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Having resolved those matters, Aunt Wang mentioned another thing to Lady Liu.

It turned out that in the morning, Lin Fugui had encountered someone from Lady Liu’s maternal village by the town gate.

The person from Lady Liu’s village asked Lin Fugui to pass on a message, saying that in a few days, Lady Liu’s parents would come to the Lin family hollow to visit them.

Lady Liu’s face flushed with excitement upon hearing this news.

Counting the days, she realized it had been nearly four months since she last saw her parents.

Lin Yuan’s maternal grandparents lived in the Liu Family Village on the other side of the mountain.

In reality, the two villages were not very far apart, but because they were separated by two mountains, one had to go through Zhuma Town and then detour to the Lin family hollow from Liu Family Village.

The round trip would take a full day’s efforts, and with the grandparents having their own share of chores at home, it was difficult for them to make the trip to see their daughter and son-in-law even if they desired to do so.

In Lin Yuan’s memory, her maternal grandparents were extremely kind and gentle.

Her grandfather was a man of few words, but he particularly loved children.

She remembered that as a little girl, as soon as her grandfather arrived, she would cling to his legs and ask to be held.

Although her grandfather was not talkative, everything he said was a spoonerism; he would say "eat rice" instead of "rice eat" and "sleep rest" instead of "rest sleep".

Each time, she would earnestly correct him, claiming that he had made a mistake, then she would teach him how to speak like a little adult.

Now she understood that her grandfather was just trying to make her happy and laugh.

Her grandmother was even easier to get along with; when she was a child, her own mother was in poor health and did not have much breastmilk, so she often nursed from her grandmother.

Her maternal grandparents had four children, two sons and two daughters; her mother was the second child.

Her eldest uncle and his wife had two sons, both of whom attended the village school. The couple worked the family’s fields, and her eldest uncle was very skilled at farming—the farming skills of Lin Jiaxin had been learned from him.

Her second uncle had been married for several years but had no children yet.

Her mother had said it was because her second aunt had health issues and could not conceive.

Although her grandparents were anxious, the young couple had a good relationship, so the grandparents did not say much, only worrying in private.

The eldest aunt found many good doctors for her sister-in-law, but given Lady Liu’s experience of Yang’s negligence in feeding her harmful wild medicines that damaged her health, her family absolutely refused to let her second aunt use those questionable remedies.

As for this second aunt, Lin Yuan had only seen her once at her wedding; she remembered her as a very gentle woman.

Perhaps because of her frail health, she was very pale and always walked slowly.

Her second uncle and aunt had known each other since childhood and could be considered childhood sweethearts.

However, due to her continual illness and her unwillingness to be a burden, she never accepted his marriage proposals when he came to court her, which delayed their marriage until they were in their twenties.

Fortunately, they eventually married, but the lack of children must have weighed heavily on her second aunt’s heart.

"Hasn’t my younger sister been betrothed yet?"

As Lin Yuan was lost in her recollections, Lady Liu resumed conversing with Aunt Wang. The younger sister Lady Liu mentioned was also Lin Yuan’s aunt and the youngest child of her maternal grandparents.

Aunt Wang sighed, "Your elder brother didn’t ask, but the messenger mentioned that your younger sister chased out the matchmaker again.

You tell me, has she driven away all the matchmakers in this ten-mile radius?

This girl, already twenty years old, why isn’t she anxious about getting married at all? "

Speaking of her sister’s marriage, Lady Liu’s eyes visibly dimmed, "It’s all my fault; I didn’t get on well with my in-laws after getting married, which has scared her away from marriage."

Remembering her aunt, Lin Yuan couldn’t help but admire her greatly.

In ancient times, girls would start to receive marriage proposals as early as fifteen years old.

However, just then, Lady Liu’s situation arose because she hadn’t given birth to a son, which almost led to her mother-in-law, Lady Yang, divorcing her.

It happened that her grandmother brought her young aunt to visit, and when they learned about this issue, the pampered young aunt flew into a rage.

Without a word, she kicked open the main house’s door and pointed at Lady Yang’s nose, fiercely berating her.