Joyful Motherhood in a Rural Family

Chapter 290: 288: Warmth in the Snowy Night

Di Yelei kept busily coming and going.

He carried several large bundles of straw into the kitchen and piled them up in one corner, followed by the items taken from the house, which were stacked on top.

Liu Sisi also managed to find time to check on Liu Zhi’er.

At the moment, Liu Zhi’er’s cheeks were flushed, and she was sleeping restlessly, constantly muttering in her sleep and breaking out in sweat.

Feeling anxious, Sisi uncovered the quilt and quickly unbuttoned her coat. The sticky smell of pus and medicine mixed with the unpleasant odor of the medicine on her inner clothing. The smell was quite unpleasant.

Sisi fetched a set of her own clothes, helping Zhi’er out of her damp clothes, and used hot water to wipe her clean skin.

Seeing the scars all over her skin, Sisi couldn’t help but feel a sudden pain in her heart.

She applied ointment to Zhi’er’s wounds again, changed into dry clothes, and covered her with the quilt. Seeing Zhi’er gradually fall back asleep, Sisi then took the dirty clothes back to the kitchen.

There were already two big pots of hot water boiling in the kitchen. Liu Sisi added more firewood to the stoves and fetched half a bucket of hot water, a ladle of oats, and a bundle of hay to take to the stable.

The stable where the jujube red horse was kept was not completely enclosed, and the cold wind outside swept through, causing the stable’s roof to rattle loudly.

The jujube red horse was chewing its food in the feed trough. Seeing Liu Sisi arrive, it raised its head and neighed loudly, snorting.

After interacting with the horse for several days, Sisi had become much more familiar with it. She poured the cooling hot water into the water trough, added oats to the feed trough, and placed hay inside.

The jujube red horse affectionately leaned in, and Sisi patted its head, carefully checking the blanket on the horse’s body.

This blanket was different from ordinary ones, with a waterproof layer on the outside and a warm layer inside. She cleaned up the horse manure, disinfected the area with dry lime, and cleaned the stable before she returned to the house.

In the kitchen, Dad was already dressed in clean clothes, sitting by the brazier adding charcoal and stirring the stew with a ladle from time to time.

The moment Liu Sisi opened the door, an icy gust of wind rushed into the room. She hurriedly closed it and took off her straw coat and bamboo hat.

“Dad! You must be tired tonight too, so you should eat something first to fill your stomach.”

While talking, Liu Sisi quickly washed her hands, fetched a bowl and chopsticks, and handed them to Dad.

“You eat too… Eat!”

Dad gestured to the meat soup that was already boiling in the pot.

“Dad, you eat first. Sisi will eat with Yelei after he’s done with his work.”

Liu Sisi replied, already walking to the side of the straw pile, talking to her father-in-law as she did so.

“The main beam in the original room is broken, and so are many purlins and rafters. The damage extends to the mud wall near the eaves, creating a crack two palm-widths wide. That room is no longer fit for habitation, so I was thinking we could temporarily live in a corner of the kitchen until it’s repaired and we can move back in.”

As she spoke, she first laid out several clean wooden boards on the ground, then spread a thick layer of straw, and finally laid out a blanket.

The blanket and canopy on the head of the bed were filled with rubble and black mud from the melting ice and snow, which would need to be washed and dried before they could be used again.

Having no other options, Liu Sisi reluctantly placed a thin quilt on the bed.

Fortunately, the cotton quilt had been folded in a corner of the bed, so it was unaffected – a stroke of luck amidst the misfortune!

After Liu Sisi had made up the bed, she saw Dad weaving something with the straw.

“Dad, what are you weaving? It’s getting late. Why don’t you rest now, and work on it tomorrow?”

“Make… make a fence to… to block…” He struggled to speak and pointed to the temporary bed in the corner of the kitchen.

Liu Sisi suddenly understood!

Her father-in-law was weaving something like a screen!

“Father-in-law, please do this tomorrow! It’s cold now, be careful not to catch a cold. Tonight, I’ll just open up a piece of cloth and temporarily prop it up,” Liu Sisi hurriedly said.

