Zhao Liushun, not hearing what he wanted, stood up with disappointment, leaning on the wall, and walked out in a daze.
Su Xiaoqi, unable to bear it, wanted to say that she still had some ways, but swallowed the words back.
As they were talking, Shen Xiaomei had already distributed the clothes.
She brought Zhao Liushun's scholar robes and hat.
Su Xiaoqi handed them to Shen Yun, telling him to quickly send them to Zhao Liushun before he walked too far.
Shen Yun was a little surprised.
Zhao Liushun, who had just walked out of the courtyard, was even more surprised, his mouth agape.
"This, this, this is not right." Su Xiaoqi, his nephew's wife, how could she buy clothes for him.
Su Xiaoqi, however, was composed: "This is my husband's idea."
Zhao Liushun looked at Shen Yun, his eyes full of inquiry.
Su Xiaoqi, with her back to Zhao Liushun, winked hard at Shen Yun.
Shen Yun coughed lightly: "Uh, we are all at the county school, and according to regulations, we should wear scholar robes."
The clothes they were wearing had been worn for five years, and they were already old and due for a change.
He had actually thought of this issue and planned to tell Su Xiaoqi and buy new ones tomorrow.
He didn't expect her to think of them first and had already bought the clothes.
Zhao Liushun felt embarrassed to accept Su Xiaoqi's kindness.
But Shen Yun was not only his nephew but also someone who had endured ten years of arduous study with him.
Their bond was extraordinary. Since it was also Shen Yun's intention, he had no reason to refuse.
As soon as the person left, Shen Yun chased after Su Xiaoqi and asked, "Uncle's leg..."
"I can cure it," Su Xiaoqi said.
Shen Yun raised an eyebrow: "Why didn't you tell him."
"Rather than saying I can cure it and ultimately failing to cure his leg, I think it's more appropriate to say I can't cure it and then succeed."
To put it bluntly, Su Xiaoqi didn't want Zhao Liushun to have greater hopes and then greater disappointment.
Shen Yun listened to her roundabout way of speaking, but the meaning was clear.
His heart stirred, he held Su Xiaoqi's hand, and said earnestly, "Wife, please take care."
Su Xiaoqi's expression was calm, and she nodded slightly in agreement.
In her heart, however, she was complaining: "Bah, who the heck is your wife."
Shen Yun's expression stiffened, and he unconsciously tightened his grip on Su Xiaoqi's hand by two points.
"Hiss, what are you doing, it hurts so much." Su Xiaoqi suddenly flung his hand away, having witnessed his unpredictable side.
Shen Yun was displeased with her thoughts just now and his face darkened.
Su Xiaoqi felt a pang of fear, not knowing which word she had spoken incorrectly.
Just as she was about to say something to smooth things over, Shen Xiaomei happened to beckon her from the main hall.
Shen Yun's expression instantly shifted, so quickly that Su Xiaoqi thought it was an illusion.
She decided to ignore it for the time being and walked back to the main hall.
Shen Xiaomei was distributing clothes: "Sister-in-law, these few pieces are for you."
Su Xiaoqi nodded and took them into the room.
When she came out, she heard Shen Xiaomei asking her how much she spent on so many clothes.
Su Xiaoqi held up three fingers.
Su Xiaoqi blinked her eyes, looking bewildered: "Three, thirty wen?
No, these are fine cotton clothes, could it be three hundred wen..."
"Three hundred wen is only enough to buy one and a half sets. I heard a set like this costs two hundred wen," Zhao Xiaozhu reminded her softly from the side.
"Heavens, then, that's three thousand wen." Shen Xiaomei's voice trembled uncontrollably.
She thought about how Su Xiaoqi had also bought so many clothes for them before.
Counting on her fingers, she rubbed her fingertips until they were red but still couldn't calculate it clearly.
Finally, she gave up, but her face was full of heartache, and she insisted that her clothes were enough and she didn't need any more.
"Since they're bought, can we return them?" Su Xiaoqi chuckled.
She thought to herself that she hadn't spent any money; she had exchanged rice from her spatial storage.
"Return them, mine, your mother-in-law's, yours, Xiaomei's, Xiaozhu's, and that Zhao Ye's too," Old Madam Yu, who had been sitting silently on the bamboo bed, finally couldn't hold back upon hearing this and spoke with great displeasure.
"Wasteful woman, how difficult is it to earn money? What good could you not buy with it, buying so many inexplicable things."
Old Madam Yu patted the bamboo bed, truly heartbroken.
"Yes, Xiaoqi, three hundred wen. Let's save a bit more and leave it for Yun'er to study."
Madam Zhao advised Su Xiaoqi.
She mentioned that Shen Yun was going to Yizhou Prefecture in August to take the provincial examination.
The travel expenses were not yet settled.
She was incapable and could only rely on them to raise the funds themselves.
Old Madam Yu continued to scold:
"Exactly. If you have that much spare money, why don't you fix the house.
Summer is coming soon, and the rainy season will arrive. See if your child will sleep in a mud pit then."
The provincial examination for Shen Yun was still far away, and Su Xiaoqi was not worried about his travel expenses.
However, this thatched cottage, Su Xiaoqi looked up, indeed needed some repairs.
She asked Shen Yun, who was standing by as a filial grandson without speaking, how much it would cost to build a house.
Shen Yun held up ten fingers, then shook his head: "It can't be repaired."
Seeing Su Xiaoqi's confusion, he explained that he had also saved enough money to repair a house before.
But they were not from Zhao Family Village and did not have a homestead, so they were not eligible to build a house.
"You have such a good relationship with Village Head Zhao, can you ask him for a plot of land?" Su Xiaoqi tried to negotiate.
Shen Yun was silent for a moment and said that if they could get another wild boar, everything would be negotiable.
Su Xiaoqi, remembering the two occasions where the wild boar was involved in her fright, shook her head repeatedly.
She was unwilling to encounter that thing again, as fortune did not always favor them.
Shen Yun looked at her deeply and said he could try, but he couldn't guarantee success.
Su Xiaoqi clapped her hands and praised him shamelessly: "Husband is so capable, he will definitely get the land."
To reassure Shen Yun, she also said that she would handle the money matters, leaving the land to him.
Old Madam Yu, listening to them discuss as if no one else were present, cast a wandering glance at Su Xiaoqi.
She mentioned again asking her to return the clothes.
Su Xiaoqi looked up and said that everything else was negotiable, but this matter was not up for discussion.
To dissuade Old Madam Yu and Madam Zhao, she directly tore the 'Li Ji Ready-to-Wear Shop' logo on the fine cotton clothes to shreds.
"Alright, now they can't be returned."
"Ah, wasteful woman, wasteful woman, cough cough... you make me so angry, so angry."
Old Madam Yu was furious, her cloudy eyes glaring intently at Su Xiaoqi.
Su Xiaoqi was not angry at being scolded, knowing that Old Madam Yu was not a bad person, just driven by poverty.
She opened the last bundle, which contained various pastries she had bought for daily consumption.
Knowing that Old Madam Yu loved chestnut cake the most, she specially offered it to her.
Old Madam Yu glared at her, then at Shen Yun, blaming him for not being able to control his wife.
Shen Yun felt extremely wronged by her glare.
His young wife always had her own ideas, and he couldn't control her.
Moreover, she had quite a temper.
Just now, he had been stimulated by her inner thoughts.
Lost in thought, he accidentally pinched her.
She got angry and threw his hand away as if it were wild grass, showing no affection at all.
With his deep eyes cast down, Shen Yun truly wished he could knock open her head and see what was inside.