"I'm fine, and it has nothing to do with her."
After saying that, Meng Chijian indifferently went to get the hammer. Wen Qiao looked at him like that, and if she weren't in a wheelchair, she would have really wanted to kick him a couple of times.
"Your mother has something to say to you. You'd better figure it out yourself."
Meng Chijian nodded, indicating that he understood.
He finally returned home that evening, put his money bag on the wooden table, and prepared to go back to the city.
Meng Jing called out to him, "Third Brother! You...you should stay home for the night and go to the city tomorrow."
Meng Chijian shook his head. "I'll sleep in the shop."
He couldn't sleep at home.
"stop."
He turned around and saw his mother walking out, trembling.
Mencius' mother was already aware of what had happened at home, and she had often silently shed tears in the house these past few days.
She has already lost one child and doesn't want to lose another.
“Third son, I know you’re anxious. You’re a boy, and there are many things you don’t understand. What will happen if you keep getting stuck in this dead end?” Meng’s mother groped and grabbed him. “Before, when the matchmaker came to our house to propose to Amian, did you carefully inquire about what happened in her family?”
Meng Chijian was speechless.
At that time, he had only met Ah Mian once at the market. Seeing her running around recklessly, he stopped her to prevent her from causing a death.
"I roughly know that her mother passed away early, and she has an elderly father who loves to drink, so he probably isn't very kind to her. She doesn't talk much about her family..."
"If she doesn't mention it, just pretend nothing happened. You might even think that since A-Mian doesn't like her father anyway, she might as well not even go back to her parents' home to avoid trouble."
Meng Chijian didn't think that way, mainly because he wasn't very concerned about the wedding at the time. He didn't even go back to his room on his wedding night, let alone return to his parents' home a few days later.
"If you don't understand, why are you so angry that she won't believe you?"
Meng Chijian was stunned. What exactly happened to A Mian's family?
That evening, he drank some fever reducers and sedatives, and ate half a bowl of sweet potato porridge.
The next morning, he rushed to the matchmaker's house.
The matchmaker looked at him as if she'd seen a ghost, "What are you doing?! Aren't you already married?"
"I want to know what happened in my wife A-Mian's family in the past?"
"Oh my, you're quite a character, young man. This is the first time I've ever met someone like you, a country bumpkin in the capital. You didn't ask before the wedding, you didn't ask during the honeymoon, and now you're asking? Why didn't you wait until your wife had given birth to three children before you came?"
Meng Chijian was not deterred by the ridicule and remained calm: "Auntie, I want to know about A-Mian's life before her marriage, anything is fine with me."
Seeing that she couldn't get rid of this troublesome man, the matchmaker simply told him what she remembered.
“A-Mian is from Lujia Village. She’s a very pretty girl. Actually, it wasn’t just your family that wanted to arrange a marriage for her, but your family offered the most generous gifts. You should know her father; he loves to drink and often acts crazy when drunk, and he doesn’t pay back his debts. A-Mian isn’t very well-liked in the village.”
"But if you think they've always been like that, you're mistaken. Many years ago, A-Mian's parents were the envy of all the women in the village. Many young women complained to their husbands at home, asking why they couldn't be like Xiao Lu, who could earn money and take care of the family at the same time! Back then, I heard their story. A-Mian's mother was originally the daughter of a tofu shop owner in the city. In order to be with A-Mian's mother, her father worked hard from dawn till dusk to save money and went to buy tofu every day for a whole year."
The matchmaker, who had met countless couples, spoke with increasing emotion: "These two were deeply in love with each other; their affection for one another was genuine."
Meng Chijian listened to these things without saying a word.
"After the two got married, their lives were getting better and better. A-Mian's mother was the backbone of the family, and their lives became better and better. After A-Mian was born, she was a very noisy child. She would not sleep at night and would make the adults restless. She would cry if she was not held. In order not to disturb her mother's sleep, her father insisted on carrying little A-Mian for more than ten miles outside!"
"Was Ah Mian exposed to the wind?"
“No,” the matchmaker rolled her eyes. “Don’t interrupt me. A few years later, A-Mian’s mother’s health gradually deteriorated. At this time, A-Mian’s father was not the same as before. Although he still did some work occasionally, he liked to drink alcohol in his spare time and also liked to watch people play cards. Of course, he saw doctors and took medicine, but he never got better. A-Mian’s mother was a very strong-willed person. The couple argued several times, and in the end, she decided to continue making tofu by herself. Later, when A-Mian’s mother passed away, A-Mian… was about eleven years old at that time.”
Meng Chijian closed his eyes and slowly asked, "Why has her father changed so much? Is it because he has someone else outside?"
"I don't know much about that, but as far as I know, there isn't one. If there were, I would know about it in this rural area."
The matchmaker considered herself quite professional when it came to gossiping about these relationships between men and women.
"But why is this happening..."
The young man before him seemed utterly bewildered.
"Actually, this kind of thing is not uncommon. After all, almost no one gets married with the intention of living a life of pain and misfortune. In short, after her mother passed away, her father became a complete alcoholic. After that, A-Mian's life started to get difficult. In fact, she had seen her family being very happy before, and that's why her personality became more and more strange."
The matchmaker glanced at Meng Chijian's face and said, "Moreover, her reputation in the village has gradually deteriorated. It is said that when A-Mian gets into trouble, no one can control her, and no one dares to mess with her. It is also said that she once attacked someone with a kitchen knife! That family eventually moved out of the village."
Meng Chijian felt there was something strange about it, but this matter didn't seem like a scandalous gossip, and even the matchmaker didn't know the specifics.
He thanked the matchmaker, went home, took a hot bath without stopping, changed his dirty clothes from the past few days, shaved his beard, and barely managed to make himself look presentable.
He then drank every last drop of the bitter medicine on the stove, and in the afternoon he rushed to Lujia Village.
He searched everywhere but couldn't find any trace of Father Lu.
Zhang Yixing, who was studying at home, saw him through the window.
Zhang Yixing put down his book, walked out, and asked with some confusion, "Where's Lu Amian? Why didn't she come back with you?"
Meng Chijian didn't even glance at him, walking straight past him as if he were invisible.
"I wanted to talk to you, but if it weren't for A-Mian..." Zhang Yixing suddenly broke into a big smile, "Haha! Could it be that she doesn't want you anymore?! It's no use looking for her here!"
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