Qin Junyao saw the carriage stop, and Hou Sisou waiting at the exit after getting off.
"Yaoyao, I'm here," Grandma Qin called out to Qin Junyao from the back of the carriage.
Hearing Grandma Qin's voice, Qin Junyao turned and walked towards the rear carriage.
By the time she arrived, Grandma Qin had already been helped down by Xingwang's wife.
Qin Junyao held Grandma Qin's arm, "Grandma, I was so worried all night you were gone. How is Grandpa Hou?"
"Alas, he's not dead, but he won't live much longer."
Qin Junyao quickly walked a few steps forward with Grandma Qin, "Grandma, why are you saying this here? Grandpa Hou has always been strong. How could this happen?"
"How could it not? The people who seem strongest are the most likely to die suddenly. One must accept old age."
The Qin family members and surrounding neighbors who received the news saw old man Hou being carried into the house and came to visit.
Seeing old man Hou sitting up on the kang and speaking normally, everyone was relieved.
There weren't many elderly people in Yangshu Village who were over sixty like old man Hou.
Old man Hou was still weak and had not recovered, so visitors took a look and left, with the Hou family attending to them.
"Eldest daughter-in-law, you go outside and stand guard. Your Aunt Qin and I have something to discuss."
With no outsiders around, old man Hou asked Hou Jing's wife to leave. Qin Junyao wanted to follow but was stopped by old man Hou.
"Yao girl, you can't leave. You have to help Grandpa with something. There's paper and brush on that shelf. Bring them here."
Qin Junyao gestured for Liu Yu to go out, then stood up and brought the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone to the kang table.
Old man Hou asked Qin Junyao to come closer and whispered a few words that startled Qin Junyao, causing her eyes to dart towards Grandma Qin.
"Yao girl, write."
Qin Junyao swallowed and, steadying her nerves, sat on the kang and began to write.
"Marriage contract: From this day forward, we bind ourselves in a good union, forming a perfect match, with this vow of growing old together..."
"Finished?" Old man Hou asked with a smile when Qin Junyao stopped writing.
"Grandpa Hou, it's finished."
Even though Qin Junyao knew Grandma Qin couldn't read, she instinctively blocked the contents of the paper from Grandma Qin's view.
She had previously planned to go see the pear blossoms, and Grandma had gone with her even though Grandpa Hou was ill. Now Grandpa Hou was asking her to write a marriage contract?
"Let me see." Old man Hou took the marriage contract, felt the writing on it, and then moved to the kang table with a smile. In the blank space, he wrote his name stroke by stroke.
Qin Junyao tilted her head, looking at the characters "Hou Er Zhu," thinking this must be Grandpa Hou's name.
Then she saw old man Hou write "Qi Xiaofang" next to Hou Er Zhu.
Qin Junyao covered her mouth. Qi Xiaofang, her grandmother's name.
After writing his name, old man Hou took out a piece of red paper from who knows where. He licked his thumb, rubbed it on the red paper, staining it red, and then pressed his thumb onto his name.
"Xiaofang, I've wronged you."
Grandma Qin, as if she already knew what was on the paper, stood up and, imitating old man Hou, pressed her fingerprint onto her name.
The last time Qin Junyao felt this dizzy was when she first transmigrated.
What was going on? Was she acting as a witness for her grandmother's wedding?
"Didn't you sleep last night? You're pregnant and not taking care of yourself. You're not gaining weight because you're eating less and not sleeping well," Grandma Qin pulled her arm out of Qin Junyao's grasp.
She asked Liu Yu to come forward and properly support her mistress.
"Grandma, just now, you, I," Qin Junyao pointed towards the Hou family behind them, then at herself.
"Don't stutter. We'll talk about it when we get home."
Qin Junyao waited until Grandma Qin returned to the Zhao family in the afternoon. By the time Qin Junyao woke from her nap, it was almost dinnertime.
"Grandma, what exactly happened this morning? You two eloped."
Grandma Qin was making a new headscarf. "Eloped? I've never been married in my life. Is it wrong for me to get married in my old age?"
"When a person dies, they need a place to be buried, and descendants to burn incense and paper. Someone needs to be by my side when I'm buried."
Qin Junyao lifted her skirt, took off her shoes, and got onto the kang, sitting close to Grandma Qin, hugging the old woman's arm and shaking it.
"Grandma, you must be lying to me. Tell me your love story with Grandpa Hou, no, with 'Post-Grandpa'."
Grandma Qin pulled her arm back. "Let go. What is love? A person's name? Tell me about him."
Qin Junyao pursed her lips. The word "love" didn't exist here yet.
"I mean, how did you and Grandpa Hou decide to be together? When will you tell my dad and the others? When will the ceremony be?"
She was already thinking about what kind of wedding dress to prepare for Grandma Qin.
Her own wedding dress was custom-made according to Zhao Liangcai's rank, and Grandma had hand-embroidered a happiness cloak for her.
So, she had to design a beautiful wedding dress for Grandma.
"When one of us dies, that's when everyone will know."
"Why?"
Grandma Qin put down her needlework and looked at Qin Junyao seriously. "As I said, Grandma needs descendants to worship her, and someone by her side when she dies."
"Yaoyao, you know how your father came to be. I didn't kill him. I let him live, grow up, marry, and have children. As a mother, I've done my duty to him."
"I let him choose a random surname, just so I wouldn't have any connection with that old dog. You should know that if it weren't for your father, I would have lived a different life."
Grandma Qin told Qin Junyao this because she knew her granddaughter, who had been enlightened by Buddha, would understand her.
This granddaughter was becoming more and more like her young lady.
Not in appearance, but in thoughts, in love, in her conduct, and in the way she played the zither...
Her young lady had told them that most women lived for men and for their children. Why couldn't women live for themselves?
She was over fifty and didn't have many years left. She should live for herself. She didn't want to be the mother of that old dog's son after she died, and she didn't want to be buried under the heads of that old dog's bloodline.
Qin Junyao looked at Grandma Qin's wrinkled face and suddenly realized that this old woman who looked seventy or eighty was only fifty-four years old.
She had endured immense humiliation to change her medicine and avenge her mistress, but she became pregnant with the child of the man who had wronged her.
Even for someone educated in modern times, it would be hard to make a decision. Grandma Qin chose to give birth to the child and raised him with all her might.
Now her grandson was married. Was it wrong for her to indulge herself a little?
Qin Junyao's eyes welled up with tears. She thought of her own grandfather. Without her, wouldn't his life have been different?
She leaned against the wall, stretching out her legs and swaying her toes back and forth. "Grandma, do you like Grandpa Hou?"
"I didn't before. He wasn't good-looking. But after seeing him for so long, he's become quite pleasing to the eye," Grandma Qin relaxed, swaying her toes like Qin Junyao.
"He never asks why when I want to do something. If I tell him to stay away from me, he won't even steal a glance. But he'll secretly put bright fabrics and delicious pastries on the windowsill."
"Your Grandma Hou passed away a few years after giving birth to your Uncle Hou. It's been almost twenty years. She was good to me. After she passed, Grandpa Hou was good to me. At first, he treated me like a sister, but later my eyes noticed something different..."