Turning Antagonist to Protagonist: He is Both Soft and Fierce-Chapter 201 - 196: Song Tingfan Is a Cheapskate and a Bachelor
At this moment, there was a knock on the door from outside, "Girl, are you asleep?"
It was Li Guifen’s voice.
Lin Qiao quickly responded, "Not yet." After speaking, she hurried out to open the door, seeing Li Guifen holding a bowl, she stepped aside to let her into the yard.
"I fried some crispy meat. I wanted to call you over to eat, but it got too late, so I’ve brought it to you." Li Guifen didn’t see anyone else, and asked: "Is it just you at home? Tingfan and the others aren’t here?"
"Little uncle is washing dishes, Grandpa and Grandma are at Big Uncle’s place, probably won’t be back until tomorrow." Lin Qiao grabbed a stool for her to sit on.
Li Guifen waved her hand, "No need to sit, I’ll stand for a bit."
She lowered her voice slightly, "Did you get into an argument with your Big Uncle’s wife the other day?"
"Yeah, she only lets Little Uncle work but doesn’t feed him." Lin Qiao didn’t need to guess to know she heard it from the village gossip.
"She’s something else, don’t let Tingfan go there often in the future." Li Guifen felt a bit sorry for Song Tingfan, the child has always been so sensible.
Lin Qiao nodded, "I know."
Song Tingfan, who had finished washing the dishes, came in, "Auntie." After speaking, he stood beside Lin Qiao.
She hadn’t noticed before that he had grown taller. Now he was a head taller than Lin Qiao. Li Guifen laughed, "Tingfan has grown taller, he’s a little adult now."
She felt a bit comforted inside, knowing he could shoulder some family responsibilities, which would lighten the burden on the girl.
Song Tingfan nodded.
After saying a few words, Li Guifen hurried home to eat.
At the Song’s second family, the gate was bolted with a wooden bar.
The sky was not completely dark yet, and Lin Qiao and Song Tingfan stayed in the main room for a while, talking about buying a shop in town.
Buying a shop is usually a happy thing for any family, but Song Tingfan wasn’t happy. With Sister-in-law earning silver coins, would she leave in the future...
Seeing he was silent, Lin Qiao glanced at him, "What’s wrong?"
"Sister-in-law..."
The young man hesitated before looking at her seriously, "Sister-in-law, I will really take care of you."
Lin Qiao naturally understood what he meant and couldn’t help but laugh as she pinched his face, "What are you thinking? If I wanted to leave, I would have done so already. Why else would I talk to you about buying a shop?"
She then realized she had pinched the wrong person, and coughed, withdrawing her hand with a guilty heart, glancing at his reaction, he wasn’t angry, he even seemed a bit happy.
Song Tingfan didn’t mind at all that Sister-in-law pinched his face. If Sister-in-law wanted to pinch, let her pinch. It didn’t hurt.
He held out his hand, "Sister-in-law, let’s make a pinky promise."
Sister-in-law had never broken a pinky promise with him.
The wronged party already understood everything; the pinky promise was just to show trust in her. Lin Qiao naturally wouldn’t disappoint him and hooked his little finger with hers, "Pinky promise, hang it high, for one hundred years, never change. Well, if Little Uncle doesn’t take care of me for my whole life, I’ll annoy you every day, scold you every day."
Song Tingfan grinned brightly, "Okay."
...
Early the next morning, Song An brought Song Qin and Song Rong back, then Song An took Song Tingfan to school, clearly having something to say to him.
"Tingfan, I’m sorry, I haven’t been able to take care of you these past couple of days." Song An’s tone was full of guilt; he had already heard about Mrs. Song not feeding Song Tingfan.
Song Tingfan shook his head, sensibly saying, "Big Brother, I’m fine."
Song An sighed, wanting to say something but nothing came out. Every time he said he would look after him, he failed to do so.
