Yu Yan's remarks were rude, and she didn't give her face at all. She still felt that it was not enough, and continued, "From now on, you may give buns to anyone, but you may not give them to Min Rui."
"Are not happy that these two men don't pay attention to you? Will you only be satisfied if all the men in the world fall in love with you?"
No matter how cunning Yang Lanrou was, she was only a sixteen-year-old girl. Since childhood, it was the first time when someone said harsh words to her. Yang Lanrou's eyes turned red and she was about to cry. Seeing this Yu Yan frowned, "It is more effective to save these tears for your father, brother, and your fiancé. I'm hard-hearted, so this trick is useless to me."
Yang Lanrou looked at Li Qinghe, "Miss Li..."
"It won't work for me either." Li Qinghe wasn't polite, "Don't send the steamed buns to my house in the future, I can still afford to raise Little Rhubarb."
Her words implied that even if Yang Lanrou sent the buns to help raise the dog, the dog would not accept her help.
Yang Lanrou's tears fell, "I really don't have those dirty thoughts, I just want to be friends with you."
"I don't want to be friends with you." Li Qinghe said seriously, "In fact, if I could, I would never want to see you in my life."
Yang Lanrou was stunned. When she met Li Qinghe's serious eyes, she couldn't help but ask, "How did I offend you?"
The look in her eyes was one of innocence.
When Li Qinghe breathed her last in the firewood room, Yang Lanrou gazed at her with exactly the same innocent gaze filled with tears. She pitifully said, "I'm sorry, I didn't want it either."
Li Qinghe blinked her eyes and came back to her senses," Anyway, I don't like you, so don't show up in front of me in the future, or I'll start scolding you. You even show up at my house after I feed the buns to the dog. Aren't you embarrassed?"
Yang Lanrou still didn't move, and her eyes looked behind the two of them. Li Qinghe turned around suspiciously and saw Zhou Chengkang coming toward them with two sweet potatoes. He handed them to her and Yu Yan, "Eat it while it's hot, I just baked them in the cellar. These are the good ones left."
Yu Yan laughed, took the sweet potato, and pulled Li Qinghe with a smile, "The sun is too bright now, let's go back."
Then, the three of them really left, and Zhou Chengkang didn't look at Yang Lanrou from beginning to end.
Back in the yard, Yu Yan was eating sweet potatoes, "After I clean my land, I'll also plant some of these. I'll also learn to raise chickens so that way I could at least have eggs to eat."
She planned a lot for the future.
Yu Yan hired more people and by the end of March, the house was built. Like Li Qinghe, her house was also made of bricks and was surrounded by a courtyard wall, which was similar. From these, it could be seen that she was not short of money.
Mei Hua's body was getting better gradually. There was no shortage of meat, and she had plenty of milk, so the child was well fed. Three months had passed and now the child was three-months-old. These days, Mei Hua had fish soup for meals every day, for which she was very grateful to Li Qinghe. Today, elder brother Zhou was busy selling the tofu, and when Mei Hua was free, she came over to the fish pond to fish.
She carried the child in her arms and watched Li Qinghe help her fish. She said with a smile, "Mother said that someone will come to see the fifth sister again in a couple of days."
She hugged the child and watched Li Qinghe help her catch fish, and said with a smile, "Mother said, someone, will come to see the fifth sister in two days."
It was true that the fifth sister was not young anymore and after the spring plowing, she had to attend the matchmaking.
Li Qinghe had good feelings for the fifth sister Zhou, "Which village are they from this time?"
Mei Hua's smile stiffened, "I heard that he was from Liu Village, and we were once neighbors."
Then she should know something about his character. Li Qinghe smiled and asked, "What about his character?"
"I'm not familiar with him." Mei Hua shook her head, "I used to be at home, and in the morning I used to leave the house before the villagers even woke up and after returning home in the evening I used to go to bed early. Our vegetable field was also in the backyard so I never ran into him even though I have been there for two years. I don't know many people there. I do know that his family has quite a lot of land."
For a farmer's family, owning land was important but it was also somewhat a helpless situation. The more land one had, the harder it would be for one's daughter to get married. But on the other hand, if one owned land it proved that they will not go hungry.
When the day of the matchmaking arrived, Mrs. Zhou called Li Qinghe and Zhou Chengkang to the Zhuo house as usual. When the two arrived the other party hadn't come yet. Mrs. Zhou looked at Li Qinghe's belly and the more she looked at it, the happier she was. She instructed, " you have to be careful and eat more meat and fish food. You have to be more careful
further along with the pregnancy. Look at your sister-in-law, her child was born too small. Her delivery was quite difficult and the child almost couldn't survive."
The important thing was that in Mei Hua, her daughter was the only child she would have. If elder brother Zhou doesn't remarry then, she would be his only child too. If the child had died, they would be just like third aunt Li and uncle Li, who had no kids.
It would be a regret if a couple didn't have children. Especially in a farmer's family, there would be no one to take care of them in their old age, no one would take care of their funeral when they die, and no one would inherit the family business. The people of today were quite attached to the sentiment of having an heir.
This just happened to be heard by Mei Hua. She lowered her head and didn't say a word to refute.
