Ye Yunniang got up early, fed Pan'er, sent the child to the Xu family, and asked Liang Maimiao to take care of the child.
Ye Yunniang carried a basket and went to the vegetable market to buy groceries.
She picked a live fish and bought two pieces of tofu.
As she turned around to go back, she saw a familiar face.
"Madam," Ye Yunniang said in surprise at seeing Jin Huifang here.
"I'm no longer the Fourth Madam of the Jiang Family," Jin Huifang said. She was wearing a simple cotton dress. Her face was unadorned with makeup, and she only had a wooden hairpin in her hair. Her hands were clean.
It wasn't a suitable place to talk as they were standing in the middle of the road.
Ye Yunniang and Jin Huifang went to a wonton stall. Ye Yunniang ordered two bowls of wontons.
"Madam, how is the young master?" Ye Yunniang finally couldn't help but ask.
"He's fine," Jin Huifang said. When it came to her son, her face, which had been lifeless before, broke into a smile.
Jin Huifang lowered her head and gobbled up the wontons.
"Madam," Ye Yunniang started to say.
"Call me Huifang. I've already said that I'm no longer Fourth Madam Jiang," Jin Huifang interrupted Ye Yunniang.
Ye Yunniang opened her mouth but couldn't call out the name. "How are you all doing now?"
After that day, Ye Yunniang followed Jiang Mingzhe's advice and didn't ask about anything related to the Jiang family.
Now that she had bumped into Jin Huifang, she wanted to know how they were doing.
Jin Huifang also wanted to talk to someone.
After the Jiang family took shelter in the dilapidated temple, first, Jiang Mingyue and Concubine Bai left with Li Mingshu, who had changed her surname.
Later, the Bai family took away Bai Xiuxiu and Jiang Mingyu's family of three.
In the dilapidated temple, there were only Old Master Jiang, Old Madam Jiang, Concubine Xue, Jiang Mingrui's family of three, and finally, a half - dead Zhuang Meixue.
Jin Huifang had thought that the Jin family would send someone to pick her up and take her back to her natal family.
She had even planned that she would take her husband and son with her. The three of them wouldn't be separated.
Jin Huifang had a good plan, but things didn't turn out as she expected.
The Jin family came late, and the news they brought wasn't good.
A servant of the Jin family brought a letter and a hundred - tael silver note. The letter demanded that Jin Huifang not leave the Jiang family and abandon her husband and son.
The hundred - tael silver note was considered as the care from her natal family for their married - off daughter.
Just like that, Jin Huifang was abandoned by her family. What was even more unacceptable to her was Jiang Mingrui's abandonment.
"Jiang Mingrui took the silver note and said he was going to exchange it for silver. He never came back, and he disappeared with Zhuang Meixue," Jin Huifang said with a sarcastic smile.
"The Second Madam?" Ye Yunniang was puzzled.
"You didn't expect it, did you? I only found out in the dilapidated temple that the person Jiang Mingrui liked wasn't me but his Second Sister - in - law," Jin Huifang said with a couple of dry laughs.
"How, how could this be?" Ye Yunniang didn't know what to say. She then remembered what Jiang Mingzhe had said that day, cryptically suggesting that Jiang Mingrui had some ulterior motives.
"Jiang Mingrui ran away with that slut. And he left me two sentences. Hahaha. Jiang Mingrui told me to take good care of his son, his father, and his mother. Bullshit!" Jin Huifang said and spat hard.
The son was also Jin Huifang's, and she would take care of him without being told. As for his father and mother, since their own son didn't want them, why should she, an outsider, take care of them?
Jin Huifang pulled out her fingernails to exchange for some silver. She took Jiang Tingjun and left the dilapidated temple. They rented a yard in Yangshi Alley and settled down.
In the past two months, Jin Huifang had been extremely frugal, but the money was still running out little by little.
During this period, Jin Huifang also thought about finding a job.
She tried washing dishes for someone, but she broke too many, so she didn't earn any money and even had to compensate for the losses.
Jin Huifang worked as a shop girl to greet customers. When she saw some customers being stingy while buying things and speaking rudely, she was fired.
After searching around for jobs, Jin Huifang not only failed to earn any money but also lost 80 taels of silver. She had almost spent all the money she made from selling her fingernail clippings.
