Turning Antagonist to Protagonist: He is Both Soft and Fierce-Chapter 176 - 171: Xu Hu’s Flaw—He’s Not Good-Looking
The squeezed Lin Qiao took two steps back, not noticing the boy’s thoughts; he always cozied up to her like this after class.
She smiled and looked at him, noticing a bit of disheveled hair on his forehead. "Back again? Didn’t I tell you to take it easy?"
The unobedient Song Tingfan lied, "I’m thirsty."
Lin Qiao didn’t suspect anything, "I’ll get you some water; I just brewed jujube water. Want some sugar in it?"
It’s strange; the villain liked sugar, but in her dreams, she never saw him eat any.
Perhaps it’s because no one ever treated him kindly, and he never dared to ask for "sugar."
"No need." Song Tingfan, who usually had his drinks with a tiny bit of sugar, refused it today with an outsider present; asking for sugar wasn’t manly.
Hearing this, Lin Qiao asked curiously, "Why don’t you want it? We still have sugar at home. Didn’t we just weigh two jin today?"
"No," Song Tingfan shook his head firmly.
That was indeed odd, but Lin Qiao didn’t think much of it and went to the kitchen to get him some water, adding a little less than half a spoon of sugar.
The water was sweet. Song Tingfan glanced at his smiling sister-in-law, licked his lips, and finished it in one gulp.
In the main room, Song Qin saw her grandson interrupting Lin Qiao and Xu Hu’s interaction and waved him over, "Niu Niu, come here and help me thread a needle."
As soon as he left, his sister-in-law was back with the "annoying" person. Song Tingfan didn’t want to leave, but he had to help Grandma with the needle. "Alright."
Soon he added, "Sister-in-law, the teacher wants the family to check my writing."
There was indeed a rule at the school for family supervision, which also let families see the children’s learning progress.
But most families were illiterate and usually asked literate people in the village to check.
However, Cheng Sheng hadn’t mentioned needing family checks today.
Lin Qiao thought she would soon hear the village children’s wailing again, "Okay."
Then she took his homework, sat at the table, and checked his writing. It was neat enough, ahem, just neat.
She wondered whether to teach him how to write.
The "old mother" hesitated for a while, finally deciding to find an easy excuse to teach him writing.
Xu Hu was curious that Lin Qiao could read. While wiping his face, he watched her; the woman was sitting upright, her brows slightly downturned, focused intently.
His aunt said she was capable; it wasn’t a lie.
She wasn’t as bad as people said. Every time he saw her, she was working.
Suddenly, his vision was blocked as someone moved to his front, a boy shielded him.
Song Tingfan did it on purpose; he didn’t like him looking at his sister-in-law, not one bit. "Grandma, it’s done."
"Come over here, let Brother Xu sit. He just fetched water and chopped firewood." Song Qin saw him blocking Xu Hu and tried to pull him over, but he didn’t budge.
She realized the child didn’t seem to like Xu Hu very much.
Xu Hu spoke honestly, "It’s okay, Grandma, I won’t sit. This little work isn’t tiring; I usually carry goods at the dock all day."
"Carrying goods must be tiring," Song Rong chimed in.
"It was tiring at first, but you get used to it."
Xu Hu thought of something else and continued, "I won’t work at the docks anymore; I’ll help my parents with the grain shop. I’ll buy grains around too. If you have grains to sell, I’ll give you a good price."
Before Song Rong and the others could say anything, Song Tingfan bluntly said, "We don’t have grains to sell, not enough to eat."
The remark made Xu Hu a bit awkward, apologetically explaining, "That’s not what I meant."
He just wanted to help the Song Family.
Song Qin quickly smoothed things over, "Hu Zi, don’t be upset, Niu Niu just talks like that, doesn’t know any better."
"No, I spoke incorrectly," Xu Hu admitted, feeling he’d indeed misspoken and decided to talk less.
The villain’s odd behavior was noticed by Lin Qiao, who glanced at him a few times. The kid was quite "hostile" toward Xu Hu, as if he had eaten gunpowder.
When she went to sauté vegetables in the kitchen, Song Tingfan followed. She asked softly, "You don’t like him?"
Song Tingfan put firewood into the stove and grumbled, "He’s no good."
Aside from looks, Xu Hu was a decent man, and Lin Qiao wondered what made him "no good." "What’s so bad about him? I think he’s quite nice."
Quite nice...
Does that mean his sister-in-law might marry him?
Song Tingfan felt a little choked up, repeating, "He’s no good."
"He’s not good-looking."
Who’d have thought the villain cares about appearances too, Lin Qiao laughed out loud, then quickly realized judging by looks was wrong. She educated him, "Uncle, looks are secondary; it’s the character that matters."
She worried that with the villain’s looks, finding a bride might be challenging?
Good-looking girls in the village were rare, just average.
Sister-in-law spoke up for Xu Hu, and Song Tingfan tapped the fire poker with his fingers, a bit unknowingly jealous. "Sister-in-law is pretty; he’s not. He’s not worthy."
Lin Qiao was amused by him, "What kind would be worthy in your opinion? Someone like you?"
"No, much better than me." The boy shook his head seriously.
He even rejects himself, Lin Qiao stared at his face for a moment, teasing, "Then sister-in-law will spend her life with Uncle for the rest of her life."
To be honest, the villain’s looks are genuinely hard to top.
"Alright, I’ll take care of sister-in-law for a lifetime." The boy conveniently forgot he had planned to match his sister-in-law with a good family not long ago.
The Lin Family somehow got word, and just as dinner was about to begin, the whole family arrived, bringing a few dishes, claiming to join for the fun.
In truth, they were there to see Xu Hu. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦
Listening to Li Guifen indirectly inquire about Xu Hu’s family, Lin Qiao found it headache-inducing. No one rushed her marriage in her past life, but now they were making up for it.
Thanks to the "blessing" of the original self.
She didn’t notice the boy beside her who hadn’t eaten a bite of his rice, just kept poking at it with his chopsticks.
After dinner, it was getting late. Xu Hu left driving the carriage, and naturally, Li Guifen, after inquiring about him, came to ask Lin Qiao her thoughts while she was washing dishes. She asked quietly, "What do you think?"
For her genuine care for her daughter, Lin Qiao answered seriously, "He’s alright, but I don’t like him."
"Why not?"
"Not as handsome as Uncle."
Li Guifen: "..."
"You, girl, don’t use Tingfan as a shield. Where are you going to find someone more handsome than him? Let me tell you honestly, you’re still young. Not saying you need to find a top-class man, but someone decent would do, and we can give you a good dowry."
"I told your dad, when things are less busy, we’ll build you a house in the village, so you’ll have a place to stay later."
Building a house even for oneself would cost at least seven to eight taels of silver. Lin Qiao glanced at her, indeed the original self’s parents had fulfilled their duty.
"No need, there’s enough room at home."
"There is, but it’s not yours. With a house built for you, your dad and I can be more at ease. In the future, even if we’re not around, we won’t worry about you not having a place to live."
As Li Guifen spoke, her eyes began to redden; she truly couldn’t feel at ease about her daughter.
