Chapter 66 p2
Song Yugui inched closer, first pulling at the villain’s small hand. Seeing that she didn’t resist, her heart finally settled down. She turned to sit on the edge of the bed with her and held her in her arms. “I was just asking. Miss Chi said that there’s always a voice guiding her to find Song Xingchuan. I was just curious if you had it too. I’m not really suspecting you.”
Her explanation today was much better than yesterday’s and more believable. Shen Xizhi’s expression gradually softened, and she turned to hug Song Yugui. “So that’s how it is. But I don’t. I don’t like your cousin. I get very annoyed just seeing him.”
“Mmm, I knew you were on my side.”
Song Yugui lowered her head and kissed her wife on the cheek, then on the mouth.
Shen Xizhi’s ears turned a faint, beautiful red.
“Mmm, you’re my wife. Of course I’m on your side.”
She also spoke very pleasantly.
Her voice was gradually muffled in her mouth, and she was kissed firmly.
At dinner time, Chi Xiangyue came over with a dejected expression.
She sat down, looking lost, until two dishes with a vibrant, tempting color appeared in front of her. She was so tempted by the fragrance that she drooled and subconsciously looked up to praise her, only to be stunned, puzzled. “Xizhi, why does your mouth look a little swollen? Were you bitten by a mosquito?”
Shen Xizhi: …
She inexplicably glanced at Chi Xiangyue and went out without a word.
She ignored her completely.
Chi Xiangyue was bewildered.
Song Yugui shook her head, thinking, A person without a partner really can’t be. Look, didn’t this just cause a joke?
But the other was still clueless and looked at Song Yugui with a thirst for knowledge.
…
“You… it’s nothing. You’re still young. It’s not your fault that you don’t understand.”
“I’m not young anymore! I’m already nineteen this year.”
If it weren’t for the sudden trouble in her family, she would have already been engaged. How could she be young?
Ah, is the female lead nineteen?
She had forgotten a little, but age was not important. She just hadn’t expected her to be so naive at nineteen.
“Let’s eat first. Don’t ask about these things.”
She couldn’t say it, or Xizhi would be so ashamed she would run out and not see them anymore.
Chi Xiangyue also didn’t get to the bottom of it. She still had more important things on her mind and couldn’t hold it in any longer. She suddenly mentioned it while they were eating. “Can I go to town with you to sell pork tomorrow?”
Song Yugui: ?
“Why the sudden idea?”
She had mentioned it before, but hadn’t she given up because she couldn’t get up?
Chi Xiangyue was troubled. “I don’t want to plant the fields!”
Planting the fields was so hard. Was she so full she had nothing better to do than to go and plant the fields for people every day? It was better to go and sell meat.
“But I have to get up at yinshi.”
Song Yugui spread her hands. The sky wasn’t even light at yinshi. Could the female lead get up?
Chi Xiangyue gritted her teeth. “Then I’m going with you too!”
A little sleepy is a little sleepy. It’s better than planting the fields, right?
Since she insisted, Song Yugui didn’t refuse and agreed at once.
At least she had to try and see if human effort could contend with the plot, how deeply the plot could affect them.
Spring was a season of nourishment, and it would always rain every few days. The next day, when she got up, Song Yugui pushed her cart out and found that the ground was wet. It had rained last night.
It was just that they had gone to bed early and hadn’t heard the pattering sound of the rain.
Just as she was thinking this and was about to push the cart away, Shen Xizhi remembered something and reached out to pull her wife. Just then, the door next door also opened, and a girl in a neat white dress came out, her figure tired, her eyes dark.
Seeing them, the other finally perked up a little. “Yugui, Xizhi, I’m up!”
It was really strange. The moment she got up, she had a strong desire to go and work at Song Xingchuan’s house, but the moment she saw Yugui and Xizhi, that feeling disappeared, and she wanted to play with them even more.
She thought to herself, Could it be that Song Xingchuan has put some kind of curse on me? And the way to break the curse is with Yugui?
So scary. The countryside is so scary, QAQ.
Seeing that the female lead had really gotten up, Song Yugui was surprised for a moment, then nodded. “Then let’s go. I’ll go and slaughter the pig first, and then go to town to sell the meat.”
Slaughtering a pig was always an interesting activity for Chi Xiangyue. Hearing this, her eyes instantly lit up. “I’ll go and see, I’ll go and see! I’ll watch you slaughter it!”
The three of them went to the pig farm together and picked out a fat and sturdy pig from inside, tying its four limbs with a rope.
Shen Xizhi had always been timid and was left outside the house. Chi Xiangyue insisted on watching, so Song Yugui let her watch in the courtyard.
After a quarter of an hour, the two of them came out. Chi Xiangyue’s sleepiness was gone, and she was in a state of excitement, constantly pulling at Song Yugui and asking, “Do you think I can slaughter a pig? Can you let me try slaughtering one?”
…
“No. You’ve never slaughtered one before. I’m afraid you’ll mess it up.”
“I won’t, I won’t! Let me try. I feel like I’ve already learned!”
If you can learn just by watching someone slaughter a pig once, then everyone in the world would be a butcher.
“Let your dad buy you a pig to slaughter.”
“Ah, if my dad knew I was going to do such an unladylike thing, he definitely wouldn’t agree.”
Chi Xiangyue was troubled.
Song Yugui had been secretly holding her wife’s small hand. Hearing this, she looked back in surprise. “Your dad still hasn’t gotten used to the fact that you and the two words ‘ladylike’ have nothing to do with each other?”
