Chapter 647: Chapter 647: Nightmare
"Second Sister, what are you daydreaming about?" Brother Cheng urged Gu Jinli, "Go back to sleep. There’s nothing worth watching at the main gate."
"But the main gate is worth watching," Gu Jinli said, before stepping away.
She wasn’t stupid; she knew that Qin San Lang’s words tonight had other implications.
But...
All she wanted was to live her life carefree, yet she didn’t want Brother Qin to be upset.
Ah, what a dilemma.
Indeed, it was such a dilemma that Gu Jinli had two nightmares that night.
In the first nightmare, she rejected Brother Qin and lived a carefree life with her Silver. Brother Qin ended up dying tragically in battle. Then she would visit his grave each Tomb-Sweeping Festival to burn paper money for him, so he wouldn’t suffer in hell and be looked down upon by other ghosts.
In the second nightmare, she couldn’t bear to see Brother Qin upset, so she married him. Then, after Brother Qin became successful and famous, he started to embrace women left and right, turning into a scumbag and fathering a bunch of bastard sons and concubine daughters, all of whom chased after her calling her ’mother’ and even snatched away her Silver, dividing up her inheritance!
Damn it! (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻
Gu Jinli woke up frightened and, pointing upwards, cursed: "You damn God, can’t you let me have a good dream just once? Would you lose a piece of flesh if I had a happy dream?"
After cursing God, Gu Jinli tried to go back to sleep but couldn’t because the nightmares were too horrifying; she lay awake until dawn.
Suddenly remembering that Brother Qin was about to leave, she quickly got out of bed, dressed, brushed her teeth, washed her face, and sneaked out of the house.
Not long after leaving the house, she heard the clopping of hooves; it was Qin San Lang.
"Xiao Yu," said Qin San Lang, spotting her instantly in the faint morning light, pulling on the reins, dismounting, and walking over to ask, "Why are you up? It’s not even dawn yet."
Could she have come to see him off?
Qin San Lang was delighted.
Gu Jinli looked at his face, thought of the nightmares from last night, and suddenly pointed at his arm, demanding, "Roll up your sleeve for me!"
Qin San Lang was startled, not sure what she was up to, but obediently rolled up his sleeve, extending his arm to her: "What’s wrong?"
Gu Jinli grabbed his arm and bit it hard.
Ouch~
Qin San Lang hissed in pain but then laughed: "Are you a cat in human form?"
He remembered a long time ago, when she got angry, she would bite his arm, too. But in the last two years, as they had grown up and reached a marriageable age, she began avoiding any physical contact with him, no longer biting him like before.
Now... he was very pleased.
Gu Jinli, seeing his smiling face, became even angrier: "What are you laughing at? You scumbag!"
Qin San Lang was confused; how had he suddenly become a scumbag?
"Why are you suddenly unhappy?" he asked softly, "Tell me fast, or I’ll be worried when I get to the Military Office."
Gu Jinli thought for a moment and said, "I had two nightmares last night. In one, you died, and in the other... we got married. But then you took Concubines and fathered a bunch of concubine daughters and sons. A whole bunch of them came to snatch my Silver!"
Qin San Lang suddenly understood. The reason she was biting him so furiously was because of such nightmares; indeed, that was a good reason to bite: "How outrageous. They can’t just snatch Xiao Yu’s Silver."
Xiao Yu loved money, and snatching her Silver was intolerable.
However...
"We got married in the dream?" Qin San Lang moved closer to her a bit, shielding her from the cold wind with his tall figure: "It doesn’t sound so bad."
"Not so bad my ass," Gu Jinli glared at him: "All my Silver went to feed the cubs you fathered."
Qin San Lang laughed upon hearing this: "That’s just a dream, not real. I wouldn’t do that."
Gu Jinli snorted coldly: "Who knows? Before being scumbags, all scumbags are universally acknowledged as good men."
Qin San Lang looked at her puffed up little face and the concern in her eyes, feeling a bit of pain in his heart, and suddenly wanted to hug her... Hugging her was something he had wanted to do since last year.
But he couldn’t.
He needed to give her the utmost respect.
"Is Xiao Yu worried about meeting an unsuitable man, and thus would rather not get married?" Qin San Lang asked.
Gu Jinli did not speak.
Qin San Lang understood; she would stay silent whenever she tacitly agreed.
He moved closer to her and said, "I understand, Xiao Yu, don’t worry."
Gu Jinli looked at Qin San Lang, wanting to say something, but fell silent.
Qin San Lang said, "I have to go now, Xiao Yu should head back. It’s cold in the morning; don’t catch a chill."
He mounted his horse, was about to crack the horse whip, then stopped, looked down at her from his mount, and said, "I will work hard."
This sentence was different from the previous one that reassured her; this was about the affairs of the Qin family.
Xiao Yu was smart and knew that he was determined to take revenge for the Qin family, and she hated being involved in troubles and didn’t want to be caught in such whirlwinds. So, he was telling her that he would work hard to take his revenge himself, that he wouldn’t drag her into it, and wouldn’t let her worry in the slightest.
With those words, his hand fell, and he spurred his horse away, soon disappearing at the end of the road.
Gu Jinli stood there for a while, then turned around and went home... She died young in her past life and had never been in love, but her two older female cousins were married with children, yet their endings were quite tragic.
How tragic?
One had her family wealth divided and lost seventy percent of it, the other helped her scumbag husband pay off debts until they were bankrupt, while the scumbag ran off with a mistress to a foreign country. That cousin and her husband had been childhood friends, classmates; it was a truly pitiful sight.
And since ancient men loved to take concubines, Gu Jinli concluded that not marrying was the best option to avoid losing out.
But now, she was in a bit of a dilemma.
Why did Brother Qin have to be so good to her?
If she was too heartless and rejected him, she would always feel like she was being a scumbag.
Gu Jinli was very distressed, very conflicted, and very troubled, the fish and lamb soup she had eaten this morning no longer tasted delicious.
"Second Sister, are you sick?" Brother Cheng, munching on a bean dregs cake, looked at Gu Jinli and said, "Usually, you eat two bean dregs cakes, a bowl of soy milk, a bowl of noodles, and two eggs, but today you’ve only had three sips of soup."
Gu Jinli frowned: "Do I eat that much?"
Brother Cheng nodded: "Yep, you usually eat a lot."
Gu Jinxiu smiled and said: "Your Second Sister is at the age where she’s growing, so it’s normal to eat a lot, otherwise she would feel very hungry."
When she was fourteen or fifteen, she could also eat a lot, but at that time they were fleeing from famine and could only go hungry, burning with hunger.
Third Grandma also said, "Our days are better now, and eating a lot isn’t a problem. Besides, Xiao Yu should eat more to gain some flesh, still too skinny."
Third Grandma’s family had also built a new house, but since it was just the two elderly people, they were accustomed to living with Gu Jinli’s house. Gu Dashan and Mrs. Cui couldn’t bear to let them move out, so the two families continued to live together.
Mrs. Cui passed a bowl of sour radish to her: "Did you eat too greasily last night? Eat some sour radish to stimulate your appetite; you need to eat well, otherwise, you’ll feel cold."
Gu Jinli, listening, nodded and ate a few pieces of sour radish. After her appetite opened up, she finished two bowls of noodles and drank another bowl of fish and lamb soup: "The fish and lamb soup Brother Qin makes is the most delicious."
Indeed, this fish and lamb soup was made by Qin San Lang; he was very skilled with lamb. For the past three years, every winter he would make lamb for them to eat.