The people who came were all close relatives and friends, but no one even mentioned Mrs. Qian. All of them said that the two were a perfect match, and they also expressed wishes for a bright future for the couple.
When Li Fu and Mrs. Qian got married, they didn't celebrate the occasion with such enthusiasm. At that time, Li Kui didn't give his blessings to the marriage, and he even threatened that he would disown him if they went against his wishes. All their neighbors and relatives scolded them and didn't give them any of their blessings.
Later as time went by, they changed their attitudes. At first glance, it seemed as if everyone was slowly accepting of them, but reality was very different. Li Qinghe remembered the people who were really close and sincere to her family.
It just so happened that her child started crying, and as there were so many people today, it was quite difficult to get to the kitchen to cook porridge. Li Qinghe took the child to her room and planned to breastfeed the baby in private. While reaching her room, she had to pass through Zhao Wanwan's room.The door was left open, and a young girl was making the bed inside.
She suddenly recalled the possibility that the little girl could be Liu Nizi’s daughter. Since the mother and daughter were homeless, and now that Liu Nizi had become a part of the family, she must have brought her daughter along with her.
When she was about to pass by outside the room, the girl inside noticed her and quickly came out of the room. She was a little nervous, as she said, "I...... are you sister Qinghe?"
Li Qinghe nodded. Her son was crying so much that she waved her hand, and said, "I am a little occupied right now, let's talk later."
After speaking, she hurriedly carried the child to the next room. After a quarter of an hour, the child fell asleep. After she got married, she had not come back to live in her room. There was no mattress on her bed, so it was impossible to sleep there. She was thinking about letting Zhou Changkang take the child back to their house.
As soon as she walked out of the room, she saw that the girl was standing near the door. She looked shy and full of nervousness. When she saw Li Qinghe open the door, she quickly asked, "Sister, do you need help?" Seeing the child was asleep, she suggested, "Why don't you put him to sleep in my room?"
Zhou Chengkang was busy talking to the guests, so to ask him to leave at this time was not a good idea. Li Qinghe nodded and put the child on her newly made bed. She chuckled and said, "I'll have to pick him up as soon as he wakes up, or else he will wet the bed."
"It doesn't really matter." The girl smiled shyly, "My mother calls me Zhaodi by the way."
Who would name their child Zhaodi?
*t/n: The name, Zhaodi was given to a child hoping the family's next child would be a son.
"Sister, you can go ahead, I'll guard the room. It doesn't matter if he wets the bed. My bed..." She reached out to touch it, "it has never been so soft before."
Li Qinghe was dumbfounded but walked out with her, "Then, I guess I'll have to trouble you for a bit."
Li Qinghe could clearly see that the girl was very grateful for all the things that were happening. The girl was timid, but not like Zhao Wanwan, who hid whenever something bad happened, nor did she dare to speak in front of people.
Seeing that she was sincerely willing to guard the room, Li Qinghe couldn't help but break a smile, "all the people outside will be your neighbors in the future. Let's go out and greet them."
From beginning to end, Li Qinghe didn't show any distance or strangeness toward Zhaodi. Her actions were normal as if Zhaodi was really her sister. Zhaodi remembered the days when she was often scolded, and couldn't help but smile, "Sister, you are so kind."
Li Qinghe was surprised, "I'm good, huh?"
Zhaodi nodded, "Well, since I was a child, no one has ever spoken to me so gently except Mother."
As they were talking they walked out of the room and turned around to close the door.
When Zhao Wanwan entered the Li family's courtyard, the scene she saw was of Li Qinghe talking gently to a young girl under the eaves. Her heart turned slightly sour when she remembered how Li Qinghe was also gentle with her, and how she bought her hairpins, and even helped her to find a job.
Seeing Zhao Wanwan entering the courtyard, everyone in the courtyard ignored her existence. Only Mrs. Quan went ahead to greet her, "Wanwan, what are you doing here?"
It sounded gentle, but there was also a sense of suspicion and questioning in her voice. Zhao Wanwan looked at the two sisters under the eaves again. She did not answer her question, turned around, and ran away.
