Tian Dalin was eighteen years old, with dark skin, a medium height and build, and plain features. He was an ordinary farm boy. When he saw Qin Si, he smiled憨憨地, "Fourth Sister, do you remember me? We've met before."
He scratched his head and smiled a little shyly.
Qin Si simply put down his teacup and offered them tea, without saying anything more.
Old Man Tian looked Qin Si over carefully and was not very satisfied. He was too thin and wouldn't be able to have children.
He got up and found Qin Tianshi in the courtyard, asking worriedly, "Can your daughter have children? She doesn't look very healthy."
Everything else was fine; his clothes were neat and clean, and he served tea and water efficiently. But isn't the most important thing for a man to marry a wife so that he can have children?
Qin Tianshi had already started planning to ask a matchmaker to find a wife for her third son. She smiled and said, "Don't worry, Third Brother Tian. She's still growing and getting thin. She looks thin, but she's actually very strong and capable. Look at this yard and house, she's the one who takes care of everything."
The yard was very tidy, with firewood piled up and the chicken coop cleaned up spotlessly.
Old Man Lin was extremely satisfied. His son also liked Qin Si. "Then the marriage is settled. The two children will get married in a month."
It's late autumn now, and the busy farming season at home has just ended. In a month, it will be the off-season for farming, which is when the village holds weddings.
Qin Tian clapped her hands and said, "Good."
Qin Si was unaware that his marriage had been arranged so hastily. He had seen the Tian family father and son off that afternoon and was washing clothes in the yard.
She washes the clothes of more than ten people in her family, including her three nephews, two nieces, and her brother and sister-in-law. She has been used to it and there are clothes to wash every day.
Taking advantage of the good sunshine, Qin Tianshi also combed her hair. Since marrying Qin Fu, she had only done housework in the first few months after the marriage.
After becoming pregnant, she only cooked and did some housework. Later, Qin Fu died. Although she was a widow and had Qin Si with her, she still owned a house and a butcher shop in town.
Once the butcher shop is rented out, there will be a rent of twenty taels of silver per year, and Qin Xiaozhou will also help out.
This widow's life couldn't be more wonderful.
Later, seeing that Qin Xiaozhou didn't keep an eye on Qin Si all the time, Qin Tianshi became bolder and brought all three of her sons to live with her.
She has been idle for fifteen years and is only thirty-eight years old this year. She looks younger than before, with long, black hair like a waterfall. Her hands have become softer from not working for so long, and she has no wrinkles on her face. She looks like she is twenty-seven or twenty-eight.
She secretly watched her daughter while washing her hair.
"I remember a year ago, your eldest sister sent you a bolt of red silk. Take it out and make yourself a wedding dress."
Qin Si looked up in astonishment, "Why should I make a wedding dress?"
Women usually start making their wedding dresses only after their marriage is arranged. When was her marriage arranged?
Qin Tianshi guiltily avoided her gaze, "I've already found someone for you, Tian Dalin. Weren't you very enthusiastic when you met him just now? That young man seems quite nice."
Qin Si was stunned. Where had she been so enthusiastic? "Mother, I didn't..."
“Serving tea and water to others is certainly hospitable,” Qin Tianshi laughed. “I won’t harm you. Just relax and wait to get married. We’ll make a little bit of the wedding dress every night. A month will be enough.”
Qin Si was filled with shame. She was the one who was pushed out, so how did things turn out like this?
"Mother, I don't want to marry Tian Dalin."
Besides, this is her home. Why would she get married and let her brothers live in this house?
"You child." As Qin Tianshi spoke, her eyes reddened and tears fell.
“You don’t have a father, and your three older sisters aren’t close to you. I just thought that I know the people in Dashi Village well, so I could marry you off there. Your brothers can help you. Otherwise, I wouldn’t feel at ease sending a young woman like you to a place where you don’t know anyone.”
Qin Si felt extremely guilty. It turned out that her mother was only thinking of her. "Mother, don't cry. I was wrong. I shouldn't have thought such things."
Qin Tian hugged her, her tears turning into a smile, "Good child, you must remember, your mother is the best person to you in this world."
After the marriage was arranged, Tian Dalin came every few days.
Today's harvest was wild fruit picked from the mountains. He stood under the autumn sun, holding a small bag of hawthorns in his hands.
The hawthorns were bright red with a slightly tart flavor. He wrapped them in leaves and happily handed them over, saying, "I picked these this morning. They're fresh. Here, have some."
Qin Si couldn't quite describe how she felt, but she felt a little sweet inside.
A man walked more than ten miles of mountain road just to deliver a bag of hawthorns to her.
Qin Si took the hawthorn and, for the first time ever, handed Tian Dalin a handkerchief, saying, "Here, wipe your sweat."
She wanted to tell him that he didn't need to travel so far to deliver things to her anymore, but she didn't say it. She was afraid that if she did, no one would care about her like that anymore.
Tian Dalin blushed as he took the handkerchief. It was made of silk, soft and thin, and he felt very uncomfortable holding it. "This is silk! This stuff is very expensive. Why did you use it to make a handkerchief?"
That's such a waste.
Qin Si bit her lip. This was a piece of fabric that her eldest sister had sent last year. Her two sisters-in-law had taken it to make clothes for their nephews. This small piece was the only one left, not enough for her to make clothes. She could only embroider it into a handkerchief, and she usually couldn't bear to use it.
"This was sent by my eldest sister."
Tian Dalin touched it, and the calluses on his fingers snagged the handkerchief, pulling out a long strip. "Sigh, from now on, keep the things your eldest sister sends that you can use, but for something as valuable as this, it's better to sell it and turn it into money."
He pulled out a thread, "Look at this handkerchief, it's not practical."
In the evening, Qin Si lit candles and sewed her wedding dress.
This is the finest silk, something ordinary people simply can't afford. If it weren't for my older sister bringing it to me, I would never have been able to wear it in my entire life.
As she touched the smooth silk, she suddenly remembered the thread that had been pulled out of the cocoon earlier that day.
On a late autumn or early winter morning, there is always a thin layer of white frost on the fields. Qin Si went to chop firewood as usual, carried it back, and ran into Tian Dalin again when he got to the door.
This time, he had a small bag of chicken crop in his hand.
Tian Dalin was still laughing heartily, "The women in the village all love to eat these wild fruits. When you marry me, I'll pick them for you every day."
"Wild fruits?" Qin Si put down the firewood. Even in winter, she was sweating after carrying back a large bundle of firewood from the mountains. She wiped her forehead. "Any more?"
Tian Dalin happily introduced the wild fruits in the mountains, "Yes, there are hawthorns and persimmons, and in spring there are wild strawberries and raspberries on the ridges of the fields... These are the things that are most abundant in the mountains."
Qin Si boiled water to wash her face, then cooked, and went to the yard to draw well water to bring it into the kitchen...
Tian Dalin kept circling around her, but didn't offer any help.
Qin Si was a little disappointed. She didn't expect a man to provide her with a life of luxury, but he didn't even help her when she was drawing water from the well, chopping wood, or starting a fire.
“I love eating meat,” she said. “I don’t like wild berries.”
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