Qin Miaoyu didn't pursue the matter further. She looked at the beggar on the ground, her brows furrowed deeply.
"Xiaoxue, let's take him to the clinic!"
Her maid was about to pull her up.
Li Jiaojiao suddenly noticed the beautifully shaped jawline beneath the beggar's dirty hair, and his tightly closed eyes...
Although it was dirty, it couldn't hide the exquisite outline.
If he were cleaned up, he would definitely be a handsome man!
Li Jiaojiao's playful side emerged: "Wait a minute, is this young lady going to take him to the clinic? But the doctors there probably won't treat a beggar with the utmost care. Why don't I take him back and treat him slowly?"
Qin Miaoyu's act of saving the person was merely a casual gesture, and seeing that Li Jiaojiao was willing to take her away, she did not stop her: "Then I'll have to trouble you, Miss."
After saying that, he left with his maid.
“This, this, this…” Li Zhiyuan and Zhang Shuiniang walked over, looking completely bewildered.
Li Zhiyuan asked, "Jiaojiao, you just said you were going to take him home?"
"uh-huh!"
"But... that young lady just said she would treat him. Let's just let her be, why take on this troublesome matter?"
Li Jiaojiao's face tightened: "What, I can't even pick up a beggar and take him home?"
Li Zhiyuan's lips twitched slightly. This wasn't a question of whether it was feasible or not...
"Of course not. I know you're kind, but this kind of lousy beggar should just be taken to the clinic; there's no need to take him home. What if he refuses to leave?"
Li Jiaojiao's face darkened: "If you refuse to leave, then I'll keep you. Humph, since I, Li Jiaojiao, have done this, I will bear the consequences."
As she spoke, a look of determination and arrogance flashed in her eyes.
Li Zhiyuan choked for a moment, and Zhang Shuiniang stepped forward, pouting, "What? Can't our family, a respectable scholar, even support a beggar?"
Li Zhiyuan looked embarrassed and said hurriedly, "No, of course I can afford to raise them."
The Zhang family is wealthy; they could easily support ten beggars, let alone one.
He had gone through so much trouble to win Shui Niang's hand in marriage, how could he let her think he was incompetent!
Furthermore, seeing the determination and arrogance in Li Jiaojiao's eyes, Li Zhiyuan was somewhat infected and impressed, and sighed helplessly:
"Fine, fine, if you like keeping it, then keep it!"
"Thank you, Dad!" Li Jiaojiao cheered.
Li Zhiyuan immediately went to the carriage shop and hired a donkey cart, taking the beggar protagonist home with him.
Ye Caiping, who was upstairs, took in the whole scene.
Li Jiaojiao was indeed attracted to the male lead's looks.
The book clearly states that Li Jiaojiao thought he was a handsome man at first sight, and that it wouldn't be a loss to take him home and keep him around every day.
This is one of Li Jiaojiao's endearing traits: she's a sucker for good looks.
Years later, the two became a devoted couple, and Li Jiaojiao often talked about this, saying, "If it weren't for your good looks, I wouldn't have picked you up back then."
"If I had known you were this...bad! I shouldn't have taken you away. I should have let that guy surnamed Qin take you home."
"Don't mention her to me. I only have eyes for Jiaojiao. Luckily, Jiaojiao snatched me away that day, otherwise I would have been disgusted to death."
Qin Miaoyu is portrayed as a vicious female supporting character.
After the beggar protagonist regains his identity, Qin Miaoyu learns that she was the first person to help him back then, but Li Jiaojiao stole him away!
Qin Miaoyu was filled with remorse.
After arriving in the capital, she relentlessly pursued the male lead, causing all sorts of trouble.
He was eventually killed by the male and female protagonists.
Thinking about these plot points, Ye Caiping's eyebrows danced with excitement.
She doesn't participate in this storyline.
But that doesn't stop her from enjoying the gossip!
"I've never seen Li Zhiyuan so kind before, actually willing to take a beggar home," said Madam Du, cracking melon seeds.
"They're blinded by Li Jiaojiao's protagonist aura," Ye Caiping laughed.
Wei: "What is the 'pig's foot halo'?"
Du said, "A big pig's trotter should be smooth and glossy to taste good."
Wei: "That makes sense."
...
Li Jiaojiao and her two companions returned home.
Granny Li, holding a broom, stared blankly at the beggar being pulled into the door by a donkey cart.
"Who is this? You've dragged along a... filthy, wretched beggar?"
Li Jiaojiao sneered, hands on her hips, and said, "Yes, so what? Aren't beggars human? You're filthy and rotten, it's insulting. Do you have any manners?"
Li Jiaojiao has always been someone who dares to love and hate; if someone treats her well, she will repay them tenfold.
If anyone criticizes her even a little, she'll retaliate tenfold!
After Granny Li's crying and fussing last time, Li Jiaojiao finally saw through Granny Li.
From then on, she stopped treating Granny Li as family!
What elders? Li Jiaojiao doesn't buy into that.
"Is he really a beggar?" Granny Li let out a sharp, explosive sound: "You good-for-nothing, you actually picked up a beggar and brought him home? What a terrible thing to do!"
"Do you think you can insult me?" Li Jiaojiao scoffed, looking at Li Zhiyuan: "Dad, look at her."
"Mother, let Jiaojiao do whatever she wants, mind your own business!" Li Zhiyuan immediately stepped in to protect her, glaring coldly at Granny Li. "I've said it before, if you let those three suffer any injustice, I'll never forgive you!"
Granny Li choked, tears welling in her eyes, wanting to fall but daring not to: "Zhiyuan...I...I'm your mother!"
"I didn't do anything to her, so why are you still not letting me off the hook? What I said wasn't the truth? Last time, she squandered two hundred taels of silver. The family is already struggling, and now she's even brought a beggar home? What kind of nonsense is this?"
Li Jiaojiao sneered: "Those two hundred taels were earned by digging ginseng, what's it to you? I can spend them however I want!"
"Or is it that this family can only survive on those two hundred taels? Father can't afford to support the family anymore?"
Upon hearing this, not only Granny Li, but even Li Zhiyuan froze on the spot.
Li Zhiyuan glared at Granny Li with shame and anger: "That matter is in the past, don't mention it again. I can support this family."
It's impossible for Li Zhiyuan not to feel resentful about those two hundred taels.
But under the disdainful gazes of Li Jiaojiao and Zhang Shuiniang, he dared not blame them.
But thinking about the little money left in the house, plus the presence of a wretched beggar, Li Zhiyuan felt somewhat depressed.
Before he divorced his wife, when the family was short of money, Ye Caiping would go back to her parents' home to get some food and money.
Now……
He couldn't let Shui Niang do that, otherwise what would the Zhang family think of him? They would think he was a poor scholar, not presentable, and unworthy of Shui Niang.
Fortunately, he is now a scholar.
Using his title of Xiucai (a scholar who passed the imperial examinations), he annotated some books and sold them to bookstores, earning about three or four taels of silver a month.
Of course, he could also become a teacher.
But he still wanted to continue participating in scientific expeditions; if he became a teacher, he wouldn't have time to study and work hard.
But he still had to pay tuition, and Li Ziming also needed to study...
Now let's take in another beggar...
Li Zhiyuan's mind was buzzing, but his male pride prevented him from letting his stepdaughter and beloved wife down.
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