Powerful Minister Buddha-like Sweet Wife

Chapters 3 — Cleaning

After the meal, Liu Tangxi took the initiative to wash the wok and dishes. 

Originally, the cooking was done by Zhang and Zhou in turn, and Li would do it once in a while. However, since Zhou’s in her month old (— late month pregnancy/ third trimester), things have been handed over to Zhang’s hands.

After Zhang was giving birth, her mother-in-law, Li, did not let her do heavy work, so Zhang did not complain about it.

Moreover, because Wei Laosan’s condition worsened, Li couldn’t help her either.

Not only that, after finishing all these tasks, Zhang would occasionally go down to work with the men.

Zhou was a bit dissatisfied with Liu Tangxi’s lazy behavior before, and she is now in month old (pregnancy), so it is inconvenient to squat down to wash the wok and dishes.

Now that Liu Tangxi took the initiative to do it, she took a different look at Liu Tangxi. 

Not long after eating, Wei Daniu and Wei Erhu went to the field again. There is not much work in the field now, just pull the weeds. 

Seeing that there was nothing wrong in the yard, Li went to the mountain not far behind the house with Zhang. 

In order for Wei Hanzhou to study, his family not only planted land, but also planted a lot of fruit on the mountain. Although it’s not worth much, but, because of the proximity it is close and there is water on the mountain, which is easy to take care of. It’s also good.

Liu Tangxi is not a lazy person. After washing the dishes and the wok, she went to clean the yard. 

After sweeping the yard, Liu Tangxi glanced at the pig and chicken pens on the side of the west wall, and walked over. 

It is early summer, and since the day she woke up, she vaguely smelled a strange smell in the room. Although the smell hasn’t been smelled for many years, it is very familiar. 

The unique smell of the farmhouse. 

After suffering for three days, Liu Tangxi finally couldn’t help it today. 

First, she took a look at the environment in the pigpen and the chicken pen, then Liu Tangxi ran into the house and took out a cloth to cover her mouth and nose, then took the broom and went to the chicken pen. 

At this moment, Zhou came out of the room.

The chicken pen was next to the west wing where Zhou lived, and she had heard the movement a long time ago, but she kept embroidering in the room. Opening the window looking at Liu Tangxi’s intention, Zhou had to come out. 

After her window was opened, it was directly facing the chicken pen. Now the weather is getting hot. Because of the strong smell, she almost never opens it. 

Although she was used to these smells, she was somewhat uncomfortable because of her pregnancy. 

She thought Liu Tangxi was a squeamish person. After all, on the first day, she personally gave Liu Tangxi a bowl of noodles with a poached egg on top of it, but the other person only glanced disgustingly and didn’t eat a bite. 

She was very angry at that time.

With a seven month pregnant belly, she cooks for others, and lavishly puts an egg, only to be rejected. 

As a result, she has not been pleased with Liu Tangxi in recent days. 

If it hadn’t been for her father-in-law’s illness really improved, and her mother-in-law was kind to her, she would have been tempted to scold Liu Tangxi a long time ago.

However, she is not a person who will bear grudges. Although Liu Tangxi despised her cooking that day, Liu Tangxi did help her a lot today, so Zhou also showed kindness to Liu Tangxi.

“I’ll help you.” Zhou said. 

Even though she is seven months pregnant, she can’t just do nothing. In the farmhouse, there are still people who go to the field with a big belly. 

Liu Tangxi looked at Zhou belly, said ： “No, sister-in-law go back to the house and have a rest. The smell is too strong outside, and these chickens can peck at people, it won’t be good for a sister-in-law.” 

Zhou also wanted to say something, Liu Tangxi didn’t let her say ：”Second sister-in-law, hurry up, go back, I really don’t need help.” 

Liu Tangxi is not a saint either. She knew Zhou didn’t like her, she also didn’t expecting for some hot face and cold butt.

(t/n hot face and cold butt (idioms) — oneself has been complimenting and pleasing others, but others are indifferent.)

