“Relax, the three snakes are dead.”
Jiang Yeqian waved the three dead snakes. As Qi Qingyao looked paler than a sheet, he calmly skinned the snake. “I’ve taken out the poison glands and gallbladder. The gallbladder is good for me so you can put it in the medicine later. As for the meat, you can make a snake stew! It’s really nutritious!”
“…”
S-Snake stew?!
What, seriously?
Qi Qingyao swallowed for some reason.
After she told Jiang Yeqian to take the snake outside, she carefully got out of bed and suddenly remembered what she had seen yesterday before passing out. Hastily, she checked the bed-stove and then ran the whole house through a fine-toothed comb twice. She only let out a breath of relief when she was sure there were no slithering things around.
By the time she cleaned herself up, she realized that Jiang Yeqian had kindly sliced the snake meat up for her.
Even so…
She did not dare to touch it with her hands.
Instead, she sat in front of the stove, boiling the water.
Nevertheless, by the time the aroma of meat wafted into the air, she had long since forgotten her fear.
The rice congee in the back pot was done.
The snake stew at the front was finished, too.
The three children held their bowls of congee and sat obediently in front of the short table. When Qi Qingyao served up the snake stew, all of them looked at the food in the bowl with wide eyes!
After Qi Qingyao gave them each a scoop, everyone dug in happily.
She thought to herself, ‘As expected of children.’
They were not scared in the slightest.
As for her, forget it…
Jiang Yeqian wordlessly scooped her a bowl of soup. She looked at the small bowl in front of her, the corner of her mouth twitching slightly.
Halfway through their meal, they heard footsteps from the door.
Qi Qingyao turned around.
The crowd that greeted her gave her a shock.
She did not know what had happened last night, so she stood up and greeted them rather warmly.
“Madam Wu, thanks for bringing the whole family over to visit me! I’m honored.”
Old Man Qi had taken his sons out to capture some poisonous snakes yesterday afternoon and had them release the snakes in her house last night, so he had assumed they would only need to come by to take the meat and money this morning, perhaps bury Qi Qingyao if they felt like it. To their surprise… “Y-Y-You… Why are you alright?”
Qi Qingyao, “…”
‘Hmm? Why shouldn’t I be alright? What was he talking about?
‘Wait.’
A thought occurred to her.
Could it be…
Well, she was wondering.
It was winter, so the snakes should be hibernating now.
Why would a few of them enter the house out of nowhere like that?
As she mused it over, Qi Qingyao instinctively glanced at Jiang Yeqian, who gave her a small but meaningful smile.
Qi Qingyao fell silent.
They were here to organize her funeral!
Yet she had not died…
“What’s that smile?” Madam Wu could smell an intense aroma of meat in the air, and she frowned.
“Why, it’s snake stew,” Qi Qingyao said with a composed smile. She held up the soup bowl and asked calmly, “Why don’t you all give it a taste?”
Old Qi’s family, “…”
Everyone was stunned.
Qi Yuancheng and the others were especially flabbergasted.
They had gone to all that effort to dig up a snake nest and catch those three snakes, even going so far as to let them loose in the house at night. In the end, however, the snakes ended up on the menu!!
No, the bigger question was, those snakes were poisonous.
How did they catch them?
Qi Yuancheng and the others had no more words for this.
Madam Wu took a deep breath, her eyes bloodshot as she went on a rant,
“Why’s this poor scholar at your place this early in the morning?” She jabbed her finger at Jiang Yeqian.
Qi Qingyao shrugged and said coolly, “He’s my servant. Where else would he be?”
Madam Guo had always been on her mother-in-law’s side, and when she saw the latter aiming at the man, she quickly reacted with an accusation. “Qi Qingyao, don’t tell me he stayed here last night.”
“Do you have a problem with that?” Qi Qingyao put her bowl down without breaking a nerve.