The Spirited Daughter-in-law and the Mountain Man

His expression froze when he finally reacted.

She chuckled and walked to the stove side, scooping a ladle of cold water into the pot, stirring the cold water with the porridge in the pot using a rice scoop. This way, the porridge would be thinner, and she could scoop out four bowls later.

She ladled another bowl of water, took a willow twig from the corner of the stove and handed it to him, “Here.”

The willow twig was left over from yesterday. There was no time to pick one today, as the creditor had already come. The twigs were picked in a bunch, and a branch could be used for one teeth-cleaning session. It didn’t matter if she picked fresh ones every two or three days.

He looked at her in confusion.

“It’s for you to rinse your mouth with.” She was puzzled, “Didn’t you rinse your mouth before?” It seemed that she never saw the second brother and third brother pick willow twigs as toothbrushes for him.

His face flushed as he said, “Yes, I did.”

She grew curious, “How did you clean your teeth?”

He hesitated for a moment before saying, “I washed my hands when I washed my face, then took a bowl of water and used my right index finger.”

She remained silent for a moment. She knew it wasn’t the second brother and third brother who were too lazy to pick willow twigs for him. Rather, people from this era were less particular. Many cleaned their teeth with their fingers, and some might not even clean their teeth at all. “From now on, use the willow twigs as a toothbrush, just like me.”

“Mm.” He took the bowl and willow twig, bit one end of the tael thin, and began to brush his teeth with a flushed face.

She took a pinch of salt with chopsticks, placed it on her palm, and handed it to him, “It’s cleaner with some salt.”

But…the twig had been used halfway, and it had to touch your palm…”

She became unhappy, “You think my hands are dirty? I washed them.”

“No,” he hurriedly explained, “It’s the twig I used that was bitten on one side.

It’s dirty…”

“I don’t mind, so stop dawdling.”

“Oh.” He obediently dipped the bitten twig end into the salt on her palm, feeling grateful for his wife’s kindness.

Looking at the calluses on her hands and fingers, he was reminded of the villagers’ remarks about her hard life at the Zhu Family, where she had to do all the heavy work. Although she hadn’t done much work during her time at the Xiao Family, her calluses softened a lot but didn’t completely disappear.

Originally, he thought his second brother and third brother would treat her well, for sure not letting her do any heavy work. However, both of them were down at the same time, and he had always been a useless person.

In the coming days, her life would undoubtedly be harder than the time in the Zhu Family. He couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of tenderness and love for her.

“Just a little bit of salt, it’ll run out after dipping it once.” She explained, “Don’t blame me for being stingy. Your second brother sold the jar of salt from the goods-carrying pole. There’s not much salt left in the stove jar, and it has to be reserved for frying vegetables. Though, using salt isn’t great either; it’s too salty. But soon, you’ll be using toothpaste.”

He took the salted willow twig and mixed it with his saliva to clean his teeth. It was indeed much more comfortable. After cleaning his teeth and wanting to spit out the water from his mouth, he awkwardly realized there was nowhere to spit out the water. Spitting on the ground seemed inappropriate.

She already went to the secondary bedroom, found a broken tile jar underneath a table at the edge of the bed, which seemed to be meant for spitting saliva. She brought it back to the kitchen and placed it in front of him.

He felt touched once again by her thoughtfulness, spit the water in his mouth into the tile jar, and then took another mouthful of clean water to spit in.

Su Qingyue took the jar to the fence in the yard and poured out the water, put it back under the table in the secondary bedroom, and returned to the kitchen.

He had just placed the bowl on the stove and threw the used willow twig into the stove fire.

He hesitated for a moment, his mellifluous voice tinged with loneliness, “Qingyue, will you think I’m useless?” He lacked even the ability to care for himself..