Chapter 238: Collecting Debts

Chapter 238: Settling Scores

Xiao Xiao played cards with her brothers and sisters-in-law at home for a while until she wore herself out.

Then the brothers really got into their game. By the time she and Shen Qiuyu went to wash up and rest, the others were still playing.

Xiao Xiao let Shen Qiuyu use her face cream.

Shen Qiuyu said, "No wonder you looked familiar. Were you on TV or something?"

Finally, someone brought up the advertisement Xiao Xiao had filmed.

Xiao Xiao hid her face, embarrassed, and lied playfully, "It must just be someone who looks like me."

Shen Qiuyu had seen it but the memory was fuzzy. She said uncertainly, "Really? Maybe I misremembered. But this cream is really good. A friend of my mom’s brought it back from Beijing."

Xiao Xiao replied, "When I get to Beijing, I’ll ship you a few more jars."

Shen Qiuyu asked, "Is it hard to buy?"

Xiao Xiao said, "Not at all. Once I’m in Beijing, I can get it easily."

After washing up, the two of them crawled into bed.

Xiao Xiao placed a clean tin mug on the cabinet next to the heated brick bed (kang).

"Sister Qiuyu, this is your cup for drinking water at night."

Shen Qiuyu nodded. "Okay."

Xiao Xiao also showed Shen Qiuyu where the light cord was—right within reach.

Once everything was explained, Xiao Xiao drifted off.

She slept soundly through the night. In the morning, the room was still chilly, so Xiao Xiao couldn’t bear to get up at all.

Besides, she couldn’t think of much to do today.

After a while, Xiao Xiao remembered what was planned for today.

Tomorrow, they would hang the New Year's couplets, so today many people would come to their house to ask Miao Fengshan to write them.

Sure enough, people started showing up early in the morning.

Shen Qiuyu woke up and noticed Xiao Xiao wasn’t making any moves to get up.

"Should we get up?"

Xiao Xiao snuggled deeper under the covers. "I want to, but my body's not cooperating."

Shen Qiuyu laughed—turns out little sister was a sleepyhead too.

Normally, Shen Qiuyu got up early because she had to do her martial arts practice.

But it was too cold here, and even with thick clothes, she could barely move.

By the time Xiao Xiao finally rolled out of bed, it was already after eight.

Nobody at home was pushing them to hurry.

There was food kept warm in the pot, so they could eat whenever they woke up.

Ye Changqing and Ye Changan headed up the mountain at dawn to chop firewood.

Ye Xiaoxiao and Shen Qiuyu splashed some water on their faces, and when they stepped out, Miao Cuifang joked with them.

"Now our family finally has someone who can keep Xiao Xiao company in sleeping late."

Ye Xiaoxiao peeked at the food left in the pot: "Mom, it's not like we slept that late, did we?"

Mostly because just lying there gets old too.

There were no phones to scroll through now.

Miao Cuifang went inside to help Ye Xiaoxiao dish out the food.

"If you're not in the mood for this, we still have dumplings frozen in the vat outside. We can cook some up."

Shen Qiuyu quickly said, "Mrs. Ye, please don't trouble yourself too much. I only eat a little in the morning."

Ye Xiaoxiao split open a sweet potato. "Sister Qiuyu practices dancing and has to watch what she eats."

Looking at it this way, it seemed like there were lots of stuff off-limits.

Shen Qiuyu: "Not really, I can eat anything now. I'm not picky."

Actually, many people still didn’t have enough to eat these days. Shen Qiuyu burns through calories, so controlling her diet wasn’t too bad—she wasn't one to complain.

Miao Cuifang: "Then you two eat first. Just leave the dishes in the pot when you're done. I'll wash them later."

The Ye family was pretty neat, and there were rarely piles of dishes left around.

But Miao Cuifang hated to put the children to work, especially the young girls—she couldn’t bear to make them do it.

Still, Ye Xiaoxiao and Shen Qiuyu washed the dishes after eating.

