Sun Chengjian's eyes lit up, but Sun Siyuan frowned and subconsciously looked at Li Lao Er and the others.
In the blink of an eye, a plump woman, around forty years old and of average appearance, rushed in through the door. But the anger on her face added to her domineering and harsh demeanor.
Her red cotton dress seemed to be a way of showing off her status as the principal wife, but unfortunately, the old-fashioned gold hairpin at the back of her head not only failed to make her look noble, but was also vulgar and an eyesore.
She didn't even greet Li Lao Er, this honored guest, when she entered the room. Instead, she kicked Li's wife.
Sister-in-law Li had her back to the door and never expected to be beaten. She was suddenly kicked to the ground, screamed in pain, and hugged her daughter to hide next to Li Lao Er.
The plump woman was about to chase after him to hit him, but Sun Chengjian stopped her, pretending to scold her, "What are you doing? We have important guests here!"
Sun Siyuan felt utterly humiliated, his face flushed red. He tried his best to patiently persuade her, "Sister-in-law, this is Lord Li. He kindly brought his clansmen here to seek refuge. You mustn't be rude. Apologize quickly!"
The plump woman only glanced at Li Lao Er, ignoring Sun Siyuan, and turned to pull Sun Chengjian's ear and start cursing.
"Sun Chengjian, if you dare to bring anyone into your household, I'll take you down with me today! I have three concubines and eight children, and the rice jar is almost empty. We'll be starving tonight! You don't care at all, and you're even causing me trouble?"
As she spoke, perhaps feeling heartbroken and wronged, she plopped down on a chair next to her and began to wail loudly.
"I can't take this life anymore! I was a proper young lady from a respectable family back then, how could I have been so blind as to marry into a den of wolves! Waaah, I might as well be dead, what's the point of living!"
Sun Chengjian was pacing anxiously, as if he were afraid his wife would commit suicide, and kept trying to persuade her.
"Why are you crying? I'm not taking a concubine. It's just that my second brother's servant brought his niece to seek refuge..."
"Pah!" The fat woman spat fiercely, and cried even harder.
"Those three concubines, you said you pitied them and took them in temporarily, but in the end you all ended up in my bed! Who knows what really happened? Don't try to fool me again!"
Sun Chengjian blushed, pulled his sleeve to cover his face, and muttered, "Shut up, don't tell everyone."
Sun Siyuan was so angry he gritted his teeth, but there was nothing he could do.
Seeing that Li Lao Er's teacup was empty but he was still drinking from it, he really wanted to find a crack in the ground to crawl into.
If I had known my cousin's family was like this, I would never have come to seek refuge with them, even if I had ended up at sea.
It's one thing to embarrass oneself normally, but to resort to such petty tricks in front of Lord Li now...
Sister-in-law Li held the baby girl, and perhaps she was terrified. She crawled next to Sun Siyuan and cried her heart out.
"Master, please take me and Miss Nannan in! I regret it. If we stay with the master, we'll probably be beaten to death. I'm not afraid of death, but Miss Nannan is our master and mistress's only child! Waaah, please, Master, save us!"
Sun Siyuan looked at his cousin and saw that his cousin was pretending to be deaf and dumb, clearly indicating that his uncle did not want to care.
He was so angry that he almost vomited blood, and he roared, "Shut up, all of you!"
Instantly, the room fell silent.
Sister-in-law Li stopped crying, and the plump woman stopped making a fuss.
Sun Siyuan took a deep breath and said, "Cousin, you don't want to take Nannan in, right?"
Sun Chengjian coughed lightly and mumbled, "Well, Siyuan, you know our family is already under a lot of pressure. Adding two more people would be difficult, and we're also worried about the child being neglected..."
“Fine, then I’ll take them in!” Sun Siyuan said coldly, unwilling to listen to his explanation. “Cousin, give me a written agreement. From now on, you don’t need to worry about this child’s food, clothing, or dowry. But in return, you can’t interfere in anything concerning her, including her marriage!”
"Of course," Sun Chengjian secretly breathed a sigh of relief, trying his best to regain the face he had lost.
"It's true that I'm her uncle, but I'm not able to support her, so naturally I can't interfere in her affairs."
"Then write the document!" Sun Siyuan urged with a dark face.
Sun Chengjian immediately found pen and ink, wrote the document, signed his name, and pressed his fingerprint.
Sun Siyuan then asked the fat woman to sign her name and put her fingerprint on it.
The plump woman rolled her eyes and pouted, but ultimately did as she was told.
Sun Siyuan blew the ink dry, folded the document and put it in his bosom before getting up and bowing to Li Lao Er.
"My lord, I am truly sorry for today. It is an unfortunate occasion for our family, and I apologize in person. I will invite you for tea another day to express my sincere apologies."
Li Lao Er also stood up and said with a smile, "Sir, you don't need to be so polite. I was just helping to bring someone over. I'm glad you don't mind the Li family being so meddlesome. I'll take my leave now."
"Your subordinate will escort you, Lord!" Sun Siyuan gestured with his hand, occasionally turning back to see his cousin and his wife standing together, their expressions smug, a far cry from their earlier suicidal behavior.
He couldn't hold back any longer and shouted something.
"Sister-in-law, don't ever say you come from a respectable family again. Everyone knows your family are butchers! Does your father write or draw on pigskins every day?"
After saying that, he turned around and left, completely ignoring the angry curses behind him.
Li Lao Er seemed not to have heard, and without glancing at Li Saozi and Nannan again, he cupped his hands in farewell and got into the carriage.
The horse's hooves clattered on the bluestone pavement, and soon it turned out of the alley, disappearing from sight of the Sun family.
Li Lao Er finally burst into laughter, "Hahaha, this Mr. Sun's insults are too harsh! Writing and drawing on pigskin every day, hahaha!"
On the carriage shaft, Ye Shan was laughing so hard he almost dropped the whip.
Granny He lowered her head even further, her shoulders trembling uncontrollably.
The three of them finally stopped laughing and reached the main street.
Li Lao Er went to a pastry shop and bought some of his niece's favorite pastries, sesame candy, pine nut candy, and two jars of candied fruit...
Not long after leaving the city, they unexpectedly encountered the Marquis's carriage on the road.
The head steward leaned out of the carriage, bowed, and said with a smile, "My lord, have you entered the city? If I had known, I would have come to fetch you and we would have gone back to Suijintan together."
Li Lao Er waved his hand and asked with a smile, "What brings you here, Steward? Is there something you need?"
"Don't worry, my lord, it's nothing urgent. Our Marquis went to the palace to discuss matters and asked the Emperor for some snacks and candied fruit. He instructed this old servant to send them to the Princess as soon as possible, because he felt sorry for her as she was taking medicine and hadn't had any sweets."
"What a coincidence! I bought quite a few myself. Fu Niu'er is going to be overjoyed!"
After exchanging a few words, the two walked towards Broken Gold Beach one after the other.
At this moment, a carriage was already parked in front of the Li family's gate.
It turned out that Li Zhensheng had brought back all the dead sea fish from the dock. Old Mrs. Li was busy cleaning, salting, and drying the fish with Shuiyun, Shuiling, and others.
Seeing Li Lao Er and the head steward jump out of the carriage, each carrying large and small bags of pastries and candied fruits, Old Lady Li was both amused and exasperated.
"Are you planning to open your house as a pastry shop? The eldest just bought quite a lot!"
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