Xiao Yao is an out-and-out peasant girl who knows how to handle pots and pans with her skillful hands. During the off-season, she would go to the county's Juxiang Building to do odd jobs. She could flip ladles and pots in front of the stove more neatly than a regular worker. The shopkeeper loved her good cooking skills and always paid her more than others.
Her involvement with Lu Baoyu was all due to her deceased mother. Back then, Xiao's mother worked as a housekeeper in the Lu family and kept the backyard in order. The head of the Lu family treated her kindly. Later, the Lu family fell into decline, and the head of the Lu family lingered on the sickbed. Before his death, he held Xiao Yao's hand: "For the sake of past friendship, I will help Baoyu... He has never suffered hardship since he was a child. Don't let him really fall into trouble."
Xiao Yao agreed. This group lasted three years.
Lu Baoyu went from being a well-dressed young master to having to rely on Xiao Yao for support even for simple meals. She never stopped taking care of him. The shopkeeper of Juxianglou often teases her: "Girl Yao, you are not helping me at all. You are clearly bringing people to your own home."
Xiao Yao only blushed and smiled after hearing this.
The wedding date is set after the autumn harvest. She saved half a year's wages, pulled the best red fabric in the embroidery workshop, and sewed the wedding dress at night by an oil lamp. The stitches were dense and even. She thought that after they got married, she would repair the drafty old house of the Lu family. She would continue to work in Juxiang Building, and she would be able to live a better life.
But on the eve of the wedding, the house was still empty.
Xiao Yao held half of the unfinished sleeve and stood in the empty room, suddenly feeling discouraged. Thinking of Lu Baoyu always frowning at her calloused hands, thinking of how cautious he was when he took over the food she cooked, as if he was afraid of being tacky, thinking of the disappointment that flashed through his eyes when he occasionally read poems and she couldn't answer the words.
It turned out that three years of fireworks could not warm his heart after all. What he wants is never the stability of a simple meal, but the ladder that allows him to return to the clouds. The head of the Lu family asked her to do her best, and the rest should be lived for herself.
Two months later, Lu Baoyu fled back to the county like a lost dog. Xu Xiunv took away his last valuable jade pendant. The so-called Chang'an road that could restore the Lu family was just a scam. He stood outside Juxiang Building, smelling the familiar aroma of vegetables wafting from inside, and heard the shopkeeper say to the customers: "The best sauce meat here is originally made by Yao Yatou... It's a pity that she went to Jiangnan."
The early winter wind had already brought a strong chill, blowing my thin clothes against my body. He suddenly remembered that Xiao Yao always picked the tenderest piece of meat for him, that the clothes she mended always had a faint fragrance of soap locust, and that when she held his hand to warm his frostbite, the temperature in her palm was so hot that he just wanted to withdraw his hand.
But now, that temperature can no longer be found.
Purpose: cherish the present moment