Lin Xiaowan let go of her hand and looked at Liu Yanqing rubbing his ears. This guy deserved a beating.
"Don't be like this all the time. Be a little gentler," Liu Yanqing said. "If you do this...if you do this...the kids at home will look down on me. They'll all think I'm easy to bully."
"Then you bully them." Lin Xiaowan didn't think this was a problem.
How could Liu Yanqing, a grown man, be defeated by a child?
"I was worried you'd feel bad," Liu Yanqing said. "You're upset. You and the child bullied me together, and I had no power to fight back. Who knows if the child will be as strong as you?"
Liu Yanqing felt particularly wronged. He had no status in this family. Other fathers had more status, and he was like this. He really would be bullied by the children in the future.
“…” Lin Xiaowan was too lazy to say anything, she just turned around and went into the house.
"Aren't you going to walk anymore?" Liu Yanqing asked. "The doctor said I should walk more, because it's good for delivery."
"Let's go later." Lin Xiaowan planned to sit down and rest for a while. As for people like Liu Yanqing, Lin Xiaowan said that she could beat many of them.
What Liu Yanqing's status in this family is depends on his performance.
Lin Xiaowan thought that if Liu Yanqing disobeyed, then she could choose to keep him as her husband or not. However, she probably couldn't ask for a divorce; Liu Yanqing wasn't completely hopeless. If she divorced him, what would her family and the people in the Jingning Marquisate think?
Therefore, Lin Xiaowan had already thought about it long ago. If Liu Yanqing didn't work out, she would live with the child.
After Miss Lin San's parents were beaten back, Miss Lin Da was still unwilling to give up. When Miss Lin San went to the river to wash clothes, Miss Lin Da ran to Miss Lin San on purpose.
"How could you be so cruel? Do you really not want your brother to get married and have children?" Miss Lin said, "Your husband's family makes so much money, they must earn several taels of silver every month. So what if I let you take two taels home?"
"You can choose to sell yourself," Miss Lin San said. "I've already sold myself, and I can't sell myself again. You can sell yourself again. Divorce your husband, return home, and sell yourself as a maid. That's also possible. You can always get two taels of silver."
"What?" Miss Lin opened her eyes wide. "How could you think that?"
"Why not? If I can sell myself, why can't you?" Miss Lin San said, "If I sell myself, I can get at least five taels of silver. As for you, you've been married before, so you don't need to sell for that much silver. There will always be someone willing to sell for two or three taels."
Miss Lin San stared at Miss Lin Da and said, "You are still young and can still have children. Some poor families cannot afford to marry a wife, so they marry several men to one. You can also go."
"Are you crazy?" Miss Lin Da didn't expect Miss Lin San to say that.
"Don't you always complain that your elder brother-in-law is not good enough to you? If you marry a few more husbands, maybe they will serve you wholeheartedly." Miss Lin San said.
In remote mountainous areas, there are indeed a few men who only have one wife. This is because their families are poor and cannot afford the bride price. No women are willing to marry them, so they sell their wives from outside, some for ten taels each, and some for two or three taels each.
Miss Lin San had seen people buying women in this way before, and their marriages were naturally not registered with the government office. If they did go to the government office to register, it would only be for two people, not for several people.
In this era, men could have three wives and four concubines, but women were not allowed to marry more than once. In these remote villages, if several men married one woman, that woman wouldn't necessarily have much status in the family. The men, fearing the women would run away, would take turns guarding them, forcing them to get pregnant and bear children. Women were like fertility machines.
Only a very small number of men may be nice to women, most of them are not that good. After all, they are the women they bought back, and some women even want to escape, so of course they can't be that nice to women.
"Why are you talking nonsense?" asked Miss Lin.
"I'm not talking nonsense. This is all real." Miss Lin San said, "If you want to raise money for them, it's very simple. What about Fourth Sister? Would you consider selling her?"
Miss Lin San was not reminding these people to sell out Miss Lin Si, but she knew that these people would definitely target Miss Lin Si.
In the Lin family, girls are expected to make various sacrifices for men. Lin's father and mother ask for a lot of betrothal gifts. They basically don't prepare dowries for their daughters, and they also ask their daughters to take things from their in-laws' family.
