The Exiled Life of the Noble Girl

Chapter 115

Because they were going to drink alcohol, Old Lady Wang didn't want Li Mingwei to smell the alcohol, so she neatly packed her food and had her eat in her room.

After she had collected the bowls and chopsticks, she said, "If you're tired, go to sleep first. I've already tidied up his room for him to sleep in himself tonight."

Li Mingwei blinked her eyes. Thinking that he had drunk alcohol today, his body must have the smell of alcohol too. She nodded in agreement and obediently closed the door.

In the middle of the night, Liu Yizhu, who was not drunk, tossed and turned in the small bed that smelled a little moldy, unable to fall asleep. Why did he have to sleep alone in an empty room when he only came back once a month?

In the next eight or nine months, would he have to sleep alone every time he came back? He suddenly felt that having a child might not be so good.

The unborn baby in Li Mingwei's belly had already suffered contempt from its father before it was even born.

The next day, the still not fully awake Li Mingwei was startled awake by the sound of talking outside. She pricked up her ears to listen. It sounded like Aunt Cui's voice. Why did Aunt Cui come so early?

She was a little doubtful as she got up, got dressed, combed her hair, and opened the door. She was met with Aunt Cui's big smile, which scared her into taking a step back.

Her tone also contained some resentment, "Aunt Cui, so early in the morning, what are you doing here!"

"Oh, what else could I be doing!" Aunt Cui had an expression on her face that said she already knew everything. She grabbed her hand and patted it, "I came to see you and brought you some eggs."

Bring eggs?

Why bring eggs? Li Mingwei looked at Old Lady Wang puzzled, "We have eggs at home. Mother, why did you buy more from Aunt Cui?"

"I didn't buy them, she brought them as a gift." Aunt Cui could tell that she didn't know about this custom, so she leaned in and whispered, "You're expecting now, right? Your family doesn't have many nice things, so I brought some eggs for you to nourish yourself."

"Ah? How do you know about that, Auntie?"

Li Mingwei looked at Old Lady Wang, thinking she must have said something, but Old Lady Wang shook her head indicating it wasn't her.

"Huh?" Aunt Cui was also stunned, "Everyone outside already knows! And it's not just me. I reckon all the children you used to teach will come over later too. We were just talking earlier, wondering why you haven't gone to teach class for so long."

She said softly, "Didn't you say you had that thing happen to you before? At first we didn't dare think it was this."

Li Mingwei racked her brains but couldn't figure out where things had gone wrong. Her mother-in-law hadn't said anything, it couldn't have been Mr. Jin, and she had warned Spring Flower sister many times, so it probably wasn't her either. It must have been little Lei.

That makes sense. Little Lei was still young and might let something slip to the other kids at school by accident, and then the kids would have gone home and told the adults.

In the end, thinking that the most likely culprit for letting the secret out was Dong Lei, Li Mingwei completely forgot about the large bag of pickled plums that she had bought yesterday.

Since Aunt Cui had brought gifts, Old Lady Wang naturally asked her to stay for a meal. She quickly fried a few eggs for Li Mingwei before hurrying off to the market to buy groceries.

As Li Mingwei ate her eggs, she raised her head and met Aunt Cui's somewhat distressed gaze. She said in a daze, "Auntie, what's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Aunt Cui smiled and gently stroked her hair, seeming to breathe a sigh of relief, "You're luckier than me."

It took Aunt Cui twenty years of pleading before she finally got what she desired, while Li Mingwei obtained it as soon as she married into the Liu family.

Earlier, Aunt Cui had still been worried that Li Mingwei might not be able to have children and would suffer grievances after marrying into the Liu family. Although Scholar Liu wouldn't mind, Old Lady Wang was not so easygoing. Aunt Cui was afraid that Old Lady Wang would bully her when Scholar Liu was away.

She didn't expect that it had barely even been that long before she heard about Li Mingwei's situation. She rushed over first thing in the morning, and from Old Lady Wang's reaction, she knew it was true. This girl really was lucky.

