After two or three days of recovery, I could speak without much difficulty. Over these few days, I had learned a great deal from my sister-in-law, gaining a thorough understanding of the surrounding villages. In general, the people here were quite united, yet truly destitute, barely managing to scrape by.
As someone who was used to eating meat every single day, I found the last few days without it quite difficult; I was genuinely craving some. However, looking at my "cheap" mother-in-law, it was clear she had no intention of serving me meat—and likely didn't have any to begin with. Every day, she boiled a separate portion of millet porridge for me, which was already an incredibly high standard of treatment. I hadn't had a single solid meal since I arrived; life was just too bland.
Of course, the whole village knew that the Gu family had taken in a young husband. Over the past two days, as I sat outside soaking in the sun, some of the children saw me, but as my health hadn't fully returned and my speech was still sluggish, I couldn't be bothered with them. My wife in name only spent her days running wild, either tearing off toward the mountaintop with a pack of girls or playing in the creek. She was, in short, quite happy.
Chapter 219