The prosperity in Changzhou is entirely on a different level than Ming County, with endless rows of shopfronts and a continuous stream of people coming and going.
As Changzhou is famous for its textiles, there are many fabric shops, sowhat resembling a wholesale market.
However, for soone like Lin Qiao who only buys one or two pieces, it’s still very expensive. She thought for a mont and decided to bring each mber of the Lin Family and the Song Family a piece of clothing, except for Mrs. Song.
The dozen or so clothes cost nearly ten silver coins, the others’ clothes were okay, the most expensive was only more than four hundred cents each.
The expensive part was Song Tingfan’s clothes, which included two leather knee pads to help him with hunting in the mountains.
After making sure she hadn’t forgotten anything, she picked up her things and returned to the inn.
...
Several days passed, and around noon that day, Old Zhou brought a ssage, "Tingfan, soone has sent you a letter again."
Seeing Song Tingfan rush out to take it, he curiously asked, "Who wrote to you?"
"My sister-in-law." Song Tingfan hastily opened the envelope and then joyfully shouted into the house, "Grandma, sister-in-law is coming back."
"Really? When is she coming back, let your grandfather go get so at?" Song Qin hurriedly ca out but couldn’t read the words on the paper.
Song Tingfan told her, "Sister-in-law said she wrote the letter when she was already in Shaoshan, which is only five or six days from here, the letter takes three or four days, sister-in-law will be ho in two days."
However, Lin Qiao had already reached the town, a heavy rain had poured a couple of days before, making it impossible to send the letter, and it only started being delivered after the rain stopped.
This coincided almost exactly with Lin Qiao’s carriage.
Alighting from the carriage, Lin Qiao felt her entire body aching, then took a donkey cart from the neighboring village to return, but got off at the fork in the road between the two villages.
Fortunately, it wasn’t far, so she walked back. On the way, she ran into a few villagers heading to the market, who looked at her as if she were an oddity.
Lin Qiao didn’t need to guess to know the village gossip during this period.
Topics like Widow Song running away, Widow Song eloping with soone, Widow Song’s death.
She recalled a phrase she once saw online: although the elder sister is not in the world, the legend of the elder sister still remains.
Today, Song Tingfan had the day off, after lunch, he went to water the vegetables and pulled so weeds.
After finishing these, he took all the dirty clothes from ho, along with Lin Qiao’s quilts, down to the riverside to wash.
The won by the river, finding washing clothes dull, began to ask around Song Tingfan, "Tingfan, do you know where your sister-in-law ran off to?"
"My sister-in-law didn’t run away, she had sothing to do and went out." Song Tingfan pressed his lips and explained stiffly.
The won didn’t take him seriously and persisted in asking, "I heard from soone that your sister-in-law went off with a wealthy man, have you seen him?"
Song Tingfan didn’t want to entertain them, burying his head to continue washing the clothes, the won seeing he wouldn’t talk started speaking poorly of Lin Qiao as if he wasn’t there.
Just as Lin Qiao arrived, she happened to hear them vividly saying she had eloped with soone.
It’s truly a pity these won didn’t pursue a career in storytelling.
Suddenly, a youthful voice angrily sounded, "Why do you like to spout nonsense, my sister-in-law hasn’t eloped with anyone, she went out to work."
"You just can’t stand my sister-in-law doing well!"
His peripheral vision suddenly caught sothing, the previously angry expression instantly turned to joy, "Sister-in-law." He called out, abandoning the clothes and ran straight to Lin Qiao.
Noticing he had grown taller, Lin Qiao’s eyes curved into a smile, "Little Uncle."
"Sister-in-law, how co you ca back today, I thought you would be back in a couple of days." Song Tingfan took the items from her hands.
Lin Qiao blinked, "Should I go away for two more days then?"
At these words, Song Tingfan hurriedly shook his head, "No!"
Lin Qiao couldn’t help but laugh, then glanced at the won by the river watching them, her smile didn’t reach her eyes, "Aunties seem to have a lot of idle gossip."
Caught speaking ill just when the person involved overheard, none of the won by the river dared to speak.
Seeing they fell silent, Lin Qiao inwardly scoffed, knowing they only bullied those who seed weak.
Then she ignored them, taking Song Tingfan ho.
In the main room, Song Qin was squinting while doing needlework, instinctively looking up when she heard footsteps, she was montarily stunned upon seeing Lin Qiao, then rose with delight, "Qiao’er, you’ve finally co back! We thought you wouldn’t return for another two days."
Seeing her genuine expression, Lin Qiao felt warmth flooding her heart, "Grandma."
Song Qin ca over, holding her hands, watching her closely for a long mont, her eyes turning red, choking out, "Qiao’er, you’ve lost weight."
"No, I’ve gained weight." Lin Qiao indeed lost weight, spending over twenty days mostly eating dry food on the carriage.
"I can tell you’ve lost weight, you’ve suffered." Song Qin tried not to cry, but couldn’t help it, all of Qiao’er’s actions were for their sake, making her travel so far.
Her tears made Lin Qiao’s nose tingle, "Grandma, no."
Song Qin suddenly recalled sothing, wiping the tears from her eyes, "Niu Niu, your sister-in-law must be hungry, go weigh so at, a bit more, I’ll go steam so rice."
Today at noon they had cold rice from the morning, no leftovers.
"Okay." After putting the things down in his sister-in-law’s room, Song Tingfan quickly ran out, soon returning with the unwashed clothes on his back, and then ran out again.
Lin Qiao wanted to call him back but couldn’t stop him, feeling helpless but amused, though she was indeed hungry.
Just as Song Qin was about to enter the kitchen, she hurriedly turned, standing at the courtyard gate shouting, "Old man, co back quickly and make a fire!"
Song Rong, tidying vegetables behind the house, responded imdiately upon hearing, before entering the door, he said, "What’s the fire for?"
Seeing Lin Qiao, he joyfully exclaid, "Qiao’er, you’re back, you’ve lost weight, lost weight."
"Grandpa, I haven’t lost weight, it’s just been a long ti since you last saw ."
Lin Qiao wanted to take the hoe from him, but Song Rong cheerfully said, "The hoe is dirty with mud, don’t touch it, go sit and rest for a while."
"Old woman, didn’t Niu Niu buy rice cakes a few days ago, quickly take them out for Qiao’er to eat."
Song Qin quickly "oh oh"ed twice, "I’ll go get them."
The family of three bustled busily, Lin Qiao couldn’t call them back, just helping with whatever she could, while Song Qin wouldn’t let her get involved, "fiercely" chasing her out of the kitchen to let her eat rice cakes.
As Lin Qiao bit into the rice cake, she glanced around the courtyard, noticing the lotus flowers in the tile jar were about to bloom, seemingly more than before she left, probably Song Tingfan had gathered more from sowhere.
After a while, Song Tingfan returned carrying several kilos of at, not seeing his sister-in-law, he called out several tis, "Sister-in-law, sister-in-law..."
Hearing the call, Lin Qiao quickly ca out from the house, "I’m here."
Song Tingfan grinned widely and clumsily, and called again, "Sister-in-law."
Lin Qiao almost laughed but cooperated and responded, "Why did you weigh so much at?"
"I have silver coins."
Song Tingfan took the money bag from his pocket, handing over the silver coins he’d earned these days, "Sister-in-law, I’ve saved more than two hundred coins through hunting."
"So much? Little Uncle is getting more and more capable." Lin Qiao didn’t take it, indicating he should keep it himself.
"I’ll beco even more capable." Song Tingfan wanted to say that he wouldn’t let his sister-in-law travel far to work in the future.
He had missed his sister-in-law for many days.
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