Elderly Mr. Di stubbornly refused to let go: “Block tonight, cold…”

Seeing that it was useless to argue, Liu Sisi could only make the charcoal fire in the corner burn more vigorously before she continued to work.

It was not until the bed was made that she checked on Liu Zhi’er again, naturally going through another round of hassle before coming out with a pile of dirty clothes.

It was not easy for clothes to dry in this heavy snow, and if this continued, she wouldn’t even have clothes to change into herself.

Liu Sisi hurriedly soaked the clothes in plant ash water, and finally sat down by the bonfire.

As soon as she picked up the bowl, Di Yelei entered, looking exhausted and soaked from head to toe, with hardly a dry spot on him.

He ignored the need to take a bath for now and went straight to sit by the bonfire: “I’m starving! Huh? Dad, why are you still busy? Have you eaten? Do you want to eat more? Once you’re full, go straight to rest. These chores can be done tomorrow.”

“Dad is weaving straw mats, intending to temporarily block the edge of your bed. I tried to persuade him to do it tomorrow, but he won’t rest.”

Liu Sisi hurriedly handed the bowl to Di Yelei and got up to fetch another set of bowl and chopsticks.

Elderly Mr. Di just looked at Di Yelei with a smile without speaking.

Di Yelei picked up the spoon and directly scooped a few large pieces of ribs into the bowl: “So that’s what’s going on! Dad, just don’t tire yourself out. Sisi, come and eat too. By the way, has your Second Sister not woken up yet?”

As he spoke, he began eating the ribs in his bowl.

“She hasn’t woken up yet. She’s been having a fever on and off. I’ve fed her medicine and changed her clothes. We’ll see if she can wake up tomorrow morning. By the way, have you fixed the roof?”

After saying this, she sat down and began eating as well.

Di Yelei frowned: “No! The snow is falling too heavily, and there’s no way to deal with it. I simply propped up some wood inside the house and temporarily laid some straw on top to prevent water intrusion. We’ll have to deal with it after the snow stops.”

“Oh, you need to take Elderly Di to the county government early tomorrow morning, right? It seems like we’ll have to take it slow.”

For a moment, everyone fell silent.

After Liu Sisi had washed and hung up the clothes, Di Yelei had also taken a bath and was now weaving straw mats with Mr. Di.

They nailed the woven straw mat to the ground with bamboo strips and secured it in place to create a temporary screen.

“It’s past midnight now, so you should take a break too! In just an hour or two, it’ll be dawn.”

Liu Sisi urged, adding some charcoal fire, finally ready to rest.

She was originally feeling around the edge of the self-made screen when her body was suddenly embraced by a strong figure. Di Yelei hugged her with a deep affectionate expression on his face, his words full of sweetness.

“Sisi – I missed you…”

At these words, Liu Sisi’s legs went weak and she almost fell, but he quickly caught her.

Immediately after, a low chuckle came from behind, flushing Liu Sisi’s face with embarrassment.

Chapter 290 Chapter 289: Chapter 289: Pursuit

The bonfire in the corner gradually extinguished, while the charcoal fire in the brazier burned brightly, enveloping the entire room in warmth.

Soft murmurs echoed continuously, as Liu Sisi’s deep, alluring eyes gazed unblinkingly at him above her. Her gaze was like the rippling autumn water.

His passion was like fire, surging and passionate, his deep eyes filled with boundless treasure.

Warm sheets in the passionate night, dreams woven by the colorful butterflies of dawn!

The heavy snow outside the window still fell, mixed with the ferocious wind that constantly raged outside.

But the room was as warm as spring.

Liu Sisi collapsed in bed, feeling as if she had no strength even to lift her hand.

Di Yelei, on the other hand, was radiant and satisfied. His robust and muscular body demonstrated unparalleled explosive power.

He quickly fetched half a basin of hot water and carefully wiped Liu Sisi’s body, a radiant, shallow smile playing at the corner of his mouth.

“How do you feel? If you’re tired, sleep for a while.”

