Chapter 286: Chapter 286

Chai Eying smiled slightly, "Maybe I heard wrong." She shifted Guoguo in her arms to a different position and laughed, "Yuzhu, where did you go just now? We’ve all finished breakfast except you. The kitchen saved some food for you; go eat some."

"Mu Yuanxiu helped out yesterday, so I brought him some food. He invited me to have breakfast," Li Yuzhu replied with a smile.

"That’s good. We were worried you’d be hungry," Chai Eying said with a smile.

Li Yuzhu patted the heads of Li Jing and Guoguo, waving to them, "I’m off to work. You two play with your mother and be good, okay?"

Guoguo called out with a smile, "Aunt."

Li Jing also shouted, "Aunt."

Li Xing’an frowned, "And what about me? Aren’t you going to call me?"

The two little ones called out crisply, "Uncle."

Louder and louder each time.

Making Li Xing’an laugh.

Chai Eying patted Li Jing’s head, smiled at Li Yuzhu and Li Xing’an, and said, "You two go ahead, I’ll take them for a walk elsewhere."

Li Yuzhu pinched Li Jing’s ear, "Behave, don’t be naughty, got it?"

"Aunt Chai said I’m well-behaved, little aunt," Li Jing defended himself.

Li Xing’an and Li Yuzhu immediately looked up at Chai Eying.

They worried that Li Jing not calling her mother would upset Chai Eying.

But to their surprise, Chai Eying wasn’t upset at all. She laughed, "That’s right, Jingjing is very well-behaved. Yuzhu, Third Brother, you don’t need to worry."

Li Yuzhu nodded with a smile, "That’s good."

After Li Yuzhu and Li Xing’an walked away, Chai Eying squatted down, touched Li Jing’s little face, and said warmly, "Good boy, Jingjing, later, you go ask your little uncle who the family owes money to."

Li Jing said, "Oh, no need to ask, I know."

Chai Eying was surprised, "Oh, what a good boy Jingjing is. So, who does the family owe money to?"

Li Jing said, "We owe money to the brat."

Chai Eying, "..." She blinked, "Who’s the brat?"

Li Jing shook his head, looking clueless, "I don’t know."

Chai Eying was dumbfounded.

She thought for a moment and took the two children to find Li Xingmao.

Li Xingmao had gone to the fields to check the crops.

Every morning, he would walk around the fields once.

Chai Eying took a bamboo-bone parasol, holding Guoguo in one arm, carrying the parasol with the other, and walked outside the mansion.

Li Jing held onto the hem of her skirt, skipping alongside.

Now and then, he kicked a stone, sometimes kicking a flower.

Guoguo lay on Chai Eying’s shoulder, sometimes looking to her left, then twisting to her right shoulder to look.

Her little body twisted around so much, Chai Eying nearly couldn’t hold her but wasn’t impatient at all.

On the village road, some people noticed the mother and her children, smiling back enviously.

An elderly woman passing by said, "Such good fortune, a boy and a girl!"

Chai Eying blushed slightly at the compliment, while Guoguo continued to smile cooperatively.

The Princely Heir looked over the vegetable patch, picking a long bean, and walked toward the road, seeing Chai Eying and the children talking to someone.

He smiled faintly, walked over, "Eying, what brought you out here?"

Li Xingmao took the parasol from her hand, shading her from the sun.

"I came to see you," Chai Eying replied with a smile.

The old woman passing by smiled, "Young man, is this your wife?"

Li Xingmao glanced at Chai Eying and smiled, "Yes, she is." Newest update provıded by 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡•𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮•𝕟𝕖𝕥

"That’s nice, that’s nice, a family of four, with a son and a daughter, how wonderful," the old woman said, smiling as she walked away.

"Dad, who is the brat?" Li Jing suddenly asked, tugging at Li Xingmao’s robe.

Li Xingmao’s face sank, "Why are you asking this? It’s not good if someone hears."

Chai Eying laughed, "He’s just curious and asked, but I didn’t know so I brought him to find Jin Lang."

Li Xingmao pinched Li Jing’s ear, "You ignore the good things and remember all the bad. It’s your uncles who need a beating; they’ve been setting a bad example for you."

Li Jing covered his ear, "Yes, it’s been Second Uncle and Third Uncle talking, not me."

Chai Eying asked again, "You’re all talking about this brat, and now I’m curious too, who is he?"

Li Xingmao chuckled, pointing toward Niu Tou Mountain, "Who else could it be? It’s the person living there. My two brothers have always competed with him openly and secretly, and they don’t even call him by his name properly."

Chai Eying suddenly understood, so it was Mu Yuanxiu.

So, the Li Family borrowed money from Mu Yuanxiu?

She remembered that Mu Yuanxiu had sold a tiger and had some money on hand.