The water in the pot was still warm, and with just two bowls, a quick wash did the trick.

Then they dipped out the dirty water from the pot into a bucket with a ladle and took it out to toss.

Just as Ye Xiaoxiao was about to carry it out, Ye Changsheng came in and took the dirty water away.

"Fourth Brother, where are the others?"

Ye Changsheng: "They went to the mountains to gather firewood, but I think they just wanted to go play in the mountains."

Ye Xiaoxiao and Shen Qiuyu shared a look.

"Sister Qiuyu, let’s go back inside."

Shen Qiuyu agreed. "Alright."

Ye Xiaoxiao: "Sister Qiuyu, if you’re cold, I can let you borrow one of my heavy jackets."

Ye Xiaoxiao had some loose clothes that Shen Qiuyu could still wear.

Shen Qiuyu: "I brought my own clothes. I'm good for now—it's cozy enough in here."

In the east room, Grandpa Miao was working on New Year's couplets.

Villagers lined up to collect them.

Ye Xiaoxiao grabbed a brush and scribbled a few characters, feeling pretty good about it.

However, the other children in the family, except for the two youngest, wrote better than Ye Xiaoxiao. They’d been practicing since they were kids, while Ye Xiaoxiao had just dabbled in hobby classes.

Shen Qiuyu watched quietly—everything was peaceful.

That was until Ye Baocheng and Ye Baoyuan came in. Ye Baocheng was fine, a good kid, but Ye Baoyuan was at that bratty age and wouldn’t listen to anyone.

Ye Xiaoxiao held him, and Ye Baoyuan immediately shouted, "Auntie, lemme go!"

Ye Xiaoxiao patted the chubby belly of his. "You’re getting as pudgy as your brother!"

"Nuh-uh!"

Ye Xiaoxiao released him. "Go play in your dad’s room—no running outside or messing things up here. Auntie will give you a piece of candy later."

Ye Baoyuan instantly straightened up and squirmed free, no longer causing trouble. "Okay! Gimme two!"

Ye Baocheng watched eagerly.

"You’ll get some too, Baocheng. Take your little brother out to play."

Ye Xiaoxiao passed the little chubster to the bigger chubster.

Ye Baocheng led his younger brother out to another room.

Miao Fengshan finally got some peace to write.

Old Man Zhang from the village stopped by for the couplets and said as soon as he entered, "There are a lot of strangers in our village asking where Li Deshu’s house is. Looked like loan sharks. Luckily, no one was home at Li Deshu’s place."

Ye Xiaoxiao’s ears pricked up right away.

No wonder Third Brother was MIA today—he must’ve ducked out to deal with this!

"It’s that serious? They hunted him down all the way to our backwater village."

"That’s because Old Li owes them a ton of money. They wouldn’t be busting down doors over the holidays otherwise."

"Li Deshu’s uncle tipped him off, so Li Deshu probably won’t be back for a while."

"Good riddance. His family barely participates in village activities anyway—they might as well not even be villagers."

Shen Qiuyu wondered what the deal was with Li Deshu’s family—they seemed quite disliked.

Ye Xiaoxiao warned her to steer clear if she ever spotted them, as Li Deshu was the type to beat his wife.

Hearing this, Shen Qiuyu nodded fast at that.

But not like she’d run into them, though.

Ye Xiaoxiao stepped out of the east room and cornered Ye Changsheng, asking, "Third Brother took off again?"

She barely saw Ye Changning around the house as it was.

Ye Changsheng took it in stride, "Third Brother was always on the go like this. He's full of energy."

Ye Xiaoxiao remarked, "Those debt collectors must have been found by Third Brother. He's really something."

He works so efficiently.

Knowing that Li Deshu wouldn't be back anytime soon, Ye Xiaoxiao felt happier.

She went back to her room, took out the jar of candies, and gave a few milk candies to the kids.

She reminded them not to eat too many at once, or there wouldn't be any left for tomorrow.