Sun Zhaodi walked quickly with her two daughters-in-law. As soon as they reached the gate, they noticed a young woman standing there.
“Th-that’s Li Yunxia, isn’t it? She’s back?”
“How would I know?”
Li Shufen and Wang Hongmei, the two sisters-in-law, looked at each other, both at a loss for words. After all, the fact that Li Yunxia had taken a liking to their fourth brother was something almost everyone nearby knew.
Sun Zhaodi, standing to the side, was already feeling awkward. The new daughter-in-law had only entered the household two days ago—why did Yunxia come back so soon?
Then she thought it over again. This was Yunxia’s own home—she had to come back sooner or later. Besides, the two kids were completely innocent; nothing had ever happened. Now that the fourth son was married, they were just ordinary neighbors. What was there for her to be nervous about?
“Yunxia, are you back from your brother’s place?”
“Mm.” Li Yunxia kept her head lowered. If one could see her face, they would notice tears welling in her eyes. In her wildest dreams, she had never imagined that she would only go to her brother’s place for a short while, and when she returned, Mingyuan would already be married.
“Auntie, are you all heading home to eat? I’ll head back too.” She simply couldn’t accept it for the moment and wanted to see what kind of girl she was—what made her so special.
And Lin Mingyuan—she had liked him since childhood. Did he really not feel anything at all? How could he just get married like that?
Without looking at anyone, Li Yunxia hurried back home, leaving the three of them standing there, staring at one another.
“Mom, what do you think…?” Li Shufen didn’t know what to do.
“She won’t stir up trouble, will she?” Wang Hongmei was more direct.
Sun Zhaodi shot them a glare. “What nonsense are you spouting? Yunxia isn’t that kind of child. Enough—go home and eat.”
Then she turned back again. “Don’t go saying random things when we get home. If Baoling misunderstands because of you two, see how I deal with you.”
Just as Li Baoling and Lin Mingyuan finished setting the food on the table, everyone came in. Li Baoling’s face lit up with delight. “You’re back! Perfect timing—wash your hands and eat.”
“Look at how the fourth son’s wife is smiling, like a flower. Did we ever smile like that?” Wang Hongmei nudged Li Shufen.
“Well… smiling is fine.” If she knew Yunxia had come back, she probably wouldn’t be smiling.
Wang Hongmei understood what her sister-in-law meant. Sun Zhaodi understood even more clearly—she really treated Li Shufen too well.
“Eldest daughter-in-law, if you’re not hungry, then go wash the clothes, feed the chickens, and head to the fields. Don’t stand around all day saying nonsense!”
Li Shufen had been wearing a miserable expression just now; at these words, she immediately behaved herself.
“What’s wrong?” Li Baoling felt that something was off with their expressions.
“Nothing, nothing. Eldest sister-in-law is just tired,” Wang Hongmei hurriedly smoothed things over. She was starving.
Sun Zhaodi also changed the subject. “What did you two make?”
“Ta-da! Look—egg drop soup and stir-fried greens.” This was the most lavish lunch Li Baoling could make after searching the whole house.
Originally, she had wanted to make dough-drop egg soup—heat oil with soy sauce, add some chopped greens, drizzle in beaten egg. It would have been perfect, something she had carefully thought up as both light and delicious. But she forgot that white flour was simply unavailable now—that was fine grain.
Lin Mingyuan said there was some at home, but it was locked in the cupboard—and only a little. If she ate it today, what would she eat tomorrow? She’d probably be swept out of the house.
So she had no choice but to settle for plain egg drop soup. Even that was as simple as could be—no seaweed, no dried shrimp, just the taste of egg.
Even so, Sun Zhaodi felt heartache. What kind of household was this? They had eaten so well yesterday, and today they still dared to eat eggs. No, wait—the eggs had been locked up. This had to be stolen by that unreliable fourth son.
Then she looked at the plate of greens—shiny with oil. Who knew how much oil they’d used? That hurt even more.