After paying the rent yesterday, Jin Huifang was left with only three copper coins in her hand.
Fearing that her child would starve, she came to the vegetable market to pick up the discarded vegetable leaves.
Thinking about the past, when she used to spend no less than 80 taels of silver on a single meal, and now she had to humble herself to pick up the rotten vegetable leaves that others didn't want. Jin Huifang covered her face with her hands.
After hearing Jin Huifang's story, Ye Yunniang didn't know what to say.
She pushed the bowl of wontons in front of her towards Jin Huifang.
"Thank you. Can I take this bowl away?" Her husband, Jiang Tingjun, was waiting for something to eat at home.
"Of course," Ye Yunniang said. Then she bought twenty steamed buns for Jin Huifang. It was September now, and the weather was getting cooler, so the buns could be kept for a while.
"Huifang, don't give up. Things will get better. Everything will be all right," Ye Yunniang said as she took out all the money left on her and offered it to Jin Huifang.
Jin Huifang refused.
"I'll take the food, but I can't take your money," Jin Huifang said, then left with the buns and the bowl of wontons in her arms.
Ye Yunniang sighed and walked home with the fish in her hand.
At home, Cai Damei was sitting by the well - platform, washing vegetables.
"Give me the fish," Cai Damei said. Ye Yunniang didn't know how to kill a fish, and it was always Cai Damei who did it when they bought fish.
Ye Yunniang handed the fish to Cai Damei and went into the kitchen to get a kitchen knife and a basin.
Cai Damei took the knife and skillfully scaled and gutted the fish.
"Mother, I met Fourth Madam Jiang today," Ye Yunniang finally decided to tell her.
Ye Yunniang told Cai Damei everything that had happened between her and Jin Huifang.
Cai Damei paused her hand movement for a moment. Sure enough, they, as rural people, still had too little experience.
"Do you want to help her?"
"I don't know," Ye Yunniang replied. She always remembered Jiang Mingzhe's words: don't meddle in the Jiang Family's affairs.
"You feel sorry for that child," Cai Damei said. Ye Yunniang didn't refute but just nodded.
"I'm sorry for Pan'er," Ye Yunniang often thought of Jiang Tingjun in her heart.
"If you want to help, just do it. Don't think about those unnecessary things," Cai Damei advised Ye Yunniang not to over - think.
Ye Yunniang gave a soft "um". In fact, even if she wanted to help, she didn't know what she could do for them.
Before Ye Yunniang could figure out what to do, Jin Huifang made a choice first.
Ye Yunniang was embroidering a handkerchief in the room when she heard a knock on the door.
She opened the courtyard gate, and there sat a child in front of the door.
It was a dirty child with greasy, matted hair, thin and dark - skinned.
Ye Yunniang immediately recognized who the child was.
The child in front of her was the young master she had nursed for over a year.
Ye Yunniang stretched her head and looked around, but there was no sign of Jin Huifang.
When Jiang Tingjun saw a familiar face.
"Nurse, I'm hungry."
"So hungry, wah..."
Jiang Tingjun burst into tears.
Looking at the dirty child, Ye Yunniang didn't really want to hold him.
"Whose child is this?" Liang Maimiao from next door heard the noise and came out. Pan'er was following behind her.
"Mother," Pan'er ran over and hugged Ye Yunniang.
Seeing that Ye Yunniang didn't hold him but hugged another child instead, Jiang Tingjun cried even louder.
"Which heartless person left this child here?" Liang Maimiao felt sorry for the pitiful - crying Jiang Tingjun and wanted to hold him.
Jiang Tingjun didn't want to be held by her and stretched his hands towards Ye Yunniang, "Nurse, mother..."
"This is my mother, not your mother. Don't call her that," Pan'er was unhappy and shouted at Jiang Tingjun.
Jiang Tingjun cried so hard that he started coughing.
Thinking of the once chubby and fair Jiang Tingjun and looking at his current thin appearance, Ye Yunniang softened her heart.
"Brother Maimiao's wife, I'll take the child into the house first."
"Okay, I'll go and ask the people around," Liang Maimiao said and went to the alley entrance to make inquiries.
"Mother, don't hold him," Pan'er pushed Jiang Tingjun and wouldn't let Ye Yunniang hold him. "She's my mother, not yours."
