"My fourth aunt... probably..." Lady Chiang mumbled indistinctly, only saying half a sentence before stopping.
Old Master Lian sat at the edge of the kang, his head lowered in contemplation for a long while.
"Old Fourth and Old Fourth’s wife, both are people who care about appearances. Whatever cos and goes in our house, they probably know. Even if they notice sothing, they probably won’t say anything. At Zhizhi’s grand wedding, everyone needs to save face...and we’ve all co from hard tis, there’s no need for so many formalities... No matter what, the couple manages well on the surface." Old Master Lian closed his eyes, talking to himself.
"Go buy another piece of cloth, quickly make sothing, and switch back the shoe tops, say it was taken by mistake." After a while of muttering to himself, Old Master Lian opened his eyes and instructed.
"If you want to buy it, go buy it yourself. When you bring it back, you make it yourself." Lady Zhou said sharply, "We can’t indulge their temperant. Let her return what she took, I could use it."
"You old thing, always eager to curry favor. Do you have to be so submissive? If you want to do sothing, do it yourself, don’t order around. I swear, those who aren’t afraid of making sin, use !"
...
The next day, the argunt between Old Master Lian and Lady Zhou at the old house was passed on to Lian Manman’s ears through Lian Yeye.
"And that’s it, it’s over?" Lian Manman asked after hearing Lian Yeye’s account.
"Yes." Lian Yeye nodded, "Later, I didn’t see anyone go out to buy cloth, nor did I see the sister-in-law rush to sew anything."
Lian Manman furrowed her brow slightly, pondering for a while.
"It was said that two fabric bundles were prepared initially, and Lian Duoduo accidentally ruined them. What’s that about?" Lian Manman asked Lian Yeye.
"Sister Manman, I was just about to tell you about this." Lian Yeye moved closer to Lian Manman, "I got this information from Yaya and Liulang. At the ti, besides our grandma, only the two of them were at ho in the sister-in-law’s room, everyone else had gone out, so they didn’t know."
"The two fabric bundles weren’t ruined by Lian Duoduo accidentally; she deliberately cut them with scissors," said Lian Yeye.
Lian Manman raised an eyebrow.
"They say that when the sister-in-law discovered it, both fabric bundles were already cut up. If it hadn’t been discovered, the other few items would probably be in trouble too," Lian Yeye continued, "Lian Duoduo denied it, saying Da Niuniu played with them and cut them. At the ti, only Lian Duoduo and Da Niuniu were in the room. Da Niuniu is young and couldn’t explain, and when the sister-in-law entered the room, it was Da Niuniu holding the scissors..."
Lian Yeye narrated the scene at that ti to Lian Manman.
"They say the sister-in-law was so frantic that she cried. Da Niuniu is young and couldn’t explain clearly, so the sister-in-law gave her a few slaps until she was gasping through her tears. The sister-in-law told our grandma about it, and our grandma suppressed the matter, telling the sister-in-law to take the embroidered shoe tops she had and modify them slightly to add them to Sister Zhizhi’s dowry."
Lady Zhou was not only good with needlework but also excellent at tailoring. With enough fabric sent over from Manman’s family, Lady Zhou calculated and cut a large piece to make clothes for Lian Lanlan, the leftover smaller pieces she divided, gave two to Lady Chiang for shoe tops, and kept a few for herself and Old Master Lian to make shoe tops.
Lian Manman and Lian Yeye were talking in the west room, while Lady Zhang and Lian Zhizhi had just sent off the guests who brought more wedding gifts, and ca over from the east room. Lian Yeye recounted the events to them.
"Duoduo did it?" Lian Zhizhi exclaid in surprise.
"Isn’t our grandma not the type to cover for others? Why didn’t she tell Old Master from the start?" Lady Zhang asked in confusion.
"It’s not that she didn’t want to say, isn’t Jiang there?" Lian Manman wasn’t surprised at all; she smiled and said, "Our grandma can’t stand being wronged; she can’t stand being provoked. If our grandpa starts scolding her, she’ll naturally scold back. Explaining would seem futile."
"That’s right; she is that kind of person." Lady Zhang thought for a bit and nodded with a smile.
"But why did she suppress the incident then?" Lian Zhizhi asked, "Knowing her temper, when Duoduo ruined the items, how could she hold back and not cause a scene?"
"I find that strange too," Lian Yeye evidently had the sa question as Lian Zhizhi.
"Probably because of the sister-in-law." Lian Manman smiled.
Lian Duoduo and Da Niuniu, one is her sister-in-law, and the other is her daughter. With such a matter arising, she couldn’t avoid being partly responsible for not supervising properly, especially since Da Niuniu was involved.
Besides, we can’t rule out the possibility that Lady Chiang wanted them to know about this incident. If they hadn’t suppressed it at the ti, before Old Master Lian found out, perhaps those shoe tops wouldn’t have ended up in front of them.
"No matter how you slice it, it’s amazing that our grandma didn’t scold Duoduo for this," said Lady Zhang.
"Mother, haven’t you noticed that since Lady Gu passed away, she hardly ever scolds Lian Duoduo anymore?" Lian Manman said thoughtfully.
"That’s true." Lady Zhang, Lian Zhizhi, and Lian Yeye thought about it and nodded, indeed as Lian Manman said, ever since Lady Gu died, Lady Zhou rarely intervened in Lian Duoduo’s matters, leaving her under Lady Chiang’s supervision.
"I noticed too," Lian Yeye recalled, "The few tis I went to the old house with my dad, twice Lian Duoduo was around, and it seed our grandma didn’t even look at her, deliberately avoiding her gaze, and whenever possible, asked sister-in-law to take Lian Duoduo to the west room."
"Does she, does she fear Lian Duoduo?!" It seed unbelievable, but it was the only conclusion Lian Yeye could draw.
Releasing the second update, seeking support for pink votes. 219 votes, aiming for 260 (*^‧^*)
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Ruoyan’s completed pastoral novel recomndation:
Title: "Rebirth: When Flowers Bloom and the Moon is Full" (main text plus extras complete) (There’s a direct link below, click to go straight there)
Introduction: Traversing into an abandoned woman wrongly accused of losing her chastity, carrying a small bun, embarking on a sweet life with a practical man. (To be continued. If you like this work, welco to Qidian (qidian) to cast recomndation votes, monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
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