Green Lotus Peasant Girl

90

The next day the news about Hu Yanxi passing the exam was spread all over the village and everyone talked about it for a while.

Everyone felt that all of Li Fu's efforts to raise Hu Yanxi for a year went to waste.

He got married on the first day of April while Hu Yanxi became a scholar at the end of April. They also heard that on the day of his wedding, Mrs. Qian also secretly went to him to ask him to let her return to the Li family. If Li fu had agreed to take her back or the wedding was set on May 1st, then he could have become the father-in-law of a scholar.

Because of this rumor, Li Qinghe did not feel at ease and took her child to visit Li Fu. Mrs. Liu was as usual carrying out her daily tasks. She was cutting the vegetables to make pickles when she saw Li Qinghe enter the courtyard. She quickly got up to greet her "Qinghe, come inside. Hurry up and sit down, I'll ask Lanhua to serve you some tea."

Li Fu arrived from the backyard carrying a basket of vegetables, "Also make some pickles to eat at the wedding banquet, with us."

Liu Lanhua's wedding date was set on the tenth day of the fifth lunar month, which was only about half a month away, the span of time that was just right to make pickles.

"Qinghe, have you eaten yet? I'll go make something for you to eat now." Mrs. Liu asked her.

Li Qinghe nodded, "Don't bother with that please, I had lunch before coming."

She was relieved that the Li family didn't seem to be affected by the news of Hu Yanxi becoming a scholar. She followed Li Fu to the backyard and saw that the large green vegetables in the backyard were growing very well. Li Fu laughed and teased the child for a while. Seeing her looking at the vegetables, he asked, "Would you like to take some back with you to eat? Now that you have a child, it won’t be easy for you to plant. You should stop planting for now, I'll give you the vegetables instead when I'm free. Your Aunt Liu is always busy with household chores. She likes to clean the house, she even pulled out the weeds from the vegetable field."

"Rest up for a bit." Li Qinghe lowered her voice and asked, "Father, I heard that Hu Yanxi became a scholar, do you know something about it?"

"I heard the news." Li Fu took out a knife and went over to chop vegetables, "That's someone else's business and life, and it's better to live your own life. Don't think too much, we have cared and were devoted enough to Wanwan and her mother. If Wanwan has a conscience and cared for us, she will naturally come back to us. If she didn't have that affection in her heart, then even if we weren't separated right now, situations would still have been the same."

This was the truth though. Li Qinghe originally thought so too. She never expected to get any benefits from the mother and daughter pair. She was just afraid that Li Fu would be upset if they all didn’t live together. Afterall. Li Fu didn't speak to his parents for years because of Mrs. Qian, this just proves how much he cared for them.

Seeing that he sorted out all of his feelings for them, Li Qinghe was relieved. She was now a new mother, so she couldn't help him with work. She stood by his side and talked with him for a while before getting up to go home. While she left, her hand was stuffed with a basket filled with various vegetables by Mrs. Liu. As she was carrying the child, she couldn't hold the basket and had requested help to bring it to her house, to which Lin Lanhua agreed to volunteer.

Lin Lanhua was timid and silent for most of the time while they were walking. When passing by the village, people who greeted Li Qinghe smiled and asked, "Qinghe, is this your sister?"

Li Qinghe then introduced Lin Lanhua to everyone, and gradually Lin Lanhua also smiled at people as a greeting.

After they walked to the end of the village, no one would greet them. When they reached her house, Li Qinghe opened the courtyard door. Lin Lanhua looked at the pond and asked with a smile, "Sister, does the fish in the pond ever die?"