“This, this can’t be calculated this way…” Aunt Xi racked her brains to squeeze out these few words, and the smile on her face could hardly be maintained.
"Oh, then how do we calculate it? Is his family wealthy? That's impossible. If they were rich, why didn't Widow Zhou cure her son's illness? Their family wouldn't be so poor." Gu Shichu said with a wry smile.
"Aunt Xi, are you helping me or harming me by introducing this marriage to me?" Gu Shichu restrained his expression and looked at Aunt Xi coldly and said, "Although I am an orphan now, I am not someone who can be plotted against by anyone who wants to."
Aunt Xi's pupils shrank, and she somehow felt that she was particularly frightening, but when she blinked, Gu Shichu returned to his calm and gentle appearance, as if her previous feeling of fear was an illusion.
But even so, Aunt Xi didn't dare to tell her about Zhou Shitou anymore, so she said awkwardly: "In this case, then I will go back and tell Widow Zhou that you don't agree with this marriage?"
Gu Shichu nodded and said, "Yes, just say I don't want to be someone's free babysitter."
After Aunt Xi returned, she honestly told Widow Zhou that Gu Shichu did not agree to the marriage. Of course, she did not dare to say the words about free nanny.
Widow Zhou thought that Gu Shichu looked down on their family, and she immediately turned hostile and cursed her for being ungrateful and looking down on her son. She was so shameless and wondered if she could find a good marriage in the future!
Gu Shichu was upset because he was approached by two unreliable marriage proposals in a row. Nowadays, gossipy women just can't bear to see young girls not getting married, and they will not be satisfied until they drag them into the quagmire of marriage and sink with them!
Gu Shichu, who was a little irritable, didn't even bother to repair the broken wall at home. He ran to Ji Mingtao's house. Ji Mingtao was sewing clothes in the yard. His slender and beautiful fingers were holding a thin needle, his pair of sword-like eyebrows were tightly furrowed, and he was sewing the hole on the clothes with a serious look on his face.
You know what, the movements sounded very skillful, and even a handsome man could embroider beautifully. However, Gu Shichu felt a little distressed when he saw it. A child without a father or a mother is so miserable. A man has to patch his clothes by himself, and he has to practice a lot of skills.
Ji Mingtao noticed someone coming, looked up at Gu Shichu, and then continued embroidering, oh no, sewing clothes.
There was no sign of surprise on his face. He was obviously used to being disturbed by Gu Shichu. At this moment, he couldn't even get angry. After all, he was helpless against such a shameless girl, so he just pretended she didn't exist.
"You are so amazing that you can even sew clothes! Apart from giving birth to children, what else can't you do?" Gu Shichu sighed, holding her face and looking at Ji Mingtao's handsome face.
Ji Mingtao said expressionlessly: "Yes, I won't avoid your methods."
Gu Shichu was not embarrassed at all when she heard his disrespectful words. She smiled and said, "Then don't hide. Since you can't resist, just accept it."
Ji Mingtao pretended not to hear, and his slender fingers held the fine needle and flew around on the patch. His movements were neat and beautiful. Gu Shichu rarely felt like a good wife and mother, and said, "Fortunately, you live in a remote place. Otherwise, if you, a grown man, sew clothes by yourself, people would laugh at you. Why don't I sew your clothes for you in the future?"
Ji Mingtao said coldly, "No need, whoever wants to laugh can laugh." He has been living on his own since he was very young. If he doesn't sew his clothes when they get torn, will he be left with nothing? In order to survive, he has endured all kinds of hardships. What does sewing clothes matter? What does it matter if others laugh at him? It doesn't matter.
Gu Shichu dug through her distant memories and confirmed that she did know how to sew in the past, and it seemed that her skills were pretty good. Once she tried and found the feel for it, her skills would return.
So she said confidently: "You don't have to be polite to me. I'm very good at sewing clothes. The stitches are fine and neat. Even the patches I make look better than most people. How about letting me try?"
Ji Mingtao glanced at the clothes she was wearing and sneered.
Gu Shichu looked at herself. The top she was wearing was left by the original owner. It had the fewest patches, only one on the shoulder and one on the right elbow. But to be honest, the stitches on the edges of the two patches were not very good-looking. They were a bit crooked and a bit big, which was a blatant mockery of what she had just said about her good craftsmanship.
This patch was made by the original owner. Gu Shichu was slapped in the face and felt a little pain, but when she thought about it, it was the original owner's workmanship, not hers, so why should she be embarrassed? So she immediately became confident.
"My father helped me mend this dress. It's very good that my father, a grown man, could mend it for me. It's not like every man is as good at sewing as you are, and can excel in everything he does." Gu Shichu lied with his eyes open, and attributed the original owner's work to the original owner's father, and also praised Ji Mingtao by the way.
Ji Mingtao didn't know whether he believed it or not. He sewed the patch and bit off the thread with his white teeth.
Gu Shichu looked at the young man with cold features who was obviously doing women's needlework, but he was still elegant and focused. He didn't look embarrassed or secretive at all, and was frank and at ease, which was really charming.
She asked him again, "Ji Mingtao, you really don't want to be with me? I'm not bad. After being with me, I won't need you to do anything, I won't need you to support me, I won't cling to you, and I can even help you sometimes... Why don't you agree to such a good thing?"
Gu Shichu's words were very bold and extraordinary in that era, but the two people who said it and heard it were not ordinary people. One was extremely bold and lustful, and the other was cold-hearted.
Ji Mingtao frowned, then looked at Gu Shichu straight in the eye and said indifferently: "I will never marry and have children in this life. No matter what you say, I will not be with you. Go find someone else."
After hearing his words, Gu Shichu was not sad about being rejected. Instead, he felt relieved and even happier. His eyes became brighter and he said:
"That's perfect! I don't want to get married and have children. I just want to enjoy the pure pleasure between men and women, without being bound by family, children, or responsibilities. I want to just have a relaxed and simple love affair, and when I get tired of it, we can just part ways amicably and have nothing to do with each other... How do you think?"
When Ji Mingtao heard her words, some surprise and confusion appeared on his face, which had usually shown no emotional fluctuations. He seemed to get to know Gu Shichu all over again. His dark and deep eyes stared at Gu Shichu's face carefully, and finally realized that what she said was true.
She said such shocking, outrageous and frivolous words openly and honestly, without a trace of shyness, and just laid it out to discuss with him.
If other people heard such words, they would accuse her of being corrupt and a hooligan.