CHAPTER 27: CHAPTER 27: I LIKE EVERYTHING MY SISTER-IN-LAW MAKES

At this moment, cicadas returned to the jujube tree, and it was unclear if they were the same ones as before or new ones arriving, but the noise was incessant.

Seeing Song Tingfan getting ready to go out and poke again, Lin Qiao called out to him, "Uncle, there’s no need to bother, they’ll start again soon after you’ve stopped them."

But Song Tingfan didn’t mind the trouble, and with a youthful smile, said, "I’ll deal with them when they come." After saying this, he ran out.

The young man extended his arm straight, skillfully handling the pole, clearly someone who works often.

He was handsome and diligent. Though his family was poor, their house was large, considered a nice house in the village at least.

When he grows up, there will surely be many families wanting to arrange a marriage.

Lin Qiao thought, if the villain followed the right path in his past life, he would have married and started a family, living harmoniously.

Thinking of this, she lightly nodded to herself, determined to put the villain on the right path in this life.

If he’s well, she’s well.

Perfect happy ending.

About a quarter of an hour later, Lin Qiao finished working on the square cloth she had in her hand. She stretched her waist and tilted her neck, then looked at Song Tingfan, who was making wooden arrows.

The tip of the wooden arrow was already quite sharp and about to be finished.

"Uncle, are you going hunting with the eldest uncle this afternoon?"

Song Tingfan shook his head, "Eldest uncle is busy with something in the fields these days and can’t go up the mountain. I’ll be pulling weeds from the fields this afternoon."

The weeds had indeed grown quite a bit, Lin Qiao nodded and stood up, "I’ll prepare lunch earlier, and after eating, we can go weed."

Upon hearing this, Song Tingfan quickly stood up, thoughtfully wanting to share the burden, "Sister-in-law, I’ll do it, you should rest a bit."

"You’ve been embroidering all morning."

Lin Qiao seemed to have gotten used to it, and instinctively patted his head with a smile, "Uncle, help sister-in-law with the fire."

Song Tingfan shyly scratched his forehead, "Alright."

...

In the afternoon, a man’s rough voice echoed throughout the village, "Collecting cicada shells!"

Occasionally, someone would respond to him, "Big brother, our family has some, come to our house!"

In the backyard, Song Tingfan’s eyes lit up upon hearing this, and he then turned to look at Lin Qiao, who was also weeding, awkwardly making an excuse, "Sister-in-law, I need to go to the lavatory."

"Go ahead." Lin Qiao didn’t lift her head, continuing to pull weeds, trying to be quicker so it wouldn’t get too hot when the sun came out later on.

It was a long time before Song Tingfan returned, carefully glancing at his sister-in-law, afraid she might think he was slacking off.

However, she didn’t question anything, instead holding up a wild radish for him to see, her eyebrows smiling, "Uncle, it’s grown up, I’ve pulled it."

"We’ll have cold radish salad tonight."

Things had improved a bit compared to one or two days before, but there was still a gap from being full.

She often woke up hungry in the middle of the night.

"Sister-in-law, you like radish? Then I’ll go look further away, there should be more." Seeing his sister-in-law happy made Song Tingfan happy too.

His heart felt full of something.

"There’s enough to eat." Lin Qiao patted the dirt off the radish and added, "Uncle, some of the vegetable seedlings are wilted, and we need to water them later."

"Okay." Song Tingfan nodded obediently.

After working under the sun all afternoon, Lin Qiao was drenched in sweat. Returning home, she boiled water for a bath. She hurriedly grabbed clothes and forgot the inner garments.

So, she only wore an outer garment, which was a cross-collar style that exposed her collarbone upwards.

In her view, there was nothing wrong with this.

Song Tingfan, who was washing vegetables in the yard, instinctively looked up upon hearing a sound, then quickly turned his back.

S-s-sister-in-law’s clothes weren’t worn properly.

Lin Qiao didn’t notice and walked right into the house, closing the door behind her.

Song Tingfan stood there stunned for quite a while before clumsily continuing to wash vegetables. The redness on his ears lingered for a long time.

