443 Framing Someone (1)
Madam Li placed the last stroke on the wooden board and put down the brush to rub her wrist. She had not held a brush for a long time, and her hands ached after writing for a while.
Seeing this, Shen Yijia said, “Mother, you can rest for today. It’s enough for me to carve for a long time.”
The most time-consuming part of the whole process was carving the words.
“Alright, the pea paste we made previously can be cut into pieces. I’ll bring some over. You guys can rest for a while then.”
Shen Yijia’s eyes flashed and she smiled sweetly at Madam Li. “Thank you, Mother.”
Madam Li stroked her chest. No wonder Brother Chen cared about her. Who could withstand such a sweet and soft wife?
As soon as Madam Li left, Shen Yijia immediately put down the carving knife, took out a few candied plums from her pouch, and stuffed them into her mouth.
Bruiser was speechless. “Sister, Brother-in-law said…”
As soon as he opened his mouth, a candied plum flew into his mouth from Shen Yijia’s hand, blocking Bruiser’s unfinished words.
The candied plum hit his throat. Bruiser almost rolled his eyes and died on the spot. He coughed for a long time before recovering.
He glanced at Shen Yijia resentfully and picked up his stool to move away from her.
He wouldn’t say anything unnecessary in the future.
Lin Shao looked at Bruiser, then at Shen Yijia. He opened his mouth.
Shen Yijia raised her eyebrows. “You want to eat it too?”
Lin Shao immediately shut his mouth and shook his head.
Shen Yijia looked at Mo Yuan, who was sawing the wooden board at the side.
Mo Yuan said, “I don’t like sweets.”
The two would not dare to snitch on her to Song Jingchen. Mo Yuan would not betray her either. Shen Yijia happily stuffed a few more candied plums into her mouth and stuffed her cheeks.
This matter started after dinner yesterday.
Song Jingchen had something on and went out for a while. When he returned, Shen Yijia had already finished the two sticks of candied hawthorn in the ice cellar. There were only two packets left.
Song Jingchen’s heart didn’t ache for food, but it wasn’t good to eat too much sweet food.
Shen Yijia had no sense of propriety. She wanted to finish it all after finding it, so Song Jingchen instructed Madam Li to watch over her. He also hid the remaining two packets of candied plums.
Even so, Shen Yijia found the packets.
When Madam Li returned with a tray, she saw Shen Yijia humming and working hard.
She didn’t notice anything wrong. “Stop and eat something,” she called out.
The yellow pea snacks were made in the morning and had been kept in the ice cellar. In this weather, they could quench their thirst and reduce the heat.
There were four pieces on a small plate, one for each person.
Shen Yijia washed her hands and was about to take it when Madam Li stopped her. “This is yours.”
Shen Yijia took it in confusion. She looked at the others and then at her own. Weren’t they all the same?
When she picked up a piece and took a bite, she paused. “Mother, have you run out of sugar at home?”
This was clearly not as sweet as what she had eaten previously. No, it was not sweet at all!
She clearly remembered that there was still sugar at home.
Madam Li explained, “Yes, Brother Chen said that you’ve eaten too many sweet things in the past two days. I thought that it was indeed not good to eat too many sweets, so I made some other sweets without much sugar.”
Shen Yijia thought to herself, “My beautiful husband did this to me!”
Looking at the other plates of sweet-smelling pastries, tears streamed down Shen Yijia’s face.
“What’s wrong? Does it not taste good?” Madam Li asked. She had tasted it before. It was alright.
Shen Yijia pouted. “It’s not sweet.”
Madam Li stopped talking. She just sprinkled a little sugar into it. It would be strange if it was sweet.
The sound of knocking came from outside.
Madam Li placed the tray on the stone table. “You guys eat first. I’ll open the door.”
After taking two steps, she thought of something and paused. “Sister Jia, you should go.”
Shen Yijia’s hand, which had just reached out to Mo Yuan, paused. Was she so guarded against her?
She withdrew her hand wearily and walked quickly out.
“Who is it?” She pulled open the door. Their house didn’t have a gatekeeper, so the door was usually ajar, in case Song Jingchen had to wait for someone to open the door after he returned from work. If it were him, he clearly wouldn’t knock.
Outside the door stood a manservant holding a horse.
Shen Yijia felt that the servant’s clothes looked familiar, but she could not remember which family he was from. She thought that she had seen them on the streets. “Who are you looking for?”
The servant sized up Shen Yijia for a long time before saying, “I’m from the Shen family.”
Now that Shen Yijia had grown up and was raised to be fair and tender, she was a completely different person from the previous skinny and submissive host. If the servant did not look carefully, he would not have recognized her.
