Yu Xiaolian drank a bowl of thin porridge, then put down her bowl and chopsticks. To call it porridge was an exaggeration; it was merely a bowl of rice soup.
Mrs. Sun glanced at her and said indifferently, "Eat more; there won't be dinner tonight."
Yu Xiaolian nodded, "Mom, I'm full."
Mrs. Sun poured the rice soup from the basin into her own bowl and gave the solid leftovers to Yu Changhe, "How's the stove building coming along?"
"The mud blocks are ready. They just need a day of sun today, and tomorrow morning we can start stacking them. By the afternoon, it'll be done. You can go to town tomorrow and buy the pot, and it'll fit right onto the stove."
Yu Changhe wanted to give some of his rice porridge to Mrs. Sun, but she held the bowl and moved away.
"You eat more; I'm not hungry!"
After saying this, Mrs. Sun drank all the rice soup in one gulp, "Since Mom said the crops in the field aren't ours, I won't help with the harvest later. Tomorrow I'll go to town to buy the pot and bring back some embroidery thread."
Yu Changhe knew Mrs. Sun planned to do some embroidery work to earn money. Mrs. Sun's embroidery skills were quite good, but the work was tiring on the eyes, and the pay was low.
In the past, Yu Changhe would have certainly disapproved of Mrs. Sun enduring this labor, but now, it seemed he no longer had the right to say, "Don't do it."
Yu Xiaolian looked at Mrs. Sun, "Mom, let me go with you tomorrow. I can help carry things."
Mrs. Sun thought for a moment and nodded, "We just split from the family, and there's a lot we lack at home. Although we don't have enough money to buy everything, I certainly can't carry it all back by myself. You can come along."
That night, lying in bed, Yu Xiaolian thought about the affairs of the Yu Family and began to ponder.
In the book, Yu Xiaolian was the descendant of a Witch Clan leader, but she never knew her true identity until her death.
After Yu Changhe's inexplicable death, Yu Xiaolian was sold off by the old matron of the Yu Family.
The buyer was none other than the male lead, Prince Huainan's Princely Heir, Jun Mobai.
Jun Mobai searched tirelessly for the mysterious Witch Clan people to cure his beloved, Yu Yanran's cold ailment.
Legend had it that the Witch Clan were neither afraid of the cold nor poison because their blood was different from ordinary people.
There were rumors that pure-blooded Witch Clan descendants' blood could cure all poisons.
To ensure he could smoothly buy Yu Xiaolian, Jun Mobai had Yu Changhe murdered in secret because he knew that once Yu Changhe died, there would be no one left to protect Yu Xiaolian.
Later, Jun Mobai took Yu Xiaolian as a concubine to make her willing to serve as a long-term antidote for Yu Yanran.
He also granted Yu Xiaolian, who was a poor little girl, the splendor and riches she had dreamed of.
Once Yu Xiaolian rose to power, how could she spare those from the Yu Family who bullied her?
All the Yu Family members, except for the mad and foolish Mrs. Sun, who Yu Xiaolian showed mercy by sending to a nunnery, met with tragic ends.
Although she was a concubine, Jun Mobai had no intention of favoring Yu Xiaolian. Her only purpose was to provide Yu Yanran with a warm bowl of blood when her cold ailment flared up.
Yu Xiaolian's blood did not cure Yu Yanran's cold ailment as Jun Mobai had hoped, but it did have a relieving effect.
For Yu Yanran's illness, Jun Mobai had to endure Yu Xiaolian's entanglement and threats for a long time. Later, when Yu Xiaolian threatened to die, Jun Mobai was forced to favor her.
As a concubine for a long time, witnessing Jun Mobai's endless love for Yu Yanran, Yu Xiaolian began to hate him out of love.
But she couldn't bear to hurt Jun Mobai, so she secretly added a potent poison to Yu Yanran's antidote, causing Yu Yanran to vomit blood and hover between life and death.
Later, in an ironic twist, Yu Yanran's cold ailment was miraculously cured due to Yu Xiaolian's poisonous remedy, achieving the principle of fighting poison with poison.
With the female lead Yu Yanran cured, the cannon fodder female supporting character naturally had to meet her end.
However, because her blood had a detoxifying property, Jun Mobai didn't want to waste such a good antidote. Thus, Yu Xiaolian in the book was drained of her blood by Jun Mobai until she died.
After Yu Xiaolian's death, her incredibly powerful Witch Clan father emerged to avenge his daughter, but the already dead Yu Xiaolian couldn't possibly know this.
Yu Xiaolian only read up to this point in the novel and didn't see the ending.
But it's easy to imagine that with the protagonist aura, Jun Mobai and Yu Yanran would definitely survive; the one to suffer would likely be Yu Xiaolian's Witch Clan father, who was solely bent on avenging his daughter.
Yu Xiaolian lay on the edge of the kang bed, with Yu Changhe and Mrs. Sun lying at the head. A floral curtain separated them.
At this moment, Yu Xiaolian was wide awake; Jun Mobai, as Prince Huainan's Princely Heir, was wealthy and powerful. Killing Yu Changhe would be all too easy for him. In two years, how could she protect Yu Changhe from dying?
Suddenly, a name flashed through Yu Xiaolian's mind—Jun Yian.
Yu Xiaolian smiled slightly.
It seemed that when the time came, she would have to make a move on him.
The next day, to avoid conflicting with Mrs. Cao's breakfast time, Mrs. Sun got up early to prepare breakfast, which was still thin rice porridge.
After the three of them drank the thin porridge, Mrs. Sun took the string of Copper Coin from the cupboard, put it in a cloth pouch, and told Yu Xiaolian to carry a small bamboo basket. The mother and daughter set off.
The village where the Yu Family resided was called River Bay, not too far from town. After crossing the bridge and walking for another ten minutes, they reached the town.
Although Yu Xiaolian was ten years old, it was her first time visiting the town.
At this moment, the sun had yet to rise fully, the sky was still gray, but the town was already bustling with people.
At this time, the market was mostly for bartering goods, with people accustomed to working from sunrise to sunset.
Mrs. Sun took Yu Xiaolian's hand and led her through the bustling market to a silk and satin shop.
Judging by Mrs. Sun's familiarity, she must have worked for this shop before. As soon as she entered, the shop owner's wife recognized her and kept praising how beautiful and saleable Mrs. Sun's embroidery designs were.
Mrs. Sun smoothly obtained some embroidery thread, handkerchiefs for embroidering, and sachets. She carefully wrapped them up and placed them into the small bamboo basket on Yu Xiaolian's back.
"Ah, this must be your daughter. She's quite a beauty, except for these eyes..."
The shop owner's wife was about to look closely at Yu Xiaolian's eyes when Yu Xiaolian felt a shock in her heart and quickly lowered her head.
She had been too careless; perhaps this was how Yu Xiaolian in the previous life was discovered by Jun Mobai's people.
"Mom, it seems like I've got some sand in my eyes. I'll wait for you outside!" Yu Xiaolian said, escaping out of the satin shop.
The shop owner's wife didn't notice anything amiss, just thinking Yu Xiaolian was a country girl who had never seen the world.
She then said to Mrs. Sun, "Your daughter is already grown up. Can she weave cords? The shop needs a batch of cords soon; can the two of you take on the work?"
Mrs. Sun was thinking of earning more money. With business coming to her door, there was no reason not to earn it. "We'll take it. Both of us can weave cords. How much work is there, and how long will it take?"
Mrs. Sun naturally hoped the work would last longer. They owed money to several families in the village and had no funds for next spring's seeds.