Xia Xiaodie was seething with indignation, but she didn't dare say anything else.
Liu Yuehong quickly pinched her arm and shot her a warning look. "Why aren't you hurrying back to your room?"
Xia Xiaodie hurried out of the main room and ran back to her own room.
"I'll go check on her, so she doesn't do anything foolish again."
Liu Yuehong said this to the old master and madam before turning and leaving the main room as well.
"Mother, I didn't do anything. I..."
When she saw her mother enter the room, Xia Xiaodie's eyes reddened again, her face full of grievance.
Liu Yuehong sternly cut her off. "You still dare say that? Have you forgotten everything I've taught you?"
"You actually dared admit to secretly meeting a man?"
"This is only happening within the family. If word really got out, your whole life would be ruined. Do you understand?"
Xia Xiaodie shrank her neck and grabbed her mother's sleeve, pleading, "Mother, I want to marry Brother Zhou. Please help me!"
Liu Yuehong glanced at her without answering and sat down on the kang with a gloomy expression.
Xia Xiaodie hurriedly sat beside her. "Mother, didn't you say that I'm pretty, and that my feet are small even though they weren't bound? You said I was born with the fate of becoming a young madam, didn't you?"
"Brother Zhou's family has power and influence. His father is the county magistrate's assistant, and he's about to take the imperial examination himself. He'll become an official in the future too.
"If I can marry him, I'll be an official's wife in the future. You'll be an official's wife's mother. Wouldn't that make you look so dignified whenever you went out?"
"Didn't you always hate Su Qiao's mother, hate her for snatching