This brown sugar pastry made Little Zhenzhen drool all the way. However, Guo Xianqiao was a glutton and refused to give it to her no matter what. Fortunately, she had Brother Bruiser. The moment Little Zhenzhen ran over to find Bruiser, Bruiser stuffed the crab roe pastry into his sister’s mouth.
He doted on his sister!
“Ah Wan! Aunt and Cousin are here!” Uncle called out to Yu Song’s room.
The children were all at home, but Uncle only called Yu Wan. It was obvious that he valued Yu Wan.
“Aye, I’m here.” Yu Wan wrapped the last round of gauze around Yu Song and tied a knot forcefully. It was so tight that Yu Song gasped.
Yu Wan packed her bag and went to the central room to greet Du Jinhua and her daughter. “Aunt, Cousin Yue, Cousin Qiao’er.”
Guo Xianqiao focused on eating the candy in her hand and ignored Yu Wan. On the other hand, Du Jinhua and Guo Xianyue looked at Yu Wan. It didn’t matter if they didn’t look, but when they looked, their eyes almost popped out.
Yu Wan spent the entire day tidying up the mess after the earthquake. She was wearing the simplest clothes and had her hair combed into the most ordinary bun. She did not even have any decent jewelry and only used a wooden hairpin that cost four copper coins.
Her outfit was so old-fashioned. If it were any other village girl, no one would want to take a look at her. However, it happened to be Yu Wan—
Tranquil, elegant, and peaceful. Du Jinhua used all the big words she had learned from her brother-in-law, but she realized that it was not enough to describe the beauty of the girl in front of her.
How was this a village girl? She was clearly a girl who had walked down from a painting.
Du Jinhua boasted that she had seen the world, but she had never seen such an extraordinary girl. Yu Wan’s facial features were not impeccable, but when put together with her fair and flawless face, she gave people a comfortable feeling.
Guo Xianyue had long forgotten about Yu Wan, but Du Jinhua still had a faint impression of her. However, the timid, dark, and thin little girl in her memory was not so eye-catching! Was it really a case of a girl developing?
Du Jinhua had always only placed these words on her daughter. She felt that her daughter was like a young lady in the city. But at this moment, Du Jinhua was not sure.
Although she was unwilling to admit it, in front of Yu Wan, Guo Xianyue was really inferior to her. It had nothing to do with clothes or jewelry. It was just a calm gaze, and her every move was elegant.
“Aunt.” Yu Wan smiled and greeted her again.
Only then did Du Jinhua come back to her senses. When she saw Yu Wan looking at her gracefully, she couldn’t help but be in a daze. This girl didn’t even call out to anyone ten years ago…
She was really different…
“Ah Wan!” Aunt Zhang came over. “I don’t have any more jars at home. I want to pickle some vegetables. Do you have any more?”
The vegetables in the field had been dug out. Although it was not a lot, it was not something that could be finished in a day or two. Aunt Zhang was afraid that the vegetables would be spoiled, so she wanted to pickle them.
“Yes, Aunt Zhang. Sit down for a while. I’ll go get it!” Yu Wan went to the kitchen and brought out two clean jars. “Is it enough, Aunt Zhang? If not, there’s more at home.”
“Enough, enough!” Aunt Zhang took the jar and glanced at Madam Du. “This is…”
Guo Xianyue and Guo Xianqiao had already entered the room to pack their things. Only Madam Du was left in the central room.
Yu Wan said, “My aunt.”
Aunt Zhang was about to say, “Isn’t your mother from out of town? Isn’t everyone in her family dead? Where did this aunt come from?” But Aunt Zhang recognized the other party after looking for a while. “Ah, Ah Xiang’s sister-in-law.”
Ah Xiang was Aunt’s nickname.
“It’s been so many years, why haven’t you changed at all? You’re still so young!” Aunt Zhang said politely.
Du Jinhua did not intend to bother with her. When she heard this compliment, she smiled. “It’s Sister Zhang, right? No wonder you look so familiar. Come in and sit!”
Aunt Zhang smiled and waved her hand. “No, no. I still need to pickle my vegetables. I’ll get going first!”
After that, a few aunties came to borrow kitchenware or tools. When everyone saw Du Jinhua, they could not help but praise her like Aunt Zhang.
It was true that they were being polite, but it was also true that Du Jinhua had taken good care of herself. When she had nothing to do, she would go to the city to get a bottle of her second aunt’s snow cream and apply it on her face. Her skin was as tender as a peeled egg.
It was not that she was bragging, but there was no woman in this village who looked younger and more beautiful than her.
That was until Madam Jiang arrived and Du Jinhua was slapped in the face again.
Madam Jiang was still the same as ten years before. She was so beautiful that she was like a fairy. Everyone would believe that they were sisters when she stood side by side with Yu Wan.
The sense of superiority that Du Jinhua had accumulated for more than ten years was instantly shattered in front of Madam Jiang and Yu Wan.
… .
At night, the family sat around a table for dinner.
Madam Jiang and Yu Wan’s looks were indeed stunning, but their clothes were still unbelievably shabby. Therefore, no one in the Guo family felt that the Yu family had become rich. They thought that since the Yu family was so poor, they most likely ate pickled vegetables.
However, when they saw the table full of fragrant dishes, they were all dumbfounded.
There was braised pig trotters that were glistening with red oil, braised mutton with a deep luster, steamed meat that was glistening with oil, braised fish that had been poured with soup, and a few dishes that were stir-fried with something they couldn’t recognize…
Gulp ~
They swallowed their saliva.
They couldn’t even eat such a sumptuous meal in their brother-in-law’s house…
“Maybe it’s dead pork that they had bought at a cheap price,” Du Jinhua whispered to Guo Dayou.
Guo Dayou did not care whether the pigs were dead or not. The fragrance made him drool. He immediately picked up his chopsticks.
Unexpectedly, before his chopsticks could land, Guo Xianqiao found them troublesome and directly grabbed a large piece of mutton that she had taken a fancy to.
Guo Dayou glared at his youngest daughter and reached for another piece of fat mutton.
Du Jinhua didn’t care about putting on airs anymore when she saw that the father and daughter had both eaten. She stretched out her arm and picked up a few pieces of the fattest mutton and pig trotters into her bowl. After that, she didn’t forget to pick up the belly of the braised fish and give the most tender piece to Guo Xianqiao.
The family had always left the fish belly for Little Zhenzhen who didn’t know how to spit out thorns, so Little Zhenzhen had always felt that the fish belly was hers. Her food was gone and she was a little sad, but she didn’t cry or make a fuss. She obediently waited for her parents to eat.
Yes, before Uncle and Aunt were even at the table, the Guo family had already started eating like hungry ghosts.
