Fortunate Life of the Rural Beauty
Chapter 126 - 125 The leg is better now

Chapter 126: 125 The leg is better now

Wu Changsheng, looking at the hastily departing silhouette ahead, was filled with despair.

Before, his parents had always disapproved of his relationship with Afu. Later, his father, seeing how capable Afu was and recognising his son’s resolute attitude, finally relented. However, for some reason, his father’s attitude had abruptly changed two days ago, instructing his mother to hastily arrange a marriage for him. Further, he warned him to stop provoking Afu, stating that she was not within their imagined grasp.

Wu Changsheng’s mother had always intended to marry her own niece to him. After hearing her husband’s words, she rushed back to her maternal family to arrange the match.

But Wu Changsheng did not like his cousin. He found her similar to the majority of the girls in the village, with her dark skin and sturdy build, lacking the appealing paleness and uniqueness of Afu which always set his heart aflutter at the first glance.

However, his mother argued that girls like his cousin were better equipped to work and bear children. Regardless of his approval or disapproval, the two sets of parents would finalize the arrangement, with the engagement to occur in a few days...

Chen Afu slowed her pace when she saw Wu Changsheng had stopped following her. To Dabao, she said, "Don’t mention what happened today to anyone."

Dabao nodded his agreement. He was still a little confused and asked, "Mom, our families have always been very close. Why would Uncle Wu want to harm you? He’s always treated us well. And what about Shitou, can we still be friends? It’s hard for me to let him go."

Chen Afu found it hard to explain, she said, "Children can’t understand grown-up matters. Just remember to be respectful but distant to Uncle Wu in the future and don’t accept anything from him. As for Shitou, just carry on as before."

They had yet to arrive back home, when they saw Alu waiting at the gate, peering hopefully in their direction. The young boy was bathed in the rosy glow of dawn, happily waving and walking a few more steps forward.

Dabao exclaimed joyfully, "Mom, look! Uncle Alu can walk without crutches. In a few days, he should be well enough to start school." After saying this, Dabao ran off towards Alu.

Alu had been sporadically walking without his crutches for a few days now. Although there was still a slight limp, it was far better than the severe limp post his bone fracture. The minor limp was due to muscle atrophy owing to months of inactivity, and habitual limping. As long as he paid attention and walked more in the future, it would gradually improve.

Chen Afu felt a great sense of accomplishment. More than six months after she had traversed from the past, the condition of her family had improved a lot, and Alu’s leg had healed. Jin Yanzi had said that after Chen Ming had consumed the Green Swallow’s Nest for another two months, he would fully recover.

Of course, all of this was primarily thanks to the unknown hero, Jin Yanzi.

At the entrance of the courtyard, Chen Afu was holding Dabao with one hand and hugging her brother with the other. The three of them walked cheerfully into the yard.

Chen Ming pointed at a large basin of pork offal and laughed, "Dad bought a bunch of stuff today. Your mom has already cleaned it. You can cook it tonight for tomorrow. I’ll take it to your uncle’s house."

Tomorrow, The Chens’ second house was hosting a banquet at the main house. The guests had already been invited, not only including Manager Luo and his son from Tang Garden, and the tenants who had assisted, the village head of Lower Water Village, as well as Junior Officer Gao and the helpful Carpenter Wu and his son, and even the authoritative Hu Laowu. Officer Xia from the county town had also been invited. All together, there were nearly fifty guests, requiring at least six tables.

The main house had been preparing since the day before yesterday. This time, Mrs. Hu did not dare to cause any trouble. She guided Mrs. Gao and Alan in their tasks, even directing Chen Aju to stoke the fire. After all, Chen Ye was in a good mood and had even invited Hu Laowu. She hoped that this banquet would help to ease the relationship with her brother-in-law. Plus, with the two taels of silver, the most expensive liquors and Luwei would be provided by the second house, she estimated she could save one to two taels of silver.

This time, it was Hu Laowu who had personally gone to the county town to invite Officer Xia.

Hu Laowu’s fourth sister was Mrs. Hu’s younger sister, but apart from Hu Laowu, Officer Xia did not hold the rest of the poor Hu family in high regard. He rarely interacted with his relatives, including his relationship with Chen Ye. This time when he heard that Manager Luo from Tang Garden was attending the feast, and after Hu Laowu had spoken highly of the event, he accepted the invitation.

Knowing that Chen Ye was keen on currying favor with Officer Xia, Hu Laowu volunteered to invite Officer Xia. This thinned Chen Ye’s prejudices against Hu Laowu slightly.

During dinner, Chen Afu expressed interest in the small shrubs forest near Tang Garden. She listed several reasons, especially emphasizing its proximity to Tang Garden, allaying any fears about the safety of being outnumbered by bandits. She also mentioned that while a barren patch of land would be nice, it would not be near any village or shop, making it difficult to receive immediate assistance if any issue arose.

Chen Ming recalled the brawl by the creek and agreed with her arguments, promising to look for Junior Officer Gao to measure the land in two days’ time.

After dinner, Chen Afu and Mrs. Wang began to get busy. They cooked the Luwei made of pork belly, ribs, large intestine, liver, trotters, peanuts, tofu, and kelp.

She also set up another small pot to cook a vegetarian Luwei of tofu, kelp, and peanuts. This was to bring to Master Liao Chen of Tang Garden and also as snacks for the children the next day.

The small oil lamp in the kitchen shone even dimmer amid the mist, casting light on the busy figures of Mrs. Wang and Chen Afu.

Meanwhile, the courtyard was brightly lit by the stars. Although there was no moon that night, the deep autumn sky was filled with dazzling stars. Alu no longer needed crutches to walk and was extremely excited, frolicking around the yard with Dabao and the two parrots and dogs. Mrs. Wang kept reminding Alu to be careful from the doorway, feigning annoyance, but her expression was relaxed, her son’s leg had finally healed.

Noticing the tofu and pork liver were cooked, Chen Afu removed them from the pot and cut them into a half bowl. She brought the bowl out to the courtyard and called out to them, "Boys, come and have a taste."

All the animals in the family were either male or male animals, they were all considered ’boys’.

Zhui Feng and Wang Cai were the first to jump in, Qi Qi and Hui Hui even flew onto Chen Afu’s arm to peck at the bowl.

"No snatching." Chen Afu waved the two greedy parrots away.

Qi Qi’s temper was getting more and more aggressive, calling Chen Afu a "stinky woman".

Chen Afu, angered, kicked it and with fury in her eyes said, "If you curse again, I won’t feed you."

Qi Qi was scared and quickly started hopping around calling, "Mama, mama."

Hui Hui then imitated Mrs. Chen’s laughter.

Only when they all stood in order did Chen Afu begin to feed them in turns.

Seeing them like this, Chen Ming started to laugh, there was less worry in Mrs. Wang’s eyes, and she also started to laugh.

This was a poor family. There weren’t many trees, bamboo plants or flowers, there were no bird cages, and there weren’t many maidservants. There were no intentional displays of "liveliness", yet, everywhere, every moment, it was filled with vibrancy and joy.

Afterwards, Chen Afu diced the separately cooked tofu and kelp into small pieces, mixed them with peanuts, and put them into two large bowls. She was planning to bring this to Tang Garden the next day. Because Master Liao Chen was there, she had not brought any meat dishes for the children.

She packed a small bowl of peanut and pork belly dices, planning to secretly bring it to Jin Yanzi in the void room that night.