Auntie Chen’s question was peculiar.

Whether divorced or widowed, the old saying goes that you can’t stop the rain from falling or a mother from remarrying – there was no need to ask Xia Xiao Lan’s opinion about matchmaking for Liu Fen. Chinese tradition has always been that children should listen to their parents about marriage, never the reverse.

But now, running into the new era, traditions should change too. Xia Xiao Lan’s family situation was different from others – after all, she was the top scorer in the college entrance examination. This daughter was equivalent to someone else’s son, so Auntie Chen needed to sound out Xia Xiao Lan first.

The villagers all thought Xia Xiao Lan’s new house was built with Liu Yong’s help.

As for Xia Xiao Lan being the top scorer, they figured it would still be a few years before she amounted to anything. Therefore, they thought Xia Xiao Lan could have half a say in family matters.

Xia Xiao Lan personally wanted to support Liu Fen’s remarriage.

She wasn’t limited to urban or rural people, and money didn’t matter – what mattered was good character and treating Liu Fen well.

Before Xia Xiao Lan could respond to Auntie Chen’s question, Li Fengmei heard the conversation and rushed over: “Sister, why are you discussing these things with Xiao Lan? Come, let’s talk inside.”

Li Fengmei probably knew what Xia Xiao Lan thought and didn’t give her a chance to answer.

Li Fengmei felt that although her niece grew up in the countryside, she didn’t quite understand the rural environment. Even with Uncle Da keeping things in check and maintaining surface unity without major conflicts, there was still plenty of private scheming. If Xia Xiao Lan dared say the conditions didn’t matter, tomorrow there would be all sorts of unsuitable men being brought to their house!

Li Fengmei knew very well her sister-in-law’s circumstances, even if others didn’t.

Having been divorced once, it was better not to remarry at all, or if she did, it should be to someone good. Finding someone unsuitable would be worse than Liu Fen continuing to live with her daughter – the mother and daughter didn’t lack money or housing, and their life was quite comfortable. Finding someone in the countryside would be quite troublesome – after the New Year, Liu Fen would go to Beijing to open a store, where they also had a house. At most, they’d return home once a year – would they bring a potential match to Beijing?

If they brought someone, and what if he was widowed? Besides not having a wife, he might have elderly parents and children to care for – would they bring the whole family to Beijing?

Don’t be ridiculous, that would only cause trouble for Xia Xiao Lan.

Li Fengmei pulled Auntie Chen into the house and talked for a long while before Auntie Chen came out, refusing even Xia Xiao Lan’s invitation to stay for dinner. Xia Xiao Lan noticed Auntie Chen’s unhappy expression, “What’s wrong with Aunt Chen?”

“Nothing at all!”

Li Fengmei maintained an innocent expression.

Liu Fen, like an old ox, couldn’t stay idle even at home and was busy cleaning everywhere, completely unaware of what had happened.

Grandmother Yu clicked her tongue after finishing her meal, “During New Year’s, going to someone’s house to lose face – truly befitting the village chief’s wife.”

New Year was supposed to be a happy time, and Grandmother Yu thought Auntie Chen had issues. She had heard that Village Chief Chen had helped Xia Xiao Lan and Liu Fen quite a bit, and Xia Xiao Lan was most grateful – she would likely return sevenfold for every three parts of help received, never letting the village chief’s family lose out.

If so, Auntie Chen was quite ungrateful – apparently trying to arrange a marriage for Liu Fen, getting rejected by Li Fengmei, and losing face.

Today’s house cleaning had been tiring enough, and Liu Yong’s family hadn’t cooked either – separated by just a wall, everyone ate at Xia Xiao Lan’s house.

Liu Yong looked around while holding his bowl, feeling like everyone knew what had happened except him and Fen!

“Let’s eat first, we’ll talk after.”

The meat was brought from the city, while vegetables like potatoes and carrots were gifts from neighbors.

Liu Yong planned to go to the county town tomorrow, as they didn’t have enough New Year goods yet. He wasn’t sure if they could still buy meat in Anqing County; if not, they’d have to make do with chickens, ducks, and geese from the village.

