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Marriage of the Di Daughter Chapter 117 Part 1: Public Sentiment
In the early morning in Tongxiang today, light snow floated in the sky.
For a place in the South, no matter how cold it was, snow was something rarely seen. There were not many people on the street, as they walked out of Qingzhi Lane, they could see many women sweeping the snow in their respective yards. The children were the happiest; snow was a joy and a novel thing for them to play.
Dai Yun got out of bed early and brushed off the snow on the rattan sticks in the yard carefully. Her young daughter, the six years old Ping An, was sitting and having a meal obediently in the main house. Ping An ate the watery congee that’s like a mirror with gusto. From time to time, she raised her eyes to look at the fluttering snow outside with interest.
Dai Yun spoke from the yard, “Pin An, close the windows, don’t catch a cold.”
Ping An responded, got up from the stool, and stood on tiptoe to close the windows.
Dai Yun looked at the roof and sighed. The weather is getting colder, when the snow melts and the water flows down the broken roof, it will be even colder inside the house. If it falls on Ping An, it will be troublesome. Must find time to let people mend the roof….. It’s good if there’s a man in the house. Dai Yun couldn’t help thinking like this. In the past, when Xue Huai Yuan was still present, she never thought in this way. However, nowadays, such thoughts continued to come into her mind.
Dai Yun had not reached 25 years old this year. She looked young and beautiful. She was a widow, when Ping An was just two years old, her husband went to the river to fish and happened to meet a hard to encounter ten years wind and rain. His boat was torn and the person was gone. Afterwards, only Dai Yun and Ping An, the mother and daughter, remained, dependent on each other.
There’s no man in the house, it’s always not so convenient. The newly appointed county deputy Feng Yu Tang had thoughts on her body. Dai Yun could deal with it once or twice, but how long could she persist like this if this continued? Those neighboring uncles used to help willingly, but due to the threats made by Feng Yu Tang, they did not dare to have much interactions with her. She could only suffer in silence.
Dai Yun sighed, in any case, she only hoped for Ping An to grow up healthy. Dai Yun walked towards the stone table and sat down. There’s unfinished needlework on the stone table which she relied on for her family expenses. Ping An saw her like this and came out, holding the wooden puppy in her hands, she sat beside Dai Yun. The wooden puppy was given to her by her father when he was still alive. Dai Yun saw it and her heart turned even more sour.
The mother and daughter were about to start the day’s work when a series of knocks sounded from someone knocking on the gate.
“Someone’s here!” Pin An said.
Dai Yun looked towards the gate, her heart tightened, fearing that it was Feng Yu Tang who came to look for trouble. It was a nightmare for her everytime Feng Yu Tang came. However, the knocks sounded today were much gentler compared to the previous impatient and urgent knocks.
Ping An opened her eyes wide, staring blankly at Dai Yun. Dai Yun got up, walked to the gate, hesitated for a while before opening the gate.
The one outside the gate was not the Feng Yu Tang who she loathed, instead, it was an unfamiliar girl.
The girl seemed to be around 15 – 16 years old, pretty, wearing a dark green embroidered moonlight skirt, and covered with a blue patterned cloak. The cloak was wide, making her particularly pet.i.te and delicate. Her pair of eyes looked clever and compelling, a shallow smile hung on the sides of her lips.
Dai Yun did not recognize this girl, but she knew the materials on this girl’s clothing cost at least 100 taels of silver.
She was a bit terrified and said, “You are…..”
The girl smiled at her, “My name is Jiang Li, I came looking for you for County Deputy Xue’s case.”
Dai Yun was stunned, Ping An surrept.i.tiously followed, hiding behind the fence in the yard, secretly looking at this unfamiliar sister.
Before Dai Yun could react, the girl had already walked inside uninvited. She said, “Let’s talk inside, it’s very cold outside.”
Jiang Li strode inside Dai Yun’s yard.
The yard was still the same, just looked much more dilapidated compared to before. It seemed that Dai Yun had not had good days. When Xue Huai Yuan asked her to come and bring some silver for Dai Yun, Jiang Li also came here. At that time, Ping An was still a baby, now she had grown this tall.
Time flew really fast.
Dai Yun looked at this girl and in an instant she faltered. This person called Jiang Li entered her yard without hesitation. She even observed her needlework after sitting in front of the stone table and sighed in praise, “It’s made really well.”
Dai Yun couldn’t help pulling Ping An, walked in front of Jiang Li and said, “Jiang….. Miss Jiang, I don’t understand what’s the meaning of your word. County deputy Xue’s case….. What’s wrong?”
Jiang Li raised her eyes in her direction and said, “Dai Yun, County Deputy Xue is imprisoned because he was greedy and corrupted the disaster relief silver, five days later to be beheaded. It’s impossible for you not to know what kind of person County deputy Xue is. On his behalf, I want to reverse the verdict on County deputy Xue and I need witnesses. Dai Yun, are you willing to be my witness, to stand for county deputy Xue and wash him clear of the injustice?”
Her voice was soft and light, yet it was like a heavy hammer knocking on Dai Yun’s heart. For no reason, Dai Yun tightened her hold on Ping An’s hand and reluctantly squeezed out a smile. She said, “County deputy Xue ‘s matter, we are not very clear. We are just ordinary people, whatever the authorities say is what it is…..”
“How could you not know?” Jiang Li looked at Ping An. Ping An was hiding behind Dai Yun, looking curiously at her. Jiang Li extended her hand towards her, Ping An could not help moving forward two steps and extended her chubby little hand to touch Jiang Li’s fingers.
“Ping An!” Dai Yun stopped her excitedly. Pin An was her weakness, she absolutely would not allow Pin An to have any accident.
Ping An heard her mother’s reprimand and retracted her hand at once. However, she still looked curiously at Jiang Li like before, without any fear.
“If there was no Deputy County Xue, Ping An also would not have lived healthily up to now, right?” Jiang Li looked at Dai Yun, “Based on this point, can’t it make you stand up, be a witness and say a word for Deputy County Xue?”
A thunderbolt seemed to hit Dai Yun.
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