Chapter 41: Chapter 41 You’re just being sour because you can’t have grapes!_1 Chapter 41: Chapter 41 You’re just being sour because you can’t have grapes!_1 Liu Sanya was also among them. Having recovered from the shock, she hesitated for a while before she said softly and weakly, “Brother Yi isn’t rich. If he were, he wouldn’t still be living in such a dilapidated place…”
“Silly girl, there’s a saying, isn’t there? ‘Wealth should not be flaunted.’ It must be referring to his kind of person,” Niu Dahua said.
The auntie from before chimed in as well, “Xiao Changyi has been serving in the military for so many years. He must have received some military pay. I thought he didn’t get much since he was still living in his old thatched cottage, but now it seems that he must have quite a bit.”
“I completely forgot about his military pay!” Niu Dahua smacked her forehead. “I was wondering earlier how he suddenly had so much money. Turns out it’s his eight years of military pay.”
“But,” Niu Dahua added, “Xiao Changyi is really good to An Jing. An Jing herself said she would buy red fabric for ten coins a foot, but Xiao Changyi insisted on buying fabric for thirty coins a foot for her dowry dress, saying it’s a once in a lifetime thing.”
The other married women were full of envy. Their dowry dresses were either ten coins a foot or fifteen coins a foot; none of them had the good fortune of An Jing, who couldn’t have children and yet got to wear such fine fabric for her wedding dress.
As for the unmarried girls, they all hoped that their future husbands would also buy thirty-coin-a-foot fabric for their wedding dresses.
“What a pity that An Jing can’t have children.” Too much envy led some to speak out of jealousy, making snide remarks.
“So what if she can’t have children?” someone countered, “She is about to marry a man who is willing to treat her well. With a husband to back her up, what’s there to worry about?”
“Xiao Changyi is cursed with bad luck,” said another, words even more sour. “No girls wanted to marry him, afraid they’d be hexed to death. Otherwise, how would it fall to An Jing, who can’t even have children?”
“You’re just sour because you can’t eat grapes!” someone mocked. “Xiao Changyi may be cursed, but that just affects his elders and siblings. He doesn’t hex his wife. No girl wanted to marry him because they thought he was too poor. Now that you’ve discovered he’s not, you all keep making these snide remarks, not afraid of twisting your tongues. Everyone knows you’ve got a girl at home! Regretting it now, aren’t you? Now that he’s so rich, who made you scorn him before~”
Everyone had something to say, and the conversation became more and more heated, spreading the news throughout the village.
When Lin’s mother learned of this, she immediately spit in disgust and angrily cursed, “Damned mutt, got rich and still bought such expensive fabric, couldn’t even spare us ten taels of silver, why doesn’t he just die!”
When Xiao Changyi’s mother, Xiao Chen’s, heard about it, she felt very choked up. Then, she began to ponder whether she should risk being cursed to death and ask Xiao Changyi for money to show her filial respect.
Unaware of everything happening in the village at that moment, An Jing and Xiao Changyi were sitting at the Sixteen Town Tea Stall eating steamed buns.
Of course, even if they were aware, they wouldn’t care.
An Jing finished off two meat buns before picking up the bowl of tea in front of her to drink. The tea was as bad as dishwater, obviously made from very low-quality leaves. After taking a sip, An Jing almost spat it out.
She would rather drink plain water than this…
Thinking so, An Jing set the tea aside, and never picked that bowl up again.
An Jing took out a steamed bun from the paper bag. The buns were quite filling. After eating two, she was somewhat full, but she still wanted to taste the steamed bun. She tore the bun in half, gave the larger piece to Xiao Changyi, and took a small bite of her half to taste.