Chapter 45

“Your Jiùmā said that your biological father’s side can’t be relied upon. Besides the old Táng family, who dotes on daughters, our brigade tends to favor the boys in the family. Your Jiùmā guessed that if you go back, you might be mistreated, so she decided to save a dowry for you.”

“Our intention is that, with money in your hands, when you get married, your in-laws will treat you better.”

“Your Jiùmā saves a few yuan every month, and this 100 yuan gift is just part of it.”

Lù Bái Wēi: “…”

The Táng family really pampers their daughters.

Her uncles and aunts were all doing their best to think of her.

Thinking back to her past life, when Lù Jiànguó and Liú Chūnhuā had persuaded her to distance herself from her uncles and aunts, Lù Bái Wēi felt like a complete fool.

The kindness her uncles and aunts had shown in saving for her dowry was something Lù Bái Wēi truly appreciated.

She made a decision in her heart: from now on, she would treat her uncles and aunts with the same filial piety as she did her biological parents.

At first, when she saw the passbook sent by Hè Tíng from the capital, Lù Bái Wēi was filled with the excitement of suddenly becoming wealthy. But when she took the 100 yuan from Táng Jǐngchuān, it wasn’t the money that made her heart swell; it was the familial bond that flowed through her—something far more precious than wealth.

When she took the heavy 100 yuan, she couldn’t hold back the tears welling up in her eyes.

However, the sudden scream shattered the warm moment.

“Ah! A snake?!”

The one screaming in terror was little Hè Yúnqí.

While Hè Tíng, Lù Bái Wēi, and Táng Jǐngchuān were talking, Hè Yúnqí had relaxed upon seeing his uncle and had found a spot to sit obediently. But being a young child, he grew restless, and in his boredom, he started kicking the nearby table.

The table rattled loudly, and Hè Yúnqí, embarrassed, quickly turned his head and pretended he hadn’t kicked it.

Then, he saw the snake that Hè Tíng had thrown out of the room last night.

Although Hè Yúnqí was a boy, he was still young, and seeing the colorful, patterned snake terrified him. He jumped up from his seat with a loud squeak.

“Oh my God, what a big snake!”

“Uncle, a snake, there’s a snake!”

Like a little cannonball, Hè Yúnqí rushed over and buried himself into Hè Tíng’s arms.

“Don’t be scared, Little Qí, it’s a dead snake.”

To calm him down, Lù Bái Wēi picked up the snake from the ground, proving that it was indeed dead.

But Hè Yúnqí didn’t care about that.

He gripped Hè Tíng’s arm tightly, and the look he gave Lù Bái Wēi was filled with a hint of fear.

He tightly gripped Hè Tíng’s arm, and the look he gave Lù Bái Wēi was filled with a touch of fear.

Auntie is so scary, she grabbed a snake.

He would never dare to act naughty in front of Auntie again…

When Lù Bái Wēi was a child, she would go up the mountain with her grandfather, Táng Zhòngjǐng, to collect herbs, and had grown up playing with snakes. She never expected that children from the capital would be so afraid of snakes.

She didn’t know that by simply picking up a dead snake, Hè Yúnqí would decide to be well-behaved in front of her from then on.

If she knew that her attempt to calm him down backfired like this, she would be laughing so hard.

Táng Jǐngchuān was quite interested in the snake that Lù Bái Wēi was holding.

“Good stuff, the mandarin rat snake stewed with chicken is the best.”

“Well, then Hè Tíng will go buy some chicken later, and I’ll stew it for you,” Lù Bái Wēi replied thoughtfully.

“Auntie, will you be resting here, or going back to Uncle’s place?” she asked.

“I’ll go back to your Uncle’s place. It’s been two years since I’ve been there, and I need to talk to him about a few things.”

Seeing how well Lù Bái Wēi was getting along with the children from the capital, Táng Jǐngchuān felt at ease.

As for Hè Yúnrán still having a bit of a fever, it wasn’t a big deal. Táng Jǐngchuān knew that Lù Bái Wēi had learned medicine from her father, so she was more than capable of taking care of children.

“Alright then, I’ll skin the snake and stew the chicken. You call your Uncle and your Third Uncle to come eat at the house.”

After Táng Jǐngchuān left, Lù Bái Wēi held the passbook that Hè Tíng had entrusted to her and fell into deep thought.

