Dabao pouted. "Mother's not stupid..." he said pitifully, tears brimming in his eyes.

Madam Guo laughed in his face. She looked at her mother-in-law and laughed uproariously again, "Look at them! They're claiming their mother isn't stupid! How foolish they are!"

Madam Wu asked, "What have you eaten for the past three days?"

Dabao wrinkled his brow. He said very softly, "Mother fished. We ate fish for days."

Madam Wu went silent.

Madam Guo frowned. "She can fish?"

Qi Yuancheng said, "She's really no longer stupid if she can do that..."

Qi Yuanxiu and Qi Yuanye shared a look. Their wives had no authority to speak in their family, so they merely watched as everything unfolded.

Madam Wu hopped down from the bed-stove, looking calm. She sat down at the short table, rapping her knuckles rhythmically against the wood. "We don't need to be so nervous, we'll wait here. She'll surely be back in a while."

Old Man Qi and the men sat down as well. The other women dared not sit with their father-in-law and their husbands, so they went to stand guard at the doors.

Old Man Qi asked Dabao, "What did Qi Qingyao go out for?"

Dabao muttered, "Mother went out to fish for us."

'Is she no longer a fool and now capable of fishing and hunting? That surely must be a lie!' Old Man Qi shook his head.

Qi Yuanxiu's wife, Madam Liang, and Qi Yuanye's wife, Madam Tian, gossiped together by the entrance. They exchanged only a few sentences before Madam Tian turned back and called Madam Wu.

"Mother, she… she's coming back with a man…" Had she seen things wrongly?

"A man?" Madam Wu stood up from her chair abruptly and headed outside.

Madam Liang muttered, "It's really a man!"

Madam Guo scratched her head. "He's pretty tall."

"And he's handsome!" Madam Tian said softly.

Madam Liang glared at her as soon as she said that.

Madam Tian stuck her tongue out.

She thought, 'He's quite good-looking, how can that be?'

He did not look like he was from the village, but instead, from the city!

Qi Qingyao spotted her family from afar. She did not feel too nervous at the sight of them. Arriving at the house, she gestured for Jiang Yeqian to put the buckets down. She put the bamboo basket she was carrying on her back on the ground as well before she drawled casually, "You're already here so early in the morning!"

Jiang Yeqian's gaze swept over the group of people. He made no sound, standing by the corner of a wall instead.

The children sobbed with happiness as they heard their mother's voice. They hugged one another and stealthily wiped away their tears.

Qi Yuanye pointed at Qi Qingyao and said to Madam Wu, "Mother, check out her attitude! She was like that during that day as well."

Qi Yuancheng took the chance to speak as well. "She threatened us with an ax!"

Qi Yuanxiu mimed vomiting. "She was like a devil!"

The men complained to Madam Wu one after another, aside from Old Man Qi, who observed his daughter silently. He then eyed the man standing quietly in the corner. The man had a pretty and refined face, like a foggy and rainy spring day in Jiangnan. He was calm and collected, casual and indifferent.

He had never encountered a man with such an aura, even in Qingzhou City.

Madam Guo was more concerned with the fish in Qi Qingyao's basket. She asked curiously, "Where did these fishes come from?"

"They said she could fish. Who'd believe that?" Madam Liang ridiculed, thinking of what the children had said about Qi Qingyao's fishing abilities.

"She must've stolen them from someone else," Madam Tian added.

While they gossiped happily, Old Man Qi pointed at the man and asked Qi Qingyao, "Who's this man? Qi Qingyao, you better explain this."

"None of your business!" Qi Qingyao's almond eyes glinted as she replied calmly.