In an instant, Sun Zhaodi forgot all about Li Yunxia. All she felt was regret. She had known it—she shouldn’t have let the youngsters cook. Look how much they wasted.
“From now on, I’ll do the cooking. You youngsters really don’t know how precious rice and firewood are until you run the household yourselves.”
What? Even this wasn’t okay?
But then again, it made sense. Just a few days ago, food had been so scarce that even wild vegetables had to be rationed carefully.
What upset the two of them the most, though, was losing the right to cook. Without that privilege, how would they ever secretly make themselves better food in the future?
“Oh, today’s meal is pretty good,” Second Brother Lin said, rubbing his hands. A few days ago, because of Third Sister, they’d eaten meat once. Yesterday there was the wedding feast, and now today there was still good food—what if it spoiled his appetite?
“Eat,” Wang Hongmei pushed him to sit down. Couldn’t he see how distressed their mother was?
Sun Zhaodi then gritted her teeth and served out the egg drop soup. She didn’t show favoritism—adults got the same amount, children got the same. In truth, she already was showing favoritism. By rights, the fourth couple hadn’t worked and should have gotten less, but Baoling had just entered the household. Sun Zhaodi couldn’t very well bring it up.
“Delicious!”
“Little Uncle and Little Aunt cook better than Grandma!”
Kangkang from the eldest branch and Xiaoman from the second branch—the two carefree kids—praised it while eating.
Under the table, Li Shufen kicked her son. Even eating couldn’t shut his mouth. With that much oil, of course it tasted good—enough oil for four or five of Grandma’s meals.
Everyone else ate quickly as well. Opportunities like this didn’t come often—hadn’t they already said the two of them wouldn’t be allowed to cook dinner?
“By the way, Mom, Third Sister came by earlier.”
Sun Zhaodi looked up. “What for?”
“Fang Daming tried to set us up, then got arrested…” Lin Mingyuan didn’t hide anything and explained the whole story to the family.
“Serves him right. Plotting against people—he should rot inside forever,” Sun Zhaodi said through clenched teeth. How could someone be so shameless?
“Good heavens, it really wasn’t easy for Fourth Brother to get married,” Wang Hongmei sighed.
“Exactly. If Fourth Brother had really gone, he’d be the one arrested now. That guy is no good at all.” Even though Li Shufen looked down on Lin Mingyuan, he was still family. She still hoped he’d be safe and sound.
Of course, if he got beaten up, she wouldn’t feel the least bit sorry.
Hearing this, Sun Zhaodi grew even more frightened. For farmers like them, once you got arrested—even if you were later rescued—the villagers’ spit would still hit your face. Your whole life would be ruined.
“Damn it. If I ever see him again, that little bastard—”
“It’s fine. This time he got arrested, and I heard his family has gone crazy. So we’re planning to go to the county the day after tomorrow to ask around and see how he’s doing.”
“You two can forget it. What kind of person is that? We’d better stay far, far away.”
Only Lin Guoqing felt a bit relieved. “Let them go take a look—it’s fine. Just be careful and don’t let anyone notice.”
Li Baoling and Lin Mingyuan: Success!
Their expressions brightened immediately. But Eldest Brother Lin didn’t notice. Thinking the atmosphere had grown heavy because of all this, he suddenly spoke up.
“Hey, did you see? Yunxia from across the way is back. I saw her always looking toward our place. Did she hear that Fourth Brother got married and get curious?”
As soon as those words fell, almost everyone except Lin Mingyuan and his wife froze, chopsticks midair.
Sun Zhaodi vs. Lin Guoqing: Is our eldest son an idiot?
Li Shufen: It’s not unfair that my husband gets scolded by his parents all the time.
Wang Hongmei vs. Second Brother Lin: Here it comes—Eldest Brother bringing that mouth of his that never knows how to speak again.
To be fair, this really wasn’t Eldest Brother Lin’s fault. The matter of Yunxia liking Lin Mingyuan was something the whole family tacitly understood—everyone except Eldest Brother, who hadn’t noticed a thing. And of course, no one had told him.
Sun Zhaodi said coldly, “You sure worry about a lot.”
