Chapter 62: Chapter 62 Eating Meat
Back in the room, Madam Xie sat beside the kang bed with a vacant expression, staring blankly at Chuner lying on the bed, her thoughts inscrutable.
“Mother, you must be hungry. Come and eat.”
Xuexue placed the basket on the table, setting out the dishes and calling out to her mother as she did so.
“Xuexue, you’re back? Where have you been for so long?” Madam Xie snapped back to reality and immediately asked. Now, her two daughters were her life, and she could not afford any mishap.
Since hearing Old Lady Mo wanted to divorce her that evening, Madam Xie’s spirit had started to drift. If not for her resolve to save Chuner’s life, she might have already collapsed.
“I went to send off the village head.”
“Did it take that long?”
“Yes! I had a chat with him.”
Madam Xie was somewhat surprised: “You’re just a little girl, what could you possibly have to talk about with the village head?”
“Mother, let’s eat first. I’ll tell you after we’ve eaten.”
Madam Xie thought it made sense. It was already very late, and Xuexue surely wouldn’t eat unless she did. Remembering her daughter’s true identity yet living in this remote and impoverished place, suffering hardships alongside her, Madam Xie felt a pang of guilt and couldn’t bear to let her go hungry.
Xuexue thought about revealing the truth after dinner. If she told her mother now, she would be too upset to eat. If Chuner did not recover and she collapsed, all for the unworthy men and dregs of the Mo family, it wouldn’t be worth it.
Madam Xie came to the table and, upon seeing it, exclaimed in panic, “Xuexue, how come there’s cured meat again? did you take your grandmother’s cured meat? Return it quickly. If she finds out, it won’t be good. Chuner has already been beaten up ; if something happens to you, what am I to do?”
After saying that, she reached out to put away the pieces of cured meat.
Xuexue pressed her hand down, preventing her from putting the meat away: “Grandmother gave it to me. She said she felt uneasy for having injured Chuner and wanted to make it up to her.”
“Given by Mother-in-law?”
Madam Xie’s face filled with doubt, her eyes fixated intently on Xuexue’s face: “You’re not lying to me, are you?”
It was no wonder Madam Xie doubted. Having married into the Mo family for over a decade, Old Lady Mo was known to be stingy and snobbish. Even if she was in the wrong, she always maintained a sense of superiority in front of her daughter-in-law. Now, with Xuexue saying she was giving away her prized cured meat out of guilt, of course, Madam Xie didn’t believe it.
In her former life, Xuexue had been the Crown Princess Consort, accustomed to grand occasions. Taking a few pieces of Old Lady Mo’s cured meat was no big deal; she felt no psychological pressure whatsoever.
She stood her ground with conviction against Madam Xie’s scrutinizing gaze.
“Xuexue, you and Chuner are my life. You can’t lie to me!” Madam Xie asked for confirmation again and again.
“Don’t worry, I’m not deceiving you.” Xuexue picked up her chopsticks, placed two pieces of cured meat and some greens in her mother’s bowl: “Eat up. You’ll need your strength to look after Chuner tonight.”
Only then did Madam Xie begin to relax and start eating. She picked up a piece of cured meat from her bowl and placed it in Xuexue’s: “Xuexue, you eat. I don’t care much for meat.”
Xuexue knew in her heart it wasn’t that her foster mother disliked meat; she was deliberately saying so to give it to her.
“Mother, let’s have one piece each, and we’ll save the rest for Chuner.” After saying that, she moved the meat from her bowl back to her mother’s.
“If you don’t eat, neither will I.”
Madam Xie smiled helplessly: “Alright then, let’s not pass things back and forth anymore, or it’ll be dawn. Let’s eat together.”