Zhou Shaojin decided to ignore Wu Baozhang.
But Wu Baozhang didn't care.
Ladies from wealthy families who have never seen the world are usually shy and timid when facing strangers, let alone someone like Miss Zhou Er who lives under someone else's roof. She is probably even more timid and cautious and dares not take a wrong step.
She continued to talk to Zhou Shaojin softly, "Second Miss, I just came from my hometown in Mianyang, Sichuan. This is my first time out of Sichuan, and I am curious and new to everything I see. I heard that it is an old custom in Jinling that during the Dragon Boat Festival, garlic is cooked in a pot and given to children. Each child eats one head. After eating it, they will not have dysentery in the summer and will not have worms in their stomachs. Is it true?"
Zhou Shaojin pretended not to hear.
Wu Baozhang frowned slightly.
What's the matter with this second young lady
She hasn't heard the second young lady say a word since she entered the room. Is she a mute
But she had never heard anyone say...
Wu Baozhang thought for a moment and then said, "When I entered the door, I saw a tree growing next to the Taihu Stone Mountain. It was as thick as a man's embrace. Its branches and leaves were extremely lush, and its crown was probably more than ten feet wide. Do you know what kind of tree it is?"
Zhou Shaojin still ignored her.
Wu Baozhang was a little at a loss.
She had never met anyone like this before.
Suddenly, a burst of undisguised laughter came from behind.
Wu Baozhang's face turned green.
She turned around and saw her third half sister, Wu Baozhi.
Wu Baozhi's face was full of sarcasm. She whispered, "Sister, if someone doesn't want to talk to you, don't force them, or you'll ruin your reputation for being generous and magnanimous."
Veins popped out at Wu Baozhang's temples, but the smile on his face was still gentle. He said angrily, "Baozhi, look at what you are saying? Aren't you afraid of being laughed at by others?" Then he stretched his neck to look in the direction of Old Lady Guan and Madam Wu, and said, "Mother and Old An are almost at the waterside pavilion. We should hurry too." After saying that, he hurriedly passed Zhou Shaojin and hurried towards Old Lady Guan and Madam Wu.
Wu Baozhi snorted coldly, turned around and gave Zhou Shaojin a friendly smile, saying, "Don't pay attention to her. She is just like that. She always thinks that if she pays attention to others, others must pay attention to her." Then he asked her curiously, "How old are you this year? You look younger than me?"
She and her elder sister Wu Baohua looked like they were made from the same mold. Their facial features, figure, and appearance were all like those of Mrs. Wu, and they were very ordinary. However, her skin was like that of Wu Baozhang, white and delicate, and obviously inherited from the Wu family. This made them look more delicate than Mrs. Wu, and they could barely be considered average looking.
However, the Wu sisters are not good people either.
In their previous lives, they had fought with Wu Baozhang many times, and Wu Baozhang had suffered heavy losses at the hands of the two sisters several times.
Zhou Shaojin didn't want to pay attention to her either.
But when she found that Wu Baozhang, who was walking in front of them, was listening to her and Wu Baozhi, she suddenly changed her mind, smiled at Wu Baozhi, and whispered, "I was born in the year of Jiashen."
That smile was like the warm sunshine in spring, which gradually warmed the corners of her eyes and eyebrows, making her incredibly soft like a willow tree in the spring breeze.
Wu Baozhi was so amazed that she cried out, "You are so beautiful!"
Yeah
Zhou Shaojin couldn't help but frown.
Cheng Xu… also muttered like this when he was drunk.
Later, she hated her own beauty.
If she wasn't beautiful, would she not have encountered such tragic things
She often asked herself after waking up from a nightmare, but she could not find the answer. From then on, she went out without makeup and stayed away from cosmetics and makeup...
Zhou Shaojin's eyelids drooped slightly, his heart suddenly felt cold, he no longer had any interest in speaking, he turned around and walked forward.
Wu Baozhi was stunned, not knowing what he had done to anger Zhou Shaojin.
She was also very much loved at home. Thinking that it was the first time that she had sincerely praised someone's appearance, and the other party was not only unhappy but also turned away, she felt very aggrieved and frowned. She decided to go her separate ways with Zhou Shaojin, but she saw Wu Baozhang looking back at her from the corner of her eye. She was alert in her heart. After thinking about it, she controlled her temper and chased after Zhou Shaojin with a smile. She forcibly took Zhou Shaojin's arm and pretended to be happy and said with a smile: "Sister, did I say something wrong to make you unhappy? I apologize to you! Sister, please don't be angry with me!" Then, without waiting for Zhou Shaojin to speak, she said, "Sister, I was born in the year of Yiyou, one year younger than you. My second sister was born in the year of Guiwei, one year older than you. We just arrived in Jinling in the winter of last year. Every day, my mother kept us at home doing needlework. We were bored to death. If I am rude, please don't bother with me."
Wu Baozhi spoke so quickly and urgently that people like Old Lady Guan who were walking in front of her turned their heads.
Zhou Chujin looked even more anxious. He was worried that Miss Zhou Shaojin would lose her temper and offend the guests regardless of the occasion. He was also worried that she was not good at speaking and would be bullied by the third lady of the Wu family and then be blamed for it.
Zhou Shaojin couldn't help but get angry that Wu Baozhi liked to stir up trouble, but she was not good at arguing with others, especially when she was anxious, she couldn't say anything. Her eyes turned red and she was about to cry, but Wu Baozhi's childish face and the smugness in her eyes made her hold back her tears, and her face was burning.
In her previous life, she was suppressed by Cheng Ji everywhere because she didn't know how to argue.