She didn’t know if it was because she had been reborn and changed the course of things, but so many things were different from her past life.

For example, the Hè family was supposed to face a crisis.

Because she married Hè Tíng, the old Hè family patriarch from the capital was at ease about his most cherished grandson. This time, instead of waiting for his rival to make a move, the old man took the initiative and led the entire family to the northwest to plant trees and contribute to the nation.

In this life, the Hè family’s assets were not seized. Not only had the old man entrusted her second uncle to send the two children to Xiàngyáng Brigade, but also, with the children came the large sum of money in the passbook.

She remembered that in her previous life, after Hè Tíng married Lù Jiāojiāo and the Hè family faced a downfall, the once wealthy young master from the capital, Hè Tíng, had endured a lot of hardship, and it seemed like he wasn’t as financially comfortable.

Of course, it’s also possible that Hè Tíng hadn’t reached the point of desperation.

Perhaps he had seen the greed of Lù Jiāojiāo and her family and hadn’t taken the money he had saved out.

In any case, what had happened was no longer important.

Now, she was married to Hè Tíng, and not only was he someone who could get by in life, but the more she got to know him, the more she felt that he was the ideal husband—better than she had imagined.

This kind of Hè Tíng was someone she needed to cherish.

This kind of Hè Tíng, Lù Bái Wēi should cherish him.

When the Hè family faced a crisis, Lù Bái Wēi didn’t intend to take the money from the capital for herself.

She and Hè Tíng had already saved enough from the mountain goods to get by, so she thought of this money as the starting fund for the Hè family’s revival when they returned from the northwest.

Alternatively, she could save a little more money with Hè Tíng, and once she passed the college entrance exams, they could use the momentum of the reform and opening-up to raise money in the capital and buy a courtyard house.

With a courtyard house, it would be a lifetime of winning, right?

In any case, by marrying Hè Tíng, she wouldn’t have to work as hard for money like in her past life.

Lù Bái Wēi was different from Lù Jiāojiāo. Instead of feeling burdened by the arrival of Hè Tíng’s niece and nephew, she was looking forward to the life of raising them together with Hè Tíng.

Her second uncle had finally made it back to Xiàngyáng Brigade, and Lù Bái Wēi had planned to stew a chicken with the snake and invite a few uncles over for lunch.

While she was studying at the county hospital, Táng Yuánliáng had helped Hè Tíng get two wild boars and a wolf, selling them for money, so Lù Bái Wēi had saved up some money again.

Thinking about how her uncles and aunts had taken care of her, and with her passing the barefoot doctor exam, which was worth celebrating, Lù Bái Wēi decided to take the opportunity of her second uncle Táng Jǐngchuān visiting to make it a lively occasion.

She planned to make the meal more extravagant, so the dinner was rescheduled for the evening.

Hè Tíng bought the chicken, and Lù Bái Wēi asked him to go to the youth point to find Zhōu Yánfēng. After lunch, they could go to the town supply and marketing cooperative to see if they could buy some meat.

When her eldest uncle Táng Jǐngshān learned that his younger brother had returned, he was quicker than Lù Bái Wēi.

As soon as he saw Táng Jǐngchuān, he arranged for her older cousin Táng Yuánshuǐ to go to the supply and marketing cooperative.

Lù Bái Wēi had said that everyone would come to the health station for dinner in the evening. Táng Jǐngshān said her cooking was delicious, so he immediately had two jin of meat sent over with her cousin.

The rabbits they hunted last time with Hè Tíng were left in Táng Jǐnghé’s house for smoking and preserving. Her third uncle had also sent some over through her cousin Táng Yúnlíng.

Considering that the vegetables Hè Tíng planted were still too young to eat, they had also sent over a basket of vegetables along with the smoked rabbit.

Additionally, there were several jin of mudfish and yellow mud loaches, which Táng Yuánliáng had caught in the fields last night.

Táng Yúnlíng put the things she had picked into the stove room, and it immediately attracted Hè Yúnqí, who came over to watch.

The little guy, now no longer wary of the new surroundings, had gotten familiar with Lù Bái Wēi and began to act more freely, pulling his sister Hè Yúnrán over to see the mudfish and loaches wriggling in the bucket.

“Brother, there’s a snake.”

Hè Yúnrán’s little face turned pale with fear.