While she recuperated, Li Changliang often found time to visit. He'd tell her how many rooms the house was being partitioned into, how many chicks his mother had hatched, and how he'd asked his sister-in-law to help hatch some ducklings. He spoke of the pigs they owned and what he planned to plant. Seeing him so animated and full of excitement, Liu'er's spirits soared as well.
She found her appetite growing, and she desperately craved rich foods like red-braised chicken, braised pork, and savory fish. But Meizi and Juhua paid her no mind, continuing to cook plain rice porridge and a light soup of fish and greens for her meals. For variety, they would sometimes steam buns with a shepherd's purse filling, though they were still quite plain with only a few bits of cured meat mixed in. Other times, they simply made thin pancakes.
