Fortunate Life of the Rural Beauty
Chapter 141 - 140 The Stepmother Comes

Chapter 141: Chapter 140 The Stepmother Comes

Add more to the dowry for Diudiu.

Chen Alan was very sensible and diligent, Chen Ming and Mrs. Wang liked her very much, and Chen Afu also had a good impression of her. Therefore, they added to her dowry generously.

Every time they took something out, Mrs. Fu exaggeratedly clucked her tongue in admiration and expressed her envy.

Having such a person admiring the gifts made the gift-giving ceremony enjoyable for both the giver and the receiver.

Chen Alan blushed and smiled, whispering her gratitude.

Chen Ye was even more satisfied with the added dowry, laughing heartily. This time, Mrs. Hu was also quite satisfied and unexpectedly gave Dabao a handful of fried peanuts.

Chen Aju’s eyes were fixed on the comb set, and she couldn’t take her eyes off it. She went to the table and fondled each of the six combs in her hand, loving them so much.

Seeing Chen Alan nervously watching her, Chen Aju reacted with displeasure, saying, "I’m just looking, not planning to steal it. Do you have to act so poor?" After saying that, she threw the comb back into the brocade box.

Chen Alan burst into tears on the spot.

Chen Ye was furious. He took off his shoe and hit Chen Aju, cursing, "I will beat you to death, you wicked turtle. She’s your own sister, and she’s about to get married and leave this home. Instead of being affectionate with her, you say things that hurt her feelings. You’re even worse than your cousin in the next room..."

This time Chen Ye was ruthless, beating her mercilessly. With one hand, he grabbed Chen Aju’s clothes, and with the other, he used the sole of his shoe to hit her. Chen Aju couldn’t escape and cried out in pain.

Neither Mrs. Chen nor Chen Agu tried to stop Chen Ye. They felt that Chen Aju deserved to be taught a lesson. Mrs. Gao didn’t dare to interfere with her father-in-law, and Mrs. Hu was kicked by Chen Ye when she tried to intervene. She was also cursed at, leaving her only able to plead at one side, "Don’t be angry, master, Aju is still young and doesn’t understand. She will be better when she grows up."

Mrs. Chen chimed in, "Aju is not young anymore, she’s already discussing marriage. We must discipline her properly now, otherwise, what will happen in the future."

The only people left who could restrain Chen Ye were Chen Ming, Hu Laowu, and Hu Wei. Chen Ming didn’t restrain him, he also thought Chen Aju deserved the punishment. Hu Wei didn’t realize this at all. Hu Laowu didn’t intervene until he thought the beating was sufficient, he then stood up, held Chen Ye back, and said, "Brother-in-law, calm down..."

Hu Cuicui quickly came over and pulled the crying Chen Aju out of the room.

Chen Aju’s outburst left everyone in a bad mood. Originally, Chen Ming’s family was going to excuse themselves and go home, but they held back when they saw Hu Laowu get up and excuse himself. They didn’t want to leave with that family, so they sat down and chatted for a while.

Alan wiped her tears and whispered with Chen Afu at one side. The young girl was about to go to her husband’s house. She had both expectations for the future and uncertainties. Unfortunately, she couldn’t share these whispers with her younger sister Chen Aju, or with her cousin Hu Cuicui. So, she only murmured a few words to Chen Afu.

Chen Afu gave her a few words of comfort and made a few jokes that made Chen Alan blush and giggle.

After a quarter more of an hour, Chen Ming’s family finally got up and said goodbye.

Before leaving, Mrs. Wang said to Mrs. Chen, "Mother, the day after tomorrow only I can come to help, Afu has to go to the Tang Garden, he won’t have time to help."

Mrs. Chen nodded and said it was fine, and that Afu couldn’t delay the important matters of the Tang Garden. Mrs. Hu glanced at Chen Ye and Chen Ming, who were a bit distant, and whispered, "There will be plenty of helpers that day, we won’t lack manpower. It’s just that my family didn’t buy much meat. I saw that my sister-in-law’s family has a lot of meat hanging..."

The old lady’s face turned red, scolding, "First Daughter-in-law, Aju was just punished, how can you be so superficial?"

Mrs. Hu immediately shut up.

When they came out into the courtyard, they could still hear Chen Aju’s crying from the West Wing, as well as Mrs. Gao’s comforting words. They all acted as if they hadn’t heard her crying and left directly.

When they got home, Mrs. Wang told Chen Ming what Mrs. Hu had said, and added, "My elder sister-in-law is like a starving ghost reincarnated, always with her mouth wide open for things. Their family lives comfortably, with more than ten acres of farmland, yet they won’t even hire a long-term worker. They also didn’t pay for the construction of the courtyard, so they haven’t had any large expenses in many years. How can they be short of money? If it wasn’t for Afu’s idea of selling Lu Chuan, their family wouldn’t have been better off than Dabao’s family. Nobody is a fool, I have calculated the savings of the big room over the years, it won’t be less than fifty taels."

Chen Ming shook his head and said, "How is it that my kindhearted elder brother married such a discordant wife, and then raised Aju to be like this."

The next day, as the "man of the house," Dabao went with Chen Ming to supervise the construction of the new home. After finishing her chores leisurely, Chen Afu went into her space with half a bowl of pine nuts.

As soon as she entered, Jin Yanzi craned her neck, saying, "So fragrant."

As soon as Chen Afu put the bowl on the ground, Jin Yanzi ran over to eat the pine nuts.

Chen Afu looked at the pot of orchids again. The flower stems were green, the leaves open, and it had fully revived, looking very robust. She thought of giving the flower to Abbot Liao Chen when he came to Tang Garden. Liao Chen’s health wasn’t great, with asthma that often flared up in winter, so he rarely visited the Tang Garden nowadays.

Chen Afu left the space, and went to the west room of the old yard with paper and charcoal.

The mother and daughter both sat on the bed, one sewing, the other "designing" furniture.

With Mrs. Gao absent today, it was just the two of them. They chatted while working, feeling very contented. Zhui Feng and Wang Cai also felt contented, lying on the ground, half squinting and dozing off.

Chen Afu drew a wardrobe, which looked no different from those of the time on the outside-a rectangle with double doors, carved with flowers. However, the interior was unlike that of the time, it had modern clothes hangers.

The clothes of ancient people were all folded and placed in boxes. If they wanted to wear them, poor people would directly take them out to wear, or take them out the day before and hang them on a string. Elegant people would have a wardrobe, which also had "hangers". These were wooden racks, somewhat like the parallel bars of her previous life. They would take out the clothes they wanted to wear the next day and hang them on the wooden stick. This kind of "hanger" took up a lot of space and was rather inconvenient.

Chen Afu thought that when the time came, she would have Carpenter Wu make more such hangers. Not only would they be used by her family and in Tang Garden, but she would also send some to the Nirvana Embroidery Workshop.

While she was drawing, she heard a loud voice outside the door, "Eldest sister, mother is here to see you."

As soon as Mrs. Wang heard the voice, her face turned pale. She said, "Those two people are my step-mother and brother, they are very intimidating. Afu quickly go to the east room, don’t come over."

When Chen Afu looked out the window, she saw a woman in her late forties and a man in his twenties standing outside the fence. The woman was thin and small, with sleek hair and wearing red lipstick. The man wasn’t tall and bore a resemblance to Mrs. Wang.

These must be the stepmother who had sold Mrs. Wang twice, and she also had a half-brother.