But she doesn’t know why Zhou doesn’t like her. In the book, Liu Tangxi is a supporting character, and Zhou is just a small role who didn’t even get mentioned. The author didn’t describe this period of farm life, so she has no idea the reason why Zhou was dissatisfied with her.

However, Zhou had been pregnant for seven months now, and seeing that she was going to give birth in a few months, she didn’t dare to accept her help.

In the environment where she lives, even in the countryside, there is no reason to let a seven-month-old pregnant woman work. 

Seeing Liu Tangxi’s insistence, Zhou bowed her head and touched her stomach, but she didn’t insist any more. 

Seeing Zhou entering the house, Liu Tangxi breathed a sigh of relief. 

In case of Zhou’s knock and bump, she can’t afford it and it won’t look good, it’s better just put her fists and feet to work. 

Liu Tangxi found that Wei’s pigs and chickens were particularly obedient. Although she had raised chickens and pigs at home when she was a child, she had never encountered such obedient ones. When she went to clean inside, these animals seemed to understand people and were very cooperative. 

This saved Liu Tangxi a lot of effort. 

After sweeping the dirty things together, Liu Tangxi took the basket and carried them out. As she walked out, Liu Tangxi subconsciously took a look at the direction of the study.

That day, Wei Hanzhou’s threatening words were still in her ears. If she went out at this time, would Wei Hanzhou stop her?

Standing in place and watching for a while, seeing that there was no movement in the study, Liu Tangxi walked outside carrying the basket. 

When she returned, Liu Tangxi felt a pair of eyes staring at her. 

Looking up again, there seemed to be no movement in the study.

Liu Tangxi stared at it for a while, turned her head, and continued cleaning. 

After finishing it, she brushes the slot where the chickens and pigs eat with water, and arranges everything neatly. 

Looking at the chicken and pig pens she had spent most of an hour in, Liu Tangxi breathed a sigh of relief and showed a satisfied smile on her face.

Although she doesn’t know how long she will stay here, she has to stay clean everyday. 

After finishing that, Liu Tangxi sniffed her body and hurriedly went to boil some hot water, went to her room to scrub briefly, and changed into clean clothes. 

Then she went to the well to fetch water and washed the clothes she had changed. 

She had just dried the clothes on the rope and saw Li and Zhang, who went to the mountain to see the fruit trees, came back. 

Not only did they come back, but they also picked a basket of apples. 

“Mother, sister-in-law, you are back.” Liu Tangxi went over to say hello. 

“Yeah, I’m back, I picked some home-grown apples, you can taste it.” 

Looking at the apples in the basket, Liu Tangxi swallowed her saliva. Although she is not short of fruit, she hasn’t eaten it for several days. At first sight, she really wants to eat the reddish apple.

However, even so, Liu Tangxi refused ：”No, let’s keep the fruit for the money.” 

She heard it when she had a meal in the morning. Li said that the apples on the mountain were almost ripe and would be sold in the town at that time.

Wei Laosan has been ill for so long, almost all of the savings at home have been spent. And the reason why there are still twenty taels of silver to buy her, that is also the money left for Wei Hanzhou to go to the preliminary round of imperial examinations. By now,  Wei’s family property must be empty. 

Although she was afraid of Wei Hanzhou and didn’t feel very good because he was going to be a generation of sycophants minister, these people in front of her were living people, and she couldn’t just do anything to take people’s rations.

Seeing that the little daughter-in-law had already considered this for the family in just a few days, Li felt very content in her heart. 

At first, she only listened to the fortune teller and secretly married the daughter-in-law with all her family savings in order to save her man. 

Because of this, her man was very angry. Although the youngest son didn’t say it, she could tell that he didn’t agree with her. 

But now, her man’s illness is getting better, and her daughter-in-law is also generous, sensible and obedient.

Li felt more and more that she had done nothing wrong, and her eyes looking at Liu Tangxi were also full of kindness ：”It’s okay, there are so many fruits on the mountain that can be eaten by ourselves. And these are all fallen, the appearance is different. Also, I can’t sell it for a cents, so I might as well eat it myself.”

