Lu Qian stood up to leave, and Madam Qi and the old woman also came out.
After Lu Qian respectfully bowed to Madam Qi, he glanced back at Zhou Tao, smiled, and turned to leave.
After watching him leave, Madam Qi looked at Zhou Tao and smiled gently, "Alright, go find your senior sisters. As for how to tell them, you should think of your own words first."
Zhou Tao coughed lightly, "Brother Lu is here to deliver a message on behalf of my elder brother."
Madam Qi nodded, and Zhou Tao bowed to her master before leaving as well.
After watching Zhou Tao leave Madam Qi's courtyard, the old woman behind Madam Qi sighed and said softly, "I wonder if it's a blessing or a curse for Miss Tao to be favored by a family like the Lu family."
How similar were the situations of our young lady and Miss Tao'er back then! Look at how Madam has ended up now.
Madam Qi smiled, turned and went into the inner room. "Everyone has their own destiny. Tao Tao is a more fortunate child than me. She has a good older brother and a good sister-in-law."
The old woman thought about it and agreed. With the methods and abilities of the eldest son and wife of the Zhou family, if the Lu family wanted to form a marriage alliance with them, it was hard to say who would be marrying into the better family.
It is indeed different from the situation my young lady was in back then.
...
In the blink of an eye, it was October 18th. Zhou Quan had finished tidying up the fabric workshop, and only Zhou Lin still had a few pieces of furniture to finish.
After lunch, Zhou Quan and Zhou Lin took their younger siblings from the town and Zhou Heng back to the village.
The other two carriages carried the wood prepared for making spinning machines, which Zhou Lin planned to stay at home to start assembling after returning.
The shops owned by Zhou Quan and Zhou Lin, as well as Xu Shun, in the town have all closed down.
Xu Shun also wanted to accompany his married daughter, Zhou Xing, back to participate in the Zhou family's ancestral worship ceremony, as it was a major event for the Zhou family and a chance to see many relatives.
They've been busy ever since the shop opened, so this is a good opportunity to take a break and let the two children visit their maternal grandparents' house to get to know Zhuzhu. They also need to get to know their cousins so they can visit each other more often in the future.
The couple went back to Xujia Village to pick up the children first, and then went to Zhoujia Village. Zhou Quan and the others waited for Xu Shun and his family on the road outside.
Starting yesterday, Old Man Zhou and Madam Zhao cleaned up Zhou Quan and Zhou Lin's yard and lit the kang (heated brick bed) fire to make the house warmer and drier.
After Zhou Lin got engaged, Zhao Shi and Zhou's father took the time to tidy up Zhou Lin's courtyard. Zhou Lin made a few pieces of furniture that he needed and brought them back and arranged them. Now it is furnished to be habitable.
That evening, the whole family returned home. Zhou Quan and Li Mai took Zhu Zhu and Xi Que back to their own courtyard, while Zhou Lin took Nan Su and Zhou Lei back to their own courtyard next to their elder brother's.
Zhou Xing's family moved into the house where Zhou Lei and Zhou Lin used to live.
Everyone ate dinner together in the courtyard. After dinner, Zhou Xing and Zhou Tao helped their mother prepare the large offering for the next day's ancestral rites overnight.
Li Mai wanted to help, but Zhao stopped her, saying that if she wanted to see, she could look at the kitchen door, but she absolutely could not touch her. They were afraid when they saw her big belly, fearing that she might get hurt.
Looking at Li Mai's belly, Zhao was secretly wondering if she was carrying twins, otherwise why would her belly be so big?
But she dared not say it, because being pregnant with twins was not a happy event for a pregnant woman, as it meant that the danger had doubled. Zhao was also secretly worried about this.
Xiaomai herself is knowledgeable in medicine, so she must know her own condition, but she didn't tell them, probably because she didn't want them to worry.
Zhou Quan didn't want Li Mai to get tired, so he stayed by her side, watching over her and talking to her.
Not long after they finished dinner, Zhou Shizhou sent his son to invite Zhou Quan over to discuss something.
Before Zhou Quan went over, he asked Li Mai if she wanted to go back to rest. He would take Li Mai back before going over, but Li Mai said it was fine and told him to go ahead and do his work. She said if she got sleepy later, she would take Zhu Zhu and Xi Que back by herself.
After giving her a few more instructions, Zhou Quan followed Zhou Shizhou's son to the clan chief's house.
When he arrived, he noticed that Zhou Shizhou's expression was not good.
"What's wrong, Brother Shizhou? Did something happen?" Zhou Quan asked curiously as he sat on the stool.
“Zhou Chun is back. He wants to take over the empty courtyards in the village. He also said that his ancestors are still in the Zhou Clan Ancestral Hall. If we don’t let him move back, he will come and harass the village every night. He can’t guarantee that the village will be burned down one day and a few people will die.”
Zhou Shizhou was furious, but tomorrow was the village's grand sacrificial ceremony, and Zhou Chun had returned for this opportunity to stay in the village.
Zhou sneered, "Those who have been expelled from their clan still have the nerve to come back?"
Zhou Shizhou paced back and forth in frustration, saying, "Xiaoquan, what should we do? If he's determined to destroy this village, we'll be powerless to defend against it!"
Last year, Zhou Chun was imprisoned for stealing from the village, and his wife's cousin even tried to kill Zhuzhu, which was instigated by Zhou Chun's wife. Zhou Chun and his wife's younger sister were sentenced to one year, and the cousin was sentenced to five years.
Zhou Chun must have come out this summer!
The old clan chief also removed their family from the village, removing them from their ancestral home and driving them out of the village. Since then, their family members haven't appeared in the village since this autumn. Zhou Shizhou assumed that after they left, they went to live with his mother-in-law.
Little did they expect that it was a grand scheme, that they wanted to take advantage of the ancestral worship ceremony to return to the village and live there, and even wanted to be allocated a new courtyard.
Are you dreaming?
"Where is he now?" Zhou Quan asked coldly.
"He's kneeling in the ancestral hall, repenting to his ancestors. He won't leave, saying he's figured out a lot in the year he was in prison. He says he realized he was misled by Pan Shi when he joined the army. He says he's divorced Pan Shi and wants to bring his mother and two children back to the village. He promises to live a good life and take good care of his mother. He even swore that if he ever does anything to harm the villagers again, may he be struck by lightning." Zhou Shizhou said this angrily. Even he didn't believe these words, so how could Zhou Quan believe them?
“It’s impossible to let him come back to live here. We’ll even give him a new house. He didn’t contribute a single penny or a single bit of effort to the construction of the new village. His family even dared to persecute my daughter. What if someone like that comes back and hurts the villagers again for personal gain?” Zhou Quan said coldly.
Just then, a commotion came from the clan chief's courtyard. It turned out that four clan elders had arrived. They came to see the old clan chief to plead for Zhou Chun, saying that after all, they had watched him grow up, and the woman who did the wrong thing was his former wife. Now that he was out, he had divorced her, and that a good child is one who knows his mistakes and can correct them.
The old clan chief got annoyed by their chatter and told them to go talk to Zhou Shizhou themselves.
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