Jiang Yingqiu was in her room, her legs covered by her blankets. Her heart filled with thankfulness when she heard the laughter and chatter from the kitchen.

What a wonderful daughter-in-law!

Her son liked her, she was good-looking and did not mind the two young children living with her. They were well aware of her background.

The Gu family were landlords and their background was not good, but if it were not so, her son would not have the good fortune to marry a girl from the Gu family. Coming from an aristocratic family like that, she had naturally been well brought up. Gu Qingyao was clearly a cut above the other girls.

She had observed them for so many years. She knew almost all the girls in the surrounding brigades, but no matter how she considered the matter, Gu Qingyao was still the most compatible with her son.

In the kitchen, Gu Qingyao was instructing the two children on how to cook. Today, she had brought the food and the two children were filled with antic.i.p.ation. Gu Qingyao trimmed the chicken and simply put it on the stove to boil.

She cooked some white rice for lunch. The two children looked delighted. In these times, it was rare to eat pure white rice.

She only cooked two dishes for lunch because there was chicken soup. Everyone would certainly drink more soup, so there was no need to cook too much.

Sure enough, at lunch, the two children were full after just drinking the chicken soup and eating the chicken meat.

Gu Qingyao cleared the bowls and chopsticks before preparing to go back.

Meanwhile, Sun Mei and w.a.n.g Li had been waiting outside the Mo house for some time. When they smelt the aroma of chicken soup wafting from the Mo house, they could not help but drool.

Even though Sun Mei came from a wealthy family, she was still greedy for these things.

She felt that what her grandfather said had made sense.

She had always liked Mo Beihan. She thought that Mo Beihan was handsome, had a job outside the village, and was a capable man.

If she married a man like that, she could live in the city with Mo Beihan in the future. Mo Beihan's salary was enough to support her, so she would not need to work in the countryside anymore.

But at the moment, the Mo family was very poor. In particular, the family had two children and an ailing woman. This greatly displeased Sun Mei.

She knew that anyone who became the Mo family's daughter-in-law would probably have to remain at home to take care of the old woman and the children. Although she would be a newly-wed woman, it was akin to becoming the two children's stepmother. She was definitely unwilling to take this on.

So she had always been conflicted. She wanted to marry Mo Beihan, but she did not want to care for Jiang Yingqiu and the two other burdens.

So she had put it off. She was waiting for the two children to grow up a little and waiting for Jiang Yingqiu to be able to eke out a living for herself when they all lived together.

But to her surprise, Mo Beihan had suddenly gotten engaged to Gu Qingyao.

She hated Gu Qingyao because of this. She had even deliberately made trouble for Gu Qingyao in order to curry Gu Ruoqing's favor…

But the last incident involving Gu Ruoqing made her realize that it was not so easy to marry and move to the city. It was no easy matter to meet a city dweller.

At the moment, among her acquaintances, besides the Mo family, only… the Gu family had connections in the city!

She was the Sun family's only daughter, and they had doted on her since she was young. Her grandfather had high hopes for her. He had always dreamt of her marrying and moving to the city.

Because the Gu family were landlords, her grandfather had despised them as bad elements and had hesitated.

Also, after marrying into the Mo family, she would probably have to stay home and take care of the old woman and the children. Grandfather disliked the idea of that. He wanted to send her to the city so that her young nephews could look her up in the city.

But she had grown older, year after year, and although they had spent so much effort on Gu Ruoqing, it had come to naught. So her grandfather said they had better seize whatever opportunities presented themselves.

She could either get Mo Beihan back, or choose the best of Gu Qingyao's older cousins and marry him!