Chapter 448: Chapter 233: Manure_1
The first update, asking for pink hearts. (Sorry for using such a title, hehe, but that’s just the style of the text—earthy.)
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Lian Manman frowned secretly, Lady Zhou protected Lady Chiang yet ordered Yeye around; it really was favoritism.
"What can Yeye do as a child? Sister-in-law prepares delicate dishes, and I just love the taste of her cooking," before Lian Yeye could react, Zhao Xiue said with a smile, "Sister-in-law, you wouldn’t be unwilling, right? If not for me and Erlang’s sake, at least for the sake of your unborn nephew, can you spare a little time?"
This way of speaking, this tone, wasn’t really ordering Lady Chiang around but rather seemed like cajoling her.
"Now that Xiue is pregnant, she’s gotten even sweeter with her words," Lady Chiang said with a laugh, "Just to eat something, you could talk a mile. The child in your belly, once born, will also be a smooth talker."
Saying so, Lady Chiang truly got off the kang bed and went to the outer room to chop ginger and garlic for Zhao Xiue and mix the soy sauce.
Zhao Xiue, however, looked somewhat displeased. She believed Lady Chiang’s words contained hidden meanings and were not well-intentioned.
Lian Manman brought a large bowl of noodle soup to Old Master Lian, but he didn’t start eating immediately.
"Wu Lang and Xiao Qi have both gone to school; your expenses are high. Save some money so your mother can cook some nice things for Wu Lang and Xiao Qi; don’t always bring things for me. I lack nothing."
While he spoke, Lady Chiang had already brought back a bowl of seasoned ginger garlic soy sauce. Sitting down on the kang bed, Zhao Xiue took a bite of her meal and dipped a piece of potato into the soy sauce to eat.
Lian Manman turned to leave when she suddenly heard a retching noise. Turning around, she saw Zhao Xiue twisting her head and vomiting right into Lady Chiang’s lap, whose arms were open wide, face looking extremely unpleasant.
Everyone in the room stopped eating and looked over at Zhao Xiue and Lady Chiang.
After finishing her vomiting, Zhao Xiue wiped her mouth with a handkerchief and offered Lady Chiang an apologetic smile.
"Look at the mess I’ve made. I don’t know what’s wrong with this soy sauce today. I had one taste, and my stomach couldn’t take it."
Lady Chiang and Zhao Xiue locked eyes for a moment, and Zhao Xiue smiled again. That smile carried no traces of apology but was sheer, naked satisfaction and provocation. Lady Chiang knew that Zhao Xiue had vomited on purpose. Zhao Xiue’s words also subtly insinuated that the problem was with the soy sauce Lady Chiang had prepared.
"Sister-in-law, you must be angry with me, right?" Seeing Lady Chiang’s ugly expression, Zhao Xiue acted even more coquettishly.
"How could that be?" Lady Chiang said with a strained smile, "Mom, Second Aunt, Third Aunt, all of you please continue eating; I’m going to change clothes."
After Lady Chiang finished speaking, she got off the kang bed and quickly walked out of the room, not allowing her tears to fall until she was in the outer room.
Seeing Lady Chiang leave, Zhao Xiue also lost her appetite.
"I can’t eat at all. Oh dear, what is that fragrance? Is it meat soup?" Zhao Xiue deliberately started looking around.
Of course, there was not a trace of meat on the dining table, except for the bowl of noodle soup that Lian Manman had brought over which was made with meat bones.
"Erlang, take this bowl to your wife," Old Master Lian pushed the noodle soup that Lian Manman had brought to Erlang.
"My lord, how can this be!" Erlang said, glancing at the soup bowl in front of him and then at Zhao Xiue. He was concerned for his wife and the child in her belly, but it was a rule in the Lian Family that elders were to be served first when it came to food.
"I don’t feel like eating this noodle soup today, if I tell you to take it, you take it," Old Master Lian said.
Lian Manman didn’t stay in the room any longer. When she stepped into the outer room, she saw Lady Chiang had already cleaned the vomit from her clothes and was wiping her tears with a handkerchief.
"Manman, don’t laugh at me, I’ve just been blinded by cinders," Lady Chiang, upon seeing Lian Manman, quickly said as a cover.
"Oh," Lian Manman paused a moment.
"Manman, you should go back and eat," Lady Chiang said and then turned to go to the West Wing Room to change her clothes.
Lian Manman went back to her meal in the West Wing Room, not mentioning a word about what had happened in the Upper Room.
They had just finished eating when Lian Yeye came along.
"Sister Manman, the noodle soup you sent to Old Master was all eaten by Sister-in-law Xiue," Lian Yeye told Lian Manman.
Lian Manman responded with an "Oh", seeing that in the end, Erlang had indeed taken the noodle soup to Zhao Xiue.
"After Sister-in-law Xiue finished eating, she said it tasted alright, but..." Lian Yeye paused as she spoke.
Lian Manman knew that whatever came next surely wouldn’t be good.
"Sister-in-law Xiue said the noodle soup wasn’t made from pure white flour, stating that what the Fourth Uncle and Fourth Aunt brought for Old Master was made with inferior flour," Lian Yeye repeated the words of Zhao Xiue.
Lian Manman laughed in spite of her anger.
