Turning Antagonist to Protagonist: He is Both Soft and Fierce-Chapter 85 - 80: It’s All Because He’s Not Strong Enough
As soon as the carriage entered the village, the villagers noticed it. A carriage costs at least several dozen taels, isn’t that unusual?
Many people followed the carriage to the Song Family’s door, watching the Song Family move things in and out, they all felt a bit envious, fearing it might be something good.
Someone couldn’t hold back and asked, "Grandma Tingfan, what did you buy? So much that you even had it brought back by carriage."
Song Qin, though charitable, wasn’t stupid, "Just some worthless things."
Calling things hauled by carriage worthless? No one believed it. In the crowd, Mrs. Song squinted, her eyes shifted, and she faked a smile, saying, "Mom, you’re getting old, let me help you." She then reached out for the thing in Song Qin’s hand.
But before she could take it, Lin Qiao quickly took it, looking a bit embarrassed as she said, "Aunt, let me do it, don’t tire yourself out."
Without waiting for Mrs. Song to answer, she took it inside and locked it in her own room.
When Mrs. Song arrived, the door was already locked. She pouted displeased, "So precious, even locked."
"I’m afraid of getting Aunt’s clothes dirty." Lin Qiao pretended not to understand her meaning, glanced at the people outside, and raised her voice, "It’s just husks I bought. The boss saw I couldn’t carry them, so he had someone help me bring them back." Saying this, she patted herself, causing some light dust to rise.
Cloth clothes easily pick up dust, and after walking for a while, naturally, there would be dust on her.
She didn’t believe anyone could distinguish between husk dust and regular dust.
Mrs. Song got a face full of dust, sneezed several times, and glared at her disdainfully, "So dirty!"
Turns out it was just husks, nothing interesting!
"Sorry Aunt, sorry." Lin Qiao backed away several steps, looking aggrieved.
Since the last time she pretended to fall, Mrs. Song had no good feelings towards her and acted like this every day.
Thinking of this made her furious, complaining to Song An, but he scolded her to stop making trouble out of nothing.
She spat, "Pretending for what, who doesn’t know what you’re like?"
"Wang Ju! I’m not dead yet. If you bully Qiao’er again, don’t blame me for hitting you!" Seeing Lin Qiao being bullied, Song Qin immediately defended her and scolded Mrs. Song.
If she slapped Mrs. Song, Mrs. Song wouldn’t dare fight back. She rolled her eyes dramatically, sarcastically saying, "Oh, so my eldest daughter-in-law doesn’t count as much as the granddaughter-in-law."
Now everyone’s attention wasn’t on the things but on Mrs. Song. Women who had grudges with her took the chance to curse Mrs. Song, "Wang Ju, you don’t even take care of the old couple, how can you compare to the granddaughter-in-law?"
"It’s been such a long time since your return, the old couple probably hasn’t even had a sip of your home’s water!" After saying this, she laughed unkindly.
Angry and embarrassed, Mrs. Song spat, "Better watch your own man! Who knows when he’ll get bewitched and divorce you, bringing in that little vixen!"
The whole village knew the third family of the Yu family was fooling around with a brothel woman outside. If Old Yu hadn’t disallowed it, she might have been brought back as a concubine.
Yu San’s wife, Yu Ning, was hit in the sore spot, angrily pointing at her but couldn’t say anything.
After a long pause, she squeezed out a few words, "Everyone knows what your Song An is up to, always running to Song’s second family."
Lin Qiao, watching the scene unfold, didn’t expect to get dragged into it, "..."
In their minds, does every man who visits her have a secret affair with her?
She’s not that "formidable."
Mrs. Song still trusted her own man; Song An spent all day with his shabby arrow, almost sleeping with it.
She spat, "You think my man is as disgusting as yours? Your man is that toad, not even worth a copper coin, dreaming of swan meat!"
"Someday, he might die of syphilis!"
"Say another word about my man, and I’ll tear your mouth apart!"
With that, she spat at that woman and strutted out of the crowd.
True enough, Mrs. Song’s husband was famous in the village for being successful, with good family conditions and hunting skills.
After she left, with no more drama to watch, the crowd slowly dispersed.
Lin Qiao quickly closed the door, facing Song Qin’s worried gaze, probably afraid she had taken those women’s words to heart.
She smiled, "Grandma, I’m fine."
Song Qin felt a bit guilty; marrying into the Song family had been tough on her. She wanted to say something but didn’t know what.
"Grandma, let’s work on the cotton. The sooner we finish, the sooner Uncle can have a quilt."
Lin Qiao opened the room, carrying out a bag, wondering just how long it would take to tear cotton by hand. "Grandma, do you know where in the village has someone to beat the cotton?"
"Probably not, there was a family years ago, but they moved away."
Song Qin touched the cotton and added, "The cotton is good, Qiao’er, you probably don’t have enough silver coins, right?"
Lin Qiao hadn’t hid her drawing anymore; the family knew how much silver she had.
"I have enough, a bit leftover too, the boss helped me buy it, much cheaper."
No one was beating cotton, so they had to tear it by hand first. Lin Qiao set up two long benches and, with some effort, placed a big winnowing basket on top, then poured half the cotton into it.
Song Qin remembered something and quickly said, "Qiao’er, you haven’t eaten yet. I’ll get you some food."
"Grandma, no, after being on the carriage, I feel a bit stuffy in my chest." Lin Qiao shook her head. Although the carriage was fast, it was more bumpy than a donkey cart.
"Then let Grandma make you some honey water."
Without waiting for her reply, Song Qin went to the kitchen, and after a while, brought some honey water for Lin Qiao. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢
Lin Qiao felt a warm sensation in her heart, took it, blew on it, sipped a bit, and blinked, "Grandma makes it really sweet."
"If you like it, drink more." Song Qin replied with a loving expression.
Hand-tearing cotton was light work. Song Rong could help, so the three of them sat around the basket tearing cotton.
They spent the whole afternoon tearing it.
By now, it was dusk, and the "knock-knock" at the door sounded.
Song Qin glanced at the sky, delighted, "It must be Niu Niu back..."
Before she finished speaking, a young voice of joy rang out from the courtyard, "Sister-in-law, I’m back."
At the words, an image of his grinning face formed in her mind, and Lin Qiao’s lips twitched, "..."
If he hadn’t called her sister-in-law, people might have thought he was calling for his wife.
So eager.
Unable to hold back her laughter, Song Qin said, "Niu Niu just sticks to his sister-in-law now, doesn’t even cling to Grandpa and Grandma." Saying that, she got up to open the door.
Not seeing his sister-in-law, Song Tingfan inexplicably felt a little down; he hadn’t seen his sister-in-law even at noon.
He missed his sister-in-law.
But he still smiled and obediently called, "Grandma."
"Grandma, sister-in-law isn’t back yet?"
Song Qin moved aside to let him in, took a look at Lin Qiao, and laughed, "Your sister-in-law is back, tearing cotton for your quilt."
As he went in, she closed the door.
Upon hearing this, Song Tingfan’s eyes lit up, he walked quickly into the room and met his sister-in-law’s gaze, grinning sheepishly, "Sister-in-law."
"Grandpa."
Lin Qiao smiled in response, shifted over half a bench for him to sit, and teased, "Running back again?"
After sitting down, Song Tingfan nodded shyly, then looked at the cotton in the basket. He felt a bit guilty and touched, obviously, sister-in-law thought he was getting cold and bought it.
Blame it on his weak body.
He needed to get stronger.
