32: Chapter 32 Hualulu

"Uncle Li, Aunt Yang, are you home? I... I heard Brother Guidai is back! I came to take a look!"

Before the words had even faded, a woman wearing washed-out, coarse cloth garments walked into the courtyard, looking somewhat uneasy. Her face still vaguely showed traces of past beauty, but her brows carried the marks of long-term toil and the hardships of life.

It was Li Guidai's childhood sweetheart, Hua Lulu.

Her gaze first swept quickly across Li Jiantou and Yang Xiaoqiao in the courtyard with respect, then immediately and eagerly searched for the figure from her memories.

When her eyes landed on Li Guidai, a spark of light instantly burst forth. However, that light was suddenly extinguished like embers doused by cold water when her gaze involuntarily shifted to Zhuge Yue, who stood beside Li Guidai, her peerless beauty and ethereal, gentle temperament impossible to hide.

Zhuge Yue's breathtaking beauty, the extraordinary temperament that could still be felt even after childbirth, and the spiritual pressure of a Foundation Establishment cultivator faintly emanating from her, all acted like an incredibly clear mirror, reflecting Hua Lulu's own ordinariness, haggardness, and insignificance.

She subconsciously gripped the hem of her coarse clothes, an indescribable sense of inferiority and bitterness surging in her heart, as if an invisible needle were gently pricking the softest part of her chest.

But she quickly forced herself to calm down, squeezed a smile onto her face that looked relaxed but was actually stiff, and hurried toward Li Guidai, trying hard to make her voice sound as familiar and playfully reproving as it used to be:

"Brother Guidai! Not bad! You ran off to that immortal place without a word, I thought you were never coming back!"

"You didn't even send a message back all these years; Uncle Li and Aunt Yang were worried sick!"

"You don't know, Aunt Yang cried in secret several times, and Uncle Li was so angry that he slammed the table several times, saying he'd save up enough travel money to go to the Zhuge Family to demand you back and snatch you away!"

She spoke very quickly, as if wanting to pour out all the words she had accumulated in one breath, but her gaze never dared to meet Zhuge Yue's again, remaining fixed on Li Guidai.

"I didn't expect... I didn't expect that not only would you return in one piece, but you'd also... you'd also found such a beautiful sister-in-law who looks like a celestial being!"

As she spoke, her voice carried a trace of imperceptible trembling, yet she tried hard to raise an even bigger, almost exaggerated smile, "It's really great! Seeing you like this, I... I can rest easy!"

After finishing, she seemed to have completed some kind of mission, or perhaps she could no longer bear the invisible pressure in the courtyard, and fled as if escaping.

While saying, "Then I'll be going now, I won't disturb you," she turned around quickly and almost ran out of the courtyard, her feigned happy back view carrying a heartbreaking sense of desolation.

The courtyard fell silent for a moment.

After a long while, the father, Li Jiantou, who had been silent all this time, looked in the direction where Hua Lulu had disappeared and sighed heavily. His voice, carrying a touch of vicissitudes and helplessness, said to Li Guidai:

"Sigh... Guidai, don't look at how indifferent Lulu sounded just now; in fact, she... she has always been thinking of you in her heart."

"That day when she found out you boarded the Zhuge Family's flying ship, she cried in secret for a long time."

He paused, a complex expression of indignation and sympathy intermingled on his face.

"You know, that day I had to go to Ganlu Town to handle some business, and that scoundrel father of Lulu, taking advantage of the fact that your mother and I were not in the village, did something truly wicked! He... for the sake of some gambling money, he actually sold Lulu in secret!"

Li Jiantou continued: "By the time we came back and found out about this, it was already too late."

"Less than three months after her bastard father sold her, he was found drunk and dead in a ditch outside... it could be considered retribution."

"What's even more infuriating is that the hunter Hua Lulu married was also a piece of trash who beat and scolded Hua Lulu every day."

Hearing this, Li Guidai suddenly felt guilty, and Zhuge Yue looked at Li Guidai with a face full of confusion!

