Ye Wan: ???
Big brother, do you hear what you’re saying? Are those even human words? When was I ever that impatient?
“You’re overthinking it. I’m not impatient. I came to ask if I can buy back my indenture,” Ye Wan said, her tone heavy.
Wang Danniang’s reaction just now had solidified her thoughts. There was definitely something wrong with this Lin An Yuan as a person. She had to get out of here.
Upon hearing her words, Lin An Yuan’s face instantly turned cold, his eyes narrowing slightly. “You still want to run away?”
Ye Wan hurriedly shook her head. “No, I’m discussing this with you nicely. You saved me, so you are my benefactor. I’m willing to repay your kindness, so… can I buy my freedom for three times—no, ten times the price?”
A faint glint flashed in Lin An Yuan’s eyes as he yawned.
“I can’t hear what you’re saying. The indenture… ah, it’s right here with me.”
Thinking he had agreed, Ye Wan quickly walked over. But just as she got close, Lin An Yuan’s leg tripped her, and she stumbled forward.
As luck would have it, she landed right on top of the seated man, pinning him to the kang bed, her hand even pressing against his open chest…
What an awkward position!
Just then, the man beneath her spoke languidly, “I knew you were after my body, you filthy woman.”
“I’m filthy?!”
Seething with anger, Ye Wan plopped down onto Lin An Yuan’s waist. Looking down at him from her superior position, she decided to make things clear.
“Lin An Yuan, I’ll be honest with you. I have no intention of staying to be a stepmother to your three girls. But I’m not an ungrateful person either. I can help you nurse San Ya back to health before I leave, and I can also pay you back three times the silver you spent on me. Before that, let’s agree on three rules. How about it?”
Didn’t Lin An Yuan buy her just to make San Ya healthy?
She didn’t have milk, but she had spiritual spring water. She guaranteed that in just a few days, San Ya would be as sturdy as a calf. Then she could leave.
She would try reasoning first, and if he didn’t agree, then he couldn’t blame her for being impolite.
A soft weight pressed down on Lin An Yuan’s waist. His eyes flickered as he raised an eyebrow at Ye Wan, who was sitting on him. “It’s broad daylight. How long do you plan on sitting on me? Even if you’re in a hurry, you should wait until night. San Ya is watching from the doorway.”
Ye Wan turned her head and saw San Ya standing at the door, her big eyes staring at the two of them with curiosity.
Her face flushed red. She scrambled off Lin An Yuan, and in her haste, she even pressed a hand against his slightly open chest again.
“Mother, are you making a little brother for me?”
San Ya’s words almost made Ye Wan cough up a mouthful of blood.
“San Ya, I’m picking lice for your father!”
With that, she turned and glared at Lin An Yuan. Explain yourself, quickly!
The latter slowly and methodically put on his tattered, patched clothes, showing no intention of explaining.
Ye Wan frowned. “Lin An Yuan, what do you think of my proposal just now?”
Lin An Yuan just grunted an “oh” and, without giving Ye Wan a single glance, got up and walked out.
Yes means yes, and no means no. What was that supposed to mean?
Before she could ask for clarification, Lin An Yuan had already left the courtyard.
Lin An Yuan didn’t return, even after dark.
Without an answer, Ye Wan distractedly ate dinner in the courtyard with the three girls.
Tonight’s dinner was finally not wild vegetable mush. It was coarse rice porridge, which was still so unpalatable it was hard to swallow.
Ye Wan poked at her bowl, thinking to herself, This life is truly difficult!
As a young lady who had been pampered since childhood, she had never suffered such hardship, not even during the apocalypse.
“If you don’t want to eat, then don’t. Do you think you’re some young lady? You really think you’re someone special.”
At the dinner table, Er Ya taunted her. Da Ya quietly told her to stop, her gaze on Ye Wan somewhat complicated.
San Ya wanted to call her “Mother,” but after a glare from Er Ya, she could only look at Ye Wan with longing eyes.
Ye Wan was in a bad mood and couldn’t be bothered to deal with the dark-skinned girl, Er Ya. After eating, she returned to her room early.
Late into the night, Lin An Yuan still hadn’t returned. It’s best if he doesn’t come back tonight either, Ye Wan thought.
Although this man was impotent and probably couldn’t do anything to her, she still felt quite uncomfortable sharing a kang bed with a strange man.
Ye Wan tossed and turned on the kang. If Lin An Yuan really refused to give her the indenture, then…
…
…
“Ah! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!”
In the dead of night, a miserable scream erupted from a low-slung house in Ye Jia Cun.
“That wretched hussy, she must have eaten a bear’s heart and a leopard’s gall to dare hit you! I’ll skin her alive later! Yaozu, oh, my darling! Mother will blow on it for you, and it won’t hurt anymore!” Granny Qian said, her heart aching as she applied medicine and blew on her son’s arm.
Ye Yaozu’s arm was injured, and he grimaced in pain, shoving away Granny Qian who was applying the medicine.
He gritted his teeth and said, “Mother, Xiang Lan had someone send a message today, asking when our family can gather the betrothal gift. Otherwise, her father is going to marry her off to someone else! You have to think of something, quickly!”
They had only managed to scrape together ten taels from selling his first and second sisters. They were still ten taels short for the betrothal gift, and they wouldn’t have money for the wedding banquet either. He had promised Xiang Lan that he would never let her be wronged.
“It’s all that money-losing baggage’s fault!” Granny Qian gnashed her teeth in anger.
She had originally thought that selling Ye Wan, that money-losing baggage, would be more than enough. Who knew the wretched hussy would try to kill herself, which was why she had been sold off so cheaply.
That Xiang Lan was also a little vixen, completely bewitching Yaozu. She had demanded a twenty-tael betrothal gift right off the bat. Why didn’t she just go rob someone? Once she married into the Ye family and got pregnant, she would see how she’d deal with that bitch.
Granny Qian thought for a moment and lowered her voice. “Tomorrow, I’ll send that money-losing baggage to Zhang Fuhu’s house no matter what. Even if she’s no longer a virgin, she’ll still be worth…”
“Ah! A ghost!”
Halfway through her sentence, Ye Yaozu suddenly screamed in terror.
Outside the window, a human head was hanging upside down, its long hair disheveled, its features obscured.
“A ghost, a ghost?”
Granny Qian turned her head and her eyes widened in fright.
Just then, the “ghost” began to speak, its crimson lips opening and closing.
“Didn’t I tell you that you and your son should sleep with one eye open? You dare come to my house and hit someone? Are you tired of living?”
A warmth spread through Granny Qian’s trousers, and her eyes rolled back as she fainted.
By the moonlight filtering through the window, Ye Yaozu, whose legs were trembling with fear, finally saw the “ghost’s” face clearly.
“Lin… Lin An Yuan!”