A Little Tiff In The Carriage.

Feng Xuan gritted her teeth; at this rate, all her efforts would be washed down the drain. She sneaked a few furtive glances at Tang Yangran from the corner of her eyes, and hardened her heart. She had to give it one last push, she had to!

Chanting this in her mind, she accosted Tang Yu to uphold her motherly duty. "Yu'er, try to mingle well with your in-laws. I know... it's not easy; you've been pampered all your life, and you might be pining for your luxurious lifestyle here. However, you shouldn't take it out on them."

Tang Yu flashed a brilliant smile, before air-kissing the drama queen's cheeks. "Thank you very much for sneaking into my marriage life and giving me some unsolicited advice." She said, then pulled away. "I'll make sure anyway that my mother-in-law doesn't complain the way my grandmother used to do about you."

The remark struck Feng Xuan's ears, extracting all the color from her face, leaving it ghostly pale. Everyone present there clearly heard Tang Yu!

"I'll tend to my mother-in-law's every needs and wishes, instead of joining tea parties with noble ladies unlike you. I plan not to give my in-laws a single chance to find fault with me. Don't worry." Tang Yu turned on her heels, facing the carriage, beaming like the sun.

She turned over a new leaf in just three days?

The coachman yawned, snapping fingers in front of his ajar mouth and flaring nostrils — undergoing the mid-afternoon slump. He couldn't but look askance at Tang Yu. He was a neighbor and in the employ of the Mu. The Mu family owned two horse-drawn carriages, and one wagon, which they rented out for an additional income.

He and his son drove the carriages from village to town, and vice versa. And, it necessitated them to go to the Mu House everyday to retrieve and return the carriages. Therefore, he was somewhat in the know of the scenes Tang family's daughter created there.

Mu Yunsheng also took Tang Yu's angel speech with a grain of salt. But, he never wanted to divorce her. "Get in." He held his right hand out, helping her into the carriage. Then, with a farewell bow, he folded his tall frame inside, and closed the door. He knocked on the roof twice, the signal for the hackman to snap his whip and ride out. The horses neighed, the carriage shook lightly to start, before rolling along at its best speed.

Tang Yu sat beside the window, and waved her hand at her family. The gorgeous golden hues of the sun radiating brilliantly flooded the inside though the window. The people, houses, trees, everything kept drifting backward; the increasing distance slowly hazed her vision. Not long after, the county magistrate's tall body dwindled to an ant size.

Tang Yu retracted her craning neck inside, and got into looking at the passing scenarios. The rows of shops with plastic roofs lined both sides of the stone-paved road. Customers elbowed their way through the teeming market. Basically, all the shops here were geared towards the needs of commoners.

On the contrary, Lotus Flower Market, where the host used to go on shopping sprees, was located in the city center. Ten years ago, the permanent settlements there had been emptied out and relocated in the suburbs, in other words, at the foot of mountains, in exchange for an astronomical amount of money. Jiang Heng, the richest merchant from the imperial city constructed the very first four-story building there. A shopping center for the rich.

Tang Yu stole a few glances at the hunky man sitting across from her. Honest truth was, she was very much cognizant of the dragon presence in front of her. For some unknown reasons, it propelled her mind out of its usual calmness. Her brain flashed a picture of an outstretched elastic which was on the verge of getting snapped off at any moment.

A battle seemed to be looming over the mess the host created at his home. He didn't strike her as an abusive type. However, a new and lighter version of it could always take over. After all, even a smiling sloth would go mad, if someone pulled its coat hard.

Having a fear of her husband might seem drifting off the feminist-centric line of mentality. However, things were not based on sheer fairness in the ancient era. Polygamy was absolutely normal, if not appreciated. A husband could raise his hand on his wife whenever he felt it necessary, but the irony was, the wife had no place to complain about it, not even to her maternal home. It was a normal day to day picture.

Since there was no law against the domestic violence and she didn't have any brawn, she had to use her brain and tread carefully until she found her feet.

The ride kept dragging on, entering into the suburbs. The scenery changed; a plethora of pines, cedars and redwood hanging over the steep and rugged road came into the view. Some oaks even burgeoned, sprawling out from the cliffs and ridge tops, dwarfing the rest of the forest.

Tang Yu's amusement was getting struck down time and again by the stubborn gaze boring holes on her right cheek. She painstakingly willed herself to keep drinking in the natural view within her field of vision for the past miles they rode in, in order to escape from the net Mu Yunsheng's eyes had laid for her to get trapped into.

Then came a view of a beautiful, distant water body. The Lotus River. It wasn't anywhere beside the rocky road, flowing through the valley that sat between two steep mountains.

Tang Yu remembered her father saying that their city segment of this river dried up due to some environmental issues. He issued a budget to redig it. It was important as it disembogued into the southern sea. Another interesting fact, Mu Yunsheng's village name had been coined from this very river flowing through their village, dividing it into halves.

Lotus River slithered ahead hundreds of mile through the mountains. On the banks of this river located this mountain-locked idyllic village. Due to seasonal flood occurrence, most villagers preferred living at higher altitudes, which extended above the surrounding terrain, ranging from twenty to fifty meters.

"Did calling my mother a wild pig make you feel superior?" Mu Yunsheng threw the question.

Tang Yu jerked her head around to stare at him. The question was like the howling gales of the north that swung open the doors of memories.

Yes, it did. No, it made the host feel better, not her!

Tang Yu bit her lips, anticipating harsh remarks. Like a bomb, his question exploded her mental peace.

Mu Yunsheng's nose wrinkled, as his upper lip rose for a tenth of a second, before spewing out a steady stream of skin-burning, caustic jibes pouring vitriol on her. "You said my sisters should be placed in the pigpen because they are just as dirty? Tang Yu, do you even consider us as fellow humans? Oh, my memory slipped! According to you, we are nothing but some mountain pigs, right?"

He paused, stretching his pink lips in a thin line. Pops of fury were spilling out of his eyes. He tried to dispose of his stomach full of anger, he did assimilate them. It was just that stifling the belch was hard. "I am an uncivilized village man, and education hasn't brought any change out of me? Did you tell my sister-in-laws that you would rather marry a street dog over me?"

Tang Yu searched the accusations in her brain, and found the exact matching results. Now, it started sizzling her composure in a pot of piping hot oil. Her witty brain failed her to gather reasonings and knit fallacies to present before the angry spiceman.

Mu Yunsheng's face loomed forward, his voice gradually going down. "My brothers are cattlemen without a speck of knowledge? My mother is so unclean, that you couldn't bring yourself to taste her food?"

Tang Yu set her lips apart to speak, but no word came out. She didn't know exactly how to word her apologies. The hottie's gaze sticking on her eyes made it hard. His exhales would've fanned her face, had the flurry of breeze not been sneaking into the carriage through the window.

Why was his gaze so profound? It was as if this pair of eyes which absorbed genius all his life, possessed an ability to assess her thoughts. It couldn't see through her soul, could it?

The nervousness froze Tang Yu's hands, and weighed her tongue. It thwarted her brain from forming any semblance of an explanation to satisfy Mu Yunsheng's fury-filled inquiry and cool off the smoke exuding out of his body.

"Tang Yu, let me remind you, you are now my wife. River-Cut Village is now your home. You no longer belong to the Tang family. I'm your husband, and my family is your family. Nothing will change; I won't divorce you ever. So, you better try to adjust with us; learn to respect my family, especially my parents." He let out his verdict.