Farm Girl's Manor
Chapter 414: Can’t Think of a - Title Anymore (2)_1

Chapter 414: Chapter 414: Can’t Think of a Chapter Title Anymore (2)_1

After Mo Qingze took his seat, everyone else followed the original seating order and sat down as well. Mo Yan was about to start eating when she saw Tang Xin awkwardly standing on the side without joining the table; she pointed to a few empty chairs by the wall and said, "Tang Xin, there are no outsiders here, move a chair over and eat with us!"

Tang Xin was startled and then a bit flustered as she waved her hands and said, "No, no, I can eat later."

She understood her own status. Once she went to the Government Office to change her household registration, she would become a servant of the Mo Family. Although she did not know the exact rules a servant should follow, she did know that servants should not eat at the same table as their masters.

Mo Yan, well aware of her thoughts, was about to speak when Xin Er got up from the table first and, leaving no room for refusal, pushed Tang Xin into her own chair, handing her a rice bowl and chopsticks. "If you wait, the food will be cold. My home doesn’t have that many rules, just eat peacefully!"

Sitting on pins and needles, Tang Xin could barely hold her chopsticks steady, but after Mo Qingze spoke a few gentle words of persuasion, she carefully picked up the rice bowl.

However, looking at the bowl full of snow-white rice, she couldn’t bear to eat it.

Whether before or after fleeing hardship, the Tang Family always faced tough times, with white rice appearing on the table only during festivals. But since the death of Tang Xin’s birth mother and Tang Yushi’s entry into the Tang Family, she had not had a single grain. Now she only remembered the rice being fragrant and soft, but had forgotten exactly how it tasted.

"What are you thinking about? Eat quickly, it won’t taste good when it’s cold!" Seeing Tang Xin in a daze, Xin Er subtly nudged her with her arm and hurried her to eat by piling a generous helping of garlic shoots stir-fried with pork onto her chopsticks.

The fragrant stir-fried pork was very tempting. Tang Xin unconsciously swallowed her saliva. She turned her head slightly, smiled, and scooped a mouthful of rice into her mouth.

The rice was even more fragrant and softer than she had imagined, and she eagerly ate a second and third mouthful... Gradually, she let go of her initial restraint and devoured the mound of vegetables Xin Er had piled on her plate, leaving it spotless. This meal became the most delicious and satisfying one she could remember ever having.

After the meal, Tang Xin rushed to clear the dishes, and no one vied with her for the task. Seeing some of the dark clouds in the sky disperse and the daylight grow brighter, they all picked up shovels and brooms to clear the snow from the yard.

After Tang Xin washed the dishes and tidied up the kitchen spotlessly, she too picked up tools to join in. Although she was about the same age as Xin Er and Liyan, under Mrs. Yu’s relentless drilling, she was extremely quick and efficient, clearing snow very swiftly, sparking the younger ones to compete with her, which made the afternoon’s work much faster than the morning’s.

With everyone’s efforts, by evening, the snow in the front yard was cleared. Delightfully, a fiery red sunset appeared in the western sky, and the vibrant, colorful twilight adorned the blue sky with extraordinary beauty. It was clear that the intermittent heavy snow, which had fallen for half a month, had finally stopped, and tomorrow would be a beautiful sunny day!

In the evening, Mo Yan cooked, using pork bone broth as the base to make a big pot of hand-pulled noodles, brimming with the aroma of meat. After sprinkling some green vegetables and scallions, and complemented with various flavorful appetizers, the dish was not only delicious and nutritious but also warming to the stomach and body.

The noodles had just been cooked and served on the table when three beasts quietly slipped in through the side door at mealtime under the cover of darkness, only to run into Tang Xin, who was on her way to the outhouse. Ferocious animals have a strong sense of territory, and now that a stranger had suddenly appeared in their territory, the first reaction of the three beasts was to attack.

Tang Xin only knew that the Mo Family had a dog that was very human-like, she had no idea it was a formidable snow wolf. At that moment, the three huge beasts glowed with green eyes and let out angry growls in unison. Tang Xin was completely stunned, her mouth gaping trying to shout loudly to alert the others of the wild beasts, but she couldn’t make a sound from her throat.

In the end, it was the unusual howling of the three beasts that alarmed the people inside the house, and that narrowly averted a tragedy that could have happened!

Even though Xin Er patiently explained to her how smart and well-behaved the three beasts were, and even though they were as docile as kittens in front of Mo Yan, Tang Xin was still very afraid. She ate her meal trembling with fear, wary that if she was not careful, the three beasts might suddenly turn violent and hurt someone.

After the meal, Tang Xin couldn’t wait to duck into the kitchen with her bowl and chopsticks, temporarily escaping the intentional or unintentional gaze of the three beasts. Seeing her directly scoop water from the water tank into the pot and start to wash with cold water, Xin Er hurriedly stopped her, "This water is freezing cold and will chill your hands. We always heat it up before washing; it’s also easier to clean that way."

With that, she stuffed a handful of pine needles into the hearth that still had dying embers, and picked up a fan to blow air. The pine needles caught fire quickly and started to blaze fiercely. She threw in a few dry branches, and they burned with a crackling sound.

Tang Xin stood by, dazed, until the water in the pot was hot, and only when Xin Er rolled up her sleeves to wash the dishes, did she come back to her senses. She hurriedly stepped forward to help with the washing. The warm water thawed her previously cold hands, and she couldn’t help indulge in the warmth she felt.

Back at her home, no matter how cold it was, whether washing dishes or clothes, Tang Yushi never allowed Tang Xin to waste firewood to heat up water for washing. Over the years, even in the heated summer, her hands and feet remained cold to the touch, which made winters even more unbearable.

Even though she had been at the Mo Family’s house for less than a day, everything about the Mo Family gave her a warmth she had never felt before. She felt a sudden absence of the wandering and anxiety about the future she had previously had.

While they were busy washing dishes, Mo Yan and Lixiu’s nephew came to the front yard and tidied up a vacant room. They carried in a set of bed, table, and wardrobe from the storage room where furniture was piled up, planning to let Tang Xin stay there. The room was next to where Lixiu’s nephew slept, and although not large, it was definitely spacious for one person.

Sitting on the soft bed, touching the brand new quilt cover, no one knew how restless Tang Xin’s heart was!

That woman had always dreamed of living in a spacious and solid blue brick and tile house, countless times discussing with her meek father, envying and jealously speaking about how beautiful the Mo Family’s large courtyard was, even fantasizing about moving into a courtyard like the Mo Family’s one day, hiring a few long-term workers — vegetables growing in the east yard, pigs raised in the south yard, chickens in the west yard, cattle in the north yard — and becoming the rich and respectable wife of a landlord!

However, no matter how much that woman desired it, she could still only guard the thatched cottage that leaked wind from all sides, sleep on hard, musty-smelling bedding, fret for half a day over a wasted grain of rice each day when cooking... Thinking of these, the deep-seated resentment that had built up within Tang Xin over the years began to ease substantially!

Looking at the flickering light, a smile appeared on her face! That woman could no longer control her fate, and as long as she did not come looking for trouble again, Tang Xin would not take the initiative to seek revenge. Instead of exhausting her mind over someone not worth it, she would be better off devoting herself wholeheartedly to the Mo Family. It surely wouldn’t be worse than her time with the Tang Family...

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