"Mother..." Mingyu cried out and leaned in Madam Xu's arms. Madam Xu kissed Mingyu's forehead distressedly. She was so angry that she gritted her teeth and said, "No one in the Sima family is a good person! They left my daughter, a little girl, in Tianshui during the chaos. If Mingyu hadn't been lucky, how could I have the chance to see her?!"
As Mrs. Xu spoke, she couldn't help but imagine her young daughter dying at the hands of the Tartars, and that she would never see her daughter again in this life. She was overwhelmed with grief, and her tears fell even harder.
Xu Changqian was already panicking the moment he saw his wife crying. He wanted to go up and persuade her, but he was concerned about his son and daughter being present. He waved his hands helplessly and said, "Why are you crying for no reason? Isn't our daughter back?"
Mingyu couldn't help but laugh secretly. Her mother looked weak, but she had a hot temper. Her father looked strict and rigid, but he was a slave to his wife who couldn't even bear to see her cry.
Madam Xu wiped her tears and glanced at Xu Changqian intentionally or unintentionally. With dissatisfaction and warning, she hugged Mingyu tightly and said with a stern face: "Back then, your relatives in the capital insisted that our Mingyu marry into the Anxi Marquis' Mansion, praising the mansion to the sky, but what happened? They also said that it was the old master who arranged the marriage. If it was a good thing, why didn't they let their daughter marry there? On weekdays, they ignored us, a poor relative, but when they encountered this matter, they remembered us. It's not a good marriage at all, it's simply a hell! Now my daughter has finally saved her life and returned home. I don't care about the number of loyal martyrs in the Anxi Marquis' Mansion, nor do I care about the second young master. Whoever dares to snatch my daughter from me, I will fight to the death!"
As she said the last sentence, a hint of cruelty flashed across Mrs. Xu's mature and bright face.
Xu Changqian glanced at Mingyu, who was nestling in his wife's arms, and sighed, "Madam, what you said makes me ashamed to see my daughter. No one knew that the Marquis' Mansion would be like this... My daughter is mine too. I am here, and I will never let her suffer any injustice again."
Madam Xu was still dissatisfied, with a gloomy face and no words. When the Marquis's Mansion came to propose marriage, she would never agree to marry her daughter there. Tianshui was so far away from Lu'an, and if she left, she might never see her daughter again in her life. Mingyu was raised by the couple since she was a child, and they only wanted to marry her to a kind family close to home and who knew her well. They never thought of relying on their daughter to climb up the social ladder.
In the end, Xu Changqian nodded because of his father's last wish. Although Mrs. Xu was a woman with her own ideas, in ancient times, the husband was the most important person. Even though she was very reluctant, she had no choice but to send her young daughter to marriage as if cutting her own flesh and blood with a knife.
Mingyu saw that her mother was really angry, and felt a little uneasy. She rubbed her cheek against Mrs. Xu's face like a spoiled child, dragged her mother's arm, and said in a long and spoiled voice: "Mom, don't be angry anymore, I'm fine!"
Seeing her daughter acting like a spoiled child, Madam Xu's heart had already melted into a pool of water. She patted her daughter's hand in a soft voice and said with a smile, "Mother is not angry with you. Mother is angry that I was incompetent and could not refuse the marriage proposal from the Marquis' Mansion at that time."
Recalling the gloomy days of last year, Madam Xu could not help but let out a long sigh. She also knew that Xu Changqian could not be blamed for this. The Marquis's Mansion was willing to propose marriage because it was giving face to the Xu family. If they refused, not only would they be branded as ungrateful, but the Marquis's Mansion was also powerful and had many relatives and old friends in the capital. It would be easy for them to suppress the Xu family, which was already on the decline.
At this meeting, Madam Liu stood outside the curtain and asked, "Madam, do you want to boil water for Miss to take a bath?"
Mrs. Xu quickly responded, "Yes." Then she took Mingyu and Lixiang out to find some clean clothes for them.
After a while, only Xu Changqian and his son were left in the room, staring at each other. Xu Changqian naturally knew what his son was thinking, and he couldn't let go of his pride, so he asked a few questions about Xu Mingye's homework. Xu Mingye was not very happy, and his answers were a bit perfunctory.
After hesitating for a few times, Xu Changqian finally couldn't help but speak, "Mingye, Mingyu is back this time..."
Xu Mingye lowered his head and said nothing, but his ears were perked up, not missing a single word his father said.
Seeing his son's silent protest and uncooperative attitude, Xu Changqian sighed and continued, "She has suffered a lot. You, as her brother, are an adult now. You should take care of her more in the future." Old Man Xu's words were perfect, proving that his love for Mingyu as a father was no less than that of his son.
"Yeah." Xu Mingye responded, stood up, bowed to his father, and went out. For some reason, he felt as if a stone had been lifted from his heart and he felt a little excited.
The sky was a little dark. In the kitchen, Mother Liu was boiling water. Green smoke was coming out of the chimney. Madam Xu and Lixiang were looking for Mingyu's old underwear in her room. Mingyu was standing alone at the door, looking up at the sporadic snowflakes falling from the sky from time to time.
