This little girl, or more accurately...
...was a little ghost.
Su Liyan's sudden appearance startled her.
The little ghost immediately floated to the ground, her big eyes red and welling with tears as she said pitifully,
"But nobody else can see me~"
Su Liyan strode over to the little girl, grabbed her by the pigtails, and hauled her into the house.
Once inside, Su Liyan quickly shut the door and said with great seriousness,
"That doesn't matter!
What if someone in this village who knows Magic Skills sees you? What would we do then?"
The little girl hung her head and mumbled a reply.
She clearly wasn't happy about it.
Seeing the little girl's sulky expression, Su Liyan couldn't help but chuckle.
She took a piece of candy from her pocket—one her husband had bought for her yesterday—and handed it over.
"Alright, alright. Here, have some candy~"
The candy cheered the little girl right up. She took it, quickly unwrapped it, popped it in her mouth, and said,
"Sister~~ I want to eat meat, too~"
Su Liyan froze and glanced instinctively toward the kitchen.
'The little creature must have gone into the kitchen when she first arrived,' she thought. 'She always makes a beeline for it.'
However, Su Liyan just shook her head at the request.
"No meat. That's for my husband. No one else can have any."
The little girl tilted her head up, a look of confusion on her face.
"But before your husband left, he said you should eat it. You're so stingy, Sister, eating meat all by yourself and not giving me any~"
The moment she finished speaking, Su Liyan rapped her on the head.
As the little girl clutched her head, on the verge of tears, Su Liyan began to tidy up the house and said earnestly,
"I can't eat it either.
My husband was just being sweet to me, but a wife has to be practical and make sure her husband eats first."
Xiao Yunyun asked curiously, sucking on her candy,
"Then when do you get to eat meat, Sister?"
After a moment's thought, Su Liyan replied,
"When I eat with my husband, of course."
Hearing this, the little girl clapped her hands in delight.
"Then I'll get to eat meat tonight~"
But Su Liyan mercilessly shot down her hopes,
"Absolutely not!
My husband is terrified of ghosts and evil spirits. You'll scare him if you're here."
At this, the little girl looked crestfallen again.
"But I'm not an evil spirit…
And… your husband can't see me, anyway…"
But Su Liyan was unyielding on this point.
'It's true my husband can't see her,' she thought.
'But I know what a little rascal she is.'
'She's always touching this and poking that. If she suddenly knocked over a kettle in the middle of the night, it would scare my husband half to death.'
'Besides…'
'I'm a married woman now!
My husband wants to be… intimate with me every night. With her around?
I'd die of embarrassment.'
Just thinking about last night brought a deep blush to Su Liyan's beautiful face.
Su Liyan quickly changed the subject.
"Anyway, you can't stay. What did my mother send you to do?"
The little girl was quite forgetful, and as soon as Su Liyan spoke, she immediately forgot all about wanting to stay.
She answered at once,
"The Matron didn't have me do anything, just wanted me to come and ask.
The matchmaker sent word back last night saying you married very well—that your husband is handsome, dotes on you, and his family is rich.
The Matron didn't believe her, so she sent me to take a look."
At these words, an exquisite smile graced Su Liyan's lips.
She felt incredibly happy, and a little smug, too.
'Everyone in the village said I'd either end up marrying a crippled old man or some good-for-nothing who did nothing but drink and gamble.'
'Who would have thought I'd marry such a wonderful man?~'
'So what if I'm a Snake Woman?
My husband happens to adore me~'
"So, you've seen for yourself?
What do you think of my husband?"
Su Liyan asked, glancing back at the little girl with a hint of pride as she wiped down a table with a rag.
The little girl nodded earnestly.
"It's true~
You get to eat meat now that you're married, and the Master is so good to you~
I like the Master, too~
Because he's good to ghosts, too~"
Huh?
Hearing this, Su Liyan gave the little girl a strange look.