However, she was definitely uncomfortable. Mrs. Zhou still frankly said, "Mei Hua, don't be upset. I'm telling the truth. One has to be careful when they're pregnant. No matter who it is, I always tell them to take care of their own body. No matter how big things happen, you can't get too excited. When I had my fifth child, your father passed away."
Everyone looked at each other, completely speechless. Mr. Zhou passed away when Mrs. Zhou was pregnant with the fifth sister Zhou.
"More than that, at that time..." Mrs. Zhou sighed and stopped talking.
Li Qinghe knew that at that time, Zhou Chengkang was taken to the mountains by his eldest brothers and got lost. He begged the villagers to look for him but they failed to find him.
"They have arrived." Elder brother Zhou opened the curtain and came in. Mrs. Zhou heard the words and greeted them with a smile.
The remaining people looked at each other and finally went out.
It was similar to the last time, when only the young boy, He Hoe, his mother, and the matchmaker came.
This time the matchmaker was specially invited, and after they were seated, fifth sister Zhou served them tea and then was sent to the courtyard again.
The woman was in her forties, her maiden name was Liu, and her eyes were provocative as she watched her fifth sister's back disappear at the door and laughed, "This fifth child is sixteen this year, right?"
"Yes." Mrs. Zhou smiled gently, "I only have this one daughter and she lived a hard life. She doesn't go to work in the field, but she is quite sensible. She never lets me do any work around the house. In my life, I'm just waiting for her marriage to be settled, and then I'll be at ease."
The meaning behind her words was obvious. She implied that the fifth sister Zhou will not be able to do any work in the field and will do only the housework. She hoped that the woman in front of her would treat the fifth sister the same way she treated her.
Mrs. Liu's smile stiffened, "I also have a daughter and I want to raise her well but my family owns a lot of land and we are usually quite busy with fieldwork. Every autumn harvest, we collect two thousand catties of grains. My eldest daughter-in-law is a niece from my mother's family. She married into our family during the autumn harvest period. As soon as she changed out of her wedding clothes, she went to work in the field. This spring plowing, it rained a lot a few days ago, and now she is sick ...."
Their daughter-in-law was busy with work and sick, so who would dare to marry their daughter into this family?
At this point, it was evident that the marriage was impossible to happen.
Sure enough, Mrs. Liu soon bid farewell, and the matchmaker also understood the situation. Mrs. Zhou sent them out on her own.
When fifth sister Zhou came in from outside, Li Qinghe asked with a smile, "How was it?"
"He seems to have someone in his heart, but unfortunately his mother doesn't agree, so what else?" She wasn't the least bit sad or upset.
After Mrs. Zhou entered the door, she sighed, "Take your time and we will look for someone again."
Li Fu finally recovered from his illness in April. He hadn't chopped wood in the past two years, so every day he went to cut wood. He also caught two chickens for Li Qinghe at home. It could be seen that he was looking forward to his grandchild.
Even if he went to chop the wood, he took Mrs. Qian to the mountains.
At the end of April, news came from the county that Qian Laixing had passed the exam.
Luoyue Town had not had a scholar for many years, and Mrs. You was very happy. As soon as the news arrived, she told each family that on April 28, her family was hosting a banquet, and wanted everyone to participate in their happiness.
Qian Laixing won the talent, but for the villagers, it was just a matter of congratulation. For the Qian family though, it was a big, happy event. Even Mrs. Qian was very excited about this news, that the next morning, when she came to Li Qnghe's house with Li Fu to find Zhou Chengkang to go up the mountain with her, she laughed and said, "My sister-in-law is very happy now. After so many years, he had finally passed. After all these years he had helped his brother, it can be regarded as worth the wait."
Actually, she was the only one who was happy. Li Qinghe, Zhou Chengkang, and even Li Fu didn't have the feeling of being relatives with a scholar. After all, they were unfamiliar with him.
After walking out of the courtyard, and seeing Yu Yan's new house behind Li Qinghe's house, Mrs. Qian couldn't help but say, "A few days ago, Miss Yu still didn't agree to this marriage."
Li Qinghe wanted to say that even if there was no Min Rui, Yu Yan would have still rejected the marriage proposal. She then asked," Did brother-in-law pass?"
Hearing this, Mrs. Qian's smile stiffened, and she sighed, "His fortune is not good." She became happy again, "It's just now that Laixing passed, he will give him some pointers and he will definitely pass next year."
She was happy. Li Fu glanced at her and said, "You also know that Qinghe hired people to plant the land this year, and she will take half of the harvest at that time. If they come back again, there won't be any food to eat. If they want to live here again they will have to give three taels of silver per month."
Mrs. Qian's smile stiffened, "You are kidding? Qinghe didn't ask you to give her the harvest even if she helped plant the land, that's to show her filial piety. Isn't it, Qinghe?"
She looked at Li Qinghe and asked the last sentence.
Li Fu lifted his feet to step up the mountain. His feet were steady. He said,'' At the beginning, I gave two dowries but only received filial piety from one. Wanwan has been married for so long, and I haven't even received any clothes from her, but she came back to eat for more than half a year. This father thinks he's done well enough!"
"If they want to come back to eat, they must pay for the meal!"