Liu Sisi barely opened her eyes, gave him a forced glance, then fell back into the dreamland.

She had no recollection of when he had fallen asleep beside her.

Di Yelei walked around the room to check the doors and windows. Finding no abnormalities, he finally went to bed.

It felt as though his eyes were only closed briefly when suddenly Ah-Huang and Ah-Hua started barking at the main entrance!

In the temporary place separated only by straw matting, the two people were sleeping deeply. Yet the earth-shattering knocking soon broke through the sound of the barking.

Di Yelei’s eyes opened alertly, not yet devoid of passion. A moment later, he closed his eyes again and buried his head in Liu Sisi’s neck, continuing to sleep.

Liu Sisi showed no sign of waking up, as she was indeed too tired yesterday.

Even when she heard the knocking outside, her eyebrows only slightly wrinkled, and she made no other move.

The knocking outside did not stop. On the contrary, it grew more intense! Di Yelei muttered a curse under his breath.

Resignedly, he got up, dressed, and left the room.

The blizzard outside had clearly lightened, but it was still cold enough to make him shiver violently, finally waking him from his drowsy state.

The thunderous knocking outside the door continued, and Di Yelei couldn’t help but shout a response: “I’m coming! I’m coming! What’s the hurry so early in the morning?” With that, he strode towards the main entrance.

Ah-Huang and Ah-Hua’s barking at the main entrance didn’t stop. Di Yelei called them off twice, finally managing to drive the two hounds away.

Upon opening the door, he saw Min’er curled up in her thick cotton coat, shivering with cold outside the house.

As soon as he came out, she immediately wore a tragic expression on her face.

“Third Uncle Di! Something happened in the cellar last night! …”

“What happened?”

Di Yelei had a sudden sinking feeling in his heart and hurriedly asked further.

“It’s Old Man Li. He’s… he’s missing!” Min’er was so cold; she could barely speak.

“She must be talking about Old Man Li!

Feeling suddenly cold, Liu Sisi couldn’t fall back asleep even though it was still earlier than her usual waking time. She forced her eyes open and struggled to get out of bed.

Looking around, Liu Sisi didn’t see Di Yelei. Suppressing her curiosity, she went to check on her second sister and found that her fever had completely subsided, but she was still unconscious.

Quickly washing the rice and cooking breakfast, Liu Sisi started preparing porridge in one pot and steaming steamed buns in the other.

Meanwhile, Di Yelei had gathered several villagers and they had split up to pursue in different directions.

‘It’s all my fault! After you left last night, I thought it best to avoid dealing with Old Man Li’s cunning, so I closed the door and went to sleep. I didn’t expect him to cut the rope and escape!’

Land Officer was furious, his eyes blazing and his beard trembling, ‘Third Brother, I owe you an apology. I promised you yesterday that I would watch over him, but today this happened. I’m truly ashamed to face you!’ He grew more and more upset as he spoke.

That damned Old Man Li!

Seeing the marks left on the hemp rope and the scattered pieces of broken tiles on the ground, Land Officer couldn’t help but feel as if he had been played by Old Man Li.

‘Uncle Land Officer, you can’t take all the blame. If anything, Old Man Li is a cunning and resourceful man. What’s important now is to catch him as soon as possible. Everything else is secondary.’

After Di Yelei finished speaking, he asked Zhang Peng and Li Wu for help, and the three of them split into three separate directions, chasing with great speed.

The reason they chased in three different directions was related to the geographical location of Upper Village.

Behind Upper Village was a mountain, and in front was a large river. Besides the roads that led out of the village, there was only one narrow path leading into the mountains.

At this moment, Di Yelei was leading his men in pursuit along the path into the mountains!

‘You must catch him! Once we catch this damned man, I’ll give him a severe lesson!’ Land Officer’s angry words still echoed in their ears.

He had a strong intuition that Old Man Li would head into the deep mountains. Although there was no rationale for it, the intuition was real.

At the moment, the sky was still sprinkling with light snow, and as they moved deeper into the mountains, the accumulated snow ahead became thicker and deeper.

