Eastern Sea Fisherman's Daughter 3

Apart from her life as Yi Wenjun, when she had spent a night with Xiao Ruofeng to take revenge on Xiao Ruojin and the others, Wen Qiushui was thoroughly sick of men now. Even looking back on it, she found it somewhat hard to believe that she had once used such a method to take revenge on that Xiao fellow.

After Yi Bu died, she had clearly had three years to plan, yet she had chosen that particular method. Thinking about it now, perhaps the original owner's way of thinking had influenced her, making her think of scheming through men.

Wen Qiushui felt the drawbacks of transmigrating into another person's body more and more keenly, and she had grown increasingly cautious in her actions.

The three-year mourning period soon came to an end. Over those three years, Wen Qiushui's earnings from gathering pearls had grown increasingly substantial, and cultivating the Heavenly Devil Instruction had made her appearance even more radiant.

After Wen Qiushui followed custom and treated the villagers to a feast marking the end of her mourning, matchmakers came flocking to her door. Wen Qiushui kept feeling her hand twitch with the urge to stab someone. She barely managed to suppress her murderous intent, then poisoned several sleazy men who kept prancing around in front of her, leaving them impotent.

Wen Qiushui finally came up with a way to solve her current problem.

This time, when Matchmaker Wu came calling again, Wen Qiushui did not turn her away with a cold face, which was most unusual. Just as Matchmaker Wu was preparing to sing a prospective match's praises to the skies, Wen Qiushui spoke first. "Matchmaker Wu, I do have someone in mind, though I don't know if he'd think much of me. I'm very fond of Mr. Li Lianhua, who came to the village three years ago.

"If you can bring this match about, I certainly won't be stingy with your matchmaking fee."

At the feast marking the end of her mourning, Wen Qiushui had said that a little river called Qiushui had run beside her home before she fled, and that she had changed her name to Qiushui in memory of her parents. The name Wen Qiushui had thus been brought out into the open.

The girls in the village weren't bound by the rules of great households. If they said whom they fancied, no one would call it an affront to propriety. Whether anyone in the village even knew that expression was another question.

So Matchmaker Wu saw nothing wrong with Wen Qiushui saying outright whom she fancied, and she understood her choice.

After all, Li Lianhua was worlds apart from the fishermen who reeked of fish all day. Even when Li Lianhua was at his poorest, his clothes were always spotless.

Besides, his bearing set him apart from the villagers. His speech and manners were refined, so his family must once have been well-off.

It wasn't just Wen Qiushui; the unmarried girls and young married women in the village all had some thoughts about Li Lianhua.

But girls were drawn to novelty and a handsome face. Their experienced parents didn't think much of Li Lianhua.

First of all, Li Lianhua was too poor. When he first came to the village, he barely had a few copper coins in his pockets. Only because he knew a little medicine had the village chief lent him a place to stay temporarily, free of charge.

Second, he wasn't the sort to settle down and make a living. After finally pawning some belongings for a little money, he hadn't thought to buy a house, find a trade, and live a settled life. Instead, he had hired people to dredge planks from the sea. Apart from occasionally seeing patients, he spent nearly every day hammering away at that dilapidated little wooden house.

Lastly, his background was too complicated. One look at Li Lianhua was enough to tell that he wouldn't fit in with the fishermen born and raised in the village, and he wouldn't think much of the village girls who couldn't read a single character. Even Wen Qiushui, the prettiest girl in the village, who could read, unlike most, and was very capable in her own right, might be nothing more than an ordinary village girl in his eyes.

Besides, Li Lianhua was obviously from a good family that had later fallen on hard times. Who could say whether he had enemies? What family would willingly drag everyone, young and old, into danger for the sake of a handsome face?

Seeing Matchmaker Wu frown in obvious difficulty, Wen Qiushui took out a pair of pearl earrings and handed them over. "If this works out, I'll be sure to reward you generously."

The earrings were very simple, each bearing only one tiny pearl. The only thing to be said for them was that the pearls matched well in size and color.

But to Matchmaker Wu, they were a fine gift of thanks. She finally believed that the Wen family girl really was deeply in love with Li Lianhua.

Patting her chest, she assured Wen Qiushui that she would do her utmost to put in a good word for her.

Thus, in the time it took Matchmaker Wu to leave Wen Qiushui's home and reach the Lotus Tower, which Li Lianhua had parked not far outside the village, word that Wen Qiushui would marry no one but Li Lianhua had already spread throughout the village.

Several families who had previously thought highly of Wen Qiushui frowned as well. The Wen girl had seemed clever, but was she actually a fool?

When they remembered that Wen Qiushui and Li Lianhua had once lived opposite each other as neighbors for a time, their desire to have her as a daughter-in-law faded somewhat, and rumors and gossip soon spread through the village.

Li Lianhua, who had just completed his mourning and was preparing to drive the Lotus Tower away from the Eastern Sea, was utterly bewildered when Matchmaker Wu came to propose a match: Wen Qiushui, the Wen family girl who had once lived opposite him, was deeply in love with him and had asked Matchmaker Wu to speak on her behalf.

Li Lianhua refused again and again. "I was already preparing to travel far away. Besides, I have no particular talent and no home of my own. I'm simply not worthy of Miss Qiushui."

Matchmaker Wu sang Wen Qiushui's praises to the skies for the sake of her fee, even bringing up the main reason so many people in the village had sought her hand: "This girl knows how to make money. You're so down on your luck now. If you marry the Wen girl, won't you have someone to help manage your household?"

Li Lianhua still insisted that he was a traveling physician. He had only stayed there to observe mourning, and now that the period was over, it was time for him to travel far and wide and study medicine.

After Matchmaker Wu pestered him for an entire afternoon, he finally managed to send her away. Li Lianhua also hurried his shopping along, preparing to leave as soon as possible.

And thanks to Matchmaker Wu's big mouth, almost everyone soon knew that Doctor Li Lianhua hadn't taken a fancy to Wen Qiushui and that she had even frightened him into leaving Wang Family Village.

That was also why Wen Qiushui had chosen Matchmaker Wu from among the matchmakers: she had a big mouth.

Thanks to Matchmaker Wu spreading the word, far fewer people came to visit Wen Qiushui. As for those who still refused to give up, Wen Qiushui could see that they only had eyes for her money. As for her reputation, perhaps they had already decided to torment her as they pleased once she married into their families.

Once she had been tormented to death, they could take her money and naturally marry another wife with a good reputation.

Wen Qiushui showed no mercy to those fellows whose abacuses clattered so loudly with their schemes. She slipped them a poison that would silently weaken them to death.

As for how to get rid of them while she waited for them to die, wasn't Li Lianhua leaving? She could simply pretend to be love-struck and run away for love for a while, and no one would suspect her.

Wen Qiushui had finally discovered what Baili Dongjun was good for. Look, now that she was copying him and pretending to be love-struck, wasn't it as easy as snatching something with an outstretched hand?

So, a few days after Li Lianhua fled in a sorry state as though dogs were chasing him, Wen Qiushui also pretended she still hadn't given up, shouldered a bundle, and left after him.

Her true destination, however, was the Women's Residence on Fragrant Mountain. Yu Lou Chun had to be impressive, in his way, for her to have lived another life and still be worried about her life because of him.