When she came back to herself, she saw that her mother and Aunt Jiang were both looking at her. Her face flushed, and she said, “We’ll talk about it after I return from the city tomorrow.”
After saying that, she turned and went back into the house.
After Jiang Qian returned to her room, she heard the laughter of her mother and Aunt Jiang.
She took out her little pink mirror and looked at herself. Her face was indeed somewhat flushed. She lightly spat, “How useless. I blush just from seeing a handsome man.”
However, she quickly composed herself, called Third Sister-in-law, and went together with her to the township primary school.
She would be going to the city with Han Shiguo tomorrow, so Third Sister-in-law would have to teach her classes in her place. She had to go and inform them first.
“If the marriage works out, will A Rou take over the job?” Aunt Jiang remembered to ask only after seeing the Sisters-in-law leave.
“Yes, let A Rou teach.”
Aunt Jiang nodded. “I think Qianqian is satisfied with Shiguo too. Eldest Sister-in-law, have you prepared Qianqian’s dowry? If the two of them take a liking to each other, the Han family may come to propose very soon and marry Qianqian into their family. Shiguo only has ten days of leave, and no one knows when his next leave will be. I estimate they won’t wait until then. Shiguo must be eager to marry.”
Zhou Guiyun did not want to wait either. Once someone had been deemed suitable, the marriage had to be settled swiftly; dragging things out could easily ruin it. Was Jiang Yue not the best example?
As for her daughter’s dowry, Zhou Guiyun had prepared everything long ago. She brought Aunt Jiang inside to take a look.
In the cabinet in her room, she had stored four brand-new cotton quilts. Besides those, there was also a new thermos flask, washbasin, towels, and two sets of new clothes. There were even two pairs of new shoes!
In this era, such a dowry could certainly be considered generous!
“Oh my, Eldest Sister-in-law, you’ve already prepared everything!” Aunt Jiang was delighted when she saw it. She had originally intended to remind her sister-in-law to hurry, since there was also a nephew working in the city, and it was still in time to make the preparations.
Zhou Guiyun’s relationship with this younger sister-in-law was naturally close, so she told her the whole story about Jiang Qian and Wang Hesong. Because of that incident, when Fourth Child Jiang Shouchuan returned some time ago, Zhou Guiyun had asked him to help prepare his younger sister’s dowry.
Jiang Shouchuan naturally took his younger sister’s affairs to heart, and he had even called in quite a few favors.
Otherwise, even with him working in the city, it would have been impossible to gather four cotton quilts, all these new clothes and shoes, socks, washbasins, and other daily necessities so quickly.
Of course, Zhou Guiyun had only brought up the matter concerning the Wang family in passing. The real point was Jiang Yue’s act of stealing someone else’s partner.
Aunt Jiang’s expression darkened as she listened, and she understood. “I was wondering—after waiting three years, now that Shiguo has returned, how could they break off the engagement over such a trivial matter? So it was because she got together with someone else! How shameless of her, seducing her own younger female cousin’s prospective marriage partner?!”
Although Jiang Yue kept saying that she had not known, Zhou Guiyun did not believe her. She was certain Jiang Yue had done it deliberately. That woman had never meant well!
“I believe I have never mistreated her. As for the job she had, when your Second Brother and Second Sister-in-law came to our door back then, what could they have bought with the little money they had?”
“To put it bluntly, your Eldest Brother and I could have bought it outright ourselves. We did not have to give it to the second branch of the family. But your Eldest Brother and I thought that the second branch had little money, and the two of them were not particularly capable either. If they had this iron rice bowl, their lives could gradually improve, couldn’t they? I was hoping they would do well. I dare swear to Heaven with my hand on my conscience that this is the truth!”
“Over all these years, how much have your Eldest Brother and I helped the second branch? Yet we have never asked for credit or demanded anything in return.”
“And this time, after Jiang Yue did something like this, they did not come and tell us immediately. They even wanted to hide it!”
“Can something like this really be hidden? Did they want us to make fools of ourselves? Did they want Qianqian’s reputation damaged before they would be satisfied?”
“…”
Zhou Guiyun truly could not help finding someone to vent to. Whenever she thought of the second branch’s heartless behavior, she could not stop her anger!
In her heart, the second branch was nothing but a bunch of ingrates!
From now on, the second branch could forget about getting anything from the first branch of the family. As for the money they owed the first branch, she would have her daughter-in-law go collect it every month. She would collect as much as they could pay; the sooner it was settled, the sooner the matter would be over!
Once it was all collected, everyone would live their own lives. They could each follow their own path and go their separate ways!
She did not want to suffer betrayal like this a second time!
Aunt Jiang naturally understood her sister-in-law’s anger. Her Second Brother, Second Sister-in-law, and niece Jiang Yue had truly behaved outrageously!
But she also knew how to comfort people. “As the saying goes, when the bad leaves, the good comes. This man from the Wang family is no good, but Heaven has sent Shiguo to become your son-in-law instead. You’ve still come out ahead!”
Zhou Guiyun had lived for most of her life, and she was quite a good judge of character. Today, she had an especially favorable impression of Han Shiguo, her prospective son-in-law.
She said with a smile, “You’re right. When the bad leaves, the good comes. As long as the young people have no objections, neither your Eldest Brother nor I have any objections.”
She had only briefly mentioned the matter concerning the second branch to her younger sister-in-law and could not be bothered to say more. After all, they were not good people!
Naturally, the matters that had occurred in the Jiang family’s First Branch could not remain hidden in the village.
Now that the farming lull had arrived, even old, long-forgotten matters from last year could be brought out for gossip, let alone this latest excitement.
Madam Sun was too ashamed to come over and watch, but Shouliu’s wife would never miss such a spectacle.
After a neighbor told her that the Han family had gone to Uncle’s Family for a matchmaking meeting, she hurriedly finished hanging out the children’s clothes and immediately followed them over.
Shouliu’s wife even went inside the first branch’s home, where she saw Han Shiguo’s tall, powerfully built body and handsome, masculine face.
However, no one from the first branch paid her any attention. They did not even consider introducing him to her.
Shouliu’s wife knew that the first branch was angry with the second branch, but she did not care. After seeing Han Shiguo, she came back outside, only to be pulled aside and questioned by the other curious villagers.
They all asked her, “Wasn’t Han Shiguo Jiang Yue’s prospective marriage partner? How did he end up coming to the first branch to meet Jiang Qian, this younger female cousin?”
There were also villagers whose daughters-in-law had come from Han Family Village, so they had long known about Jiang Yue’s engagement to Han Shiguo.
Now that they had seen Han Shiguo enter the first branch of the Jiang family, with Matchmaker Zhang and Aunt Jiang coming along too, anyone who was not a fool could tell that he had clearly come to meet Jiang Qian.
But what everyone was curious about was: how had the person changed?
A matchmaking meeting was nothing unusual. What everyone was curious about was: how had the person changed?
Shouliu’s wife very much wanted to share the gossip she knew with everyone, but she had been given a strict prohibition. If the matter truly came from her mouth, not only would her mother-in-law refuse to forgive her, but the first branch would skin her alive.
So she endured the urge with great difficulty and could only say that she did not know. “Why don’t you ask my mother-in-law and Auntie?”
Thus, those eager for gossip went to question Madam Sun.