If it weren’t for Big Brother in the past two years, he might have starved to death. Instead, Song Tingfan comforted him, "Big Brother, don’t think too much. I’m fine, I just wasn’t hungry that day."
The more sensible he was, the guiltier Song An felt. Finally, he patted him on the shoulder, "Next time your Big Uncle’s wife tries to hit you, don’t just stand there."
"Okay."
Song Tingfan saw they were about to reach the school, so he waved and said, "Big Brother, you can go back now."
Song Rong nodded, "I’ll watch you go in."
Once inside the school and seated, Song Tingfan turned to look outside and met his Big Uncle’s gaze, waving to signal him to go back.
Suddenly, a voice rang in his ear, "Tingfan, how about I marry your Sister-in-law?"
Zhou Tiedan had just finished speaking when he met the young boy’s sharp gaze and immediately shriveled.
But he still mumbled, "You won’t let me steal your Sister-in-law, and I can’t marry her, you just want to keep all the food for yourself."
He thought for a long time before coming up with a way not to take Song Tingfan’s Sister-in-law.
He would marry Song Tingfan’s Sister-in-law, and Song Tingfan’s Sister-in-law would still be his Sister-in-law.
He could also eat the food Song Tingfan’s Sister-in-law cooked every day.
"Zhou Tiedan, if you keep spouting nonsense, I’ll beat you up." Song Tingfan said angrily.
"Song Tingfan, don’t be so stingy. I’m not even trying to steal your Sister-in-law now. Think about it, if I marry her, your Sister-in-law is still your Sister-in-law, and I can play with you every day." Zhou Tiedan analyzed earnestly.
"I don’t care!" Song Tingfan wanted to hit him but held back, continuing, "Zhou Tiedan, don’t look for me to play in the future!"
He never let Zhou Tiedan come to his house again.
Seeing that he was really angry, Zhou Tiedan didn’t understand, "Why are you mad? I didn’t do anything!"
"You call yourself a brother; you won’t even give me a piece of the flatbread. If I were you, I wouldn’t be mad."
"Stingy, bachelor, stingy, bachelor, stingy, bachelor."
...
Meanwhile, Lin Qiao, Song Rong, and Song Qin went up to town. Song Rong and Song Qin knew she was going to clean the shop and insisted on following.
Lin Qiao didn’t tell them she bought the shop, not to be secretive, but to avoid them overthinking. After all, where would a woman get so much silver money?
Song Qin looked at the shop happily, "It’s quite spacious. How much do you rent it for a month, Qiao’er?"
"One tael."
"That’s expensive, it’s about thirty cents a day."
"It’s already considered cheap."
After chatting for a while, the two elders started cleaning. Lin Qiao wanted to find a carpenter to make some frames and mount the cake diagrams. After telling them, she went out.
Quite a few days of busy work later, they finished setting up the shop.
Lin Qiao planned to open the shop in a couple of days, so there were many preparations to be made.
Song Tingfan watched as Sister-in-law began working right after dinner and went over to help her. Lin Qiao looked at him and smiled, "No need to help, go rest, you’ve been at school all day."
Song Tingfan didn’t listen to her and continued helping. It took quite a while before they packed everything that needed to go to town the next day into the basket.
Lin Qiao put her hands on her waist and took a few breaths, "Little Uncle, I won’t come back tomorrow night."
Hearing this, Song Tingfan looked at her, hesitated, "Okay."
Lin Qiao didn’t notice his reaction and turned to go into the room to get her clothes for a bath.
A couple of moments later, she came out of the thatched hut while drying her hair, looking down, she noticed a shadow on the ground. Instinctively, she looked up, but before she could, her foot stepped on something, causing her to lurch forward. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂
No fall as she imagined.
But the warm hand on her waist made her pause.
The soft feeling on his chest left Song Tingfan stunned, he touched Sister-in-law’s...
Realizing what happened, he immediately let go, stammering, "Sister-in-law, are you okay?"