The corner of Mrs. Quan's mouth evoked a mocking smile. Mrs. Qian was embarrassed to come herself, and instead urged her daughter to go to Li Fu's house, but unfortunately for her, the daughter she raised was a coward.
By late afternoon, after the lunch the guests began to bid their goodbyes, and the close ones stayed behind to help and clean the dishes and courtyard.
Liu Nizi and Zhaodi were already cleaning the insides of the house. By the time they tidied the house internally, the guests were almost all gone, so they then began to clean the courtyard.
Li Qinghe also helped them with the cleaning. When Zhaodi ent to the kitchen to clean there, since many people were cleaning the courtyard.
Li Qinghe was slightly relieved after she saw that this little girl was very diligent.. As long as they were not the kind of people who would create trouble, or like the people who would fight at least once every two or three days, they could live a good life. Everything seemed so fine now.
Before they left, Li Fu told Li Qinghe, "Come over for breakfast tomorrow morning. It will be just our family."
The following day when she returned to the Li house, there was no ruckus in the courtyard. It was as quiet as before but the only difference was that there were washed clothes neatly hanging outside in the sun.
When Liu Nizi walked out of the kitchen, she saw her entering the courtyard, and said with a smile, "Qinghe, when did you arrive?. Sit down for a while, breakfast will be served soon."
Li Fu was making tea inside the house, and Zhaodi was cleaning the table. When she saw Li Qinghe, she quickly greeted her and helped her sit.
Sitting in the house with the baby in her arms, Li Qinghe felt that this experience was quite unique. This was the first time since she came back that she could patiently wait for a meal without doing anything in return. She asked, "Is uncle's family coming too?"
Li Fu reached out to hold the child, "I asked Linhua to send the food to their house. They will not come here as they are quite busy these two days."
Who is Linhua?
Seeing the doubt in her eyes, Li fu smiled and said, "What kind of a name is Zhao Di? It doesn't sound good. Besides, our family doesn't need a younger child anymore. A girl's name should be as beautiful as a flower, so I decided to call her Linhua. From now on, her name will be Liu Linhua."
Li Qinghe lowered her eyes, wondering if she was overthinking it, but Li Fu seemed to be deliberately hinting it to her that he did not want any more children and so he did not intend to include Zhaodi in the family.
However, Zhaodi was indeed not a good name, so it was better to change it anyway.
The atmosphere at the dining table was good. After the meal was finished and the dishes and chopsticks were washed, the family sat together and drank tea. Mrs. Liu smiled and said, "I have to trouble you in a few days. Linhua is engaged, and I will need you to come back and help me with the wedding."
"Which family?" Li Qinghe was not surprised. Liu Linhua was different from Zhao Wanwan, who was raised by Li Fu since she was a child. Linhua was a young girl who just arrived at their house, and it would not be good for her if she lived there for a long time.
"He is from our village." Mrs. Liu said with a smile, "I don't have to give dowry and he doesn't have to give the bride price. He is a good person."
"It was also your great aunt who did the matchmaking. Zhao Dashan lives behind her house with his sister. Have you heard of him?"
Li Qinghe nodded, "I have heard of him."
Zhao Dashan would be a really good match but he didn't have a house and land, plus he also had a sister, who dragged him down to ruins. In the beginning, fifth sister Zhou would blush when she talked about him, but then she never heard her talk about him again.
"I know he doesn't have anything, but then again, neither does Linhua." Mrs. Liu stroked her hair, "We used to get so fed up with having a lot of people in the house, so it would be nice to have fewer people in the house."
Although they can be considered sisters, they were not familiar with each other. Hence Li Qinghe did not say anything else. Besides, the marriage had already been decided, so it was superfluous to say anything in this matter.
The weather gradually warmed up. After Mrs. Liu got married to Li Fu, Li Qinghe occasionally visited Li's house to check up on them, only to find out that the two of them were living well. There were hot meals three times a day, the house was clean, and Li Fu was well-organized in his life now too, so she wasn't worried.
The baby was getting older, and Zhou Chengkang finally gave the baby a name. Earlier, he mainly didn't know what to name him, and he kept dragging it. The third generation of the Zhou family had the name "Xi' so he named his son Xiyu.
