Sweet Rustic Love: Four Brothers’ Wife

The room was not wide. It might have just been an accountant’s office. There was a table, several stools, and a writing desk.

They were told to sit anywhere they pleased, and then she placed the paper, ink, and brush on the table in front of Liu Duo, motioning her to use them.

Liu Duo picked up the brush and doodled on the paper, just to try her hand. She had never drawn using a brush before.

Then, on the paper, she drew a cartoonish pig. It was fat, with adorable eyes. Because it was not painted with what should be a tender shade of pink, it lacked a certain appeal, but otherwise Liu Duo was quite satisfied with how it turned out.

“What do you think? The pig’s cute, right? We make it this big,” she gestured the size with her fingers, “I can guarantee that those rich ladies would love it very much.” Liu Duo said, looking quite pleased with the expression on the woman’s face.

Pigs in their eyes were always depicted as fat and ugly with humongous ears. Liu Duo’s drawing though was cute beyond measure. The woman loved it at first sight, even Ye Liu was surprised.

This was one of Liu Duo’s interests. She did not like it before, but there was one year in her previous life when she was admitted to the hospital due to severe illness. She met a little girl there who suffered from similar conditions.

The girl loved drawing these, and slowly, Liu Duo was roped in. It was boring in the ward, so they would draw in their sketchbooks and share their work between themselves, competing for who had the cuter or better drawing.

“What do you think? Do you want to collaborate?” Liu Duo took another clean, white piece of paper and covered up her pig.

The woman was not angry at Liu Duo’s actions. She just felt she had not seen enough.

She sat on the other side and spoke calmly, “Please, how should I address you?”

Liu Duo was quite content with the woman’s attitude. She was neither needlessly rejoiceful nor fanatical, but she was able to calm down and ask for her name.

“My surname is Ye-Liu, my name is Liu Duo. You can call me Little Duo,” she smiled, “This is my husband, Ye Liu; the idiot downstairs as well; and there are two more at home.”

Ye Liu was unusually happy with Liu Duo’s introductions. Usually she would not willingly call him that, but right now she did not mind telling others she was a shared wife! She had truly integrated into the family.

Ye Liu smiled as though he was bathing in spring. He could not help but hold her hand, slightly trembling – proof that he was quite excited.

The woman was surprised when she heard this. Liu Duo was a shared wife, and she spoke of it out in the open too? Shouldn’t this be something unspeakable? And based on her appearance and the way she carried herself, she did not seem like one at all.

Liu Duo spoke nothing of the look of disbelief on the woman’s face. She couldn’t care less what others thought of her. She was a shared wife. So what?

“So, I wonder how should I call you?” Liu Duo ought to know the other person’s name too.

“I’m Qin Fang, but you can call me Miss Fang.” The woman had seen the world too. She knew that poor families tended to have shared wives, and she was only surprised for a short while.

“Alright, Miss Fang, I don’t like beating around the bush. I’m looking for a business partner, because I don’t have any capital. If we work well together, then I hope we can continue in the long run,” Liu Duo cut to the chase.

There were two meanings to this, Qin Fang knew. If she had the capital, she would not look for her shop. If they could not work well together, she would find others.

Qin Fang liked Liu Duo’s directness, as she laughed, “Since you are so sincere, then I will be too. Look, Little Duo, how do we split the profit? If we make this, we would need a fair amount of labour and costs, wouldn’t we?