Chapter 75: What, Junior Sister is still in seclusion (1)
As soon as these words were spoken, the entire courtyard fell into a mysterious dead silence, followed by a burst of laughter.
“Sister Mei, stop joking! I personally pulled off her scarf yesterday, and everyone saw it. There was no Adam’s apple at all, how could she be a man?”
“Yeah, how can a man have such big breasts?”
…
Qu Zhen and Huang Bo teased them dismissively.
“No…”
Xie Mei wanted to argue a bit, but didn’t know where to start.
“Don’t laugh, I actually think Sister Xiao Mei’s suspicion is reasonable.”
Just then, Huang Kaiyou spoke in her support: “Think carefully about how strange that ‘girl’ was. She pretended to be deaf and dumb, and hid her face, not revealing it. Moreover, she was tall and big, not like an ordinary woman. If she was a man disguised, then everything would be reasonable.”
“But what you said doesn’t explain why ‘she’ has no Adam’s apple, right?”
The youngest son, Huang Bo, raised a question.
“An Adam’s apple, let alone for men, even for women, some are big and some are small, it’s not like what you think, men have it obviously, and women don’t. Breasts are even easier to explain, just stuff something in them, as big as you want.”
Huang Kaiyou explained.
“Father is right, I have two male friends whose Adam’s apples are not obvious.”
The eldest son, Huang Long, agreed.
“I have a female friend with a very obvious Adam’s apple.”
Xie Mei also chimed in.
“According to this, ‘she’ might really be a man?”
Qu Zhen was a little surprised, but then frowned and said, “But why would he pretend to be Huang Qi’s lover?”
“Do I need to say this? It must be that their family was afraid of our ridicule in the past, so they specifically invited a more effeminate man this time to play their son’s wife, so no one would dare to gossip.”
Zhou Fang made a deduction.
“Yes, my cousin didn’t even dare to come back for the old man’s birthday this time. He must have been afraid of being mocked.”
Huang Bo felt his mother made sense.
“Perhaps there is another reason, which is to deal with grandfather. The old man has long wanted to see his grandson’s wife. If he doesn’t find a solution this time, he might not have the chance later.”
Huang Long added.
“Your vision is limited to this. I think my eldest brother and sister-in-law’s intentions are definitely not just for these small profits.”
Huang Kaiyou corrected them, saying, “Don’t forget, Huang Qi is almost thirty. If he can’t find a lover again, he will have to go to the battlefield to die. But now it’s different.”
“You mean, eldest brother and sister-in-law want to find someone to impersonate their son’s wife to deceive the court?”
Zhou Fang confirmed with shock.
“No way? This is a capital offense, don’t they want to live?”
Even the usually calm Huang Long’s face changed drastically in fear.
“Wife, if it were you, and Huang Long and Huang Bo were to be sent to the battlefield, would you still be able to manage so much? Besides, they only have one son.”
Huang Kaiyou retorted.
“Indeed, if it were me, I would do the same.”
Zhou Fang pondered and replied.
“Then what should we do now?”
Huang Bo asked somewhat at a loss.
“Then we must expose your ‘sister-in-law’s’ identity. This way, when Huang Qi reaches thirty, he will have to go to the battlefield, and their house will soon fall into our hands.”
Qu Zhen rolled her eyes.
“That’s not good, it’s Brotherhood after all.”
Huang Bo took over the conversation, seeming to have some humanity.
“Yes, if it’s just regular competition, it’s fine, but this is equivalent to endangering his life. I really can’t do it. After all, we are brothers.”
Huang Long was also hesitant.
“Then do you want brothers or wives? If you don’t find a way to solve the housing problem, let him live with you for the rest of your life.”
Qu Zhen questioned her lack of ambition.
“Anyway, that’s my attitude. If there’s no house, I won’t marry into the family. It’s just this dilapidated courtyard, how can two families live here?”
Xie Mei also stated her position.
Thus, the family had a disagreement, and could only turn their gaze to Huang Kaiyou.
Huang Kaiyou gritted his teeth, his cheeks constantly twitching. He looked at his two sons, and finally sighed, “It’s my incompetence that I can’t prepare an extra house for you. Let’s do as the two daughters-in-law want.”
“Then how do we expose ‘her’? We’re not familiar with ‘her’, we can’t force ‘her’ to take off ‘her’ clothes, right?”
Qu Zhen was satisfied and immediately began to plan.
“There’s no need. We just need to spread the word. The villagers will stir the pot, and then my eldest brother’s family will bear immense public pressure. That disguised ‘rich young lady’ will have to come out and prove her gender.”
Huang Kaiyou devised a plan with great shrewdness.
“What if they are like a dead pig that doesn’t fear boiling water?”
Zhou Fang asked worriedly.
