Qiao Qiang could see Qiao Mei waving her hands and smiling happily on the mountain not far away and he replied, “Hurry up and come back to eat! The food will get cold soon!”
After Qiao Mei went down the mountain, the first thing she did was to pack up the things in the basket and then she washed her hands before sitting down for a meal. During this period of time, hygiene standards were not that prevalent and it was rare to see people washing their hands regularly. However, in order to prevent illnesses from entering through their mouths, Qiao Mei repeatedly reminded Qiao Qiang of the importance of hand washing. At first, Qiao Qiang felt that it was cumbersome, but he was also afraid that Qiao Mei would be angry, so he obediently washed his hands often.
After dinner and cleaning up, Qiao Mei returned to the house to take inventory of the things she wanted to bring with her. She suddenly realized that she was missing some underclothes and that she had to top up the supply of some necessities at home. Otherwise, it would be inconvenient for her grandfather to go to the county city alone since it was so far away from the village.
“Sigh, looks like I have to go to Auntie Dong’s place.” Qiao Mei put away her things and went to look for Auntie Dong.
Qiao Yu had just finished her work when she saw Qiao Mei leaving her house while carrying something. She curiously stopped to take a peek, but did not expect Qiao Mei to move closer and closer to her, scaring her so much that she quickly hid to the side to avoid being discovered.
“Where is Qiao Mei going with such a big watermelon?” Qiao Yu looked in the direction that Qiao Mei had gone.
Ever since Qiao Zhuang’s family failed to grow bean sprouts, everything else they planted also withered. They could not grow anything at all, so they simply stopped trying. Everyone said that it was because Qiao Zhuang’s family had done too many bad things, leading to bad feng shui, so everything they planted withered and died.
Qiao Yu followed Qiao Mei to Auntie Dong’s house and hid behind a pile of firewood.
“Auntie Dong! Auntie Dong, are you home!” Qiao Mei shouted into the courtyard.
Auntie Dong ran out of the house and said, “Who is it! Aiyo! Isn’t this Mei Mei, why are you looking for me?”
Qiao Mei smiled and pushed open the door. When Auntie Dong saw the big watermelon in Qiao Mei’s hands, she hurriedly took it.
“Aye, you can just come over as you wish, yet you carry such a heavy thing even though you’re pregnant! You just won’t listen no matter what I say!” Auntie Dong frowned and scolded Qiao Mei.
“Hey, don’t be angry. I won’t do it again.” Qiao Mei replied simply so that she could move on to talk about other things.
“I don’t know what to say about you. Come in quickly.” Auntie Dong brought Qiao Mei into the house.
Qiao Yu heard everything clearly from the outside. There must be a reason for her giving the watermelon to Auntie Dong out of the blue! However, Auntie Dong’s courtyard was huge and it was difficult to eavesdrop so she had to give up on this idea.
When Qiao Yu thought about the fragrant and sweet watermelon, she felt her mouth watering. At her house, food was only prepared for the men and the womenfolk did not get anything good to eat. The last time Qiao Mei hosted everyone at her wedding banquet, there was so much nice food. There must be things to eat at her house.
Qiao Yu wanted to take advantage of the fact that Qiao Mei was not at home to see if there was any food at her house. If there were, she was prepared to steal something.
Qiao Yu picked up the hoe and ran over to Qiao Mei’s house in a hurry, but when she saw Qiao Qiang taking a stroll in the courtyard, she turned around and ran off. Qiao Qiang also saw Qiao Yu running away quickly the moment she saw him, and he thought that she must be up to no good. Qiao Qiang did not like Qiao Zhuang’s family.
Qiao Yu walked home dejectedly. She was feeling really hungry after not eating for a few days in a row. If she went back today and there was still no food, she would starve to death sooner or later. Qiao Yu looked at the nearby houses and saw smoke rising from the chimneys. Then she turned her attention to Li Gui’s house.
“Hmph, I can’t enter your house, but I’m sure you give food to your mother!” Qiao Yu’s eyes lit up as she walked quickly to Li Gui’s house.
Qiao Yu first circled the house a few times before looking in through the window to see if there was anyone around. Before long, the fragrance of food coming from the house was so enticing that it made Qiao Yu unable to walk away.
“It smells so good… It smells like big steamed buns!” Qiao Yu muttered to herself.
In the house, Li Gui was busy cooking. Zhang Wei had brought Zhang Chao and Zhang Qin, the two older kids, to the mountains to have a look around and pick some vegetables. The young Zhang Miao was at home helping out with housework like washing the dishes.
“Mom, who’s that person, she keeps looking into the house.” Zhang Miao looked at Qiao Yu curiously.
When Li Gui first came to the village, she had only met Wang Qin and a few of the older women. She had never met Qiao Yu before and thought that Qiao Yu looked quite young but could not recall anything about this person.
Li Gui walked out of the house and asked, “You are?”
“Ah! I’m Qiao Mei’s aunt. I’m from Qiao Zhuang’s family. Don’t you remember me?” Qiao Yu asked tentatively.