"The sun is high, it’s hot, let’s go back to the mansion." Li Xingmao reached out to hold Guoguo.

But Guoguo let out a whimper, hugging Chai Eying tightly.

Li Xingmao laughed in exasperation, "Alright, alright, mother is better than father."

Chai Eying also laughed, "She’s not heavy, I can carry her."

"Dad, hug." Li Jing hugged his dad’s leg, beginning to act spoiled.

"Be a man, walk by yourself." Li Xingmao neither held his son nor took his hand, "Didn’t you see dad’s hands are full?"

Indeed, Li Xingmao was holding an umbrella for Chai Eying with one hand and carrying a bunch of string beans with the other, leaving no free hand to do anything else.

Li Jing sighed, why couldn’t dad grow a few more hands?

Chai Eying laughed and took Li Jing’s hand, "Come, Jingjing, let’s hold hands and walk. You walked so well just now, Guoguo even learned to walk by watching you, walk again and show Guoguo."

Guoguo was almost ten months old, capable of standing steadily, and when happy, could take a couple of steps holding onto something.

Earlier in the mansion, Chai Eying placed her on the ground, and she toddled with Chai Eying’s leg chasing Li Jing, the siblings playing joyfully.

With Chai Eying complimenting him, Li Jing no longer wanted to be held, "Alright, alright, I’ll walk for Guoguo to see. Guoguo, watch, you have to walk , look carefully."

Guoguo glanced at him, pouted, let out a soft hum, and turned her head away.

In the afternoon, Mu Yuanxiu came down from the mountain, riding a mule past the Li Mansion.

Chai Eying, who had been watching at the mansion door, immediately called out to him, "Brother Mu!"

Mu Yuanxiu nodded towards her, "Sister-in-law Li."

Chai Eying glanced into the mansion, quickly walking towards him.

Once close, she asked him softly, "Brother Mu, I have something to ask you."

Mu Yuanxiu dismounted from the mule, smiling slightly, "Sister-in-law Li, what is it?"

"After I married your brother, did the Li Family borrow money from you?" Chai Eying asked quietly.

Mu Yuanxiu looked at her, smiled, "Sister-in-law Li, you’ve just married in for two days, if they owed money, it has nothing to do with you."

"I think it’s related, just say it, how much did they borrow from you? I’ll repay it for them. The Li Family tradition is not to owe money to outsiders, I can’t let them break this rule because of me," Chai Eying said.

Mu Yuanxiu looked at her in surprise, "You’re going to repay their debt?"

Chai Eying nodded, "Last time, you and Brother Yuzhu helped me get back a thousand taels of dowry silver. After buying dowry items this time, I still have a lot left, it should be enough to repay you the silver. Come on, tell me, how much do they owe?"

Mu Yuanxiu said, "Initially three hundred taels, then another fifty taels, totaling three hundred and fifty taels. However, I told them I wasn’t in a hurry for repayment, they could pay back whenever they had the money, even if it took a year or two, it’s no problem."

Chai Eying said, "Whenever they have money they pay back. I’m a member of their family, and my money counts as theirs. I’ll repay you now, hold on, let me get the money for you."

After speaking, she quickly ran back to the mansion.

Mu Yuanxiu frowned slightly, standing there waiting.

Chai Eying was gone for a while, but soon came running back.

She stuffed several silver notes into Mu Yuanxiu’s hand, "Here are seven silver notes, totaling three hundred and fifty taels, take care of them."

Mu Yuanxiu was surprised, "You really repaid it?"

"These are silver notes from the Juxin Money Shop in the county town, real and genuine, how could they be fake?" Chai Eying smiled slightly, and after speaking, she waved at Mu Yuanxiu and returned to the mansion.

Mu Yuanxiu looked at the silver notes in his hand, seven in total, not a single one missing.

He raised his head, looking at the lintel of the Li Mansion, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Li Mansion, in those memories, there was also a Li Mansion, but there was no Chai Eying, nor Li Yuzhu.

When the Li Family first arrived, they also numbered eleven, but every few days, the Li Family would lose one person.

Until recently, only a child who forgot their family background was left.

Mu Yuanxiu closed his eyes, pushing those memories aside, mounted the mule and left.

When Miss Chai was married off, she didn’t gain any advantage, instead, she was humiliated, unable to compete with her older sister-in-law Chai Eying, she returned home in shame and anger.

By then, it was already dark.

Upon seeing Old Mrs. Chai, she immediately started to cry and complain.

She had brought home a good marriage prospect, and the whole family cherished her.

Old Mrs. Chai immediately asked, "What’s the matter with you? Why are you back so late? Have you eaten?"

"No, sister-in-law Eying tied me up in the room, stuffed a rag in my mouth, didn’t give me a drop to drink, and not a bite to eat," Miss Chai cried bitterly.

Old Mrs. Chai was so angry she was furious, "What?"