The meaty soup was thick. Chu Wei scooped out two fish, tasted the saltiness, and passed it to Chen Yan. “Yan, bring it to grandma. Tell her that the fish today is fresh, and ask your sister to eat with her.”
Looking at the fish in the bowl, Chen Yan’s stomach growled. “Mom, I don’t want to go. I’m hungry. I can’t walk.”
Although she had eaten a lot of food in the morning, she was hungry now. In addition, she had overslept and not eaten breakfast, so her legs were weak. She felt like she could not walk anymore. Her grandmother’s house was on the other side of Peach Blossom Town. She had to walk a long distance before she could reach it. She felt that she would faint from hunger if she were to send the food.
Frowning, Chu Wei simply took all the fish out of the pot and kept one for herself. She put the rest of the soup back into the pot.
She refilled the pot with boiling oil and quickly stir-fried some noodles. After packing the food, she handed it to Chen Yan. “Eat with your sister and grandma this afternoon. It will definitely be enough for you.”
“Okay, Mom. I’ll go over now.” Chen Yan nodded obediently.
Although it was a little far, she should still be able to persevere. After sending Chen Yan out of the courtyard. Chu Wei went back to the house and tidied up for a while before setting the table and preparing to eat.
In order to pick mushrooms of good quality, she went up the mountain at three in the morning. After picking mushrooms, she went down the mountain and made another meal. She was feeling hungry from the toil..
Chu Wei took off her apron and poured herself a cup of warm water. She picked up her chopsticks and was about to start eating when she heard a sound from the backyard.
“Mom, what are you doing? I just made this for you. If you don’t want to eat it, don’t throw it on the ground. It’s such a waste of food. If the food doesn’t taste good in the future, just tell me directly. Don’t do this. I’ll make it for you again before the fire is extinguished.” Zhao Jinli’s voice sounded.
“You can eat it after you cook it. I won’t eat it anyway,” her mother-in-law retorted angrily.
The eldest sister-in-law, Zhao Jinli, rolled her eyes and said slyly, “When I came over just now, I could smell the fragrance of the second branch’s food from far away. Why don’t you go to her house to eat?
Chu Wei’s face darkened. Her sister-in-law, Zhao Jinli, really wanted to take advantage of her all the time. She had been busy since dawn and had only enough food for herself.
“Zhao Jinli, don’t give me that. My eyes are blind but my heart is not. You’re still far from being able to play mind games with me. Don’t think that I don’t know what you’re thinking. When I wasn’t sick, you coaxed me to help you take care of the children and help out at the convenience store. When I was sick, you felt that I had caused trouble for you and wanted to push me to Chu Wei,” the older woman said coldly.
The corners of Chu Wei’s lips curled up. She thought that her mother-in-law was good at arguing. Chu Wei really wanted to add that the heavens were watching.
Having her thoughts exposed by her mother-in-law in her face, the eldest sister-in-law could not hold it in anymore. As she walked into the kitchen, she mumbled, “Mom, you’re too biased. Your heart aches for Chen Ji’s family. You can’t always say that. I never wanted to push you to them. It’s you who wants to go.”
A cacophony of pots and pans came from Zhao Jinli’s kitchen. At first, she thought that her sister-in-law would start cooking again. However, she suddenly shouted, “Oh no. My low blood sugar level is acting up again. I have to lie down quickly.”
Chu Wei’s face was filled with coldness. It was clear what her sister-in-law had in mind. What hypoglycemia? She clearly didn’t want to cook for her mother-in-law. She gritted her teeth and carried the dishes to the main house.
Peach Blossom Town was a small mountain town. The town was surrounded by mountains on all sides, and a river flowed through the town. The buildings in the town did not have a uniform look. There were red brick houses and limestone mud walls. Every family had a front and back courtyard. Those with better resources had courtyard walls which were made of limestone. The worse ones could only make do with a fence with wooden planks and bamboo poles. Chu Wei walked through the fence along the way, and the fences on both sides were green. Various vegetables were growing vigorously.
At the gate of the main house, her mother-in-law was sitting angrily on the threshold. Although she was their mother-in-law, she was only fifty years old. This was how rural villages were. They got married early and had children early.
Her mother-in-law was called Li Jinhuan. Her skin was very fair, and she was very thin. She was also very short. Their personalities were very similar. They were very serious about everything and never sloppy.
Her mother-in-law had always been strong-willed, and she would never complain no matter how difficult things were. Before she went blind, she had taken care of Chen Hu’s family well, but she could no longer do so after she went blind.
Last month, she had competed with herself, trying to prove that being blind didn’t affect her life, so she had felt the fence and went out the door. As she passed the smelly ditch, she had accidentally fallen in. If someone hadn’t heard the shouts, she would have drowned. Not only was she covered in mud, she had lost the jade pendant she had worn all her life.
Anxiety attacked her heart. She was sick, and her bronchitis worsened her cold. She only recovered after seven to eight days of injections and could not live normally. This was hard to swallow for someone who had always been strong-willed. She could only taste the bitterness in her heart, and she became thinner by the day.