“Haha, this child is sensible and likable, and she doesn’t make a fuss. She’ll be easy to raise!” Miao Cui Lan said with a smile.
“Haha, just raise her then. At most you’ll have to fork out another set of dowry!”
Miao Cui Lan felt upset in her heart and said, “The future is hard to say, who knows if this child is blessed and will bless us as well?”
Aunt Li secretly scorned. As if a waste could let them enjoy any blessings! However, she said while faking a smile, “That’s true. That’s true. Who knows right? We shall see in the future! But this little baby is really good looking, when she grows up and becomes a beauty, she can be married off as a concubine to a wealthy family…”
“Sister Li!” When Miao Cui Lan heard her words, her expression dampened and she said with a hint of coldness, “We are decent folks. Such sinful words shouldn’t be said! And such immoral action must never be done!”
Aunt Li suddenly remembered that years ago, Miao Cui Lan was forced by her father and stepmother to be a concubine to a wealthy family.
Back then, she stubbornly opposed and stole the marriage contract from her father. She then used it to hire a matchmaker and was matched with Lu Zhong who moved into the village recently and was staying alone.
When her father and stepmother knew about it, it was already too late. They were enraged and they cut ties with her afterwards. For many years, they have not been in contact!
Just last year, her father passed away and she went to attend his funeral. She was stopped by her stepmother and her stepbrother at the doorstep, who demanded five silvers as a gift for the deceased. From what she had heard, her stepmother had been complaining that the amount received was too little.
Aunt Li initially wanted to annoy Miao Cui Lan which was why she deliberately said those words. Who knew that she had triggered Miao Cui Lan’s painful past. At that moment, she felt embarrassed and she forced a smile, “You’re right! Decent households like us must never have such a thought!”
Lu Zheng was already furious in her heart and she scolded Aunt Li continuously. This wicked lady is abhorrent. Marrying into a big wealthy family as a concubine? Her daughter should be the one destined to be a concubine instead! Who dares to take me, Ta Lu Zheng, as concubine! Whoever dares to must have the life to even do so! What a b*stard!
Suddenly, Lu Zheng felt like peeing and she gladly let it go.
A damp and hot stream of water soaked into the clothes of Aunt Li which made her shriek. She quickly stood up and put down the swaddled baby.
The smell of the urine was obvious. When she looked down at herself, she saw her date-red clothes dampened with wet patches and her expression soon turned ugly.
Lu Qi blinked and giggled before bursting into laughter.
Miao Cui Lan had been secretly scolding Aunt Li for making sarcastic comments for the entire morning. Adding to the fact that she had spoken about “marrying to a big wealthy family as a concubine” which reminded her of her emotional pain, she was very unhappy about it. Upon seeing how the little baby peed on her, Miao Cui Lan could not help but scolded Aunt Li secretly in her heart: you deserved it! When she saw her son burst into laughter, she had to put on a straight face and glared at him, “No manners! Quick, go and take a clean diaper for your sister!”
“Yes!” Lu Qi shrank his head and slipped away.
“This child isn’t sensible. Aunt Li, please do not blame her!” Miao Cui Lan smiled at Aunt Li while unravelling the swaddled baby.
“It’s okay! It’s okay!” Aunt Li pulled her clothes in disgust but squeezed a smile on her face. What could she say? Could she blame a baby?
At this moment, they heard Lu Xiao Xue crying. Both Miao Cui Lan and Aunt Li turned their heads to look at the same time.
It turned out that Xiao Yu had pried away Xiao Xue’s fingers to snatch the doll from her hands. Xiao Xue was only seven-months-old, while Xiao Yu was already two years old. Could she be an opponent for Xiao Yu? Her doll was snatched from her hands, hence, she started crying.
“Aiyo! Stop fighting! Stop fighting!” Miao Cui Lan and Aunt Li shouted at the same time and quickly went over.
When the two mothers finally separated the two children by carrying them away from each other, Xiao Xue was still sobbing. Her face was flustered and filled with tears. On the other hand, Xiao Yu was giggling and waving the doll that she had successfully snatched over.
Miao Cui Lan felt distressed and sorry for her daughter. She carried her and gently patted her to console her. No matter how angry she was, she could not help her daughter snatch back the doll from Xiao Yu!
When Aunt Li saw how Xiao Xue was crying badly, she suddenly felt embarrassed and persuaded her daughter, “Good girl, let’s give back the doll to your sister, Xiao Xue, okay?”
Aunt Li was still disgusted by the fact that her body reeked of urine.
“No! I want to play this!” Xiao Yu quickly hid her hands behind her back and looked at her mother with her eyes wide with alertness.
Aunt Li looked towards Miao Cui Lan, hoping for Miao Cui Lan to give her a leeway by letting them take the doll home. Who knew that Miao Cui Lan did not say a single word. She simply lowered her head and kept coaxing her daughter who was in her arms.
Aunt Li could not help but get angry. She then said to her daughter, “Good girl, quickly return the doll to sister Xiao Xue. Our house has a doll too, let us go back and play!”
“No! I don’t want to!” It was not easy for Xiao Yu to snatch over the doll. There was no way she would return it so easily.
