CHAPTER 371: CHAPTER 371: MS. XU WANG GETS BEATEN

Gu Yumei’s face was flushed with color, with excitement far exceeding her shyness.

"Looks like it might work out," Mrs. Chen glanced at Gu Yumei and said discontentedly, "Look at how thrilled you are. Can’t you be a bit more reserved?"

Gu Yumei suppressed her smile and lowered her head without speaking.

Mrs. Chen, holding a small copper cup that measured one tael, scooped two cups of cloves into a small cloth bag, then continued with another small cloth bag, scooping in another two cups of cloves.

Previously, when they prepared spice blends, they used iron scales to weigh them, which was quite a hassle. At the end of June, when Master Qi from the Prefecture came to collect goods, he brought them a box full of small copper cups.

The maximum capacity of these small copper cups was five taels, with the smallest ones measuring only one mace, and Master Qi had custom-made ten of each size. Now, when they mixed spices, they no longer needed to weigh them, but could simply use copper cups of equal capacity to scoop, which was much more convenient.

Mrs. Chen worked swiftly, soon scooping cloves into nearly twenty cloth bags. Seeing Gu Yumei still with her head down and blushing, she scolded, "Hurry up and add the cinnamon. If you don’t finish today’s work, you won’t get to eat."

Gu Yumei hurriedly took a small copper cup measuring two mace and scooped a cup full of cinnamon powder into the small cloth bag containing cloves. After filling them, Gu Defa would tie them up with hemp twine and place them in a bamboo basket.

Once the basket was filled, it would be pushed to a corner in the main hall and stored.

Gu Yumei was still concerned about whether the marriage with the Wan Family would come to fruition. Seeing that Mrs. Chen stopped after saying "Looks like it might work out," she grew anxious and asked, "Auntie... Is it really possible?"

Mrs. Chen gave her a blank look: "You really care about the Wan Family. Why weren’t you this attentive with the Yuan Family? If you had shown a little concern for the Yuan Family, perhaps that marriage prospect would not have fallen through."

Although the Wan Family was also a Scholar’s Family and lived in the town, it would be reaching for her family to establish a marital connection with the Wan Family. Still, Mrs. Chen preferred the Yuan Family, feeling they were more like a household living day-to-day and not like Scholar Wan, who often spoke in affected literary language, uttering words that made people drowsy.

Gu Yumei was most annoyed when Mrs. Chen brought up the Yuan Family, saying discontentedly, "Auntie, the matter with the Yuan Family is in the past. Why do you keep bringing them up? Can’t you stop mentioning it? It wasn’t that I was unwilling, but that the Yuan Family was the one to reject us first."

As she said this, Gu Yumei felt some guilt; others didn’t know why the Yuan Family had rejected the marriage proposal, but she knew the reason clearly.

Wan Lifang was taking them, siblings, to the town when they were seen by Chang Errui. At that time, Wan Lifang was even holding her arm, breaking the propriety of no physical contact between unmarried men and women. She should have pulled away then, but out of spite, she didn’t.

She had thought that Chang Errui, seeing her popularity, would come to fawn over her, but he was very arrogant and paid her no attention at all.

Not many days later, the Yuan Family rejected the marriage proposal.

It was only after being rejected by the Yuan Family did she realize her mistake that day, but she had her pride, and she was also afraid of being beaten by Mrs. Chen if she told the truth, so she kept quiet about it.

After Mrs. Chen complained a bit more, she stopped talking about the Yuan Family affair; after all, discussing it more would be a disadvantage to the girl’s side.

"Your father has been to the shop twice recently. Both times, shortly after he arrived to deliver goods, Scholar Wan and his son would show up, engaging in conversation with your father and your uncle."

"Your father and uncle aren’t fools; they naturally understand that the Wan Family deliberately sends servants to secretly monitor when your father is going to the shop, so they can promptly go and speak to him."