Especially in the deep parts where one step would submerge their legs up to their knees, the villagers following Di Yelei hesitated and dared not proceed further.

‘Brother Ye Lei, are we really going to continue the chase? The snow is just too heavy. If we continue, we might not find the man, but we might not even be able to return safely,’ said one of the villagers.

His words were far from groundless but reflected a legitimate concern.

Another villager nodded in agreement, ‘Old Man Li, if he wanted to escape, he should have headed for the city instead of running into the mountains in this weather. Otherwise, he might not die, but he would surely suffer. Maybe we should turn back?’

This made Di Yelei stop in his tracks, shaking the snow off his bamboo hat and looking around in the distance.

Thinking about the weather, he figured Old Man Li shouldn’t have gone into the mountains and began doubting his intuition.

‘Alright! Let’s turn back to the main road and head toward the county in pursuit.’ The other two villagers nodded without objection.

‘Wait! What is that?’

Suddenly, one of the villagers shouted.

Di Yelei quickly followed the direction of the villager’s pointing finger and saw a swaying figure on the hillside across the way. Although it was unclear, it looked a lot like Old Man Li.

Di Yelei was overjoyed, ‘Go! We must continue the chase and catch him!’

Chapter 290: Chapter 290: Pursuit (Part One)

Let’s leave aside how they chased after Old Man Li for now.

At Di Family’s side, Liu Sisi worked quickly and efficiently. Once the cooked dishes were ready, she took the stewed medicine, placed it on the edge of the stove to keep it warm, and then left the kitchen.

She instinctively searched for Di Yelei’s figure, but couldn’t find him anywhere in the front or back of the house.

Scattered light snow danced in the sky, and the entire sky was gloomy, showing no signs of clearing up. The courtyard outside was full of accumulated snow, so she picked up a shovel and started clearing the snow.

They couldn’t see clearly last night, but this morning, she finally saw the miserable condition of the room after last night’s incident!

Half of the adobe wall by the bedroom close to the big tree had been crushed due to the tree falling down. The other half of the tree trunk still stood outside the wall, and looking through the hole where the tree trunk used to be, all they could see was a terrible mess! It looked like the aftermath of a disaster!

Liu Sisi couldn’t help but feel secretly relieved — luckily, they had gone outside together yesterday and had not been in the house, avoiding this catastrophe!

It was indeed a great fortune amidst misfortune!

Liu Sisi looked for a while and finally had no choice but to withdraw her gaze with disappointment.

Such a big breach could only be fixed by Di Yelei when he returned.

She glanced at the stable and surprisingly found that the horse had finished eating all its fodder. Di Yelei hadn’t taken the horse out for a walk, which was quite strange; he’d never been stopped by any adverse weather before.

Even though she was curious, Liu Sisi still finished clearing the snow thoroughly before feeding the horse and cleaning the stable. Then, Elderly Mr. Di got up.

Old Mr. Di was indeed diligent. Without waiting for Liu Sisi’s invitation, he picked up a shovel and began trying to shovel the snow off the roof. Liu Sisi was genuinely frightened.

“Father! Please don’t go on the roof again! If you accidentally fell, wouldn’t I be to blame? Please come down and rest now, Father!” Liu Sisi tightly clung to Elderly Mr. Di’s clothes, afraid to let go.

“The room… room…”

Elderly Mr. Di seemed unconvinced, still wanting to climb onto the roof, trying to brush Liu Sisi’s hand away.

“Father! Can you weave another straw mat for the room instead?”

He could do anything, just not climbing onto the roof again!

Perhaps Liu Sisi’s persuasion really worked. Elderly Mr. Di pondered for a moment, glanced back at his third daughter-in-law, and slowly entered the room. He picked up the hay and began weaving.

Liu Sisi wiped the cold sweat from the back of her head. That was too terrifying!

She called the two children to get up, went to the room where Ying’er was, and unexpectedly found that Second Sister was already awake.

“You… You woke up? How do you feel now?”

