Wife is Delicate and Beautiful [HIATUS]

Chapter 1

Year ten of the Qiyuan era

Songyang County, Suzhou Prefecture, Da Chu

Since the beginning of spring, people in Shangyang Village have been busy with spring planting. Last year's weather was favorable, and the harvest was good, which was undoubtedly a good thing for the villagers.

The Hu family was no exception. The five brothers of the Hu family were now all working hard in the fields. Although there were many brothers in the Hu family, there weren't many fields. Even though last year's harvest was good, their days were not much better than those of other families.

Mrs. Hu is currently busy at home with several daughters-in-law, doing embroidery, weaving, cooking, and tidying up the house.

Their home consists of several thatched cottages enclosed in a small courtyard. The best thatched cottage in the courtyard is where Mrs. Hu and Hu Rong live. There are also many vegetables planted in the empty space in the courtyard, and in the backyard, there are five chickens and a pig.

Hu Rong is currently seated on the bed, bored, and looking blankly ahead.

It's not that she is lazy and unwilling to work, but rather that the family doesn't want her to work. They don't even want her to embroider. She spends her days eating and sleeping, eating the best food at home. If she were in another family, there would have been a fuss long ago, but the Hu family is different. They are all happy to support her.

Hu Rong has already reached marriageable age, but because she is so beautiful, completely unlike the people in this village, even more beautiful than the young ladies in the county, her family has been willingly supporting her for more than ten years.

Several years ago, Mrs. Hu and Mr. Hu said that if anyone wanted to marry their daughter, the dowry would be at least twenty taels of silver.

As soon as the words came out, many families in the village stopped their wishful thinking. Nowadays, their family doesn't even spend two taels of silver in a year. Even though Hu Rong is pretty, she's just a countryside girl. How could she be worth twenty taels of silver?

Mrs. Hu and Mr. Hu didn't intend to marry their only daughter to someone in the village. They were eyeing wealthy families in the county. That way, they could ask for a large dowry. With the money, they could buy more land and build a new house, and their days would improve.

Mrs. Hu had given birth to five sons in a row and immediately gained a firm foothold with the three generations of the Hu family. In less than two years, Hu Rong was born. She didn't look like anything special at first, but the older she got, the more beautiful she became. Now her reputation has spread far and wide.

The Hu family originally had little wealth, and Mrs. Hu had five sons. It would be difficult to divide the family property in the future, not to mention that after the sons grew up and got married, they would continue to have children, making the family even larger. In Shangyang Village, there were many people in the Hu family. Including a few grandsons, the Hu family had more than twenty people.

Therefore, seeing their daughter becoming more beautiful day by day, Mrs. Hu decided to properly support her. In the future, she would marry her to a wealthy family in the county, ask for a large dowry, and have her continue to support the family. So in recent years, they have been educating Hu Rong as if she were the daughter of a wealthy family in the county, not allowing her to do any chores at home.

When the weather was cold, they didn't let her go out for fear of her freezing. When the weather was hot, they didn't let her go out for fear of her getting sunburned. Now, Hu Rong's skin was as white and tender as snow, especially her hands, which were as delicate as jade, no worse than those young ladies in the county.

At noon, the eldest sister-in-law personally brought the meal to Hu Rong, which she had to make separately every day. A boiled egg, a small bowl of white rice, and a plate of potatoes fried in lard.

The delicious smell almost made the eldest sister-in-law nearly drool.

They usually only ate wild vegetable dumplings at noon, at most with a bowl of coarse rice. This was considered good. Where else could they eat such good food?

However, she endured it and placed the meal on the kang table, looking at her beautiful sister-in-law and then at her own rough hands, feeling very uncomfortable.

But thinking of something, a smile appeared on her face, and she said to Hu Rong, "Sister, eat quickly. The food will be less tasty when it gets cold." After saying this, she couldn't help but swallow her saliva when she looked at the egg. It had been almost half a year since she had eaten an egg.

There weren't many eggs laid by the chickens at home. Mrs. Hu collected most of them, and most of them were to be sold for silver. There were so many people in their family, and the land they planted was barely enough to eat. These eggs were precious. Half of them were eaten by Hu Rong, and the rest were eaten by the men and children at home.

Seeing her sister-in-law staring at the egg, Hu Rong reached out and handed it to her. The eldest sister-in-law quickly took two steps back, saying she didn't want it, and then hurriedly left.

If Mrs. Hu found out that she had secretly eaten Hu Rong's egg, she would scold her to death.

When the eldest sister-in-law returned to the table to eat, looking at the food in front of her and remembering Hu Rong's share, she quickly lost her appetite.

Hu Rong finished her meal alone in the room in an orderly manner. After a while, the second sister-in-law came in. Even though they lived under the same roof every day, she was still amazed by her sister-in-law's beauty. She regretted not having such a beautiful face herself. Otherwise, how good would life be?

"I'll clean up. Second sister-in-law, you've been busy all day," Hu Rong said, then quickly took the dishes and chopsticks and went out.

When the second sister-in-law heard this, she suddenly came to her senses and quickly took the dishes and chopsticks.

"Sister Rong, let me do it. You rest in the room." said the second sister-in-law, taking the dishes and chopsticks and leaving directly. If Mrs. Hu found out that Hu Rong washed the dishes herself, she might tear her apart.

In the evening, the men in the family came back, and the whole family ate and talked in the courtyard, which was very lively. Hu Rong listened in the room, feeling gloomy, and didn't even want to drink the small bowl of porridge in front of her.

After a while, Mrs. Hu came in, and Hu Rong immediately picked up the porridge and drank it all in one gulp.

Mrs. Hu glanced at her daughter and honestly didn't know how Hu Rong ended up in their family. Clearly, she and Mr. Hu were ordinary-looking, but they had such a beautiful daughter.

The third sister-in-law is a shrewd person who can talk and do things well. She came in with a basin of hot water.

"Sister Rong, here's the hot water I've heated up for you. Wash up. It'll be more comfortable to sleep at night," she said.

"Thank you, Third Sister-in-law."

"It's nothing. We're all family, so it's only right." The third sister-in-law went out cheerfully after saying that, but her smile faded as soon as she went out.

All the sisters-in-law have been serving Hu Rong like this for several years now, but they didn't know when Hu Rong would go out to repay them.

After quickly washing up, Hu Rong went to bed and closed her eyes to sleep.

She used to live alone, but one time, a drunken old rascal in the village climbed over their wall, intending to harass her.

However, the old rascal didn't know where she lived and accidentally entered Mrs. Hu's room. There were many men in the Hu family, and they caught him immediately and beat him severely until he confessed his intentions.

This incident made Mrs. Hu furious. She had been planning to marry her precious daughter to a wealthy family in the county after she came of age. If that shameless old man had succeeded, her daughter's innocence would have been lost, and how could she marry into a wealthy family?

Wasn't this cutting off their source of wealth? Thinking of the years of effort almost going to waste, she immediately had her sons beat him up again.

After being beaten by five strong men, the old rascal lay in bed for two months before he could barely get up. From then on, whenever he saw the Hu family, he would take a detour. He was very mortified, ever since his life was almost lost.

Later, for safety reasons, Mrs. Hu moved in with Hu Rong to live together and didn't let Hu Rong go out alone. Even if she had to go out, she would have two sons or two daughters-in-law accompany her, fearing that something might happen and all the years of effort would go to waste.

The villagers at the time also heard about it and despised the old rascal. They sighed, saying that the Hu family was not having an easy time either. Having such a beautiful money tree in the family not only required careful nurturing but also worrying about her safety. They just didn't know how much dowry she would bring to the Hu family when she got married in the future.