CH 9.2

The smell of medicine wafted out in the courtyard. Lu Gu sat in front of the small medicine stove and fanned the fire with a palm fan. Not long after, Shen Xuanqing came over. 

Wei Lanxiang was busy cutting the meat and vegetables in the kitchen, preparing for lunch. 

Lu Gu lowered his head and didn't dare to look around, but Shen Xuanqing walked straight towards him and stood still beside him. 

Neither of them spoke. Shen Xuanqing paused for a while before taking a thin piece of wood from under the eaves and stuffing it into the medicine stove.

The fire in the stove was just right. Lu Gu didn't understand why he added another one, but he didn't bother to ask. Still Shen Xuanqing opened his mouth and explained, "I ignite the fire and use it in the backyard." 

Hearing this, Lu Gu didn't dare to refuse. He responded, but he could only nod his head, unable to say anything else. 

After the firewood was ignited for a short while, the two stopped talking again, Shen Xuanqing lowered his eyes, and his eyes couldn't help falling on the little fulang who was sitting in front of the medicine stove. 

The sun was just right, and Lu Gu's complexion was much better than before. Perhaps because of the fire, his cheeks were slightly red. 

There was a narrow red mark between the eyebrows of shuang'er. It was often said that the brighter the better, it meant that the body was healthy and able to grow. The linen cloth wrapped around Lu Gu's head blocked his red marks , but Shen Xuanqing had seen it before he was injured. 

He was too thin, and the red mark was not as bright as Lu Wen's, but it was not too dim. 

Shen Xuanqing couldn't see anything on his face, but his eyes were fixed on Lu Gu's face. Speaking of which, he just calmed down and looked at his fulang's appearance carefully. His eyebrows, eyes and facial features were not much different, and he was even handsome. Only, the person was too cowardly and shy, thin and timid, always bowing his head in silence, and walking lightly, it was easy to ignore his existence. 

Lu Gu became more and more uncomfortable, and the knuckles of his fingers holding the handle of the palm fan turned white, which made Shen Xuanqing realized his rudeness.

He lowered his head and paused for a while, Lu Gu was not so nervous anymore. When Shen Xuanqing looked at him, he couldn't even walk away. Now that he had been bought, Shen Xuanqing wouldn't be rude when he looked at him for a long time. Before long, he smelled a burning herbal smell, coming from the backyard. 

After covering the chicken and duck manure pile with soil in the backyard, Shen Xuanqing threw a bundle of green medicinal leaves on top, which could repel flies and insects and also washed away the smell of livestock in the backyard. Kept it for a few days. 

——

Only the four of them had lunch in the afternoon. Shen Yaoqing and Ji Qiuyue were still at their parents' house and wouldn't come back until evening. 

Wei Lanxiang mixed brown sugar with boiled water, and divided it into two bowls for Lu Gu to serve it on the table. She and Shen Yan, each drank half a bowl, and another bowl was for Lu Gu and Shen Xuanqing. After sat down, she said to Shen Xuanqing, "This is your third aunt who brought it, you two should try it too." 

Sugar was more expensive than eggs, although it was only a small package, it was also Zhou Xiangjun's heart. 

After the wedding feast was over, the Shen family didn't have to work on the stove or stay to wash the dishes, so he and Shen Shunwang went back early, and went to the field to repair the ridges, missed the matter of going to the Lu family. 

Seeing that Wei Lanxiang didn't go out all day yesterday, he saw Shen Yaoqing when he went to the ground, and asked so that he knew that the second sister-in-law was not well. She lay in the house for a day.

Lu Gu grew up so old, and he drank sugar water several times when his mother was still there. After smelling the sweetness, he remembered the taste, but he didn't dare to drink it casually, and pushed it to Shen Xuanqing next to him. 

Seeing that he was very cautious, Shen Xuanqing took a sip from the bowl, put it in front of Lu Gu, and said, "I won't drink anymore, you can finish the rest."

Lu Gu was not too familiar with such a good thing as sugar water, Wei Lanxiang naturally preferred her son, but because Shen Xuanqing had tasted it himself and it had nothing to do with Lu Gu, she couldn't say more, and besides Lu Gu was injured, so it would be better to drink a few more sips of sugar water. She was not too reluctant to give up. 

After the meal, Shen Xuanqing carried the hoe and prepared to go down to the ground. Before leaving, she said to Wei Lanxiang, "Mother, I will go to the mountain tomorrow and come back the day after tomorrow." 

Wei Lanxiang said, "Well, I will bake some cakes for you to bring." 

After she finished speaking, she glanced at Lu Gu, who was washing the dishes in the kitchen. She originally married a fulang and wanted him to follow Shen Xuanqing into the mountains, but the wound on Lu Gu's head was not healed yet. There was no way to follow. 

The sugar water made Lu Gu sweet from the body to the heart, even his eyebrows and eyes became lively, and his eyes became more radiant. He was in the kitchen himself, and no one saw such a fresh and happy look on his face that had been shrinking and depressed for many years, albeit only for a moment. 

—— 

Before the chicken croaked, the sky was gray outside, and Lu Gu woke up when he noticed Shen Xuanqing's movement. He knew that Shen Xuanqing was going into the mountain this morning, but he didn't expect it to be so early. 

Shen Xuanqing put on his coat by the dim light from the half-opened window, and said, "You don't need to get up, I'll get dressed and go." 

Lu Gu had already sat up, he didn't know what he was going to do, but he still timidly whispered, "I'll take you out." 

Now that Shen Xuanqing was going into the mountain, if he lay down and only knew how to sleep, it may make the Shen family dissatisfied, so even if he was very afraid of Shen Xuanqing, in order to live in the Shen family and not be rejected, he still mustered up the courage to say this sentence.