Li Mingwei recalled what Aunt Cui had told her about the grievances she had suffered when she was young, and understood what was going on. She bit her lip and held Aunt Cui's hand, "Auntie, you have good fortune too. Gui is a very nice and sensible child."

Aunt Cui only had this one piece of meat in her heart. Hearing someone praise him so highly made her extremely happy, to the point where her face almost couldn't contain her smile.

Soon, more people arrived.

"Anyone home?"

"Yes!" Hearing the sound outside, Aunt Cui immediately responded loudly and gestured for Li Mingwei to keep sitting as she went out, "I'll get it. I reckon it's them coming. They're all people we know, don't worry."

Since Aunt Cui was closest with Li Mingwei, the other families all asked her to come first to test the waters. Seeing that she had been inside for so long, they understood the situation and went back to fetch gifts.

Although Aunt Cui told her not to worry, as the mistress of the house, Li Mingwei still had to go take a look. She watched the steady stream of people walking into the yard and gradually became somewhat stunned.

There were way too many people!

Although most were familiar faces, did they really need to make such a big fuss just because she was pregnant? And have so many people come over?

When the group approached her, they congratulated in succession, "Scholar Liu is so fortunate! It's only been a short while, and you're already expecting!"

"Quickly sit down! Don't tire yourself out at this time."

"Is it just you at home? Where is Old Lady Wang?"

"She went grocery shopping." Aunt Cui took the gifts from them one by one and guided the women to sit down, then introduced most of them to Li Mingwei. She had seen many of them at the school, with only a few that she may have encountered occasionally but didn't know by name.

"This is the third daughter of the Ye family that lives by the east gate. Her name is Ye Hui and she's Ye Dong's older sister. She only just returned, so you probably haven't met her before." Aunt Cui thought for a moment, uncertainly asking, "Little Hui is eighteen this year, right?"

Ye Hui nodded. Aunt Cui then said, "Then just call her little sister."

Li Mingwei responded, "Sister Ye."

Ye Hui also smiled, "Sister Li."

After the two women exchanged greetings, Aunt Cui brought over another girl to introduce, "This is my niece's eldest daughter, Cui Ying. She's only sixteen. Why did they send you today?"

Cui Ying explained, "The family's busy harvesting peanuts these days, so they asked me to come. I also brought Sister some of the ones we dug up yesterday. They're still fresh. Try them later, Sister."

Li Mingwei nodded, "Thank you, little sister."

Cui Ying gave a sweet smile, revealing two dimples in her round little face, "You're welcome."

Next was, "This is Liu Cuicui. Your families are also somewhat related."

Aunt Cui looked at Liu Cuicui and asked, "What was that form of address again?"

Liu Cuicui laughed, "Sister-in-law."

Li Mingwei was a bit embarrassed that she didn't even recognize her own relative. She smiled and said, "Younger sister."

"Sister-in-law, just call me Cuicui or Little Seven like they do."

"Alright."

After following Aunt Cui to meet everyone, Li Mingwei's face was all flushed. She gave a brief apology to them for her lack of hospitality and told them to make themselves at home. Then she went to the backyard and kicked Liu Yizhu's door, scolding him for still not being up when it was so late already!

Having only fallen asleep at dawn, Liu Yizhu slowly opened the door. Seeing Li Mingwei's face, he immediately put on a smile and pulled her into his embrace, burying his head in her shoulder with slight grievance in his tone, "Darling, I can't fall asleep without you."

Li Mingwei rolled her eyes in disbelief. As if he didn't stay up late reading books back at the academy!

"Stop fooling around. Hurry up and get up, we have guests."

Guests?

Liu Yizhu raised his head to look behind her and silently buried his face in her neck again. Why didn't you say so earlier!

Aunt Cui pushed the few others who had followed her to the backyard back out to the front yard, "Don't look! Don't look! It's a young couple's private affairs. What's there to see!"

Only then did Li Mingwei look back and see so many people behind her. She quickly pushed the barely clothed Liu Yizhu back into the room.