Miao Miaomiao let out a cold laugh and began clapping her hands.
Clap, clap, clap…
She walked over to a chair and sat down unhurriedly. “Well, this is really something new… Who would’ve thought that I, Miao Miaomiao—a poor village widow with no money and no connections—would actually be worth three hundred yuan? That’s even twice as much as a city girl.”
Wasn’t this the crux of the whole matter?
Everyone was convinced she was worth three hundred yuan.
But what if… she wasn’t worth that price at all?
“What do you mean?”
Shen Jianzhang’s pupils shrank as he quickly turned toward her, pressing for an answer.
“I mean,” Miao Miaomiao said with a smile, looking at them all, “everyone here is far too naïve. Heh.”
“You—what nonsense are you spouting!”
Qin Dafen felt insulted and immediately pointed at her, scolding, “Stop talking in riddles here! If you’ve got something to say, spit it out! Don’t go around in circles like those educated people—I never went to school and can’t read!”
Miao Miaomiao stood up and glared at them. “You’re all fighting over this—has anyone stopped to think that the man from last night might have been lying and deceiving us? Why are you all so quick to believe him? Do you know his name? Where he lives? Do you know anything about his background?”
She sneered. “You don’t know anything at all, yet you believe he’d pay two hundred yuan to marry me?”
“Aren’t you all fools?” she laughed loudly.
Her words cut like knives, while she herself laughed so hard she held her stomach.
“Ah?”
Zhang Cuiying was dumbfounded, completely unable to believe it.
If it was all just an empty promise, then what was the point of her rushing over so early in the morning?
“Daughter… are you telling the truth?”
She hurriedly grabbed Miao Miaomiao’s arm, her fingers digging painfully into the flesh.
Feeling uncomfortable, Miao Miaomiao quickly held her mother’s hand and looked at her apologetically. “Mom…”
“Well… then it looks like there’s nothing for me to do here.”
Ma Youcai looked apologetically at the Shen family. In this situation, even if the Jade Emperor himself showed up, there’d be nothing he could do.
These people didn’t even know the man’s name, yet they were already celebrating—what kind of nonsense was that?
He couldn’t be bothered to wade into this muddy water. If not for owing Shen Jianjun a favor earlier, he wouldn’t have come at all.
Ma Youcai hurriedly left.
“That’s impossible! I clearly saw him write his name and phone number for you!”
After he left, Shen Jianzhang still refused to give up, pointing at her with a trembling finger as he argued back.
“Oh, he did write it,”
Miao Miaomiao said casually, pulling the slip of paper from her bosom and showing it to them.
The moment Zhang Cuiying, Qin Dafen, and the others saw it, their expressions immediately eased.
Shen Jianzhang also relaxed and smiled. “See? And you said he didn’t leave anything. Didn’t he leave you a number?”
Qin Dafen turned and grabbed Shen Cuiping’s hand, muttering, “There’s a phone number—good, good, now I feel reassured.”
“Heh.”
Miao Miaomiao stared at them and sneered again. “Why don’t you try calling it? Then you’ll understand.”
She had only called it herself early this morning—otherwise she wouldn’t have found out.
Shen Jianzhang was half-believing, half-doubting her words. He immediately waved his hand. “Let’s go—to the village committee. We’ll make the call.”
“Let’s go! I don’t believe it—”
Qin Dafen took the lead and marched out.
Seeing them leave, Zhang Cuiying refused to fall behind and quickly waved her hand. “Let’s go—we’ll go watch too!”
Soon, everyone arrived at the village committee office.
The entire Qingshan Village had only one telephone, placed on the village head’s desk.
Village Head Shen Changzheng had finally found a moment of leisure and was puffing on his water pipe when a large crowd suddenly surrounded his office, startling him into standing up.
“Hehe, Village Head, we’d like to borrow the phone for a call,”
Shen Jianzhang greeted him with a smile.
“Mm, go ahead. This old man has something to take care of outside.”
After years in office, the village head had sharp instincts.
One look at this crowd told him it was trouble. He had no interest in getting dragged into it again and quickly slipped away.
Shen Jianzhang was completely focused on the phone. He dialed the number from the slip of paper.
“Beep…”
“Sorry, comrade, the number you dialed is invalid.”
The commune switchboard quickly responded, telling him the number didn’t exist.
“What?!”
Everyone in the office was stunned.
Shen Jianzhang checked three times in a row before weakly setting the receiver down.
Only then did he fully believe that the whole thing had really been a scam.
He looked utterly dazed.
Seizing the moment, Miao Miaomiao quietly took back the slip of paper and smiled at him. “See? I told you he was lying to you.”
Qin Dafen let out a wail and burst into tears. “Waaah! Then my two hundred yuan—it’s all gone down the drain! Waaah…”
“Mom, don’t be sad…”
Shen Cuiping hurriedly patted her back to comfort her.
“Waaah! My money!”
On the other side, Zhang Cuiying also began wailing, pounding her chest and stamping her feet. “I thought Big Girl would marry into a good family and lead us to prosperity—who knew it’d all be for nothing! Waaah…”
They were all crying—yet Miao Miaomiao was laughing.
“I already told you, didn’t I? I’m just a village woman—how could I possibly be worth that much money? Honestly, you’re all so greedy. No wonder you got scammed.”
She folded her arms and asked Shen Jianzhang with malicious glee, “So, Jianzhang, am I still worth three hundred yuan now?”
“N… no…”
Shen Jianzhang leaned weakly against the wall and answered softly.
He had always been clever and proud.
This time, realizing he’d been completely deceived dealt his pride a devastating blow.
“Heh heh.”
Miao Miaomiao patted his shoulder. “Then if I return the one hundred yuan bride price, I can leave now, right?”
The young man looked up.
“You’d better think it through. I’m already a widow—if you hesitate any longer, I might not even be able to scrape together a hundred yuan.”
To be honest, in the entire village, aside from that desperate-for-a-son Lu Laosan, who else would pay that much money to marry a woman who had just ‘killed’ her husband and was considered unlucky?
With that kind of money, you could marry any respectable virgin girl.
And after Lu Laosan went home, he was suddenly arrested as well—someone had reported him for abusing and killing his former wife, and he was thrown into jail.
Now even if they wanted to sell her, there was no one left to take her.
Seeing there was still hope of getting the bride price back, Qin Dafen finally dropped her airs and hurriedly pushed his shoulder. “Son, just agree to it. At least we can get our capital back.”
After a moment of contemplation, Shen Jianzhang raised his head again and met her gaze. “Alright, Sister-in-law. We’ll do it your way.”
Miao Miaomiao pressed her lips together slightly and smiled back at him.
At last, she let out a huge sigh of relief. Great—she could finally redeem herself and no longer live in constant fear.
“Return the bride price? No way—I won’t agree!”
Unexpectedly, the first to raise both hands in opposition was Zhang Cuiying.