The Delicate Darling with Her Rough Man-Chapter 182 - 181: The Reason Sweet Girl’s Family Is Poor

Chapter 182: Chapter 181: The Reason Sweet Girl’s Family Is Poor

Sweet Girl was so cold she could barely lift her broom, but if she didn’t sweep the snow, the entire yard would turn to mud and be difficult to walk on.

Shivering, she swept against the cold wind. When she glanced outside, she happened to see Gu Jiaojiao standing there.

Sweet Girl was overjoyed, a wide smile spreading across her flushed face.

"Sister, what are you doing here?"

With that, she hurried over to open the gate for her.

The "gate" was really just a section of the wicker fence.

Gu Jiaojiao walked inside.

Xiao Yang’s face lit up a little when he saw Gu Jiaojiao, too. He didn’t say anything, but he followed his sister over.

Gu Jiaojiao ruffled their hair, her heart aching as she looked at the clothes they were wearing.

She brought out the new garments and handed them to Sweet Girl.

"Sweet Girl, I had these clothes made for you. You and your brother, hurry and put them on."

The cotton she had given them yesterday was only enough to make two tops. There wasn’t any left for pants, so they had to keep wearing their thin, unpadded ones.

That’s just how things were back then.

A single piece of clothing was hard to come by.

Cotton was an especially precious commodity.

For many families, preparing for a marriage meant planting cotton on their private plot for two or three years just to save up enough to make a few thick quilts for the children.

Because it was all so precious, Sweet Girl could hardly believe her eyes when she saw the clothes.

Ever since her parents left, she hadn’t gotten a single new piece of clothing.

After so many years, her old clothes were no longer warm, and they had become too small.

So, Sweet Girl would give her own clothes to her brother, figuring she could just endure the cold herself.

Every winter, Sweet Girl would hide in the house and never go out.

Fortunately, she had quilts to help her get through it.

She was used to enduring, but now, seeing the clothes Gu Jiaojiao had brought, tears streamed uncontrollably down her face.

And it wasn’t just Sweet Girl.

Even Xiao Yang’s eyes turned red, tears welling up within them.

They were only children, after all.

Gu Jiaojiao ruffled their hair and gently urged them, "Go on, change into them. They aren’t new—they’re just old clothes of mine that don’t fit anymore. You can have them."

At Gu Jiaojiao’s urging, the two little ones went back to their room and changed.

Even though they were hand-me-downs, they were almost as good as new.

Gu Jiaojiao had been well-off before, so her clothes and belongings had always been high quality.

Her stepmother, of course, had been unwilling to provide them.

’But while the body’s original owner might have been foolish, she wasn’t a complete idiot.’

’She knew that if she didn’t spend the money, her stepmother would just give it to her own daughter, so she made a point of spending lavishly.’

’Whatever she wanted, she had to have. If her stepmother refused to buy it, she would run out and make such a scene that the entire staff and workers’ compound would know about it.’

’Her stepmother grew to fear the spectacle. So every time, though furious, she would grit her teeth and buy it for her.’

’So later, when the opportunity arose, her stepmother had practically jumped at the chance to kick her out and send her down to the countryside.’

As a result, Gu Jiaojiao had quite a large wardrobe.

However, she only owned three thick winter garments.

She had sacrificed one to make their new clothes, leaving her with only two.

One was made of wool.

The other was a cotton-padded jacket.

As Gu Jiaojiao stood in the yard, her mind wasn’t idle. A question surfaced in her thoughts.

’How did Sweet Girl’s family get so poor?’

’I’d heard that Sweet Girl’s parents were very capable. They shouldn’t be this destitute!’

Leng Yuan took her hand and calmly explained, "I’ve seen them trading their household belongings for grain a few times."

He had only found out about it by chance.

They had traded a table for just eleven pounds of coarse grain.

It was obvious to anyone that the other party was deliberately swindling the siblings.

But with their parents gone and the two children so young, they wouldn’t have been able to protect those things if they kept them in the house anyway.

He hadn’t interfered at the time. But after Sweet Girl left, he went and "persuaded" that household. They quickly sent over another twenty-two pounds of coarse grain.

But he never told anyone about it.