Luo Xingchen looked so pitiful and reluctant to part just now at the thought that there would be no more delicious food to eat in the future that Su Tang felt amused just recalling the scene.
Meanwhile, Su Nuo nodded when he heard her assurance that ‘Brother Luo’ would come back soon: “Well, I’ll take Brother Luo to see my Hawthorn tree when he comes back then.”
“You really don’t know how to keep anything a secret!” Su Tang patted his head with a smile.
Su Nuo giggled and replied, “Brother Luo is so good to me, so I will also be good to him. In the future, I want to be like Brother Luo and earn a lot of money for you to spend.”
“You’ve changed your idol so quickly. Don’t I already make more money than that Brother Luo of yours?” Su Tang joked.
Su Nuo flusteredly waved his hands in denial. “No, sister, you are also very good. Very powerful!”
Seeing him like desperately denying, Su Tang couldn’t help but laugh and, like that, the two of them returned to Sujia Village amidst smiles and laughter.
However, not long after Su Tang and her brother separated from Luo Xingchen, someone else appeared at the town entrance. This person first looked in the direction where Luo Xingchen had left, and then looked towards where Su Tang had recently disappeared in the direction of Sujia Village, and sneered before snorting: “Bah!”
By the time the brother and sister returned to Sujia Village night was already beginning to fall. After all, winter was slowly arriving and the days were getting shorter and shorter, so it was already a little dark when the two people entered their yard. However, Su Tang still immediately turned around to go out and go fishing on the Qing River with her little basket.
When she got to the river, she immediately noticed there was something strange going on because there were still a great many people standing near the banks of the Qing River despite the late hour. Su Tang walked over curiously and, when she saw that she knew most of the gathered people, she opened her mouth to greet, “Fu’an, why are you all gathered here at this time?”
When Su Fu’an heard Su Tang address him, he looked back in surprise and exclaimed, “Aunt Tang!”
But the surprise quickly faded and was replaced with anxiety as he said, “The Qing River has begun to freeze in the recent day days but just now that Xiaocao girl from the Zhou family stepped onto the ice and fell through. Fuhua is leading people to try to fish her out!”
Because it was already winter, and Qingyuan County was located in the northern part of the country, the weather was very cold recently and the river had already begun to freeze the way it did every winter.
However, because the Qing River flowed down the Black Bear Mountain before passing by Sujia Village, it had a relatively fast current, which meant that it took a relatively longer time to freeze properly when compared to the other nearby ponds and streams. Right now there was only a very thin layer of ice on the river, so thin that Su Tang had been breaking it fairly easily every day to do her fishing while she still could.
In fact, Jiang He and Madam Qian had discussed this situation with Su Tang a few days ago. By now their noodle stall already relied on Su Tang’s fish balls, so if she wasn’t able to deliver them anymore because of the weather their business would definitely be affected. That’s why they had told her that, because it was getting colder now, Su Tang should try to catch a few more fish and preserve them outside.
That way, even if they had to sell a few less fish balls, they would at least be able to survive the winter. Of course, Su Tang had naturally agreed. She had been a bit more idle these days with the addition of the two servants to her household, so she didn’t mind doing a bit more ‘fishing’. However, she really didn’t expect to encounter something like this while she was out.
“What? She fell through?” Su Tang was startled when she heard Su Fu’an say that someone had fallen into the river. After all, the Qing River wasn’t the kind of river that people could casually jump into for fun.
Even back when Su Tang had swum just a few feet through the shallow part of the river with the help of her space, she remembered how Su Nuo had been very nearly dragged away by the current. It just went to show how fierce the river really was. And now someone had fallen in?
Su Tang took a few uncertain steps forward, but when Su Fu’an saw her doing that he hurriedly pulled her back and said, “Be careful Aunt Tang! The ice seems to be very weak. Don’t fall in yourself.”
Although Su Tang was his elder according to the genealogy, she was still only an eight-year-old girl so Su Fu’an was afraid that something might happen to her. After all, if she really tried to help Su Fu’an judged that she would probably just end up as another person who needed to be saved.
“Don’t worry, I know.” Su Tang nodded at Su Fu’an. But then she glanced at the orange cat “Xiao Four, can you see where she is now?”
The orange cat lightly stepped out onto the ice and went to a certain place before declaring: ‘Here!’
