“I want to gift it to Sister Jiuyue to repay her for saving my life. Sister Xue Ling, what do you think?”
Xue Ling was about to speak, but she found her words caught in her throat when she heard Qian Yiyun’s reply, nearly choking her.
She’s giving it to someone else instead of me? To An Jiuyue, that uncultured woman living on the mountain, no less! How am I supposed to be happy about this? ‘What do you think”? What am I supposed to say to that?
“You can just give her a few taels of silver if you want to repay the favor. She may not know how to appreciate such a good piece of jade and may even blame you for giving her a useless thing.”
She replied to Qian Yiyun with an unhappy expression.
“All she did was save your life. What’s so great about that? Besides, she was rowing a bamboo raft and saving everyone she came across. We weren’t the only ones she saved.
“Why should we take it so seriously? Even if she did not save us, someone else would have.
“Look at the two babies. That woman even jumped into the water to save them. They’re treated much better than us too. They can sleep in the treehouse upstairs, but we can only sit here downstairs.
“Besides, we didn’t ask her to save us. She wanted to save us.”
Qian Yiyun was terribly shocked by her words, but she did not show it on her face.
How can Xue Ling think this way? In that case, will it only be right if no one came to save us? If my sister-in-law’s mother did not help my brother when he was in trouble four years ago, would he still be alive now?
She never realized that Xue Ling was such a person.
“I see. So this is how one can also understand what it means to save someone’s life.” She nodded, looking as if she was enlightened.
I must stay away from Xue Ling in the future. I may become just as irritating as Xue Ling if we interact too much.
The thought of becoming just like Xue Ling made her hair stand on end.
“Yan Nuo, you brought back some firewood? You gathered quite a lot.”
Xue Ling stood up hurriedly when she noticed that Yan Nuo, her brother’s subordinate, had returned. She walked towards him.
“I found these while gathering firewood. They’re for you, Miss. We can roast them over the fire later. They’re delicious.” Yan Nuo put down the firewood he carried, took out a few chicken eggs from his front pocket, and handed them to Qian Yiyun.
Qian Yiyun’s eyes lit up. “Chicken eggs!”
She used to think that chicken eggs were not good enough for her. However, given their current plight, things have changed—these eggs were good stuff!
“We should put them inside the pot and cook them with the porridge for dinner tonight.”
She was too embarrassed to be the only one eating the eggs. There were so many eyes around her. She should not be given special treatment.
Xue Ling saw the eggs and was about to stand up and keep them in her pouch. Her expression turned sour instantly when she heard Qian Yiyun’s idiotic words.
There are only a couple of eggs. They aren’t even enough for me to eat! Why should I share them with all these countryside villagers?
However, she was smart and knew not to anger those women. Otherwise, she would not be given a single bite to eat here.
She decided to keep quiet, but she glared daggers into Qian Yiyun’s back.