Becoming the Villain's Discarded Wife
Chapter 179: Missing Her

Chapter 179: Chapter 179: Missing Her

The young girl was growing up, and she became increasingly curious about the person in her dreams.

Who was this Nanzhi that the person kept calling in the dream?

But no matter how she searched in her dreams, she could only see a blurry figure in the distance.

After turning eleven, Nanzhi no longer had those "predictive" dreams. Although the villagers in Stone Village felt somewhat regretful, they remained fond of Nanzhi.

In the past few years, the villagers had, to some extent, avoided disasters thanks to her warnings. These acts of kindness had surely been appreciated.

Also, for these reasons, the admiration of various young boys in the village towards Nanzhi had deflated somewhat.

As a child, Nanzhi was chubby and cute, a rare well-behaved child in the village.

When they confessed their feelings for her to their parents, their elders always praised Nanzhi’s capabilities and then questioned whether they were worthy of her.

As Nanzhi grew older, she became one of the most attractive young ladies in the village.

Now that she was no longer having those dreams, their elders started questioning them again: Among all the people in the village, why would she choose them?

That’s why, even though many boys in the village liked Nanzhi since a young age, no one came to propose to her when she came of age.

Brother Zhuzi enjoyed playing with the two Lin brothers since childhood, and he always loved giving little things to Nanzhi.

There were wild hawthorns from the hill behind the house, pancakes made by his mother, and pretty hairbands he bought by selling medicinal herbs.

At the beginning, Lin Yicheng and Lin Ercheng were happy, as they thought having another person being kind to their sister would mean they could keep their own allowance.

However, Nanzhi rejected everything except for the wild hawthorns and fruits from the mountain. Whenever she did accept something from Zhuzi, she always made her brothers bring some food from home in return, as a kind of exchange.

After it happened many times, the two brothers began to find it odd.

Why did Zhuzi keep giving things to their sister? Why wasn’t he giving things to Niuniu who lived next door?

The two brothers, full of righteous indignation, cornered Zhuzi. As Lin Yicheng confronted him, he asked angrily, "Zhuzi, why do you keep giving things to my sister?"

Lin Ercheng stood aside, nodding along.

"I, I..." Zhuzi stammered, unable to form a coherent sentence. His face, normally tanned from working in the fields, flushed red out of its usual black.

"I’m telling you, don’t you dare have any bad intentions towards our sister!"

Lin Yicheng stared fiercely at his friend, "I treat you like a brother, and you see me as your future brother-in-law, is that it?"

Zhuzi blushed even deeper, about to explain, when he saw Nanzhi coming from the distance.

"Brother, Second Brother, Brother Zhuzi, what are you guys doing?"

Nanzhi looked puzzled observing the trio’s complicated expressions.

The young girl hadn’t even turned fourteen yet, but she had already grown into a slender and graceful figure. Seeing her, Zhuzi felt a pang of guilt.

"Nothing, nothing."

"Okay then, big brother and second brother, come home soon. We have something big happening tonight."

Nanzhi waved, picked up her basket, and went home.

"See? Just make sure you behave yourself, or else you won’t be considered my brother anymore!"

"Understood."

Zhuzi, who had lost his usual vitality, responded meekly before he went back to his home.

Watching his retreating figure, Lin Yicheng snorted coldly.

At least he was smart enough to get the hint.

"Big brother, what could be the big event that Nanzhi is referring to?" Lin Ercheng, who had just turned fifteen, was in the midst of a growth spurt. Standing next to his seventeen-year-old brother, their heights were almost equal.

"How would I know?"

As Lin Yicheng replied, his ears were tinted a slight red.

Not until the night did Lin Ercheng learn about the so-called ’big event’, and he was stunned.

When exactly did his big brother tell their mother that he wanted to propose to the Chen family?

The year Nanzhi turned fourteen, Lin Family’s eldest, Lin Yicheng, married Chen Qiulan, the second daughter of the Chen family in the village.

Before Lin Ercheng had time to digest the news, his elder brother was already wed and had started his own family.

"Big Brother, when did you start seeing my sister-in-law?" Lin Ercheng couldn’t help scoffing at his elder brother dressed in red wedding attire.

Although a Daoist had predicted in their childhood that his brother would fall for the girl from Chen family, that was many years ago.

"You’re just too naïve," Lin Yicheng, who had married the girl he loved, said smugly. Seeing his fifteen-year-old brother, he couldn’t help but worry a little.

You look at his demeanor; if he doesn’t manage to secure a wife, it will be a problem.

"What are you saying?"

Lin Ercheng snorted, seeing his elder brother going to other tables to make toasts, leaving him with Brother Zhuzi to chat.

"Brother Zhuzi, you..." He started, but swallowed his words as he remembered something that happened two months before.

Perhaps spurred by his brother’s marriage, Lin Ercheng suddenly became interested in a girl himself.

After a one-off visit to the town along with Lin Shougui, he returned home and told his mother about a girl who’d caught his fancy.

She was fifteen too, the daughter of a pancake vendor in town.

The girl didn’t seem to be appreciated at home though, and was often seen nursing bruises.

The revelation initially gave Lin Ercheng’s mother pause; even a good girl could bring trouble from her own family.

But seeing her son’s affection, and knowing his stubbornness, she went to town to find out more.

The girl’s name was Sun, and she lived with only her grandfather and grandmother.

She was one of four siblings - having three elder sisters and a younger brother. Her mother had died giving birth to her youngest brother.

The two elder sisters, named Zhaodi and Laidi, had been married off early, leaving only the third sister, Sun, assisting at the family pancake stall.

Mother Lin ate at the stall twice and found the girl to be smart and articulate.

Only after a thorough inquiry did she arrange for a matchmaker to make a formal proposal.

The Sun family agreed, but requested that the girl be given another year at home, and that the betrothal gifts should include eight tael of silver.

Mother Lin understood their calculation but was helpless to interfere. After all, it was their internal family business.

When Nanzhi was fifteen, Lin Ercheng also married the love of his life.

The Sun family didn’t seem to care about their daughters, hastily naming the two previously married daughters Zhaodi and Laidi as they prepared for their weddings.

When it came to their third daughter, Lin Ercheng stopped them from once again choosing a name that ended in -di, and renamed her Sun Cui.

With both her older brothers married, all eyes in the family were now on Nanzhi.

Now that she had turned fifteen and grown up, the girl had become more thoughtful than the lively lass she used to be.

Everyone assumed it was just a sign of her maturing.

However, Nanzhi had begun to see the man from her dreams much more frequently.

Along with the man’s tender calls, there was always a child calling for his mother.

In addition to that, several unfamiliar scenes began to appear.

A thin, frail woman, walking ahead on the road with a skinny child in tow.

An image of her cuddled up with the child for warmth during the winter.

And the child, who kept adorably calling out for his mother.

...

After wrapping up at the stall, Mother Lin sat on a stool, staring blankly at the sky.

"What do you think our Fatty is doing right now?"

"Mom..."

"I know, I know, it’s just...I miss her so much." Mother Lin wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes, her face full of sorrow.