The man's eyes were both anxious and joyous as he looked at her. "Qinghe, is your injury okay?"
Li Qinghe's eyes moved from his slender legs to his anxious eyes, and was startled when she saw joy in his eyes. She quickly replied, "It's not a big problem, I’ll simply take a rest to recuperate."
Seeing her lower her head again, Zhou Chengkang calmed down, and turned his face away before tentatively asking, "What did the Xu family say? Did their family agree to the marriage proposal?"
The matter of proposing marriage was of her previous life. This time, even if Xu's mother was interested, Li Qinghe wouldn’t accept it at all. Where would there be any talk of marriage?
... Those two short questions revealed too much news.
Li Qinghe was shocked. If it were not for her head being down, the expression on her face would’ve shown how extremely surprised she was. It took a long time before she barely managed to calm down.
Zhou Chengkang wanted to get close to her, but he was afraid of scaring her. He was entangled with an anxious heart, and barely restrained himself before continuing, "Qinghe, there are some things that you don't know. The Xu family is not a good place to go to. That Xu Changjie is gentle and elegant on the surface but in reality he is cold-blooded and ruthless. He already has a sweetheart, it’s just that the girl's parents do not agree to their marriage. If you don't believe it, I will show you!"
This was surprising. Could it be that Xu Changjie was already secretly together with Yang Lanrou?
"What do you think?" Li Qinghe asked slowly.
Listening to her answer, Zhou Chengkang heaved a sigh of relief. "When your injury gets better, I will take you to town to see it with your own eyes... It's just that you are recovering from your injury right now. If the Xu family sends Xiăodìng, don't take it if you trust me!"
Li Qinghe responded and said in a low voice, "I just recuperated recently and will not see outsiders."
Zhou Chengkang was satisfied. He took out a 100ml ointment from his sleeves, and handed it over carefully before nervously saying, "I bought this from the medical center in town. I heard that it has a miraculous effect on scars. Would you like to try it?"
Li Qinghe stretched out her hand and took it cautiously, as if receiving a heart she held it up carefully.
Zhou Chengkang was satisfied. Out of the corner of his eyes, he caught Father Li's unkind gaze and said hurriedly, "Then I'll go back first. See you tomorrow."
Li Qinghe sent him to the gate of the yard and watched him go away.
Zhao Wanwan came over and whispered, "Sister, your injury is not good, my mother told you to go back and rest." When she said this, she was very nervous for fear that Qinghe would become angry.
Li Qinghe didn't like her stepmother before, because she felt that she had forced her mother away. The marriage between Li Fu and his original wife, Xǔ, was like a drama. Li Fu and the Qian family’s daughter grew up together in the same village. After they were a little older, both youths held sentimental feelings, and only waited for the elders to start negotiating when they got older.
But can everything in the world be satisfactory?
The Qian family had a younger son who was a decade younger than her. The Qian family had first given birth to a daughter, and they had asked and worshipped Buddha before they got a son. Naturally, they spoiled him a lot. After he got a little older, they sent him to school. But the farmer thought, how is it easy to provide for a scholar?
The couple got up early and went to bed late, and even their daughter's betrothal gift was priced very high. Li Fu couldn't marry her anymore because he did not have enough money. The Qian’s daughter was beautiful, so someone was willing to give the betrothal gift to marry her.
When the beautiful woman married another person, Li Fu was naturally sad, and the Li family members also began to talk about his marriage. Seeing that he was enamored with Qian, they assumed that it was because of her good appearance. So, the people around him chose Xǔ, who was equally good-looking. One year later, she gave birth to their daughter, Li Qinghe.
Since the two childhood sweethearts have been married separately, if they had ordinary families, they would not possibly meet again in their lifetime.
But Zhao Jialang, who was married to Mrs. Qian, was a drunkard. He loved to beat people when he was drunk. He also hooks up with the widows in the village. Somehow, he was able to kick the Qian family out, including the daughter her wife gave birth to.
As for Li Fu's side, after Mrs. Xǔ gave birth to Li Qinghe, Mrs. Zhang, who was the town's clothing business owner, had no milk and wanted to hire a breastfeeding nanny who has large amount of milk. Mrs. Xǔ's appearance was good, and her body was clean. She stood out from the crowd of peasant women who wanted to be a nanny and became the Zhang family’s nanny for four silvers a month. Four coins of silver with food and housing included, was already a very good job in Luoyue Town.
