CH 105

Xuemei took a deep breath and silently reminded herself not to get angry with a blockhead. In the end, it would only harm her. She lowered her head and continued to feed her daughter, ignoring Li Shi.

Seeing her dàgūjiě’s miserable appearance, Li Shi had a sense of superiority. She had money in her hands, and she felt that she was no worse than the dàgūjiě1 who could read and write. It was the time to show off, so how could she shut up just because she was ignoring her.

It’s a pity that before the words came out, Zhulan interrupted, “Cough!”

After all, the son-in-law was there in front of them, and Li’s face was the eldest son’s face, so she cannot be reprimanded in front of others.

When Li met her mother-in-law’s gloomy eyes, the villain who had just yelled at her instantly faltered. She was not afraid of her mother-in-law scolding her, but she was afraid that her mother-in-law would be expressionless and dare not make a sound.

Xuemei was stunned. In the past, mother had to yell at sister-in-law, to be honest, but now? And she felt her sǎozi2 shaking, she was afraid, why was sǎozi so afraid of her mother? Was this her familiar natal family?

Seeing that Li Shi was being honest, Zhulan took care of the children around her while eating breakfast. Zhulan’s image as a good grandma was perfected, and the children liked to be close to her. After giving up his seat, the little grandson Ming Teng looked at Jiang Du with a knife in his eyes.

After breakfast, Li Shi was afraid that her mother-in-law would clean her up, so she cleaned up the table and bowls and secretly apologized to Xuemei in the kitchen, “Your sǎozi is outspoken and doesn’t mean anything malicious, dà mèi3 don’t take it to heart, just treat what I said as a fart.”

Xuemei let go of her frustration. In the past, Li Shi had often mocked her behind her mother’s back, but now that Xuemei knew her sǎozi was afraid of her mother, she felt relieved. She said to her, “Sǎozi should speak carefully in the future. I can handle it since we’re family, but it wouldn’t be good for her to offend people outside.”

In the past six months, Li Shi’s mind had become much sharper and she had developed a taste. This was not forgiving her, but beating her. She used to think of her as a peasant girl pretending to be a lady, looking down on her. Every time she saw her, she wanted to find fault. Now she realized that her dàgūjiě’s way of speaking was similar to that of her mother-in-law. A chill ran down her spine. She wanted to show off and feel proud, but she couldn’t summon that feeling anymore. She didn’t dare to provoke her dàgūjiě anymore!

Xuemei saw that sǎozi dried her hands quickly and ran away, “…”

Why did she think that sǎozi was afraid of her? What did she say?

Zhulan was playing with the children, and when the eldest daughter came over to imitate Li Shi’s reaction, Zhulan said, “…”

She guessed Li Shi had overused her brain and scared herself!

Zhulan sent a few children to play with Xuehan. She had a bad arm and didn’t do needlework, but she could help the eldest daughter pull the cloth, and the time passed quickly while chatting.

Zhou Shuren brought Jiang Sheng back from clan school, and Jiang Sheng went back to the house with the paper in his arms to hurriedly copy the book.

All the sons knew about this job of copying books, and just as Xuemei had predicted, no one really cared.

Especially after knowing that the book being copied was one brought back by Dad, the attention was focused on calculating the value of the book brought back by Dad. Without providing pen and paper for hand-copying, the clan school was paying five taels. It can be seen that the few books brought back were worth a lot.

Changlian no longer struggled about small things like the jade pendants, but instead began to win his mother’s favor.

Zhulan peeled the pine nuts and said to Xuemei, who was making clothes: “Changlian has come three times!”

“This kid has realized the value of education. It’s clear that showing filial piety to me yields faster results than trying to impress your father. However, I must say, he is not as shrewd as your second brother. He is too superficial and needs to practice more.”

As she spoke, Zhulan touched the kang and noticed that the second son had just added another piece of firewood!

Xuemei was stunned, “Mother, did you say something wrong? How could the second brother be better than Changlian? You are talking about Changzhi!”