Listening to what Li said, Liu Tangxi looked at the apples in the basket. It was confirmed that the apples in the basket were not in good condition, and some had big scars, so she did not refuse. Take out an apple and prepare to wash it.

At this time, Li glanced at the closed door of the study and reminded her ：”Wash one of it and give the third child. He is tired from reading. I heard that eating more apples is good for your health.” 

Liu Tangxi was taken aback, but still obeyed. She took one from the inside. 

At this time, Zhang saw the changes in the yard and was very pleasantly surprised: “Huh? Why are the chicken and pig pens so clean?” 

Zhou heard the movement and came out from the room. 

“Second sister-in-law, did you clean it? Didn’t I tell you to not to do it, don’t do such things when you’re on your month old. Besides, these places where the animals live, you don’t need to clean them. If you think the smell is serious, tell your sister-in-law, sister-in-law will come and clean it.” Zhang scolded Zhou. 

Zhou glanced at Liu Tangxi’s back who was going to the kitchen and said ：”It’s not me, it’s third sister-in-law.”

After listening, Li also went over and looked at the pig and chicken pen next to the west wall. 

Although they would clean it every once in a while, they had never cleaned it as clean as Liu Tangxi. 

First Liu Tangxi carefully cleaned the two apples in her hand, then took a knife to cut off the defect on it. After cutting, she washed it again. 

After that, Liu Tangxi stared at the two apples carefully. She wanted to keep the slightly reddish apple with a relatively good appearance, but when thinking of Wei Hanzhou’s cold eyes, Liu Tangxi gave up. 

In the end, she took a heavy bite of the small green apple all over its body. 

Listening to that, it’s not like she is eating an apple, but treating an enemy. 

However, in the next instant, Liu Tangxi’s eyes lit up.

This does not add any preservatives, no chemical fertilizers and pesticides have been applied, the purely natural apples are really delicious. 

Crispy and sweet. 

After eating two bites, Liu Tangxi left the kitchen. 

Seeing Li and the others looking at the chicken and pigpen, Liu Tangxi thought for a while and said ：”Mother, I think it’s too odorous. I dumped the pig dung and chicken dung in the pit at the back of the house. If it’s needed for the field.”

Li smiled and said ：”Good, you’ve worked hard .”

Liu Tangxi smiled and walked towards the study. 

Thinking about that line of sight, when she walked to the door, Liu Tangxi deliberately took a bite of the apple and made a little movement. 

Seeing Wei Hanzhou looking over, Liu Tangxi reluctantly handed him the apple with a straight face.

Wei Hanzhou glanced at the apple in Liu Tangxi’s hand and took it in silence. 

Liu Tangxi no longer looked at him, turned and left. When leaving, she deliberately bite the apple in her hand crunching-ly. 

Wei Hanzhou looked up at Liu Tangxi’s back and looked at the apple in front of him.

The family has been growing the apple for five years, and the variety has not changed. He has long known what the apple tastes like. Ripe apples have average taste, and these falling apples are even more common.

However, thinking of Liu Tangxi eating the apple with satisfaction on her face, Wei Hanzhou suddenly felt that the apple in his hand seemed to taste good, and he was a little thirsty.

Then, it’s like the demons and gods at work, he took a bite.

(t/n demons and gods at work (idioms) — fig. The ghost is instructing him to unconsciously do something that he did not expect to do.)

Sure enough, it’s very sweet.

He just about to take a second bite, Liu Tangxi suddenly turned back, looked nervous and carefully said ： “Hus… husband, I just cleaned chicken manure and forgot to wash my hands. Will you blame me?”

Wei Hanzhou chewing paused for a while, looked at Liu Tangxi in a daze, pursed his lips, did not speak. 

Seeing that Wei Hanzhou was finally not with that dead face, Liu Tangxi smiled and said ：”I lied to you~”

With that said, she took a bite of the apple in front of her, and left with a brisk pace humming a little tune.