Chapter 533: Battle Makes One Grow
"Mr. Hawthorne, isn’t Aunt Green incredible?" Tang Xiaonan whispered.
Adrian Hawthorne playfully tugged one of her pigtails and said to Jim Thorne, "Take Tang Xiaonan to bed. If she doesn’t sleep soon, she won’t grow any taller."
Jim Thorne picked up Tang Xiaonan and asked with concern, "Are you still going to Capria tomorrow?"
"Yes. The plan is still on."
Adrian Hawthorne replied cheerfully. With his mother’s recent progress, he felt even more motivated to make some big moves. Before he was formally acknowledged by his father, he was determined to build up substantial assets. That was the only way he and his mother would have the confidence and standing they needed.
’As for that woman’s status, I’m not particularly bothered,’ Adrian Hawthorne thought. ’She’s just someone who can’t be presented in polite society. I can do without the Hawthorne family’s businesses, but I’ll be damned if I let that woman get her hands on them.’
’As for the title of Mrs. Hawthorne, if my mother wants it, I’ll fight to get it for her. If she doesn’t, that’s fine too. This is the New Society, after all. My father can’t possibly be like his grandfather, keeping seven or eight concubines at home and turning the household into a chaotic mess.’
’That’s why I have to accumulate more assets. It’s the only way I’ll have leverage when negotiating with my father.’
Tang Xiaonan let out a huge yawn, her eyes welling with tears, and fell asleep on Jim Thorne’s back. Clayton Xavier didn’t go home either. It was too late, and walking home in the dark wasn’t safe, so Adrian Hawthorne had him stay and sleep in his room.
Tang Xiaonan slept until the sun was high in the sky. Sunlight streamed through the window, warming her skin and making her break out in a sweat. Millstone Peak was already quite hot in July, but the nights were cool enough that you still needed a thin blanket even without a fan.
"Tang Xiaonan’s awake! Come and get some breakfast."
Raina came in and helped Tang Xiaonan get dressed. Phoebe Huxley had gone back to her sewing, leaving Raina in charge of watching the house.
Breakfast was *tangyang* and mung bean congee, which had been left to cool. Tang Xiaonan skipped the *tangyang* and just had a bowl of congee with a side of *shijin cai*. This was a type of pickled vegetable medley commonly eaten by the locals. It had a pleasant-sounding name, and the pickles themselves were beautifully colorful.
It was an excellent accompaniment to plain rice in broth or congee in the summer. People didn’t make it themselves; there was a small shop in town that specialized in selling *shijin cai*. You could buy a large portion for just ten cents, and it was delightfully crispy, sweet, and refreshing.
(*A note on shijin cai: It’s a nostalgic food from my childhood, made by pickling several types of vegetables like shredded cucumber, carrot, daikon radish, and kohlrabi. The colors are particularly beautiful. In the summer, we’d let our rice and broth cool down and eat it with shijin cai—an absolutely divine treat!*)
After breakfast, Tang Xiaonan went over to the Hawthorne family’s house to play. They say three women are enough to put on a play; with a dozen of them together, you could film a movie. She loved listening to Phoebe Huxley and the others trade gossip about everyone’s business. It was way more interesting than reading a book.
Raina went along too. She had to help Phoebe Huxley trim threads off the finished clothes. Phoebe earned sixty cents per garment and gave Raina ten, so Raina worked with great enthusiasm. As soon as she arrived at the Hawthornes’ place, she got straight to work. Rosalind Green was there too, calmly cutting fabric as if she didn’t have a care in the world.
’It’s true that only a good fight can make a person mature quickly,’ she thought. ’A few more fights, and Rosalind Green could probably butcher a pig without batting an eye.’
"Have you all heard?" the village chief’s wife said in a conspiratorial whisper. "Storm Xavier is so sick he can’t even get out of bed."
Everyone instantly perked up, chattering all at once as they asked what had happened.
"My eldest daughter-in-law is from Xavier Village, you know. She went back to visit her family yesterday. When she returned, she said that Storm Xavier is so sick he can’t leave his bed. The Xavier family’s matriarch prescribed some medicine for him, but it’s had no effect."
Phoebe Huxley asked in confusion, "But didn’t he just give that bitch Phoenix Golding twenty yuan a few days ago? How could he suddenly get so sick he can’t even get out of bed?"