He, Li Guidai, and Hua Lulu had a very good relationship when they were young!

The year Li Guidai and Hua Lulu turned eighteen! When Hua Lulu was sold to that hunter who was over a decade older than her, Li Guidai had been heartbroken for a long time?

Only then did he decide that on the wedding night of that hunter and Hua Lulu, he would lure that hunter into eating that medicinal pill to blow up his manhood!

Watching the courtyard gate where Hua Lulu had disappeared, he was filled with mixed emotions.

That little girl from his memories who followed behind him, chirping "Brother Guidai," had ultimately had all her edges and radiance worn away by the cruel reality and life.

The joy of reunion hadn't even had time to rise before it was replaced by a massive sense of things remaining the same but people having changed, along with a faint, lingering melancholy.

Just as Li Jiantou's regretful words finished, his mother, Yang Xiaoqiao, who had been quiet the whole time, had a slight change in her expression. She immediately stepped forward, accurately grabbed Li Jiantou's ear, and gave it a hard twist!

"Ouch! Ouch, it hurts!" Li Jiantou was caught off guard, grimacing in pain, his tall frame involuntarily bending down.

"You just have to talk too much, don't you! Old man!" Yang Xiaoqiao's willow-leaf eyebrows arched, her hand's strength undiminished as she scolded, "If you don't know how to speak, just shut your mouth! Don't you see what kind of occasion this is? Always bringing up old, dusty matters and making things awkward for Yueer!"

As she spoke, she quickly let go of his ear, her face instantly changing to a smile as warm as a spring breeze, as she said to Zhuge Yue with a touch of apology:

"Good Yueer, please don't take it to heart! Your father is just a straightforward person; he says whatever comes to mind, and sometimes his brain seems to cramp up, unable to turn the corner!"

"He didn't mean anything else, he just... just felt sorry for that girl, absolutely no other thoughts!"

Li Jiantou finally realized everything at this moment, knowing he had made a slip of the tongue. It was indeed inappropriate to bring up his son's childhood sweetheart in front of his daughter-in-law, so he hurriedly nodded like a pounding garlic, cooperating with the action of rubbing his ear, and chimed in with a silly look:

"Right, right, right! Your mother is right! My brain just cramped up! I got it caught in a door just now!"

"Yueer, you must not misunderstand! Dad was just saying it casually, just saying it casually! For a kid like Guidai to be able to marry you, it's a blessing he cultivated over eight lifetimes! Our Li family is all very happy!"

Watching her parents-in-law explain in such a rush, even appearing somewhat flustered, Zhuge Yue let out a "pfft" of laughter. That smile was like spring flowers blooming, carrying genuine tolerance and a hint of playfulness.

She gently linked her arm with Li Guidai's beside her, looked at the two elders with a smile, and said in a relaxed tone:

"Father, Mother, you really don't have to be like this. It's okay, how could I mind?"

She paused, her eyes shifting, glanced at the slightly embarrassed Li Guidai beside her, the corners of her mouth curling into a playful arc, and continued:

"You don't know, your precious son has so many confidantes in the Zhuge Family!"

"Each one is either a talented young girl or the daughter of an elder, I can hardly count them all! If I minded such a small matter, wouldn't I be eaten alive by jealousy?"

Her words were half-joke, half-tease, both generously indicating she didn't mind and lightly pointing out Li Guidai's "popularity," while taking the opportunity to give her husband a little "warning," with the tone perfectly judged.

Li Guidai, being teased by his wife like this, blushed, gave two dry coughs, touched his nose, and said sheepishly: "Ahem... Yueer, it's not as exaggerated as you say..."

Upon hearing this, Yang Xiaoqiao and Li Jiantou were stunned for a moment, then both breathed a sigh of relief and began to laugh along.

Yang Xiaoqiao even patted the back of Zhuge Yue's hand, the more she looked at this daughter-in-law, the more satisfied she became!