"Where is Lin Er? Didn't she marry and move to the town? You can still go find her." Miss Lin San said.
"I can't see her." Miss Lin Da was annoyed. If they could see Miss Lin Er, Miss Lin Da wouldn't have to look for Miss Lin San.
Earlier, when Miss Lin Er had just come to town to be someone's concubine, she brought home a lot of things. But as time went on, the things Miss Lin Er had people send back home became less and less.
This time, Miss Lin Da wanted to go find Miss Lin Er, but Miss Lin Er's in-laws wouldn't let her in. Miss Lin Da wasn't really a proper relative of that family, and Miss Lin Er was just a concubine.
A concubine is not allowed to leave the house at will. It is not a good thing for a concubine to always take things from her husband's family back to her parents' home.
In addition, the family was quite wealthy, and the man was a little interested in Miss Lin Er at first. But as time went on, the man was no longer so fond of Miss Lin Er, and Miss Lin Er's life in the rich man's backyard was not so good.
Miss Lin Er once thought she was favored by her husband and that she could surpass the legal wife. But the legal wife simply ignored her, and after a while, Miss Lin Er fell out of favor.
People still respect the legitimate wife, and no matter how hard Miss Lin tried, it was useless. Miss Lin had even lost her baby a while ago, which made her in-laws even more dissatisfied. When her in-laws asked, they found out that Miss Lin always had supplements and food sent back to her parents' home.
The reason why that family prepared so many supplements for Miss Lin Er was that they wanted her to have a healthy pregnancy. But Miss Lin Er didn't have a healthy pregnancy and even had a miscarriage. How could people feel about that?
"Aren't you good at throwing tantrums and playing tricks?" Miss Lin San asked, "Just go ahead and do it. Why is it that you can do that in front of me, but not in front of them?"
Miss Lin Da and the others really didn't dare to act like that in front of Miss Lin Er's in-laws. Those people didn't care whether the Lin family was happy or not. That family had given the Lin family a lot of money, originally to prevent them from looking for Miss Lin Er, but the Lin family still went to look for Miss Lin Er from time to time.
"My second sister had a miscarriage." Miss Lin said, "She needs to be taken good care of now. She can't stand the hardship."
"Oh, really? She couldn't handle it, but I can?" Miss Lin San sneered. "I was sold, and I still have a contract to sell my body. You'd better not come to me, otherwise I'll think you want to give money to my in-laws to buy me back and find me a better family."
"We can find a better family for you." Miss Lin Da said. Miss Lin San was no longer a virgin, and a girl like her was not worth that much.
Miss Lin San was not a particularly fair-skinned girl, nor was she a very beautiful girl. Under such circumstances, Miss Lin Da did not think that Miss Lin San could be sold at a high price.
"I'm going back. If you want to stay here, you can stay." Miss Lin San was too lazy to pay attention to Miss Lin Da. "If my mother-in-law and the others see us, they will come over with a broom."
When Miss Lin heard that the Zhang family was coming with a broom, she thought of the scene where they were chased and beaten by the Zhang family with brooms, which made her afraid to stay there any longer. Miss Lin turned around and ran away, thinking that Miss Lin San didn't know how to consider her family at all.
Their younger brothers are about to get married, can't they think more about them?
Marrying a wife is a very important matter, and it only happens once in a lifetime. They don't have that many younger brothers, just this one.
Miss Lin Da thought that Miss Lin San should give money to the family. The Zhang family was living so well, Miss Lin San could easily steal money from the Zhang family. If the Zhang family didn't want Miss Lin San and sold her, that was fine. After all, the Lin family didn't have to pay any more money.
The Zhang family couldn't just sell Miss Lin San cheaply; they had to make their money back. Miss Lin Da also thought that Miss Lin San would just say she was pregnant, and the matter would be over.
Unfortunately, Miss Lin San did not do what Miss Lin Da wanted.
Miss Lin San is not that stupid. She would never do such a thing. She can live a good life now, so why should she care about the troubles of the Lin family?
"He has no conscience." Miss Lin said as she walked.
