CHAPTER 25: CHAPTER 25: THINKING OF ELDEST SISTER

Chun Nuan cooked a pot of fish, using the bowl Luo Xiaogang stored pickled vegetables in to fill a bowl of fish for him, telling him to take it back for his family to eat, and then come back to the Xiao family to eat.

"Alright, wait for me, I’ll be right back."

Luo Xiaogang ran off quickly.

He loved playing at the Xiao family house.

With Brother Chun Ning helping him earn money, he had quietly calculated, so far he’s earned forty-two wen; with dishes made by Sister Chun Nuan, the fried dough sticks, it’s no exaggeration to say, even though they’re the same wild vegetables, Sister Chun Nuan’s cooking is much tastier than mother’s.

Luo Xiaogang brought the fish back home, and Aunt Luo scolded him.

"It’s so hard for others to cook it, how could you shamelessly bring it back?"

"Mom, I picked up the fish, and besides, the pickles are ours, we’re even." Luo Xiaogang put it on the table and ran off: "Not talking anymore, I still need to go to Brother Chun Ning’s house to eat, they’re all waiting for me to start the meal."

"You’re like a radish in the sand, goes where the breeze takes you, really thick-skinned."

Aunt Luo felt embarrassed when her son vanished so quickly.

"Mom, can we eat this fish? It smells so good." The third sister swallowed: "Chunyan and Chun Shu were right, Sister Chun Nuan is really good at cooking, it looks so delicious."

"What do you mean, what I cook doesn’t taste good?" Aunt Luo laughed in anger: "Dislike what I cook? Then you should cook yourselves, third girl, not that I want to say you, but you’re already thirteen, and your cooking skills, I really can’t praise them. In a couple of years, you’ll talk about marrying someone; you need to practice more so you won’t embarrass me by saying I didn’t teach you well."

"Mom, when I go to someone else’s house, will I still be cooking and doing laundry?" The third girl was puzzled: "Then what’s the point? I might as well stay home and help you cook and do laundry, that would be easier for you."

"What nonsense, girls need to marry when they come of age, who will take care of you if you don’t marry?"

"I will." Six-year-old Luo Xiaocheng immediately replied: "Third sister, you play with me, help me wash clothes and cook, and when I grow up, I’ll take care of you."

"Oh dear, little Luo, you’re such a sweet talker." Aunt Luo laughed angrily: "They say once you get a wife, you forget your mother, now you want your third sister to play with you, so you say you’ll take care of her in the future; your third sister really won’t marry and stays at home, you won’t even be able to find a bride."

"Why not?"

"People don’t want an extra burden." Aunt Luo said: "Which family would want to take in an unmarried sister-in-law they have to support? Third girl, you need to be aware, none of your brothers are reliable. A girl still needs to marry into a good family and have her own children."

"Mom, what is a good family?" The third girl looked at her mother: "Did you marry into a good family?"

This sentence left Aunt Luo silent.

To say it’s good, really don’t know what’s good about it; to say it’s not good, it’s not too bad either, after all, she has sons and daughters, quite a few, Daya is already married, she is already a grandmother; Erwa is also engaged, will be married in the twelfth lunar month... That’s probably how life goes, right?

"You child, in two years, I’ll ask your aunt to find you a good one."

"Why do we have to marry when we grow up, but Sister Chun Nuan is so grown-up, why isn’t she married yet?"

"You don’t understand, Doctor Xiao is no more, the Xiao family is still in mourning, they can discuss marriage after the three-year mourning period ends."

Aunt Luo worried for Chun Nuan: "That girl is beautiful and capable, used to live in the Capital, her marriage is tough, I’m afraid."

People say when sending daughters, keep your heads high, and keep them down for taking wives, Chun Nuan’s birth and the Xiao family’s situation are truly awkward. Big families and officials might not dare to get involved with them, just look at the attitude of the large Xiao clan, they’re afraid of being implicated.

If she married into a farmer’s family, alas, a flower stuck in cow dung, truly unimaginable.

All in all, in Aunt Luo’s eyes, no matter whom Chun Nuan married, she’d be marrying down!

It’s pretty miserable!

Again, she remembered Chun Nuan saying she was sick, and she struggled to decide whether to ask for a prescription to buy medicine.

Counting the money saved at home, turns out, they need to marry a daughter-in-law in the twelfth lunar month, really no money left for medicine.

"Mom, let’s eat, I’m starving, I really want to eat." The third sister saw her mother shaking her head, sighing, not knowing why she was worried.

"Eat, eat." Aunt Luo also realized she was quite unwell, eating her meal while worrying about the Xiao family’s matters.

At the Xiao family, Luo Xiaogang ate with absolute delight, making smacking noises, and kept exclaiming.

Suddenly realized that among so many people eating, his was the only voice.

"Brother Chun Ning, why is your family so quiet while eating, can’t anyone talk?"

"Speak not when eating, sleep not when resting." Chun Ning smiled slightly, placing a piece of fish in his bowl: "Especially when eating fish, you have to keep your mouth closed, or else the fish bones would get stuck in your throat."

"Ah, okay."

Luo Xiaogang quietly looked up at the table of elders and secretly clicked his tongue: the Xiao family kids ate sitting upright, not making noise, so polite.

Unlike his own family’s meal times, where younger siblings would demand this and that, or just continuously bicker, making one’s head ache.

After the meal, the old lady watched her granddaughter get busy slicing Bianxia and felt quite emotional.

"Nuannuan, grandmother’s eyesight wasn’t good before."

This granddaughter truly excelled in every way.

Even her cooking skills had improved significantly.

After the family declined, they realized this previously inconspicuous granddaughter was quite talented.

It was normal for Nuannuan to learn some pharmacology from the old master, as she wasn’t fond of music or calligraphy. Everyone knew she could consult, no one knew she could survive; now with her, the Xiao family had a backbone. It became evident that the old master’s preference for her was well justified.

"Grandmother, your health isn’t great, please rest." Seeing the old lady come to help with the sun-drying, Chun Nuan smiled slightly: "As long as you’re not disgusted by this granddaughter’s roughness."

"Grandmother has lived for decades without understanding disdain."

She always felt indebted to this granddaughter.

"All our family children are good." She looked into the distance: "I wonder how Chunyu is doing?"

"Judging by the time, eldest sister should be due around Dragon Boat Festival."

Chun Nuan was also worried for her elder cousin. As the eldest granddaughter of the Xiao family, she was truly the apple of everyone’s eye, gentle and virtuous, respectful to elders, loving to siblings, every festival she’d meticulously prepare gifts everyone loved.

Marrying the second son of the Wu family was considered a good match.

But the Wu family was unlike the Xiao family, Lord Wu had one wife and three concubines, the eldest sister originally wasn’t marrying so soon, but due to Mrs. Wu being seriously ill, fearing mourning would delay good timing, the wedding was conducted earlier.

Indeed, less than three months after the eldest sister entered the family, Mrs. Wu passed away, less than a year after her passing, Lord Wu remarried... Anyway, the inner courtyard of the Wu family was quite chaotic, genuinely afraid the eldest sister couldn’t handle it.

"Yes, by convention, we should send birth gifts." Eldest Aunt Mrs. Xu tearfully said: "I prepared the same things for Lingling and Yu’er, but unfortunately..."