu Xiaoyou, after breakfast, carefully packed gifts for visiting relatives.

She brought a small basket of hawthorn berries that Xu Shihua had brought back yesterday, added a few taros, and tried to grab some white sugar, brown sugar, and canned goods, but Xu’s mother had locked them away.

Unable to get them, she just let it go.

After all, Grandma Fang and the aunt didn’t care much about what they brought, it was just a formality.

When the third brother came back, Lu Hehuan naturally wanted to visit her family and insisted on bringing Xu Shihua along.

However, Xu Shihua coldly refused.

Xu Shihua was still angry about Lu Hehuan’s presumption to have Lin Shu make clothes for him, which had led to a public humiliation.

He had been giving Lu Hehuan the cold shoulder ever since.

Lu Hehuan was upset for a while but then disregarded it and continued to flatter him daily.

If he ignored her, she would just let it be.

Now that the third brother was back, she was determined to have him accompany her to visit her family!

Xu Shihua refused, which made Lu Hehuan even more upset.

She demanded to know why he wouldn’t go.

“My third brother hasn’t been home for years and almost died before. Now that he’s finally back, all the relatives come to visit. How can you not go?”

Xu Shihua replied, “Why should I go?”

What does his return have to do with me?

To hear him brag about marrying Lin Shu?

To see Lu Shaotang flaunt how he’s taller, more handsome, earns more, or is better at fighting than Xu Shihua?

Going would only serve to inflate Lu Shaotang’s vanity and further depress himself, with no benefit to him at all.

Why should he go?

Even if he went, his in-laws wouldn’t change their opinion of him; if he didn’t go, their opinion wouldn’t worsen. Why should he go?

So Xu Shihua rode his bike to another village to discuss poetry with his pen pal.

Lu Hehuan, stubborn and upset, followed him on the backseat of his bike.

As a result, Xu Xiaoyou, just a small child, represented the family in welcoming the uncle home.

Fang Dihua valued Xu Xiaoyou more and more, while her dislike for Xu Shihua and Xu’s mother grew.

She increasingly felt: “What have I done to deserve such a foolish child?”

Slaughtering pigs was too frightening, so Fang Dihua didn’t let the children watch. Afterward, during the scalding and butchering process, they were allowed to see it for a bit.

They looked at the fresh, red meat with its strong smell.

It wasn’t the kind of aroma that came from cooking, so he quickly lost interest and went off to play the shuttlecock game.

On the other side, Fang Dihua had people add salt to the pig’s blood, which set in a basin.

She also instructed Brother Lu Dage and Second Brother Lu Erge to clean the pig’s intestines thoroughly, first scrubbing them with alkaline powder and then with sweet potato flour.

Once cleaned, they were piled in a basin to be used later when Lin Shu made the nine-turn intestines.

Brother Lu Dage loved eating them but hated handling them, finding it too dirty.

So while Old Xu was helping Second Brother Lu Erge, he sneaked away to chat with Lu Shaotang.

“Third Brother, aren’t you going to get a jeep for the New Year?”

They had a bicycle at home, which made Brother Lu Dage happy for a few days, but since others also had bicycles, he thought it would be impressive to have a jeep for a couple of days.

“I’ve learned to drive; I can drive a tractor!” he said proudly.

Lu Shaotang wasn’t as indulgent as Second Brother Lu Erge and replied, “The army didn’t reward me with a jeep; where would I get one?”

Fang Dihua overheard and hit Brother Lu Dage with a firewood stick, “You only get restless when I don’t hit you for a day.”

Lu Shaotang glanced at Brother Lu Dage. Although he didn’t say anything, his look conveyed everything: ‘Brother, you’re really something to let Mother hit you at your age.’

Brother Lu Dage’s face flushed red, and he tried to save face, but Lu Shaotang had already gone inside to see his wife.

He saw Lin Shu sitting at the sewing machine and thought she was making clothes. “You need to take care of your foot, don’t exert yourself.”

Lin Shu replied, “I’m just sitting.”

Lu Shaotang crouched down to check her ankle.

The medicinal wine had worked well, and he was massaging with the right amount of pressure, reducing the swelling noticeably.

When she grew restless, she had Lu Shaotang help her outside for a look.

It was hard to come by a pig, and every drop of blood was precious.

Every part needed to be used properly, so she needed to discuss it with her mother-in-law.