When Miss Lin San returned to her husband's house, she quickly went to hang out the clothes. She had to do other things soon. As long as the others finished their own tasks, they could do other things and make money.
Miss Lin San just wanted to earn more money. As long as they paid enough money to the public, they could save more money.
Miss Lin San planned to take the first year or two to recuperate. She hadn't eaten well before and was weak. Giving birth was like walking through the gates of hell, and Miss Lin San didn't want to lose her life in childbirth.
Miss Lin San had never been pampered since she was a child, so she always wanted to be nice to herself. Her husband was a good person, but she also had to think about herself. If she died while giving birth, her husband would quickly marry another woman, and that woman would definitely not be as kind to her child.
In the capital, the second Miss Ouyang returned to her parents' home to visit Old Madam Ouyang.
Mrs. Huo came to Old Madam Ouyang's courtyard. She wanted to see Liu Qingyun and Little Liu Jia, but she didn't want to go alone, so she thought of the Second Miss Ouyang. The Second Miss Ouyang was quite eloquent, and if such an eloquent person accompanied her to the Jingning Marquis' Mansion, perhaps it would be of some use.
"You want me to follow you to the Marquis of Jingning's mansion to have a child?" Miss Ouyang looked at Mrs. Huo in disbelief. She had never expected Mrs. Huo to have such a wild imagination. "You've already divorced the prince, so why do you still want a child?"
"I don't want a child, I just want to take a look." Mrs. Huo explained, "I already have other children now, so I don't have the energy to take care of them. My son is the crown prince's legitimate son, and he will inherit the Jingning Marquisate in the future. How can I let him stay by my side?"
Mrs. Huo thought that Princess Zhaoyang would never let Liu Qingyun inherit the title, because Liu Qingyun didn't crawl out of Princess Zhaoyang's belly.
"But he is not Princess Zhaoyang's biological son after all, so I am a little worried." Mrs. Huo said this deliberately. She just wanted to see if Liu Qingyun was doing well.
In her previous life, she and Liu Yanjing had not divorced, and Liu Qingyun did pass the imperial examination and become a Jinshi. However, Liu Qingyun had not been so kind to her, her biological mother, and in this life, Mrs. Huo did not really want to see Liu Qingyun live a good life.
Even though Liu Qingyun was Da Huo's biological son, Da Huo wanted Liu Qingyun to suffer more.
Of course, Mrs. Huo still hoped that Liu Qingyun could inherit the Jingning Marquisate. If the son born to Princess Zhaoyang inherited the Marquisate, how would she find Liu Qingyun in the future? Mrs. Huo wondered if Liu Qingyun would be as cruel to her in this life as he was in the last. She wanted to let Liu Qingyun know that a biological mother is a biological mother, and a stepmother is a stepmother.
If there is a stepmother, there will be a stepfather. When Liu Yanjing and Princess Zhaoyang had a legitimate son, Liu Yanjing might not care so much about Liu Qingyun; when Liu Yulian had other nephews and nieces, Liu Yulian might not be so good to Liu Qingyun and Xiao Liujia.
"If you're worried, go over and take a look." The second Miss Ouyang said, "I won't go over there."
The Second Miss Ouyang was not stupid, and the Marquis of Jingning's Mansion had no deep relationship with her, so why would she go there? The Second Miss Ouyang often did business with her husband, so she couldn't let people think that she had offended the Marquis of Jingning's Mansion.
She was not stupid, so how could she not know that the Huo family wanted to cause trouble?
It was impossible for the Second Miss Ouyang to follow Mrs. Huo to the Jingning Marquis's residence. It was just that they couldn't stop Mrs. Huo. If Mrs. Huo wanted to go, then she should go alone and not bring anyone else with her.
The Ouyang family is just an ordinary family, the home of a minor official. They are not considered a wealthy family in the capital.
Second Miss Ouyang didn't want her brother to be involved in these things, but since her brother married the eldest lady of the Huo family, it was destined that he would be unable to get rid of his relationship with these people.
