Why bother?
Yu Zhi gently persuaded her, "Mother, let's ignore that shrew. I've done nothing wrong and I'm not afraid of her talking nonsense."
The woman held her hand, which trembled as she said, "But Zhizhi, it's been years since anyone came to our house to propose marriage. Isn't it this shrew who ruined your reputation?"
The woman was blind, but she had a beautiful face.
It is often said that seeing a daughter reminds one of her mother; conversely, seeing her as a mother, one will not wonder why her daughter is so beautiful.
"Mother... let her say what she wants. She can say whatever she wants, what can we do about it?"
Yuzhi knew that her mother's greatest wish was for her to marry into a good family, but she couldn't bring herself to marry freely and leave her mother to live a lonely and miserable life.
Those families who come to propose marriage only want a gentle and lovely beauty; why would they want to support a blind old woman for nothing?
Having witnessed countless critical and ugly faces, Yuzhi's heart had long since turned cold towards marriage.
She didn't want to talk much about her marriage, and said with a smile, "Mother, I met a kind person today."
"A kind person? What kind person?"
She helped the woman into the house, closed the door, and took out two silver ingots from her cloth bag, handing them to her mother: "This is what the kind person gave me. It's a full twenty taels. Mother, we have money to buy medicine to treat our eyes now."
The woman felt flustered by the heavy weight of twenty taels of silver, and her face turned pale.
Remembering the old woman's foul words, she was so anxious she almost bit her tongue: "Where did the money come from? How come you got money for no reason? Zhizhi, don't scare your mother, have you been bullied by someone? Have you?"
"No……"
Yu Zhi shook her head, her face flushed: "Mother, I wasn't bullied."
Miss Wei only asked her to 'appreciate the painting'; the painting was not serious, and she didn't really intend to bully her.
Hearing her say "no," the woman believed her after all, her heart pounding in her throat: "Then what about this silver...?"
"I helped her in my early years, but it was by accident that I lent her a hand. Who knew she would still remember me and recognize me at a glance."
"She said that a meal's kindness should be repaid with a spring of gratitude. She invited me to dinner, but I was in a hurry to come back to see you, so I didn't go. The money for the meal was exchanged for silver. I didn't want it, but she insisted on giving it to me. I couldn't refuse."
Yu Zhi fluently delivered her words, a mix of truth and falsehood—this was the response she had prepared in advance to her mother.
After she finished speaking, her face turned bright red, her toes curled up, and she rubbed her earlobes with her fingertips, feeling extremely embarrassed.
It was clearly the Fourth Miss who had done her and her mother a favor in her previous life, but in this second life, she had turned the facts upside down. Even though Wei Pingxi wasn't here, she was still too ashamed to lift her head.
"real?"
The woman was skeptical.
"Really! I don't want it!" she said fiercely, shoving it into my palm. "I don't want it, and she won't let me go!"
She subtly hinted at reproach in her tone, startling the woman: "Then your friend must have quite a domineering personality."
“Of course!” Yu Zhi nodded.
"Zhizhi, your friend... is he a man?"
“It’s a woman.” Yu Zhi praised from the bottom of her heart: “She’s so beautiful, all the girls in the world combined are not as pretty as her fingernail.”
Upon hearing that it was a woman, the woman's anxiety subsided completely. If it was a woman, surely she wouldn't have any designs on Zhizhi from her family.
However, she disagreed with her daughter's statement: "How can she be more beautiful than all the girls in the world? My Zhizhi is the most beautiful."
"No, it's Mother who is the most beautiful."
The woman was delighted by her daughter's sweet words, and her worries disappeared.
"Since it's money given to you out of gratitude, don't spend it recklessly. You should save it for your dowry."
"What dowry?" Yu Zhi wasn't enthusiastic about getting married. "The money is for hiring a good doctor for Mother. Once her eyes are healed, if we mother and daughter work hard, we won't have to worry about supporting ourselves."
"Silly girl," the woman suddenly said, overcome with sorrow, "I can't be with you forever."
Yu Zhi's redness had just subsided when tears welled up again: "I don't care, I just want to save up for Mother to hire a doctor."
She has been a crybaby since she was a child. Now that the woman is blind, she can't see her with red eyes from crying, and she is even more afraid of her crying. She tries her best to persuade her to stop the tears rolling down her cheeks.
Yu Zhi smiled through her tears: "Mother, just listen to me."
The woman patted her hand, complaining that her old bones were no help and that she was only a burden to her daughter, who was still unmarried at the age of twenty-three.
As night deepened, after helping her mother to bed, Yuzhi curled up on the small wooden bed, covered with a thin blanket. Recalling what she had seen and heard during the day, she tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.
I felt relieved that I hadn't done anything to disappoint my mother.
Then came a pang of regret, realizing that she might never see such an unpredictable and eccentric person as Miss Wei again.
She fell asleep thinking of Wei Pingxi.
In my dreams, I see scenes from my first encounter with Miss Wei in my past life...
I still remember that year when the snow was heavy and winter had arrived in Lingnan Prefecture.
Families with good reputations usually set up sheds to distribute porridge at this time. Yuzhi followed her mother's wishes, and the mother and daughter helped each other out to the porridge shed to queue up and receive free rice porridge.
It was so cold in the twelfth lunar month that your teeth chattered.
There were many people in line. When Yu Zhi was at the end, her limbs were ice cold, her face was red from the cold, and the white breath she exhaled was blown away by the wind and snow.
