The Rebirth of an Orphan

In front of everyone, Zhao Xihua carefully took a wooden box wrapped in layers of felt and silk from Pingshui's hand, slowly opened it, and carefully took out a set of tea sets from the box.

Everyone else was staring blankly. Only the second young lady Zhao Siqi, who was wearing a yellow gauze skirt and had thin eyebrows and eyes, covered her mouth and leaned close to the eldest young lady's ear and sneered, "What are you doing, fourth sister? Are you stupid?"

Zhao Ziqin, the eldest daughter of the Zhao family, is the eldest daughter of the first wife. She wore a light-colored long skirt. Her figure was as graceful as the moon, with a dignified and elegant beauty.

The corners of her mouth slightly raised, the sarcasm in her eyes was obvious but disappeared in an instant, and no one noticed. The eldest daughter of the Zhao family has always had a good reputation for being gentle and virtuous. She would not bother with a little orphan girl. She also wanted to see what this fourth sister wanted to do.

Zhao Xihua glanced at the calm elder sister, but felt a little cold in her heart. This elder sister appeared gentle and virtuous on the surface, but in fact she was a selfish and vicious character.

She held the purple clay teapot in both hands and walked up to Old Lady Zhao and said, "Grandma, Huaer has recently learned the skill of brewing tea, so I specially brewed some top-quality Pu'er tea for you to try."

Old Madam Zhao never had any hobbies, but she loved tasting tea. Although she was a little puzzled by Zhao Xihua's behavior, she became interested when she heard that Zhao Xihua had brewed good tea, and couldn't help but said, "Oh? Fourth girl, give it to me to try."

Zhao Xihua took the cooked Pu'er tea and poured it for the old lady. A fresh fragrance wafted over her face, and the tea in the celadon cup was actually in the shape of a lotus.

Old Mrs. Zhao's face trembled slightly. She picked up the teacup and took a sip. A trace of doubt flashed across her face for a moment. Then she took another sip, and her cold face became much softer.

"Fourth girl, where did you learn the skill of making tea?"

The old lady was an expert on tea and knew very well that the skill of brewing tea must have several years of experience. She wanted to find out how this girl learned it.

Although Zhao Xihua had a hard life in the Sun family in her previous life, she could learn a lot from a wealthy family like the Sun family. Trapped in a remote room with nothing to do every day, she read books and studied many talents such as playing the piano, making tea, and painting.

"Grandma, Huaer knows that you like to drink tea, so I read a lot of books about the tea ceremony and tried repeatedly according to the methods in the books. Fortunately, after my continuous attempts, I finally got it to where it is now."

Zhao Xihua smiled gently after she finished speaking. She was already beautiful, but her old and whitish clothes and her thin and frail figure made her look even more pitiful.

"It's really thoughtful of the fourth girl. Let everyone have a taste of the tea."

"Okay," Zhao Xihua held the purple clay teapot and poured a cup for each person. Looking at Zhao Xihua who was busy pouring tea, the old lady's eyes became profound.

Every time Zhao Xihua poured tea, she would pull up her sleeves, revealing that her sleeves were obviously much shorter. The more the old lady looked at her, the uglier her expression became. The Zhao family was a wealthy family, but her own granddaughter was dressed so poorly, even worse than the servants at home.

The shrewd first wife could see the ugly expression on the old lady's face, and she couldn't help feeling annoyed. This damn girl actually wanted to use this method to sue her in front of the old lady. Isn't this telling everyone publicly that she, the mistress of the house, is mistreating this fatherless and motherless niece?

If this bad reputation spreads or is known by the head of the family, it will be troublesome. A wave of anger surged up, but she restrained herself and did not show it. She looked at Zhao Xihua and said calmly: "The fourth girl is really thoughtful. It's really rare. So, Huang Sao, you buy four sets of clothes, four dresses, four sets of home clothes, and two pairs of shoes according to the fourth girl's size. Send them to the fourth girl's room after you buy them."

After hearing this, Zhao Xihua slowly bowed to the eldest lady: "Thank you, aunt!" The moment she lowered her head, a cold look appeared on her face. Humph, aunt, take your time. In the future, I will make you pay back everything you owe me.

As the eldest sister in the family, Zhao Ziqin had to show her ability at this time. She stood up, took off a diamond bracelet from her wrist, and put it on Zhao Xihua's wrist.

