Cheng Yue covered her mouth and said, "I never realized you were so eloquent."
Xiao Yunying touched her nose: "Before, I was so worried about filling my stomach and paying you back that I couldn't sleep all day. I had no mood to joke with others."
She herself found it strange, as she wasn't a lively and cheerful person in her past life.
Unexpectedly, the change of environment seemed to liberate her true nature, and she almost forgot how aloof and indifferent she used to be.
"Now that you've overcome your hardships, don't dwell on the bad things from the past."
"Sister Cheng Yue is right. I value the future and don't want to dwell on the past."
Chen Yuanyao was curious about what had happened to her in the past, but she wasn't stupid enough to ask her to her face: "Sister Yunying, your handwriting is so beautiful, whose calligraphy book did you use?"
Chen Yuancheng also agreed: "The calligraphy is good, and it has its own unique style."
"I am self-taught and I practiced by myself. No one else's calligraphy model is useful."
Chen Yuanyao felt more and more that she was a mysterious person: "Sister Yunying, you can't be the descendant of some hermit master, can you?"
Xiao Yunying raised her hand to stop her: "Please stop your wild imagination. My parents are out there. Going back a few generations, they were just ordinary farmers, simply clever."
Cheng Yue said to Chen Yuanyao, "Miss Chen, stop praising her. If you keep praising her, even the rooftop won't stop her. She'll float up to the sky."
Xiao Yunying took a small sip of tea: "Why be modest in front of you? I can't find anyone else to show off to besides you."
She's actually very troubled, you know, but she can't tell the truth, so she can only take the blame upon herself.
Chen Yuanxuan whispered, "Shameless."
He's very smart, though his older brother and sister have never praised him like that.
Xiao Yunying, with her sharp ears, overheard: "If I were as gentle and reserved as an ordinary woman, I wouldn't have invited your older brother to dinner, and you wouldn't be able to eat these dishes."
Chen Yuanxuan said disdainfully, "Some women are not as good as you. They act like proper ladies on the surface, but when they see my elder brother, they can't wait to pounce on him."
Chen Yuancheng said, "Yuanxuan, you mustn't talk nonsense."
Xiao Yunying didn't think there was anything wrong with it: "Everyone has a love for beauty. It's not just men who like beautiful women; women also like handsome men. Your older brother is handsome, so it's normal for girls to like him."
Chen Yuanxuan dared not continue the conversation about his older brother's appearance: "I'll praise you for being smart in the future, so can you cook more delicious food for me?"
"Hahaha, I didn't expect the young master of the Chen family to be such a foodie, just like my Luo Li."
Chen Yuanxuan could roughly guess what the foodie meant: "Just tell me if it's okay or not, I'll just buy it with silver."
"Okay, if I go to the city in the future, I'll bring you some snacks if I have time. If you're craving them, you can come find me and I'll make them for you."
Chen Yuanyao asked expectantly, "Sister Yunying, may I come?"
Xiao Yunying nodded: "Sure, come whenever you want."
Her hair was loosely tied up, and after a busy morning, it had become even looser. She nodded, and strands of hair fell down from her temples.
Xiao Yunying pulled out the wooden hairpin, used her fingers to simply gather her hair together, and then secured it with the hairpin.
"Oh, right!" Chen Yuanyao picked up the gift she had given her from the other side of the long table: "Sister Yunying, I spent the whole morning picking this out, take a look and see if you like it."
Xiao Yunying opened the brocade box, inside was a jade hairpin, and in another brocade box was a gold hairpin shaped like a lotus flower.
Xiao Yunying slammed the box shut and pushed it back: "Take it back before I kick you out."
She weighed the gold hairpin, and it was much heavier than the one she had bought for her mother. The jade hairpin was even more so; it was completely translucent and flawless, and it was obvious that it was extremely valuable.
"What's wrong? Doesn't Sister Yunying like it?"
Xiao Yunying said bluntly, "It's too precious, I can't accept it. I'll have to rack my brains to think of a way to return the favor."
Chen Yuanxuan grinned and laughed at his sister, "Big brother said she wouldn't accept something so expensive, but you wouldn't believe him. You insisted that no woman dislikes beautiful jewelry."
"Shut up." Chen Yuanyao glared at her younger brother: "This is a housewarming gift I gave you, you don't need to return it."
"Then I absolutely cannot accept it. How thick-skinned would I have to be to accept such an expensive gift from you? Besides, we country folk can't afford to wear these. We're busy working all day with our heads down. If the jade hairpin slips off and falls, I'd be heartbroken. And the gold hairpin is just a burden."
"But...but..."
I appreciate your kind gesture, but please take the things back with you; you really don't need them.
Xiao Yunying stood up and opened the brocade boxes that others had given her: "Don't say it's impolite of me to open the gifts in front of you, I won't feel at ease without checking them first."
Cheng Yue gave her a box of four kinds of pastries and a set of blue and white porcelain tea set.
Luo Li sent eight kinds of dried fruit preserves, which looked very appealing. Most of them were not sold in the shop and must have been made by the chefs in their household.
The two brocade boxes that Chen Yuancheng gave were very similar to those of Chen Yuanyao. Xiao Yunying said, "They're not jewelry again, are they? I'll say it first, I won't accept them."
Chen Yuancheng calmly said, "Open it and take a look first."
Xiao Yunying opened the two brocade boxes. Inside was a purplish-red wooden comb carved with a single-tailed phoenix. The phoenix's beak was slightly open, with an oval-shaped hollowed-out section in the middle, inlaid with a smooth, deep red jade stone.
The other box contained a purplish-red wooden hairpin carved with cherry blossoms. Between the two flower stamens were two pink, sparkling objects that shimmered as they were turned.
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