“No, they have always prided themselves on filial piety, haven’t they? If they allow those rumors to spread, my father will be furious.”
Huang Kaiyou smiled confidently.
…
As soon as Huang Qi returned home, he started a fire to cook. He was not as lazy as his two cousins, nor did he get too carried away and genuinely consider himself the daughter-in-law of the Huang family.
As soon as Old Man Huang Xinghu saw the scene, he was flattered and quickly stopped him, but it was useless.
“Alas! If those two little grandsons’ wives were also so virtuous, even if they weren’t filial, I could understand.”
Old Man Huang sighed to himself.
Huang Qi quickly prepared breakfast, which was the leftovers from last night. The current conditions did not allow him to be picky, because he had already checked the “granary” and found it empty. It was obvious that his parents had spent everything for his grandfather’s birthday, and probably even the money and grain sent by the villagers.
Huang Qi calculated that it was only June, and there were at least two months until the autumn harvest. If the family hadn’t prepared, it would be difficult to get through.
His parents soon returned from the fields. When they learned that their future daughter-in-law had prepared breakfast, they were immediately overwhelmed with fear, because this world was not like before. Women had extremely high status, and every family treated their daughters-in-law like treasures, otherwise, it would not be so easy to find another one if they lost her, let alone such an outstanding one.
“You must not do such rough work again in the future, otherwise people will think that I, as your mother-in-law, am lazy and deliberately abuse you.”
Li Fen quickly reminded him.
“It’s okay, aren’t you also a daughter-in-law of the Huang family? If you can do it, why can’t I?”
Huang Qi countered his mother with reason.
“But I’m different from you, you’re a rich young lady.”
Li Fen explained very solemnly.
Huang Qi shook his head helplessly, thinking what rich young lady, in a dream?
“In the dream, I do seem to be a rich young lady.”
Huang Qi suddenly thought of something, and felt a little amused and exasperated.
Thinking of the dream, Huang Qi suddenly felt something very strange. Normally, dreams are wild and unconstrained, with no logic in terms of timeline or events. That’s why he hadn’t delved into it before, but now that he thought about it carefully, why were his dreams so coherent? And they were extremely realistic. Sometimes he could even feel the changes in temperature from the outside world through the body of that little girl. He had never heard of anyone having such dreams before.
Huang Qi thought hard but couldn’t find any clues, so he could only give up for the time being.
“By the way, daughter-in-law, you’re sweating, why are you still wearing gloves? These are Huang Qi’s, right?”
His mother suddenly asked.
Huang Qi’s breathing stopped. Fortunately, he had already prepared a reason, so he said, “I did a lot of work at home before, and my hands were really rough. Some aunts commented on it yesterday. Now that I am the daughter-in-law of the Huang family, I naturally have to take care of them and not let outsiders criticize.”
“So that’s how it is.”
Li Fen suddenly realized that her daughter-in-law’s reason was so reasonable that she didn’t have any doubts.
The family members took their seats one after another, but Huang Qi still took his rice bowl to his room to eat.
“What’s wrong? Is your face still swollen?”
Li Fen asked with concern.
“Yes, so I’m really embarrassed for you to see it.”
Huang Qi perfunctorily replied with a guilty conscience.
“Why don’t I go to the county town to get some medicine for you?”
Huang Kairong enthusiastically suggested.
“No need, it’s much better than before.”
Huang Qi quickly stopped him. What a joke, this Huatian Village was far from the county town. Even if he had a toothache, he wouldn’t have let his father take the risk, let alone pretend.
“Oh, it’s not good for me to stay here and eat for free. Here are three taels of silver, consider it my food expenses.”
Huang Qi then took out three taels of silver from his懷 and handed it to his father, the reason was fabricated, just to save his family some dignity.
“What are you talking about, child? We’re family, don’t be so formal with us.”
Li Fen chided him.
“If you don’t accept it, it means you don’t consider me your daughter-in-law, and that’s being formal.”
Huang Qi smoothed things over with his clever words.
After some polite refusal, Huang Kairong still accepted the silver, after all, the family was indeed in financial difficulties.
Huang Qi carried his rice bowl back to the room, feeling a little empty in his heart, because the twenty taels of silver he had were almost spent, and this was “ill-gotten gains.”
Thinking of the silver, Huang Qi also recalled Ruan Lingyu.
“At her speed, she should be almost at the HongHua Sect by now, right?”
Huang Qi realized this, and his heart was raised again. Although he was hiding in this godforsaken Huatian Village, to be safe, he still didn’t want the matter to be exposed. After all, no matter how weak the HongHua Sect was, it was an Immortal Sect with far-reaching influence.
…
As Huang Qi expected, Ruan Lingyu had indeed arrived outside the gate of the HongHua Sect at this moment.
