Madam Li glanced at Shen Yijia and smiled. “It’s our family’s blessing that Brother Chen can marry her.”
“Hehe, that’s right, that’s right.” Widow Wang smiled awkwardly. She was a good person, but it was hard to say if she was a good daughter-in-law.
In any case, she did not dare to have such a powerful daughter-in-law. Widow Wang believed that she herself had a bad temper, and it would be terrible if the two of them were stuck together.
She secretly decided that Bruiser would have to find a gentle and virtuous wife in the future.
As they chatted, An Dong walked in.
Madam Li asked, “Dongzi, why are you here?”
An Dong glanced at Shen Yijia and lowered his eyes. “Auntie Li, let me help.”
Madam Li paused for a moment and smiled bitterly. “You’re a good child.”
Madam Li knew that it was human nature to seek benefits and avoid harm. If she had been in Auntie Tian’s shoes, she might have made the same choice as Auntie Tian.
An Dong said nothing more and went up the roof to help in silence.
As there were not many people around, Madam Li asked everyone to stay for lunch.
An Dong was unwilling to do so. Madam Li had no choice but to pack some food for him to bring back.
Seeing how quiet An Dong was, Madam Li thought for a moment and chased after him. “Dongzi, don’t take what happened yesterday to heart. You did the right thing. At that time, even if you stood up for him, you wouldn’t be able to gain anything. Instead, you might have lost your life for nothing. I don’t blame you.”
“Thank you, Auntie. I understand.” An Dong’s eyes turned red. He felt so guilty last night that he couldn’t sleep.
Even when he came over today, he wanted to make up for it. For this, Father An even quarreled with Auntie Tian because Auntie Tian didn’t agree to let him come over again.
2
The new house was fully completed on the first day of winter. After experiencing it many times, they no longer cared about auspicious dates. The family moved in the next day.
After all, so many people had died here. It was already filled with bad luck.
It could be seen from the fact that the people of Xiagou Village did not dare to pass by here again after that day.
What’s more, every time they saw Shen Yijia, they would avoid her.
Shen Yijia did not care about this at all. She was quite satisfied that no one was gossiping about her anymore.
The housewarming party was arranged to be on the next day. Madam Li no longer had any hopes for the villagers, so she only invited Bruiser and Widow Wang.
After all, the An family next door was their neighbor. Madam Li had specially come to visit them the day before.
They believed that Auntie Tian wouldn’t come, but they didn’t expect her to come with Father An the next day.
This was the first time Shen Yijia had seen Father An. She could tell that he was an honest person. It was no wonder that he would sacrifice himself to save others.
After the housewarming party, Madam Li and Auntie Tian seemed to have recovered their friendship.
Shen Yijia felt that more people should be coming and going so that the house would seem more lively. Now, Auntie Tian would bring An Xiu’er to look for Madam Li and do embroidery with her from time to time.
It was worth mentioning that An Dong and Third Uncle He’s youngest daughter, He Xinci, had gotten engaged. They were waiting for spring to hold the wedding ceremony.
An Dong was the same age as Song Jingchen. Not only was the An family poor, but there was also Father An, who had large medical expenses. No girl was willing to marry into the family and be implicated. Because of this, Auntie Tian was chronically anxious, which led to her having sores in her mouth quite often.
Third Uncle He had spent some time with An Dong and felt that he was not a bad person. The two families hit it off and the marriage became a success.
“Why are you in a daze again?” Song Jingchen knocked Shen Yijia on the head.
It was too cold to let Brother Hao and the others go out again, so Song Jingchen forced them to write in the house. Bruiser was among them.
Shen Yijia giggled and glanced at the five people who were engrossed in writing.
She tossed aside the brush in her hand and whispered in Song Jingchen’s ear, “I heard that Song Maolin is back.”
1