Reborn in the 1970s — Married a Proud Rough Man

Chapter 149: Chapter 63: Snatching Jing Qi’s Room (3)

”Jing Si’s wife, you can be arrested for slander. My daughter is only twenty-one and perfectly healthy. As for the ’hidden illness’ you mentioned, it doesn’t exist at all. The matchmakers from all the surrounding villages have practically worn out our doorstep. My daughter is so exceptional, those country boys are nowhere near good enough for her. A fortune-teller said my daughter is destined for wealth and that her future husband will be a city man.” As Aunt Zhang spoke, her gaze shifted to Jie Jingchen.

Qin Mei scoffed, all but saying outright that the person Hu Wan’er intended to marry was Jie Jingchen.

”Only twenty-one! She looks like she’s thirty. Mrs. Zhang, your daughter really looks old for her age,” Qin Mei said, feigning shock.

”Qin Mei!” Hu Wan’er roared. Faced with Qin Mei’s provocation, she could no longer hold back.

”Heh.” Qin Mei gave a demonic sneer and flicked her dagger, producing a crisp ring as it glinted silver.

Hu Wan’er remembered what Qin Mei had taught Jie Jingshan, especially the throat-slitting motion, and she couldn’t help but shudder.

”Mom!” Hu Wan’er stomped her foot anxiously. Aunt Zhang gave her a sharp pinch on the waist, making Hu Wan’er cry out in pain. Aunt Zhang shot her a look, and Hu Wan’er, getting the message instantly, rolled her eyes back and fainted into her mother’s arms.

”Wan’er! Wan’er, what’s wrong?” Aunt Zhang cried out anxiously, patting Hu Wan’er’s cheeks. She then feigned panic and pressed the spot under her nose until Hu Wan’er finally gasped, opened her eyes, and began to sob weakly and pitifully in her mother’s embrace.

This mother-daughter pair was really putting on a show. Qin Mei watched the two of them, a real piece of work. Aunt Zhang was the sister of Mr. Xie’s first wife. ’Was his ex-wife like this too?’

’Thinking of the three children from Mr. Xie’s first wife, aside from Jie Jingwei, they all seemed perfectly normal to Qin Mei, with good moral compasses. Jie Jingwei was just a bad influence from Xu Chunyan. If Jie Jingwei had married a sensible woman, the Jie Family wouldn’t have all this drama.’

”Jing Si, help me carry Wan’er to the bed,” Aunt Zhang said to Jie Jingchen.

Jie Jingchen acted as if he hadn’t heard a thing. Qin Mei was furious. ”Old witch, who are you trying to gross out?”

’First, they try to take over Jing Qi’s room and Jing Qi’s bed, and now she wants Jie Jingchen to carry her? Does she really see him as her son-in-law already?’

”Who are you calling an old witch?” Aunt Zhang couldn’t stand it anymore. She already found it grating when Qin Mei called her Mrs. Zhang, and now it was ’old witch’. ’How many years have I been in the Jie Family? And how long has Qin Mei been married to Jie Jingchen?’

’Never mind these youngsters; even Jie Jianguo and Qiao Yanqiu had to speak to me politely.’

”I’m talking to you. What, didn’t you hear me?” A vicious glint flashed in Qin Mei’s eyes.

”You...” Aunt Zhang trembled with rage. She turned to Jie Jingchen, her shaking finger pointing at Qin Mei. ”Jing Si, are you just going to let her disrespect me like this?”

Jie Jingchen’s eyes narrowed, and his tone was chillingly deep. ”Aunt Zhang, you are the servant. She is the mistress.”

His words made their respective positions perfectly clear: Aunt Zhang was the servant, and Qin Mei was the mistress.

The look on Aunt Zhang’s face was priceless, her eyes filled with disbelief. ’Chunyan warned me in her letter,’ she thought. ’Jing Si’s wife is a formidable one, not to be underestimated.’

Aunt Zhang had managed to live in the Jie Family for so long because she knew how to read a situation; she wasn’t about to clash head-on with Jie Jingchen. ”It’s my fault,” she said. ”For a moment, I forgot my place.”

”Mom...”

”Be quiet,” Aunt Zhang snapped. Hu Wan’er, still in her mother’s arms, wisely shut her mouth. Aunt Zhang then turned her gentle gaze to Jie Jingshan, though her words were for her daughter. ”Wan’er, Jing Qi doesn’t want to share a room with you and doesn’t want you taking care of her. So be it. Jing Qi has her real sister-in-law now; she’s grown distant from me. It’s alright. Let’s go, Wan’er. You can sleep in my room.”

Seeing that Aunt Zhang knew when to back down, Qin Mei didn’t say anything more. She put the dagger away and handed it back to Jie Jingshan. Then she grabbed the luggage from the floor and tossed it out of the room just as Aunt Zhang was helping Hu Wan’er to the door.

”Qin Mei!” Hu Wan’er shrieked.

Aunt Zhang tugged on Hu Wan’er’s arm and looked at Qin Mei with a sneer. ”Putting on quite the airs as mistress of the house.”

