Across the Market

Chapter 7

Zhu Xi saw that the second younger sister was smiling mischievously and well-behaved, so she couldn't help reaching out and patting Zhu Fu's head, and said to Wei Sanniang with a smile: "Mother, I think Sister Fu's whole body is fine after she got sick. It's the same, she used to be the most timid and afraid of getting into trouble, how dare she take Miss Nuan out to play." Then she turned her head to look at Zhu Fu, and blinked at her, "In the past, Sister Fu always liked to stick by my side , she followed me wherever I went, and she seldom talked."

Seeing that the second daughter is now more sensible and well-behaved, Wei Sanniang was also happy, nodded and said: "Your sister is also 13 years old, she is an older child, how can she stick to you all the time like when she was a child. You are going to marry sooner or later, From now on, Sister Nuan and Brother Shou will be taken care of by Sister Fu."

When Ting Niang suddenly brought up this matter, Zhu Xi blushed instantly, and carried Brother Shou into the house.

Sister Nuan heard what her mother said about marrying her elder sister, and she suddenly remembered what she overheard when she stood behind the door with her second elder sister a few days ago. The little girl was very wronged, and she cried with a "wow" .

The little chubby girl was also very stubborn when she played with her temper. As soon as she stretched out her short and fat arms, she hugged Zhu Fu's delicate waist tightly, and said vaguely while crying: "Don't want my sister to marry, Don't want my sister to marry... woo woo woo... Grandma is a bad person, don't want my sister to leave me."

Her small fleshy arms were very strong, and she hugged Zhu Fu's waist tightly, refusing to let go no matter what.

Wei Sanniang was stunned for a while, then quickly wiped her hands, ran over to coax sister Nuan and said, "I didn't say that your eldest sister will marry immediately, and if sister Nuan doesn't cry, even if your two sisters are married, you will be married in the future." I will come home often, and I won't let Nuan miss seeing my sister."

The little girl doesn't understand anything, if someone says something that scares her, she can remember it for a long time.

Seeing that my mother also came to coax me, Sister Nuan cried more and more fiercely, and finally got a little bit of a posture of rolling around, as if as long as she messed around like this, the two sisters would always be with me.

Zhu Xicai was about to enter the house, when he heard the little sister crying outside, she asked Brother Shou to sit on the bed and play by himself, while she ran out again, wanting to see what was going on.

Sister Nuan was terrified when she saw her eldest sister go out, and cried even harder.She had her head up, her mouth was open, her eyes were closed, and the tears flowed all over her face.

"Eldest sister, woo woo woo woo..." The little chubby girl walked slowly towards Zhu Xi while crying.

Zhu Xi picked up the fat sister, sat on a bench beside him, and raised his sleeves to wipe her tears.

Zhu Fu glanced at Zhu Xi, saw that she was concentrating on coaxing her younger sister and didn't care, so he pulled Wei Sanniang aside, and said quietly: "Mom, when grandma came to our house to get money last time, sister Nuan and I hid Behind the door. Sister Nuan and I heard what grandma said, and Sister Nuan was afraid that mother would listen to grandma and marry eldest sister to a bad family, so she cried and made noise. " She looked Glancing at Cheap Mother, seeing her embarrassed face, she said, "Mom, don't blame Nuan for crying and being ignorant, it's because she cares about liking Eldest Sister."

Wei Sanniang said: "Mother understands, Sister Fu, whether it's you or Sister Xi, mother will find a good family for you to marry. Don't worry, mother may be able to bear other things, but my daughter It’s not your grandfather’s family to intervene in this important marriage.” She stretched out her hand, patted Zhu Fu’s braided head lightly, and said lovingly, “Take Miss Nuan out for a meal. Yes, comfort her and tell her not to cry."

Over there, Zhu Xi had already coaxed his younger sister, so Zhu Fu ran over and squatted in front of Sister Nuan and said, "Mother said, in the future, my marriage with Elder Sister must be agreed to by Sister Nuan. If Sister Nuan doesn't If we like it, we won't agree to marry that person, okay?"

Sister Nuan asked, sobbing, "Really?" Seeing her second sister nodding, the little girl burst out laughing, and suddenly felt much better. She rubbed her belly into Zhu Fu's arms and said, " Second sister, I'm hungry, I'm going to eat Yangchun noodles."

"Okay, I'll take you to eat now." Zhu Fu pinched his younger sister's fleshy face, took her little hand and went out the door.

Behind Zhu's house is the place where the family lives, and in front is a blacksmith's shop. On weekdays, the seven members of Zhu's family rely on Zhu Da's blacksmithing for a living.

In the past, Zhu Da was young and able to endure hardships and work hard, so life at home was a little easier.But now that Zhu Da is old, and because he suffered too much when he was young, he has suffered a lot of diseases. Now he complains of body pain every three days, so the business in the blacksmith shop is not getting better day by day.

The burden of supporting the whole family fell on the shoulders of the eldest son Zhu Lu all of a sudden. Zhu Lu was also talented, and it was too much to support the whole family of seven.That's not enough, I have to go to my grandma's house every three days to help with some physical work. The family is already stretched, and I have to honor my grandmother who has a lot of food and drink every month. How can I do it like this.

Zhu Fu led his younger sister out of the shop, and a gust of damp cold wind blew in front of them, both sisters couldn't help shivering.

Sister Nuan hopped and hugged her short hands tightly to her chest, trembling in circles: "It's so cold, so cold..."

Although the two sisters wore a lot of thick clothes, just like the two little bears, but the clothes they wore were not warm, and even the quilt they slept at night was like cold iron.

There is a relatively wide road in front of Zhu's house, and across the road is a small winding river. Not far away, you can also see a bridge with an arched round hole on the river.Zhu Fu looked around and felt that the location of Zhu's house was pretty good, at least not remote. On the left was the Shen's house selling tofu, on the right was the Lin's house selling pork, and on the left and right, there were also shop owners. .

Sister Nuan's belly was growling with hunger again, she grabbed Zhu Fu's hand and pulled it aside.

"Second sister, I'm hungry, I smell the aroma, I'm going to eat Yangchun noodles."

But Zhu Fu squatted down, shook Nuan's little hand and said, "Sister Nuan, do you want to eat meat or Yangchun noodles?"

Hearing the word "meat", sister Nuan's eyes lit up, but she also knew that there was no meat to eat.

She still remembered that the last time she ate meat was during the Chinese New Year last year. Mother bought meat from Uncle Lin's house next door. It was fat and oily, and it was delicious.

The corner of Nuan's mouth was drooling, she turned her head to look at the Lin family's butcher shop, and then looked back at Zhu Fu eagerly.

(End of this chapter)