Chapter 37 – Believing

Frightened by this sudden and unexpected attack, Li Man shrieked and hid herself in Li Mo’s arms.

Li Mo tightly hugged her, and Li Hua quickly took off his outer robe and covered her with it.

Even so, everyone had seen her beautiful, snow-white arm, especially that cinnabar dot. It had dazzled their eyes. Everyone clearly understood what that dot symbolized, ah.

Even if there hadn’t been a life contract, the cinnabar dot by itself would be enough to prove Li Man’s virginal status and that she definitely couldn’t have come from a brothel.

This also proved that Xing-niang had been speaking without thinking. How could she have said that Li Man used her feminine wiles on the Li brothers?

Chunni suddenly felt somewhat gratified. Didn’t this prove that nothing had happened between Li Man and older brother Hua?

Li Mo icily glared at Chunni for a moment, then he picked up Li Man and started to walk towards the entrance in large strides.

Li Shu and Little Five followed after him. Li Hua had originally been planning on leaving immediately too, but he decided to bid farewell to the village head first, “Village Head, excuse us for troubling you. As for your family letter, I finished writing it. If there’s any problem with it, you can come to my home, and I’ll fix any errors. I’ve also finished everyone else’s letters as well. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be leaving first.”

“Stay here and eat lunch with us before leaving,” the village head courteously said. This child had come here early in the morning and had been here since then. He hadn’t even had a drink of water.

Lianhua also hurriedly went forward and tried to persuade him. “Older brother Hua, eat lunch with us before going. My mom already prepared the food.”

“No thanks. I’ll be taking my leave first,” Li Hua politely refused. He turned around and started walking out.

“Older brother Hua -” Lianhua wanted to chase after him, but her father stopped her and said, “Enough, let him go back to his home.” After such an incident had occurred, how could they expect that child to stay here and do nothing?

“Big Kui, Second Gouzi, bring Second Shun’s wife and Chunni to the shrine. Keep a close watch over them.”

“Understood.”

—

Li Man felt like a silkworm. Li Hua had tightly wrapped the robe around her so that not even her eyes were showing.

Li Mo was also holding her especially securely. Her face was pressed against his chest, and she could clearly hear his strong heartbeat.

It didn’t take long before they arrived home. Li Mo brought her straight to her bed in the western hut.

Unwilling to wait any longer, Li Man tugged down Li Hua’s robe. He had wrapped her so tightly that it felt hard to breathe.

“Are you okay?” Li Mo didn’t dare to look at her exposed arm and hastily rewrapped Li Hua’s robe around her. “You must have felt scared.”

Actually, Li Man was feeling okay. She was just startled when that girl had grabbed her. She didn’t think it was a big deal that her arm had been exposed.

Seeing that Li Man was only blankly blinking her large eyes without saying a word, Li Mo thought she had been scared too badly and hadn’t recovered yet. His heart was filled guilt, but he didn’t know how to comfort her. Fortunately, at this time, Li Hua had returned home too. Lo Mo hurriedly got up and said, “Fourth brother, say something to help her feel better.”

After saying this, he led Li Shu to leave the room with him.

Li Man blankly looked at Li Hua, then she picked up a branch that she had left on the windowsill and wrote on the ground, “What was happening before?”

“It’s nothing. It’s already been resolved.” Li Hua looked at her with a great deal of pity and tenderness. Since this girl had been brought into their family, her life hadn’t been going smoothly. Previously, she had almost been hanged. And now, today, people had said such slanderous words about her.

“It seemed like those people were targeting me?” Even if Li Man wasn’t especially acute, she could sense the feelings those people felt towards her.

Li Hua took the branch from her hand and wrote, “You don’t need to be afraid. We’re here for you.” After writing this, he softly placed his hands on her shoulders. With a gentle, but firm gaze, he looked at her asked, “Do you believe me?”

(T/N: The floor in the hut is most likely just dirt, that’s why Li Man is able to easily write on the floor with a branch.)