“Don’t we still have the dried seafood that Uncle Tang sent? We can eat that for New Year’s.”

True, they still had Mayor Tang’s dried goods, which Xia Xiao Lan had divided into two portions when they reached Shangdu. Li Fengmei was troubled: “I don’t know how to cook those things…”

Liu Fen didn’t know either.

Yunan was in the Central Plains region and didn’t produce seafood. Rural farmers’ only knowledge of seafood was “kelp.” If not for following Xia Xiao Lan to live in the city, none of them would have eaten seafood.

Even having eaten it was useless – they knew how to eat it but not how to cook it, especially dried goods. They didn’t know how to rehydrate and prepare them.

Having an elder at home was like having a treasure – fortunately, they had Grandmother Yu, who seemed to know about everything that swam in the water, flew in the sky, or ran on the ground.

“This dried abalone is decent. Soak it in clean water now, changing the water twice a day, and it should be ready to use by New Year’s Eve.”

Grandmother Yu could explain in detail how to cook abalone and sea cucumber.

Xia Xiao Lan couldn’t do that – she could only taste and judge the flavors.

After dinner and setting the dried goods to soak, the family could sit around the stove to chat. After traveling from the provincial city to the countryside all day, young Liu Zitao went to bed right after eating. The adults could now listen to Li Fengmei’s topic, which she brought up directly:

“Fen, Auntie Chen came today as a matchmaker. Have you thought about what kind of man you want in the future?”

Liu Fen was completely unprepared and was stunned by Li Fengmei’s question.

Find a man?

Why did she need to find a man? Wherever Xiao Lan went, she would follow. She wasn’t useless like before – now she could help Xiao Lan, learn to run stores and such. When Xiao Lan married and had children in the future, she needed to be nearby to help care for them. Liu Fen had never thought about being separated from her daughter long-term.

Remarrying would mean moving to another man’s house.

How could she take care of her daughter then?

“Sister, I… I’m not planning to look…”

She was a bit panicked, worried about what Xiao Lan might think, but turned to see Xiao Lan looking at her with clear eyes and a smile. Liu Fen’s anxious heart immediately calmed – she knew Xiao Lan wouldn’t consider her a burden. Even if she didn’t plan to remarry, she still had her daughter to rely on.

Liu Yong also felt that finding a man or not wasn’t a big deal.

“What was Auntie Chen doing playing matchmaker.”

Liu Yong muttered that there weren’t any good matches in the countryside – finding another man like Xia Dajun would be infuriating. Not only was his niece capable, but his sister Fen was also more competent than before. Even if the mother and daughter faced difficulties, Liu Yong could help.

Unless Fen herself wanted to marry, Liu Yong supported Liu Fen living alone.

The whole family seemed to reach a consensus. Li Fengmei didn’t even mention the conditions of the man Auntie Chen wanted to introduce. Since Liu Fen didn’t have that intention now, they just needed to reject Auntie Chen.

Before bed, Grandmother Yu pulled Xia Xiao Lan aside:

“The village chief’s daughter-in-law was just the scout. Since you don’t like the match she proposed, who knows how many more people will come knocking.”

Xia Xiao Lan was speechless, “They won’t accept that my mom doesn’t want to remarry?”

This New Year’s visit home wouldn’t be peaceful. Xia Xiao Lan hoped Grandmother Yu’s prediction wouldn’t come true. The next morning, she realized she was wrong – the elderly are indeed wiser. From breakfast time, people started coming.

Xia Xiao Lan was still telling Liu Fen about Old Wang from Dahe Village’s cattle pen – when everyone looked down on the mother and daughter, Old Wang had lent them a flashlight to search for wild duck eggs in the reed marsh. Now that the mother and daughter were financially comfortable, they wanted to send some rice, flour, oil, and grain to Old Wang for the New Year.

“Fen, are you home?”

Xia Xiao Lan didn’t recognize the woman speaking, but hearing Liu Fen call her “sister,” she knew it was safe to call her “auntie.”

However, this auntie’s words weren’t very pleasant to hear.