Zhulan rubbed her lower back. She hadn’t helped in person for a long time and was a little tired. “What’s the matter?”

Li Shi turned over a tael of silver in her hand and said, “Mom, I was the last to close the gate just now. Zhang Sanni was in the yard next door. She ran out to stop me and asked me who came to our house today, and even gave me a tael of silver!”

Zhulan saw that Li Shi had received the money, “Did you say who it was?”

Li Shi laughed, “They will know who it is sooner or later anyway. So I thought why don’t I just exchange some money and just say it was Yao Gongzi and not say anything else.”

Zhulan thought to herself, Li Shi was being really smart, “The money you get is your own. You have been working since morning, so you must be tired. Go and rest!”

Li Shi held the silver and said meaningfully: “Mother, I will honor my mother with this silver.”

Zhulan said, “…”

Don’t hold onto the silver tightly in your hands. She couldn’t see any sign of filial piety from Li Shi’s hands.

Seeing her mother-in-law’s silence, which contradicted her expectations, Li Shi wondered why her mother-in-law didn’t ask her to take it back. Could it be that one or two pieces of silver were missing? She regretted her thoughtless words; her mother-in-law had just said she didn’t want it. Feeling a pang of guilt, she weakly said, “Mother.”

Feeling an itch in her hand, Zhulan couldn’t help but tap Li Shi’s forehead lightly. “Put away your scheming thoughts. If there’s another next time, I’ll really take the silver. Hurry up and leave; just looking at you makes me annoyed.”

Li Sghi quickly kept the money, her breathing no longer hurt, and ran away in a flash. She didn’t dare to do it again. She almost lost her money.

Next door, Wang Ru’s heart was twisted. She suppressed the panic in her heart and asked Zhang Sanni to go out. When no one was in the room, she stood on the ground and turned in circles. She didn’t understand what went wrong. The male protagonist appeared too early. If she hadn’t remembered wrongly, he should have met Zhou Xuehan when she was ten years old. What on earth was going on?

Wang Ru vented her frustration by throwing a vase. It was all Shiqing’s fault. If it weren’t for Shi Qing, she wouldn’t be trapped in the courtyard. It was now no different from being imprisoned. Zhang Sanni, the repulsive woman rejected by the Zhou family, had become her caretaker. She thought she had escaped from Shi Qing, but instead, she had walked right into his clutches.

The thought of Shi Qing’s relentless exploitation of what was in her mind made her breathless. She had witnessed Shi Qing’s ruthless side, and now she didn’t dare to run away anymore. Who knew if there were people bought by Shi Qing in the village? She was completely under Shi Qing’s control now. She didn’t even dare to imagine what her fate would be after everything in her mind was drained out!

Originally, the male lead was her lifesaver, but he still maintained contact with the Zhou family. Her jealousy drove her to madness. She should have been the female protagonist since she crossed over, so why wasn’t she sent to the Zhou family? Why couldn’t she receive sweet affection?

Whenever Wang Ru thought about the county lord’s carriage picking up Zhou Xuehan to go to the county, she felt a burning jealousy that tormented her heart and soul. In Pingzhou, she not only couldn’t come into contact with the daughters of officials but even had difficulty encountering merchant’s daughters. Zhou Xuehan, on the other hand, started as the daughter of an official. She was unwilling, unwilling to spend her whole life as Shi Qing’s captive pet!

Outside the door, Wang Xin asked her younger sister anxiously, “What’s wrong with little sister?”

Wang Rong’s eyes held a hint of sarcasm. The eldest sister feigned ignorance as if she didn’t know, but she hadn’t been completely honest after being humiliated. “How would I know? If you’re concerned, go ask for yourself.”

Wang Xin pursed her lips. She was not afraid of the younger sister but was afraid of the second younger sister. She always felt that the second younger sister had seen through everything. She didn’t dare to say anything or provoke the second younger sister. She lowered her head, “Little sister is feeling sad, so I won’t go in.”

Wang Rong scoffed and walked away. If she weren’t still young, she would have run away long ago. Just a little longer, then.

Zhulan didn’t know what happened to the Wang family, and she didn’t care if she knew it. She was looking through the gifts from Yao Zheyu.

All eight gift boxes had been opened, some of them dazzling Zhulan’s eyes. With a hoarse voice, Zhulan exclaimed, “The male lead’s gifts are so down-to-earth. Look at the weight of these gold bracelets, they’re almost as heavy as those worn by nouveau riche. And then these gold hairpins, they’re making my eyes ache from all the glitter. Even the writing utensils are vulgar, filled with the aura of gold and silver, not as elegant and low-key as the ones you bought in Jiangnan.”

