Mother was worried about the financial situation of her natal family, but Du Zhao didn't think it was a big deal and continued to crunch on the sugar-roasted chestnuts.

  In the previous life, his mother hanged herself and his uncle was able to pass the imperial examination and become a scholar-official. In this life, everything is hidden from him, he goes into battle lightly equipped, can't he still fail?

  As long as Uncle passes the imperial examination, all those expenses will naturally be earned back!

  This chestnut should have been stored in the cellar over winter, without any moisture, and was sugar-roasted, dry and shriveled. Something is better than nothing - she's now a three-year-old child, what can a three-year-old child do? She now has plenty of free time.

  Dong Zhaohui carefully nibbled on the chestnut, and the chestnut shells fell all over the floor.

  Her aunt and mother brought up her marriage: "After all, it's just a verbal agreement. I think you'd better discuss it with your father-in-law and ask him to find a decent person to settle this matter with the Wei family!"

  Dong Zhaoyi's action of biting into the chestnut paused for a moment before slowly continuing to chew.

  My aunt's consideration is not unreasonable.

  After the sudden death of his mother in her previous life, his father married Wang Yingxue within a hundred days and his uncle's family hurriedly left for their post. His father devoted himself to his studies, and after the mourning period for his mother was over, he immediately took part in the imperial examination, passed as a juren, and then participated in the spring examination the following year, passing as a jinshi, and was appointed as a shengyuan in the Ministry of Personnel. At that time, the Wang family had already moved to the capital, and Wang Yingxue's mother, Madame Xu, missed her daughter, granddaughter, and grandson, and asked his father to bring them to the capital for a reunion. After obtaining his grandfather's consent, he took Wang Yingxue, Dou Ming, and Dou Xiao to the capital... Who still remembers her engagement with the Wei family?

  Until her grandparents passed away one after another, she was sent to Kyoto. Only then did her father realize that she had grown into a big girl and reached the age of marriage. He remembered the engagement with the Wei family and sent someone to discuss it with them. However, the Wei family hesitated and procrastinated, never giving a clear answer.

  Dong Zhaohas remembered his anxious mood at that time until now.

  Her father was still alive, and her paternal uncles in the east couldn't take her in. Her uncle was far away in the northwest, and her stepmother had never been stingy with her food and clothing. However, when her gaze fell on her unintentionally, it always seemed to carry a hint of malice, like a wolf devouring its prey, as if she wanted to swallow her whole in one breath. But when you looked again, she had already regained her composure, still exuding an air of elegance and nobility.

  It is often said: what goes against the norm is ominous.

  She didn't know what Wang Yingshuang was up to.

  She lived in constant fear every day, afraid that a moment of distraction would bring disaster upon her.

  She was told by her grandmother before she passed away that a woman without a maternal family would not be able to stand firm in her husband's household, and no matter what, she had to maintain a respectful facade towards her stepmother. Although she heard the words of her maid and hated Wang Xue for driving her mother to death, the rumors circulating among the servants about her mother being "jealous" and "childless" made her feel like she didn't have the right to hate Wang Xue. Moreover, Wang Xue's superficial efforts were well done, and even if she spoke out, no one would believe that Wang Xue was treating her strangely. Her heart was filled with grievances, sadness, hesitation, and conflict, and her days felt like being fried in a hot wok, with a feeling of "the world is vast, yet there's no place for me to exist".

  So when she first heard that her mother had arranged a marriage for her while she was still alive, she felt an "escaped from the jaws of death" kind of joy and couldn't wait to get married right away.

  This is also why when she knew that Du Ming's marriage had fallen through, and Du Ming vowed to marry into a prestigious family in Kyoto to wash away her past shame, Wang Yingxue set her sights on Wei Tingyu, old resentments and new grievances intertwined, the main reason why she and Wang Yingxue became irreconcilable from then on.

  At first, if she hadn't found a way to get in touch with her mother-in-law and let them "accidentally meet", the Wei family might not have acknowledged this marriage.