During dinner, Lin Qiao noticed he wouldn’t lift his head, focusing solely on eating porridge. She picked up a piece of vegetable for him, "Uncle, don’t just eat rice, you need more vegetables to grow tall."

Then she added, "Uncle, do you not like radish? What do you like to eat? I’ll buy it tomorrow."

"Sister-in-law..."

Song Tingfan wanted to say something but ended up choking on his food, so Lin Qiao quickly patted his back and said, "Uncle, eat slower."

Her hand on his back felt somewhat soft, causing Song Tingfan to stiffen uncomfortably, "Sister-in-law, I eat everything."

Seeing he wasn’t coughing anymore, Lin Qiao withdrew her hand, glancing at him, wondering how a child can have no preferences.

This villain is too sensible.

Not too good.

Sensible kids mature early, and that’s not easy to coax.

Her eyes slightly turned, then she casually said, "Uncle, just say what you like to eat."

And added at the end, "Sister-in-law will try to satisfy you."

Song Tingfan still shook his head, tactfully saying, "Sister-in-law, I like everything, your cooking is delicious."

"So even if sister-in-law cooked mud, you’d like it?" Lin Qiao teased him on purpose, and then took a sip of porridge.

Unexpectedly, Song Tingfan earnestly nodded, "I like whatever sister-in-law makes."

Lin Qiao: "..."

This silly villain is hopeless, she could handle several of these villains right now.

She gave up trying to communicate with the now ’lover-struck with sister-in-law’ villain, and picked up another piece of vegetable for him, "Eat more."

...

Night fell, daylight slowly rose, and the sound of roosters crowing came one after another.

The wooden door of the Song Family opened, and then was securely closed again.

The young man headed towards the village entrance with a basket on his back.

The villagers he passed greeted him with a good-natured question, "Tingfan, where are you going?"

"Grandpa, I’m going to town." The young man replied politely and generously.

"What for?"

"To buy something."

"Oh, oh, be careful on the road."

Back here, Lin Qiao woke up and didn’t see Song Tingfan, thinking he might have gone up the mountain to gather herbs or to check the hunting traps.

She washed her face, prepared breakfast in the kitchen, thinking to wait for Song Tingfan to eat together, while she took out the dried goods to sun again.

Afterwards, she cleaned the house inside and out, and while sweeping the doorway, Old Mrs. Wang from the Wang Family was also sweeping.

Lin Qiao smiled and greeted, "Granny Wang."

Recently, Old Mrs. Wang’s attitude towards Widow Song had improved a lot, smiling as she replied, "Madam Tingfan, have you had breakfast?"

"Not yet, waiting for Tingfan to return."

"Where did Tingfan go?"

"Up the mountain."

"Your Tingfan is a hard worker."

"Uncle’s diligent, a lot more so than I as his sister-in-law feel embarrassed."

Seeing her praise Song Tingfan, Old Mrs. Wang glanced at her, full of smiles and contentment, sincerely admiring Song Tingfan.

"Nothing to be embarrassed about; you’re a woman, women usually don’t have as much energy as boys."

"That’s true." Lin Qiao agreed.

After a few more words, they each went back inside to tend to other things.

After hour-of-the-dragon, Song Tingfan still hadn’t returned, so Lin Qiao had to eat breakfast first, keeping his share warm in the pot.

By noon, he still hadn’t come back, with the firewood added two or three times by then.

No matter what, he should have returned by this time.

Lin Qiao waited a bit longer, feeling uneasy, she went outside to the perimeter of the back mountain to look for him, calling out for a while but seeing no trace.

She was getting anxious but stayed calm, quickly going downhill to ask the Lin Family to help search together.

The Lin Family got worried upon hearing Song Tingfan was missing, fearing something might have happened. Li Guifen, who was impatient, started lamenting, "Why let him go to the back mountain alone? There were wolves there a few years ago."

"Auntie, really? Tingfan is only twelve, you let him go alone to the back mountain, I wonder if your heart’s made of stone," Lin Xushi couldn’t help but reprimand.

Lin Qiao pursed her lips, "I’m sorry for the trouble, big sister-in-law and everyone."