Liu Sisi was initially delighted, but soon worried again. If Second Sister went mad again, Liu Sisi wouldn’t be able to hold her back!

However, Liu Zhi’er looked as if she had lost her soul, staring blankly at Liu Sisi without speaking.

“Second… Are you okay?”

Liu Sisi felt awkward for a moment, unable to call her Second Sister. “Wait for me for a moment; I’ll bring the medicinal soup for you.”

She couldn’t afford to say more. With a turn, she went to the kitchen and came back with a bowl of medicinal soup, her face full of excitement.

By then, Liu Zhi’er had already sat up and was staring blankly at the surroundings while leaning against the head of the bed.

“How do you feel now? Are you still feverish? This is the soup for healing your injuries; you should drink it quickly.”

While Liu Sisi spoke, she handed over the medicinal soup.

Liu Zhi’er’s confused gaze gradually met Liu Sisi’s face. She didn’t seem to recognize her, just staring blankly at her while she mechanically drank the soup from the bowl handed to her.

“Do you feel unwell anywhere? Should we invite another doctor to take a look?”

Yesterday was too hurried, so Zhang Peng only gave a brief examination, and she wasn’t certain about Liu Zhi’er’s current condition.

Liu Zhi’er merely glanced up at her without speaking.

After the initial excitement, Liu Sisi stared at the silent Liu Zhi’er, not knowing what to say.

Suddenly, she realized a problem – she had no memory of the original body’s relationship with this second sister.

Seeing that the soup was almost gone, Liu Sisi finally stood up and said awkwardly, “You rest for a while, and I’ll bring your meal.”

Having said that, she picked up the soup bowl and went to the kitchen again.

Porridge, steamed buns, green vegetables, and tenderly stewed beast meat – Liu Sisi carefully arranged them one by one in front of Liu Zhi’er.

Only after staring at her for quite a while did Liu Zhi’er pick up the bamboo chopsticks and start to eat.

Liu Sisi finally breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly moved all the dishes to her side: “Eat more, these vegetables are delicious, eat more, and this meat is so tender and melts in your mouth, this bun…”

While she spoke, she moved the food one by one in front of her.

Liu Zhi’er squinted her eyes and watched her for a long time, eating the food in her bowl silently.

It was only after she had eaten all the food at a whirlwind speed that Liu Sisi recovered from the shock.

She… ate all that food?

That was… a bit… too much!

Surprised as she was, her hands were not slow as she quickly cleaned up the bowls and chopsticks: “Last night, the big tree next to the house fell and half of the room beside it was crushed. Today, we probably have to be busy for a long time.”

After she had put away the bowls and chopsticks, she went to the kitchen and called Dad and the two children to eat.

Xuan’er and Ying’er stood in the courtyard at the moment, looking at the fallen tree, seemingly unable to recover from the shock.

Upon Liu Sisi’s call, they hurried into the kitchen.

“Mom! Last night… that tree and the house… ”

“Last night the tree fell, and your father was busy all night. Hurry up and eat, and then there will be a lot to do today.” Liu Sisi said, and then remembered that Di Yelei, who had said he would send Old Man Li to the government office yesterday, had disappeared since he woke up this morning.

If it weren’t for seeing the jujube red horse still in the courtyard, she might have doubted it.

Wait a minute! It seemed …Ah-Huang and Ah-Hua were not in the dog house!

As soon as she thought of this, Liu Sisi could no longer care about anything else and hurried out to search. Sure enough, both hounds were missing.

Liu Sisi’s heart skipped a beat!

She quickly told Elderly Mr. Di and ran like the wind to Mr. Land Officer’s house.

At the window in the room, Liu Zhi’er silently watched Liu Sisi running fast into the distance, a deep look flashing in her eyes!

Who knows what she was thinking.

On the other hand, Di Yelei was rapidly approaching Old Man Li’s location.

Old Man Li in front also realized that someone was chasing him from behind and tried his best to move his already lead-filled legs, running deeper into the mountains.

His panting breath was like bellows, and the ice and snow had already condensed into frost on his body, with wisps of heat rising from him.