Bao'er understood. He pouted but didn't move. His little eyes looked at Meng Xiaohe pitifully, tears welling up.
Meng Xiaohe's heart ached. She wanted to comfort him but noticed the wound on Bao'er's forehead. She cursed inwardly, "What a sin!" and couldn't say anything else.
When Meng Qishan returned with Bao'er's clothes from Mrs. Mei and her daughter-in-law, the good-natured Meng Xiaohe felt like cursing again. None of Bao'er's clothes were clean; some of his underwear still had yellow stains on them.
Meng Xiaohe thought, "Is this what people do?"
She recalled that the mother and daughter-in-law seemed to have never done anything decent.
But Bao'er's clothes were all dirty, and they had no spare clothes. What to do?
Fang Shi saw Meng Xiaohe's predicament and said, "Wait a moment. I'll find a smaller piece of Yu'er's old clothes for him to wear." Fortunately, they had brought both children's clothes with them when they left.
"Thank you, sister-in-law," Meng Xiaohe said shyly to Fang Shi.
Fang Shi smiled and went to find clothes for Bao'er. When she returned, she also brought a thick piece of clothing for Fu Xinci and Yu'er.
Meng Xiaohe used a torn cloth to collect some rainwater, warmed it by the fire, and after a simple wipe-down for Bao'er, changed him into Yu'er's clothes.
Indeed, Bao'er was much more cheerful after being cleaned. He kept drooling at the steaming food.
Fu Xinci felt sorry for Bao'er and asked Fang Shi to ladle out two pieces of potato and a spoonful of soup. She mashed the potatoes, mixed them with some batter, cooled it down, and fed it to Bao'er.
Bao'er, having been starved for days, ate ravenously. When Fu Xinci was slow, he whimpered impatiently.
Meng Xiaohe couldn't bear to watch. She picked up Bao'er's dirty clothes, moved away from the temple door, and squatted under the eaves to wash them.
No one saw the tears welling up in her eyes, but she held them back from falling.
Seeing his sister feeding Bao'er, Yu'er also started smacking his lips, craving some himself.
Fang Shi's heart was heavy seeing her son like this.
She remembered what Old Wu had said. Seeing her father-in-law and husband invited to eat, she gritted her teeth and decisively served a large bowl of stewed pork belly and potatoes in front of the children. Of course, there were mostly potatoes in the bowl; she didn't dare to scoop too much pork belly, but there was plenty of broth.
"Mom, eat too," Fu Xinci, knowing Fang Shi hadn't eaten lunch, invited her to eat with them.
"Yes, Auntie, please sit down and eat. I'll just have a taste," Qi He really wanted to taste the potatoes stewed with pork belly; it smelled so fragrant.
"Mmm, Mom, eat too." Yu'er's stomach had never been full before, and seeing a large bowl of delicious food now made him hungrier.
"Okay." Seeing how sensible and filial the children were, Fang Shi felt even more comforted.
Just then, Fu Xinci had finished feeding Bao'er and let him sit aside to play.
Fang Shi was kind-hearted. She couldn't bear to eat while the children watched. She asked Fu Xinci to ladle out half a bowl and let Qishan and the others share.
It was the first time everyone had eaten potatoes. The potatoes were stewed until soft and tender, infused with the flavor of the pork belly. Qi He took a bite and immediately fell in love with the taste.
"Mmm, it's so delicious. Sister Fu, when the rain stops, let's go out and search again."
"Mmm, let's go together." Qi Tian couldn't bear to swallow the potatoes in his mouth.
Luo'er, following behind, nodded vigorously.
Although Qi Shan didn't speak, his intention was clear.
Not to mention the children, even Fang Shi felt the same way.
The group of people eating on the other side were also full of praise for the potatoes.
"I never expected these round, egg-like things to be so delicious when stewed," the dark-faced big man said after the first bite, then continued eating.
"That's right. When I first saw these things, I thought they could be used as bricks in a fight, to smash wherever you wanted and leave a bruise."
"Hey, why are you always thinking about fighting when you're with us? Are we men so easily provoked?" That pot of old wine had all gone into Jiang Tou'er's stomach, and his tongue was a bit slurred as he spoke.
"No, no, how could we?" Wu Laoda quickly apologized; he couldn't afford to offend this ancestor.
Meng Qingping, however, did not join the conversation. His mind was still filled with his granddaughter's words: "Everything can be stewed."
His granddaughter was right; the potatoes stewed with pork belly tasted truly good. But he was now worried about where his granddaughter found these potatoes. He didn't believe the few of them found them behind this dilapidated temple.
Jiang Tou'er was the most satisfied with the meal today. His hazy eyes swept around, feeling even more confused. He decisively leaned against a pillar, closed his eyes, and soon began to snore like thunder.
The other constables followed suit, each finding a relatively comfortable spot, leaning back, and closing their eyes to doze off.
Only Nianzi quietly crept up to Qi He and whispered to him. Qi Shan overheard a bit and pulled Qi Tian to join them.
"How is it? As soon as it gets light tomorrow morning, we'll go out and search."
"Okay! To be honest, if it weren't dark and I couldn't see clearly, I would have wanted to go out and search right now."
"Me too. Oh my, Brother, this is the first time I've eaten such good food. Stewed with pork belly, it actually tastes like pork belly." Nianzi still wanted to smack his lips.
"Be content. You ate a lot more with Grandpa Jiang just now than I did." Qi He's eyes were full of envy and jealousy when he thought about how much more Nianzi had eaten than him.
"Tch, no need to be jealous. Brother probably only ate a small bowl more than you. These people are like wolves." Saying this, Nianzi glanced around. Seeing that his companions were mostly asleep, he lowered his voice and added, "It's like they're ghosts reincarnated after eight days without food."
Qi He thought: He didn't say it, but he saw it. Nianzi was describing himself, like a hungry wolf.
Qi He didn't expect that he would only secretly describe it, but in the middle of the night, he saw something that almost scared him to death.
As the night deepened, the rain began to weaken. The stillness of the rainy night seemed contagious. In the dilapidated temple, both the constables and the Meng clan members had long since fallen asleep.
Only Meng Qingping and his son sat by the fire, whispering, "Yu'er, now that our family is going to Liaodong with those people, do you and your wife have any plans?" His son was fine, but Meng Qingping worried that his daughter-in-law would complain about him implicating the whole family in suffering.
"On this journey, son has also thought about some ways to make a living. With our father and son's education, it would be best to teach in a school."
Meng Qingping also felt it was a possible path. But thinking about their family's current status, only two words came to his mind: unlikely.
Obviously, Fu Yu had also thought of this. He paused for a few breaths before stating the matter that he and his father had to face.