  If it weren't for her stirring up the old feelings of her mother-in-law, even if the Wei family was willing to form an alliance with the Duan family through marriage, it would probably be Duan Ming who got married off, not her!

  Dou's action of peeling the chestnut slowed down again.

  The last life was unavoidable, can't this life still continue to entangle with Wei Tingyu?

  She thought that when she first married into the Wei family, it was just the twelfth lunar month and Chinese New Year was approaching. In order to please her mother-in-law and shut up Wei Tingzhen's mouth, she took the initiative to help her mother-in-law with the Wei family's New Year's affairs. Due to lack of experience, coupled with the fact that the accompanying maids and daughter-in-laws were all temporarily assigned by Wang Yinxue, not to mention helping out, they couldn't even get close to each other. She didn't know she was pregnant and ended up having a miscarriage due to overwork.

  That was her first child.

  Wang Yingshu told Du Ming to go see her.

  Dong Ming bumped into Wei Tingyu.

  That day, the sun was shining brightly, but the green silk canopy in front of the bed blocked out the light. She lay listlessly on the nunnery-style wooden bed frame in the inner chamber, her face pale and lifeless, like a Jingdezhen vase that had been left on a shelf for too long and was covered in dust, stiff and dull. Meanwhile, Duan Ming stood beside the canopy, wearing a light yellow silk jacket with a four-seasons-like pattern, and the light from inside the room shone on the southern pearl flowers in her black hair, giving off a bright luster, and her eyebrows and eyes were like a painting, her beauty was like autumn medicine, making Wei Tingyu's eyes widen in amazement.

  That scene deeply hurt Du Zhao.

  Although Dou Ming was delicate and elegant, she wasn't a gentle person. On the contrary, due to Wang's wife's overindulgence, she was not only arrogant but also had a bad temper, acted impulsively, and wore her emotions on her sleeve. This was also why Wang Yingxue wanted to marry Dou Ming off to her own nephew.

  She came with intention that day, intentionally so.

  It's just that I want Wei Tingyu to see that the Wei family didn't agree to let her marry in, and Wei Tingyu missed out on what a beautiful woman she is!

  Wei Tingyu did not disappoint Du Ming's expectations and several times praised Du Ming for being gentle and amiable in front of her.

  At that time she saw Wei Tingyu still had a pulse, so she couldn't tolerate it especially?

  Dou Zhao was gnawing on a wooden ticket with a crackling sound, which made Zhao Xun exclaim: "Spit it out quickly, that's a bad wooden chestnut!"

  Both mother and aunt were frightened out of their wits.

  "This child, how greedy!" The mother hastily threw away the chestnut in Du Zhao's hand and poured herself a cup of tea for Du Zhao to rinse his mouth. "It seems like he has never eaten chestnuts before."

  "The child doesn't understand these things." Auntie said apologetically, "It's all because Bihua and the others didn't take good care of Shougu. Then she scolded her daughters a few more times.

  Mother naturally stopped him.

  The two sisters-in-law humbled themselves for half a day, but Mother didn't dare to let Du Zhao follow Zhao Bi Ru and the others again. She carried her and Zhao Zhan Ru to the kang to play, personally helping them peel chestnuts, continuing the previous topic: "Wei Ting Yu is the son of the Marquis's family, I'm afraid Tian Jie will be in a difficult situation, so I plan to send someone to Kyoto to inquire about it first, then discuss this matter with Father."

  "All right! It's better to be safe." Aunt nodded, and the topic of conversation between the two gradually shifted back to Uncle, worrying about whether he had arrived safely in Kyoto, resting well, and whether he would be nominated for the Golden List, until the afternoon when the escort came to urge "It's getting late, if we don't set off now, we won't make it back", Mother reluctantly bid farewell to Aunt.

  Perhaps due to his great dissatisfaction with his father's failure, during the entire Spring Festival period, Father was practicing his writing skills under Grandfather's guidance. Neither Mother nor Wang Yue-xue dared to disturb him, and the matter of visiting Grandmother was thus dropped.

