Chapter 51 Relatives coming to one’s door
Hope all my Canadians had an amazing thanksgiving long weekend! =)
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Afterwards, everyone unanimously looked towards Er Dai. Er Dai had a lifeless look within his eyes as he stared at the group of people. Huh, something seems wrong…
Shao Qing touched Er Dai’s head and spoke: “What a quick, easy decision.”
After Er Dai was sold off, his face was still at a loss. Shao Qing quickly added: Let’s make dinner quickly. After dinner, we can start work.”
Yan Hanqing then set off to make dinner. Shao Qing looked at Er Dai, then Yan Hanqing and then finally Xiao Baozi. She immediately had a feeling she was living the winner’s life.
Dinner wasn’t ready yet so Shao Qing sat in the courtyard watching Xiao Baozi being supported by Shao Tong to learn how to walk, when suddenly she detected people outside sneaking around spying on them.
Shao Qing promptly became alert. Ever since last times events, Shao Qing had a feeling that she had become a person who gets startled easily.
Listening carefully, she could hear heavy breathing and footsteps that were not carefully hidden. These weren’t professionals and they should be living people.
Shao Qing carefully thought about it, then released a tiny vine like snake to slowly slither out. In a moment, a sharp scream coming from outside pierced the air. Shao Qing quickly kicked open the door to see two people who were skinny as sticks being tightly bound by the vine and lying outside the door.
Two people, one boy, one girl; they looked between forty and fifty. They were utterly frightened. With their sunken cheeks and pointed mouths, they appeared to be two human skeletons.
“Don’t! Don’t kill us!” The woman screamed out in a frightened manner. “I know.. I know Yan Hanqing. That young man was Yan Hanqing right?!”
The fist that Shao Qing had held up was silently lowered. “Who are you guys? Why were you sneaking around and spying on us?”
The man immediately responded: “We are the inhabitants of this village. In regards to seniority, Han Qing should call me Uncle!”
The woman immediately went along with what he was saying: “Yes, that’s right. Just now we saw you guys enter the village and noticed that within the group there was someone who looked like Hanqing. That’s why we came over to look, we had no other intentions.”
Shao Qing squinted her eyes, not immediately trusting what they were saying. Instead she called Yan Hanqing over. Yan Hanqing hadn’t finished the dishes yet and brought over a smell of oil as he rushed over. “What is it?”
The two seeing Yan Hanqing became cheerful and called out: “Nephew, it’s me and your aunt!”
Yan Hanqing’s face turned slightly cold. However because his face was solemn all year round, most people wouldn’t be able to notice the subtle difference. Yet Shao Qing has always been good at spotting out the minute details and from a glance she had noticed Yan Hanqing’s drop of temperature.
But the two people were still screaming out: “Nephew, tell her to release us quick. You wouldn’t have forgotten that when your father died, it was I who received your family. If it wasn’t for us, how could you have grown so big!”
Yan Hanqing looked a bit embarrassed as he gave a look to Shao Qing who retracted back her vines. The two people crawled up and patted the soot off their bodies and the woman immediately said: “I told you we were on the same side. Is this nephew’s wife? You have grown up to be very talented and handsome.”
Awkwardly looking towards Shao Qing, he spoke: “What do you guys want?”
After saying these words, the woman’s face became heavy. Smelling the delicious aroma of the food he was cooking, she asked: “Yan Hanqing what do you mean? Do you not recognize your relatives? Right now me and your uncle are about to starve to death. Even if you don’t remember that we are relatives, shouldn’t you still take to account that we have helped you before?
Yan Hanqing pursed his lips, his entire body feeling embarrassed and awkward. Shao Qing pulled him towards him and rplied: “So it’s Yan Hanqing’s relatives. Come in. Although we don’t have much food, we should still be able to afford to provide one meal.”
The two people immediately were in high spirits and headed off inside. Giving them a greeting to warn the others, Er Dai went and hid within a room and Gu Panpan took out some vegetables and some other provisions.
Yan Hanqing went back to the kitchen to finish cooking the dishes.
Afterwards the two quite freely sat at the table. The man had already started stuffing biscuits within his bag while the woman was eating and stashing biscuits away.
They also had no need for chopsticks. Using their hands, they stuffed their mouths with vegetables. In particular the preserved meat, in a second they had already polished the dish clean.
When Yan Hanqing was taking out the dish, seeing the two acting like savages on the table, his original unpleasant complexion became even more cold. The woman seeing Yan Hanqing immediately waved him over: “Hanqing, don’t just stand there. There’s almost no more dishes.”
Shao Qing gave him a meaningful glance, then did Yan Hanqing nod his head and place the dishes on the table. The two people ate enough for four people then did they pat their round bellies and stopped eating.
Not even speaking of Yan Hanqing, even other bystanders couldn’t watch any longer.
If it wasn’t for Shao Qing holding them back, Gu Panpan would have already started to mock them. That woman was brazen and thick skinned, seeing that the table had nothing left, she said: “Ah, I’m sorry we’ve already eaten everything. Were you only making this much?”
“You guys are Hanqing’s relatives so eating some provisions isn’t any problem. However, we need to rest now.” Shao Qing’s intention to kick the guests out was very evident, but the woman acted as if she didn’t hear a thing and started to look around the house.
Yan Hanqing could help but speak: “Aunt, the sun is setting soon. Whatever you have to say, let’s just talk about it another day.”
“That won’t do. What if you guys leave the next day? Hanqing, your aunt has something she needs to discuss with you. Look at you guys, you guys had come from the outside so you must have brought quite a bit of provisions right? Your uncle and I helped you quite a bit in the past right? So how about owing to that friendship, you give your uncle and I a few bags of provisions? Our request isn’t that high, just about a dozen or more bags should be enough. Not even mentioning that we don’t have any, but that small amount of provisions is lower than the amount we used when we saved you two that year.”
Yan Hanqing lowered his voice: “Aunt, we don’t have that much…”
That woman’s eyes widened to massive circles. She was already just skin and bones, but that widening of her eyes made her eyes become sinister, just like a horror film. Not saying anything further, she began to cry. “There’s really no principles, what kind of person are you? That year us husband and wife didn’t have food or water and we nearly starved to provide you guys food. Now that we are looking for just a little amount of provisions, you won’t give any. Has your conscience been eaten by dogs?!”
Han Yanqing was stupefied. A dozen or so bags of provisions was something that he just couldn’t give up. Even if he did have that amount, he wouldn’t give it to them.
Yan Hanqing became taciturn. That woman then became even more intense. On one side she was crying hard, in the other she started to look around the house. There were barely any drops of tears, her vision sharp: “I’ve seen it! What are those things in the corner then?”
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