Zhulan, “It seems you haven’t seen through it either. Let me tell you, the smartest one in this family is your second brother, Changyi. He understands things the best among us, while the third brother is always scheming and calculating, too focused on appearances. As for your younger brother, Changzhi, he is intelligent when it comes to studying but doesn’t bother much about money. So, Mother was not wrong. It’s you who haven’t seen through your own brothers.”

Xuemei almost got her hand pricked. She thought she was smart, and Grandma kept praising her when she was alive, but she didn’t expect to be mistaken. Thinking that the honest second brother was the best, and looking at the leisurely mother, she felt that she was not smart, and she didn’t understand her own mother.

Zhulan knew that the eldest daughter was hit, so she drank tea slowly, um, it tasted good.

Before the eldest daughter could react, Zhulan heard the voices of the younger daughter and Wang Ru. Wang Ru came to the door, these days she had been busy, and really didn’t pay much attention to Wang Ru.

Standing up and putting on her shoes, Xuemei came back to her senses, “Mother.”

Zhulan signaled Xuemei not to make a sound and walked slowly to the door. The little girl Xuehan didn’t invite Wang Ru to come in, and the two were standing in front of the door of the main room. Zhulan carefully opened the door and eavesdropped.

Xuemei, “…”

Mom is eavesdropping, wasn’t she? No, Mother was an elder, how could she eavesdrop? But the reality told her that Mother was eavesdropping, even in front of her face!

Wang Ru’s voice could not be suppressed, “Are you engaged?”

She just went to Pingzhou with Shi Qing for a total of ten days. She just got home this morning and heard the shocking news that the Zhou family has reintegrated into the clan. The original heroine Zhou Xuehan was actually engaged, and she had a foster husband!

When she heard the news, she immediately came over to confirm it. Was she so good at creating a butterfly effect, that she wiped out the marriage between the heroine and the hero before even exerting all her strength?

If Zhulan knew what was going on in Wang Ru’s heart, she would definitely be huh, she and Zhou Shuren who helped her gain confidence and stand up for herself!

Xuehan frowned, “Is my engagement related to you? What are you excited about?”

Could it be that Wang Ru had taken a fancy to Rong Chuan? The words spoken by Mother indeed hinted at the scrutiny of an unmarried fiance. Oh no, but Wang Ru and her were no longer close friends. With that cold look in her eyes, she was directly scrutinizing Rong Chuan. Even though they are already engaged, she is still peeping at him. How frivolous!

Wang Ru opened her mouth, yes, what was she excited about, she should be happy. Zhou Xuehan was engaged, she didn’t have to be afraid that Zhou Xuehan and the male lead will meet, and she doesn’t have to be wary of Zhou Xuehan. She should be happy, “I’m happy for you so I was excited. I came here in a hurry and didn’t get a gift, I’ll make it up later.”

Xuehan didn’t believe anything Wang Ru said, let alone ask for a gift, “We are not friends, so we don’t need to give gifts, just go back!”

Wang Ru’s good mood didn’t last long. She felt empty in her heart. The calculation she had planned for a long time was useless, and she felt very uncomfortable. Seeing Xuehan’s appearance and temperament getting better and better, she was not reconciled to Zhou Xuehan’s success, and couldn’t bear it. She touched the pearl bracelet and hated Zhou Xuehan when she touched the bracelet.

The last time she came to show off, Zhou Xuehan unexpectedly didn’t point out that her jade bracelet was unattractive, causing her to lose face in Pingzhou. She touched her bracelet again and took it off, saying, “This is a bracelet given to me by Sir Shi. You’ve probably never seen pearls before. Despite their small size, each one costs one or two silver coins. I’ll give you this bracelet as a betrothal gift.”

Zhou Xuehan’s eyebrows furrowed tightly, confirming that Wang Ru didn’t understand the implications and was merely showing off. The anger in her heart subsided slightly as she spoke in a stern tone, “Based on our past relationship, let me give you some advice. Don’t casually accept gifts from other men, especially personal jewelry. It’s not just about considering yourself, but you should also think about your two elder sisters. Don’t jeopardize their chances of getting married.”