  As a concubine, without relatives visiting, no friends coming to visit, and no sisters-in-law socializing, life in the backyard was very quiet. After Wang Yingshu came to pay respects to her mother, she would often linger for a while in her mother's room under some pretext.

  Her mother was always lukewarm towards her and often dismissed her with just a few words.

  Dong Zhao felt that his mother still had some misgivings about Wang Yingshuang.

  If it were her, she would have kept the concubine around to tell jokes and amuse herself, otherwise wouldn't that be a waste of raising someone?

  But some things need to be done gradually.

  Dong Zhao's mind is now preoccupied with his marriage to Wei Tingyu.

  It was as if her arrival had brought her mother back to life, and Wang Yingshuo, who was originally a concubine, became a wife.

  Will her marriage with Wei Tingyu also change because of this? If she doesn't marry Wei Tingyu, who will she marry then?

  Dong Zhao misses his three children very much.

  Spring breeze blows, grass and trees revive, good news comes from Kyoto.

  Her uncle Zhao Si Hui was ranked fifth in the second class of the imperial examination and was awarded a jinshi degree.

  Grandfather and father were very happy, but the happiest was still mother. When the Duan family sent gifts to the Zhao family, she took Du Zhao back to her mother's home again.

  This time is different from last time, the Zhao family is decorated with red lanterns and colorful streamers, like a festival, everyone's face is filled with joy.

  Zhao Zhuo pulled Du Zhao into his own room, and from behind the bed board, he fished out a rose-shaped pastry wrapped in oil paper: "It was sent by Chen Juren's family in the town, for you to eat, it's sweet! Peng Hua said that from now on, I can have as much as I want, if you want to eat, just come to our house."

  Dou Zhao stared at the half-broken pastry in his hand, his heart burning with emotion, his nose sour, and tears fell down.

  In her previous life, she didn't even know Zhao Cui's name.

  For no other reason than this pastry, she decided to get along well with her uncle's family.

  Mother had a few drinks and they stayed overnight at her uncle's house, only rushing home early the next morning.

  "This is great," all along the way, Mother's mouth was curled up in a smile, "our Shou girl also has a scholar uncle now."

  Her expression was serene and looked very comfortable.

  Dong Zhao was delighted for his mother and asked her: "When will Uncle return?"

  "There's still the imperial examination for ordinary scholars," Mother said with a smile, "and that won't be until after May at the earliest."

  "Then shall we go to uncle's home?"

  "That's right!"

  I like my cousin sister.

  Her mother happily held her face and kissed her, whispering to her: "Aunts and uncles are close relatives, bones are connected by tendons. You and your cousins are the closest, do you know that?"

  Dong Zhao nodded: "Even closer than Third Sister San."

  Her mother nodded in agreement, praising her for being clever, and when they arrived home, she personally carried her through the second gate.

  Lilacs, yulan flowers, peonies, pomegranates and wisterias in the courtyard have all bloomed, with a charming purple and red color, like fire and flames. As people walk among them, bees fly and butterflies dance, with a faint fragrance floating around.

  Her mother stopped in her tracks, took a deep breath: "This year's flowers are more beautiful than previous years."

  "Yes!" Yu's nanny smiled subtly.

  Her mother's face turned cold.

  Dong Zhao couldn't help but follow his mother's gaze and look over.

  A man and a woman sat in the pavilion beside the lotus pond.

  The woman wore a light yellow spring dress, smiling like a flower as she held a round fan, lazily leaning against the beautiful person's backrest in the pavilion, with a few hints of elegance and charm.

  The man's elegant and refined appearance, with a smile on his face, sat in the middle of the pavilion in front of a low stone table, facing the beauty painting, with unmistakable joy and satisfaction between his eyebrows.

  Dong Zhaixin's heart tightened.

  Her mother had already fallen face down and walked forward with her eyes downcast.

  Yu's mother hastily followed up.

  A burst of silvery laughter came from behind him.

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  My network connection was interrupted and I couldn't log in, so it's been updated very late.

  Sorry!

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