Anyway, someone was giving her a lesson, so she was in no hurry. She could just listen to what Ye Hui had to say, Li Mingwei thought to herself as she rested her chin in her hand, giving Ye Hui a look to signal her to start.
"After I came back, I heard some rumors about you and scholar Liu, and I wanted to ask how you managed to make scholar Liu fall for you back then."
Li Mingwei felt a little offended.
Seeing her expression change, Ye Hui explained, "Don't get me wrong. As you can see, I'm trying to marry Hu Jin now. I feel like my situation is similar to yours back then, so I wanted to ask you for some advice."
Li Mingwei thought she was crazy.
"How do you think our situations are at all similar? Just because they were both scholars?"
Ye Hui nodded and added, "And we both remarried."
Humph!
"But my first marriage was as a proper wife. What about you?" Now Li Mingwei had no intention of being polite with her. Mockingly she said, "I could never bring myself to abandon my childhood companion for money like you did."
"With your greed and betrayal, I'm nothing like you at all."
Ye Hui was long used to hearing such words and her expression didn't change. She just said in a low voice, "Say what you want. You just need to tell me what you did. Even if the situations aren't the same, there must be some common ground."
Li Mingwei gave a laugh of anger. How could there be someone so shameless!
"Why do you insist on this? Cui Jian just came in a moment ago looking for Mr. Jin to write a divorce letter didn't he? I don't know if he's finished or if he's still here."
Ye Hui's face finally betrayed some emotion as she knitted her brows. "Don't mention him!"
"It's got nothing to do with him. There's no possibility between us."
She had already chosen something else and no longer had any relationship with him.
"I can't help you," Li Mingwei said coldly, looking at her disdainfully. "It's because you spent two years living in the big house, used to fighting with people. You think everyone schemes like you do? I'm telling you I don't need to."
"If you insist there's some trick, then let me ask how you schemed to make Cui Jian so devoted to you after you abandoned him."
Ye Hui's heart clenched as she trembled slightly, gritting her teeth as she shook her head. "I didn't..."
"Well neither did I."
Ye Hui didn't answer anymore. Seeing that she hadn't spoken for a while, Li Mingwei thought she was finished and got up to leave. But then she saw Ye Hui cover her face and start crying again.
Ye Hui had just wet her handkerchief. Li Mingwei could only take out her own to give to her. "Just now you were still acting tough. Now crying like this, who are you putting on a show for?"
Ye Hui leaned over the table, using Li Mingwei's handkerchief to cover her eyes, sobbing, "I wronged him."
"Then go tell him. What's the point in telling me?"
Li Mingwei didn't know if Cui Jian had finished writing his divorce letter with Mr. Jin or if he was still there.
With pursed lips she said, "To be honest, Cui Jian's not much either. Making a show of being unable to get over you while taking another wife. And now making a fuss about divorcing the woman, leaving her to return to her maiden home after wasting a year or two of her youth. It's not just ruining her reputation, but her future prospects too."
It had just occurred to her that the woman didn't seem very old either. Dragged into their mess, wasting her best years for nothing.
Ye Hui lifted her head. "I'm going..."
"What are you going for? To tell Cui Jian not to divorce her? Even if Cui Jian listens to you, do you think she could swallow that insult? You'd best stay out of it. Don't make trouble or next time she gives you two more slaps."
Seeing her swollen face and the cut at the corner of her mouth, Li Mingwei felt a headache coming on. How was she going to show her face to people like this?
"Why don't you wait here a bit longer? I'll go find someone to take Ye Dong home."
But Ye Hui held her back. "Don't go. Let him go home himself. I was washing clothes by the river by myself when I was eight. He can't even find his way home. Useless."
She walked over to stand in front of Li Mingwei, closing the kitchen door and leaning against it. Head lowered, she continued on her own, "The thing I heard most growing up was my dad saying I was useless for being born a daughter."
No matter how much she took on, doing the laundry, cooking, cleaning, never shirking work, just because she was female her father never appreciated anything she did for him. In his eyes she would always just be someone who freeloaded for over a decade only to get married off as slave labor.
Until the day the matchmaker Chen came knocking, everything changed.
"That was the first time my dad looked at me with delight in his eyes. Maybe it never occurred to him before that his useless daughter could gain him a county town mansion just by giving birth to a son."
On the night she agreed to the marriage, her father gave her money for the first time, telling her to get some nice clothes made and buy some jewelry and rouge, to dress up and look good so she could gain favor with the Du Lord she was marrying.
Almost every month after she married, her father would come to the county town to take her to see a doctor, to check her physical condition for signs of pregnancy, watching over his mansion deal.
That was the only concern Ye Hui ever received from her father.
She gave a sigh, smiling wryly, "Too bad I'm still his useless daughter."
She wouldn't accept it. If this wouldn't work she would find another. Aside from Liu Yiju who was already married, Hu Jin seemed to have the most prospects in this small town, so she quickly set her sights on him.
"Your dad..."
Li Mingwei couldn't find the words, she just felt it was tragic.
"I have no other choice. I can only find a powerful backer if I want to gain status in the family." Ye Hui was somewhat agitated as she pointed outside to meet Li Mingwei's eyes. "You saw it just now. How does Ye Dong treat me? Does he even see me as his older sister?"
He dared to hit her in broad daylight on the main street in front of so many people. Yet she didn't dare retaliate, only allowing him to humiliate her. If she hadn't been driven out by the Du Lord, her father would never have allowed him to treat her like that.
Or if she had married a scholar, her father would have spoken up for her.
Li Mingwei nodded. Ye Dong's behavior really couldn't be called respect towards Ye Hui.
Having seemingly gained Li Mingwei's understanding, Ye Hui looked a little happier. She grabbed her hand, "You see, even an eight year old child can push me around. What standing do I have in this family?"
"I can only find a way to change this."
Now, regarding her choices, Li Mingwei couldn't definitively say they were right or wrong. People hold onto different things.
But if she were in her shoes...
Li Mingwei gripped her hand back, patting it to soothe her emotions. Apologetically she said, "I'm sorry, I can't help you with this."
She had no ties with the Ye family and wasn't very familiar with Ye Hui either, so she couldn't just casually go accusing people on her behalf. And she didn't think she could change anything anyway.
"Ye Hui, if I were you, I might choose to be that useless daughter my father sees me as, and live happily with someone who loves me, rather than constantly struggling with someone who never valued me."
"Of course that's just what I would think. As for how you choose, that's up to you."
Li Mingwei didn't have her life experience and couldn't truly empathize, so she couldn't make decisions for her.