Fortunately, no one from the Marquis of Jingning's residence came to trouble Lord Ouyang, and Lord Ouyang hadn't been involved with the Huo family for a long time. It was only after the Huo family and Liu Yanjing divorced, several months later, that the Ouyang family proposed marriage to the Huo family, and Lord Ouyang and the Huo family finally got married.
If there is a problem, it is the problem of the Huo family and the Huo family.
"It's a divorce. You can look after the children, but don't say anything unpleasant." The second Miss Ouyang reminded Mrs. Huo, "Their surname is Liu, not Huo or Ouyang."
The second Miss Ouyang didn't want Mrs. Huo to say that the two children should call her aunt. What kind of aunt was she? She had no blood relationship with the two children, so she didn't think she had the nerve to ask them to call her aunt.
The aunt of those two children is Princess Rongning. This aunt has a high status and is also a real aunt.
"Don't call your daughter Princess Rongning 'Auntie,'" said the second Miss Ouyang. "Her surname is Ouyang, and she was conceived when you married into the Ouyang family."
If Da Huo gave birth to her daughter not long after divorcing Liu Yanjing, they could still say that the child might be Liu Yanjing's. However, that child was conceived when Da Huo married into the Ouyang family, and was born a year after Da Huo married into the Ouyang family.
This means that the child could not be Liu Yanjing's at all. Mrs. Huo could not let her youngest daughter call Princess Rongning "Aunt" just because her two previous children called her "Aunt".
"..." Mrs. Huo stared at Miss Ouyang. Didn't Miss Ouyang want to consider the Ouyang family? Didn't they want to get close to the Marquis of Jingning's mansion?
"People should have some self-awareness." The second Miss Ouyang said, "If it's not ours, we can't take it away."
Old Madam Ouyang sat there in silence. She had indeed felt that what Mrs. Huo said made some sense, and she had hoped that her family would have some connection with the Jingning Marquisate. But when she heard what her daughter said, she came to her senses. Mrs. Huo had divorced Liu Yanjing when the Liu family was in trouble. How could the people of the Jingning Marquisate be kind to Mrs. Huo's current in-laws?
She was mistaken.
Old Madam Ouyang looked at the Da Huo family. Was the Da Huo family trying to set a trap for them?
"We won't stop you from looking for your children," said Madam Ouyang. "Just don't let anyone else go, or the Marquis of Jingning's Mansion will be upset by seeing them. You and the Marquis of Jingning's son have both started new families, so you should stay away from them."
Old Madam Ouyang was worried that Princess Zhaoyang would be angry, as Princess Zhaoyang was a princess of the royal family.
Princess Zhaoyang's previous consort was now useless, having been dismissed from his position, and his family was also implicated. It was difficult for them to be favored by the emperor again, and their family was in decline. Old Madam Ouyang believed that her son had finally become the Imperial College's chief academic officer, and she absolutely could not let him suffer such a fate.
"You guys..." It was useless. The Huo family really looked down on these people.
Da Huo waved her sleeves and left. Even though Da Huo didn't want to quarrel with these people recently, she couldn't stand it, so she just left.
When Miss Ouyang saw Mrs. Huo just walk away like that, she smiled and said, "Her temper hasn't changed at all."
"What kind of changes could there be?" Old Madam Ouyang shook her head. It was impossible for the Huo family to change for the better. The Huo family always felt wronged, and what could Old Madam Ouyang do? After all, her family's status was not that high.
They were not of high status and were not from a noble family, so they did not dare to say anything more about the Huo family.
Let the Da Huo family do whatever they want.
Old Madam Ouyang rarely visited her little granddaughter. That fragile little granddaughter was so fragile that she was really worried that she would die accidentally.
At the Marquis of Jingning's mansion, Liu Yulian saw new clothes, all of which were of new styles. Clothes in the capital were quite different from those in the northwest, and so were the jewelry.
"So many?" Liu Yulian hadn't expected to have so many new items. "Isn't this a waste?"
She is alone, how can she wear so many clothes?
When a woman reaches the second year, she no longer wants to wear the clothes she bought the previous year. She wants to buy the clothes she bought again. Liu Yulian is the same. When she has some money, she will think like this. A woman's wardrobe is always missing a piece of clothing, one after another.
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