Chapter 177: Chapter 159, Got Taken Advantage of_1
Daohua was led by the Li Family’s eldest aunt into the central courtyard.
Along the way, the Fan Family’s matriarch stared at Daohua with a continuous smile, to the point where even Daohua, who considered herself thick-skinned, felt embarrassed.
Even upon entering the room, the Fan matriarch kept her eyes fixedly on Daohua.
“Eldest Sister-in-Law, please stop looking. You’re making the young girl blush with all your staring,” the second aunt from the Jiang Family intervened, rescuing Daohua from Mrs. Fan’s grasp.
With a chuckle, Mrs. Fan exclaimed, “When her face turns red, she looks even prettier!”
Daohua: “…”
This eldest aunt was rather overwhelming!
Mrs. Jiang laughed as she pulled Daohua to sit down, then said, “That’s just the way your Eldest Aunt is. When she sees a beautiful girl, she becomes infatuated. You don’t know, but the reason she married your eldest uncle was because she fell for your beautiful mother.”
Hearing this, Daohua was shocked, her eyes widening in surprise.
Yan Wenxiu and Yan Wenkai were also taken aback.
Upon hearing Mrs. Jiang mention the past, Mrs. Fan showed no embarrassment but beamed with pride instead: “I just adore your mother. She was such a lovely beauty, a delight to the eyes and soothing for the heart to behold.”
As she spoke, she broke into a self-satisfied laugh, then continued to address Daohua and her siblings.
“When I first saw your mother, I thought to myself, with such beautiful girls in the family, the men can’t be too far off in terms of looks. Later, when I met your eldest uncle, I was a bit disappointed, but he was passable, so I reluctantly married over.”
Daohua was stunned by the comments.
Was this a case of an ancient ‘face connoisseur’? And an extreme one at that.
Seeing Daohua’s wide, innocent, and adorable apricot eyes, Mrs. Fan couldn’t resist reaching out to touch her soft, fair cheeks.
“Oh my, how can this skin be so good? How do you care for it?”
Daohua, startled, gaped at her jubilant eldest aunt, with one thought in her mind: she’d just been taken advantage of!
From below, Li Xingnian watched Mrs. Fan with a helpless look, yet couldn’t suppress a smile himself.
Daohua was known to be bold, but now she seemed thoroughly shaken!
“Eldest Sister-in-Law, stop teasing her and let the young ones get to know each other,” he suggested.
Only then did Mrs. Fan set aside her playful mood, looking at Li Chenyi and his siblings, “What are you waiting for? Hurry up and come over to meet your sister.”
Daohua immediately stood up and bowed to her three older male cousins and two female cousins.
Mrs. Jiang stood up and introduced them one by one to Daohua: “It’s your first visit, so you might not recognize them, let me tell you.”
“This is your oldest cousin, Li Chenyi. He’s two years older than your brother; this is your second cousin, Li Chenliang, one year older than your brother; and this is your third cousin, Li Chenzhi, the same age as your fourth brother, but a few months older.”
Pointing to the two female cousins, she continued.
“This is your oldest female cousin, Li Zitong, three years your senior; and this is your second female cousin, Li Zixin, two years older than you. You also have two younger female cousins, but they are born from concubines, so you won’t meet them today.”
Daohua silently noted everyone in her mind.
In ancient times, a family might consist of a few to a dozen or twenty members, or even more, so recognizing people and remembering names was a real challenge.
In the Yan Clan, some households boasted four generations living together, with dozens of family members. When Daohua was taken out to meet others by the old Madam Yan, she initially made many blunders.
There was no helping it; there were too many people to remember, and it was impossible to get everyone’s names right.
However, after years of training, she had improved a lot.
Still, to avoid embarrassment and mistaking someone’s identity, she would always do her homework in advance.
Daohua recalled the briefing Madam Li had given her before her arrival: the oldest and third cousins, and the second female cousin were from her eldest uncle’s family; the second male cousin and the oldest female cousin were from her second uncle’s family.