"You haven't even interacted with him. How would you know he's good to ghosts?"
The little girl shook her head with a mischievous grin.
"Because when I was on my way here, I saw the steamed buns and rice under the bridge~
I could tell it was one of your rituals. You're so stingy, Sister, you'd never be willing to use real rice and real steamed buns.
If it were up to you, you'd probably be using rocks and sand to trick the ghosts again.
So it must have been the Master's idea~"
Hearing this, Su Liyan couldn't help but roll her eyes at the little girl, then said,
"Alright, alright, you should hurry back now. Don't keep me from my chores.
Tell my mother I'm doing very well here, and my husband treats me wonderfully.
We'll be coming back to hold a banquet soon."
After speaking, Su Liyan saw the little girl lingering by the door with a pout, unwilling to leave, so she handed her two more pieces of candy.
Watching the little girl skip away happily, Su Liyan reminded her to stay out of sight, then finally sent her off.
...
「Around eight in the morning.」
Su Liyan spent the next two or three hours tidying up the entire house, inside and out.
Su Liyan was a quick worker to begin with, and besides, the house didn't contain much.
The most numerous items were books, and Su Liyan didn't dare move her husband's things around.
She just dusted the bookshelves, the desk, and so on.
Once all her chores were finished, Su Liyan finally prepared to eat.
'It wasn't that I was being stingy by not giving the little girl any meat earlier,' she thought.
'It's true that the family has money, but no matter how wealthy you are, you still have to live frugally, don't you?
Of course I love eating meat.
Who doesn't these days?
But having a meal with my husband is good enough. How could I possibly eat meat three times a day?
I'd become one of those gluttonous, lazy wives the villagers are always gossiping about, wouldn't I?'
Su Liyan rummaged through the kitchen and found a little cornmeal, which she made into flatbreads.
There were also a few spoiled sweet potatoes.
She carved out the bad spots and steamed the rest along with the cornmeal.
'My husband would never eat this,' she thought. 'Knowing him, he'd probably just throw it all away.
That would be such a waste. Better for me to eat it myself.'
After preparing her food, Su Liyan returned to the courtyard to wash the dirty clothes she had set to soak earlier that morning.
She paid special attention to the bedsheet, scrubbing it thoroughly.
Her husband had been in a hurry last night, and they hadn't put a cloth down on the bed, so it had left a small red stain.
Only after everything was put in order did Su Liyan go back inside to eat her breakfast.
She poured herself a cup of hot water and ate her cornmeal flatbread along with a piece of pickled vegetable.
"Just sitting down to eat? Finally done with your chores?"
A voice suddenly sounded from behind her.
Su Liyan turned, startled, to see an older woman standing behind her.
'This woman is…'
The woman pointed next door with a wide smile.
"I'm your neighbor. The name's Li."
Su Liyan froze for a second, then quickly put down what she was holding and went to grab a stool.
"Please, have a seat…"
When Su Liyan returned, she saw Aunt Li staring, dumbfounded, at her meal on the table.
Su Liyan didn't know what Aunt Li had come for. 'Just yesterday,' she recalled, 'my husband told me...
...the villagers weren't to be trusted. They were all just waiting for a chance to take advantage of our family, so I needed to be careful.'
Aunt Li hadn't come today for any particular reason.
Her neighbor had just taken a new bride, and though Aunt Li wasn't exactly fond of the idea of a Snake Woman...
...but what could she do?
The girl was already married in.
She was going to be living here for the rest of her life, so it was best to be on visiting terms, more or less.
A close neighbor is better than a distant relative, after all.
Of course, the most important thing was…
'Lu Yuan bought so many nice things yesterday…'
'Wine, and meat too…
If I come over now, say a few nice things… if this new bride is a little generous…
Heh heh.
Maybe I could scrounge a piece of meat to take home and try?'
But when she actually arrived, Aunt Li was dumbfounded.
"Hold on, your husband lets you eat *this*??"