There's Something Wrong With My Little White Flower - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: The Fallen Republican Era Young Lady X The Overseas-Educated Paternal Aunt

The aunt half-pushed and half-pulled Ruan Jiyun into the room. She felt nervous inside but maintained a concerned facade: “Yunniang, your aunt and uncle are your family. We wouldn’t harm you, would we? Now, you haven’t married into the Jiang family yet, so they treat you as a guest. Once you are married, you’ll know—a woman, she still needs to rely on her maiden family.”

If this were the Ruan Jiyun of the past, she would likely be convinced even if she didn’t fully believe it. But things were different now. Ruan Jiyun was already clear that this tactic, mixing suppression and coercion, was merely to force her to agree. She shook her head: “Putting aside that Uncle Jiang treats me very well, I… I don’t want to marry yet.”

“You are almost twenty! When are you going to marry if you keep dragging it out…”

No matter what the aunt said, since Ruan Jiyun understood her intentions, she simply spoke frankly: “Aunt, I respect you as an elder, but I am my father’s only daughter. If this is your intention, I will return to the Jiang family immediately. I will not agree to this matter.”

The aunt’s biggest fear now was that the matter would fall through and the Jiang family would find out they had bullied Jiyun. Hearing her words, she quickly stood up: “Good Yunniang, we are just discussing this slowly… The Ruan family’s business, no matter how influential the Jiang family is, they can’t interfere.”

“You are young and inexperienced. No matter how many sweet words outsiders use, how can they compare to the care of family? Xiaoxian is straightforward, but he is your biological cousin. He knows you are good. If you, as the elder sister, are bullied in the Jiang family in the future, he will certainly stand up for you.”

While she chattered on, Ruan Jiyun listened coldly. No matter how much the aunt persuaded her, Ruan Jiyun stuck to one phrase: “I do not agree.”

The frustrated aunt’s mouth was dry, and she couldn’t get a single soft word out of her. Seeing that it was almost lunchtime, she had to stand up first: “I’ve said everything I needed to. You think about it carefully yourself.”

She returned to the main hall in defeat, where Uncle Ruan was waiting for her. Seeing his wife walk over with a frown, he knew she hadn’t managed to persuade Ruan Jiyun. He gritted his teeth: “It doesn’t matter if she doesn’t agree. This afternoon, I’ll go to the clan leader’s house and settle the matter directly. It’s best if we can open the ancestral hall tonight!”

The aunt hesitated: “Will that work? Yunniang is insisting on returning to the Jiang family. What if…”

“No matter how powerful the Jiang family is, can they interfere with their daughter-in-law’s family matters? You keep an eye on her. Once we settle the matter, she will have no choice but to accept it, no matter how unwilling she is.”

Greed appeared in Uncle Ruan’s eyes: “A hundred mu of prime paddy fields. We’ll just grit our teeth and allocate ten mu to the clan for ancestral worship land. I don’t believe Uncle Qi won’t be tempted by the money.”

The aunt held her chest and said: “My goodness, ten mu of paddy field… he really dares to ask for that much. Fine, I’m also afraid of complications if we wait. I’ll have Qingniang guard her now. Husband, hurry and get this done.”

There are always people in this world who have a self-justifying logic of “the weak are in the right.” Take Uncle Ruan, for example. Among the three Ruan brothers, Ruan’s father, though the youngest, was the most business-minded, operating a large weaving workshop and earning a considerable amount of money every year.

However, he had an eldest brother like Uncle Ruan, who coaxed him into handing over money to support the whole extended family. The second Ruan uncle was somewhat ambitious. Years ago, he borrowed capital from his younger brother and went north to do fur trade, but has been out of contact for many years. Uncle Ruan, on the other hand, did absolutely no productive work. When Ruan’s father died, all the money from the weaving workshop was used by him to buy paddy fields, which he then brazenly occupied.

He claimed it was to manage his niece’s dowry, but while managing it, he began to plot how to transfer it all into his own hands. This led him to the idea: if he adopted his son, wouldn’t the family property naturally belong to him?

Uncle Ruan felt no pressure adopting his only son into the Third Branch. After all, Ruan’s father was dead, and Ruan Jiyun was about to marry. The son, transferred or not, still belonged to his branch, didn’t he?

His calculations were loud and clear, but he didn’t know that Ruan Jiyun wasn’t as easy to fool as they thought.

She realized she was being confined in the afternoon. Qingniang stayed in the room guarding her. The moment she tried to leave, she was blocked.

“I’m just going to walk around the courtyard. Why are you stopping me?” she asked, puzzled.

Qingniang only said: “It’s too hot. Don’t wander around for now. Wait until the heat subsides a bit.”

Ruan Jiyun gave her a cold smile, turned back, sat down at the table, and started reading a book.

Seeing her cooperate so readily, Qingniang was half-relieved. She guarded her until it was time to light the lamps. Even dinner was brought to the room by Jining on a tray. The little girl’s dark eyes looked at Ruan Jiyun with worry, but she didn’t dare to ask anything because Qingniang was watching.

Ruan Jiyun saw a plate of pork hock meat on the tray, knowing it was leftovers from yesterday’s dinner. She only touched it with one chopstick and said: “It’s too greasy. I can’t eat this.”

Qingniang sounded half-contemptuous and half-envious: “It seems you’re truly accustomed to the good life at the Jiang family, finding pork hock too greasy.”

“Isn’t it good for you to eat it all?” Ruan Jiyun glanced at her lightly, not getting angry.

