Chapter 457: Different
The marriage had not been her wish.
Originally craving Beihuai’s body, all she had thought about was having a taste of the flesh.
But when it came time to think about carrying on the family legacy, Tang Chuxia still felt she was being somewhat selfish.
Beihuai might not care, but what about the other members of the Gu Family?
Tang Chuxia gazed at the starry sky and found herself missing her family from her previous life.
In fact, since book-traveling to this life, she had deliberately avoided recalling her previous life’s experiences, for fear of being unable to accept her current life.
Her life before had been happy, and although this life was also a happy one, she knew the Tang Family were smart people; they had deliberately never asked her what exactly was going on.
But...
As her closest kin, they must have noticed the differences between Tang Chuxia and the original host.
They hadn’t called her out, even treating her the same as they had the original.
The explanation Tang Chuxia had given before seemed to have no issues on the surface. Emotional upheaval could change a person drastically, but if one were to scrutinize it closely, it would be clear that it didn’t hold water.
After assisting with the childbirth, Tang Chuxia was even more certain that she might have truly made a mistake.
"Anyway, if you ever regret this one day, you must tell me. Don’t worry too much about it, I won’t hold you back!"
Tang Chuxia patted Beihuai’s arm, speaking with particular nonchalance.
Beihuai, however, darkened his expression.
"Are you still thinking about running off with Lin Qingchen?"
Tang Chuxia: ...
She was discussing a very serious topic; how had it turned into feeling like she wanted to elope with another man in Beihuai’s eyes?
"Ah, I’m sleepy, I should go get some rest! It’s so cold outside, let’s go in!"
Tang Chuxia got up to go back inside.
She had no intention of arguing with Beihuai over the topic of elopement.
Beihuai stood outside, watching Tang Chuxia hop and skip back into the house, and couldn’t help but sigh.
He looked up at the stars and in the end, said nothing.
That night, none of them had a good rest. The next day, at dawn, the uncle came over to invite them for a meal, but Tang Chuxia and Beihuai had already left early.
They hadn’t gone to the uncle’s house for the meal at all.
"They’re all good kids; they left early because they were afraid it would be too much trouble for you to host," the farm manager patted the uncle’s shoulder, telling him not to overthink and to instead go home and take good care of his wife and child.
The uncle wiped the tears from the corner of his eyes, not having expected Tang Chuxia to go to such lengths. Last night, there had been no other choice but to turn to her as a last-ditch effort, hoping it would work out.
But who could have expected that Tang Chuxia, without a word, agreed to go with him?
If it were anyone else, they wouldn’t have come at all.
Being straightforward people, the uncle planned that once his wife was out of confinement, he would definitely pay a visit to thank Tang Chuxia.
This incident had no impact on Tang Chuxia whatsoever; she went home and fell asleep right away, and Beihuai didn’t fare much better.
The couple slept until the afternoon, finally waking up to the calling of licorice.
"What’s happened?"
Licorice saw Tang Chuxia rubbing her eyes and knew she hadn’t had enough sleep.
"Your aunt was worried about you, so she asked me to wake you up at three-thirty in the afternoon to get something to eat, or you definitely won’t want to eat later in the evening!"
Licorice set the meal on the table, urging Tang Chuxia and Gu Beihuai to eat something first.
After saying this, Licorice went to take care of her own business, but Tang Chuxia grabbed her hand, "Licorice, tell Sister the truth, have you been having any romantic luck lately?"
Licorice looked totally puzzled, not getting Tang Chuxia’s drift at all, while Tang Chuxia herself had a somewhat lewd grin.
"Sister Xiaxia, what are you talking about? Where would the peach blossoms come from at this time of year?"
Tang Chuxia poked Licorice teasingly, "Don’t play dumb. I saw you with Qin Zhan. Are you two dating?"
Licorice’s face flushed red instantly, and she became extremely flustered.
"No, Sister Xiaxia, don’t talk nonsense. There’s nothing going on between me and Brother Zhan. It’s just that he noticed someone was following me and looked after me for a bit!"
Tang Chuxia heard something amiss.
"Following you? Who?"
Licorice felt a bit wronged when this subject came up, "It was that man from before!"
Gu Beihuai, listening on the side, asked, "What man?"
Without keeping it secret, Licorice told about the man she met during a matchmaking attempt. Somehow, once he found out she worked at Tang Family as a babysitter, he became particularly diligent. But Licorice didn’t want to marry so quickly, so she made it clear to him that they should date and get to know each other first.
Little did she know, the man was too eager and wanted to use Licorice to get in with the Tang Family.
"He kept trying to pry into family matters. How dare I tell him anything? I said I didn’t know. He didn’t believe me and even tried to force himself on me. It was Brother Zhan who saw it once and intervened to stop him."
Tang Chuxia was shocked, never expecting Licorice to fall prey to someone, and immediately felt a flare of anger.
"Was it the match Madam Tang set up for you?" Tang Chuxia clearly remembered the man Licorice was seeing was chosen by Madam Tang.
Licorice nodded, "Auntie probably didn’t know what kind of person he was!"
That was an honest assessment; when someone was introduced for matchmaking, only the good qualities were mentioned, and nobody would expose their faults.
Hearing Licorice say this convinced Tang Chuxia it was quite possible.
"Don’t worry, I’ll take care of this matter!" Tang Chuxia patted Licorice on the shoulder, reassuring her not to overthink it.
Naturally, Licorice trusted Tang Chuxia and didn’t say much else, only reminding her that something might be off with that man’s family.
After eating, Tang Chuxia mentioned to Gu Beihuai that she needed to go out to investigate. Gu Beihuai said, "Why do you need to investigate? Since Qin Zhan encountered the guy, he must have already looked into it, just ask him!"
Tang Chuxia thought that made sense and went with Gu Beihuai to Qin Zhan’s house.
Qin Zhan was at home fixing the roof since the previous flood and the recent rain had once again caused a leak. He climbed onto the rooftop himself to make the repairs.
Seeing him on the roof, Gu Beihuai followed up the ladder, asking Tang Chuxia to help toss up the tiles.
With Tang Chuxia’s strength, throwing them up was not a problem.
The three of them worked together efficiently, quickly replacing the moldy rooftop with new felt and tiles.
Mrs. Qin handed Tang Chuxia a can, "Xiaxia loves canned hawthorn, this is one your auntie saved for you!"
Tang Chuxia happily began eating, sweet-talking Mrs. Qin for a while until she went to the kitchen to cook. Seizing the opportunity, Tang Chuxia asked Qin Zhan about Licorice’s matchmaking suitor.
Qin Zhan replied, "I’ve already dealt with the guy; he won’t trouble Licorice anymore. But while interrogating him, I discovered something fishy!"
Qin Zhan turned to Gu Beihuai and said, "Brother Huai, I suspect there’s something off about that guy’s identity!"
As Gu Beihuai was reaching for the canned hawthorn in Tang Chuxia’s hands, he asked instinctively, "What kind of problem?"
Qin Zhan, with a frown and some uncertainty, said, "I suspect that guy has joined Qingzhu!"
Gu Beihuai: ...