Chapter 55 The Child-Giving Fairy
After staying at the Li family's house for nearly an hour, the group moved on to a restaurant owned by the Gao family for a meal.
Thanks to the Gao family, Li San Niang was able to enjoy a proper carriage ride.
How should I put it?
Li San Niang felt that apart from the psychological feeling that horses were more valuable than donkeys, there was nothing else particularly special about them; the only difference was probably in their running ability.
However, horseback riding was not allowed in Chang'an. Apart from the Imperial Guards, even if you were a prince or nobleman, you would ride a carriage slowly in Chang'an. At most, the horses pulling the carriage could trot.
Except for Shen Qiu Niang, who stayed at the Li family's house and did not go to the restaurant, Li's little Lu Zhu was carried by Li San Niang, and even Xiao Wu Lang was carried by Li Er Sao and went to the restaurant together.
The Gao couple were quite honest; they didn't divide the table among themselves, and everyone sat at one large round table.
As expected, food outside is still the best. When you cook at home, you don't use enough oil and seasonings. It's edible, but it's not really that delicious. It's certainly not as flavorful as the food in restaurants.
During this time, something happened that was a great joy for the Gao couple.
A crucian carp soup was served, and Li San Niang specially ladled a bowl for Lu Zhu'er to drink. It was indeed very delicious, but Gao Da Sao felt nauseous. At first, she thought it was because she couldn't stand the fishy smell, but Li San Niang felt that this routine was too much like she was pregnant without knowing it.
After a hearty meal and drinks, while enjoying tea and snacks, she cautiously inquired whether the woman was unaware that her period had not arrived and might be pregnant.
Hearing this, Sister-in-law Gao was stunned. She said that her menstruation had been irregular since she was a child. Her family had invited doctors from the Imperial Medical Academy to see her, but after taking some medicine, her condition did not improve, so they stopped paying attention to it.
"Could I really be pregnant? Am I carrying a child?"
Gao Ya Hui, who was sitting to the side, immediately stood up and said to Li San Niang, "I would like to trouble you to take my sister-in-law's pulse. If she is pregnant, that would be wonderful. If she just finds the river fish fishy, that would be fine too."
Since things had come to this point, Li Sanniang naturally couldn't refuse any longer. She first asked Gao Dasao when her last menstrual period was, then carefully placed her fingers on Gao Dasao's wrist and took a serious pulse diagnosis. The pulse was not weak and slippery, so she must be pregnant.
Once it was confirmed, Li San Niang smiled and nodded to Gao Da Sao and Gao Ya Hui.
Upon seeing Li San Niang nod, both of them were overjoyed. Gao Da Sao was so excited that she burst into tears. Helpless, Li San Niang and Li Da Sao comforted her from the side.
"I knew today would be a good day!" After recovering, Sister-in-law Gao immediately turned to find Sister-in-law Li, who was coaxing Xiao Wulang to sleep. She got up, grabbed Sister-in-law Li's arm, and said, "Sister-in-law Li, your Wulang is a lucky man!"
Look at me! I only hugged my boss this morning, and by noon I was diagnosed with pregnancy. Goro is like a fairy godmother who brought me a child!
How could the simple and honest Li Ersao possibly respond to such a statement?
However, she didn't even need to answer. Gao Dalang, who was still chatting and drinking tea at the next table, was stunned when he heard Gao Dasao's joyful voice. He ran over, grabbed Gao Dasao's arm, and asked in surprise, "Huiyue, are you pregnant?"
"You're pregnant? We're having a baby?"
Then, everyone saw a six-foot-tall man crying and wiping away tears, hugging his new bride and sobbing uncontrollably.
Finally, after using every trick in the book, the Li family managed to calm the three crybabies in the Gao family down. The Li family originally wanted to hire a donkey cart to go home, but Brother Gao insisted on using one of his own horse-drawn carriages to take them home. Unable to refuse his hospitality, the Li family also took the horse-drawn carriage home.
He had just stepped down from his own clinic when he attracted the attention of all the neighbors who came out to see what was going on. Some of the acquaintances even asked him how he had become so successful that he was even riding in a carriage.
Before Li Erxiong could answer, the young waiter Li Gui quickly came out to greet Li's father and handed him a gold-embossed invitation card.
However, it was the Duke of Liang who sent another invitation to Li San Niang, saying that the flower-viewing banquet that had been agreed upon before would start a few days earlier. The reason was also written in the invitation: Princess Anding was returning to Chang'an to visit Emperor Wu and would stay for a few days to attend Emperor Wu's birthday banquet. Therefore, since there was a gap, the Duke of Liang would hold a banquet in advance to entertain Princess Anding.
In order to accommodate Princess Anding's schedule, the flower viewing banquet has been moved forward. Therefore, this invitation is hereby sent to Li San Niang to attend the banquet with the invitation.