Qingniang originally wanted to be stubborn and not eat it either, but ever since she married into the Cheng family, her mother-in-law had been stingy with meals, barely allowing the daughter-in-law to eat any meat. The sight of the oily pork hock made her desperately crave it. After a few grumbles, she ate the food clean.

However, her stomach, which hadn’t had grease for a long time, quickly reacted. Before long, Ruan Jiqing felt a sharp pain in her abdomen, almost crying out loud.

Her face flushed red as she looked at Ruan Jiyun, who seemed unaware, still buried in her book. The spasm-like pain struck again. She could no longer care about anything else. She quickly bolted the door and rushed straight to the outhouse.

The moment she left, Ruan Jiyun threw down her book and tried to push the door, but Jiqing had been careful. The door was bolted from the outside, and no matter how hard she tried from inside, she couldn’t open it.

Ruan Jiyun’s heart was filled with anxiety. She was about to pick up a stool to smash the door when she suddenly heard a rustling sound.

“Sister Yun… Did they lock you up?” Jining’s thin voice sounded from outside the door, seemingly very nervous.

“Jining, I have an urgent need to leave right now. Can you… can you open the door for me?” Ruan Jiyun was like someone grasping at a life raft and quickly whispered: “Please, open the door for me.”

Silence followed.

Ruan Jiyun’s heart sank. Jining was always afraid of her aunt. If she opened the door for her now, she would inevitably be severely beaten later. She took a breath, about to find another way, when she heard the door bolt slide, and the door opened.

The little girl, nervous and scared, clung to the door bolt, but her eyes were full of light: “Sister Yun, you go. My sister is coming back soon!”

Ruan Jiyun was deeply moved. She touched Jining’s head: “Jining, you quickly find a place to hide. If Qingniang finds me gone later, she will surely come after you first.”

As she spoke, she quickly circled the center of the courtyard, holding her breath as she pulled open the main gate and swiftly darted out. Ruan Jining was still trembling while clutching the door bolt. After a moment’s hesitation, she also quickly followed her out the door.

It was already night. Farm families slept early, with only a few lights still on. The brightest place was the Ruan Clan Ancestral Hall. Ruan Jiyun dared not delay, lifting her skirt and running toward that direction.

The summer night wind carried a touch of coolness, and the dark fields occasionally echoed with the chirping of insects. Ordinarily, Ruan Jiyun would be frightened, but now she just wiped the sweat from her face, gritted her teeth, and continued running forward.

She had only one thought in her mind: she must not let Ruan Xiaoxian become her father’s adopted son! She must not let this family of her uncle brazenly occupy her father’s lifelong hard work!

She ran quickly. When she reached the ancestral hall, she could see many people gathered in the main hall from afar, and the figures of Uncle Ruan’s family were clearly visible among them. Ruan Jiyun composed herself, lifted her foot, and stepped through the ancestral hall’s main gate.

Uncle Ruan had visited the clan leader that afternoon. The clan leader, when calculated, was very closely related to his family and understood the situation of the Ruan brothers. He originally didn’t want to get involved in this private matter, but he was surprised when the usually stingy Uncle Ruan offered to donate ten mu of land to the clan for ancestral worship.

The produce from the ancestral land was entirely controlled by the clan leader. Thinking of this, he frowned: “I don’t have any objections on my side, but I worry that Old Master Jiang might become displeased later.”

Uncle Ruan saw his temptation and smiled: “Old Master Jiang’s family is enormous. He won’t care about these small matters. Yunniang is just a girl. After she marries, she still has to rely on the clan… What can a young girl know? We’ll just coax her with some nice words later.”

Under the temptation of ten mu of prime paddy field, the clan leader finally relented: “Your branch truly only has Xiaoxian as a male heir now. Adopting him to both branches is permissible.”

The matter was thus settled. Uncle Ruan urged the clan leader to open the ancestral hall that very night. After informing the ancestors, they planned to formally record Ruan Xiaoxian’s name in the genealogy.

They were busy and excited when they suddenly heard a female voice from the side:

“Uncle, for a matter as big as adoption, why didn’t you wait for me to get ready?”

On the other side of the village, the young Ruan Jining was still running frantically. She didn’t know where she was going, only that what she had done today was very bad, and if her mother found out, she would surely be severely beaten.

Thinking of this, she felt like crying again. The shadows by the roadside also seemed to hide monsters that might jump out and bite her at any moment.

Sobbing, she wiped the tears from her face. In her blurred vision, she saw a beam of light.

It was the headlights of a car traveling in the distance. The beam of light approached, stopping right in front of her.

A beautiful older sister stepped out of the car. Aside from Ruan Jiyun, Jining had never seen such a grand and pretty girl. She was tall, wearing a Western dress with very puffy sleeves on top, and on the bottom, she wore a pair of trousers like a man, which made her legs look slender and straight.

The older sister walked up to her, pulled a handkerchief from her pocket, and wiped her tears.

“Another poor little white flower,” Jiang Peifeng said softly. “Little Sister, do you know Yunniang from the Ruan family?”

Ruan Jining stared blankly at her. After a long moment, she snapped back to reality, swallowing a sob of bitter tears, and asked tearfully: “Are you here to save Sister Yun?”

The little girl’s words were disjointed, but Jiang Peifeng quickly deciphered the immense information they contained, her beautiful long eyebrows furrowing slightly.

“Yes,” she said firmly. “Although I don’t know exactly what happened, I came specifically to stand up for her.”

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