Li Yutong looked down upon people like Qiao Shanmei, but she had her own plans in mind.
She brought her to a somewhat shabby small courtyard and lightly knocked on the door.
After a while, someone came out: "Who is it?"
Li Yutong said with a hint of impatience in her voice: "It’s me, open the door quickly."
The person inside clearly recognized who it was: "Coming, coming."
When the door opened, out came a middle-aged woman: "Yutong’s here, come in quickly."
After entering the house, Li Yutong didn’t bother with pleasantries and pointed to Qiao Shanmei following behind her, saying: "Wet nurse, this is Qiao Shanmei, an acquaintance of mine. She currently has nowhere to stay, so I’d like her to temporarily stay here with you."
The middle-aged woman inside was Li Yutong’s wet nurse, Xu Yuzhen. Back then, when her mother gave birth to her, firstly there was no breast milk, and secondly, due to work requirements, she couldn’t be by her side personally.
At that time, it wasn’t possible to hire a wet nurse to come home, so they had to send the child to Xu Yuzhen’s home to grow up together with her children.
In those days, if any family was well-off, who would want to be a wet nurse for someone else’s child?
At the time, the Xu Family hadn’t split up, Xu Yuzhen was married to Xu Laoer, and she had given birth to a daughter. In her husband’s family, she received little affection, but Xu Yuzhen’s health was quite good, and her breast milk was adequate.
She raised her daughter well, but the good times didn’t last. Before her daughter was a month old, her mother-in-law informed her that to help the family income, a child from another family would be sent over the next day for her to wet nurse.
She even said that going forward, the priority was to feed the other child with milk, and any remaining milk would be for her own daughter, who could just drink rice porridge as well. They said they would pay twelve yuan a month.
She naturally wasn’t willing, but she couldn’t make decisions. Her mother-in-law ruled the house, and she could only accept without arguing.
After that, Li Yutong was sent to the Xu Family, where she stayed for three years.
At first, Xu Yuzhen would save some milk for her daughter, secretly letting her have a few sips, but later, after being discovered by her mother-in-law, she was scolded harshly.
From then on, her own daughter was taken away by the mother-in-law, and no matter what she said it was useless. The mother-in-law had only one request, which was to take good care of Li Yutong.
If anything happened to that child, she wouldn’t be able to stay in that house.
Xu Yuzhen was truly frightened. Subsequently, she put a lot of effort into taking care of Li Yutong. Seeing her being obedient, the mother-in-law would occasionally treat her own daughter to a meal as a reward.
Seeing that her mother-in-law didn’t deceive her, afterwards, Xu Yuzhen treated Li Yutong like a goddess, being incredibly good to her, and they developed a genuine relationship.
Until Li Yutong was taken back to the Li Family at age three, only then did Xu Yuzhen’s daughter return to her side.
Perhaps Xu Yuzhen truly cared about Li Yutong, so even after Li Yutong returned to the Li Family, during holidays or special occasions, she would visit the Xu Family with gifts.
With the Li Family valuing Xu Yuzhen, the life for Xu Yuzhen and her daughter in the Xu Family improved considerably.
But the good times didn’t last, the milk sister who was the same age as Li Yutong had an accident at age six, and Xu Yuzhen was so grief-stricken she nearly followed her.
Moreover, since Xu Yuzhen never got pregnant again afterwards, the old lady in the Xu Family had other thoughts, and Xu Laoer felt that without a son, he had no descendants and had difficulty holding his head high.
With mother and son conspiring, Xu Yuzhen was expelled from the Xu Family.
Unexpectedly for her, after being driven from her husband’s home, she couldn’t return to her parents’ home either. After her parents passed, all that was left with her brother and sister-in-law was appearances. Hearing that she wanted to return, they were absolutely against it, even fearing she might cause trouble, and didn’t let her inside.
At a time when Xu Yuzhen was destitute and helpless, it was the Li Family who reached out to help, spending money to buy her this small courtyard and helping her find a temporary job. She’s been here ever since.
Although Li Yutong looked down upon her, in the years since, whenever she felt unhappy or indeed happy, she would visit here.
Since her own daughter passed away, Xu Yuzhen treated Li Yutong as if she were her own daughter, not to mention, if it weren’t for the Li Family, who knows what her fate would have been: "That’s great, just right to keep me company."