17 A Potential Co-Wife?!

Tang Yu blushed before she even realized it. Wait, why the heck was she even blushing like a teenage girl?! She already made an entry in her thirties! This fella was barely twenty-one. Ahem! She coughed inwardly to stabilize her thoughts. "Nope, they are absolutely fine." She tried to take her hands back, but found them firmly held back in his gentle grasp. Just then, her beautiful nostrils flared instinctively, catching a whiff of odor reeking of her own hands; that very second of realization was an extremely squicky and gross-out moment for her! Embarrassment reddened her cheeks. Damn it! As much as she had tried against it, her hands did end up coming in contact with the wet chicken poop a few times during the cleaning time. The odor was stomach-turning!

She awkwardly looked at Mu Yunsheng's face. Wait, was he not repulsed?

Mu Yunsheng's gaze traveled upward to rest on her eyes. "How can that be? You never did this type of tiring chores before. Doing it for the first time must have tired your hands out." He stated as a matter of fact.

Just at that moment, something clicked inside Tang Yu. A bug of confusion raised its head in her brain. Earlier, she did feel something abnormal in her hands. A wave of faint energy immediately stirred at the acknowledgement, blue veins standing out on the back of her hands. They swelled with something surging through them.

Holy moly!

Tang Yu's brows knitted into a hardened frown, goosebumps spreading on her neck and back of hands. She received a cheat — a pair of magical hands possessing great and impressive power! That was why her calligraphy turned out to be that beautiful and she had no writer's cramp after three hours of non-stop practice on the first day. Now, she was able to clean the whole chicken coop efficiently without her hands hurting.

"Tang Yu," Mu Yunsheng lightly shook her hands, bringing back her floating senses. "What happened? You spaced out…"

Tang Yu quickly produced a bright smile. She couldn't afford transparency with him. Not now. Not ever for the record. It would be a silly honesty in the grand scheme of things. "Nothing. Are you going somewhere?" She switched the topic.

"Yes, to the school. I've been appointed as the headmaster in our local school, also I teach there." Mu Yunsheng replied in a nice vein.

"Brother, you are running behind time." Mu Jiayi rocked up, holding a lunch box, and pulling the plug on their budding conversation. "Here, take this." She swung the box in her hands. "You should get going. If you get into the habit of poor time management, what are your pupils going to learn? They take you as their idol. Don't let it get slipped out of your head."

Mu Yunsheng wanted to sew his sister's lips. But, he couldn't play devil's advocate in front of his little wife. Gritting his teeth, he could only take the lunch box. Get lost! He screamed in his heart to the pushy who only crossed her hands across her chest. Apparently, Mu Jiayi had no intention of leaving him alone there with his wife. Darn! His annoyed brain couldn't but plan a bad event for her. He had to sell his parents on the idea of getting this pest married off young. At fourteen!

"See you later." Tang Yu bade him goodbye, the need of washing her hands already took hold of her sanity.

"Bye." Mu Yunsheng said half-heartedly, staring at her beautiful face. An orange-ish ray of sun suffused her cheeks, almost goading him into caressing her rosy cheeks. His wife. His girl.

….

Tang Yu was pumped, seeing a big tub of water. Flurries of hushed complaints informed her that Mu Yunsheng fetched water for her from a waterfall. A bar soap was resting beside. Her knee-jerk reaction was to rub it hard on her hands. The frothy white mass of bubbles weren't white anymore as they slipped off her hands, grabbing the dirt off her skin and carrying it down. However, even after the third time of washing, her mind couldn't stop bugging.

She was an OCD and realized how important soap were for her in this era! Honesty, she could be low on anything but bar soap. Fortunately, the host's father didn't hold himself free of the promise he had made to his late wife, and sent a hefty dowry with her. 'I have to stock up on soap all the time.' She thought.

"They ain't from your father! It cost the Mu family a fortune to buy the soap! At this rate, you will drain out all their finances." A woman who was in her late forties approached Tang Yu with an air of hostility, a teenage girl trailing behind her.

Tang Yu's gaze went flying up to the voice. She didn't know the pair. However, based on their age, she made a guess. They were most likely to be mother and daughter.

"Didn't you make a fuss at the Mu family that they didn't deserve you?! Why are you back again? You did tell them that you would not return. What made you fall back on your words so soon? You don't know how to bring water to a boil then how are you planning to continue to be this house's daughter-in-law?" Qiao Miao vehemently shot a barrage of questions, revealing a rich vein of agitation.

Tang Yu furrowed her brows with a hint of confusion. What was this lady's business here? Why was she pitching a hissy fit on her return?

"Miao Miao…" Song Huan arrived on the scene. She was pleasantly surprised to see her friend at her house who'd cut ties with her on the occasion of Mu Yunsheng's wedding. Although they were only one year apart in age, and got married at the same year, Qian Miao had her first child, her only daughter, quite late in life. Due to some major complications in the delivery, the former couldn't conceive after that, which made Qiao Xi an apple of her parents' eyes. It was an open secret in the village that Mu Yunsheng would marry Qiao Xi once she turned sixteen. However, who knew that destiny would play another game?

"Huan, why is this city girl back?" Qiao Miao asked instantly, fuming mad. "Didn't you ask coachman Zhang's first wife to fill me up regarding Yunsheng's marriage annulment? It made me hold out hope again! How many times will you break my heart?!" She had gone through a recent adjustment in her friend group by cutting her best friend, Song Huan out. Nonetheless, she was quick to reconcile at the hope of divorce that Song Huan gave her. Now what? The wretch was back again!

Tang Yu's eyebrows shot up, grasping the situation. She looked at the petite girl biting her lips with tears brimming her eyes; in all meanings of the phrase damsel in distress. Albeit it would be an exaggeration to call her very beautiful, her facial features were very delicate, exuding a certain charm, fully capable of wiggling into peep's hearts. However, she did her dress-up wrong. The girl was rigged out in a bright-colored hanfu that featured two glaring colors — orange and blue. Each color clashed with the other. Her hair was styled in an intricate updo, a heavy style that actually flattered few.

Tang Yu smiled; her smart brain didn't lag behind. This girl was emulating the host's fashion sense, thinking it was Mu Yunsheng's type. So, she wasn't ready to wave the white flag yet, huh?

Song Huan positioned her washed-out brown gaze on Tang Yu, mixed emotions swirling in her eyes.

"Why are you quiet?!" Qiao Miao shook her friend's shoulders vigorously, as she yelled. "Why is this girl back?!" She couldn't but boil over.

"Because realization struck me hard." Tang Yu said calmly, shaking the water off of her hands. She didn't wipe them, letting the sunshine dry her. "Just because I'm not much cop as a housewife, I can't pack up my role and go back to my paternal home, can I? That's why I've decided to stay here to excel in my role." She rolled her eyes inwardly at her delivery. Albeit, there was no shame at all in being a homemaker, it wasn't her cup of tea. One who has tasted independence once would never return to the confines of a home. An undying urge to rise above the confines had always been in her and would forever be in her. She didn't sign up in domestic service for her full time, instead she was just moonlighting into it, as it was a step she couldn't skip.

Qiao Xi paled visibly, Tang Yu's words extracting all the color from her face. She took a step back, as if absorbing the shock. Ensuing that, two tiny rivers commenced flowing down her cheeks.

"Hahaha!" Qiao Miao went silent for about a tenth of a second, before starting to roar with laughter hysterically. "For what? To ruin the Mu family?"

Tang Yu knotted her eyebrows, perplexed.