Chapter 72.2

Translated by Aviana

“Wife, don’t cry. It was entirely my mistake earlier. From here on, I will never do such a thing. Don’t cry, all right?” While cajoling her, he quickly wiped her tears with his still unhealed arm. Such movements elicited deathly pain, yet he kept wiping her tears with that arm.

Still furious, Lin Qingwan refused to pay heed to him.

In fact, she was internally aware that she had overreacted. But she just couldn’t control herself. When she recalled how Yang Tiezhu was gazing at that married woman, she became overwrought.

Yang Tiezhu plonked himself upon the kang and cuddled his wife. Realizing that the root cause of his wife’s distress was that married woman, he slowly explained the ins and outs of the matter.

It turned out that this woman was the young girl called Tian Cuilan, who was previously engaged to Yang Tiezhu.

Tian Cuilan’s family and Yang-shi were next-door neighbors. When Yang Tiezhu was young, he liked to run to Yang-shi’s place. Thus, gradually, he became acquainted with children living next door as well. Tian jia had two sons and two daughters, with Tian Cuilan being the youngest among the four. She was just one year younger than Yang Tiezhu.

As a kid, Yang Tiezhu often played with Tian jia’s second son, Tian Dachang and also Tian Cuilan, who at that time was fond of following Tian Dachang wherever he went. Naturally, with time, Yang Tiezhu and Tian Cuilan became familiar with each other. It could be said that the two had grown up together as childhood sweethearts.

If Tian Cuilan was formerly fond of running behind her second brother, she later became fond of running behind Yang Tiezhu. And even until they had grown up, this habit of hers hadn’t changed.

Having observed these two, the elders at Tian jia felt that it would be pretty good if these two kids got together. After all, the two family’s circumstances were more or less similar—not very good yet not bad either. Thus they put forth their intentions before Yang Laoyezi.

Yang laoyezi, dreaded that He-shi wouldn’t be meticulous in handling Tiezhu’s marriage matters, as the child wasn’t well-received by the family since young. Thus he gave his consent, and the two families fixed both of their marriage matters.

Rural families don’t have many customs and rules; thus, they didn’t have any written drafts or the like. They just exchanged verbal promises to have the two kids marry each other once they grow up.

But who would have thought that later on, as an able-bodied strong man, Yang Tiezhu had to get enlisted in the army and tread the battlefield? Tian jia’s elders didn’t wish for their family’s maiden to become a widow at a young age. Thus, not long after Yang Tiezhu set off, they dropped by Yang jia and withdrew the engagement. Once Tian Cuilan reached 15 years, they looked for a suitable family for her and married her off.

After Yang Tiezhu came back and heard about this matter, he didn’t react much. After all, the other person doing this was just natural. No one was sure when those few who had gone to the battlefield would surely return safely. Not to mention, it takes several years for them to come back.

Unexpectedly, he met her again while he was going on a walk with his wife. Actually, at that time, Yang Tiezhu didn’t have many thoughts in his mind. It’s just that after seeing his childhood friend again, he felt as if it was a lifetime ago. Who knew his wife would end up misunderstanding him?

Upon hearing Yang Tiezhu recount the past matters and being coaxed by him, Lin Qingwan’s tears gradually ceased. She wasn’t an unreasonable person. It was just that her heart became perturbed, and she broke into tears.

But after crying, she felt a little embarrassed. Lin Qingwan directly placed the blame for her strong emotions on pregnancy. She refused to admit that she drank vinegar.

After managing to coax his wife with great difficulty, Yang Tiezhu quickly brought a wet kerchief and wiped her face.

Caressing her eyes with distress, he uttered, “You are pregnant, yet you love to cry. Be careful lest you give birth to a crybaby.”

Displeased, Lin Qingwan glared at him, red-faced. Yet, the words that left her mouth expressed her hunger and gave Yang Tiezhu a slew of orders to bring her some snacks.

Thus, Yang Tiezhu once again became busy getting her snacks and water. However, after taking a few bites of snacks, she expressed she wasn’t hungry anymore. After waiting upon his wife and having her drink water, he took away all the things.

Once he was done, Lin Qingwn pulled him onto the kang to couddle her.

Yang Tiezhu knew his wife was delicate and what’s more, he was fond of coaxing her. Thus, he jubilantly climbed onto the kang.

The two buried the hatchet and once again became lovey-dovey. As for Tian Cuilan, the two flung her beyond the topmost clouds and forgot about her.

He-shi exuberantly began preparations for Yang Xuezhang’s marriage. Yang Xuezhang’s marriage preparations were in full swing under He-shi’s supervision.

Soon after the New Year, she visited Feng jia and fixed a marriage date, and that day was just around the corner.

She had to arrange a banquet and also decorate the bridal chamber. He-shi was so busy that her feet barely touched the ground all day long. Even Wang-shi was assigned a lot of work and was frantically busy. Initially, Wang-shi was very much unwilling to work, but recalling the meat dishes in the banquet, she endured.

Wang-shi could hardly tell when was the last time she had eaten the meat.

The last time she had eaten a bit was only on lunar New Year’s Eve dinner and on the second day of the lunar new year when she returned to her natal house. However, the situation in her natal family was also not good. Thus only bits and pieces of meat were scattered in the dishes. With meat as a motivation force, Wang-shi busily worked to eat meat to her satisfaction on the wedding day.

Yang Xuezhang’s marriage matter surely needed to be conveyed to Yang Tiezhu and Yang Tiegen, these two elder brothers. Yang laoyezi came to them to tell them about this matter.

He didn’t mention anything about helping them with wedding arrangements and only asked them to help the family receive guests on the wedding day. After all, everyone lived in the same courtyard. If they didn’t come out even to welcome the guests, they would become the target of gossip, making the situation unsightly. Thus they had to take the occasion into consideration and concede. It would be inconvenient for Yang Tiezhu and his wife; thus, they were exempted. But the third branch’s husband and wife couldn’t escape.

On that day, Yao-shi was called by He-shi early to wash the vegetables and prepare dishes in advance. While Yang Tiegen jostled around to borrow chairs, tables, and cutleries. This was a common practice followed in Luoxia village. When any family holds a banquet, naturally, the cutleries, tables, and chairs at home wouldn’t be sufficient for the guests. Thus, they would borrow from the neighbors and return them when the banquet was finished.

Although He-shi’s reputation in the village wasn’t good, Yang layezi and Yang Tiegen maintained good relations with the villagers. Thus, few villagers nevertheless let them borrow. After all, everyone was from the same village; it wouldn’t be good to reject the people on the face.

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