Fang Fang quickly brought over a bowl of rice.
To welcome the new sister-in-law, she specially scooped a large spoonful of lard, scalded it with boiling water, and mixed it into the rice, making it fragrant.
As she walked down the road with the bowl, she couldn't help but swallow.
Upon entering the house and handing it to her brother, seeing that she knew to add lard to the food, Peng Fei intuitively felt his sister had grown up.
He didn't just smile at her, but also patted her head.
Fang Fang could feel that her brother liked his sister-in-law quite a bit, possibly because of her beauty.
She hadn't seen her brother smile like this or pat her head like this in a long time.
Besides his mother and sisters, Peng Fei had not had close contact with any other women.
This was the first time in his life he was feeding a woman.
He squatted by the bed, trying his best to keep his hands and voice from trembling, and called out to Zhan Jingchun.
"Get up and eat something. Are you hungry? Eat something before you sleep."
Zhan Jingchun was indeed very hungry, so hungry that she didn't even have the strength to say to Peng Fei: "Please let me go. As long as you let me go, let alone a mere twenty-five thousand, even 250,000, 2.5 million, or 25 million, I can give it to you."
They were poor. Relying on farming, they might not earn this much money in two lifetimes. He would surely be tempted.
She knew she had to eat, to rally her spirits and recover her health, so she could find a way to leave here as soon as possible.
But her body was truly uncooperative; she couldn't move.
It was only after Peng Fei had spoken several times that she weakly opened her eyelids.
Seeing that her mouth was so dry it was chapped, and blue capillaries showing on her snow-white eyelids, and her hands, as white and smooth as jade, so thin that all her veins were visible, Peng Fei felt immense heartache.
He scooped a spoonful of rice, blew on it to cool it, and offered it to her.
"Are you too tired? Then eat lying down."
Zhan Jingchun weakly opened her mouth, but despite being this hungry, she couldn't eat this strangely flavored rice.
The rice was indescribably coarse. She didn't know what to compare it to, but it scraped her mouth, and there was greasy stuff mixed in, giving off a peculiar smell.
As soon as the rice entered her mouth, she couldn't help but want to spit it out.
Seeing her about to spit out the rice, Peng Fei quickly offered his palm, and the rice was spit into his hand.
"What's wrong? Still feel like vomiting?"
Zhan Jingchun hadn't intended to cry. Since childhood, she had received positive reinforcement.
Her father, mother, brothers, and sisters, everyone had been telling her with their actions and their very beings that when encountering problems, don't panic, calm down, and a solution will surely be found. Tears were the most useless thing.
But at this moment, she couldn't help herself.
She didn't know where she was, how long she had been separated from her companions, whether her daddy and mommy knew she had disappeared, or how worried they were now.
Thinking about the life she had at home, the food she ate, the people she interacted with, and looking at her current situation... she truly missed home.
Seeing her not speak and not eat anymore, closing her eyes and crying silently, with clear tears falling drop by drop, Peng Fei became anxious and didn't know what to do, only looking helplessly at his mother.
His mother snorted, "I told you so. From the look of her, she's never done any work and is spoiled rotten. She probably can't get used to our food. And we still added lard for her? I think she's just not hungry enough."
"Look at the Zhang family before, and the Li family behind, which daughter-in-law wasn't first starved for a few days and given a little warning before being served food? Only you dote on people like this."
Peng Fei ignored his mother, but he caught a key point from her words.
She couldn't get used to the food here.
Zhan Jingchun's body was too weak and urgently needed nutrition. He had to go make her something good to eat.
Throwing away the rice spit into his hand was a waste, so Peng Fei directly put the rice Zhan Jingchun had taken a bite of into his own mouth, and licked his palm.
"We spent a lot of money to buy her. You don't want to see her starve to death, do you? I'll go stew two eggs for her."
"Stew eggs for her? She's not giving birth and in confinement!"
"Then what should we do? Let her starve? If she dies, we'll just get married again, and the twenty-five thousand will be wasted?"
Peng Mama was speechless for a few seconds, glaring fiercely at her unfilial son, and stamped her foot.
"I'll go stew them! Just one!"
"Your sister is about to give birth to her third child, and we still need to save 50 for her. We don't have much at home to begin with. If you eat two at once, how are we supposed to live?"
Regardless, his mother had agreed to make something good to eat, and the brother and sister exchanged glances, both secretly smiling.
After his mother left, Fang Fang, with curiosity and shyness, walked to the bedside, stared at Zhan Jingchun's face, and whispered to her brother.
"She's so beautiful, so fair. Is she like Snow White described in books? Brother, she's the most beautiful person I've ever seen in my life. I like her."
Of course, she was also the most beautiful person Peng Fei had ever seen, and Peng Fei liked her too, but he didn't dare to say it.
He gently reached out and rubbed his sister's head again.
"Go help Mom with the fire, or she'll scold you later. She's not well right now, so let her eat two eggs. When she's better, she won't eat them, and we'll save them for you to nourish your body."
Fang Fang was very sensible, waving her hands quickly, "I don't want them, I'm in good health. Give them all to sister-in-law. Don't worry, brother, I'm not angry."
After speaking, Fang Fang obediently ran to the kitchen to help.
Zhan Jingchun listened to their simple and poor conversation and gradually stabilized her emotions.
She guessed they weren't bad people, just poor and unable to find a way out, which led them to this.
She had to eat well, recover her strength quickly, and once she could speak properly, even if her daddy and mommy couldn't find her here, she could rely on herself to get out!
An egg was mixed with half a bowl of water, and it didn't even look like custard. As it was brought over, Peng Mama was still complaining.
"Li Jian's wife is very spirited. When she first came, she cried and made a fuss. After being beaten and starved, she calmed down after struggling for a few days."
"You absolutely cannot mention this outside. If people find out that our family's daughter-in-law is being served stewed eggs as soon as she comes through the door, they'll laugh their heads off!"
"Alright. Feed her quickly, and then go out to work. There's so much grass in the fields that hasn't been cleared. We can't neglect the crops just because we've taken in a new daughter-in-law, can we?"
Peng Fei smiled at his tough-talking but kind-hearted mother as he looked at the egg custard, then squatted by the bed again to feed Zhan Jingchun.
Peng Mama had already gone to the fields with a hoe. He only felt comfortable speaking after everyone else had left.
"I stewed eggs for you, and I even added some coriander. It tastes very good. Try it and see if you can get used to it."
Zhan Jingchun once again forced her eyes open, looking at the young, dark-skinned man with a grateful expression, and slowly opened her mouth.
This time it was indeed tastier than before. Although it had no flavor, at least it wasn't disgusting.
Peng Fei patiently fed her spoonful by spoonful. She ate more than half the bowl of egg mixed with water and wanted to drink some more.
"I'll go get it."
Peng Fei hurried to the kitchen and brought back half a bowl of warm water to feed her.
After drinking, her face was flushed as she looked at him, reluctant to leave.
"Are you full?"