Chapter 163: Chapter 163: Ask a Question

Translator: 549690339

“This Ning girl seems to be quite impressive,” Mrs. Meng said while arranging the pillow.

“How did you figure that out?” Zhuang Yutian raised his eyes, poured a glass of tea, and handed it to Mrs. Meng.

“When I was talking to her earlier, she was calm and composed, and her eyes were clear. She’s certainly more mature than most girls her age, neither overly shy nor overly forward, which is quite rare.”

Ms. Meng laughed, “The most important part is that when I mentioned giving her a purse earlier, she neither showed excessive joy nor refusal. It seemed that she was uncertain about my intentions and did not jump to conclusions. This shows that she’s not reckless in her actions.”

“She’s still so young, yet she handles matters like an adult. You told me she takes good care of her grandmother, and her tofu shop is also doing well. It seems this Ning girl is not a simple one. In the future, she may be very blessed.”

“Speaking of which, since you are interested in helping Ning, she runs a tofu business. Could we also help her business in the county town, so she can earn more?” Mrs. Meng picked up the tea, took a sip, and looked at Zhuang Yutian with a smile.

“We don’t need to worry about that,” replied Zhuang Yutian. “Ning’s tofu business is doing really well. Every day, shopkeepers from the county send people to her shop to transport tofu. She just expanded by two tofu pots.”

“1 heard Ning started making tofu skins, tofu sheets and others, and her salted duck eggs taste quite good too. Recently, she began making bean sprouts. All these are delicious, so she won’t have trouble finding buyers in the future.”

“1 said you were dense, and truly, you are,” Mrs. Meng rolled her eyes at Zhuang Yutian. “Whether she needs help or not is one thing, but whether you want to help is another. You must make your intentions clear, otherwise, you might look clueless.”

“That is true…” Zhuang Yutian scratched his ear, deep in thought, “Although, the tofu sold in the county town is all indeed approved by Ning. We do not know what the actual deal is there. If we hastily started promoting her business, we don’t know whether that would help or harm.”

“If we accidentally cause trouble instead of helping, that would not be good.”

“Indeed,” Mrs. Meng nodded. “Then have you thought about what else she might need?”

She was an orphan, after all, forced to fend for herself while raising her younger sister. Mrs. Meng believed she would certainly need help.

“Let me think…”

Zhuang Yutian wrung his fingers together as he sat on a stool and began to mutter, “I did hear Ning wants to build a house, – living in Butcher Hua’s place isn’t convenient – but the village chief has taken on this project. His nephew has helped a lot, about filled the pit. If we were to interfere now, it would look like we were competing, and that wouldn’t look good to the village chief.”

“Besides the tofu shop, I can’t really think of anything else Ning might need…”

Zhuang Yutian looked despondent, then a thought suddenly struck him, and he slapped his thigh. “That’s right, I’ve remembered.”

“What have you remembered…” Mrs. Meng was startled by Zhuang Yutian’s sudden shout and quickly glanced at Mrs. Wen, afraid that the noise had awakened her.

Upon seeing Mrs. Wen was still sleeping soundly, she sighed in relief and indicated to Zhuang Yutian to lower his voice, lest he bring the roof down.

Zhuang Yutian scratched his ear in embarrassment, and leaning in closer to Mrs. Meng, he lowered his voice: “I just suddenly realized what I can do to help Ning.”

“What is it?” Mrs. Meng looked at Zhuang Yutian’s excited face and became curious.

“Consider this, Ning’s had a hard few years, and even now, when she’s finally got the tofu shop going, she still can’t be at peace. Why do you think that is?” Zhuang Yutian asked with a wink.

“You mean…”

“Exactly…”

“In that case, it might be possible…” Mrs. Meng raised an eyebrow, nodding thoughtfully.

Zhuang Ruman felt these days were particularly hard to bear.

Firstly, because of the injury on his buttock.

The prongs of the manure fork penetrated deeply, and on top of that, he was hit by the fool Zhuang Yucheng on the same day. The wound was fused to the cloth strip, and when it was removed, some skin and flesh were torn off, causing him such excruciating pain that he almost fainted.

Moreover, the weather these days had been getting hotter, and the wound didn’t seem to heal, instead, it had festered. The pain was unbearable and expensive medicinal powder had to be sprinkled on it twice a day. Each time, it felt like being stabbed with a small knife – agony.

Being bedridden, unable to move, the slightest movement was tormenting. He could only lay still on the bed, unable to move a muscle, feeling like a useless person.

On top of that, during these few days, Zhuang Yuchcng seemed to have taken a permanent residency in his home, coming over every now and then, yelling and shouting, and even resorting to physical violence when he got too worked up.

Someone had been dumping night soil in front of his house during the day, attracting swarms of mosquitoes and flies. The humming at the doorway was disgusting.

The bugs kept flying into the house, forcing Zhuang Ruman to chase them out constantly to avoid their bites.

He couldn’t move or work these days, and the work in the field had to be done by Mrs. Song, Zhuang Qinghe, and Zhuang Yuanzhong.

Mrs. Song was fine, as she usually heeded him. Zhuang Yuanzhong was also good, although weak and slow, he was very diligent.

Only Zhuang Qinghe seemed hopeless. She used to work a little when he was there shouting and beating her, but these days, seeing him bedridden, she simply ignored his orders.

She spent her days eating and drinking, unwilling to work in the fields, busying herself only with washing her hair and face and pampering her fat round face.

Seeing the piled-up fieldwork that couldn’t be finished, and the imminent wheat harvest season approaching, if the wheat ripened in the field, resulting in scattered wheat grains on the ground, wouldn’t the entire season’s yield be wasted?

Just thinking about it, Zhuang Ruman was so angry that steam could come out from his nostrils.

His wound, due to the anger and hot weather, healed even slower. His body was so hot that there were blisters around his mouth; speaking was a struggle.

But the worst thing was, Zhuang Yuanren, had returned.

When he returned, his expression was not good.

Upon seeing this, a sense of unease dropped in Zhuang Ruman’s heart..