"Scholar Wan isn’t acting as aloof as before. Your father and uncle feel this is a sign of respect from the Wan Family, a genuine desire to establish this marriage with our family, so they’re considering it more seriously."

Gu Yumei was very pleased upon hearing those words, feeling particularly honorable: "The Wan Family truly upholds the propriety of scholars; their rules and ceremonies are indeed superior to those of farmers."

Mrs. Chen found these words grating to the ear, glaring at her she said: "The engagement hasn’t been settled yet, don’t let your elbow turn outwards."

What rules and ceremonies are superior to farming? Her family has been farmers for generations. Who was this wretched girl insulting?

"Your father doesn’t seem to have any objections towards the Wan father and son now, but our family hasn’t met Miss Wan yet. We don’t know what kind of person she is; if she turns out to be malicious, this marriage won’t happen."

This was what she implied when she said the marriage might happen and was not a certainty.

Gu Yumei hastily replied: "Aunt Wan is a scholar’s wife, she must be a literate and kind-hearted person, how could she be malicious? Second Aunt, you’re overthinking."

Mrs. Chen lifted the small copper cup in her hand, tapped Gu Yumei’s hand with it, and angrily said: "All this overthinking is for your own good! Do you think becoming someone’s daughter-in-law is easy? If your future mother-in-law turns out to be malicious, you won’t even know how you died!"

Given this stupid girl’s foolishness, who knows how she’ll be bullied after she becomes someone’s daughter-in-law.

Thinking about Gu Yumei’s temperament and her stupidity, Mrs. Chen was so weary at heart she didn’t want to speak anymore. She simply buried her head in work. Seeing that the spices they had picked were almost ready, she said to her: "Go check the workshop, see if the ground cloves and cinnamon are ready. If they are, carry a load back here."

Gu Yumei didn’t want to go; the workers in the workshop were all coarse people. Furthermore, it was hot nowadays, and every time she went, she had to cover her nose to avoid being suffocated by their sweat.

But she didn’t dare to defy Mrs. Chen, so she could only shoulder an empty basket and head to the workshop.

Upon arriving at the workshop, she saw Ms. Xu Wang collapsed in Gu Dafu’s arms.

Gu Yumei’s eyes widened in shock... Ms. Xu Wang with her father?

For a moment, Gu Yumei’s mind was in disarray, followed by endless rage. She threw down her burden, dashed over, pulled Ms. Xu Wang away from Gu Dafu, and slapped her twice across the face: "You shameless wench, you dare seduce my father, I’ll beat you to death!"

Gu Dafu was stunned and hurriedly tried to stop Gu Yumei: "Sister Mei, stop it, how can you hit someone?!"

Gu Yumei roared: "I want to beat this shameless wretch to death!"

After saying that, she slapped Ms. Xu Wang two more times.

Ms. Xu Wang was already dizzy from heatstroke, and after being slapped four times by Gu Yumei, she couldn’t even stand straight and collapsed to the ground.

Xu Qing was packing the fried tofu his mother had made into a basket. Seeing his mother getting hit, he immediately rushed over and stood in front of Ms. Xu Wang, crying and shouting at Gu Yumei: "Don’t hit my mother, don’t hit my mother."

"You brat, get out of my way," Gu Yumei was even angrier when she saw Xu Qing, pointing at him she said to Gu Dafu: "Father, look at this, that shameless woman is just trying to seduce you, bringing along this bastard child, so she can marry into our family and take our Silver."

"Shut up!" Upon hearing Gu Yumei’s words, Gu Dafu trembled with anger: "Is this how a young lady is supposed to speak?"

"Humph, if Ms. Xu Wang has the audacity to do such things, why shouldn’t I say it?" Gu Yumei was convinced that Ms. Xu Wang was after their family’s Silver, trying to beguile her father to secure a marriage and a share of the money, enraged, she grabbed Xu Qing, and yelled: "Move it, or I’ll beat you too."