The camphor tree in the yard had lost all its leaves, leaving only a bare trunk standing there quietly. Mingyu recalled a story Lixiang had told her, when she was a child she insisted on picking flowers from the camphor tree, and Xu Mingye climbed the tree to pick flowers to appease her, but he fell down and was scolded by his father. The brother was afraid that his sister would be punished as well, so he just said that he was naughty and wanted to climb the tree.
Thinking of this, Mingyu couldn't help laughing. A smiling voice rang out from the side, saying, "What are you thinking about? You can even laugh secretly just by looking at the tree!"
Mingyu turned her head and saw Xu Mingye standing next to her. Mingyu teased, "I remember when you were a kid, you climbed this tree and fell down, and your father beat you up!"
Xu Mingye's handsome face turned slightly red. He reached out and pinched his sister's ear lovingly, saying, "You are such a naughty boy. You are clamoring for flowers and you still have the nerve to laugh at me!"
The sky gradually darkened, and the temperature was getting lower and lower. Aunt Liu hadn't heated the water for the bath yet. Xu Mingye took Mingyu's hand, put his sister's cold little hand in his armpit to warm it, and asked, "Are you cold? There's a charcoal brazier in the house. Let's go back and sit down."
Mingyu shook her head and smiled, "It's not cold, it's much warmer here than in the northwest." Although it is the same winter, the winter wind in the south of the Yangtze River is warm and cool, while the winter wind in the northwest is like a knife. The two places are completely different.
Xu Mingye was silent for a while, then he held Mingyu's hand tightly with his arm and smiled again, "Don't worry, just live a good life at home from now on. You have your parents and brother to support you outside. Don't be afraid, this will always be your home."
It was obvious that when Xu Mingye heard Mingyu talking about the Northwest, he felt sorry for his sister. He felt that Mingyu had suffered humiliation and abuse in the Northwest, and he always wanted to compensate her. Mingyu didn't know what to say when her brother loved her so much. She nodded, hummed softly, and said, "It's a pity that I didn't bring back the stone you gave me."
They were originally carrying the Yuhua stone, but later they were separated from the carriage of the Marquis' Mansion, and the stone was no longer with them.
Xu Mingye tapped Mingyu's forehead, looking quite disappointed, and pretended to scold: "As long as you are safe, it's fine. The stone is thrown away, it's not worth much anyway. Besides, even if it is priceless white jade, it can't be worth as much as you! Take a bath and have a meal later, and have a good sleep tonight. There will be a market in the county town the day after tomorrow morning. You haven't been there for a long time. I will take you to have a good look. The market has been more lively in the past few months. People from the neighboring counties come here to buy and sell things. Don't you love the tofu pudding sold by Old Wang on West Street the most? You can eat as much as you want the day after tomorrow..."
Afterwards, Xu Mingye talked a lot more. Mingyu's heart was hot and her nose was sore. She rested her little head on Xu Mingye's chest, but she couldn't hear clearly what he said. Usually, Xu Mingye was always steady and introverted, with a maturity that did not match his age, but when he was in front of his lost sister, he was just a boy who loved his sister.
The big pot was boiling water for Mingyu and Lixiang's bath. Mrs. Xu and Mother Liu simply prepared dinner on the small stove. After the family had dinner, Mingyu and Lixiang hurried back to their room to take a bath.
By the time Mingyu finished her comfortable hot bath, it was already dark outside the window. The night wind whistled through the tightly closed window frames, and the reflections of the tree branches outside the window on the window paper began to sway.
Mingyu's inner clothes were still the ones she usually wore at home, but they had been in the box for almost a year, so they were a little damp and a little cold when she wore them. Mingyu had just finished a shower, and her hair was still wet. She wanted to find her outer robe and put it on, but she found that the box where she put the outer robe was still locked. She thought that Mrs. Xu had forgotten to open the box in her busyness.
Lixiang was washing the clothes they had taken off with the warm bath water and couldn't leave for the moment. Mingyu took a piece of candle, lit it on the oil lamp, smiled and said, "I'll go ask mother for the key." Then he went out.
As soon as she walked to the window sill of her parents' room, Mingyu heard her mother's angry voice, "Do you think that what I said just now was just a lie? My daughter finally got her life back, and I will not let go of your etiquette and rules even if the Sima Marquis Mansion with their eyes on the top of their heads comes to snatch her away! They threw my daughter in Tianshui, which was equivalent to treating her as a dead person! If they dare to come to snatch her away, I will go to the capital to file a complaint!"
Xu Changqian sighed, as if he was crying, and his voice was thick with nasal sounds, "Why are you saying this? Do you and Mingye miss me so much? My daughter is my darling, and she can't survive in the Marquis' Mansion! What's the point of talking about etiquette and rules when she can't survive? Not to mention that she escaped from death like this, even if she was divorced and sent home by the Marquis' Mansion, I would only feel sorry for her, how could I drive her out?"
A gust of night wind blew and extinguished the candle in Mingyu's hand. It was quiet in the dark night, and the only sound that could be heard in the room was Xu Changqian's suppressed and intermittent sobs.
"You and Mingye both blame me in your heart, blaming me for agreeing to marry Mingyu to the Marquis' Mansion. If I knew Mingyu would suffer so much, I would have quit my job as a county magistrate and gone to the countryside to farm, but I couldn't push my daughter into the fire pit!" (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to subscribe and reward on Qidian Mobile Network (). Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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