"Hoo-yo! It's better to arrive early than on time. Mother-in-law just got home, didn't she?"
When they reached the dining hall entrance, they were about to eat.
Hearing this, Shen Lin turned her head back as she sat on a stool, her disgust undisguised in her eyes.
Seeing the slender and graceful figure of the woman before her, Shen Lin's disgust only intensified.
As Shen Lin appraised Lu Yu from head to toe, Lu Yu was also appraising her.
A small head, disproportionate to her bulky frame, sat atop a swollen body. The flesh around her waist was squeezed so tightly by her clothes it threatened to spill out. The fat on her face had narrowed her eyes to mere slits.
It seemed she had profited greatly from her business over the years. Looking at her vulgar appearance, she was clearly quite lustful.
Shen Lin looked coldly at Shen Xuan, who stood beside Lu Yu. Zhao Liu feigned a welcoming tone, "Oh my, I was just about to call you all. You've arrived just in time. Come, sit down and eat."
Lu Yu didn't even spare him a glance. She walked to the table, pulled out a stool, and gestured for Shen Xuan to sit first.
"No, no, how can a man sit at the table when women are eating? That's too improper," Zhao Liu said, wiggling her hips as she quickly walked to Shen Xuan's side and pulled him away.
"Are we eating or not? Hurry up and come eat!" Shen Lin exclaimed impatiently from her stool. She had been busy outside all morning and was starving.
"Wife, you eat first. I'll serve you dishes from the side. This is a rule my mother set."
Shen Xuan leaned close to Lu Yu and whispered in her ear, saying there was no need to argue with his mother over this matter.
Feeling Shen Xuan's warm breath near her ear, Lu Yu patted his hand to soothe him, nodded, and sat down on the stool.
Shen Xuan's delicate hands held the chopsticks, constantly moving them before her eyes. This was truly a waste of talent. Such beautiful hands should be used for painting, writing poetry, or embroidery, not for serving her dishes here.
Lu Yu set a personal record for the fastest meal she had ever eaten.
When her beloved husband finally sat down to eat, she murmured, "Mmm, truly a feast for the eyes."
As she left, Lu Yu couldn't resist throwing a parting remark, "The Shen household truly has high status, to be able to casually discuss their masters and even live in their rooms. Truly..."
Lu Yu didn't finish her sentence. Seeing Zhao Liu's changing expression, she gleefully led Shen Xuan away.
As for the wide-eyed stares of the two when they opened the chests, that would be a story for another time.
A woman holding a folding fan sat at the village entrance, gazing around aimlessly. Upon spotting Lu Yu, her heart leaped with joy, and she rushed to Lu Yu's side.
Ah Fu saw her and quickly lowered her head, hiding behind Shen Xuan, her face flushing subtly. Gu Yitong glanced at Ah Fu and then uncomfortably shifted her gaze away.
"Is this your esteemed husband?"
Seeing Lu Yu nod, Gu Yitong turned to face Shen Xuan, cleared her throat, fanned herself, and bowed to Shen Xuan, "My name is Gu Yitong, and I am Lu Yu's business partner."
Shen Xuan returned the bow, nodding slightly at her.
Shen Xuan knew that Lu Yu intended to open a medical clinic. He felt it wasn't his place to interfere in matters between women. After signaling to Lu Yu, he took Ah Fu and headed home.
When the two of them left, Gu Yitong's demeanor returned to its usual unrestrained self, and she began to complain incessantly to Lu Yu.
"Why didn't you come today? Do you know how many people went to Zhao Ran's medical clinic today? If you had come today, how much money could you have earned, you..."
Lu Yu's ears were filled with Gu Yitong's incessant chatter all the way. Shaking her head, Lu Yu interrupted her with a sigh, "We're just a newly opened small clinic. Even if I had gone today, there wouldn't have been many patients. Be good, okay?"
Facing Gu Yitong's non-stop chatter, Lu Yu stopped, spoke in a tone used to pacify a child, reached out to stroke her head, pulled at the corners of her mouth, took a deep breath, and walked ahead quickly.
"Hey! You!"
Feeling dismissed by Lu Yu, Gu Yitong quickened her pace to catch up with Lu Yu and resumed her incessant chatter.
Since she had chosen to relax her body and not work at the clinic today, she wouldn't let Lu Yu off the hook.
Ah Fu had been sitting blankly at the table since returning to the room, paying no attention to Shen Xuan beside her.
Shen Xuan felt something was odd. Thinking Ah Fu was shy about meeting an outsider, she patted Ah Fu's hand and sat down beside him, fiddling with her teacup.
Even when they reached the courtyard, Gu Yitong was still chattering in Lu Yu's ear.
"You talk so much, don't your family members find you annoying?" Lu Yu was truly surprised by Gu Yitong's talkativeness and asked half in wonder, half in jest.
"My mother and father passed away when I was ten." Suddenly brought up, Gu Yitong's emotions became somewhat low.
"I'm sorry, I... I didn't know." She hadn't expected Gu Yitong to have a similar experience.
"It's alright, we were fleeing from disaster."
"During the war and famine back then, my parents both died during our escape. My brother and I also got separated. For years, I've been searching for him, but..."
"Alas, never mind, I won't talk about it anymore."
Gu Yitong waved her hand, a bitter smile on her face, her five words conveying all her disappointment.
She hadn't given up all these years, running her apothecary shop, listening to the conversations of people coming and going every day, yet she hadn't found any useful information. Perhaps her brother was long gone.
Her family was quite well-known locally. There were two children in her family, herself and her brother. Her parents were loving, and she doted on her brother, who was two years younger than her.
If he wanted to learn embroidery, she would join him; if he wanted to learn to read, she would teach him in various ways every day; if he found learning the piano tedious, she would bring a small stool and sit beside him; if he wanted to skip class, she would help him hide it from their parents; she would also make him all sorts of toys, like bamboo dragonflies, kites, and cloth tigers...
Now, her home was filled with toys, all new, but she feared she would never wait for him again.
An eight-year-old boy, how could he survive in times of chaos?
Ah Fu stood by the stove, boiling water, but her thoughts drifted unconsciously to the first time they met.
That day, she went to the apothecary shop to get medicine. Seeing that the shop door was open but there was no one inside, and given the urgent condition of Madam Li, there was no time to delay.
She thought the owner of the apothecary shop was busy in the back and walked straight in. However, she stepped on water on the floor, slipped, and knocked over the screen.
But, she hadn't expected the owner of the apothecary shop to be bathing behind the screen. She had seen her completely naked.
"Ah Fu? Ah Fu?" Shen Xuan called her back to attention from beside her. "What are you thinking about? You're so lost in thought, the water has already boiled."
"Are you sick? You've been distracted since returning from the Shen residence." She reached out to feel Ah Fu's forehead, comparing it to her own temperature. She didn't seem to have a fever.
"N-no, it's nothing. I'm just not used to seeing outsiders." Suddenly returning to her senses, her eyes darted around nervously as she fumbled with her collar.
"It's alright, you can stay in the room for a while and don't come out," Shen Xuan said, pouring out the boiled water, not noticing Ah Fu's flustered expression.
Ah Fu was about to refuse, but she really didn't want to see her. She nodded in agreement, especially since she couldn't bear to eat at the same table with her.