After much difficulty, she and her mother managed to squat down and get two bowls of steaming hot rice porridge. But perhaps seeing that they were an orphan and a widow, making them easy targets, the bowls of porridge were snatched away by a burly man who suddenly cut in line.
The pot of porridge was almost empty, and there weren't enough left for two extra bowls.
It was freezing cold, and the servants responsible for maintaining order turned a blind eye to the troublemakers, waving their sleeves to send them away.
She and her mother walked along the snow-covered street, hungry and cold. Perhaps because they looked so pitiful, they were invited upstairs.
That was when she first met Miss Wei.
Dressed in a white fur coat, the fourth young lady was as noble as a fairy descending from the Jade Pool. She did not mind their shabby clothes and disheveled appearance, and invited them to eat at the same table.
She and her mother were naturally filled with trepidation.
The fourth young lady was born with bright eyes and white teeth, and her smile made her look even younger and more elegant: "I'm sincerely treating you to this meal. It's so cold outside, please don't be rude. Even if you don't give me face, you should at least give this snowstorm some respect."
With fierce winds and heavy snow, one cannot fill their stomach. Even if they are lucky enough to survive on the street, they will freeze to death in this cruel December.
That day, the fourth young lady was gentle and kind. She placed long chopsticks in her and her mother's hands, her eyes soft and gentle: "Eat quickly."
She then asked the waiter for a pot of wine.
The wine was peach blossom wine, with a mellow and delicious flavor. She sipped the wine and ate a bite of food. She had a small appetite, and even after she was full, she didn't rush to leave her seat. Her eyes, full of stories, gazed out the window at the lingering wind and snow.
Yu Zhi stole a glance at her while holding her chopsticks, and felt that the person in front of her was as beautiful as a fairy in a painting, and also had a kind heart.
In the very end, the fourth young lady patted the top of her head: "Poor thing, treat your mother well and live a good life."
She then muttered something else, as if to say that it's not easy for a girl to live in this world.
Yu Zhi watched her leave, unaware that the woman, whom she wholeheartedly believed to be a compassionate and benevolent deity, had ordered her servants to break the legs of the person who had snatched the porridge once she went downstairs.
A long time passed afterward, and she heard far too many rumors about the Fourth Miss.
The next thing I heard was the news of the Fourth Miss's death.
The arrogant fourth young lady died quietly in the spring of March.
After her death, the world was in an uproar, filled with endless wails of grief.
Yu Zhi buried herself among the women and cried until her eyes were swollen from the kindness of the woman who had given her a meal. She even woke herself up from crying.
Tears wet her eyelashes; Yu Zhi was still not recovered from her dream and sobbed softly.
Halfway through her tears, she vaguely recalled her 'reunion' with the Fourth Miss during the day, and felt ashamed and helpless: How could such a good person be so bad?
Chapter 4 Finding a Backer
The kindness the fourth young lady showed her in her past life, and the wickedness she displayed in this life by teasing her with a painting during their first encounter, are intertwined in an inseparable tangled mess.
Yu Zhi was wrapped in tangled hemp, like a pupa surrounded by silkworm silk, when suddenly a small pebble named 'Wei Pingxi' fell into the lake of her heart.
When a pebble is thrown, ripples spread across the lake.
Before the ripples could subside, Yuzhi woke up to find herself busy earning money to support her family and saving up for her mother's medical treatment.
Roughly speaking, people from all walks of life in Liushui Lane can be divided into two categories: those who just drift along and those who are stubborn and refuse to admit defeat, like sunflowers that turn to the sun.
Yuzhi and Yumu belong to the latter category.
Before dawn, Yuzhi got up, tidied herself up, and carried a bamboo basket to the mountain to pick flowers.
Less than a quarter of an hour after she left, Yu's blind mother groped her way to do what she could. Her fingers flew as she wove a simple and easy-to-learn little bamboo basket.
With such limited skills, one wonders how many times he must have been cut by bamboo to develop such proficiency.
The mother and daughter, not fighting over steamed buns but for pride, were determined to make their lives better.
After finishing weaving the bamboo basket that wouldn't sell for four coins, Yu's mother continued working tirelessly.
The sun gradually rose.
The sky was bright and the spring breeze was pleasant.
Yuzhi walked along the long streets with a bamboo basket on her back. Her porcelain-white face was healthy and rosy, and her willow-leaf eyes were tinged with the spring sunshine of April.
She doesn't rush to approach pedestrians; she always tries to discern whether someone is a good person or a bad person by looking at their face.
The flowers were sold exclusively to refined, honest scholars with female companions, or young, beautiful girls with clear, cheerful laughter.
How much are these flowers?
"Two coins a bunch."
The vibrant flowers were tied beautifully with hemp rope, adding a touch of elegance to their fresh and natural appearance.
The petals are soft and unfurled, glistening with morning dew. The fragrance is delicate, and the flowers are white, red, pink, and yellow, creating a vibrant and eye-catching display.
Upon hearing the asking price of two coins, the other party curled his lip, probably thinking the price was too high.
Yu Zhi said softly, "A beautiful flower complements a beautiful woman; you are a perfect match for this flower, my sister."
The woman who bought the flowers was a maidservant of a prostitute in a nearby brothel.
How could someone of lowly status, in the eyes of outsiders, be matched with the rich and beautiful peony?