Everyone Wants to Pamper the Peasant Girl

Chapter 21: Relationships Are Priceless

In the kitchen.

The soup was boiling with the pigeons in the pot. A unique medicinal fragrance filled the room.

Liu Guimei was very tempted by it.

I don’t care, I’m going to drink a few mouthfuls first.

It was too delicious!

She wanted more.

She looked outside to make sure that no one was approaching. She scooped out a large bowl of soup and quickly added another large bowl of water to the pot so that no one would notice.

She did not dare to make advances on the pigeon meat for fear of being discovered.

A layer of oil was floating on the top of the thick soup. That was where all the nutrients were at.

That bowl was filled with the essence of the soup.

She gulped and blew on it a few times. It was too hot to drink immediately.

Just as she was about to cool it down with some cool water, she heard hurried footsteps approaching behind her.

She was so shocked that she threw caution to the wind and recklessly downed the bowl of hot boiling soup.

Her lips, tongue, and throat felt as though they were branded with a hot iron, and her intestines felt like they were about to boil.

She hurriedly scooped another bowl of cool water and downed it as well.

Jiang Xinghua noticed as she walked closer that Liu Guimei had a pained expression on her face and was fanning her opened mouth frantically.

Liu Guimei’s whole mouth was a shade of red darker. It was hurting like crazy.

She tried her best to smile and said that she was fine, “I tried the soup just now for its taste and accidentally scalded myself.”

Jiang Xinghua replied, “Then you have to be more careful.”

Jiang Xinghua did not think more about her words.

Liu Guimei heaved a sigh of relief when she realized that she was not discovered.

Jiang Xinghua walked over to the cabinet and took out some brown sugar. She took out some red paper and wrapped some brown sugar in each of them. The final products, little red packets of brown sugar, looked extraordinarily auspicious.

Liu Guimei touched her mouth. It was blistered.

It hurt so much.

She almost gave her life drinking a bowl of soup.

“Xinghua, what are you doing? Did you get Mother’s permission to pack the brown sugar and take those eggs?

You can’t just do anything you like to them just because they are free, right?”

Seeing that Jiang Xinghua was holding up the gifts from Minister Wang, Liu Guimei rushed over.

She looked as if someone else had taken her belongings.

Her tone was very unfriendly.

After spending many years with her, Jiang Xinghua had a pretty good understanding of Liu Guimei’s personality. So, she didn’t take offense when Liu Guimei spoke to her. Instead, she responded gently, “Mother asked me to take these things. Haven’t we borrowed things from others in the past? We have to return what we borrowed. Plus, Mother told me to wrap some brown sugar as gifts of fortune candies to thank them for their kindness and to share our joy with everyone.”

The gesture of giving should be two-way. That way, they could maintain friendly ties with the villagers and get along well in the future.

Liu Guimei’s heart ached when she saw that more than half of the eggs in the basket were gone and that the large bag of brown sugar was slowly emptying.

She seemed to have forgotten the social code that one should return what’s borrowed.

Mother was being unwise.

Our family is poor. Why are you being generous when you are poor!

It was so rare to see the household cabinet filled with food.

It was not like she had given birth to some golden alms bowl. Was this really this big a cause for celebration? How troublesome.

It was as if she wanted the whole world to know that she had given birth to a daughter.

“Xinghua, not so much.” Liu Guimei opened the wrapped packets of brown sugar and grabbed a large handful of sugar from each of them, putting them back into the large bag.

There was only a little bit of sugar left on the red papers. The amount was so little that it didn’t even make a spoonful.

“Guimei, that’s too little as a gift.” Jiang Xinghua had initially thought that she was already being overly thrifty with the amount of brown sugar that she was wrapping. She hadn’t expected that Liu Guimei would be even more thrifty than her.

It would be too embarrassing to label them as gifts, wouldn’t it?

Liu Guimei didn’t think so. If she could, she would have emptied the entire packets back into the bag.

If it weren’t for her, the family would not have gotten hold of so many of these goodies. They didn’t come easy, as if they could drop from the sky.

“Xinghua, it was not easy to get these goodies. We should be thrifty with them and use them sparingly. Just a little bit of them would be enough as gifts. It’s just a polite gesture anyway.”

Those were already enough to make a bowl of sweet dessert.

She didn’t even feel like giving any of them away.

In any case, she didn’t have very good relationships with the villagers in general.

As compared to giving them to the villagers as gifts, she would rather use them to make herself a glass of brown sugar water every day to nourish her own body.

To prevent Jiang Xinghua from repacking the brown sugar again, Liu Guimei stared fixedly at her. Jiang Xinghua could only give up and put the brown sugar back.

Instead, she grabbed a handful of candy from the cabinet and placed two into each piece of red paper.

