Chapter 166: Scarlett, You’re This Fierce?

"Achoo!!!"

A sneeze echoed throughout the house, making Scarlett, who was eating a bun, stop what she was doing.

She casually grabbed a tissue and wiped Andrew’s nose.

"I froze for an entire afternoon and night yesterday and didn’t catch a cold. How did you end up catching one instead?"

Catherine looked at Andrew with disdain. She felt that if anyone was going to catch a cold, it should have been her.

Andrew sniffled and glanced at Catherine. "You think I wanted to? A cold is just... Achoo!!!"

Before he could finish, Andrew sneezed violently again. He rubbed his nose before continuing, "The cold just found its way to me."

Actually, Andrew hadn’t slept comfortably at all last night.

He kept dreaming that he was sleeping in an ice cave, shivering from the cold.

In contrast, Scarlett’s complexion was rosy after waking up, and she looked very well-rested.

Looking at the contrast between their complexions, Catherine muttered to herself, My little brother probably had all his yang energy sucked dry by Scarlett.

Just as she was thinking this, Catherine suddenly received a call from her grandmother.

"Grandma, why are you calling?"

"I just missed you and Little Drew. You didn’t even come back to see me during the New Year."

"Hehe, I was just so busy playing that I forgot," Catherine said with a grin.

On the other end of the phone, Grandma Xia smiled. "Then why don’t you, Little Drew, and Little Drew’s girlfriend come to the countryside today? I heard from your mom that there’s probably nothing left to eat at your house."

"Ah? Mom even told you that?"

Amid her surprise, Catherine happened to think of all the delicious food in the countryside, as well as the fresh old hens that Andrew could use to make fried chicken for her.

With that thought, she immediately agreed. "Sure, sure! We’ll head over in a bit."

After chatting for a few more moments, Catherine hung up.

Seeing Catherine put down her phone, Andrew asked her, "What were you talking to Grandma about? What’s with the ’Sure, sure’?"

"Grandma wants us to go stay in the countryside for a couple of days."

"To the countryside?"

While Andrew was still hesitating, Catherine immediately started coaxing him for the sake of the food.

"Oh, what’s so bad about going to the countryside? You won’t have to cook, and there’s no food at home anyway. Besides, you have a cold. Grandma will stew some old hen soup for you."

"Alright, then."

While agreeing, Andrew also said to Scarlett, "Teacher, go ahead and eat breakfast. I’m fine, just sneezing a bit."

Right after he said that, Andrew sneezed violently again, making Scarlett sigh.

"Does that look like you’re fine?"

"I’m really... Achoo!"

"..."

After the three of them finished breakfast, they each packed a change of clothes and drove to the countryside.

When Andrew’s grandmother saw Scarlett, she welcomed her into the house with a face full of smiles.

However, because she was speaking in the Brooklyn City dialect, Scarlett, who had grown up in the capital, couldn’t understand a single word, making the situation incredibly awkward for a moment.

"Um... what did your grandmother say? I can’t understand her," Scarlett whispered to Andrew beside her.

"She said she’s very happy to see you and praised your beauty and stuff like that."

"Oh, oh, oh."

Once she understood, Scarlett nodded repeatedly and smiled in response to Andrew’s grandmother’s words.

This scene reminded Andrew of a few months ago, when he had accompanied Scarlett back to her hometown in the capital.

Back then, he had been just as nervous when facing Luo Qingxue’s grandmother and uncle. Seeing Scarlett react this way made Andrew realize that even Scarlett had moments of nervousness and embarrassment.

Just then, Scarlett whispered to him again, "Then what does this mean?"

"My grandmother said to get inside quickly. It’s cold outside."

After Andrew finished his quiet explanation, he sneezed again toward the open space beside them.

As soon as Andrew’s grandmother heard that he had a cold, she immediately ushered the two of them inside.

"How did Little Drew catch a cold? Get inside quickly, get inside."

Because they had arrived quite late, it was almost mealtime shortly after they entered the house.

The hen soup they had talked about would have to wait until evening.

In the afternoon, just as Andrew’s grandmother was about to go to the backyard to pick an old hen to slaughter for soup, she was called away by Xia Chen’s grandfather.

"Oh, that old man is really something. I don’t know what he’s so busy with all day long."

Though she grumbled in dissatisfaction, Andrew’s grandmother still turned to go help. As she left, she said to Andrew, "Little Drew, pick one yourself. Whichever old hen looks sturdy, have your dad catch it, and I’ll slaughter it later."

"Oh."

Andrew and Scarlett watched as Grandma Xia walked away.

"Where is your grandfather going?"

"I don’t know."

Andrew shook his head. "Grandpa is getting old and has a bit of dementia. He’s often busy with meaningless things, sometimes even bringing back plastic bottles. It’s no use even when we talk to him about it."

"Ah???"

Scarlett was a little surprised to hear this. Andrew’s family clearly didn’t lack money, so there was absolutely no need for him to collect bottles and cans to sell.

But she soon understood. After all, her own grandmother was quite old and insisted on knitting sweaters every year. Even though store-bought sweaters were now of much better quality than handmade ones, the old lady still insisted on knitting them herself.

Scarlett still had two or three handmade sweaters in her rented apartment in Jingzhou.

Many people from the older generation had worked hard their entire lives and couldn’t stay idle in their old age. They always felt empty inside if they didn’t have something to do with their hands.

"Teacher, which old hen do you think would be delicious when stewed?"

Andrew suddenly asked Scarlett.

"I don’t know. Besides, you’re the one with the cold, and the hen soup is for you, so why are you asking me to pick?"

Scarlett looked at Andrew in confusion.

"Since I was a kid, I’ve eaten plenty of old hens whenever I came to the countryside for the holidays. That’s why I’m letting you pick this time, Teacher. These are different from the chickens you buy at the supermarket. Home-raised chickens taste much better when stewed."

Since Andrew had put it that way, Scarlett began choosing carefully.

In the chicken coop, seven or eight old hens looked at the two humans and immediately got a bad feeling, clucking incessantly.

"Old duck soup is also pretty good. Teacher, you could go take a look at the ducks in the duck coop over there."

Scarlett and Andrew looked toward a group of ducks huddled together and eating. This frightened them into quacking frantically, and the whole backyard descended into chaotic commotion.

"Let’s just have the old hen."

Scarlett finally decided on the chicken and set her sights on a plump old hen.

"Alright, I’ll call my dad and have him catch this old hen first."

Andrew was just about to call his father when Scarlett shook her head.

"No need to trouble your dad. I’ll just catch it."

As she spoke, Scarlett walked over to the chicken coop and used a vegetable leaf to lure the old hen over.

The greedy old hen indeed fell for it, stretching out its head to peck at the leaf.

The next moment, Scarlett moved as quickly as lightning, grabbed the old hen by the neck, and lifted it out in an instant.

Andrew watched, dumbfounded and utterly shocked.

"Scarlett, you’re this fierce?"