So, Mrs. Xǔ left her young daughter at home and would only come back once a month. Li Fu looked after the young Li Qinghe alone, but it was very difficult so Mrs. Qian often came to help. The two weren’t able to help themselves...
After that, wife Xǔ somehow hooked up with the Zhang family’s master. After the husband and wife discussed between themselves, they contacted the village chief to testify, and divorced!
Since then, Mrs. Xǔ has been in the town, and Li Fu and Mrs. Qian finally got married, and really dare not write like this.
Both of them have reached consummation, but Li Qinghe suffered. When they had reconciled, she was only six years old, an ignorant age.
At that time, she felt that if it were not for Mrs. Qian, Mrs. Xǔ would not have gone to town to be a nanny. Therefore, no matter how Mrs. Qian treated her since childhood, she was cold-eyed, and sometimes angry; she would say something hurtful whenever she got angry.
Li Qinghe's face remain as usual as she replied, "Okay."
During her recovery period, in addition to Zhou Chengkang's occasional visits, many neighbors also came to visit, some even deliberately inquired about the Xu family's thank you gift. Many people grumbled about it.
Twelve taels of silver, not more no less.
Of course, some people secretly thought that Li Qinghe was stupid. She had saved his life, why didn't she propose marriage? Everyone knows that Xu Changjie was already eighteen this year and would have a marriage soon.
No matter how much outsiders guessed, Li Qinghe couldn’t care less about it. After seven or eight days, the wound crusted and it happened to be right on market day.
Zhou Chengkang came to pick her up early in the morning.
She could see that Zhou Chengkang was very nervous. His jaw was tight, and the smile in his eyes was almost overflowing. "I will take you to breakfast first and then take you to see."
Li Qinghe looked at the horizon and said casually, "I actually don't want to see him, I just want to go to town."
Zhou Chengkang obviously didn't believe it, but he still followed her words. "That’s fine. When you finish walking around, I will send you back."
"Thank you then." Li Qinghe wasn’t polite with him.
Zhou Chengkang's lips moved; he wanted to say not to thank him. In fact, he was looking forward to taking her out, and if possible, take her out for a lifetime.
There was a market at ten in the morning every month in Luoyue Town. If anyone in the surrounding villages needed to buy or sell things, they would go to the town at this time. Every market was very lively.
Usually, Zhou Chengkang’s carriage would pick up a lot of people along the way, all of whom would go to the town in exchange for two to three cents, but today, his carriage went straight to the town without taking anybody along the way.
When he reached the entrance of the town, he opened the curtain a little and asked, "Qinghe, are you going to see your mother?"
Thinking of her mother, Li Qinghe's smile was lighter, and her tone was bored, "Won't go for now, let’s find a place to eat breakfast first."
At the entrance of the town, they gave the carriage to someone to guard and went towards the food shops beside the road.
As they approached, Zhou Chengkang, who was in front, suddenly stopped. Li Qinghe was curious and followed his line of sight. She saw Xu Changjie sitting at a table with a girl clad in pink. The two were talking and laughing, probably not in the way ordinary men and women would do.
Zhou Chengkang suddenly turned around, and pulling at her sleeves, he said, "Let’s go to another place, or go to your mother’s house first."
Li Qinghe bypassed him and said, "We're already at the door, why bother going someplace else. They have steamed buns here, I haven't eaten them for a long time. You have already said that you will not back out of treating me. After reaching the doorway, it can’t be that you regret saying it, right?”
Zhou Chengkang couldn't laugh or cry. "How could I?" He was even willing to support her for a lifetime.
As soon as they went in, Xu Changjie raised his eyes and saw her entering. He frowned, "Why did you come here?"
Zhou Chengkang stepped forward and said unhappily, "Why can't we come? This place is not your Xu family's."
Xu Changjie's expression was not good as he was blocked.
Li Qinghe smiled, looked at Yang Lanrou and then looked at Xu Changjie again, "I'm here for breakfast, but since I met you, I can also collect the debt on the way, right?"
Upon hearing this, Xu Changjie’s expression turned really ugly. He got up and pulled Yang Lanrou to leave, but Li Qinghe didn’t let him go. She stepped forward to stop the two of them, “Master Xu, it’s been almost ten days, do you still remember the letter (evidence)? If you don’t recognize it, I’m going to the Yàmen."
Yang Lanrou frowned. "I know you’re in love with Changjie, but you shouldn’t force your feelings."
Li Qinghe sneered. It turned out that this girl already knew about the matter between her and Xu Changjie. She sarcastically said, “How bold is this girl, when did I ever have any feelings for him?”