This looked more like it.

Liu Guimei didn’t dare to disagree with her directly but kept on muttering.

It was as if what Jiang Xinghua was doing was equivalent to cutting off her flesh.

Jiang Xinghua packed all the eggs and packets of candy into her basket. Oh yes, and a pigeon.

Liu Guimei had thought that those would be all that she was taking.

She didn’t expect Jiang Xinghua to grab a pigeon from the basket. She was so alarmed that she ran over at top speed, like someone was threatening to take her life. She cried, “Xinghua, what are you doing?! Those candies would suffice as gifts. Don’t tell me that you wanted to take the pigeons too.”

One pigeon was worth 300 copper coins.

If not for the fact that she wanted to eat them for her own nourishment, she would have sold all of them for the money.

Jiang Xinghua said truthfully, “Mother asked me to send it to Aunt Wang. All these years, Aunt Wang has taken great care of our family. If there’s anything delicious, she’ll be the first to send it to our family. When we had difficulties, she’ll be the first to reach out too. Mother said that it’s only right to give a pigeon to her as a gift.”

Not wanting to argue with her, Jiang Xinghua brought Mdm Fu’s name into the conversation.

It was indeed effective. As expected, Liu Guimei did not dare to object to Mdm Fu’s words.

She complained, “Mother was being unwise. Even if she wanted to be generous, this was too much. A pigeon costs 300 copper coins. Even if she didn’t want to sell it, she could have saved it for her grandsons for nourishment. Yet, she chose to give it to an outsider.

My Xiaoma is very malnourished and as thin as a monkey.”

Fu Xiaoma’s name was once again brought into the conversation abruptly.

Jiang Xinghua smiled and remained silent.

Liu Guimei couldn’t help but continue, “The nutrition available at our home was just starting to improve. We can’t just squander them like this. If it weren’t for me, our family wouldn’t even have these many goodies to start with.”

Her complete disapproval of Mdm Fu’s actions shone through her words and expression.

She was expecting an echoing agreement of what she just had said from Jiang Xinghua, but Jiang Xinghua kept silent.

Jiang Xinghua agreed with her mother-in-law’s actions.

Aunt Wang has been extremely kind to the whole family all long. She had never hesitated to lend money and items to the family.

Although pigeons could fetch a high price, relationships were priceless.

“Mother has a good understanding of social etiquette. We should learn from her.” Jiang Xinghua did not want to waste more time. She wanted to complete her tasks quickly and be back to hug Fu Xing’er.

“Guimei, I’ll head off to deliver the gifts.” Jiang Xinghua smiled and left.

As soon as she left, Liu Guimei looked at the five remaining pigeons in the basket and stomped her feet in anger.

“What a bootlicker.”

She would do whatever she was asked to do. Would she eat poop if someone asked her to do so too?

300 copper coins!

Gone, just like that!

She was only given 150 copper coins. Yet an outsider was going to receive 300 copper coins.

Liu Guimei found it extremely unfair.

You’re being so generous with the pigeons, aren’t you?

Fine! Then it wouldn’t be too much for me to drink two more bowls of pigeon soup either.

Liu Guimei scooped out two more bowls of pigeon soup and drank them vengefully. She then poured another half a pot of water into the pot of soup.

In an instant, the originally-rich soup turned into clear soup.

Outside.

Jiang Xinghua carried the basket and walked from house to house.

She returned the items and debts that the family had owed one by one. She said pleasantly to them, “Aunties, thank you all so much. My mother said that these fortune candies are for you. We would like to share our happiness from our new member of the family with everyone.”

“You’re too polite, Xinghua. Your mother-in-law has finally given birth to a daughter. Congratulations! Send my regards to her. Wishing her a speedy recovery.”

“Okay.”

Another stop.

One villager said, “Actually, there’s no need to return them so quickly. Your mother-in-law needs to recuperate and rest well during her confinement period.”

Jiang Xinghua answered, “My Mother said that she felt uncomfortable owing people money and items, and asked me to return them quickly. This way, she could feel at ease during her confinement period.”

“Here you go, Auntie,” said Jiang Xinghua, holding out a packet of fortune candies. “These are from my family, just to spread a little joy.” She smiled warmly at everyone, greeting them pleasantly. Jiang Xinghua was well-known in the village for being easy to get along with.

“Ah! Alright, alright. Your mother-in-law is too kind.”

Everywhere she went, she was met with congratulatory words. They were all a result of the close bonds that Mdm Fu and Jiang Xinghua had forged and maintained through the years.

Finally, she arrived at Aunt Wang’s house. “Aunt Wang, are you home? My mother-in-law asked me to return the eggs and brown sugar.”