Su Qiao did not really want to tell them, afraid they would worry.
She shook her head. "It's nothing. I just saw a strange three-wheeled vehicle enter our village, so I followed it to take a look."
"A strange three-wheeled vehicle?"
"I already checked it out. There was nothing unusual. It was probably someone hauling grain to town to have it milled."
There was no rice mill in the village, so everyone usually hauled their grain to the rice mill in town on a handcart.
"Going to town to mill grain this late?" Old Lady Liu found it a little strange, but she could not say exactly what was odd about it.
"Maybe she was too busy working in the fields during the day and didn't have time to go." Su Qiao casually came up with an excuse.
"That's true. The early rice has ripened, and everyone's gotten busy now. But you, child, don't go running around anymore. You nearly scared your grandma and your mother to death."
"Mhm, I understand, Grandma. I'm so hungry. Is there anything left to eat?" After running around for so long, she was starving.
"Yes. Grandma will go heat up some food for you."
*
Early the next morning, Yang Yue'e, who had been uneasy ever since waking beneath the grassy slope by the river the night before, quietly hurried over and watched from near Su Qiao.
When she saw Su Qiao leaving with a firewood knife in hand and a back basket on her back, Yang Yue'e nearly screamed. "You... how could you be here?"
"If I'm not here, where should I be?"
Su Qiao raised her brows. "Should I be at the Wang Family, sleeping with that fool?"
"You... you already know? Then my Qiaoqiao..."
When Yang Yue'e had awakened by the