Chi Xiangyue was silent. She glanced at her, and she understood. It was just her parents’ expectations. She remembered how her own father couldn’t accept that she was unwilling to take over the family business.
He had never accepted it.
The three of them walked to the town. This time, Xizhi didn’t have to go and buy steamed buns. Chi Xiangyue was a fast walker and was also lively and active. She took the initiative to take on this task and, in a short while, came back with a whole steamer of large steamed buns, both meat and vegetable.
She carefully took out a few vegetable buns and gave them to Shen Xizhi, and she was quite puzzled. “The meat ones are delicious. Why do you all like to eat vegetable ones?”
“You all? Who else likes to eat vegetable ones?”
She asked casually.
“My cousin! When my cousin goes out with me, she always eats more vegetarian food. She’ll only eat one or two mouthfuls of meat. She’s so delicate.”
This wasn’t the first time Song Yugui had heard her talk about her cousin. She asked casually, “Are you and your cousin very close?”
“Of course. My cousin loves to play with me the most. She’s been my little follower since she was little. Her mother passed away early, so I felt sorry for her and protected her a few more times. So she has stayed by my side. I don’t know if my cousin has missed me after I’ve been here for a few months.”
Mentioning this, Chi Xiangyue was worried. With her cousin’s constitution of always attracting bad people, she must not be bullied.
My uncle’s official position is not low. How can he let his daughter be bullied like this? Are others not at all afraid of him?
Song Yugui heard the deep sisterly affection between the two of them and nodded, not asking any more questions.
Chi Xiangyue had no choice but to go and talk to Shen Xizhi.
Shen Xizhi was just weaving a bamboo basket. She found it novel again and went up to her to learn.
She was very clingy, making it impossible for one not to teach her.
After weaving for a long time, she finally came out with one, but the customers who came didn’t want the basket she had woven.
Whether they were buying or being given one, they only wanted the ones Shen Xizhi had woven.
Chi Xiangyue: Shivering with anger.
Even later, when Yugui felt sorry for Xizhi’s sore hands and wouldn’t let her weave anymore, when others came over and saw the baskets Chi Xiangyue had woven, they would still choose not to take one!
The first time she had made a handicraft herself, the great Miss Chi was half-dead with anger. “Hmph, I clearly wove it very well! They really don’t know what’s good!”
She cursed a lot, then held the basket she had made with her own hands like a treasure and thought, If you don’t want it, you don’t want it. I’ll just keep it for myself.
The meat was sold out by the afternoon. The three of them had lunch in town. Chi Xiangyue waved her large hand and treated them to a table of good food, commenting as she ate, “Not as good as what Xizhi makes. Xizhi’s is the best. Good Xizhi, what are we having for dinner tonight? Can I go and buy the vegetables for you?”
She was eager, still eating lunch but already thinking about dinner.
Even though she was eating her food, Shen Xizhi was very unmoved and didn’t side with her at all. She said softly, “I’ll listen to my wife. Whatever my wife wants to eat, I’ll make.”
Song Yugui immediately sat up straight: Perked up.
Chi Xiangyue: …
Oh, I asked the wrong person.
She had almost forgotten that Shen Xizhi only had eyes for her wife.
She looked at Song Yugui again, her face full of anticipation. Life is short. Besides eating, what other fun is there!
The other was smiling and asked, “Are you still thinking of going to Song Xingchuan’s house to work?”
Chi Xiangyue shook her head repeatedly. “No, I don’t want to. I haven’t thought of him all day! I really don’t understand why I would have wanted to go to his house to work before. I must have been crazy!”
She was also very puzzled by her own behavior and was even more convinced that Song Xingchuan might have put some kind of curse on her to control her!
Hearing her say she didn’t want to, Song Yugui was very satisfied and nodded. “If you want to eat something, you can go and buy a little. But don’t buy too much. Xizhi will be tired.”
“Alright, alright! Xizhi and I are also friends. How can I not think of Xizhi?”
Chi Xiangyue narrowed her eyes, her mood clearly very happy. After she finished eating, she went to pick out some vegetables. She picked out a lot and came back, but they were not things that would spoil easily. If they couldn’t finish them today, they could still be eaten tomorrow.
“Why did you buy so many pieces of beef?”
“They’re all from different parts, and they’re delicious. You can make whichever part you want.”
“There’s diaolong(1)? Then let’s have hot pot later.”
Chi Xiangyue heard a strange name again and turned her head to ask curiously, “What’s hot pot?”
Shen Xizhi also looked over blankly. Song Yugui hesitated and gestured with her fingers. “Mmm… it’s probably… a pot? You should know. You cook a soup, and then you put all kinds of vegetables in it.”
“You mean a warm pot? I’ve had that before, and it’s been a long time since I’ve had it.”
It was originally very suitable to eat a warm pot when the weather was cold, but this year, when the weather was at its coldest, she had been sent to this poor countryside. With no one to take care of her and help her, how could she eat whatever she wanted?
“Let’s have hot pot tomorrow. We’ll have fish-fragrant pork shreds today, and also stir-fried minced meat with tofu skin.”
Shen Xizhi noted it all down in her heart, planning to ask how to make it when she got back.
However, as the three of them were walking down the small earthen slope, they saw a carriage parked at their gate. It was a low-key dark color, but the pearls on the four corners were not ordinary.
A neat woman stood beside it, her long hair tied in a high ponytail, a sword in her hand, looking around warily. It wasn’t until she turned and saw the three of them that she opened the curtain of the carriage and said something to the person inside.
Translator’s Notes
1 Diaolong (吊龙) is a specific cut of beef, usually from the loin area, known for being tender and flavorful.
