Turning Antagonist to Protagonist: He is Both Soft and Fierce-Chapter 84 - 79: Raising a Younger Uncle Can’t Make Him a Husband
After saying a few more words, Lin Qiao let him in. Song Tingfan reluctantly nodded and suddenly remembered something. He pulled out a few cents from his pocket and handed them to her, "Sister-in-law, take a donkey cart."
"I have some, it’s with me."
Seeing his stubborn look, Lin Qiao reached out to take it, smiled, and said, "Thank you, little brother-in-law."
Song Tingfan’s eyes curved. He liked it when his sister-in-law accepted the things he gave her, just like how his parents would, but also a bit different from them.
He waved, "Sister-in-law, I’m going inside."
As soon as he entered the school, Zhou Tiedan noticed the item in his hand, "Tingfan, what good stuff do you have? I want to eat it."
Lin Qiao frequently bought treats for Song Tingfan, so he instinctively thought it was something to eat.
Upon hearing this, Song Tingfan tightened his grip and put it into his chest, "It’s not food; it’s rat poison."
He wasn’t stingy; he just didn’t want to share the things his sister-in-law bought with others.
Not even a tiny bit.
"Huh? Do you have a lot of rats at home?" Zhou Tiedan asked sincerely, believing it without hesitation.
"Yes, a lot." Song Tingfan sat down, covering his chest with his hand.
Zhou Tiedan "oh"ed, then suddenly glanced at the door, his attention immediately diverted, "Tingfan, your sister-in-law is talking to Mr. Cheng. The teacher won’t report you, will he? No, you do well in your studies, the teacher can’t report you, unlike me, when the teacher reports, I’m done for." Toward the end, his tone turned a bit "pitiful."
Every few days, his mother would beat him, and sometimes even his father couldn’t stand it and would help her.
After the beating, his grandparents would scold him and make him stand in the corner.
Originally seated, Song Tingfan shot up, looking intently toward the door. The woman was smiling gently while talking to the man, whose back was to him, so he couldn’t see his expression.
They were standing very close.
He unconsciously bit his lower lip. After a moment, he walked out and happened to hear the woman say, "Sorry to trouble you, Mr. Cheng. Tingfan is not very talkative, and I don’t know how to show concern for him as a sister-in-law."
"I will, I will take good care of him," Cheng Sheng nodded politely.
Lin Qiao expressed her gratitude, "Thank you very much, Mr. Cheng."
Every word his sister-in-law said was about him, and the discomfort and restlessness in Song Tingfan’s heart from before dissipated. He glanced at his sister-in-law again and obediently went back into the school and sat down.
He wanted to study well.
Lin Qiao, of course, saw him come out, but she wasn’t deliberately saying nice things—just a few more words.
After exchanging a few more words with Cheng Sheng, she left. There was no donkey cart at the village entrance, so she walked and waited. After walking half the way, she hitched a ride on a donkey cart heading to the nearby village.
Several men on the donkey cart looked at her with ill intentions. Lin Qiao was used to it in her previous life; she couldn’t help it, she was naturally beautiful.
Though she and her original self looked exactly alike, she was still a bit different—too thin. She needed more nourishment.
She hadn’t reached noon when she arrived in town. It was overcast today, no sun, and there were more vendors.
When Lin Qiao saw some cloth strips for tying hair, she thought of how Song Tingfan used randomly cut strips. She stopped and walked over to the stall.
The cloth strips were very soft, made of fine cotton, with various embroidered patterns on both ends.
The seller was a middle-aged woman who enthusiastically said, "Sister, buy one for your husband. Our cloth strips are all beautiful. You’re so pretty; your husband must be handsome, and using our strips will make him even more so."
Amused by her nonsense, Lin Qiao couldn’t help but chuckle. She didn’t bother to explain she was a widow and picked out a headband with bamboo leaves and white clouds. "How much for these two?"
"Three cents each, if you take two, I’ll give them to you for five cents," the woman responded cheerfully.
The price was about right, so Lin Qiao didn’t haggle and gave her the five cents. The woman accepted the money and then said with a smile, "Sister, buy a couple of flower buds for yourself, and your husband won’t be able to take his eyes off you."
Lin Qiao smiled, thinking that to capture her original husband’s attention, she’d probably have to lift the coffin lid. "No, thank you."
She then went straight to the fabric shop. The boss saw her coming and smiled, "I thought you’d drop by in a few days."
"It’s getting cold. I wanted to buy some quilts," Lin Qiao glanced at the quilts in the shop.
Hearing this, the boss shook his head, "Buying quilts isn’t wise. Since you know how to sew, just get some cotton and do it yourself. If you don’t have the tools to fluff the cotton, pay someone to do it."
"If you want to save the labor cost, you can do it by hand yourself. It’s a bit troublesome, but it’s much cheaper than buying a ready-made quilt."
The fabric shop’s quilts started at six pounds, and the minimum price was one tael two.
Buying just the cotton was much cheaper. She had a connection and could get it for one hundred cents per pound.
Thinking of this, she added, "If you want to buy, I can help you get it for one hundred cents a pound."
She was helping her because the last time she succeeded; that family even brought another family over, earning her a lot of silver coins.
Lin Qiao appreciated this, "Thank you so much, boss."
She took out a drawing, "Boss, see if you want this?"
The boss was delighted, took a look, and couldn’t stop smiling, "I’ll take it. How did you come up with this idea?"
Lin Qiao felt a bit shy, "I wanted to look a bit better myself."
The boss looked over her clothes, which were still the same homespun clothes as before, and didn’t doubt her, only thinking she had found her calling, "I’ll give you a set of ru skirts. With your looks, you’ll look fabulous in a ru skirt. How about this goose yellow one? Your fair skin will set it off beautifully."
Without waiting for Lin Qiao to respond, she took down the ready-made garment and wrapped it up, "This dress is about your size."
Lin Qiao quickly refused, "Boss, I don’t want it; keep it to sell."
"Come now, take it. Without a husband, you should still dress up. Do you plan to live like a widow forever?" The boss frowned and gave her a reproachful look, speaking with a hint of genuine concern.
The An Yuan Dynasty in recent years allowed widows to remarry, but with the consent of their in-laws.
Lin Qiao couldn’t say she was merely trying to "survive," and regarding marriage, it hadn’t crossed her mind at all.
She lowered her head, "I haven’t thought about these things, just want to bring up my little brother-in-law."
She had to maintain the image of a good sister-in-law outside to make everyone believe she cared for her little brother-in-law.
Eventually, even the antagonist would think so.
How stubborn, the boss glared at her, whispering, "Just raising him won’t make him your husband. What will you do when he gets married?"
"Raising him is the least you can do, but you still need to think about yourself, so you’re not left alone when you’re old."
"But don’t do anything rash, find an honest family to marry into."
That last sentence was just shy of directly saying not to seduce married men.
Lin Qiao twitched her mouth, "..."
What was supposed to settle for two taels of silver, she needed to buy cotton, eight pounds per quilt, amounting to twenty-four pounds. With winter coming, everyone at home needed coats, so Lin Qiao asked for thirty pounds of cotton, paying the boss one tael.
The boss sent her husband to buy it, and he returned in a quarter of an hour.
There was no way Lin Qiao could carry thirty pounds of cotton by herself. The boss originally planned to have her husband escort her home but seemed uneasy about Lin Qiao’s appearance, so she had an elderly helper escort her home.
