That evening, besides making dinner, Gu'er also simmered some chicken soup.
She added some ginseng slices to the soup and skimmed off all the fat, letting it simmer until it was wonderfully fragrant.
Before it was even ready, Chun Ya was already swallowing her saliva and twitching her nose nonstop.
Liu Fang's heart was in turmoil. 'Stay calm,' she told herself. 'Don't give in to gluttony.' But the aroma of the chicken soup kept wafting into her nostrils, making it hard to resist.
'Gu'er has been doing all the cooking since yesterday,' Liu Fang thought. 'Even her simple meals are better than what I usually eat for the New Year. The Lin family wants for nothing; they have everything and can eat whatever they please. It's nothing like before, when my mother-in-law would nag me for half a day just for wanting an egg. Later, even if I only ate a bowl of congee, she would still curse me half to death. This is the life I deserve, not suffering in that village.'
