Mrs. Li’s hand still held the chicken feather duster she hadn’t dropped, powerful endurance causing her hand to tremble as she stared angrily at her mother-in-law.
"What, you want to hit me? Hmph, alas, I don’t want to live anymore, the unfilial daughter-in-law wants to hit someone!"
Mrs. Lai sat on the ground with a thud, not caring whether it was dirty or not, and started to cry wildly. As she cried, she truly began to weep, letting out all the grievances she had accumulated over the past few days.
As for Mrs. Li, she did not comfort her mother-in-law and let the hidden workers also ignore her, letting her cry until she was satisfied.
Ye Luoqi, supported by her sisters, returned to her room still visibly upset, her tears had already stopped.
The four sisters kept comforting their eldest sister, annoyed by the sounds of their grandmother crying and swearing, feeling it was too noisy.
Gou Dan, confined at home by his parents, his mother sighed when she returned home.
Ever since the day he argued with the rich man’s daughter, causing his friends to be beaten by their families and preventing them from working the land.
His parents had locked him up at home, and those friends had also stopped coming to see him because their parents had purportedly locked them up too.
Ye Jiaxing was filled with anger towards that wealthy family, and the young men held feelings of guilt.
"Gou Dan, with our kind of family, you better not harbor thoughts of marriage; marriages always require equal social status, and our family doesn’t match theirs."
Hearing his mother say this, Ye Jiaxing completely understood her logic, yet he retorted rebelliously, "Mother, is it wrong to like someone!"
"Gou Dan, with our kind of family, just give it up!"
"No, I won’t give up!"
"Oh, son, why bother? The matchmaker has already gone to Hongji’s house to propose."
"Mother, what do you mean by that?"
Ye Jiaxing grew anxious, grabbing his mother’s hand.
"Gou Dan, I heard that Matchmaker Zhang went to Hongji’s house to propose marriage for Wealthy Ye Zhiwei’s second son."
"What, proposing to that scum, absolutely not!"
As Ye Jiaxing spoke, he ran outside; while his parents locked him up, his mother had left the door open when she entered.
"Gou Dan, come back! Sister-in-law Hongji did not agree, and Matchmaker Zhang was beaten!"
Ye Jiaxing stopped at the doorway, turned back to his mother and said:
"Humph, good that she was beaten."
"Come back, you’re still grounded."
Ye Jiaxing had already reached the door; how could he give up such an excellent opportunity to see his beloved?
"Mother, I’ll just take a quick look at Ye Luoqi and then come back."
"Come back, there are so many people at their house building; you can’t go and be seen, or it will start more rumors!"
As a mother, she was ultimately unable to deter her son.
Ye Jiaxing left his mother with these words: "Mother, I’ll be back soon, there won’t be any trouble."
Gou Dan’s mother sighed helplessly, her foolish son was too infatuated; hopefully, it wasn’t a case of him having a willing heart while the Phoenix lady had none!
Ye Jiaxing quietly ran to just before the Ye family’s courtyard, seeing the construction next door as his mother had described.
He felt a surge of envy; indeed, being rich was different, building as soon as they decide to build, considering what his mother said about him not being a match, he thought of his family’s house...
He secretly watched from a distance, noticing nothing unusual except for the sounds coming from the ongoing construction at the Ye family.
Ye Jiaxing felt it must be because he was standing too far away, getting closer might risk being seen by the construction workers.
Due to the previous commotion, he didn’t want to stir up more idle gossip about Daya for his sake.
How could he discreetly find out if Daya was alright?
Ye Jiaxing decided to approach the back of the Ye family house, but there were no windows there, and listening from that spot didn’t yield any significant sound.
He didn’t even hear Daya’s voice, only occasionally catching Mrs. Lai’s scolding.
Ye Jiaxing didn’t catch any useful information and couldn’t see Daya’s face.
Then, he thought of seeking some female friends among those sisters, Granny Li’s granddaughter.
He could only use the excuse of looking for Granny Li’s grandson, eventually reaching their house and meeting both Granny Li’s grandson and granddaughter.
"Why have you come to our house? Weren’t you grounded?"
Seeing Gou Dan, Granny Li’s grandson was merely curious, without reproaching him!
He even admired Gou Dan a bit for having the courage to stand up for a girl, fearless against the powerful.
Although adults would lecture him, using Gou Dan as a cautionary tale, teaching them not to invite trouble or clash with the wealthy, as going against a rich family meant only hardships awaited.
His status was different, yearning for a rich family’s lady was like a toad wanting to eat swan meat; why would anyone marry their promising daughter to a poor lad.