The aroma of cooking filled the house: I sent my eldest brother to become the Grand Secretary.

"Hmph! Why would Miss Shen bring you food, especially food you've never eaten before?" Wei Siyu suddenly felt a little jealous after finishing her meal.

He was the one who bought Shen Cao's food first and discovered that she could cook delicious food. He never expected that Shen Yu'an and Shen Cao would have such a good relationship now, and that she would even bring him food.

“I wasn’t helping her find a house; I went to see her yesterday to register at the government office.”

"When I told her there would be new food today, she said she would save some for me," Shen Yu'an said casually, as if it were just a casual remark about the nice weather.

But he was very happy, he didn't expect Shen Cao to remember what she had promised him.

Just how many delicious foods does this girl have in her head? The ones she mentioned during the meal before, and the ones she ate today, are all things he'd never even heard of before.

"It's because you've been so busy lately that I haven't even seen you."

"Miss Shen noticed that you haven't gone to buy vegetable dumplings for several days, so she probably thought you had already left."

"Otherwise, they certainly wouldn't have left so little."

Hearing Shen Yu'an's words, Wei Siyu felt a little better. "It's all because of my old man. He insists that I watch over things personally before he feels at ease."

"Alright, I know you've been working hard lately, there's one more thing."

"Miss Shen's house has already been booked. I think she wants to open a restaurant or something. You'll be in for a treat when you come to Xin'an County in the future."

“She said she’d cook for me when she moves in a few days.” Before Shen Yu’an could finish speaking, Wei Siyu immediately ran to his side, grabbed his hand, and begged him.

"Brother Shen, then you can take me there."

Shen Yu'an slapped Wei Siyu's hand away with his jade-bone fan, "If I'm not taking you, I won't talk to you anymore."

"Besides, even if I don't take you, Miss Shen will still invite you if she knows you're still in Xin'an County."

……

Shen Cao and the others spent a whole day cleaning the new house, and finally managed to tidy up the small courtyard in the back living area.

Shen Cao decided to hire someone to clean the kitchen and living room later, or she could clean them gradually after moving in.

They were so tired that they couldn't even lift their hands.

Shen Cao is planning to rest for a few days. She told her customers today that she won't be setting up her stall for the next few days, so they shouldn't wait in vain.

Judging by the time, my elder brother's results for the provincial examination will be out soon.

She had a feeling that her eldest brother's family would have to move after the provincial examination results came out.

Therefore, she plans to go back home these next few days to pack up her belongings and move as soon as her older brother's grades come out.

After finishing his work, Shen's father rode with them in Uncle Ma's oxcart back to Stone Village.

Throughout the journey, Uncle Ma noticed that they seemed hesitant to speak.

Shen Cao was puzzled, but she couldn't very well beg him to tell her if he wouldn't.

As soon as she entered the village, Shen Cao felt that the villagers chatting under the big tree at the village entrance were staring at her and her family.

They would whisper and point at each other from time to time.

Shen Cao ignored them and went home with her parents.

As soon as I got home, I saw my older brother sitting in the yard reading a book, while my younger brother was squatting next to him, seemingly playing with ants.

"Big brother, little brother, have you been good at home today?"

Shen Cao greeted her older brother and the others with a smile.

Hearing Shen Cao's voice, Shen Chen raised his head and said with a smile, "We stayed home all day today, we were so good."

"That's good."

"Little brother, since you've been keeping your big brother company at home, here's a treat for you."

Shen Cao took out the candied hawthorns she had bought in the county town and handed them to Shen Qing.

"Yay!" Shen Qing jumped up as soon as he saw the candied hawthorn in his older sister's hand. He patted the dirt off his body, washed his hands in a basin, dried them on his body, and solemnly took the candied hawthorn.

He first brought it to his nose and smelled it, then handed it to his older brother.

"Brother, would you like to try some?"

Shen Chen took the candied hawthorns, pretending to open his mouth wide as if he wanted to swallow several in one gulp. He saw Shen Qing's tense expression immediately.

Smiling, she handed the candied hawthorn back to him, saying, "You eat it, your brother doesn't like these."

Shen Chen happily took the candied hawthorn and skipped away.

Shen Cao quickly washed her face, changed into clean clothes, and lay down on the bed to rest.

She wanted to lie down on the sofa and rest, but the Shen family didn't have one.

Close your eyes and pretend to sleep.

She was just about to fall asleep when she heard a noise at the door, which sounded like crying.

She immediately got out of bed, went to the door, and found that Shen Qing had run back crying.

Shen Cao quickly touched Shen Qing and found that he was not injured. "Who bullied you?"

Upon seeing his elder sister, Shen Qing felt even more aggrieved and cried even harder.

He wiped away his tears and complained to Shen Cao, "Big sister, they're all saying bad things about big brother. I told them it wasn't true, but they didn't believe me and even pushed me."

Shen Cao guessed the general outline of the matter; it might be related to her older brother.

She led her younger brother outside, wiped away his tears with a handkerchief, and then asked, "What are they all saying about our eldest brother?"

Shen Qing then told his older sister about the rumors he had heard about his elder brother.

“I kept telling my brother that it wasn’t like that, that he hadn’t done anything wrong, but they wouldn’t listen.”

“They even pointed at me and said that if the upper beam is crooked, the lower beam will be crooked too, and that I am no good either.”

Shen Cao listened to her younger brother's retelling with a dark expression.

The actual situation is probably even worse than that.

She knew that no one in the village had any goodwill towards his family; they were all birds of a feather, and couldn't stand seeing others do better than them.

Shen Cao's older brother was the only person in the village who attended school.

It wasn't that other people couldn't afford to send their children to school; rather, even if wealthy families were willing to pay for their children's education, they still couldn't pass the school's entrance exams.

In this rural area, studying is useless; it's better to do more work.

The children in the village had never been to school. Several of them went to private schools but couldn't sit still. They would either skip class to steal bird eggs or skip class to catch fish in the river.

Even those few who persisted in completing their studies at the private school were unwilling to continue studying, finding it tedious and uninteresting.

Of all professions, only studying is noble. The poorest family in the village has the only scholar in the village.

It's very contradictory; they just can't stand such contradictory things.

The Shen family, being a poor family, should be like them, no, even worse off, and therefore unworthy of having scholars.

This is how they can achieve psychological balance.

After coaxing Shen Qing, Shen Cao planned to take him to his room and then secretly go out to find out who had spread the rumors.

Turning around, they were surprised to find that their older brother had been standing behind them at some point.

She had no idea how much her older brother had heard.

"Big brother?!" Shen Cao looked at Shen Chen with a worried expression.

"Qing'er, you go inside first. I need to talk to my brother for a bit." Shen Cao patted Shen Qing.

Shen Qing obediently went back.

"Big brother, are you alright?"

Shen Chen knew that Shen Cao cared about him, so he placed his palm on the top of Shen Cao's head and patted it gently a few times.

"Don't worry, little sister, your big brother isn't that fragile."

"If I felt uncomfortable just from a few words from them, I wouldn't be alive today."

"Don't worry, I'm fine. I've heard far more vicious things than this, so what's a little bit of fear?"