Su Tang had sighed, but truth be told, it was for a different reason than what Madam Zhou thought, it was more a sigh of relief. She really couldn’t imagine living in a place like this every day, and just thinking about it made her skin crawl a bit. After all, she never liked children very much.
In her previous life, she had really never seen the point of marriage. Could it be that those married people felt that games weren’t fun? That TV and movies weren’t entertaining enough? That there weren’t enough rivers and mountains left to explore? If not, why would they ever want to settle down to get married and have children?
“Haha, en, it would be good if Xiao Nuo could get a good wife. But for people like me… it’s probably good enough that I’m not out harming people.” Su Tang humphed. Indeed, it was good enough to watch this sort of hustle and bustle at other people’s homes, but she herself really never wanted to face such a thing in her own home.
Even back in modern society she really couldn’t imagine herself serving her in-laws the way people expected a married woman to, let alone now in this feudal society.
When they heard Su Tang say this, not to mention Madam Zhou, even Madam Luo, and Madam Miao didn’t really know what to say. After all, they couldn’t really tell Su Tang not to worry about it like they normally would in this kind of situation, because none of them really felt she had ‘nothing to worry about’. If they were to say the usual comforting words elders might say, like she would be able to find a good marriage someday in the future, then they would really feel like they were spouting nonsense.
After all, even though Su Tang and her brother didn’t go out or interact with other people much, their story had already spread in all of the nearby villages. The villagers who lived in the villages along the Qing River had been offering sacrifices to the River God since ancient times, but in all of that time, only two of those sacrifices had a fate so adverse that they were sent back after being sacrificed. Those two being Su Tang and her brother. That being the case, just who would dare to marry them, ah? Wasn’t that just asking for death?
For a moment, the atmosphere turned a little heavy. Su Tang wanted to open her mouth and say something to ease the tension, but just as she did there was a sudden noise at the door. It turned out that Su Laiwang had come back.
“Mom, dad told me to come back and tell everyone that it would take another hour or so to clear the road, so you and everyone shouldn’t keep waiting for us, just go ahead and have dinner with Aunt Tang and Uncle Nuo first.”
It turned out that Su Yongqiang, who had gone out to clear the road, realized that it was getting late and told his son to go back and tell the people at home to start eating without them. After all, Su Tang and Su Nuo were the children of Su Laochuan, who had a long friendship with his own household, so they could hardly be counted as guests and it would be unacceptable to let them starve on his behalf.
When Madam Zhou heard what Su Laiwang had to say, she quickly agreed, “OK, I understand. You keep an eye on your father, be safe out there!”
“En, don’t worry about us mother, we’ll be careful. I’ll go first.” Having finished his errand, Su Laiwang hurried off again.
Madam Lu had originally wanted to come out and have a look at her husband, but by the time she managed to escape from the kitchen she was only able to catch a hint of his disappearing figure, so she could only shake her head and go back to cooking.
But thanks to this episode, the awkward atmosphere disappeared. At the same time, Madam Luo and Madaam Miao saw that it was getting late and headed into the kitchen to help with the cooking. Seeing that, Madam Zhou pulled Su Tang into another room and asked to have a look at her needlework to keep her busy.
In the end, Madam Lu personally made all the cakes with her own hands, while Madam Luo made a fried vegetable dish and Madam Miao stewed the grass carp Su Tang had brought along and made a big pot of soup. Of course, because Su Tang and her brother were still young and couldn’t eat much, they only served some small portions and left most of the food in the kitchen to be saved for the men in the family.
Thus, they had a happy dinner with Su Tang and her brother and, soon after they finished eating, Su Yongqiang and the other men all came back and, without stopping to eat, told Su Tang that the road had finally been opened.
It was winter, so the days were short. Now that Su Tang knew that the road had been opened again, she didn’t stop to waste any more precious daylight and directly took Su Nuo to bid Su Yongqiang and his family farewell so that they could hurry and set off for town.
Of course, Su Yongqiang and Madam Zhou understood that the two kids couldn’t be delayed, so they didn’t waste too many words and just sent the two of them off. Once they were gone, Su Yongqiang and his three sons finally sat down to eat and were all shocked by the delicious fish soup.
At the same time, Su Tang led Su Nuo out of Su Yongqiang’s house and, without lingering at all, directly headed to the road that led out of Sujia Village. It had just snowed so it was very cold and there weren’t many people outside, and the two kids ended up walking slowly to Qinghe Town all alone, holding hands for warmth.