Jie Jingchen’s line—”You are the servant. She is the mistress.”—had been devastating.

”A servant is a servant, and a mistress is a mistress. Don’t think for a second you can usurp this nest,” Qin Mei’s voice was glacial, offering the mother-daughter duo no face at all.

Aunt Zhang didn’t reply. She gave Qin Mei a long, meaningful look, then let go of Hu Wan’er, picked up the luggage Qin Mei had thrown out, and led her daughter to her own room.

Aunt Zhang’s room was to the right of Mr. and Mrs. Xie’s room, with the main hall to the left.

”Jing Qi, are you okay?” Qin Mei asked, looking at Jie Jingshan with a hint of worry in her eyes.

Jie Jingshan shook her head and forced a smile at Qin Mei. ”I’m fine, Sister-in-law, don’t worry. By the way, is your eye okay?”

”It’s fine. It’ll be better after a few days of eye drops.” Qin Mei could barely open her left eye. She had been so focused on verbally tearing them down that she’d completely forgotten about her injury.

Jie Jingshan breathed a sigh of relief. She glanced at Qin Mei’s slightly red and swollen left eye and said, ”Sister-in-law, I’m tired. I’d like to rest.”

”Then get some rest.” Qin Mei didn’t press her, simply leaving the room and closing the door behind her.

Qin Mei was tired too. Back in their room, she collapsed onto the bed. Jie Jingchen washed his hands first, then went to put the drops in her eye.

Qin Mei couldn’t open her left eye, so Jie Jingchen had to gently hold it open to administer the drops. It wasn’t as red as it had been during the hospital examination; the medicine was taking effect. Jie Jingchen let out a sigh of relief.

”Qin Mei, I’m sorry,” Jie Jingchen apologized, his voice laced with guilt.

The coolness soothed the pain. Qin Mei kept her eyes shut as some of the medicine trickled from the corner of her eye. She raised a hand to wipe it away and said, ”Just don’t poke me in the eye next time.”

”Okay,” Jie Jingchen nodded. He wouldn’t dare play with her eyelashes again. ’It’s a dangerous game; one wrong move and you poke an eye.’

”Jie Jingchen, your Aunt Zhang’s daughter likes you,” Qin Mei said, abruptly changing the subject.

Jie Jingchen froze for a second, recalling the moment Hu Wan’er had ”fainted” toward him. Her intentions had been painfully obvious. ”My mother was an only child. I don’t have an ’aunt’ like that.”

”Aunt Zhang is your father’s first wife’s sister, making her your father’s sister-in-law. You’re his biological son, so that makes her your aunt,” Qin Mei said without opening her eyes. ’Xu Chunyan was already a handful, and now there are two more of them. The Jie Family is certainly going to be lively from now on.’

’Qin Mei wasn’t worried, though. As long as they didn’t mess with her, everyone could keep up appearances. But the moment they crossed her, she would show no mercy.’

’They were practically strangers, so there was no need to be polite on her part.’

”There are aunts and then there are ’aunts’. Besides, she and I share no blood relation whatsoever,” Jie Jingchen said, drawing a clear line.

Qin Mei didn’t argue with his point.

A thought occurred to her. Qin Mei squinted her left eye and kept her right one open, giving Jie Jingchen a comical look. ”I’ve heard all of you mention Aunt Zhang, but not once have I ever heard a peep about her daughter. What’s the story there?”

”This is the first time Aunt Zhang has ever brought her to the Jie Family,” Jie Jingchen said. He, too, had been surprised when she showed up with her younger daughter in tow.

”Really?” Qin Mei believed him but asked anyway, just to mess with him. It was obvious from a single glance that Aunt Zhang’s daughter had grown up in the countryside.

”I’d never seen her before today,” Jie Jingchen said truthfully. This was indeed the first time Aunt Zhang had brought Hu Wan’er to the Jie Family.

”It was love at first sight for her,” Qin Mei stated bluntly. The way Hu Wan’er looked at Jie Jingchen, she made no effort to hide her feelings.

A flicker of distaste crossed Jie Jingchen’s eyes. His expression froze for a moment before his lips curved into a slight smile. ”Too old.”

Qin Mei was left speechless. Her eyelid twitched as she stared at Jie Jingchen. ”She’s only twenty-one,” she reminded him, ”and still a virgin, you know.”

’Jie Jingchen was twenty-five, and he thought twenty-one was too old? Where did he get off being so arrogant?’

A hint of mockery surfaced in Jie Jingchen’s gaze as he said, ”She looks thirty.”

As for whether or not she was a virgin, Jie Jingchen couldn’t care less.

”She doesn’t look thirty! I was just saying that to get under their skin.” Qin Mei paused, studying Jie Jingchen with her good eye. ’This man has high standards; there’s no way he’d be interested in Hu Wan’er.’

Qin Mei wanted to take him down a peg. ”You’re twenty-five, and I’m eighteen... hmm, let’s say nineteen,” she said with feigned disdain. ”Jie Jingchen, do the math. Figure out how much older you are. They say three years makes a generation gap. That means there are at least two between us. You’re the one robbing the cradle here.”