Chapter 71: Chapter 71: There is a person who has never rubbed salt into her wounds_1 Chapter 71: Chapter 71: There is a person who has never rubbed salt into her wounds_1 An Jing didn’t care about Mrs. Gu’s glare; she simply stood at the entrance of Aunt Liu Hua’s house and called for her. Soon enough, Aunt Liu Hua hurried out.
Aunt Liu Hua did not invite them in but instead rushed to the doorway, looking around nervously before lowering her voice to ask, “What brings you here?”
Seeing Aunt Liu Hua’s reluctance for their visit, An Jing’s brow slightly furrowed, but still, she managed a smile and said, “Changyi and I are getting married the day after tomorrow. We just wanted to let you know.”
Aunt Liu Hua immediately began to stammer, and after a long while, she whispered, “An Jing, I can’t come to drink your wedding wine. The villagers are all shunning you now; they’ve agreed privately not to attend your wedding feast. Actually, I wanted to go; you’re the girl I watched grow up, but if I were to attend, everyone would certainly ostracize my family too. I don’t have your courage to face all this. I still want to hold my place in this village.”
Her reputation was good in the village; everyone would at least give her some respect. She could not afford to lose it all for the sake of An Jing, an outsider.
Understanding dawned on An Jing immediately. No wonder Aunt Liu Hua hadn’t come to lecture her about her fish-farming in the fields, despite the rumors spreading through the village – she was afraid of getting dragged down with her.
Yet An Jing’s expression did not change, and she still smiled, “If Auntie is unwilling to come, we naturally won’t insist. We’ll head back now. You should go inside, to avoid being seen by others. It’s not good.”
Without waiting for Aunt Liu Hua to say anything more, as soon as she finished speaking, An Jing climbed onto Xiao Changyi’s back.
Xiao Changyi immediately carried An Jing on his back and walked away, without giving Aunt Liu Hua another glance.
As An Jing lay on Xiao Changyi’s back, she thought about how Aunt Liu Hua had been kind to Lin Anjing over the years but always mentioned Lin Anjing’s inability to have children. It was clear that Aunt Liu Hua deep down looked down on Lin Anjing, thinking she was better than Lin Anjing, the woman who couldn’t bear children.
Aunt Liu Hua liked to lecture people, and during her conversations with Lin Anjing, she would inevitably bring up Lin Anjing’s childlessness. Even the people who were kind to her talked about her this way, making Lin Anjing feel even more inferior and unable to lift her head.
Thinking about this, An Jing’s thoughts turned to Shi Xiaolan, the one who had never rubbed salt in Lin Anjing’s wounds.
Shi Xiaolan could be considered Lin Anjing’s close friend. They had grown up together. Lin Anjing often went hungry and lacked the strength to work, leading to beatings and scoldings from Father Lin and Mother Lin for being lazy.
Knowing this, Shi Xiaolan would always save some of her own food, secretly giving it to Lin Anjing to eat.
Even when Lin Anjing’s inability to have children became known, Shi Xiaolan never looked down on her and continued to treat Lin Anjing as well as she had before.
However, the year it was rumored Lin Anjing couldn’t have children, Shi Xiaolan married into An Village. At first, Shi Xiaolan would occasionally return to Jiuping Village to visit her parents and see Lin Anjing, still secretly slipping her some food.
But since Shi Xiaolan’s parents passed away one after the other two years ago, she never returned to Jiuping Village, and thus, contact between Shi Xiaolan and Lin Anjing was cut off.
“An Village…” An Jing murmured unconsciously, although softly, Xiao Changyi heard it.
“It’s nothing, just remembered Lin Anjing’s good friend Shi Xiaolan. She’s the only person who truly treated her well.” She paused, “The village Shi Xiaolan married into is called An Village, heh… A village where everyone has the surname An, just like mine.”