Chapter 266 Wu Qiaolan
As the evening glow painted the sky with vibrant colors, Li Erxiong and Li Ersao returned with Li Sanlang, two unexpected people, and a carriage full of belongings.
When the four children went to the door to receive their things, they saw the two women, one big and one small, standing beside Li Ersao, who seemed rather reserved.
When Li's mother, Li's sister-in-law, and Li San Niang, who was holding Lu Zhu'er, arrived, the two women, who looked like mother and daughter, still seemed somewhat embarrassed and at a loss.
It was only when Li's mother called out "Qiaolan" that Li San Niang remembered who these two people were.
It was Wu Qiaolan, a relative of Li Ersao from the same village, who was almost beyond the fifth degree of kinship, and Bao Ya, the little girl she brought home after her divorce.
Looking at her daughter, who appeared to be thirteen or fourteen years old, Li's mother smiled with satisfaction. She reached out and patted the girl's head, saying, "Good child, you've grown so much."
It was obvious from Li's mother's behavior that she was lost in memories of the past. It was Li's sister-in-law who spoke up: "Quickly, let's go home, everything is ready."
Wu Qiaolan sensed the kindness of the Li family towards her. She thought that Li's mother had delivered her when she was a baby, and it was thanks to Li's mother that Wu Qiaolan was able to survive and return to Wujia Village with her daughter Baoya after her divorce from her ex-husband.
Faced with Sister-in-law Li's smile, Wu Qiaolan gave a stiff smile, holding Bao Ya's hand with her left hand and carrying a rather large bundle in her right hand as she followed Sister-in-law Li inside.
Earlier, when Li's mother asked Li's second brother to deliver the donkeys to the countryside, she told Wu Qiaolan to come to their house to take the midwife exam organized by Li's third sister.
This time, when Brother Li returned with his wife, he brought Wu Qiaolan back with him.
Although I didn't expect Wu Qiaolan to bring her child along, it's no big deal, it's just an extra set of bedding.
Wu Qiaolan was led to a room that had been tidied up long ago. Looking at the clean and bright room, she felt a slight pang of sadness, as if she were finally tasting the bitterness of the past ten years.
"Auntie, I...I..."
"Good child, good child, your aunt is here."
Li San Niang was about to go inside with Lu Zhu'er to deliver tea and snacks when she saw Li's mother and Wu Qiaolan crying together, which surprised her greatly.
Li San Niang looked at Li Da Sao and saw her shake her head, so she knew it wasn't the time to ask questions. She then beckoned to Bao Ya, who was standing obediently to the side.
Bao Ya looked at her grandmother, who was crying and hugging her own mother. After thinking for a moment, she finally followed her heart and got up to go to the door.
Li San Niang led Bao Ya towards the main hall, holding Lu Zhu'er and chatting with Bao Ya.
A short while later, Li Ersao, who had finished feeding Xiaowulang, and Li Dasao, who had given space to Li's mother and Wu Qiaolan, also arrived at the main hall.
Only then did Li San Niang learn about the relationship between Wu Qiaolan and her mother from her two older sisters-in-law.
Back when Li's mother first became a midwife, because she had no reputation and was a young woman from out of town, not many people in Chang'an wanted to hire her.
Therefore, they mostly went to villages outside Chang'an to deliver babies.
Although Li's father had not yet opened a clinic, he often went to the countryside to collect medicinal herbs from the villagers, and thus became familiar with Wujia Village, a village with a large mountain on one side.
Wu Qiaolan's father was a member of the Wu clan in Wujia Village. Everything was fine until Wu Qiaolan was about to come of age. Suddenly, her father had a strange idea: to go deep into the mountains to try his luck and see if he could find some rare herbs to exchange for money so that Wu Qiaolan could have the confidence to marry into a good family.
But fate is unpredictable. Instead of finding the precious medicinal herbs, he was bitten by a poisonous snake. By the time the village chief organized the able-bodied men to find Wu's father with torches, he was already stiff.
Wu's mother, who was already pregnant at the time, couldn't bear it and miscarried on the spot.
A farming family that was once able to afford enough to eat and save a few copper coins has now become heavily indebted and destitute.
At this time, a family from a neighboring village of a hundred miles away hired a matchmaker to ask their nearly forty-year-old son, who had lost three wives and left behind four children, to marry Wu Qiaolan.
The bride price was twenty taels of silver, which was much more than the bride price for an ordinary farmer's son to get married.
But how could Wu's mother possibly agree?
But Wu Qiaolan, who was almost fifteen at the time, readily agreed, accepted the betrothal money, hired an aunt from the same village to take care of Wu's mother, used the money to buy a lot of grain and hid it in the Wu family's cellar, tore off a red cloth for herself, and married herself off.
Everything was fine at first. It was an older man and a younger woman, and the other woman had plenty of food and clothing. Wu Qiaolan enjoyed a good life for a while.
Especially after she became pregnant, she was treated like royalty, with all the best food and things given to her first.
When she was very pregnant, her stepmother, who was older than her and nominally her stepdaughter, came to live with them.
Wu Qiaolan had thought that the woman returning home would be invited to stay for a simple meal, but to her surprise, her husband's family threw her out with a broom.
"You little rascal, coming to my old man's house again? You'll scare away my precious grandson!"
Wu Qiaolan was startled and began to understand why her husband's family had agreed to marry her.
The husband's family did indeed have four daughters in the family. The two eldest had already married, and there was currently an eight-year-old and a five-year-old left in the family.
"Let me give birth to a son," Wu Qiaolan prayed to the heavens.
But whether you have a boy or a girl is a matter of probability; it's not something you can just make a wish for.
When the time was right, Wu Qiaolan gave birth to a baby girl, Baoya.
Suddenly, her husband's family completely changed their attitude, and she lost all the good treatment she had received before. Wu Qiaolan had no choice but to find a way to save herself and her child.
Back then, besides delivering babies, Li's mother also brought some herbal medicine to women. Over time, she became acquainted with Wu's mother in Wujia Village.
Although Wu's mother had been cared for by women from the same village hired by Wu Qiaolan, nothing could be more sorrowful than a broken heart. If it weren't for her only child still being alive, Wu's mother would probably have lost all her will to live long ago.
As luck would have it, when Li's mother came to deliver medicine to Wu's mother again, she encountered Wu Qiaolan, who was visiting Wu's mother with Bao Ya, who was dressed in tattered clothes and was also covered in wounds.
This immediately caught the attention of Li's mother, who had given birth to Li San Niang only four or five years prior and was at a time when she was prone to melancholy.
Finally, after going through many things, it was only through the connections of Brother Li that Wu Qiaolan was able to divorce her husband's family, taking Wu Baoya with her.
As for Bao Ya's surname being changed, it was Wu Qiaolan who exchanged it for twenty taels of silver.
It was probably because Wu Qiaolan had successfully escaped her unreliable ex-husband's family and returned to live in Wujia Village that Wu's mother had no more worries. On that winter night, Wu's mother passed away with a smile.
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