Hearing Yan Jinsu say this, the crowd around felt that it made some sense, and everyone became a bit disheartened.
"Little aunt, we are not afraid, isn’t a wild wolf just like a local dog? We are afraid when few, but what’s there to fear when many!" Xie Yuting clenched his fists and shouted loudly.
He had just been up the mountain with Yan Jinsu today, coming back fully loaded, and was feeling particularly brave, wanting to take out the wild wolf on the mountain to bring peace back to their village.
"Right, it’s just a local dog with a pair of green beads!" Xiao Si also agreed, "We shouldn’t be afraid, to fear before fighting is to be a coward!"
Xiao Si is only seven years old, he doesn’t even know what a wild wolf looks like, his image of it only constructed from the descriptions of elders and mothers these past few days, what a little rascal!
"That’s the spirit, Xiao Si, we are not afraid of trouble, not to mention a pack of beasts. You guys are still young, still have space to train your bodies. If you want to explore the mountains, you at least need to have strong bodies to face any danger."
"Alright, after Xiao’er returns, I will make sure to run well, wait until I can outpace Boss, little aunt, then you can take me up the mountain to see wild chickens and rabbits as well!"
"Woo, we want to go too!" Xiaoqi and Xiao Wu lingered behind Yan Jinsu, obliviously listening to their elder brothers talking to Yan Jinsu. Now, hearing about going to see wild rabbits, the two little girls also showed their eagerness to go along.
"Hahaha~ Our Qingfeng kids, regardless of boys or girls, each one is incredibly fearless and passionate!" Zhou Weirong had listened to several remarks, and hearing that the little girls also wanted to go up the mountain, he felt greatly delighted, laughing loudly and unrestrainedly.
Groups of villagers gathered together, and it wasn’t long before the fragrance of cooking spread from the backyard. The young boys, who originally wanted to linger around Yan Jinsu, were suddenly drawn to the kitchen by the scent of meat.
After all, they are just kids, who really look forward to showing some bravado up the mountains and being the ’Boss’ among friends. But when the air filled with the aroma of meat, the hard living village kids could no longer resist the temptation, and rushed towards the backyard in groups—
Yan Jinsu also took this opportunity to slip away, briefly speaking to the village chief before heading back to the Xie Family.
Yan Jinsu doesn’t like to eat from the communal pot, preferring to eat with her own parents at home. As soon as she got back, she asked her father to go to the village committee, while she herself stayed close to her beloved grandchildren, until Zhou Xiuhua saw her and quickly instructed her to go boil water to bathe her and the grandchildren.
"Okay, Mom, I’ll go cook then. Mom, shall we have some vegetable porridge tonight? No need to make something separate for Xiaojiu and Xiao Shi."
"Okay. How come the village committee is so lively, and you’re not joining in the fun? Even your big cousin dragged her three kids to watch the play."
Zhou Xiuhua shook her head as she spoke.
Da Niu still has a bit of a temper, as soon as she heard from Lin Caixia that Xiao Niu and others had brought back a wild pig, she went up to join them impulsively.
She didn’t think at all that her second sister-in-law was there to complain to her and her mother-in-law!
Had it not been for Yan Jinsu clarifying things early on with the mother and daughter, her mother-in-law might have been led by the nose by her daughter-in-law!
However, such reactions from Lin Caixia, she herself had also experienced, so Zhou Xiuhua couldn’t really stand on her high horse and scold her.
"Mom, I don’t like eating from the same big pot... there’s always grit!"
Their family always takes time to pick out the sand before washing the rice, unlike the communal pot where, despite sifting, the volume is so large that fine sand still mixes in. Yan Jinsu had tried it once and never wanted to put her stomach and mouth through it again.
"You wasteful wife! Fine, cook however you like, it doesn’t matter since your father is not here." Xie Tiesheng’s dinner had to have rice, otherwise the old man couldn’t sleep through the night.
Furthermore, eating porridge inevitably means frequent urination, and the elderly, who are light sleepers, can’t endure such torment! So when the family’s financial situation got better, he simply stopped eating porridge at night.
"Alright, we’ll have vegetable porridge, with salted chicken strips as a side, and then stir-fried salted vegetable with egg strips," Yan Jinsu said while preparing the necessary ingredients.
Zhou Xiuhua listened, there was vegetables, meat, and chicken, Ni always paid attention to nutritional balance when cooking.
"By the way, little girl, your big cousin came back and mentioned, her little uncle, heard that he is currently being tormented by his wife’s family!"
"What happened?" With so many things on her mind, Yan Jinsu had completely forgotten about Fan Fengshou.
"It seems he went to see that young widow again, and then his brother-in-law caught him. Initially his wife had already taken their daughter to another place, and hearing about this, she decided not to come back!"
"Wife and child gone?!" Yan Jinsu summarized gleefully.
"That Fan guy wouldn’t dare really leave his wife’s family. Moreover, no one knows how they negotiated, but apparently, he really offended his wife’s family badly, even had the house he was living in taken back, and was driven back to the old house!"
"Oh, are mother and son living together again? This time Mrs. Fan isn’t causing trouble at the Li’s house?" Yan Jinsu frowned at the mere thought of that old woman.
Regarding this muddled old lady, Yan Jinsu never had a good impression. Simply put, she herself was a woman and yet she dared to disdain women! What bizarre thoughts are these?!
"As for this point, you guessed wrong again. Da Niu said her mother-in-law, for some reason, insisted that if Fan Fengshou was moving back to the old house, she would go live in a monastery room for devotees up in the mountaintop temple of Qingyun Town."
"What?" Yan Jinsu was genuinely surprised, she exclaimed and turned down the heat to simmer the porridge seeing it had started boiling.
"Surprising, isn’t it? Your second sister also didn’t expect her mother-in-law to be so firm. In the end, Fan Fengshou was forced to move into the company dormitory," Zhou Xiuhua said smiling broadly, seemingly in a great mood after hearing this.
"Weren’t you saying he fell out with his wife’s family? How come, is his job still there?"
"No, Fan Fengshou wouldn’t dare. Now that his wife and daughter have left, he doesn’t even know where to find them! He is still hoping to rely on the Fan family for a turnaround! Yeah, that’s probably what he’s thinking!" Zhou Xiuhua said, more and more convinced of her guess.
"Yeah, Mom, your thinking seems quite right. But the Li’s pulling such a stunt, can Fan Fengshou still acknowledge this? Is he even a man?"
"Ptui, that Fan Fengshou is just a beggar at heart, he has no ambition! As I see it, it’s only a matter of time before the Li family dumps him! Think about it, Fan Fengshou was the one who cheated first, Li Xiaoxia that selfish woman who comes from a powerful and wealthy family background, finding another man wouldn’t be hard for her!"
Yan Jinsu saw how excited her mother-in-law looked while talking, she couldn’t help but steal a side-glance, yet she reminisced about the time she met Mrs. Li, who revealed that her daughter had been unable to conceive since losing a baby girl years ago in a difficult childbirth!
"That is..." Yan Jinsu thought about that ’reason,’ but didn’t believe that just because a woman can’t give birth, she couldn’t find another good man to take care of her.
Moreover, in today’s society, how many unmarried men are willing to marry a divorced woman with a child?
"When I think about how that family will not end up well, I feel so delighted! Okay, we, mother and daughter, have talked enough; let’s not mention this in front of your second sister, no need for her to worry!"
"Alright—" Yan Jinsu responded, "Let’s eat first, let Xiao Shi and the others play a little while longer to digest." The two of them, one cooking, one feeding the child, and time just flew by.