Zhou Shuren pursed his lips. He hadn’t expected Yao Zheyu’s gifts to be so down-to-earth. They were too direct and vulgar, which was quite different from what he had anticipated. “Perhaps the male lead thinks we come from a peasant background and haven’t seen good things before, so he believes that flashy gold and silver would be more straightforward than anything else.”

Zhulan laughed, “After seeing the gifts, I remembered Yao Zheyu’s accessories. His jade pendants all have gold edges, and even the hairpins he uses are gold-plated. I think this must be Yao Zheyu’s aesthetic. Didn’t you say he was raised by the old Marquis? Old Marquis who was a military leader, must have a fondness for love gold and silver. So it’s possible that Yao Zheyu’s preferences were influenced from an early age!”

However, if this was the male lead’s genuine taste, it can only be said that he inherited the aesthetic of his military Marquis grandfather. If it was just an act, then he must have a very deep level of cunning!

Zhou Shuren took the gold bracelet from Zhulan’s hand. Well, it was really heavy when pressed. “These can be melted to make three sets of hollow jewelry.”

Zhulan gathered them together, “I will melt them all when we go back to Pingzhou. Oh, these two big gold bracelets weighing half a kilogram, it would be embarrassing to take them out!”

Zhou Shuren looked at the inkstone in front of him, it was too vulgar. Although he didn’t like tea, he had good taste, “Let this be the bottom of the box!”

Zhulan chuckled. Zhou Shuren wouldn’t have used them anyway. He sounded so disdainful. But just the gold jewelry alone weighed a catty, which was equivalent to one hundred taels of silver. “The Marquis’s mansion is indeed wealthy. If Yao Zheyu keeps giving such heavy gifts every time he visits, the male lead is most welcome to use our family to get close to the next-door neighbor at any time.”

Zhou Shuren pinched Zhulan’s nose and said, “It’s a beautiful thought. This is the first time, he gave such a heavy gift. It won’t be such a good thing next time.”

Zhulan thought it was such a pity that she earned one hundred taels in one day. This money was brought by Wang Ru, she never expected it.

In the afternoon, Zhulan was woken up from her sleep by an aroma. She sat up and looked in the direction of the kitchen, “What is Li Shi doing in the kitchen?”

Zhou Shuren didn’t sleep and was suffering from the aroma, “I don’t know, it smells weird.”

Zhulan put on her shoes and went to the ground, opened the door, and smelled the smell of bone soup. When she arrived in the kitchen, Li Shi was mixing the fillings. Zhulan asked, “Making wontons tonight?”

Li Shi shook her head. “Mother, I prepared the filling for the mooncakes. I thought about simmering bone broth and using it to mix the filling. It should taste good. Mother, would you like to try?”

Zhulan had tried many mooncakes before, such as those with salted egg yolks, five nuts, and red bean paste. However, being completely clueless about cooking, she didn’t know how the filling was made. It smelled oddly fragrant, which should be delicious. After taking a bite, her eyes lit up. It was sweet but not cloying, and she couldn’t taste the bone broth, which balanced the flavors. “It tastes good.”

Li Shi was happy in her heart. Her mother-in-law was not a good cook at home, but she was good at eating. Since her mother-in-law said yes, her filling was successful, “This is sweet. There are also meat fillings. Mom, should you eat wontons or bone soup noodles tonight?”

Zhulan was a bit conflicted, wanting to eat both. “Using bone broth as a base, we could make bone broth wonton noodles,” she suggested.

Li Shi, “.”

Mother-in-law was still mother-in-law. Only she could dare to mix these dishes to eat.

With many men in the Zhou family, making wontons would require a lot of effort. Zhulan found making wontons tedious, so there weren’t many wontons, mostly noodles. Nevertheless, the whole family enjoyed the meal immensely.

Time flew by, a week had passed in the blink of an eye, and the sky had cleared up a long time ago. After it cleared up, the weather was indeed as Zhou Shuren said, the temperature dropped a lot, and the comfortable days of Zhulan came.

At the same time, Yao Zheyu also proved with his actions that he did indeed frequently visit the Zhou family, coming twice a week. The entire village knew that Zhulan’s family had a distinguished guest.

The only thing that surprised Zhulan was that Wang Ru didn’t happen to encounter them outside. Sometimes, it was true that thoughts have a strange power. Just as Zhulan finished muttering about it, Wang Ru took action.

(End of chapter)

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