The Delicate Darling with Her Rough Man-Chapter 229 - 228: Spoiled to No End

"What are you doing out here? Didn’t I tell you to stay inside?"

Leng Yuan saw that Leng Qiushou and Leng ManCang had gotten the message, so he finally let go. He walked over to Gu Jiaojiao and spoke in a soft voice.

His tone was a complete one-eighty, a world apart from the murderous demeanor he’d had just moments before.

If not for his face, they would have suspected he was a different person entirely.

He was all threats and violence toward them.

But with Gu Jiaojiao, he was all gentle whispers.

"I heard them slandering you, so I came out to see what was going on."

Gu Jiaojiao replied, her gaze sweeping over the people behind Leng Yuan.

She shifted the cleaver in her hand.

She looked ready to chop down anyone who dared to badmouth Leng Yuan.

Leng Qiushou and Leng ManCang took a step back.

They thought both Leng Yuan and Gu Jiaojiao were crazy. One would start a fight without a word, and the other would grab a cleaver to threaten people just as quickly.

The old woman was still sitting on the ground, wailing.

But no one paid her any mind.

Because Gu Jiaojiao’s eyes were fixed on Leng Qiushou and Leng ManCang.

The two of them were getting scared.

Gu Jiaojiao stepped forward, playfully twirling the cleaver with a smile on her face.

"Aren’t you going to take your grandmother and leave? Or do you want to stay and chat?"

Leng Qiushou and Leng ManCang exchanged a look, then walked over, hauled the old woman up from the ground, and started to leave.

Aunt Leng and Third Aunt Leng hurriedly followed.

The old woman was speechless.

"You two unfilial sons! Put me down right now!"

She was the head of the family; being carried off like this was a disgrace.

Leng Qiushou and Leng ManCang turned a deaf ear, terrified that if they slowed down, Leng Yuan would catch up and give them another beating.

Aunt Leng and Third Aunt Leng followed close behind.

Seeing them all run off, Gu Jiaojiao curled her lip.

"They know what’s good for them."

Otherwise, she would have demonstrated for them how to chop a radish—right then and there.

Leng Yuan found it a little amusing.

"Don’t worry about them. This should keep them in line for a good long while."

Hearing this, Gu Jiaojiao stopped thinking about the Leng Family and went back to the kitchen to continue mincing the meat filling.

Leng Yuan had finished his manuscript, so instead of going back to his room, he helped Gu Jiaojiao knead the dough.

A man’s strength makes the dough more elastic, resulting in more delicious dumplings.

That evening, the two of them ate steaming hot dumplings and chatted, creating a particularly warm and cozy scene in the cold winter.

「The next day.」

It was snowing.

The heavy kind, with flakes like goose feathers.

It must have started snowing sometime in the middle of the night. When Gu Jiaojiao went out to use the toilet, the snow was already up to her calves.

Once she was back inside, she had no desire to go out again.

It was freezing cold outside, so Gu Jiaojiao simply sat on the heated kang, leaning against the window to watch the snow fall.

’It’s actually quite scenic,’ she thought.

Leng Yuan had chopped more than enough firewood, so the room was toasty warm. She was perfectly comfortable just wearing a sweater inside.

At times, she even felt a bit too warm and would crack the window open to let in a bit of cool air.

A small square table sat to the side, laden with sunflower seeds, chestnuts, hazelnuts, peanuts, and various other foraged goods.

She had worked diligently all winter to hoard all sorts of food, and now the entire cellar was packed full.

When Gu Jiaojiao went to get some pickled vegetables from the cellar last night, she had taken stock of everything inside.

There were several vats of pickled vegetables, of course.

She had also stockpiled plenty of white flour and millet.

Leng Yuan had bought fifty-five pounds of rice from town.

That wasn’t a lot of rice, so they had to eat it sparingly.

Besides that, there were seven or eight wild pheasants, seven or eight wild rabbits, a large cask of wild boar meat, and some venison. Gu Jiaojiao had dried it all, so they just had to slice off a piece whenever they wanted to eat.

As for the roe deer meat from before, they had already finished it.

Next were the dried mushrooms, of which there were hundreds of pounds.

There were also plenty of dried green beans.

Hundreds of pounds of pickled vegetables.

And a great deal of other foraged goods.

There were also various other grains.

Looking at the cellar filled to the brim with food, Gu Jiaojiao felt like the luckiest person in the world.

In addition to all that, there was also the brown sugar she had made herself. She hadn’t used much of it, so there were still a dozen or so pounds left.

When the New Year came, she could use it to make some fried pastries.

Just as Gu Jiaojiao was planning for the New Year, a thin figure appeared in the courtyard.

Sweet Girl’s hair was a mess, her little face deathly pale. The moment she saw Gu Jiaojiao, tears streamed down her face.

"Big Sister, please, you have to save Xiao Yang!"