Chapter 8 You're telling me you're a child bride?
The next day, school was closed.
After tidying herself up, Ning Yao went to Gao Lin's house on the next street early in the morning and knocked on the door.
The mottled wooden door creaked open, revealing a woman in her forties—Gao Lin's mother.
"Aunt Gao," Ning Yao called out with a smile.
Aunt Gao also liked the fair-skinned girl in front of her. "You're looking for Ah Lin, right? Come in, come in."
He then shouted Gao Lin's name loudly behind him.
Ning Yao lowered her eyebrows slightly, trying to control her facial expression.
She chuckled to herself.
That voice was so loud that the whole neighborhood could hear it.
Arlene is definitely going to be annoyed again.
Sure enough, as soon as the girl came out, she glared at her mother and stomped her foot, saying, "Mom, why are you shouting at me so loudly again? The neighbors must have heard it again."
Aunt Gao waved her hand cheerfully, "Then I'll be quieter next time. You play with Xiao Yao, I'm going to get busy."
Gao Lin looked helplessly at her mother's back, knowing that her mother would probably do the same thing again next time.
He shifted his gaze back to Ning Yao and said irritably, "Laugh if you want to."
Ning Yao reached out and took Gao Lin's wrist, saying with a grin, "Lin, you know I'm definitely not laughing at Aunt Gao, I'm only laughing at you."
She loved seeing Gao Lin like that, stomping her feet and looking all angry.
Gao Lin glanced at her and stomped her foot as usual, saying, "Hey, do you want to try the new trick I learned?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he saw an even deeper smile on Ning Yao's face.
Only then did I realize that I had stomped my feet out of habit again.
Gao Lin: "..."
Whatever, whatever.
She pulled Ning Yao into her small room.
Ning Yao was surprised to find that the usually plain and empty room now contained several bright red fabric samples.
“Arlene…”
Gao Lin could tell what she wanted to ask from her expression, and a hint of shyness appeared in her eyes. "My parents have found me a good match."
"Ah..." Ning Yao's mouth opened slightly, and she paused for a moment.
She was so surprised to hear the news that she didn't know how to react.
So... they're getting married?
My mind was also very strange, like a tangled mess, as if I were floating in mid-air, unable to fall to the ground.
I could only subconsciously whisper a congratulatory message.
At this moment, Gao Lin was tidying up the hair accessory strips in her small cabinet, and something sounded off.
Looking back, Ning Yao looked completely bewildered.
He chuckled and asked, "What's wrong with you? You want to get married too?"
Ning Yao, however, was not as cheerful as usual and hesitated to give an answer.
Gao Lin was genuinely surprised and stopped fiddling with her own things.
He pulled Ning Yao to sit down on the bedside. "What's wrong with you? You're acting all coy, it's not like you at all."
Ning Yao pursed her lips and said something completely irrelevant: "Ah Lin, I went to school and have been studying for a month."
Gao Lin stared wide-eyed. Reading?
In her mind, only boys needed to go to school.
Girls do go to school, but it has little to do with the people who live in these alleyways.
"Well done, our Ayao is a scholar now. Do you know a lot of characters now?"
Gao Lin was curious.
Ning Yao nodded, "Yes, I know quite a few."
Gao Lin asked several more questions, which Ning Yao answered.
Finally, Gao Lin exclaimed, "Your brother is so good to you."
Going to school is expensive.
A while ago, she overheard her parents talking about where they would get the money to send her younger brother to school.
She couldn't even imagine what it would be like to study.
Ning Yao opened her eyes and looked at Gao Lin as she spoke, but her gaze kept shifting between Gao Lin and the red fabric beside her.
"Arlene, what's it like to get married?"
For some reason, she had a strange feeling.
She had made preparations for her wedding a month ago, but after studying for a month, the idea of marriage seemed to be getting further and further away from her.
Gao Lin thought for a moment and said, "I don't feel anything. I only saw that person once from afar and don't remember him, but my parents said he was good, so he must be good."
After pausing for a moment, she continued, "Besides, I'm not married yet. I don't know."
Anyway, my married girlfriends don't seem to have anything special about them. They just moved to a different place, but they still do the same things.
Then there's the added responsibility of having and caring for a newborn. As for family... family..."
At this point, Gao Lin couldn't continue.
It was only then that she realized that her married girlfriends hadn't mentioned much about their husbands' families.
The room immediately fell silent.
Gao Lin felt a little flustered, but she didn't know why she was flustered.
"Um, are you thirsty? Would you like some water?"
The two stared at each other, wide-eyed.
Ning Yao shook her head. "I'm not thirsty. But you seem to be changing the subject."
Gao Lin glared at her irritably. "So what if we're moving? You don't know when you'll get married, and I'm not married yet. You two are just talking about things after marriage. I can't come up with anything about that."
"Speaking of which, you're studying now, and you'll eventually have to get married, right? Do you have any thoughts on it?"
Ning Yao shook her head again, "I don't know."
Gao Lin: "That's right, your brother will naturally arrange to find you a good family."
Ning Yao: "No, Brother Ning is not my brother."
To Gao Lin's surprise, Ning Yao continued, "I am the Ning family's child bride."
Gao Lin: "..."
Was she hallucinating?
She stood up and looked Ning Yao up and down, as if this was the first time the two had met.
"A child bride? You don't have to do anything at home, and you can even go to school? You're telling me you're a child bride?"
