Chapter 187: Chapter 189: Strange Whiteness

These words were heart-warming, no matter how they were said.

At this time, Tang Zhinian also noticed Tang Yuxin.

“Yuxin, come here.”

Tang Zhinian waved to his daughter.

Tang Yuxin walked in, forcing a smile on her face, when she really didn’t want to. Her smile made her look foolish, but these were guests at home, she couldn’t be cold-faced, could she?

“Hello Uncle Chen, hello Uncle Xu.”

She politely greeted the two adults.

Both Chen’s and Xu’s fathers liked Tang Yuxin very much. She had a good temperament and was very polite and formal, much more mature than other children. Most importantly, this little tutor really found the right method, and improved their children’s grades. How could they not be grateful in their hearts?

“Yuxin seems to have become a lot fairer, truly, a woman’s beauty changes when she turns eighteen.”

Upon seeing Tang Yuxin, Chen’s father was taken aback.

Not too long ago, or god knows when, Tang Yuxin was just a little dark-skinned girl, frail and thin, with no distinctive features and of average looks; just an ordinary countryside child.

Yet, after not seeing her for a period of time, she seemed to have changed, her features were more mature, and her complexion had become fairer, could this be the so-called ‘one fairness covers three ugliness’?

“I’ve been indoors all winter and turned paler. I’ll get tanned again in the summer.”

Tang Yuxin lowered her head, staring at her toes, speaking in this manner. However, she was quite chuffed inside, believing that the Cold Fragrance Pills were taking effect. Whether she would get tanned again in the summer, she did not know yet, because it was not yet summer, was it? But she felt that it probably wouldn’t happen.

The three adults stayed in the room to chat, while Tang Yuxin gave Xu Miaomiao and Chen Lidong a look, in a way rescuing them from their predicament.

When they came out, it was clear that both Xu Miaomiao and Chen Lidong sighed with relief.

Apparently, being trapped inside and listening to the adults criticizing their own children was a desperate situation for them both.

“I’m going to play with Sisi.”

Chen Lidong was back to being himself as soon as he came out. In front of his parents, he acted like a good boy, but once he was at the Tang family’s and saw Sisi, he was full of energy and passion.

“Ah…” Xu Miaomiao sighed, “Can you believe how much he likes Sisi? As soon as he gets here, it’s all about Sisi. He brings Sisi gifts every time he comes over, I’ve never had such treatment.”

“Maybe it’s a cousin-like affection,” Tang Yuxin. She agreed that Chen Lidong was too good to Sisi, but it could also be that, because he missed his sister so much, he treated Sisi like his sister. Of course, she never considered other possibilities. In her heart, Chen Lidong and Xu Miaomiao were meant to be together, they were childhood sweethearts, and it was likely that these little companions would end up being together forever.

However, in the end, she had to admit, her assumptions today were proven wrong: not every bamboo horse likes its childhood sweetheart, and not every childhood sweetheart is fated to be liked by a bamboo horse.

xu Miaomiao’s mother, Chen’s mother and Zhang Xiangcao were all busy in the kitchen, while four men were chatting inside, so the youngsters, like them, were left to chat and eat, they didn’t meddle with anything else.

Xu Miaomiao lifted her head from her bowl, staring at her mother for a while before lowering her head again to eat her rice.

“Yuxin, is there something on my face?”

Having been stared at for so long by Tang Yuxin, Xu’s mother started to feel bemused. She felt her own face, wondering if she had dirtied it when cooking, so instinctively, she wiped her face with her sleeve.

“No,” As Tang Yuxin continued eating, she added, “It’s just that you’re so fair, Auntie.”

Xu’s mother blushed after being complimented for her fairness. Wasn’t it the same thing as being told that she was beautiful? Naturally, she had great confidence in her looks. Xu Miaomiao looked a lot like her and had a fair complexion too.

However, she wasn’t aware that the concept of fairness that Tang Yuxin mentioned was completely different from what she thought.

Xu Miaomiao’s fairness was indeed that of a young girl, vigorous and lively from inside out. However, Xu’s mother was different. She was severely anaemic and at her age, in her thirties but not yet forty, her vitality was declining so significantly that the cause could probably be heavy menstrual bleeding.

When they were alone, Tang Yuxin casually asked Xu’s mother,

“Auntie, do you have your periods for longer days every month? And do you bleed a bit more than usual?”

At first, Xu’s mother didn’t understand what Tang Yuxin was asking. But after a moment, she got the implication, and her face instantly turned red.

Such things were difficult to discuss openly, especially with a young girl.

“This…” She glanced left and right, finding it hard to start answering.

“Ah…” she sighed, “You’re a mature girl now, auntie won’t keep it from you,” She had never discussed this with anyone, not even her good friend, Chen’s mother. But since Tang Yuxin brought it up today, she couldn’t hold it back anymore.

“Being a woman is truly hard.”

“I have it twice a month, and yes, I bleed quite a lot. My abdomen hurts every time as well, and by looking at the dates, it’s going to arrive again soon. Being a woman is a challenge.”

“Auntie, can I feel your pulse?”

Tang Yuxin knew she wasn’t mistaken. Xu’s mother’s condition wasn’t exactly a disease, but it could be considered as one. Women’s diseases were the hardest to cure, and in her previous life, where she was a Western medicine practitioner, she had no way of treating this condition. Not until she learnt a lot about Traditional Chinese Medicine from Chen Zhong, did she find out this condition could be managed, albeit slowly, but without harm to the body.

“Sure,” Xu’s mother readily offered her wrist to Tang Yuxin, who then placed her hand on Xu’s mother’s pulse.

Based on Xu’s mother’s current pulse, her next menstrual period should arrive in approximately ten days.

Tang Yuxin released Xu’s mother’s wrist without saying anything else. Although Xu’s mother was somewhat bewildered, she affectionately stroked Tang Yuxin’s hair, finding the girl quite endearing. But when she thought about how Tang Yuxin didn’t even have a mother, she felt heartbroken. As a mother herself, she had heard stories and knew how Tang Yuxin was brought up, and she just couldn’t understand how a mother could be so heartless, to the extent of abandoning her own daughter.