“Eat, eat,” Li Shufen said, picking up a piece of egg and putting it into his bowl.
Li Baoling instinctively felt that this Yunxia person definitely had some kind of connection with Lin Mingyuan. But now wasn’t the time to ask.
So in the whole household, only the two of them acted as if nothing was wrong—eating and drinking as usual. Yunxia or Yun Duo, it didn’t matter.
Seeing that the two kids had no reaction, Sun Zhaodi finally relaxed. Before they even finished eating, she said, “Eldest son, you’re washing the dishes today.”
Before Eldest Brother Lin could react, everyone else had already disappeared.
After Li Baoling and Lin Mingyuan returned to their room, she asked curiously, “Hey, what’s the deal with that Yunxia?”
“What Yunxia?” Lin Mingyuan hadn’t thought much of it at all.
“Stop pretending. No—wait, think back. Before I came, were you seeing someone?”
“No.” Lin Mingyuan thought carefully, then said, “Maybe that Yunxia has a bit of interest in me, but that’s all. We’d just chat a bit more than usual. Nothing else at all.”
That matched what Li Baoling had guessed. The Lin family seemed decent enough—if Lin Mingyuan really had something going on with Yunxia, they wouldn’t have agreed to let the two of them marry so quickly.
And the neighbors would have started spreading rumors long ago. The marriage might not even have happened.
In fact, when it came to the neighbors, Li Baoling was being a bit too optimistic. The only reason they hadn’t said anything was that the two of them moved too fast—they hadn’t had time to start rumors. The one who regretted it the most was Liu Heini.
“It’s all because those two little bitches got married too fast. I didn’t even have time to react. It wasn’t until I saw Yunxia today that I remembered—Fourth Lin is married. What about Yunxia?” Liu Heini said resentfully.
“Why are you always worrying about other people’s business?” Zhang Fengshou snapped. He had only learned the day before yesterday that his wife had gotten into another fight, and the whole eastern end of the village knew. He was nearly furious.
“If Yunxia’s free now, won’t that just benefit that little bastard Lin Xiaohu? Isn’t he eyeing her too? No, absolutely not.” Liu Heini’s eyes darted around as she began plotting. Li Yunxia might not be that great, but she was still better than that useless Liu Ling. And she had a capable older brother. If Liu Fengying ended up with that kind of daughter-in-law, she’d be so angry she couldn’t eat.
“Yunxia doesn’t like Xiaohu,” Zhang Baogen said disdainfully. He could see through all the people around here.
“That may be true, but think about it—given Liu Fengying’s family conditions, who would like them? If time drags on and Xiaohu likes Yunxia, she’ll definitely start getting crooked ideas. I don’t care what Li Yunxia is like, but Liu Fengying must not get what she wants.” Liu Heini made up her mind. She would instigate Li Xiuli to find Mei Yufen and introduce a match for Li Yunxia.
Li Yunxia had to be married off—no matter what.
Compared to Liu Heini’s scheming, Liu Fengying was simply delighted.
“Yunxia finally came back. If she hadn’t, I would’ve found someone to send her a message. It’s good she’s back—now we can watch the drama between the Li family and Sun Zhaodi.”
“Let Li Xiuli keep looking down on people through her nostrils.”
“Enough, Mom. Stop talking about Yunxia,” Lin Xiaohu said unhappily. Yunxia was such a good girl. Lin Mingyuan really had no taste.
“Shut up. Let me tell you—stay far away from Yunxia from now on. If Lin Mingyuan didn’t want her, our family doesn’t want her either. There are plenty of good girls.” Liu Fengying warned him sternly. She had no desire to become in-laws with Li Xiuli.
“Just wait and see. Yunxia might cause trouble at any time.”
But Yunxia really didn’t cause trouble. She just quietly watched that couple.
Li Baoling glanced at Lin Mingyuan. What a coincidence—they had just agreed to go to the eastern woods. With some rare free time, they were planning to look for ginseng. Yet the moment they stepped out the door, they ran straight into that girl.