Tao Hongying brought over a bowl of meat sauce, the kind with chili peppers, bright red and oily, thinking of telling her mother that they would be having braised noodles for dinner.
The tender noodles, mixed with chili sauce, along with a few leftover tender cucumbers sliced from a few days ago, and two sweet and sour cold dishes, are a dish the whole family loves.
As a result, she had just stepped out of the kitchen when, before she could even speak, her brother-in-law returned with a woman and children!
She was so stunned that she missed a step and almost broke the porcelain bowl. In desperation, she could only grab onto the door frame.
Hearing the commotion, Li the eldest turned around and saw his sister-in-law's appearance. He immediately guessed that she had misunderstood, so he quickly said, "Sister-in-law, is Mother inside? Someone said they knew you and Mother, so I brought them back."
"Huh?" Tao Hongying blinked twice, her face turning bright red with embarrassment. She quickly said, "Mother is inside, sewing purses with Fu Niu."
Li Laoda nodded and led the woman and child inside.
Tao Hongying felt that the woman's back looked familiar, so she called Shuiyun from the kitchen to take the porcelain bowl and quickly followed her into the house.
Jiayin woke up from her afternoon nap and went to the west wing to tease the twins, which made the two little babies cry loudly.
Although Hui Niang wasn't angry, the old lady couldn't just let her granddaughter cause trouble everywhere...
She then called for Granny He and grabbed her granddaughter to do needlework together.
Jiayin is only a few years old. It's a bit too early for her to seriously learn embroidery. Her family also doesn't want her to be tired. Just a few days ago, Jiaren and the others came back and jokingly asked their younger sister to sew a purse.
The old lady then moved a small basket filled with various scraps of cloth, coaxing her granddaughter to do chores to pass the time, and also chatting with Granny He for a few minutes.
Originally, it was enough for Granny He to teach Jiayin etiquette, but now that the old lady has become a first-rank noblewoman, during the New Year, noblewomen are required to go to the palace to pay respects to the Empress Dowager and the Empress. Therefore, the old lady also decided to learn etiquette.
So that when she really has to enter the palace, she won't be clueless and bring shame to her family.
Granny He had spent her entire life in the palace, and there was no one she knew better than her.
The two elderly people and the child were having a lively conversation when Li Zhensheng suddenly returned with people, which made them very curious.
Before the old lady could even ask a question, the woman had already knelt down on the ground with a thud. "Auntie, sob sob, I'm Madam Sun's wet nurse, serving Miss Nannan. Don't you recognize me?!"
Mrs. Sun? Nannan?
The old lady was stunned for a moment, then looked down to see clearly. Suddenly, her expression changed. "Oh my, Sister Li, it's you! Didn't you go back to your hometown with Madam Sun? What are you doing here?"
This Sister Li was none other than the wet nurse from the Sun family who had given the Li family a ride on a boat when they first fled famine from the north to Junyang.
The wet nurse shared the same surname as her family, and because she had almost choked the young master to death due to her own mistake, she was saved by Old Lady Li, so she got along especially well with the Li family.
Just a couple of years ago, when the Li family wasn't doing so well, Zhao Yuru and Tao Hongying were wearing clothes that this Sister-in-law Li had given them!
Grandma Li helped her up and noticed that there were white hairs in her hair and her face was sallow, completely different from her previous plump and kind appearance. It was clear that she had suffered a lot.
Sister-in-law Li wanted to speak, but she couldn't help but burst into tears. "Waaah, Auntie, help me! Our lady is dead, and the master is gone. My uncle wants to sell our lady's dowry. I had no other choice but to escape with Miss Nannan!"
"Waaah, our poor lady, she didn't close her eyes even in death!"
Grandma Li was confused by what she heard, but she knew that the Sun family had suffered a misfortune. She quickly helped her sister-in-law Li to sit on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed).
She then picked up the bewildered and silent little girl and placed her on the kang (a heated brick bed), instructing Jiayin, "Fu Niu'er, you play with Nannan for a while, and Grandma will talk to you."
Jiayin nodded, quickly went to get the snack box, and placed it in front of Nannan. The little girl immediately grabbed a piece and started eating.
The old lady felt even more heartbroken. She remembered that not long after Fu Niu was born, they boarded the Sun family's boat. At that time, Nannan was already crawling and standing, and was about six months old.
But now, when compared, Fu Niu'er is almost a whole size bigger than Nannan!
Seeing that his mother looked unwell and not wanting to upset her, Li Zhensheng changed the subject, "Mother, I haven't heard you mention the Sun family before?"
Tao Hongying poured a cup of warm tea for Sister-in-law Li and replied, "Brother, you don't know this, but we fled from the northern border to Junyang outside the capital to seek refuge with our uncle. On the way, we were blocked at the dock because no boat was willing to take refugees."
"Fortunately, we found a dairy goat at home to give Fu Niu'er milk. The Sun family happened to be passing by by boat. Because they were worried about their daughter not having milk, they took our family and the dairy goat on board, and that's how we made it all the way to Kyoto."
"Yes," the old lady sighed, "Madam Sun is a very kind person and has taken good care of our family. Later, I helped her with a small favor, and Madam Sun gave our family more than a hundred taels of silver, as well as a lot of clothes and other items."
"It was because of these hundred-odd taels of silver that our family was able to settle down in Junyang and meet these fellow villagers. It's just a pity that after the capital was moved, the houses and fields in Junyang were all bought for nothing, and we had to flee here again."
Sister-in-law Li wiped away her tears and choked out, "I accidentally fell asleep at that time, and Miss Nannan almost choked on her snack. It was Fu Niu who started crying, and I ran over to save her."
“Our lady had mentioned it several times before, wondering how her aunt’s family was doing.”
Seeing that she had calmed down a bit, the old lady asked, "You just said that Madam Sun passed away? What exactly happened?"
Li's tears flowed even faster. She wiped them away fiercely and said, "Auntie, our lady was murdered! Back then, our lady took her dowry and young lady back to her parents' home in the south. Our master followed behind, leading the clansmen on the journey."
"But when the lady arrived at her hometown, she found that the old master and the old lady had both passed away. She waited and waited, but our master did not come. She even heard a lot of news that our master and his clansmen had been killed by barbarians. Our lady fell ill."
Perhaps thinking of the anxiety of those days, she frowned tightly before continuing, "But for Miss's sake, Madam was still very strong. However... our uncle and Madam gradually changed their tune. At first, they said business was bad, and later they said that the household expenses were not enough and asked Madam to help with some money."
"Of course our lady disagreed and wanted to buy a manor and move out. As a result, she died in less than a month. My uncle said that she was very close to my husband and was so worried that she died of a heart attack."
At this point, Sister Li became agitated, grabbed the old lady's hand, and her lips trembled. "Auntie, when our lady died, her fingernails were purple. Our lady was poisoned! And three days after her death, she was burned in a fire, and her ashes were scattered into the sea. Her dowry was sold off, and Chun'er and the others who served her were also sold off."
"Seeing things were going badly, I took the silver notes that Madam had hidden, grabbed Miss, and ran away. My uncle even spread rumors that I was fleeing in anger and had kidnapped Miss, and he ordered people to hunt me down everywhere..."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com