After listening to Luo Sheng's description, Xiao Yunying said in a low voice, "So, it seems that she had ulterior motives from the very beginning when she married your older brother."

"Who knows? Anyway, she has nothing to do with my family now, so you don't need to worry about her. Take it easy; the children can't leave her anyway."

Xiao Yunying asked curiously, "Did she get married again? I don't think her hairstyle is the style of a divorced woman."

Previously, because she always wore her hair casually, Granny Chang wanted to help her style it into a bun, but she was too lazy and found it troublesome, so she gave up after a few days of trying.

But out of curiosity, she asked about the style of the hairstyle, and Granny Chang gave her a general explanation.

Women today still pay great attention to their hairstyles.

If a woman is divorced, there are certain hairstyles that cannot be styled, and hairpins and ornaments should not cover the entire head; she can only have her hair styled in a crooked way, with hairpins covering half of her head.

This is not absolute, but many people still follow it, especially in the homes of those conservative civil officials.

Therefore, Xiao Yunying's first reaction upon seeing the woman was that she was someone's wife, not a woman who had become single again after a divorce.

Luo Sheng's gaze darkened: "I heard that less than a year after her divorce, she married a fourth-rank civil official as his second wife."

"So urgent?" Xiao Yunying thought for a moment: "That's not right. Didn't she use the child in her womb to force your older brother to sign the divorce papers? Where is the child?"

She got married in less than a year, so she must have just given birth.

Whether to abandon the child or bring the child with her when she marries, wouldn't the man's family mind?

"She died in the second month after she returned home. It was said that she accidentally fell, but only she and her family know whether it was really an accident."

At this point, Luo Sheng sneered: "That civil official only married her because she could bear sons. After all, she gave birth to three sons for my elder brother, which is the only good thing about her marrying into my family."

Whether it was because she injured herself in that fall, or perhaps because she had committed some bad karma, she hadn't conceived since marrying that official. Now she was childless, while several of the official's concubines had become pregnant, making her life even more difficult in that household.

Xiao Yunying scratched her forehead; this was truly a case of trying to steal a chicken but losing the rice instead.

Luo Sheng stood up and said, "Let's rest. I'm exhausted from traveling all this time. We can talk about it tomorrow."

"good."

At night, Xiao Yunying lay on her back, her mind filled with all sorts of imagining what might happen the next day. She tossed and turned until late into the night before finally falling asleep.

She woke up early in the morning, thinking of making breakfast for the children herself.

When she woke up, Luo Sheng was no longer in the room. He would get up early every day to go out for morning exercise, a habit he had developed over many years of martial arts training.

He scratched his messy hair, stared blankly for a while, then got up, folded the blankets, got dressed, and went to wash up.

Freshly made wontons, pan-fried pies, steamed dumplings with corn and pork, and rice porridge with red dates and longan.

As the meal was about to be served, she hesitated again. When she heard people slowly entering the living room, she didn't even have the courage to peek out to see if the children had gotten up. She could only ask Meng Chun and Meng Xia to bring the food up.

She herself slowed down her work, dawdling over it.

"Oh no, we can't hear Luo Li playing with the dog anymore. Did Luo Sheng tell them about it first thing this morning?"

When she finally couldn't dawdle any longer and took out a few plates of refreshing pickled vegetables, she saw that her ex-sister-in-law was also sitting at the far end of the table. Everyone was sitting silently without saying a word, and she immediately felt a chill run down her spine.

Xiao Yunying pursed her lips, regretting once again letting this woman move in.

She roused herself, placed the small amount of pickled vegetables on the long table, and said dryly, "Let's eat."

Xiao Yunying felt she had never eaten such a depressing meal. She tried to speak up to ease the atmosphere several times, but didn't know what to say, so she could only keep her mouth shut.

If she was like this, the Duan family mother and daughter, who were staying here, couldn't stand the atmosphere at all. They quickly finished their meal, got off the table, and went back to their room.

If we were to say who was the most composed at the dinner table, it would probably be Luo Sheng. He ate leisurely and even remembered to add food to Xiao Yunying and Luo Xin's plates from time to time.

Xiao Yunying couldn't act like nothing was wrong like him. She ate a few things without tasting anything, and after feeding Luo Xin, she took the little girl off the table and told her to go play with Duan Xiaoxiao.

He then hid in the kitchen, preparing hot water for their baths while listening intently to the sounds coming from the living room.

Even after they had all finished eating, no one spoke up, making Xiao Yunying anxious and restless.

When the children hadn't returned yesterday, she worried that they would complain if she didn't let this woman stay.

Now it's completely the opposite; she's worried that the children will be angry because she let that person move in.

After the dining table was cleared away, conversations could be heard from the living room, but they were very quiet. With people burning firewood in the kitchen and washing dishes, Xiao Yunying couldn't hear what the people outside were saying at all.

When she came out with the hot tea, she saw Madam Luo and her former sister-in-law getting up to leave.

Holding the tea, she didn't know what to do. When she met the children's eyes, she swore that this was the most helpless moment she had ever experienced since she came into this world.

Fortunately, the three brothers only turned to look at her subconsciously when they heard her voice, their eyes too calm, without any other emotion.

Luo Li's eyes even held a hint of confusion, as if she didn't understand what was going on.

Xiao Yunying felt a little relieved: "Mother, have a cup of tea."

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