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Gu Yanqing: "No."

"That wasn't what you said when you were eating rice noodle rolls at my house."

"That?" Gu Yanqing smiled faintly. "Really delicious."

"..."

Xu Han had not planned to let Gu Yanqing come to her house, but it was freezing in the late afternoon in the dead of winter. Koukou was weak right now and probably could not handle riding on an electric scooter, so she yielded to the evil forces of the cold and had Grandma Qiao hold Koukou while riding in Gu Yanqing's car.

Just as Xu Han was about to get on the electric scooter and face the evil forces of the cold head-on, Gu Yanqing calmly pulled two hundred-yuan bills from his wallet and said to the snack shop owner, "Sorry for the trouble, find someone reliable to deliver this electric scooter to No. 12, Dongyang Village."

The snack shop owner happily took the money and patted his chest. "Leave it to me."

Xu Han: "..."

So what if he had money?

Fine, having money really was a big deal.

Still, whether there were two people or three in the car was only a marginal difference. Since Gu Yanqing was willing to waste the money, Xu Han was happy not to freeze in the wind.

By the time they got home, it was completely dark. The moment they pushed open the door, Yellow Immortal scampered out to greet them. Gu Yanqing froze when he saw the unfamiliar creature. "Why do you have a weasel in your house?"

Xu Han had not expected him to be so knowledgeable that he even recognized weasels. She bent down and rubbed Yellow Immortal's soft fur. "It's a pet."

Gu Yanqing: "..."

That was certainly a... refreshingly unconventional pet.

"Your chickens are okay?" Gu Yanqing found it truly curious. He remembered that these things were hard to tame and ate chickens.

"Mm-hm. He gets along great with our chickens."

"..."

Since they had already had something to eat earlier, Xu Han reheated the leftover cured pork and taro rice from lunch, stir-fried some greens, and made do with that.

Gu Yanqing, who had driven them home, was also treated to dinner. Seeing such simple fare, he had only intended to take a few polite bites, but once he started eating, he could not stop.

The taro rice had been cooked until the flavors soaked in thoroughly. Every plump, glistening grain was coated in golden broth. The taro was soft and delicate, sweet, fragrant, and sticky; the cured pork was rich and aromatic, with fat that was not greasy and lean meat that did not get stuck between the teeth. The mushrooms, having absorbed the fragrance of taro, cured pork, and vegetables, were bursting with freshness, leaving a lingering aroma on the lips and teeth.

As for the greens, there was no need to say more. Gu Yanqing had eaten countless delicacies from land and sea, yet for the first time, his taste buds had been conquered by an ordinary plate of stir-fried greens.

Gu Yanqing, who had only meant to be polite, ended up eating the most.

When he learned that Qiao Wanqing had made the meal, Gu Yanqing's expression turned somewhat complicated.

"I'm not keeping anyone overnight. You can either go back yourself or stay at an inn in town." After dinner, seeing that Gu Yanqing showed no sign of leaving, Xu Han spoke bluntly.

Gu Yanqing said, "Fevers can easily come back. I'm worried about leaving."

"..." That did seem to make a little sense.

In the end, Gu Yanqing naturally gained the right to stay at her house for the night.

Koukou woke up once after getting home. Xu Han fed him milk and changed his diaper, then he fell asleep again without anything unusual happening. Xu Han relaxed a little.

But at ten that night, he suddenly began crying and fussing. His eyes were closed, and he was crying in his sleep—crying so heartbreakingly that it sounded almost gut-wrenching.

Xu Han was frantic. Holding him and coaxing him did not help, and he would not drink any milk. Before long, he was crying so hard he could barely catch his breath.

"What do we do?" It was Xu Han's first time encountering this, and she was at a loss.

Although new father Gu Yanqing was relatively calm, he did not know what to do either. "How about taking him to the hospital?"

"..." Would taking him to the hospital help with this?

Grandma Qiao, standing to one side, hesitantly said, "How about we try one of our folk remedies?"

The two of them looked at her together. "What folk remedy?"

At first, Xu Han had thought Grandma Qiao meant something like pinching the philtrum or pressing acupoints. Instead, her folk remedy was... superstition.

"Grandma, will this work?" Xu Han watched as she placed an incense burner before the stove, filled a bowl with rice, covered the bowl with Koukou's clothes, and began lighting incense and candles.

"Shh." Grandma Qiao's expression was devout. "Sincerity brings results."

Xu Han: "..."

Gu Yanqing frowned deeply as he watched her perform that feudal superstitious nonsense, but his thoughts had already gone far away. News reports often mentioned rural people using superstitious methods to treat sick children, such as making them drink talisman water or eat incense ash, thereby delaying the best time for treatment.

He had once only thought such people were foolish, but now it was happening right before his eyes—to his own son.

He suddenly felt that yielding over custody of the child had been a mistake.

"Qiao Wanqing, as someone who received a higher education, are you really going to stand by and watch the child be treated with this superstitious method?"

Gu Yanqing's voice suppressed his anger. He rarely got angry, and anything that could make him angry had clearly crossed his bottom line.

How was I supposed to know she was going to use this method? Xu Han thought.

She had discovered that people in the countryside had one particularly prominent trait: they were extremely superstitious. Whenever they encountered something they could not solve themselves, they pinned their hopes on spirits and supernatural forces, wishing that "gods" could help them.

That included Alai worshipping the weasel today.

Seeing that she did not speak, Gu Yanqing assumed she had tacitly approved of Grandma Qiao's actions. He stepped forward, intending to take the child. "I'll take him to the hospital."

Xu Han was already heartsick from hearing Koukou cry. Seeing Gu Yanqing's expression as if the child was this sick and she still refused to get him treated, she became furious too. "Have you ever taken care of a child? If a child cries after being frightened, taking him to the hospital will not solve anything. Do you expect the doctor to coax him for you?"

Rankings

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Transmigration

Sweet Romance

Sweetness Is Justice