Read Novel Full Chapter 158
Chapter 158 : The Groom
Zhao Jingui eagerly waited at the door, “I said I would come home after I got to the mountain, why haven’t I seen him yet?”
“His father, go to the back mountain to greet him. Don’t let him forget the way and get stuck in the mountain.”
Li Youtian responded and immediately walked outside. After a few steps, he saw Jiang Li and Qi Shaoqiang surrounded, and hurriedly squeezed through to rescue them.
“Lizi, Shaoqiang, you’re back. Have you had breakfast? Hurry up, your godmother is waiting for you at home.”
After they left, the old women who didn’t get any advantage gathered together and grumbled to each other.
“Look at Li Youtian, he’s like a lackey, isn’t he just trying to curry favor with Jiang Li because she has money?”
“That’s right. Over the years, the Li family has been getting letters and parcels. From time to time, Shitou and Mai Miao get milk candies from Haicheng, and what else? What a coincidence…”
“Chocolate!”
“Yes, yes, yes. I wonder how much benefit Jiang Li has given to the Li family.”
A few people were jealous of each other, but they could only grumble behind others’ backs.
In recent years, the Li family had become prosperous. First, the third son of the Li family was quick-witted and set up a stall in the county to sell buns. Although he worked day and night, he still made some good money.
Then there was Li Chunlan, who was an old maid and had been on many blind dates but never succeeded. Unexpectedly, she suddenly changed her status and married into the county.
Her boyfriend is impressive handsome, and I heard he’s a government employee, drives a big car, and all his family members have jobs.
I don’t know what kind of luck Li Chunlan had. Among all the people in the village, except for Jiang Li, she’s the one who married the best.
…
“Hey, Lizi, Shaoqiang, I haven’t seen you two for a long time.”
Zhao Jingui pulled Jiang Li to look at her from left to right. She hadn’t seen her for two years. Seeing her face rosy and in great shape, she felt happy.
“Where’s the child? Why didn’t you bring them back?”
“The children is still young, and I was afraid they would make trouble if I brought them back, so I left them at home.”
“Yeah, mom, the train is so crowded, and there are germs! It’s not good for the baby.”
Li Shitou had made great progress in his studies in recent years. He kept using the two new words he had learned.
Jiang Li touched his head and said, “Shitou has grown quite a bit! How’s your study going lately?”
Li Shitou felt guilty when talking about studying. Although he no longer ranked last in exams like before, he was just average and was embarrassed to mention it.
“It’s good enough for him to know two words. If it weren’t for the village saying that all children have to go to school, I would have let him follow his third brother to sell buns.”
Li Shitou raised his hands and danced, “It’s better for me to sell buns than sit in the classroom and listen to the teacher chanting.”
“Go to hell!” Zhao Jingui kicked him, “Hurry up and do your homework.”
“Lizi, you and Shaoqiang can sleep at home tonight. There are many empty rooms now.”
Ever since the third son came to the county to start a business, he soon rented a house there and mostly lived there with his wife.
Seeing that the third brother was making money, Zhu Xia was unhappy. She had several quarrels with the eldest brother and forced him to go to the city to do business.
But although they both sold steamed buns and sesame cakes, Zhu Xia was a stingy person. She made small quantities of steamed buns and sesame cakes and didn’t pay attention to cleanliness, so she had few customers.
The eldest brother worked from dawn to dusk but still earned little money. He also had to leave the children at home to be taken care of by the elderly. After just two months, he didn’t want to work anymore and took Zhu Xia home.
Zhu Xia was unwilling to do so and kept asking to go back to her parents’ home, but she hadn’t returned for a week.
Thinking that Li Chunlan was going to get married, Li Jinbu swallowed his pride and went to Zhu Xia’s parents’ home to pick her up. No matter how much he tried to persuade her, Zhu Xia still refused to come back.
He was so angry that he came back and shouted that he wanted a divorce, but Zhao Jingui gave up after he severely scolded him.
Although the divorce was no longer mentioned, Zhao Jingui was unwilling to pick someone up again.
After a long separation, Zhao Jingui hugged Jiang Li warmly, and the family had a lively meal together.
Tomorrow is the wedding day. In the afternoon, many aunties from the village came to help.
Li Chunlan couldn’t stand being teased by everyone, so she pulled Jiang Li and hid in the bridal chamber.
The whole room was covered with red window paper-cuts. The quilts, mattresses, and furniture that would be the dowry tomorrow were all neatly arranged, with wedding characters pasted on them and red flowers tied on them.
“Tell me about you and Tang Huaimin!”
Jiang Li was particularly surprised when she received the letter and saw the name of the man Li Chunlan was going to marry.
“Oh, what should I say!”
Li Chunlan twisted her braids with an embarrassed look on her face, her face full of the shyness of a newly-married bride.
“Tell me how you two met, quickly, tell me in detail!”
Li Chunlan was hesitant, but Jiang Li refused to let her go and tickled her on the bed.
“Okay, okay, isn’t that enough for me?”
“One time when I was going to the market, there was a heavy rainstorm on the road in summer, and the river in front of our village was flooded…”
“Wait a minute, don’t say anything yet. Let me guess, was it Tang Huaimin who came to the rescue and saved you when he saw you trapped in the river? Then you two got to know each other, and after a while, he came to propose marriage?”
Li Chunlan smiled with her lips pursed, but she didn’t say anything. Jiang Li was so anxious that she had no choice but to beg her softly, and finally, Li Chunlan opened her mouth.
“It’s good to save someone from danger. But the target is wrong. He didn’t save me, I saved him.”
“Ah?”
“You forgot, I followed my elder brothers to fish and bathe in the river since I was a kid, and I could hold my breath for two minutes. The water level rose that day, and I saw him carrying the village primary school students across the river. He slipped and fell into the river. The waves hit him so hard that he was swept down the river. If he hadn’t grabbed a willow branch by the river, he would have been dead. Seeing that the branch was about to break, I was extremely anxious. Several people who were crossing the river untied their belts and clothes and tied them to the tree. I then went down into the river and fished him out. You don’t know, he is so big, but he is still a landlubber.”
“And what happened next?”
Jiang Li knew that in this era, even though it was to save people, it wouldn’t sound good to tell others that a man and a woman were wet and hugging each other.
Li Chunlan seemed to recall something, her face full of happiness. “After we got ashore, he followed me all the way. I asked him what he wanted to say, and he blushed as much as his buttocks. He just said thank you and followed me back home.”
“I was afraid that my parents would know that I went down to the river to save someone, which would make them anxious and angry, so I sent him back.”
“At first, he was obedient and left. He came again the next day, and the third and fourth day. Every time he saw me, he was speechless. Either he would stuff something in my hand or he would rush to do the work when he saw me working. Someone in the village started a rumor that I had hugged a man in the river, and my father got so angry that he started arguing with the person who spread the rumor.”
When Li Chunlan said this, the half-closed door creaked open, and Aunt Jingui came in with two bowls of brown sugar and egg water. “One bowl for each of you two.”