Chapter 66
"Uncle Pang, you're here?"
Xun Yi searched three or four places before finally finding Pang Zhili at the end of the village.
He was sitting in front of someone's house, chatting with a group of people.
Hearing Xun Yi point at him, he slowly raised his head and glanced at him.
"That's strange, what do you want from me, kid?"
This was an extremely private matter and shouldn't have been discussed in public, but Xun Yi thought again that with so many people around, it would be a good opportunity to clarify these rumors.
He always prefers to get straight to the point and rarely speaks in a roundabout way to people he doesn't know well.
So, he began by saying, "Today I went to the market, and a regular customer passed by my stall and said to me, 'When you get married soon, you must invite me for a drink!'"
"I had no idea my wedding date was set! After pressing him, I learned that he heard the news from you."
Pang Zhili had been listening casually until Xun Yi uttered the last sentence, which made him jump up from his stool.
"What?!" Pang Zhili feigned surprise, his eyes darting around before he finally said in a bluffing tone, "When did I ever say such a thing to anyone?!"
Only those who are guilty will panic, and Xun Yi knew this very well.
"It seems that someone has slandered you."
"Alright, I'll go and invite him here so you two can confront each other."
Xun Yi's serious attitude made the people sitting next to him feel guilty.
"Haha," one of the uncles was the first to stand up and smooth things over, "Young Xun, you don't need to pay too much attention to these rumors, do you?"
The person next to him also stood up, "That's right, you're a man, it won't damage your reputation."
Once there's one, then two, then three, and another person said, "Hey! We've all heard a little bit about this, and it's not like your Uncle Pang Liu was the first to say it."
The last person concluded: "Could it be that everyone has misunderstood? That rumor is just baseless?"
I glanced around at them; they came from all sorts of households, one at each end of the village.
Xun Yi knew then that things were bad; the whole village had probably heard about it.
He clenched his fists, carefully controlling his chaotic thoughts, and then spoke.
"I don't know any daughters of officials or wealthy merchants, and my master only had two sons."
He looked at everyone present one by one and said, "I will get married, but I will definitely not marry these fictitious people."
The rumors have spread to this point that it is probably impossible to trace their origin.
Xun Yi bowed to the people in front of him and said, "Uncles, if anyone spreads such rumors again in the future, please help me clarify the matter."
well!
Although it was said that men don't need to care too much about their reputation, everyone knows perfectly well whether it actually has any impact.
His approach of using force first and then diplomacy left the group quite confused, so they could only verbally agree.
Xun Yi straightened his back and walked out of their sight until he was out of their sight. Then he took a deep breath and ran straight from the end of the village to the top of the mountain.
However, when the Shu family's thatched cottage was right in front of him, he could not take another step.
Regret and remorse surfaced together.
How can a person live such a stupid life?
He actually thought it was all a coincidence that they had avoided each other for so long.
How can this be explained?
Would Shu Wanxiu be willing to listen?
He wandered aimlessly, and even a small pebble he accidentally stepped on could make him stumble and almost fall.
...
Shu Wanxiu's shopping trip went smoothly this time, and she returned home with a full load of goods.
At the market, she met a vendor selling grass seeds, which cost seven coins for ten catties.
She was shy and thought she'd try to bargain down a penny or two.
But as she stepped forward, another elderly woman went ahead.
This old lady was particularly good at bargaining; after some haggling with the seller, she managed to get the price down to ten catties for four coins.
Shu Wanxiu was standing nearby. After the old woman and the seller reached an agreement, she also bought the goods for four coins for ten catties.
When buying pork, she bought one and a half pounds of fatty meat.
Since she didn't have a knife at home, she asked the butcher to help her cut the fatty meat into slices.
During the process, Shu Shouyi pointed to a bare bone on the butcher's table and asked what it was.
Shu Wanxiu saw it as a bone with the meat removed.
I casually asked what the price was.
At that time, there were more pig bones than pork on the slaughterhouse, and with the sun rising, the pork would go bad if they couldn't be sold.
The butcher then charged her only one coin and gave her a bone about half an arm's length long.
Shu Wanxiu knew that there was a piece of white marrow inside these bones. After stewing the bones, you could use chopsticks to poke out the marrow and eat it; it tasted pretty good.
Moreover, when you cook soup with these bones, there will be a layer of oil on the surface of the soup.
She was overjoyed, as if she had gotten a great deal.
They skipped and hopped back to the village with Shu Shouyi in their arms.
This good mood vanished when he saw Xun Yi, who was crouching against a tree, clearly in low spirits.
But the moment her footsteps sounded, Xun Yi caught them with his gaze.
Their eyes met, and Xun Yi, leaning against the tree, slowly stood up.
Shu Wanxiu's smile faded, but in this unavoidable moment, she could only maintain her politeness and take the initiative to call out "Brother Xun".
Xun Yi had never been so embarrassed in front of anyone.
He watched helplessly as Shu Wanxiu suppressed her smile once again in front of him.
Just when she was feeling lost, Shu Wanxiu took Shu Shouyi's hand as usual and walked around him.
By the time Xun Yi opened his mouth to speak, the two had already walked far away.
He stood there watching it all unfold.
Isn't that pathetic?
It's so pathetic.
But faced with such a distant Shu Wanxiu, he really...couldn't utter a single word.
A gentle breeze could not dispel the burning heat in Xun Yi's heart.
He was at a loss.
He had to bear the consequences of his slowness.
It was Xun Yi's mind that was in turmoil; otherwise, he would have been able to see that Shu Wanxiu's steps were disordered and her mind was unsettled.
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