Chapter 58: Fierce, Foolish Slave, Fierce

How strange.

Simply, how strange.

Isn't there still an empty spot at home?

Although everyone started eating first, we still saved a spot and utensils for Chinu!

Even, the rice is piled high!

Du Shanü was puzzled, but Du Shanü didn't say anything.

After all, Chinu has thirty days a month, at least forty days are spent in the maternal uncle's time.

She straightforwardly lifted her bowl and stood up, moved aside a bit, then picked up a chopstick of bamboo shoots and beans, smiling as she asked:

"Good slave slave, you're back! Did you go look for Afang today? Why didn't he come back with you?"

Yu Baobao also happily helped move Chinu's rice bowl to the main seat, smiling as she said:

Didn't slave slave say yesterday she was going to buy cotton? How come she returns empty-handed?

Unknown whether she suffered injustice outside, or because Du Shanü gave way too readily and decisively.

After the seat that belonged solely to Du Shanü was vacated, Chinu was instead taken aback, neither sitting down to eat nor responding.

Du Shanü finally realized something was a bit strange, tilting her head in puzzlement:

"Are you eating? Did Afang leave you to eat? Then why didn't you bring something back for us?"

Not a single person in the family is good at cooking.

Not to mention cooking, several times they almost set the kitchen on fire.

The only person who can cook edible food turns out to be the youngest, Ouyang An.

Thus, these days, the family lives off the elders and the young, spending Ouyang Yan's business earnings and eating Ouyang An's cooking.

To be honest, coarse tea and bland rice are edible, but we still have to eat.

After all, nobody has ever seen autumn bamboo shoots and black beans stewed together into a paste.

Du Shanü had long wanted to find a chance to go out and buy something tasty to celebrate, but since outsiders likely still see her as observing mourning, she never got the opportunity.

Du Shanü took it for granted, but Chinu remained silent in place.

He lowered his eyes, staring at the main seat that had been easily given up, for a long time, then gritted his teeth and said:

"Get up, I want to sit in your current seat."

Du Shanü was bewildered, but still put down her chopsticks and stood up again:

"Not bringing something tasty is fine, but after all this back-and-forth, my seat doesn't even have a golden egg......."

"Never mind, never mind, everyone get up; slave slave can sit wherever she wants."

Everyone had long been waiting for this, they piled some vegetables on the rice, then rose and went to eat elsewhere.

The table was completely empty; Du Shanü pulled Yu Baobao to sit on the threshold, Ouyang father and son sat on the ground in the courtyard, Leitie first retreated to the workshop, A Chou..... A Chou has the biggest appetite, already finished eating.

Du Shanü sat on the threshold eating, while saying to Ouyang Yan in the courtyard:

"Earn what you can, if you can't earn it, forget it; all this five-in eight-out three-in four-in... we now have some savings, no need to be angry with them."

In her view, there's truly no need to be so desperate.

However, Ouyang Yan this time seemed determined to split hairs, chewing his rice while repeatedly flipping through the book Du Shanü had given him earlier in the sunset's afterglow.

"Not possible! No one can take even a penny's advantage from me!"

Alright then.

Du Shanü chewed, chewed, chewed, and inadvertently ate the picky vegetables Yu Baobao had slipped into her bowl; looking back, she saw Chinu still standing in place.

Today remains the same, the sky not aged.

He stood alone in the center of the main hall, all around silent and soundless.

No one waited, no one responded, not even the candlelight was lit.

The outside sky's heaviness cannot penetrate, cannot fall on his shoulders, nor shine even a hint into his eyes.

He just stood there quietly, as if forgotten by the whole world, left with only a solitary chill, his brows and eyes hidden in a deep tranquility.

Du Shanü softly sighed, while Yu Baobao had already stood up, turned back into the main hall, and forcibly pulled Chinu to sit, laying out vegetables for him while chattering like usual family talk, saying:

"Good slave slave, why aren't you happy?"

Chinu didn't speak, so Du Shanü laughed and said:

"It must be that Afang caused trouble today! Otherwise, slave slave's temper would have improved a lot these days!"

That's not false; since learning of Chinu's 'condition' from Doctor Hei, she's been carefully giving him medicine, and these days his temper has indeed eased a lot.

Yu Baobao tilted her head, after a while seemed to recall someone, feeling a bit gloomy.

"...... Did you guys argue? Was slave slave bullied?"

Du Shanü's eyes instantly turned fearful: "(? `Д? ′)!!"

Who?

Who?

Who dares to bully Chinu?

Good Baobao! Do you have some misunderstanding about Chinu!

Given Chinu's quarrelsome, grabby nature—even able to sleep between them—who would dare bully him?

In her view, at most.....

At most, Afang again gave Chinu some bad idea.

Du Shanü also wanted to sigh a bit, but she managed to hold it in:

"That Afang person—I know a bit; his mouth is indeed unpleasant, so don't take to heart what he says."

"Eat, eat, you're already thin; if you don't eat, it won't do. No, no, no, sorry, a man can't say 'won't do'......"

The two sang in harmony, and Chinu's forehead veins twitched.

Du Shanü seemed unaware, relentlessly scooping the unpleasant bean paste from the dish into Chinu's bowl.

Chinu stayed silent for a few breaths, then suddenly set down his bowl.

Du Shanü jumped, thinking her little move had been spotted, and nearly dropped her bowl.

But it was all right; Chinu merely said:

"After leaving the Yin Dynasty, I once defected to the Northern Dynasty."

Yu Baobao blinked, unaware why Chinu suddenly mentioned that.

Du Shanü then let out a big sigh of relief, continued scooping the bean paste into her own bowl, and said lightly:

"Oh, you mean that... I know."

"When you brought up He Lian Bo Bo earlier, I already had some suspicions, for knowing he harbored rebellious intent, at the very least they weren't extremely close, but at least they had met."

"How could a subject of the Yin Dynasty possibly meet a famed general of the Northern Dynasty and also know such a secret?"

"There's only one possibility: Chinu once went north."

"Defecting to foreign tribes is certainly considered a major crime."

"But Du Shanü happened not to think that way; furthermore, she and others had compared timelines, and Chinu had left before the old capital fell."

"At that time, the Northern Dynasty's fiery oil spread like a split bamboo, the name Ashina was known far and wide, and Chinu utterly despised mediocre rulers, surely feeling that the Mandate of Heaven lay in the north."

"Actually, not surprising."

Chinu stayed silent for a few breaths, then merely said:

"I stayed in the Northern Border for over a year, then defected to the False Dynasty, staying only three months, before switching allegiance again."

Du Shanü still wasn't too surprised; this time even Yu Baobao secretly slipped vegetables into Chinu's bowl, obviously not minding either.

Even Yu Baobao bluntly said:

"Nunu is truly first-rate, I've long been glad you could leave me to seek a good future...... They couldn't keep you, surely it's their fault."

Chinu remained silent, and Du Shanü also laughed.

"That's right!"

"Good Nunu, if you're feeling upset about this today, there's absolutely no need——"

"We never cared where you were before, only where you are now."

"No matter how you changed allegiance before, when I see you now, you have already come home."