“Even so, you’ve to give it back! How can you bully your sister when you are already so big?” Aunt Li was annoyed. Her face darkened and she spanked Xiao Yu’s butt twice. Without hesitation, she snatched the doll from her daughter’s hands and returned it to Xiao Xue.
Xiao Yu was dumbfounded, and she soon burst into tears.
“Why are you crying! Stop crying! Look at how disobedient you are!” Aunt Li became even more annoyed and fiercely chided. She then quickly said goodbye to Miao Cui Lan and carried her daughter out of the door.
After the scene caused by Aunt Li, Lu Zheng was finally recognized by both her new father and mother as the Lu family’s third child.
Since she was picked up on a summer day, they named her Lu Xiao Shu (little summer).
Miao Cui Lan sternly said to her husband, “We are keeping this girl, but you have to get it clear, Xiao Xue is Xiao Xue, and she is she. Xiao Xue is our biological daughter! We’ll wait until this girl grows slightly older, then we’ll tell her that she is adopted and not our biological daughter.”
“Cui Lan!” Lu Zhong helplessly called, “Isn’t this going to hurt the child!”
“We aren’t abusing or tormenting her. What is there to be sad about?” Miao Cui Lan disagreed and said, “I’m just afraid! I’m afraid of raising an ungrateful child! We have to let her know her position when she is still young! By doing so, it’ll save everyone from trouble, don’t you agree?”
Lu Zhong was at a loss of words for a while and said with a bitter smile, “You’ve thought quite thoroughly ahead!”
Miao Cui Lan replied, “Of course! Otherwise, we will have nowhere to cry if things really happen! Wouldn’t we be the ones wronged!”
Lu Zhong found what she said amusing. He could not help but nod and sigh, “Alright, alright! Since you’ve already decided, then I have nothing more to say!” He took a glance at Lu Zheng — no, she should be called Lu Xiao Shu now, and said with a smile, “We cannot always think about the bad side, who knows, maybe she will be sensible and filial to us when she grows up!”
Miao Cui Lan immediately countered with confidence, “That should be the case, shouldn’t it? We have no relations with her, yet we still raised her. She definitely has to be sensible and filial to us!”
Lu Zhong was speechless and could only surrender with a smile, “Okay, okay, okay. Whatever you say!”
Of course, Lu Xiao Shu overheard their conversation. In fact, she agreed to most of what they said. Only this way would everyone be relieved from the huge burden.
When she grows up, she would think of ways to repay them before leaving carefreely to explore the world.
She was not someone who would just accept her fate and obediently get married in her early teenage years. She would rather be stabbed and die if that were the case!
Lu Xiao Shu thought about it and felt great about it. She then unconsciously fell asleep. She had completely forgotten about her biological parents’ promise to bring her back in the future.
Since then, she finally settled down officially.
The Lu family situation was not bad. They made a living mainly by making beancurd.
The beancurd produced by the Lu family were well-known by the villages around. The couple were honest, kind, and never scheming. On top of that, they had received guidance from a teacher called Mr Wu and mastered the technique to make hard beancurd and beancurd skin. Their business was good and they often had to hire part-time workers.
The hard beancurd and beancurd skin would be made three times a month and sold when they brought them to town at the market, As for the fresh and soft beancurd, it would be made on a daily basis.
In the late afternoon after everything was done, Miao Cui Lan wore a clean apron and carried a pole with baskets and took a fixed route around several villages to sell the beancurd. When it was near nightfall, her husband would have prepared dinner, and she would wash her hands and take a rest before having her dinner.
Sometimes, when the business was good, she would come home early to accompany her daughter in the courtyard or chide her disobedient son. There were times when she would feel unwell, and Lu Zhong would carry the pole with baskets to go out and sell.
The days passed by repetitively. Because it was predictable which village she would be at a certain period of the day, it was impossible for people who wanted to purchase the beancurd to miss her. Everyday, she could finish selling a pole with four layers of beancurd stacked in the baskets. Sometimes, when some families wanted to buy more, they would make an order beforehand and when the order was ready, she would bring it over to them.
In the evening, the house had an unexpected guest. The courtyard gate was pushed open, and Lu Xiao Shu heard her brother, Lu Qi, exclaim excitedly, “Mr Wu! Mr Wu! You came! Wah, those are nice pheasants! Mr Wu, you went hunting again!”
Soon there was a burst of chuckles and a man said in a deep and low voice, “Oh? Little thing, it seems like you’ve grown taller in a few days’ time!”
Lu Qi hurriedly said, “Mr Wu, Mr Wu, can you bring me to go hunting when I grow up some more?”
“Mr Wu!” Lu Zhong and Miao Cui Lan came out of the house and greeted him with a smile.
Miao Cui Lan glared at Lu Qi and reprimanded, “You only know how to play. Why can’t you become more sensible? You should’ve asked Mr Wu to impart some knowledge to you instead!”
Lu Qi shranked his neck and did not dare make a sound, but he felt dissatisfied and thought to himself: Mr Wu has the knowledge and can still hunt… Can’t I learn how to hunt first…
