But today, she walked into the kitchen.
It was as if her mother-in-law saw the sun rising in the west.
"Um… Chengzi has finally come back. I want to make some food for him," Lin Qingping explained. "You… you go take care of other things. I'll cook."
No matter how troublesome this daughter-in-law usually was, the fact that she cared about her son made Liu Fen feel somewhat comforted, so she handed over the kitchen to her.
In rural areas of this era, resources were very limited. Items like oil and sugar were treated as treasures, rarely used. Lin Qingping didn't dare to waste anything either, and using only the ingredients on hand, she made a meal.
She steamed a big pumpkin, mashed it, and mixed it with cornmeal to make a full bowl of pumpkin cakes. She didn't want to waste oil for deep-frying, so she used a little oil to pan-fry them, but they were very tasty. The pumpkins grown locally were naturally sweet, and once cooked, the sweetness was just like the mildly sweet desserts people favored decades later.
Then she simply roasted the tofu and sprinkled it with chili powder and salt. While it wasn't as spectacular as soft tofu bursting with filling, it was still far better than her mother-in-law's usual stir-fried (and often burnt) tofu.
The flat beans, however, were burnt in the iron pan; the green peppers were also burnt. When she mixed and stir-fried them together, the aroma was so strong that her mother-in-law thought she had set the kitchen on fire.
She also stir-fried a big plate of cabbage, and the meal was ready.
When she brought it to the table, Zhiyuan immediately stared at the pumpkin cakes, his eyes lighting up, and her mother-in-law was also shocked.
Lin Qingping first gave Zhiyuan two pumpkin cakes and told her mother-in-law, "Mom, you eat first. I'll go call Dad and Chengzi to come eat."
She thought Gu Juncheng was helping Grandpa with work, but when she got to the field, she found only Grandpa there.
After calling Grandpa, she continued to look for Gu Juncheng. She walked around the village but didn't see him. Instead, she saw villagers rushing toward the back mountain.
"Quick! There's a landslide at the back mountain. I heard someone is injured!"
"Let's go! Let's see!"
The villagers, young and old, were still very enthusiastic and all ran up the mountain. Lin Qingping felt a chill in her heart—could it be that Gu Juncheng was also on the mountain? She had searched everywhere and still couldn't find him!
She quickly followed the villagers up the mountain.
Soon, they reached the landslide area.
Lin Qingping was looking up from below and saw Gu Juncheng hanging on a tree, one hand holding a branch, the other hand pulling someone—Chen Xia.
From the entire valley, all that could be heard was Chen Xia crying out, "Brother Cheng, Brother Cheng, don't let go! I'm scared..."
Lin Qingping's heart was suspended with Gu Juncheng. The tree he was clinging to was already swaying precariously.
The two were not actually very high off the ground; if Gu Juncheng let go and jumped down, neither of them would die. However, whether they would end up with broken arms or legs was uncertain.
Most importantly, in her previous life, Gu Juncheng had died young. Lin Qingping was already shadowed with fear and could not bear to see him in any danger.
She didn't even dare to shout, afraid of startling Gu Juncheng and making him fall.
The villagers had spread a fishing net at the foot of the landslide cliff and shouted up to the people above, "Chengzi, come down! We'll catch you!"
"Okay! I'm letting go! Tighten it!" Gu Juncheng shouted loudly.
Then, Gu Juncheng let go, and both of them fell into the net.
Seeing Gu Juncheng land safely in the net, Lin Qingping breathed a sigh of relief. But what was going on with the two in the net?
Chen Xia was hugging Gu Juncheng's neck and crying, "Wuwuwu, Brother Cheng, thank you, wuwuwu, Brother Cheng, you really scared me to death..."
Lin Qingping noticed that Chen Xia was wearing a green top.
She suddenly remembered the fleeting figure behind the big tree that day... A woman's intuition, and an alarm bell rang in Lin Qingping's ears. Chen Xia had broken off her engagement with Gu Junsheng because she despised Zhiyuan. But didn't Chen Xia get engaged to a young man who came from the city to the countryside for training and went to the city? That was before she married Gu Junsheng, so why is she here now?