Yu Shaoqing’s smile froze on his face. Those were shoes his daughter had made for him. Why were they on this guy’s feet?
Yu Shaoqing’s first reaction was that his daughter’s shoes had been stolen by this fellow, but his second reaction was thinking which little thief will steal something and brazenly bring the stolen goods to his door?
Yu Shaoqing was very angry! The consequences were very serious!
Yan Jiuchao felt a powerful killing intent coming at him. He raised his head and looked at Yu Shaoqing, the culprit of the killing intent. Yu Shaoqing clenched his fists tightly and his face was livid. His eyes were about to spew fire.
Young Master Yan was puzzled. Didn’t he already vent his anger about his “private meeting” with his daughter in the middle of the night? Why was he still so aggressive after so long? In order to express his importance to his daughter, he even wore the shoes that his daughter had personally made. What kind of attitude was this?
Just as Young Master Yan was puzzled, Yu Wan came over after washing her family’s clothes. She did not care about the movements of the carriage. She wanted to see if the three children had finished drinking their milk. Then, she saw her father’s mighty and fierce back and Yan Jiuchao’s dumbfounded expression.
The three little munchkins sat on the threshold between the two of them. They drank their milk and glanced at the two adults with innocent expressions.
Yu Wan thought to herself that something had happened again. Last time, he had shouted that he wanted to see her body, but her father had caught him red-handed. Her father’s anger had yet to subside, and when he found out that he was the man who had taken her innocence three years ago, he wanted to kill him so much. How dare he come knocking on his door?
The flames of war burned wildly, and the battle was about to start!
Yu Wan composed herself and walked over. She called softly, “Dad.”
“Ah Wan, you came at the right time!” Yu Shaoqing said angrily. “Why is the birthday gift you gave me on his feet?!”
Yu Wan was stunned. “Dad, is your birthday coming soon?”
Yu Shaoqing : “…”
Yu Shaoqing’s heart suffered ten thousand blows.
It had to be said that Yan Jiuchao had also come to visit under great pressure. He had prepared so many gifts and thought that since he was so considerate, Yu Shaoqing’s iron heart should have softened. Unexpectedly, not only was Yu Shaoqing not soft-hearted, but he had a heavy hand.
The majestic Young Master Yan let Yu Shaoqing chase after most of the village with a broom, making him miserable.
“Look at you, who asked you to come over?” In the main room next door, Yu Wan took the cotton ball she had made, dipped it in disinfectant herbal juice, and wiped Yan Jiuchao’s injured forehead. “Look at your face. It’s wounded.”
This was not because Yu Shaoqing had beaten him up. Yu Shaoqing understood the principle of not hitting people in the face. In fact, Yu Shaoqing already knew Yan Jiuchao’s true identity. Logically speaking, he shouldn’t have offended his superior, but he really couldn’t take this lying down. He hadn’t even doted on his precious daughter enough before she was bullied by a stinky man. She even gave birth to three babies and snatched his birthday gift!
Yu Shaoqing was also anxious. He panicked and stepped into the mud pit. Just as he was about to fall flat on his face, Yan Jiuchao pulled him and ended up knocking into a stone. Fortunately, he only scratched the surface of his skin. After applying some medicine and recuperating for a few days, he would recover.
Yan Jiuchao looked at her coldly. Yu Wan was applying medicine seriously and did not notice that Yan Jiuchao’s gaze was about to skin her alive.
“Didn’t you ask me to come?” Yan Jiuchao said coldly.
Yu Wan looked at him in shock. “When did I ask you to come over?”
Yan Jiuchao said coldly, “You sent a letter to me the day before your father’s birthday. Aren’t you asking me to come and congratulate your father?”
She didn’t know her father’s birthday! Also, she had written a long list of crimes. Had she written them for nothing? How could this fellow find such a strange focus? She seemed to understand why her father always wanted to beat him up.
Yu Wan took a deep breath and did not want to argue with him about this. She looked at the boxes outside the door and changed the topic. “What are those?”
“I can’t come empty-handed, so I prepared a few small gifts for your father.”
“Sm-small gifts?” Yu Wan looked at the dozen or so boxes tied with red silk and the pair of energetic geese on the table. The corners of her mouth twitched. This gift was really… really small!
The entire village knew that Young Master Wan had returned and was carrying more than ten baskets of betrothal gifts and a pair of wild geese. In the Great Zhou Dynasty, wild geese were a wedding gift that was only used when one was proposing. Ordinary families could not find them, the rich families might be able to barely find one. However, Young Master Wan had somehow obtained a big pair, making the people in the village feel strange.
Yu Wan did not understand this. She thought that the geese were wild game sent by Yan Jiuchao and could be stewed for food. On the way back to the house, she thought of more than ten ways to cook the geese and drooled.