In this life, do I have to follow the same path as in my previous life
What's more, the little girl in front of her is one year younger than her. If she is angered to the point of being speechless by such a little girl, how can she face her sister who has always cared for her
She bit her lip, and after a while she found her voice, and said, "How could I be angry with you? I will tell you everything you don't know, you don't have to be so polite to me!" After saying that, she felt that what she said was reasonable and well-mannered, so she boldly replied, "You say that, but it makes us feel too distant!"
Wu Baozhi opened his eyes wide.
The girl in front of her looked weak, like a flower, but who would have known that what she said and did was actually a sharp needle that stung her badly.
She opened her mouth to argue with Zhou Shaojin, but saw her sister Wu Baohua's stern and warning look. She had no choice but to call it a day and grinned at Zhou Shaojin with a forced smile, thus putting the matter behind her.
Old Mrs. Guan chuckled twice as if she didn't understand what was going on.
But after sending Mrs. Wu away, the old lady took Zhou Shaojin's hand and said approvingly: "This is how it should be in the future! You should speak up when something happens. Girls are at a disadvantage, and if you keep silent all the time, you will be eaten up and still be despised for not tasting good."
Zhou Shaojin's tears fell suddenly.
Her grandmother's words touched her heart.
In her previous life, she was clearly the one who was humiliated by Cheng Xu, but Cheng Xu's mother, Yuan, said that she seduced Cheng Xu... The people from the second and third rooms were silent, except for her grandmother, who never asked her a single question from beginning to end, but never doubted her from beginning to end.
She knelt on old lady Guan's knees and burst into tears.
Zhou Chujin felt inexplicably sad and started wiping away tears.
Old Lady Guan's eyes were also moist. She supported Zhou Shaojin and said, "Good boy, don't cry! It's not easy for people to live in this world. It's even harder for us women. If you don't stand up for yourself, it's useless for anyone to help you. You should remember what your grandmother said!"
Zhou Shaojin sobbed so hard that he couldn't speak, and nodded with tears streaming down his face.
Old Madam Guan took out a handkerchief and wiped her tears. She said, "Okay, okay, don't cry anymore. Look at your pretty face. It won't look good if it's covered with tears." Then she stuffed a handful of candy into her hand and said, "Be good and listen!"
Zhou Shaojin held the candy and cried even harder.
All the servants in the room covered their faces.
Zhou Chujin hurried forward to comfort his sister. After a while, Zhou Shaojin gradually stopped crying. With red eyes and nose, he apologized to Old Lady Guan: "… I made you sad too!"
Old Madam Guan didn't take it seriously and said with a smile, "Now that you've cried, you must be feeling better, right? Go back to your room and have a good sleep. You'll forget everything when you wake up."
Zhou Shaojin nodded with red eyes and nose and tears in his eyes, and returned to Wanxiangju with his sister.
Zhou Chujin asked her: "Why are you crying?"
"I don't know either." Zhou Shaojin said as Shi Xiang helped her apply boiled eggs to her eyes. "I just started crying when I heard what my grandmother said."
Seeing that he couldn't get anything out of her, Zhou Chujin thought that if he just took better care of his sister in the future, he would be able to tell whether what she said was true or not.
She slept with Zhou Shaojin at night.
In the darkness, Zhou Shaojin returned to the past.
Yuan raised her eyebrows, her face was sharp, and she wanted to swallow her in one gulp. She asked her harshly: "Who asked you to do this? What good will it do you? Your father is a prefect of the fourth rank, how can you be so shameless? His father and I have already agreed with Lord Min to welcome their eldest daughter for our eldest son. You are having an affair without a matchmaker and ruining the marriage..."
The eldest aunt jumped up, her plump face covered with sweat, pointing at Yuan and saying, "What are you talking about? Others may not know what kind of personality our Shaojin has, but don't the people in the Cheng family know either? How can you say such things without any words? I usually respect you as the daughter of the elder brother, but it turns out that you don't even have this kind of vision! Was it your Dalang who humiliated our Shaojin out of lust, or was it our Shaojin who seduced your Dalang? If we don't make things clear today, you and I will not give up..."
Cheng Xu, who was called "Da Lang", was held down by two of Yuan's maids. He had a dull look in his eyes and kept muttering, "You lied to me! You lied to me! You said that if I passed the imperial examination, you would ask for Shao Jin to marry me. I don't want anyone else, I only want Shao Jin..."
The people around them looked at them indifferently.
The eyes are like thorns.
It's like watching a farce.
Scene change.
She sat blankly on a black lacquered cushion inlaid with plum blossoms and spring jasmine. Yuan looked at her as if she were some kind of filthy thing, with impatience, forbearance, disgust, and a voice as cold as hail, hitting her heart word by word: "... Since you want to force yourself to marry into our family, you must abide by our family rules. I won't talk about other things, but I have to talk to you about the word "chastity"... You are not allowed to bring in any maids or old women around you, and I will arrange for companions and the like... Without my permission, you are not allowed to enter and leave the courtyard where you live at will; without my permission, you are not allowed to talk to maids and old women in other courtyards... You may not have sex with each other more than three times a month... Dalang is still young, and looking at your seductive appearance, you are a restless person. But this is not up to you. I can't let you seduce and ruin his essence and blood... How many good men have died like this..."
The scene changes again.
There was only one candle lit in the dark room. Fan Liushi's face was terrified and frightened, swaying in the candlelight. She begged bitterly: "My dear lady, please try harder, the baby will be born soon... We finally escaped from the Cheng family and settled down. You can't lose your life here, otherwise how can I explain to the master? How can you be worthy of the eldest lady..."
She was wet and cold, her breath was filled with the strong smell of blood, she felt like she was walking through hell, her body ached so much that she felt like she was going to die any moment.
Someone come save me!
Someone come save me!
She screamed loudly, sat up in sweat, and her hands involuntarily reached down to her body.
※
Sisters, please support me!
Collection, recommendation, various tickets...
※(To be continued)