Chapter 6: Grandmother

  The tender voice of the child came out, and the three old ladies' faces with smiles on them stiffened for a moment, but immediately they smiled again. However, for some reason, the smile that hung at her mouth corner looked not joyful at all.

  Song Shi saw the situation and knew that Xie Shu Ning was young and didn't know any better, so she hastily went to stop her.

  Xie Shu Ning, however, calmly stepped aside with her short legs and dodged Song's hand. She knew that Song was timid and had come to the Xie household today only hoping not to make mistakes or cause trouble, and also not to put her father in an awkward position. Therefore, she definitely could not count on Song today.

  She pretended to be frightened and stuck close to Xie Yuanmao, softly begging him to pick her up: "Daddy, I'm scared."

  "Mother..." Xie Yuanmao gazed at the three old ladies' suddenly changing facial expressions, and couldn't help but sigh. He didn't dare pick up Xie Shuning, only letting her tightly cling to his pant leg, softly calling out to the three old ladies in a pleading tone.

  The three old ladies just smiled upon hearing this and didn't say a word. However, Chen Shi suddenly felt uncomfortable.

  She thought she would be a widow for the rest of her life, but unexpectedly, Xie Yuanmao was still alive. However, good fortune often brings calamity, and Xie Yuanmao had already married and had children outside. Now, she could only rely on being the niece of the third old lady to hold on to some dignity. Half a year after Xie Yuanmao's return, he had never entered her room, as if he was unwilling to acknowledge her as his wife. After much persuasion, it was finally decided to wait until he brought people from Jiangnan before doing anything else.

  As she looked at the scene in front of her, Chen suddenly became a little flustered.

  The three old ladies did not speak up, and as a junior, she was even less likely to speak up.

  The masters were silent, and several servants didn't even dare to breathe. The whole house fell silent.

  Song bowed her head, tightly grasping Xie Yu's hand without moving. Xie Yuanmao also only moved the corner of his mouth, not knowing how to break the silence in the room. Only Xie Shu'ning hid behind her deliberately flustered face, carefully observing the three old ladies and Chen Shi.

  At this time, the three old ladies were much younger than she remembered, and even the corners of their eyes didn't have a single fine line. Except for their slightly old-fashioned clothes and utensils, they looked like they could be Chen's sisters!

  Fairy-like old lady!

  Xie Shuning gritted her teeth and cursed viciously in her heart.

  She hated the three old ladies even more than Chen's wife.

  In the dimly lit room, the old lady's skin appeared extremely pale and thin, with a hint of translucency. Her face was smooth without a single blemish, her skin pulled taut, making it impossible to guess her age, nor would anyone have thought that she was already a grandmother. She smiled, yet still seemed melancholic, her eyes piercingly sharp, making one's heart skip a beat.

  Xie Shu Ning looked at him, and a hint of anger flashed in her eyes.

  No wonder in their previous life, the three of them, mother and son, didn't even have the strength to resist in front of the Third Elder. How could his mother be a match for someone whose emotions never showed on his face?

  In the backyard, gunpowder was already rampant, and later, her mother gradually lost her father's heart, so the situation naturally became worse. To say that she was indeed too young at the time, to the point where even the most basic points were ignored.

  Although the back house is a woman's battlefield, men are actually the most important weapons in this war.

  Whoever wins Xie Yuanmao's heart will be the winner.

  And they, first was the mother who unknowingly lost her father's heart, becoming increasingly melancholy day by day, even occasional smiles were tinged with bitter sorrow. She had a fiery temper and felt that her mother's transformation was all Chen Shi's fault. One day, she saw her infant sister Xie Shu Min in her swaddling clothes, and in anger, went forward to grab her face, leaving a scar on her forehead.

  It was also because of this that Xie Shumin later made up her mind to destroy her looks, in order to vent her anger.

  Now, Xie Shu'ning couldn't remember at all how she had managed to lay hands on her younger sister, who was then the center of attention for everyone. At that time, she was only six years old and didn't have much strength to begin with. How could she have broken through the encirclement of the wet nurse and a group of maidservants to scratch a hole in Xie Shumin's forehead?

  In any case, this move made the father thoroughly disgusted with the mother and her three children.

  The grandmother took advantage of this matter and wanted to send her to Tianzhuang to cultivate her mind and nature.

  The mother was naturally unwilling to agree, and she was still so young, being sent to the countryside like this, who knew what would become of her, and whether she would even survive to grow up safely. But after Grandmother spoke, Chen Shi clung to Xie Shu Min and cried incessantly, startling everyone in the main house. How could Mother still resist? Moreover, at that time, the position of legitimate wife had already fallen to Chen Shi's head. At a young age, she became a malicious person who would harm her legitimate sister. The mother naturally also became the wicked woman who incited the young girl to harm people behind her back, and even her own life was hard to protect!

  It's said that on the day she was sent to her husband's home, her mother held onto Guimama and cried until midnight, vomiting blood in the middle of it. Only when the morning star appeared did she finally fall into a deep sleep, but by the next day, she never woke up again.

  A chill crept up from the floor tiles, and Xie Shu'ning's hand grasping Xie Yuanmao's pant leg was trembling slightly.

  She is afraid.

  Scared to death.

  She was the last straw that crushed her mother, and this realization had been haunting her for many years after her mother's death. Even though her mother told her with all her might that it wasn't her fault, that she was just a child who had been wronged by others, she still felt that everything was her own fault.

  If it weren't for her, mother might not have left this world so soon, and brother might not have been killed by bad people so easily.

  The neatly trimmed fingernails shone brightly on Xie Yuanmao's green pant legs. Xie Shuning gazed coldly at her own hand, feeling that what she was grasping in her hand was not her father's pant leg, but rather the three old ladies and Chen Shi's niece.

  This time, she will never be taken advantage of again!

  "Alright." After a long while, the Third Old Mistress finally smiled and said, "You've had a tiring journey by boat and carriage, and it's so cold outside. You must be exhausted. Now that you've seen each other, go take a rest first."

  Her smile fell into Xie Shu Ning's eyes, and it was just as cold.

  The old lady smiled with just a slight curve at the corner of her mouth, the arc was extremely small, and the smile was extremely faint.

  But just this one smile made Xie Yuanmao let out a sigh of relief.

  He glanced at Song Shi hastily and said, "Tomorrow morning, have your son bring the children to pay their respects to their mother."

  The old lady pulled the stove into her sleeve, "Forget it, today is cold, and the children are coming from the south, they may not be able to get up early, it's better to let them sleep a little longer." As she spoke, she suddenly glanced at Song Shi and said, "Looking like a thin person, people from the south can't stand the cold, take good care of yourself."

  Song Shi heard this and was surprised by the favor, knowing only to nod in thanks.

  Xie Shu Ning secretly sighed, her mother had been protected by her uncle for too long and had never suffered or tried to read people's faces to get by in life. Now that she was at the Xie family, everything was turned upside down, leaving her mother at a loss.

  She was young after all, and it wasn't suitable to say more, so she could only stop at that. What she had just said about Chen's family was already extremely out of line, and now she could only pretend to be scared and stick close to her father without moving.

  Ke San's old lady could bear it, but Chen Shi didn't have such a good temperament.