Chapter 213: Difficulties of a Stepmother (5)
"It's time to eat noodles." Seeing that Shi Yi and Mai Hua'er were not in a hurry to come out, Grandma Zhang came to the door of the room and called for help.
"Shh." Shi Yi raised his index finger to his lips, quietly walked out, and whispered, "The child is too tired and fell asleep."
Grandma Zhang was a little disgusted with the dirty Mai Hua'er sleeping on her daughter's bed, but seeing her daughter's concerned look, she frowned, said nothing, and followed her out.
No one spoke at the table, only the sound of chopsticks could be heard.
After finishing a bowl of noodles, Old Zhang wiped his mouth, and then there was a smile on his face. He kept praising his wife for her delicious cooking.
"Tell me how you two brought the child back to the old Qi family." Grandma Zhang looked at her old daughter who was eating with a bowl in her hand but obviously didn't know where her mind was, and spoke.
"Mom, do you still remember that time when I was sick and someone broke into our house." Shi Yi pushed the bowl aside and looked up at his mother.
"Remember."
Old Zhang knew that the old woman was still worried about this matter when he saw her wrinkled face.
This matter is a long story. On weekdays, he and his wife would always leave one person at home to accompany their daughter, not to mention that their daughter had a high fever and was sick again. At noon, they heard the weather forecast on the radio saying that it would rain in the next few days, and there was work on the mountain, so they thought that they could go together and come back together before dark. Who knew that when they came back, they saw their daughter, who was supposed to be lying in bed to rest, standing at the door with a panicked look on her face. They asked their daughter nothing at the time, until several days later, when the daughter's high fever subsided, she told them that a man pried open the door and came in that night, and then was scared away by something.
"I saw that black shadow at that time, too." Shi Yi's eyes were not as scared as before, but a little relieved.
"What was it?" Old Zhang held the table tightly.
He would definitely repay the one who saved his daughter, no matter what it was. Grandma Zhang was no exception.
If the man hadn't been scared away, it would have been their daughter who would have suffered. They still remember the sharp hatchet that fell on the ground. They had chosen this time period on purpose, it must have been planned a long time ago. If he hadn't been scared away, if he had really entered this house, he might have killed her to silence her. If their daughter was gone, all their life's hard work would have been gone.
"It's the child Mai Huaer." Shi Yi looked in the direction of his room.
"Why could it be Mai Huaer?" Grandma Zhang was puzzled.
How could a child scare away a strong man when he was young?
"Mom and Dad still remember that Mai Huaer had long hair before. Grandma Qi was afraid that the lice on Mai Huaer's head would infect others, so she cut her hair off with scissors."
The old Zhang couple nodded.
"This happened five years ago. Mai Huaer was only four years old at that time, but she could do any work like other older children. That night, her mother quarreled with her grandmother and drove her out of the house. She grew up in the village and could only wander around the village. Her family didn't buy her any suitable clothes, so she picked up hay and tied it around herself to keep warm. The hay was unevenly tied on her body. She was small and couldn't be seen as a person at all. In addition, her hair was often not combed and mixed together. Under the light, she looked like a wandering soul." Shi Yi also searched in the original owner's memory for a long time before he understood why the original owner was so persistent in finding her to give Mai Huaer a good life.
"Hey, it turns out that this child saved your life." Old Zhang suddenly realized why his daughter wanted to go to Old Qi's house.
"Mai Hua'er doesn't know anything. I figured it out myself." Shi Yi held his mother's hand and said sincerely, "I know you are all worried that I will suffer, but Mai Hua'er is really compatible with me. I intend to be her stepmother."
"What?" The sharp voice of the Zhang family grandmother scared the old Zhang who was still thinking, and he almost fell off the stool.
"Do you know that the Qi family is a den of tigers and wolves? His parents are like jackals. They just tortured their daughter-in-law to death, and you want to go and let them manipulate you?" The Zhang family grandmother stroked her chest, and she couldn't figure it out.
Old Zhang's eyelids were half drooping, and he seemed to have thought it through, but the old woman's attitude was so resistant now, so he had better not speak.
"Mom, listen to me slowly." Shi Yi walked behind her and wanted to massage her shoulders to relax her, but she waved him away.
Shi Yi sat down beside her slowly and analyzed his thoughts to her carefully.
"No, just no." Before Shi Yi finished speaking, Grandma Zhang slammed her hand on the table and interrupted the conversation.
"Mom~" Shi Yi called softly, "I'm already 28. I'll be 29 in another month."
"What's wrong with 29? Just say it's 39. As long as I have a bite to eat, you will never be short of it." Grandma Zhang slammed the table with a loud bang.
Her daughter, whom she had raised with great difficulty, wanted to marry into the old Qi family and become a stepmother. As a mother, she was the first to disagree.
"Mother, can you calm down and listen to your daughter finish her words." Old Zhang knew that the old woman reacted so strongly because she loved her daughter too much, so he quickly held her hand to her chest, blowing and rubbing her, fearing that she would be hurt.
Grandma Zhang's excitement gradually subsided because of her husband's love for her.
"Mom, our village is very remote. Most of the men in the nearby villages go out to work and start families. If we want to recruit a live-in son-in-law, basically no one is willing. If you really want to marry, you will feel uncomfortable if you marry far away, and I will also feel uneasy. But if you want to marry a man in the village, look at those who are my age, who doesn't have a family. People younger than me look down on me and my family. There are some older singles in this village, but they are all ugly like lepers, have bad personalities, and their families are so poor that they can't even afford to eat." Shi Yi finished this in a self-deprecating tone.
Old Zhang also felt sorry for his daughter. His daughter was not beautiful, but she was definitely pretty. It was all because of his hot temper. He didn't let boys of the same age as his daughter get close to his precious daughter since she was a child. Otherwise, the old Zhang family, who had long been one of the top three richest people in the village, would still worry about not finding a suitable son-in-law.
At the beginning, the couple was not really anxious, but seeing that girls of the same age as their daughter in the village were getting married and having children, they, as parents, were actually really worried.
(End of this chapter)
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