"Then I’ll have to trouble Uncle Xiaowu..." Liu Cuiyun didn’t refuse, "It’s a good opportunity to accompany Xiaoxia..."
Yang Baixiang nodded at Pei Xiaoxia, and then picked up the stool and walked away.
Pei Xiaoxia’s face, however, turned inexplicably red. Although her slightly dark skin made it hard to tell, Yang Ruxin still noticed the girl’s abnormality. She couldn’t help but glance at Yang Baixiang’s retreating figure. Despite his uneven walk, Uncle Xiaowu was truly good-looking and also hardworking and reliable. If only...
"Aunt Eight," Yang Ruxin said as she reached to tug at Liu Cuiyun’s sleeve, "has Aunt Xiaoxia got married?"
Liu Cuiyun sighed upon hearing this: "She’s also had a hard life..."
Yang Ruxin looked up in surprise: "She seems quite cheerful, I thought..."
"That’s just because she has a good nature, otherwise..." Liu Cuiyun sighed again, "I don’t know much myself, but it’s roughly the same story..." She then recounted the matters of the Pei family in brief.
Yang Ruxin finally understood why Pei Xiaoxia had shown such an expression earlier.
Besides a brother, Zhao Xinghua’s mother of the Juan Family also had a younger sister. This younger Juan was almost ten years younger than her sister, but she was ill-fated. After marrying into a family, her husband died before they had any children. A couple of years later, she remarried into the Pei family in Stone Village of Peach Blossom Town as a concubine. That Pei family had also experienced the death of a wife, leaving behind a son and a daughter. This younger Juan didn’t get pregnant until two years after the marriage and soon after giving birth to Pei Xiaoxia, she had no more children.
The eldest son of the Pei family was about the same age as the younger Juan and had two daughters, only two or three years younger than Pei Xiaoxia. When Pei Xiaoxia reached marriageable age, Zhao Xinghua helped to arrange a marriage for her with a well-off family, but then...
Liu Cuiyun sighed at this point.
...the eldest daughter of the Pei family took a fancy to Xiaoxia’s betrothed, and together with her parents, they plotted to snatch the marriage match and ended up ruining Xiaoxia’s reputation...
After her reputation was ruined, no one came to propose to Pei Xiaoxia again.
Although she looked young, Pei Xiaoxia was already twenty-one years old this year.
In this era, a twenty-one-year-old girl who hadn’t married was considered an extreme leftover woman, a reputation even worse than a widow’s.
"Alas!" After finishing, Liu Cuiyun sighed again, "This child is truly a good girl, hardworking and capable; she manages everything in the Pei family, both inside and out..."
"Then just find another family for her," Yang Ruxin raised her eyebrows slightly, "Does it really mean no one is willing to marry her?"
"I discussed this with Xinghua before; her reputation is ruined. Those who propose either want her as a concubine or to fill the position of a deceased wife, if not, then it’s some old man of great age..." Liu Cuiyun shook her head, "The girl has a fiery spirit and would rather die than become a concubine or fill the position of a deceased wife..."
Yang Ruxin’s eyes flickered with a thought, but she didn’t speak out, feeling it was better to wait. She decided to find an opportunity to test the waters later.
They were still chatting when suddenly a child’s cry rang out from outside, followed soon after by the cries of another child.
Yang Ruxin was taken aback and immediately turned to run outside; she recognized the first crying voice as Erya’s.
Indeed, at the doorstep, Erya was on the ground crying. But...
Yang Ruxin stopped in her tracks, seeing Sini and Little Zhou Ying beating up the kid who had knocked over Erya, pinning him to the ground together.