Farmhouse Green Plum

Chen said quickly, "This is my maid. Yuzhi is busy in the kitchen."

When her future parents-in-law come and talk about her marriage, any girl should be ashamed to stay away from them.

Mrs. He became more and more satisfied. It seemed that this daughter-in-law really knew etiquette.

The villagers were even more moved. Mr. and Mrs. He decided to marry Xu Yuzhi without even meeting her. It seemed that they really wanted a literate daughter-in-law.

Many villagers who had girls of school-age secretly regretted their decision. If they had known that Mr. and Mrs. He’s criterion for marrying a daughter-in-law was literacy, they would have sent their daughters to school for two years no matter what.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to know in advance, and at this moment, the villagers can only envy.

On the third day of the first lunar month, Lai Di, who had just returned from visiting relatives, came to the Song family early in the morning to find Daya to find out what was going on.

As soon as they met, he asked in rapid succession, "Tell me quickly, what happened? How did Xu Yuzhi get engaged to the son of the He family? Is it really because Xu Yuzhi can read?"

Seeing her, Daya was very surprised, "You came back in the dark last night?"

After Mr. and Mrs. He left yesterday, the villagers were still reluctant to leave. They stayed at Xu's house and chatted until dark before going home. At that time, Lai Di's family had not yet returned to the village.

"No, my grandmother insisted on keeping us overnight, but there was a ceremony at Huian Temple today, and my parents had to go to worship the Goddess of Childbirth, so they woke me up at 3 a.m. to hurry on."

Lai Di's grandmother's house is quite far from Xinghua Village. Daya silently calculated that if they set out at Yinshi and walked at a normal speed, they should not have reached Xinghua Village yet.

In other words, Lai Di had just returned to the village not long ago.

She immediately sighed, "You are so well-informed. Did you just get home?"

"We just got home and hadn't even entered the house when Aunt Liu San got up to cook. She told us." After explaining, Lai Di urged again, "Tell me quickly, is it really because Xu Yuzhi can read?"

Daya nodded: "Mr. He and Madam He said so themselves."

After getting Daya's confirmation, Lai Di felt mixed emotions, envious and jealous: "Xu Yuzhi's life is so good, she was born as the daughter of a scholar, her father died, and she still had Uncle Xu to take care of her, and now she is married to a good family, which is much better than ours, and she has never suffered any hardship."

Daya sighed, "There are many people in this world who are luckier than her, and there are also many who live more miserably than us."

Lai Di thought about it and felt much better immediately. Although she was not as good as others, she was better than others. At least she had some porridge and a roof over her head to shelter her from the wind and rain. She was much better off than a wandering beggar.

Then she thought of Zhao Xiaocui, Erni and the others, and gossiped, "I wonder what Xiaocui and the others will think when they come back and know that the peddler came to the He family to look for a daughter-in-law."

"A peddler? What peddler?"

"It was the day when Sister Xiaohua was sold. Didn't we meet a peddler on our way back to the village? He came to inquire about Xu Yuzhi that day."

That day, Daya's mind was focused on the fact that Wang Xiaohua was sold, and she had no deep impression of other things. She thought about it carefully for a while before she remembered the situation when she met the peddler.

The peddler did indeed keep praising them for their abilities and for knowing about their parents' affairs. She felt embarrassed at the time and left quickly.

Could it be that the peddler's praise of them at that time was just an excuse to implicate Xu Yuzhi?

After thinking over the events of that day again and again, Daya slowly came to her senses. The peddler had a purpose in talking about her life experience later on. He wanted to get closer to the village chief and open his mouth to talk.

Sure enough, the praise from adults cannot be trusted, they all have a purpose.

With a sigh, she asked, "Did Aunt Liu tell you this, too?"

"Yes," Lai Di nodded, "You don't know, Aunt Liu regretted it very much. She said that if Sister Xiaohua hadn't been sold that day, it's possible that the He family would have fallen in love with Sister Xiaohua."

Daya was speechless. "Mr. He likes Xu Yuzhi because she can read and write, but Xiaohua can't read."

Lai Di curled her lips: "She is so jealous that she doesn't care about that."

Daya pursed her lips and said softly but firmly, "I want to learn to read."

Lai Di was stunned for a moment, then smiled evilly and said, "You also want to marry a rich man?"

Daya turned away her head that was leaning towards her, "Don't you want to?"

Lai Di shrugged: "Of course I do. Getting married is like a second life. If I find a rich husband, I won't have to work. But what's the point? Rich people won't look down on me."

In front of her good friend, Daya did not hide anything and revealed her deepest worries: "Outsiders think it is unlucky to be an orphan girl, and I don't have much dowry, so it will be difficult for me to find a good family in the future.

If I anger my grandmother someday, they might marry me off to a cripple or a fool. But if I can read, it will increase my chances of getting married in the future."

Lai Di felt the same way. She was also worried about her future. Her parents were almost crazy about wanting a son. She was really worried that one day the family’s money would be completely gone and her parents would sell her for money.

Daya added: "I thought about it all night last night. The benefits of learning to read are more than this. If I can read, I can read books by myself, know more herbs, and make more money."

"But our family won't send us to school, and there is no precedent for girls to go to school."

Farmers were poor and could not afford to support scholars. Even for boys, most of them were only sent to school when they were young to learn a few words so as not to become blind.

"Ask Xu Yuzhi to teach us."

Lai Di was a little moved. "We hardly had any contact with her before. Will she agree?"

Daya thought for a while and said, "Let's give it a try. First, get to know her more and get closer to her. Well, ask Xu Yulan what her cousin likes and give her something she likes to please her."

"Will this make us look like we're fawning on her? We never associated with her before she got engaged, but now that she's engaged to a rich man, we're trying to get close to her. What will other people think of us?"

Lai Di has a carefree personality, but that doesn't mean she doesn't understand the ways of the world. She was very worried at the moment.

"Moreover, if people knew that we were trying to curry favor with Xu Yuzhi in order to get her to teach us how to read, they would definitely say that we wanted to be like Xu Yuzhi and marry a rich man. They would say that we were too eager to get married and had no shame, and they would scold us for being restless and fickle."

Daya curled her lips and said sarcastically, "After Mr. He and his men announced their purpose yesterday, many villagers were so jealous that their eyes turned red. Those who didn't have daughters wished they could have one right away.

If Master He hadn't said later that he chose Xu Yuzhi because she could read, those families with girls of the right age would definitely be more active than us at this moment."

"That's true, but we are different from them. When adults do that, they get criticized at most, but we are different."

Lai Di felt depressed and helpless. She really wanted to learn to read so as to increase her chances of getting a marriage proposal in the future, but this matter was much more serious than the money they made from collecting herbs.