No wonder Gao Lin didn't believe it.
She had also heard of child brides, most of whom were bought from outside or picked up from remote mountain villages.
Since they weren't her biological children, and now she's an extra mouth to feed, she'll naturally be asked to do a lot of chores at home.
If they encounter a kind person, they might just sit down to eat.
If you encounter a heartless person, abuse and beatings are common occurrences.
Or if they really can't afford to support them, they'll just be given some leftovers, sometimes going hungry and sometimes full.
Ning Yao, standing before her, had a face as red as an apple, probably even better than what she had eaten.
Her fingers were slender and fair, without even calluses, so she probably didn't do much housework.
More importantly, Ning Yao can still go to school.
It must have been a blessing from several lifetimes for her to become the Ning family's child bride.
“Then your boyfriend is your brother Ning,” Gao Lin said enviously. She had met Ning Yiwen.
She's good-looking, speaks slowly but has a very pleasant voice, and seems very capable and mature.
*
As night deepened, Ning Yao quietly pushed open her front door and peeked inside.
The courtyard was quiet, save for the autumn cicadas chirping.
"Strange, hasn't Brother Ning come back yet?" Ning Yao wondered, straightening up as she prepared to push open the door.
A clear cough came from behind me.
Ning Yao turned around abruptly, leaning against the door.
Unfortunately, the door was already prepared to be opened at any moment, and it couldn't withstand Ning Yao leaning against it.
The door opened to the back.
Ning Yao lost her footing on her back and fell backward in terror.
His hands kept trying to grab something in front of his chest.
Ning Yiwen was surprised by Ning Yao's strong reaction and quickly reached out to take her hand.
He used his wrist to pull Ning Yao in front of him.
"Why are you so clumsy?"
His words were full of disdain and dissatisfaction, but his tone was light and airy, with a hint of laughter, and the strength in his hand supporting him did not lessen at all.
For some reason, Ning Yao's heart was pounding very fast.
She couldn't tell if it was the fear of falling that scared her, or the burning sensation on her wrist.
Or perhaps, it's a teasing voice coming from above.
How come she didn't notice that Brother Ning's voice was so nice?
"Then your boyfriend is your brother Ning."
The words Gao Lin had spoken during the day once again reached her ears.
Her boyfriend...
Brother Ning...
My heart is beating even faster...
But Ning Yiwen was oblivious, pushed the person away a little, and looked at the dazed expression on her face.
Confused, he asked, "There was no collision, why are you acting like this?"
Ning Yao's hazy eyes cleared instantly. She jumped back, leaped over the threshold, and entered the room.
He said angrily, "Brother Ning, why are you swearing?"
Ning Yiwen laughed in exasperation.
"When did I ever insult you?"
He then went straight inside and closed the door.
Ning Yao stood behind him, hands on her hips: "I heard you call me 'stupid'."
Ning Yiwen didn't intend to argue with her about this, so he went to the middle of the courtyard and lit the kerosene lamp.
The wick slowly burned.
The bright yellow lamplight flickered, casting varying shadows on Ning Yiwen's face.
"Here, this is for you."
He took a sugar figurine out of his pocket and handed it to Ning Yao.
Ning Yao's imposing aura immediately dissipated.
She quickly walked up to him, snatched the sugar figurine, and said, "Then I won't hold it against you."
After saying that, he looked down at the sugar figurine in his hand.
It's a little rabbit with upright ears.
There's just a small circle where the bamboo skewer is attached to the bottom of the little rabbit.
It feels like I've seen it before.
"This sugar figurine looks familiar," Ning Yao muttered.
Ning Yiwen heard this, paused for a moment, and asked casually, "What looks familiar?"
Ning Yao didn't think much of it and handed over the little rabbit sugar figurine. "Brother Ning, look, isn't there a small circle here?"
Ning Yiwen looked at it and said, "Yes, it is. What's wrong?"
Ning Yao recalled for a moment, "Just a month ago, didn't we go to a really expensive sugar figurine stall? The way each sugar figurine was attached to the bamboo stick at the end was a small circle. So..."
Ning Yao paused for a moment, then glared at Ning Yiwen.
Ning Yiwen clenched his fist behind his back.
"Did you buy this sugar figurine from that expensive sugar figurine stall?"
Ning Yiwen: "..."
I almost got tricked out of my seat by this little girl.
He bent two fingers and tapped Ning Yao's forehead. "What nonsense are you thinking!"
Seeing that Ning Yao was still looking at him, Ning Yiwen had no choice but to pretend to snatch her back.
"Give it back if you're not going to eat it."
Sure enough, Ning Yao immediately put away the sugar figurine in her hand and jumped a few steps away from him.
"No way, if you give it to me, it's mine." With that, she quickly ran back to her room.
Ning Yiwen was left in the courtyard, watching the light coming on in her room.
He let out a deep breath.
He hadn't expected Ning Yao to be so sharp-eyed.
That's true. She learned how to make the little lantern at a glance, and after some time at home, she was able to shrink and replicate it.
It's not surprising that she could remember the habitual finishing gesture of the sugar figurine.
I can only silently remind myself to be more careful in the future.
A note from the author:
----------------------
Ning Yao: Springtime feelings are budding...
Ning Yiwen: (Steps on it) What sprout?
Actually, a straight man who's been reborn will most likely still be a straight man. After all, rebirth doesn't improve emotional intelligence.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
