Chapter 237 (2/2)
”Why not?” Jin Li had retorted, increasingly more sullen.
Leon had ignored his words, choosing to soothe him instead by gently drying his hands for him. He had smiled inwardly as he had noticed Jin Li's mood lift. ”Any s-silver would b-be stolen b-by that man,” Leon had then thought aloud, thinking that he doubted Russ' father would let him and the girls go, just because he divorced their mother. ”B-better t-to g-give rice and f-flour. B-but how t-to g-get them t-to accept.”
”How is it that you can improve pills that no one else will touch the recipe of,” Jin Li had scowled, ”but you can't think of a simple solution to such a measly issue? Did you not complain that you could not purchase a duvet for our bed as such was usually made by the women of households for personal usage? Of course, that is if that woman can sew.”
And she was more than competent in this area, accepting the request with a bit of reluctance as she was well aware what Leon's motives likely were. However, she also did need some way to provide food for her children over this period, Russ' wouldn't be paid from the small job he'd managed to find for a while and Leon was here thrusting good cloth, needles and thread as well as a deposit of a bucket of rice upon her. She was sure that this plus the further two buckets of rice, a sack of flour and a sack sweet potatoes was definitely too generous for payment considering it was only her time and effort that he needed, but seeing her the hungry faces of her two youngest daughters, she also couldn't say no to it.
Also as there was no money involved, so there would be no chance for her ex-husband and mother-in-law to find fault.
More than Russ' father retaliating in anyway, Leon's main concerns had rather been that his Aunt might cause worse trouble once he had gone back to school. Actually, she had yet to do anything since she'd screamed in his face and Leonard had not been worried about it whatsoever. After all, she represented her husband now, continuing to be unfilial and shameless in front of her father was the same as her husband acting unfilial and shameless. There was no way neither her husband nor mother-in-law would be satisfied with her behaviour if they were aware of it.
Indeed they had not been.
They'd had this chance to make strong connections to a young potential alchemist, perhaps offer to support him as he continued learning and even after when he needed herbs to make his pills. He would be grateful and naturally express such. The family's status potentially would rise along with his identity. Their relationship would be fruitful for both parties and harmonious.
Only Lessa had severed the chance with her shrew like behaviour. Her nephew would never want anything to do with her now! She tried to defend herself, but the old lady, much like the village chief, had seen a little more of the world that the close-minded woman and while she might not agree with the boy becoming a male wife, she would not sever potential connections with him as an alchemist because of it!
Worse, the village chief had felt that he did not want his eldest daughter to marry into a family where the mother-in-law was without virtue. Wouldn't the little girl suffer under such a roof! Thus Lessa had ruined her son's engagement as well, not to mention her daughter who now was stuck with the reputation of being thrown aside by her future husband for a man! Lessa had been forced to reflect in the Ancestral Halls while writing scriptures and maintaining a vegetarian diet. There was no time for her to bother her maternal family.
As the first tenday period of the new year ended, so did Leon and Jin Li's time in the former's ancestral village. If they wanted to return to school in plenty of time for the new term, they would have to leave upon the morrow. They ate a rich feast of rabbit stew, rice and sweet potato porridge that last evening as well as gifting Russ a large bowlful of the tender meat for his family.
”Don' worry abou' ye granda!” Russ promised him. ”I'll look ou' fer him!”