Lihua curled her lip in disdain.
A widow living off someone else’s charity, and she dares give me attitude? she thought. Just wait until I marry Qin Lie. The first thing I’ll do is throw this little vixen out.
Still, nothing had been settled between her and Qin Lie yet, so she couldn’t afford to be too reckless.
“Does Qin Lie usually come home for lunch?”
As she spoke, her eyes remained fixed on the slab of pork sitting on the table. She couldn’t help swallowing.
Ever since returning to her parents’ home, she hadn’t had a single bite of meat.
There were too many mouths to feed in her family, and whatever meat they could afford was always reserved for the men. No matter how much her mother doted on her, she wouldn’t give Lihua a portion of her own.
Yet Arui was buying pork by the jin.
Where had she gotten the money?
Obviously, it was all earned by Qin Lie’s hunting.
Jealousy gnawed at Lihua’s heart.
Qin Lie belongs to me.
That meat belongs to me too.
“I don’t know.”
Arui answered with the same reply as before.
And she wasn’t lying.
Qin Lie never kept a fixed schedule. Some days he returned at noon, other days not until dusk.
But to Lihua, it sounded like deliberate avoidance.
Little bitch… She’s guarding against me.
Grinding her teeth, Lihua swayed her waist and let out a soft laugh.
“I haven’t seen Brother Lie in years. I’ve been hoping we’d meet again soon. Since you’ve only just married into the family, you probably don’t know that we grew up together.”
Her voice turned deliberately intimate.
Covering her flushed face with one hand, she smiled shyly.
“If he hadn’t left to join the army back then, perhaps the two of us…”
She deliberately left the sentence unfinished, allowing the implication to linger.
An uncomfortable feeling settled in Arui’s chest.
Perhaps what?
Would Qin Lie have married her?
Lihua smiled again.
“But it’s not too late now. We’re both back.”
It was, of course, nothing but a lie.
Back then, Qin Lie had been constantly bullied by his stepmother, and Lihua had looked down on him completely.
Things were different now.
After several years apart, he had become a towering, powerfully built man.
Everyone else feared the intimidating aura surrounding him.
Lihua didn’t.
To her, a man like that was far more exciting.
She licked her lips before glancing once more at the pork and the fabric on the table.
The more she looked, the more tempted she became.
The house might be shabby, but Qin Lie clearly wasn’t poor. Otherwise, he wouldn’t let Arui spend money so freely.
A man who was strong in bed and generous outside of it…
That was the kind of husband worth having.
Having already been married once, Lihua no longer cared only about a handsome face.
The more she thought about Qin Lie, the more satisfied she became with the idea of marrying him.
Meanwhile, Arui felt increasingly stifled.
She couldn’t tell whether she disliked Lihua herself or simply hated hearing those words.
Lihua continued asking questions.
What did Qin Lie like to eat?
How much game did he usually bring home?
Arui had no desire to answer any of them.
She carried the fabric into the house before returning with a cold expression.
“Sister Lihua, I’m heading out to buy some cotton. If there’s nothing else you need, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave.”
“You…”
Lihua hadn’t expected Arui to actually throw her out.
The girl looked meek and gentle, yet she apparently had quite a stubborn streak.
Even better.
Once Qin Lie realized what kind of woman Arui truly was, he wouldn’t need any encouragement from Lihua to drive her away.
“Fine. I’ll come back tomorrow.”
If she couldn’t catch Qin Lie on the road, she’d simply wait for him at his house.
No matter what, she was determined to marry him.
…
“What? You’re saying Sister Lihua has her eyes on Qin Lie?”
This was Arui’s first visit to Cui Zhu’s home.
Cui Zhu’s two sisters-in-law were both warm and welcoming, smiling as they ushered the two young women into a room to chat.
The moment she heard Arui’s story, Cui Zhu nearly shouted.
Startled, Arui hurriedly covered her mouth.
“Don’t yell. It’s only my guess.”
She repeated everything Lihua had said.
“The moment she entered the courtyard, she kept asking about Brother Lie. Then she started saying all those strange things that didn’t make much sense. I really don’t know what she was trying to do.”
Before Arui even finished, Cui Zhu had already reached her conclusion.
“She definitely likes Qin Lie!”
“I honestly didn’t expect her to move this fast. Then again, my mother mentioned that a matchmaker already visited her family yesterday. She probably won’t be staying at her parents’ home much longer.”
