Chapter 65 - Old Residence (2/2)
Yu Xiaocau carefully bandaged the dressing on the wound and raised her head to smile at him when she heard his words. She didn’t agree or refute what her father had said.
That night, when the whole family was asleep, Yu Xiaocao once again pushed the little divine stone to release its hard earned spiritual energy to heal Yu Hai’s ravaged and torn tendons.
The water in this world was clear and pure. In addition, the little divine stone had also helped its master to save her father. All of these factors combined loosened its shackles, and its speed at absorbing spiritual energy had increased immensely. It was convinced that it would soon be able to materialize its physical form and openly appear in front of everyone. However, the energy that it painstakingly gathered every day was always used to treat Yu Hai’s leg injury. This made the little stone feel gloomy and depressed.
Luckily, it discovered that every time it used up all its spiritual energy, the shackles confining it would loosen a little more. It was especially prominent whenever it was healing people’s injuries, like its master’s head wound or its master’s father’s leg.
The clever little divine stone couldn’t help but grumble inwardly: ‘Don’t tell me that every time I help my master is when the Goddess of Spirit’s shackles will loosen on me?’ This was the complaint it had lodged within its heart but this was also the reason why it continued to help Xiaocao heal her father’s injury.
The next day, Xiaocao’s whole family was finally able to sleep until they woke up naturally. When Madam Zhang got up and saw that there was no one feeding the pigs, the chickens were clucking in hunger, there was no firewood gathered, no one was sweeping, and no one was washing the clothes, she couldn’t help but rush towards the west room and holler, “How long are you all going to sleep like the dead? Do you know what time it is?”
Yu Xiaocao opened the door and looked at Madam Zhang with a faint smile on her face, ‘Grandmother, it must have slipped your mind. We already split our family, so each branch is living independently. If you want us to feed the pigs and chickens, does that mean you want to give us a fifth of those animals?”
Madam Zhang choked down the abuse she had wanted to hurl and glanced at the east room’s messily attired Madam Li, who was leaning against the doorframe watching the show. Her fury had found a new target, and she screamed, “Lazy woman, why don’t you quickly start getting to work? If you can’t finish, don’t bother eating breakfast!”
The expression on Madam Li’s face changed instantly. She realized that she would have to be like Madam Liu in the future: working endlessly from dawn to dusk. She silently grumbled inside.
After more than ten years of marriage, she had only been ordered around by Madam Zhang during the first year. Ever since Madam Liu married into the family, she had taken it easy and lived a leisurely life. Now that she suddenly had to do housework again, she really didn’t know where she should start. For the whole morning, she muddled through the multitude of tasks while being criticized by her mother-in-law the whole time.
Her youngest sister-in-law, Yu Caidie, couldn’t stand by idly and watch, so she helped to sweep the floor and feed the chickens. Like this, by the time it was time to make breakfast, they hadn’t even gathered the necessary firewood. When Old Yu came back home, the kitchen was still cold and silent. Up until noon, he had to endure his hunger pains, and only then did he get to eat a breakfast that was poorly made.
Old Yu had an ugly expression on his face as he sighed. In the future, without Madam Liu and the others, it would be impossible to have the residence all tidied up and orderly like it was before. He put down his bowl and chopsticks to go to the old residence to see if there was anything he could help with.
As for Xiaocao and company, after enjoying the melodramatic play in the courtyard, they had eaten their breakfast at the crack of dawn and left to go to the old residence at the foot of the West Mountains. Yu Hai was left at the main residence to recuperate.
The old residence and the current Yu Family residence was about a half an hour walk from each other. Although it was said to be at the foot of the mountains, it was really about one to two kilometers away. With the glorious scenery of mountains and water, Yu Xiaocao’s good mood could not be ruined even if the old residence was about to fall apart. She had no doubt that they would be able to do well and even thrive in their new environment. Adapting to their new home was not a question.
The shabby old residence was in such bad condition that it made people gasp. Even though every year they would go back and fix things, that was only enough to guarantee that the whole house wouldn’t fall down. This year’s snows were heavy, so one of the rooms had also been crushed by the weight of the snow. Although in the spring they had hastily fixed it a bit, that room was currently not fit for living inhabitants.
The broken down house had a courtyard with weeds growing everywhere. On the side was a bamboo fence that had mostly fallen over. Wild hares had nested in the courtyard and, when they heard there were people, they zipped out with a ‘whoosh’ and scared them. Little Shitou cheerfully chased after the wild hares. Madam Liu quietly let out a breath in relief and started to pull up the weeds from the courtyard with her two daughters.
The old residence was located in a more remote area. In the vicinity, there were only a few neighbors. On the left, about two hundred meters away was the Zhou Family who raised chickens to make a living. Madam Fang had married into the Zhou Family and had a good relationship with Madam Liu. When she saw them all stooped over fighting with the weeds, she also brought over her two daughters to help.The Zhou Family had one son and two daughters. The oldest daughter, Zhou Linglong, was fourteen years old and was already on the marriage market. The younger daughter, Zhou Shanhu, was only nine and had an innocent and open personality. Her favorite thing to do was to play with the Xiaocao and Xiaolian together.
Uncle Zhou, Zhou Danian, started out as a street peddler. His son, Zhou Wenhua, had gone to school for two years and then followed his father in buying and selling goods. When it wasn’t busy at home, he would go to the village and walk up and down the streets selling household goods, such as needles and thread. They also had about a hundred chickens at home. Due to that, they were among the small number of families in the village who could afford to eat wheat flour and white rice on the regular.
“Brother Han!” Little Shitou, who was holding a small sickle and was using it to cut the weeds, raised his head and saw a familiar figure. He greeted the person cheerfully.
Zhao Han rolled up his sleeves and also grabbed a sickle. He stooped over and started to work as he said, “I heard you all are about to move here, so I came over. Is there anything I can help with?”