She mentally recited this information to avoid any mistakes.
After the introductions, Daohua was pulled back to sit next to Mrs. Fan.
Perhaps because it was their first time meeting Daohua, the cousins, despite their curiosity about this new relative, felt too shy to strike up a conversation.
“Oh, what are you all doing? Who among us doesn’t know each other? Why all the pretense?”
Yan Wenkai couldn’t stand his cousins’ reserve and silence. He and his elder brother had been to their uncle’s house several times and knew all his cousins. Previous visits were always filled with fun and laughter, yet this time nobody seemed to speak, which was unusual for him.
Seeing a few cousins embarrassed by their fourth brother’s words, Daohua couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
Her fourth brother was indeed a treasure—never afraid to speak his mind and yet never annoying.
Li Chenyi, seeing Daohua smiling at them with a teasing glint in her eyes, gave a sheepish smile and quickly averted his gaze, starting to strike up a conversation with Yan Wenxiu.
With Yan Wenkai’s interruption, the younger generation finally started to come alive.
“Yiyi, what do you usually do at home?”
Li Zixuan sat next to Li Zixin, pulling up beside Daohua to chat.
Daohua smiled, saying, “I read, write, learn needlework, and occasionally tend to flowers and plants. What about you, cousins?”
Li Zixuan, feeling a sense of kinship as she saw Daohua’s gentle tone and sweet smile, became less restrained, “We learn mostly the same things but with some additional arts.”
“Oh?” Daohua was intrigued, “What arts do you cousins learn?”
Li Zixuan said, “I play the Kong Hou, while my second sister learns dancing. Don’t you study any arts, cousin?”
Daohua grinned bashfully, “I don’t seem to have a talent for the arts.”
Li Zixin chimed in, “Then, cousin, what would you do if you had to perform at a banquet?”
After some thought, Daohua replied seriously, “… I would skedaddle!”
Uh…
Li Zixuan and Li Zixin did not expect such an answer and were momentarily lost for words.
Meanwhile, the Fan Family and Jian Family just watched the young ones joking among themselves without interfering.
“Cousin, what are you wearing around your neck?”
After talking for a while, Li Zixin began to relax and asked Daohua about the pendant around her neck.
Daohua looked down and smiled, “This is a necklace the aunts gave me.”
Li Zixin shook her head, “I’m not referring to the necklace, but to the golden locket on it.”
She and her mother had shopped for the necklace with their aunt, so she was familiar with it, but when they bought it, the necklace didn’t have that golden locket.
Daohua picked up the necklace for a look, “Oh, you mean this? This is a pocket watch. It doesn’t go well with clothes when worn alone on the neck, so I had it set into the necklace.”
“A pocket watch?”
Li Xingnian overheard and immediately looked over, “That’s a pocket watch, huh? Those are foreign objects, quite rare around here; only the…” He paused, then changing his tone, he asked, “Where did you get it?”
Daohua replied, “… A friend gave it to me.”
At once, Li Xingnian had an inkling.
It must have been the Little Prince again.
“Cousin, may I take a look at it?” Li Zixin was fascinated, as even her second uncle had never seen such a pocket watch.
“Of course.” Daohua nodded, without any hesitation, she took off the necklace and handed it to Li Zixin and her sister.
Seeing her so generous, the smiles on the faces of Fan Family and Jian Family widened.
Just then, Li Xingchang returned from outside.
The Daohua siblings quickly stood up to greet him.
Li Xingchang waved his hand, indicating for them to sit down, “Your great uncle has been quite busy with social calls these last few days and couldn’t come to pick you up, why did you arrive only today?” he looked towards Li Xingnian as he spoke.
Li Xingnian replied, “We were delayed on the road.”
Seeing that he did not elaborate, Li Xingchang understood there were things not to be discussed in front of the children and did not press on, instead, he started to make small talk with Yan Wenxiu and his siblings.