Li's mother and sister-in-law exchanged glances after reading the post. Sister-in-law Li said, "Fortunately, we ordered the dress for Third Sister in advance. She can try it on in a little while, and we can make alterations if there are any parts that don't fit."
"Later, I'll go pick out some jewelry. This is a banquet for distinguished guests, so I should dress up nicely," Mother Li quickly added, and then went back to pick out jewelry for Li San Niang.
"Mother, we haven't counted the gifts sent by the Gao family yet."
After drinking, Li's father and second brother went back to their room to rest, leaving Li's mother and the others to go to the side room to count the gifts sent by the Gao family.
As mentioned earlier, the Gao family's gift-giving was already quite impressive, but opening these boxes was still a huge surprise. The gifts the Gao family sent this time truly made Li's mother and the other two realize how incredibly wealthy the Gao family was.
Besides fabrics, tea, writing brushes, ink, paper, and jewelry, an ordinary-looking little box was filled with gold ingots, exactly one thousand taels, which is ten thousand taels of silver!
The dazzling yellow color was quite a shock to the women present. The one who came to her senses the fastest was Li's mother. She immediately closed the box and said, "I'll keep it with me for now. We'll talk about it when everyone is here tonight."
After waking up from her afternoon nap, Li's mother and sister-in-law urged Li San Niang to try on the ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress) that had been custom-made at a high price in a clothing shop.
In fact, Li San Niang could hardly be called a beauty; if Li San Niang herself were to evaluate her, she would only say that she was of average appearance.
She was only eighteen years old, had never suffered hardship since childhood, and was only somewhat pretty.
Compared to the beauties Li San Niang had seen in modern movies and TV dramas, she was just an ordinary person.
But in the eyes of their own family, their own child is the most beautiful. Li's mother and sister-in-law are dedicated to making Li San Niang look like a beauty with three parts beauty.
She wore a light green top, a lotus root-colored and brick-red ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress), and dark green ribbons. Li's mother specially chose a carved gold hairpin from a box of jewelry that the Gao family had given her that day as an accessory. Li's sister-in-law styled Li San Niang's hair into a single spiral bun and inserted the gold hairpin. Li's mother and sister-in-law were both very satisfied as they watched.
Looking at the blurry figure in the bronze mirror, Li San Niang thought it was just so-so, its advantage being its young age and fair skin, but it couldn't really be described as beautiful.
Mother Li took a thin thread, folded it in half, and was about to trim Li San Niang's eyebrows. "Mother, there's no need for that. I'm just attending a banquet. At most, I'll eat and look at the scenery. I just don't want to embarrass the Duke of Liang's family. There's no need to trim my eyebrows; it'll hurt too much."
“You’re such a grown-up, why are you afraid of this little bit of pain! I saw you endure the pain when you gave birth to Luzhu.”
Helpless, Li San Niang was still forced by her mother to trim her eyebrows and draw them with a black ink brush. Looking at them from left to right, she still felt that something was missing.
Sister-in-law Li took out rouge and applied it to Li San Niang's lips. Yes, that's it! This is how a charming young lady should look!
"My son is so beautiful!"
Li San Niang was secretly relieved that she hadn't gotten two bright red marks on her cheeks yet; she could still accept her current appearance.
When Li's mother saw Li San Niang dressed up, she was happy but also worried about what might happen.
If Li San Niang were to meet a suitable husband at the flower-viewing banquet, she might be able to secure her future.
It wasn't that Li's mother disliked Li San Niang and divorced her, but rather that very few women in those times remained unmarried for life. Not to mention noble families, even ordinary people often remarried two or three times.
Most women who truly remain unmarried throughout their lives are Taoist nuns or nuns who have left home to become monks, as well as some lay Buddhists who live in Taoist temples and Buddhist monasteries for many years.
If we talk about decades ago, when there were years of war, men were scarce, and it was not uncommon for women to marry four or five times.
Li's mother thought that she and Li's father would eventually pass away before Li San Niang. Once they were gone, where would Li San Niang have a home?
Even if Brother Li, Brother Li, Sister-in-law Li, and Sister-in-law Li don't look down on Li San Niang, how can having parents be the same as not having parents?
Brother Li and Brother Li Er also have their own families to consider, and parents also have to consider the difficulties their sons face.
And then there's Dewdrop. Dewdrop is a girl, and she'll get married sooner or later. Even if she marries someone nearby, she'll be someone else's new wife and won't be able to go back to take care of Li San Niang often. So what will happen to Li San Niang in her old age?
Should we take on an apprentice like Li San Niang suggested? Or should we give all our property to a nephew?
Li's mother wouldn't see that day come, nor did she believe that Li San Niang's method could really work.
Therefore, in Li's mother's heart, it would be best to find another husband for Li San Niang.
Only then did they go to great lengths to dress up Li Sanniang properly.
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