Chapter 16: Let Her Off This Time

Since Xia Xiaoqi had only recently undergone surgery, she had a perfectly respectable excuse to do no housework at all.

Liu Chunhua therefore turned all her attention to Qiao Ran, trailing after her like a woman saddled with an unfair burden.

“Qiao Ni, wash all the clothes.”

“Qiao Ni, you have to work for the team tomorrow.”

“Qiao Ni, it’s time to make dinner.”

Worn down by her nagging, Qiao Ran waved her hands repeatedly. “All right, all right. I’ll do it. I’ll cook now.”

Chunhua smiled with satisfaction, feeling like a long-oppressed serf who had finally risen up and could sing again.

Qiao Ran’s family had been in politics for generations. She hadn’t exactly lived in the lap of luxury, but she’d never had to lift a finger around the house.

Strictly speaking, since she’d taken over someone else’s body, she shouldn’t stay with the family and eat for free. But cooking and farm work? She truly didn’t know the first thing about either.

Standing alone in the kitchen, she stared at the potatoes and cabbage on the chopping board, her head aching at the sight.

The side-room door she’d kicked in still hadn’t been repaired. It was bitterly cold in mid-October, and neither Lu brother was home, so Xiaoqi had readily moved into the west room with Qiao Ran.

At the moment she lay on the kang with her legs crossed, humming a tune. Qiao Ran pushed the door open, her face dark.

“What’s wrong, sweetie?” Xiaoqi asked with a grin. “Did the old woman upset you?”

“She wants me to cook. I don’t know how.”

“What’s so hard about it? Even if you’ve never eaten pork, you’ve seen a pig run. Oil in, vegetables in, add water, and you’re done.”

“You’re the undisputed MVP of talking a good game.” Qiao Ran sighed. “I’d get better advice from a pig. I’ll figure it out myself.”

Xiaoqi pouted. “I’m cuter than a pig.”

The mention of pork made her smack her lips. “I want red-braised pork.”

“Hey!” Qiao Ran’s pretty peach-blossom eyes lit up. “There’s a homemade gun hanging in your room. I’ll hunt a rabbit in the hills behind the village, and we can roast it tonight.”

Xiaoqi sat up at once. “I’m coming too.”

She moved too quickly and pulled at her incision. Pain doubled her over, and cold sweat broke out on her forehead.

“You’d better wait at home. The mountain path is rough. If your incision splits open, you’ll have to go back to the hospital for stitches.”

That warning frightened Xiaoqi. Rather than go back for injections and medicine, she’d prefer one clean cut to end it all.

Glancing at the sky, she said, “Come back early. It’ll be dark soon.”

“I know.” Qiao Ran grabbed a thick coat and headed out. “Wait for me, sweetheart.”

Lu Hongli happened to be scooping water from the kitchen jar. Hearing the end of their conversation, she shuddered all over.

She ought to write to both her brothers immediately: *Come home quickly. Our two sisters-in-law have fallen for each other.*

After Qiao Ran left, Xiaoqi burrowed under the quilt for a nap. She was just drifting off when a burst of laughter from the courtyard woke her.

“That wretched girl still hasn’t made dinner. Is she trying to starve the whole family?”

Liu Chunhua’s voice came from the kitchen. Xiaoqi counted silently: *one, two…* Before she reached three, Chunhua pushed open the door.

“Where’s your elder sister-in-law?”

“She went to hunt rabbits in the back hills,” Xiaoqi answered lazily.

“Hunt rabbits?” After her initial surprise, Chunhua spoke with deep contempt to Auntie Wang, who had come in with her. “Listen to that. She thinks she’s capable of hunting now. With all that clumsy flesh on her, she ought to watch the rabbits don’t hunt her.”

Wang covered her mouth and cackled.

Xiaoqi frowned. “Oh, Auntie Wang, do stop laughing. Anyone hearing you might think an old hen was settling on her nest.”

“What kind of way is that to speak?” Wang, who had been laughing a moment before, turned red with anger. “No respect for your elders. What did your mother teach you before you married?”

“She taught me to gossip about people behind their backs, stir up couples until they divorce, and preferably marry my own daughter into the family afterward. Oh, and to name the girl Dongmei.”

Wang clutched her chest, gasping, nearly made ill by anger on the spot.

Alarmed, Chunhua helped her toward the east room. “Oh, Auntie, don’t take it to heart. She’s young and doesn’t know better. Don’t let her make you sick.”

Xiaoqi wanted to add a few more remarks, but then thought that if she really made the old woman ill, they’d have to get her treated. Forget it. She’d let her off this time.

Xiaoqi had just curled back under the quilt when Lu Hongna came in with a young woman about her own age.

The visitor wasn’t particularly beautiful, nor was she ugly. She had the dainty charm of a girl next door.

Though Xiaoqi had never met her, her instincts told her this was Dongmei.

“Sister Fang, I heard you had an appendectomy. Are you feeling better?”

Her voice was so gentle that Xiaoqi wondered whether she could really be Auntie Wang’s daughter.

“Mm, better,” she answered casually.

Dongmei asked Lu Hongli, “Will Second Brother come home now that Sister Fang has had surgery?”

“I called him. He said he’s not a doctor, so there’s no use coming back. He isn’t coming.” As if deliberately trying to upset Xiaoqi, Hongli put special emphasis on the last words.

Dongmei gently reassured her. “Don’t be sad, Sister Fang. Second Brother’s unit is far away. Even if he came back, he couldn’t have been here for your operation. I’m sure he still cares about you.”

Hongli, beside her, said, “When you hurt your leg the year before last, my second brother came home. He didn’t mind the distance then.”

Dongmei blushed faintly. “Don’t say that. Sister Fang might misunderstand.”

Were these two putting on a double act for her? She and her best friend had played that game until they were tired of it.

Annoyed, Xiaoqi waved a hand. “Nobody cares whether your precious Second Brother comes back. Get out. I want to sleep.”

Hongli and Dongmei’s expressions changed. Apparently, they hadn’t expected that response.

“Sister Fang, are you angry?” Dongmei asked cautiously.

Xiaoqi glared at her. “Ma Dongmei, I advise you to be kind.”

Dongmei blinked in confusion. “Sister Fang, my surname is Li.”

A slip of the tongue. That movie had gotten into Xiaoqi’s head, and the name had come out before she could stop it.