When I woke up in the early morning, the weather was a little cool and there was a light dew.
People began their morning's work, watering the vegetables and weeding the fields before the sun rose, and checking on the rice in the fields to see how it was ripening.
Lin Qiyue got up early in the morning and heard sounds from the kitchen outside. She realized she couldn't sleep any longer and should get up.
After changing my clothes, I came out of the room.
Li Xiaoxiao and Li Xia busied themselves in the kitchen.
"Sister Qiyue, are you up?" Li Xia was cooking with her back to Lin Qiyue.
When Li Xiaoxiao helped add fuel to the fire and saw Lin Qiyue come out, she immediately greeted Lin Qiyue with a dimpled smile.
Lin Qiyue responded with a smile, "Xiaoxiao, Sister Li Xia, good morning!"
"July, are you up? Did you sleep well?" Li Xia is used to working at home, so she also gets up very early.
Li Xia looked preoccupied today.
Li Xiaoxiao was also keeping a close eye on Li Xia!
"Sister Xia, did something happen? You look so troubled." She seemed downcast, and her eyes looked swollen from crying.
"It's nothing, I just got up early and maybe I haven't had enough sleep yet!" Li Xia didn't dare to look Lin Qiyue in the eye and kept working.
Knowing that she wouldn't tell, Lin Qiyue pulled Li Xiaoxiao out and asked in a low voice, "Xiaoxiao, what happened to your sister?"
Li Xiaoxiao fiddled with her fingers, glanced back at her sister, and then looked down again.
"My sister told me not to tell!"
She also started to feel a little wronged, but her sister wouldn't let her say it, and neither would her father.
She didn't want to cause trouble for Yu Chu and Qi Yue, but thinking about what her sister had gone through made her want to cry.
"Tell Sister Qiyue that I'll pretend I don't know anything, okay?" Lin Qiyue asked curiously when she heard that the child was crying.
Li Xiaoxiao wiped away the tears that hadn't yet fallen, turned around to watch her sister work, and then pulled Lin Qiyue to the gate outside the courtyard.
“My sister is getting married to someone in the city. That person is a relative of Wan Laosan. My mother was sick and we borrowed a lot of money. They want our family to pay it back, but we don’t have that much money. They said that Wan Laosan’s relative can provide the bride price.”
Li Xiaoxiao may seem young, but she actually knows everything.
She knew her sister had to sacrifice her own happiness for the sake of this family.
The more she talked, the more upset she became.
This morning, the matchmaker came to propose marriage, saying he should have a day to consider it.
Upon hearing this, Lin Qiyue wiped away Li Xiaoxiao's tears and comforted her, "Don't be afraid, with Sister Qiyue here, it won't happen."
"Really? My sister cried for a long time just now." Li Xiaoxiao looked at July sincerely. She knew that only her sister could save their family.
Lin Qiyue felt heartbroken seeing the child crying.
"It's alright, everything will be resolved once my brothers return," Lin Qiyue continued to comfort them.
At this moment, Gu Qiuning and Li Shuan returned.
"Sister, I'm back!" Gu Qiuning was carrying a big bag of delicious food and was covered in dirt.
She excitedly ran to Lin Qiyue, showed her the delicious food, and shared her happy news: "Sister, let me tell you, I went into the mountains with Brother Li yesterday."
"What?" Lin Qiyue was shocked. Looking at Gu Qiuning and Hai Dongcheng's disheveled appearance, covered in mud from head to toe, she broke out in a cold sweat. "They went into the mountains and didn't come back all night?"
"Hehe!" Gu Qiuning and Hai Dongcheng chuckled, scratching the back of their heads.
Li Qu couldn't help but tease, "Sister Qiyue, those two are really not afraid of danger at all! They secretly followed us and didn't want to come back. They insisted on going to the city with us and only came back after it was all over."
Lin Qiyue kept an eye on them; they were really a handful.
Feeling guilty, Gu Qiuning hid directly behind Li Shuan.
Seeing that she had become timid at this moment, Li Shuan smiled faintly, but the smile quickly disappeared.
"Oh, little sister, we're fine. What are you afraid of? We're back now, aren't we?" Hai Dongcheng quickly broke the awkward silence when he saw Lin Qiyue's fierce expression.
"That's ridiculous! There are not only mosquitoes in the mountains, but also snakes and other dangerous animals. Luckily, she survived!" Lin Qiyue said angrily. "How could you let Qiu Ning, a girl, go?"
She wasn't feudalistic. Lan Yuchu told him that Gu Qiuning was the daughter of a leader in Qingcheng. If something happened to her, how would they explain it to others? The entire Li family wouldn't be enough to compensate for it.
"Sister, I was wrong!" Gu Qiuning immediately admitted her mistake, showing a pitiful expression.
Seeing that she had already admitted her mistake, Lin Qiyue didn't say anything more.
"Brother Li, I have something to tell you, about that..."
"Everyone's here, Brother Li?" A woman's voice came at this moment.
She was a woman with two braids, who looked to be in her early twenties and quite pretty.
Lin Qiyue looked at her and felt that she seemed familiar. She seemed to have seen this person in the original owner's memories.
When Li Shuan saw her, his eyes dimmed slightly.
When the woman came over and saw the delicate woman next to Li Shuan, she immediately felt displeased.
"Who is this?" Gu Qiuning asked curiously.
This woman doesn't seem very friendly.
“This is Tu Cuilan from the next village.” Li Qu looked at her with disgust.
A vain woman abandoned her brother and married another man.
The two families had clearly agreed to the engagement and the betrothal gifts had been exchanged, but later, because her brother was injured and his legs were weak, she changed her mind and broke off the engagement.
This was understandable, but of the 300 yuan dowry that had been borrowed from everyone in the village, only 50 yuan was returned.
This resulted in the family not only having to pay off debts, but also not having enough to eat. As a result, the mother's health deteriorated due to insufficient nutrition, and she eventually passed away.
"What are you doing here?" Li Shuan asked coldly.
Tu Cuilan said with a smile, "I'll give them the betrothal gifts. Sister Li Xia has already agreed to marry our Tu family's second brother and become his wife. They've agreed to give three hundred yuan as a betrothal gift. That way, we can pay back the money to the Wan family."
The tone was condescending, as if bestowing charity.
“Our family doesn’t owe the Wan family any money.” Upon hearing this, Li Qu’s face turned extremely pale. They owed money to many people, but they didn’t owe the Wan family any money.
Tu Cuilan's eyes flashed with a hint of mockery as she said sarcastically, "The Wan family has paid back all the money you owed. Now you only owe them three hundred yuan. The Wan family said that if you can't pay it back in three days, they'll raise the interest to one yuan per day."
"What?" Li Qu was furious. He pointed at Tu Cuilan and said, "Who is the second son of the Tu family? He's a gambler who has married three wives. Two of them are dead, and one has gone mad. Are you trying to push my sister into a fire pit?"
He was so angry that he was about to confront him, but Li Shuan stopped him.
My younger brother is going to join the army, and absolutely nothing can happen to him.
"Even if it's a repayment, it doesn't matter how much the price increases, we will absolutely not marry him. We would never do such a thing. Go back and tell the Tu family to give up on this idea."
Even if he were to die from exhaustion or starvation, he would never marry his sister to suffer.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