Aunt asked Yu Feng and his brother to bring the children out to play. Only she, Uncle, Yu Shaoqing, and Madam Jiang sat in the room and discussed Yan Jiuchao’s visit.
They already knew that Yan Jiuchao was Young Master Wan. Back then, they only felt that Young Master Wan had found a quiet village to study hard. Now that they thought about it, he was simply here for their Ah Wan!
“No wonder he had to protect Ah Wan no matter what when the earthquake happened.” Aunt was enlightened.
“He was the one who found Ah Wan when she fell off the cliff.” Uncle was enlightened.
There was also the matter of Yu Shaoqing being taken care of by Yan Jiuchao after he was imprisoned. In the past, they only thought that Yan Jiuchao was repaying Yu Wan for saving his sons. But now, everyone does not think so. He was simply taking care of his future father-in-law. What did it have to do with saving his sons?
But then again, his fate with Ah Wan was really not shallow. The three children Ah Wan had casually saved were actually her own children, and the woman Yan Jiuchao had taken a fancy to was the mother of his children.
Aunt did not know whether to laugh or cry.
“You can’t blame him for what happened three years ago.” Aunt had an extremely good impression of “Young Master Wan”. Even if she found out the truth, she wouldn’t blame Yan Jiuchao. Of course, it was partly because she liked her son-in-law more and more, but there was no lack of her concept of men being superior. When such a thing happened to a woman, she was always the one who suffered. It was rare for a man to be willing to treat her sincerely.
Uncle remained neutral. He doted on Ah Wan, but he also doted on his third brother. His third brother’s crime had yet to be cleared. Wouldn’t it be bad for his third brother if he offended that young master at this time?
“I don’t agree!” Yu Shaoqing slammed the table and said, “I can tell at a glance that that brat isn’t a good person! He bullied Ah Wan three years ago and left after bullying her! He made Ah Wan suffer so much! Now that he’s back, he wants to snatch Ah Wan away. Dream on! Did I agree to give my daughter to him? He came to my door so openly! Who gave him the guts?!”
The sickly Madam Jiang lowered her head guiltily.
“But Ah Wan has to get married eventually,” Aunt said earnestly.
Yu Shaoqing said angrily, “That doesn’t mean she has to marry him! Is my Ah Wan’s market very bad? Does no one want her? That Erniu, Shuanzi’s brother… and that person. Every time he sees Ah Wan, he doesn’t even blink. Do you think I’m blind!”
That’s because they didn’t know that Ah Wan had children… Aunt sighed secretly and thought to herself, What’s wrong with her third brother? It’s as if he ate a firestone. Usually, I don’t think he finds Young Master Wan so displeasing. What did Young Master Wan do to make her third brother unhappy?
The dozen or so congratulatory gifts that Yan Jiuchao carried over were returned to the room next door intact. Yu Shaoqing closed the door and sat in the room alone, sulking.
“Dad.” Yu Wan pushed the door open and entered.
At night, the room was dark. Her father did not even light an oil lamp.
“We don’t lack money for oil lamps anymore,” Yu Wan said.
Yu Shaoqing ignored her. His tall body was hidden in the shadows. Although he was in his prime, the years of war had left indelible scars on his body. Yu Wan had never looked at him from this angle in the past. When she got closer today, she realized that there was an old scar behind his right ear.
Someone had once taken a knife and tried to cut her father’s head off. He must have been seriously injured back then to leave such a big piece of scar. There must be more and more serious scars where she could not see. They felt that she had suffered, but who had suffered as much as her father?
She… she had lost her parents since young. She had been raised by her aunt, who was not a woman with a strong family concept. No one in her family celebrated their birthday, and no one would leave food for those who returned late. Most of the time, she did not know how to take care of her family’s emotions, and she did not know if she would inadvertently hurt their feelings.
“Dad.” Yu Wan came behind Yu Shaoqing and said softly, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know today was your birthday.”
Yu Shaoqing was very sad.
Yu Wan handed a bag to him. “It was done on the third day you returned.” I’ve been too embarrassed to give it to you.
Some people were fearless when facing their lovers, but they were always very embarrassed when facing their parents.
Yu Shaoqing took the bag with trembling hands and slowly opened it. It was two new black shoes. One look at the unique embroidery method and soles and one could tell that it was made by his daughter. His daughter was not lying to him. She had really made shoes for him. Although they were not the pair he had seen before, they were earlier than that, and there were two pairs!
Yu Shaoqing’s heart melted. His eyes burned slightly, as if there was hot liquid about to rush out. He raised his head to stop himself from crying in front of his daughter. He took out a pair of cloth shoes and could not wait to change into them. Then, he stood up and took a big step smugly.
“Ah—” Yu Shaoqing screamed.
“What’s wrong, Dad?” Yu Wan supported him.
Yu Shaoqing’s tears finally flowed down. “Did you forget to pull out the needle…”