Chapter 4

There was still more than half of the malt sugar in the clay pot that hadn't dissolved yet. Granny Chen wanted to add water and boil it some more, only to realize that there was no water left in the house at all.

Granny Chen fell silent.

Shen An, quick to understand, grabbed the last clean bowl and dashed out. "I'll fetch some spring water."

Granny Chen only managed to shout after him, "Take your Grandpa Chen with you!"

Sang Luo took a sip of the lifesaving sugar-salt water and quickly sifted through the original owner's memories, actually recalling this elderly woman.

She was an old lady living next door to the Shen family. The original owner wasn’t very close to her, but when the Shen family first split, there was a time when the original owner was gathering firewood and wild vegetables in the mountains nearby. She happened to encounter the old lady tending to their vegetable patch in the mountains. The old lady asked if she wanted to plant some vegetables. When the original owner nodded, she gave her several bunches of vegetable seedlings.

Now, seeing that the lifesaver Shen An brought was Granny Chen, and noticing the cloth bag she placed on the stone, Sang Luo guessed that the so-called borrowed grain came from Granny Chen.

When Shen Ning brought water to feed her, Sang Luo first thanked Granny Chen.

But Granny Chen didn’t acknowledge her gratitude, replying coolly, “I’m not helping you, but these two children. Taxes have been getting heavier these years, and everyone’s struggling. We have no extra resources to help you. You still have to stand on your own.”

It wasn’t that Granny Chen wanted to be harsh; she truly thought Sang Luo was utterly useless. When the Shen family first split, Granny Chen met Sang Luo in the field and generously gave her a good number of vegetable seedlings she had cultivated herself.

She never expected Sang Luo didn’t even know how to grow vegetables.

If you don’t know how to plant, you could have asked—yet she never uttered a single question. She just said thank you and took the seedlings back, assuming she could plant them herself.

Hearing Sang Luo’s thanks now, Granny Chen just wanted to frown. Knowing something is one thing; not knowing is another. Your mouth is made for speaking and asking questions, not just for saying thank you.

So, to Granny Chen, Sang Luo left the impression of someone useless, who only knew how to be polite but never bothered to learn.

Looking around the house now, apart from the stone stove and a somewhat larger stone to place bowls on, nothing had changed since they moved in after the split. Over three months had passed, yet no household items had been added.

In Granny Chen’s eyes, this Sang family truly didn’t know how to manage life. The old lady even felt that it would have been better if Sang Luo had never come to the Shen family; her arrival only became a burden to the two children, Shen An and Shen Ning.

At least without Sang Luo, Shen San and his wife would never have dared to split off Shen An and Shen Ning like this.

Now that the family was divided, if Sang Luo were to disappear, the ones to suffer would be these two little ones.

Naturally, Granny Chen’s words were far from gentle.

Unaware of the underlying reasons, Sang Luo still felt deeply grateful that the Chen couple, unrelated to them by blood, were willing to share food during such hard times. She bore no ill feelings toward the old lady’s tone and smiled lightly. “You’re right. Once I recover, I will work hard, at least to make sure little An and Ning don’t go hungry.”

Granny Chen was speechless.

That was a bold promise. Even they didn’t dare guarantee their own children wouldn’t go hungry. With Sang Luo’s empty house, no fields, no grain, how could she possibly keep the two children fed? If she were capable, would she have nearly starved to death after finishing the stored grain?

Still, since Granny Chen, Sang Luo, and even the Shen family’s main branch children were unrelated—at best just from the same village—it wasn’t worth saying much. She simply nodded.

Just then, Shen An came in carrying a bowl of water. Granny Chen turned and went to set the clay pot to boil water, melting the remaining half block of malt sugar at the bottom, adding a pinch of salt to finish the job.

Seeing Shen Ning carefully feeding Sang Luo spoonful by spoonful of the salt-sugar water, and that Sang Luo gradually recovered strength, Granny Chen didn’t stay long.

“I brought two liters of rice from home. After drinking the sugar-salt water, you can cook some porridge to settle your stomach. A few days of rest should help you recover.”

Yes, just rest—more plainly, endure. People in the countryside couldn’t afford doctors or medicine.

Sang Luo nodded. “Thank you, Granny. I will repay you for the food and sugar later.”

Although Granny Chen had mentally prepared for the grain never to be returned, hearing Sang Luo say she would repay it, she wasn’t generous enough to say no need to repay. She poured the grain from the cloth bag into an empty sack Shen An had found, originally used for storing grain, and nodded. “Alright, then we’ll head back.”

Her husband was still waiting outside.

Shen An didn’t need Sang Luo to tell him twice and hurried to escort the two elders out. At the door, Granny Chen stopped him: “We’re grown-ups; you’re just a child. There’s no need for you to see us off. If you worry, you’ll have to come back to see us again. Go home and close the door tight.”

After the grass hut door closed behind them, the two elders walked a few steps before Granny Chen lightly tapped her husband’s arm.

He turned to look and saw her raise a finger to her lips, signaling him to keep quiet.