CHAPTER 295: CHAPTER 283: FENG DAQUAN (PART 2)

When she was at home, it wasn’t exactly tiring, but aside from having a nice lunch at the Yu Family, at night she would return home to have corn porridge and pickles. When it was time to sleep, the five of them squeezed into a large shared bed. Her father’s snores were loud, and his feet were smelly — it wasn’t like now when she could sleep alone in a single bed with soft, fragrant new bedding.

Speaking of bedding, Sun Manxia thought it was all because her grandfather was too stingy. Even after moving to a new house, he wouldn’t let them throw away the torn bedding they used during their escape journey; instead, they had to sew on new covers and continue to use it.

The cotton in the bedding was black and hard, and even with a new cover, it was uncomfortable and not warm enough.

This year, Sun Manxi was fifteen years old. Unlike Sun Manxia, she wasn’t as happy; recently, her mother was also arranging a marriage for her. Since they came all the way to the borders of Yu State, any previous engagements made back in River Bend Town were nullified, and she had to find someone new.

However, Sun Manxi didn’t want to marry. It wasn’t that she was still thinking about her former fiancé, but rather because of a sentence she accidentally overheard from Su Jingchen, which lingered in her memory for a long time.

Indeed, when Yu Xiaolian was talking with Su Jingchen in the second courtyard, she was actually present, but because she had sneaked in, afraid of being discovered and scolded by the Yu Family, she hid when someone came in.

She heard Su Jingchen expressing his feelings to Yu Xiaolian, and also heard Yu Xiaolian say that she didn’t feel moved by Su Jingchen for now.

At that moment, Sun Manxi’s first thought was that Yu Xiaolian must be out of her mind to reject someone as excellent as Scholar Su.

While she was still shocked, she heard Yu Xiaolian asking Su Jingchen whether he would be angry about the rejection.

Sun Manxi thought, of course he would be — after all, he was a dignified Scholar, wouldn’t he care about his pride?

She feared that Su Jingchen and Yu Xiaolian wouldn’t even be friends afterward.

But she was proven wrong.

Scholar Su said he wasn’t angry!

Sun Manxi felt her world was surreal; the exchange was nothing like she had imagined.

Following that, Su Jingchen said something, which Sun Manxi didn’t remember well; she only remembered Scholar Su saying Yu Xiaolian was worth the best.

Then for a long time, what echoed in Sun Manxi’s ears was that sentence, "You are worth the best..."

At that time, she didn’t know what made Yu Xiaolian exceptional; she just felt there was some inexplicable pride about her. Later, when she learned Yu Xiaolian was a Teacher, she was surprised. Finding out she became a Ninth Grade Scholar, she was amazed.

When Yu Xiaolian started organizing the hotpot base workshop, Sun Manxi already admired Yu Xiaolian from the bottom of her heart and finally understood Su Jingchen’s words about why she was worth the best.

She truly was worth it.

From then on, Sun Manxi secretly resolved in her heart that she too wanted to become as excellent as Yu Xiaolian, to someday have such a graceful young man say "you are worth" to her.

She knew it wouldn’t be easy, but she was willing to strive for it.

However, if she were to marry, then perhaps...

No, she definitely couldn’t marry so soon.

"It’s the same working anywhere." Sun Manxi replied indifferently to Sun Manxia.

Whether working at the base workshop or doing the rouge work, they earned the same amount of money, and it all had to be handed over to her grandfather, leaving them nothing.

"How can it be the same?" Sun Manxia pouted, "It’s so much better in the city. Look at how soft this quilt is, and the bed is carved, so nice..."

"Enough, go back to your room, I’m tired!" Sun Manxi interrupted her sister’s rambling.

Sun Manxia rose with a sulk, "Fine, I’ll go!"

After Sun Manxia left, Sun Manxi lay on the bed, her eyes wide like brass bells, completely without sleep.

The next morning, Yu Xiaolian asked Zhao Erya to take the four Sun Family girls and Gao Qiao to the Taotao Residence’s backyard to work.

She herself took Granny Gao and Sun Mancang to Yintai Lane in the west of the city.

Under Granny Gao’s guidance, they smoothly arrived at the Lv Mansion.

Granny Gao went ahead to knock on the door.

After opening the door, upon hearing it was Yu Xueguan visiting, the host didn’t even bother to announce their arrival and directly invited them to the reception hall.

Yu Xiaolian had just sat down when a maid came over to serve tea.

Soon after, an elderly man over fifty hurriedly walked in.

Granny Gao whispered, "This is Master Feng!"

"Oh dear... I’m sorry for keeping Yu Xueguan waiting." Master Feng was an elderly man nearing sixty, with a head full of gray hair and a matching long white beard, making him look very kind.