By the second watch, finally finished.
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"Chuxia, how could your Second Aunt accuse you of anything? I’m just explaining the past to you," Lin Xiaohua cautiously observed Chuxia’s expression, "Chuxia, if we hadn’t met you, your Second Aunt and Qiyan might have died out there, sobbing...
Already annoyed from the quarrel with Zhou Mikang, seeing Lin Xiaohua step out of hardship only to think about causing her trouble, she had no desire to deal with her anymore. She simply closed her eyes, leaned back, and said nothing further.
After crying loudly for a while and getting no response, Lin Xiaohua reluctantly stopped and nudged Chuxia: "Chuxia, are you really angry with your Second Aunt?"
"Chuxia, I was just scared you’d misunderstand, that’s why I was in a rush to explain what happened before," Lin Xiaohua confessed, "I was wrong. The matter is in the past, why did I even bring it up again?
But this time, I’m truly heartbroken. You’re getting married, how could we not be there to support you? That’s why, fearing that the Husband’s Family might look down on you, your sister and I took the bus by ourselves.
Who would have known, that damn thief, I don’t know when they picked our pockets clean. Not familiar with the place, we simply asked someone how to get to A City. That person was wicked too, directing us to an out-of-the-way spot.
When we felt something was off, we were already out of the city center. Fearing bad people, your sister and I didn’t dare to travel at night, so we found a secluded corner and squatted there the whole night.
Fortunately, it wasn’t too cold; huddling in a hayloft we managed to sleep. Otherwise, your sister and I might have frozen to death."
"Achoo!" As if on cue, Zhao Qiyan let out a big sneeze and quickly followed her mother’s words, "Chuxia, considering all the hardships we’ve gone through on our journey, you should treat us well."
"You came by bus just to attend my wedding?" Chuxia scrutinized the mother and daughter as if they had fled from a refugee camp, "These last two days, have you just been wandering around the city ?"
"We weren’t just wandering, we asked people for directions."
"You came even though you had no idea where I was getting married?" Chuxia looked incredulously at Lin Xiaohua, "Second Aunt, you’ve really surprised me with this gesture."
"Of course, of course. That bastard, your Second Uncle, when your sister and I returned to Qiyan’s grandmother’s home, it’s not like he didn’t know where it was, yet he didn’t call us, just followed the bus on his own.
On the way back, your sister and I talked it over and rushed to buy bus tickets. I mean, the Lin Family’s grandparents are no good, your eldest uncle and youngest uncle didn’t come, if we hadn’t come either, what would the Husband’s Family think?" realizing that the two people sitting in front might be Chuxia’s in-laws, Lin Xiaohua quickly lowered her voice, "Chuxia, where is your son-in-law?"
Chuxia was speechless, thinking, haven’t they just greeted you and called you Second Aunt? Before she could respond, Zhao Qiyan whispered to her, "They must be your son-in-law’s driver and Xiao Bing, right? It’s okay for them to hear us talking, isn’t it?"
When Zhao Qiyan pointed it out, Chuxia realized that everyone at home thought she had married an older man. Since Zhou Mikang had gone to meet them at dawn, probably no one had seen him. Hence, even though Zhou Mikang had just called Lin Xiaohua Second Aunt, she had not connected him to the role of a nephew-in-law.
"Second Aunt, did you need something?" At that moment, Zhou Mikang turned his head back, his expression indifferent as he looked at Lin Xiaohua, "Do you have any orders?"
"Ah?" Lin Xiaohua stared at him dumbfounded, unable to utter a word for quite some time. She could never have imagined that this handsome young man was Chuxia’s husband.
Even though he had just helped Chuxia get her into the car and called her Second Aunt, she hadn’t considered that at all. The group leader’s subordinates definitely included Xiao Bing, and Xiao Bing would certainly try to please the group leader, so that was what she naturally assumed.
Zhao Qiyan was even more stunned; she could never have expected that her sister, whom she had looked down upon, would marry such a young and capable man.
After the marriage with the Xue family fell through, her reputation in the village suffered terribly. Plus, after it got out about how her mother had used the Xue family’s connections to enlist her in the military, her reputation sank even further.
For the next six months, not a single matchmaker came to propose. Watching as she headed towards twenty, she and her mother grew genuinely anxious (as local girls usually got engaged around eighteen or nineteen). That’s why they kept running to their grandmother’s house every other day, in the hope of a good marriage proposal.