12 12 The Poor House of Xiao Family
Translator: 549690339
He yelled at her, “Stinky old woman, come out for breakfast.”
Su Qingyue’s ears didn’t hear anything, so she naturally didn’t hear his shouting.
“Dead old woman, calling you for a meal is such a chore.” Xiao Yuchuan glared at her from outside the door. Thinking about the breakfast and the medicine that second brother had prepared as soon as the sky lightened, and remembering his instructions, he decided to warm it up before calling her again.
Su Qingyue stepped out of the room and looked around.
This family was really poor, not even one decent piece of furniture.
The room she had just slept in was the main house, and there was another room next door. It seemed that a sick person lived there because when she walked near the room, she smelled a strong medicine smell.
The door was closed, and she was a guest, so she didn’t go in to look without permission. Moreover, she didn’t have that much curiosity. She just walked around the room and then went somewhere else.
To the left of the two rooms was a low and small utility room like a firewood room. Through the crack of the door, she saw that it was filled with half a room of firewood and a few farming tools like a hatchet and hoe. On the right side of the rooms was another low room, with smoke coming out of the chimney on the roof. Without looking at it, she knew it was the kitchen.
The houses were made of yellow mud bricks, with roofs mixed with tree bark and grass.
There was also a shed built next to the kitchen, made of pure tree bark supported by columns. Under the shed, there was half a shed of firewood.
The yard was quite large, with wide open spaces in front of and behind the houses, surrounded by bamboo fences. The ground was made of tightly bound hard soil. In the backyard, there were three large fruit trees: two date trees and one pomelo tree.
There wasn’t even a living room. There was only a four-cornered stool in the room, and not even an extra chair. It could almost be said that the house was empty.
Perhaps the room she didn’t enter had tables and chairs, but if the main room was so shabby, the secondary bedroom would be even more so.
In one corner of the yard, there was a table as high as a person’s waist, which was a board with four wooden legs under it. Imagining that the benefactor was a hunter, she could tell that the table was where he handled his prey. On the table, there were a few unrinsed hairs from the prey.
“The food is warmed up. Stinky old woman, do I need to call you three times just to eat?” Xiao Yuchuan thought Su Qingyue was deliberately ignoring him. After all, his wife used to have good hearing. So, his voice was a bit impatient.
Su Qingyue had just finished ‘touring’ the house and yard when someone grabbed her right wrist.
“Hiss!” She gritted her teeth. Damn it, why grab her fractured right wrist? She stared at the culprit, who turned out to be the benefactor’s younger brother.
Xiao Yuchuan also realized that he had hurt her and couldn’t bring himself to apologize. He just pointed to the kitchen, “Eat.”
Su Qingyue read his lips; the two characters were too simple. Adding the fact that it was morning, she understood the meaning.
Although she was an assassin and always acted alone on missions, she hadn’t learned to read lips, so she wouldn’t understand unless the other person spoke slowly, with few words, and she had to watch carefully. Then, with her sharp eyes, she might be able to understand.
She walked into the kitchen and sat down on one of the long benches.
On the table was a bowl of medicine, a bowl of brown rice, and a small stack of pickles.
The kitchen was also quite large. On one side was a rectangular stove made of hard soil. There were two pots on the stove, one for cooking rice and one for cooking vegetables.
There were just two condiment jars on the stove, one for salt and one for oil. There were also a few old pottery bowls. Beside the stove, there was a big water jar.
On the other side, there was a square dining table with two long benches on either side.
Xiao Yuchuan sat on the bench opposite her and handed her the medicine bowl.
She took it, frowning as she slowly drank it spoonful by spoonful.
Her movements were neither slow nor fast, giving off a very elegant feeling. You should know that she was used to quickly picking up things, as if she was afraid that someone would harm her, and then shrinking into a corner to eat.