I used rebirth to bury his captivating gaze.

Chapter 71 Diao Yan goes to the south wing to seek help from Yu Mei (her brother and sister-in-law a

Diao Yan took the address and went home. For a rural woman like her who had never married, going out was harder than climbing to heaven.

She really regretted it; she shouldn't have trusted that hook-nosed Zou Laqian from the village who had long been married off. She knew she was no good person.

She was both anxious and scared. She took the address and went to the west room of her own yard. Yang Zhi and Liu Yue were playing with their eldest grandson in the west room.

She said very kindly, "Dazhi, you're free now, and the cornfield harvest is finished. I got your little sister's address. Go find Yumei; she's been gone for over two months. See if something happened to her!"

Her words immediately provoked Yang Zhi, who said impatiently, "Yu Mei isn't a child. She's just going to see her boyfriend, what could possibly happen to her?"

"No matter how old she is, she's still my child. She has no father, can't you, as her older brother, care about her? The eldest brother is like a father, and the eldest sister-in-law is like a mother. Don't forget that you are the eldest, shouldn't you care about the younger one?"

"Mom, don't be angry. I'll talk to Dazhi later. He'll go find his sister once he's thought it through," Liu Yue said, trying to calm things down.

"What's there to persuade me of? I'm not going. I'm already old enough to be looking for a partner. Besides, Yumei, if she never finds a partner in her life, I, your brother, will support her for the rest of her life."

"Alright, stop pretending. You're going to support her for the rest of your lives. I see you all getting anxious if she gets married even a day later. You're only happy when she doesn't come back. You're probably secretly laughing to yourself countless times. Otherwise, why don't you go look for her?"

Diao Yan continued, "I went to Zou Laqian's brother and sister-in-law's house. Her brother told me that Zou Laqian had introduced a girl to her relative in another village, who was also a neighbor from the Seventh City. The girl didn't come home for two days, and her family got worried. Her two brothers went and brought her home. You see, they are brothers too, why are you so different?"

"Why don't you go find her yourself, since you're her mother? I'm not her father, why should I look for her? She was just wasting her time in school, not studying properly, and she even repeated junior high three times. Did I say anything? She got into Yemei University."

“Dazhi, you still bring up her schooling. Back then, you were just wasting time, and you said that no matter what, it's all the same to her. Do you feel any contradiction in those two sentences? She wanted to be a private school teacher, but you didn't give her any preferential treatment. That Li family's brat, Li Lihong, became a private school teacher, and you even said that those were her parents, and you're Yumei's brother.”

"Mom, don't be angry. I'll go, okay? But if I go and can't find her, don't blame me."

"It's already good that you went to see her; it shows you still care about her."

“Mom, how could I not care about her? It’s just that she didn’t finish her studies and didn’t become a private school teacher. Isn’t that because our family’s finances and capabilities are limited? The year Yu Mei graduated, she went to work at a textile factory in Yichun City with Yu Han from my second uncle’s family. But after working there for only a few days, she ran away from home because she didn’t know how hard it was and wasted 500 yuan of our money. When she first went to the textile factory, I went to see her with some other people. The train I was on almost collided with another train, and I almost died. And you still say that I didn’t do a good enough job.”

"Fine, go if you want, or don't. If you don't go, I'll go find her. I don't believe I can't find her and make her go home and never get married again."

"Fine, I'll support her even if she never gets married."

"Get lost, you ungrateful wretch! You've forgotten your mother now that you have a wife!" Diao Diao said, throwing the address in her hand onto the heated brick bed in the west room, and then walked towards her east room.

Yang Zhi told her to go away. He glanced at the old-fashioned wall clock on the west side. It was around one o'clock in the afternoon. He put on clean clothes and trousers, changed into clean cotton shoes, took the address, and walked straight out of the room.

Diao Yan, who was crying in the east room, saw him through the glass window. He was dressed neatly and cleanly, holding an address in his hand, walking out of the courtyard. He was going to the Tuandingshan Bus Station to find Yu Mei in Qishi Coal City.

Two days later, Yang Zhi returned home, but Diao Yan was very disappointed. He did not see Yu Mei, nor did he find Zou Laxian. He handed the address paper back to Diao Yan, who took the address and burst into tears!

Unfortunately, Diao Yan had never traveled far from home in her life. She was illiterate and couldn't even write her own name. She didn't have any money for the bus fare in her pocket. The two coins she had were barely enough for Yu Mei to go to the coal city and back.

Then Yang Zhi returned to the west room, gave Liu Yue a thumbs-up and said, "Wife, that was a brilliant move. You are truly a modern-day Zhuge Liang."

“You’re so stupid. Your mom’s always nagging, doesn’t it annoy you? If you don’t use this trick to fool her, she’ll grind your teeth down. Tell me, where have you been hiding these past few days?” Liu Yue asked.

“I went outside to ask if anyone had carpentry work done and was sneaking back to stay at night. Why were you so slow to open the door? I almost caught a cold. Do you think we're being a bit too harsh on Mom and Yumei? No matter what, Yumei is my only sister.”

“You’ve changed your mind again. Then go find your sister. I’m not stopping you. Weren’t you worried about her not getting married before? Now that she’s finally gone, you’re free from someone who’s just eating for free. Aren’t you secretly laughing in your sleep at night?”

"Don't say that. If I hear her lying to her, she'll skin me alive."

No sooner had they finished speaking than a loud bang was heard, and Diao Yan, holding the address that could be used to find Yu Mei, walked straight from the door to the south wing of the courtyard.

"Dazhi, look out the window! Your mom is going to find your second aunt. Make sure she tells Yuhan that she went to university in the coal city. You know, the difference between people is so big. Yumei and Yuhan are incomparable. Yuhan has been hardworking since she was little. That year, she was selling popsicles on her bicycle when she fell off and almost died. She was unconscious for many days. When she woke up, she was like a different person. She became even more hardworking and sensible than before."

“You hadn’t even come to my house yet, but you knew everything.”

"What are you saying? I'm not at your house, do you think I don't have ears? I heard it from my sister Liu Ying. Yu Han and Yu Mei, along with other girls from the village, went to work at the Yichun Textile Factory. Yu Mei and all the other dozen or so girls couldn't handle the hardship of working the night shift, so they all secretly ran away and went home. Only Yu Han stayed behind. In the end, Yu Han's job at that factory failed, and she had no choice but to go home."

"Yuqiu is a capable and hardworking girl; she'll definitely amount to something in the future. By the way, your Liu Ying and her husband Sun Shangjun have been doing business in the coal mine of Qishi for over a year now, haven't they? I wonder how their business is going?"

"How's business going? Why are you going too?"

"Why should I go into business? It's better to stay home, do my carpentry, and farm some land. Carpentry is a very popular skill these days. Once we've earned some money, we can move out of this mud courtyard and build a red brick house."

"Okay, I married you because I was attracted to your hands that can make money. Haha!"

"Get lost! You're just like any other girl. I was telling you, when I first went out to work as a carpenter, every family that hired me had a bunch of girls who wanted to marry me. It turns out it was all because of my big hands that could make me money."

"I was just joking with you. I'm your first love, how could I be like them?" Liu Yue said, seeing Diao Yan, empty-handed and without Yu Mei's address, walking towards them from the south wing outside the glass window with a joyful expression.

Then Liu Yue continued, "Your mother looks better now, it seems like she's found her precious daughter, Yu Mei?"

A moment later, the door slammed shut with a loud "bang!"