"Fourth sister, your tea art is quite innovative. It really makes my eyes light up. How about inviting fourth sister to sit in my room tomorrow so that we sisters can taste your craftsmanship?"

"Sure, thank you, big sister." Zhao Xihua agreed calmly.

Zhao Siqi, who was standing nearby, was obviously jealous. She was born to the second wife of the second house, who was a distant relative of the first wife. In addition, the second wife was a smooth and pleasing person, and had always brought her to frequent contact with the first wife since she was a child. Therefore, her relationship with the eldest sister Zhao Ziqin was the closest and best.

She had long had her eyes on Zhao Siqi's diamond bracelet, and had wanted to wait until Zhao Ziqin got tired of wearing it before finding a way to take it away. But now it was in Zhao Xihua's hands. In addition, Wu Fang, who she instigated, not only failed to disfigure Zhao Xihua, but instead burned herself. The thought of this made her indescribably angry, and the look in her eyes when she looked at Zhao Xihua was filled with deep hatred.

The old lady chatted with a few other people for a while, then felt a little tired, so she asked everyone to leave as she needed to rest.

Zhao Xihua brought Pingshui and everyone else out of the old lady's room. Not long after they came out, a clear laugh came from behind them: "Fourth sister, wait for me."

Just as Zhao Xihua was about to turn around, Zhao Lingyun, the fifth daughter of the Zhao family, held her arm tightly, as if they were very affectionate. Looking at the harmless and innocent smile of the fifth daughter, Zhao Xihua felt a chill in her heart.

I felt like I was entangled by an ugly poisonous snake. I suppressed the disgust in my heart and didn't vent it. She looked outgoing and lively, with a beautiful and pure appearance, but I didn't expect that such a girl was as vicious as a snake.

Zhao Xihua remembered it very clearly. It was this seemingly innocent and lovely sister who often found reasons to visit her after she married into the Sun family. Then she hooked up with the second young master of the Sun family and later married him. Then she instigated the second young master to lock her up in the basement. He even waited until she was dying of illness and took away all the pocket money she had.

"Fifth sister, what's wrong? Is there something?" Zhao Xihua calmly pushed her hand away from his arm.

"Third sister, all the sisters in my family are learning the guzheng. I heard that you play it very well. I want to learn from fourth sister. Fourth sister is the best to me. She won't refuse to teach me, right?"

"Fifth sister, you're joking. How can I play the piano when I'm clumsy?" Zhao Xihua smiled and lowered her eyes. Her thick long eyelashes cast a shadow on her delicate jade-like face.

In her previous life, she thought that this sister truly treated her as an elder sister, and even gave this sister some precious piano scores that her mother left her. Now, she wanted to see what this sister would come up with.

She sighed and said, "Although I am not very good at playing the piano, I still have several volumes of piano scores from my mother's lifetime."

Zhao Xihua's mother was very talented. It was said that she was first-rate in playing the guzheng and pipa. That's why her father fell in love with her. Her parents lived a loving life after marriage. Unfortunately, her mother died of dystocia during childbirth, and her father also died in a car accident due to being in a bad mood and drunk. The successive deaths of her parents made the Zhao family dislike her even more, as she was born unlucky.

Zhao Lingyun's eyes lit up when she heard this. She humbled herself to beg her fourth sister who was not favored at home because she was going to attend a banquet at the Sun family in a few days.

It is called a banquet, but in fact it is a blind date among wealthy people. Many families that are not very high-ranking will take this opportunity to bring their children to the banquet. If they can be noticed by the son of a noble family or the daughter of a rich family, it will be a great thing for the family.

However, Zhao Xihua had never been taken by her family to attend banquets. Looking at the greedy light in Zhao Lingyun's eyes, Zhao Xihua couldn't help but sneer inwardly. She knew about the Sun family's banquet in her previous life. The Sun family was the largest family in Yuncheng. Although they were not as powerful as the wealthy families in Kyoto City, they still had the final say in this small county of Yuncheng.

Although Sun Xiao, the eldest son of the Sun family, was a famous handsome man in Yuncheng, unfortunately, his health was very poor and the doctors had determined that he would not live for many years. The second son of the Sun family, Sun Cong, was also handsome and suave, but because Sun Xiao was weak, many people privately discussed that the heir to the Sun family must be Sun Cong.

"Fourth sister, in that case, could you lend me the music score?" She said this with a pitiful look on her face.