Arui remained silent.
Her face had turned slightly pale.
Cui Zhu looked at her.
“What do you think?”
Even if Qin Lie most likely couldn’t father children, if someone genuinely wanted to marry him, there was little reason for him to refuse.
Who wouldn’t want a wife, children, and a warm family waiting at home?
That was certainly better than living alone forever.
But the Qin Family’s circumstances were different.
If Lihua married Qin Lie, Arui’s position in the household would become painfully awkward.
“I don’t know.”
“Logically, Lihua is pitiful. She was cast out by her husband’s family, so I should sympathize with her.”
“But after hearing everything she said today… I just couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable.”
“Cui Zhu… do you think I’m being petty?”
“Petty?”
Cui Zhu immediately shook her head.
“She knows perfectly well how awkward your situation is, yet she still came to question you about Qin Lie. Wasn’t that obviously meant to intimidate you?”
Although Cui Zhu had grown up in the same village as Lihua, they were several years apart in age and had never been particularly close.
If Lihua wanted to marry Qin Lie, that was her own business.
But bullying Arui was another matter entirely.
“From now on, come do your embroidery at my house instead. If she sees nobody’s home, she’ll stop coming over.”
“All right.”
Arui agreed.
Since it was nearly lunchtime, she didn’t stay much longer.
Before leaving, she bought four jin of freshly fluffed cotton from Aunt Wang.
Earlier that day, she’d asked about the market price at the embroidery shop.
Fresh cotton sold for twenty copper coins per jin, so she left Aunt Wang eighty copper coins.
After Arui departed, Aunt Wang sighed.
“That child… Prices in town aren’t the same as what we charge in the village. She paid far too much.”
It was the first time she’d ever felt that holding copper coins made her uncomfortable.
Their family had already benefited plenty whenever they bought meat from Qin Lie.
There was no way she could make money from selling him cotton too.
She counted out twenty copper coins and handed them to Cui Zhu.
“Take this back to Arui later.”
“Got it.”
Cui Zhu accepted the money.
Aunt Wang continued speaking with admiration.
“That girl is truly wonderful. She’s beautiful, hardworking, knows how to earn money, and conducts herself with such grace.”
“If you ask me, she’d be better off marrying Qin Lie instead.”
“He’s unmarried anyway.”
“Cough! Cough! Cough!”
Cui Zhu had just taken a drink of water and nearly choked.
“Mom! How could Arui marry Qin Lie?”
“Why couldn’t she?”
“The Empress of the previous dynasty even remarried her late husband’s elder brother. As long as both people are willing, they could get married tomorrow.”
The more Aunt Wang thought about it, the more perfect the idea seemed.
Among all the young women in the surrounding villages, none could compare to Arui.
If Qin Lie married her, it would be his good fortune.
Cui Zhu pursed her lips.
“You should stop playing matchmaker.”
“For all we know, Qin Lie might bring home a new wife one day.”
Thinking about Lihua, who was obviously pursuing him, Cui Zhu had no intention of letting her kind-hearted friend marry a man who already had women chasing after him.
“I was only talking here at home.”
Aunt Wang laughed.
“That child is so honest. I doubt she’d ever have thoughts like that.”
As for Qin Lie…
Since he had never shown any interest in women, she naturally assumed he had no intention of marrying Arui either.
After lunch, Cui Zhu returned the twenty copper coins to Arui.
At first, Arui refused to accept them, but Cui Zhu forcefully stuffed the money back into her hands.
“Just keep it. Otherwise, my mother will nag me all day.”
Knowing exactly how persistent Aunt Wang could be, Arui had no choice but to accept.
Since she couldn’t repay the kindness with money, she decided to embroider a pouch for Cui Zhu instead.
Cui Zhu was about to begin meeting prospective husbands, and having a beautifully embroidered pouch hanging from her waist would make an excellent impression.
The moment Cui Zhu heard her plan, her eyes immediately turned red.
“Arui… why couldn’t you have been born a man? If you were, I’d marry you in a heartbeat.”
None of those smelly men were half as thoughtful as Arui.
Arui laughed softly.
“I wish I’d been born a man too.”
If she were a man, she wouldn’t be trapped by society’s expectations.
She could study, sit for the imperial examinations, travel freely, or even build a business.
Even her parents would have favored her.
But she had been born a woman.
A woman destined to drift through life like duckweed upon the water, carried wherever the current chose.