During this period, they didn't have to do much farm work. Other than taking care of her son, Li Qinghe had nothing else to do. She was bored at home. She planned to take her son out more to meet new people, but the village was a bit far from their house, and other than Zhou and Li families she was not familiar with others. Then again, just because she was free did not necessarily mean other people were free as well.
So, she went to Yu Yan's house. Yu Yan was in the last weeks of her pregnancy and she could give birth at any moment. Hence, recently Min Rui didn't go anywhere and would only go to feed the chickens and pigs and stayed with her for the rest of the time.
They didn't have to feed the chickens together initially, but Yu Yan started to feed the chickens to give her pregnant body some exercise.
Yu Yan was embroidering flower patterns on the cloth when Li Qinghe arrived at her house with Zhou Xiyu. So naturally, she halted embroidering.
"That means, your step-sister's marriage is already set up and she will be getting married in May?"
Li Qinghe nodded, "It's good to get married."
"It's really good." Yu Yan agreed as she watched Xiyu drink the porridge and teased, "He is not a big child, but he sure eats a lot."
"He'll be hungry soon." Even three days and nights would not be enough when talking about children, "And he needs to eat as soon as he gets hungry, or else he will cry from the top of his lungs. You'll know later."
Yu Yan lightly hummed, "I am certain that my daughter will be a good, coquettish daughter, one who will be gentle and soft." As she spoke, her eyes glowed with light, which gradually turned into tears.
Li Qinghe looked dumbfounded, "Hey, you don't have to......" Is this something worth crying about?
Yu Yan looked back at her with tears in her eyes, "Qinghe, I'm not looking forward to it... I'm in pain......"
After saying that, she took a deep breath, but tears continued to stream down her face. Holding her stomach in her hands, in a trembling voice, she said, "Hurry up, call Min Rui......"
Li Qinghe carried the baby out and hurriedly went to the backyard and found Min Rui, "Yan'er is about to give birth, go and watch quickly. I'll ask Chengkang to help you find a midwife."
When she was going to her house with the baby, Min Rui hurriedly said, "Sister-in-law, find a doctor, please." The sound of his voice was getting farther and farther away, indicating that he had already run towards the house.
Yu Yan was in labor and was screaming in pain. In Yu Yan's kitchen, Li was busy boiling a pot of water and making soup for her. She could hear Yu Yan's voice through the walls, and most of her words were scolding Min Rui.
It was only at midnight that she heard a child cry after hearing her screams for so long. Only after hearing the child cry did Li Qinghe fall asleep peacefully.
The next morning, Li Qinghe went to see her. At that time, she was sitting on the head of the bed with a swaddle on her lap, with a look of disgust on her face. Seeing her enter the door, her eyes are inexplicable, "Qinghe, I longed for a fragrant and soft daughter, but...... I had a boy with Mi Rui, can I handle him?"
Quite sad indeed.
Li Qinghe felt that it was an idle situation, so she comforted her insincerely, "He'll be good when he grows up in the future."
"You're just answering perfunctorily." Yu Yan gave her a look.
"Just have another baby later." The words were said by the third aunt Li who was bringing in the soup. She smiled and entered the room, gave the soup to her daughter, and picked up the child. Then she remembered something, and said, "Qing He, when I came over this morning, I heard that Wanwan's husband has passed the county exam and became a scholar."
Passed?
She didn't expect that he would pass the exam this time. The two had been living in Zhao's house for over a year now and they had to go through a lot of trouble. She heard about them quarreling every two days. It seemed that after experiencing hardships they had tasted the sweetness of life.
"Yes, I heard that the mayor received the document and the news has been spread all over the town." The third aunt Li sighed,"There may still be hope for life if one studies diligently. Wanwan is a lucky girl. She is now a scholar's wife and in the future, if they also receive an official title and then she will become the official's wife."
Yu Yan finished the soup and muttered, "What's the big deal about being an official's wife." And then uneasily said, "Godmother, you must not say this in front of Min Rui, he can't hear this."