“Auntie, the surgery alone will cost around twenty yuan. I’ll have to take a motorcycle into town, then a bus to the city hospital. Afterward, I’ll need to buy some nutritious food to help me recover faster so I can get well enough to marry into the family…”
Su Xiu loved money more than life itself. Just hearing all that made her heart ache.
“All right, all right! I’ll give you the money!”
Although she hated the thought of giving this jinx a hundred yuan, she absolutely could not afford to let anything happen to Yang Xixi’s future—
Yang Xixi had already taken the letter and jade pendant to the compound. If Su Man had an abortion at home and word got out that she was pregnant before marriage, it could affect Xixi. What if that high-ranking official decided he no longer wanted Xixi?!
A satisfied smile tugged at the corners of Su Man’s lips.
She knew it. Whenever Yang Xixi was involved, Su Xiu would never dare be careless.
Su Xiu pulled a wrinkled little cloth pouch from her waistband. From inside, she took out a roll of brand-new banknotes and tossed a bright red bill over.
“Take it!”
Su Man crouched down to pick up the money and looked at Su Xiu with a beaming smile.
“Thank you, Auntie. I’ll head to the hospital to get the abortion right away!”
But once she turned her back, the smile vanished completely from her eyes.
She wasn’t going to the hospital.
She was going to her future “husband’s” home!
At that moment, Wang Yong was squatting in the open space in front of his house, playing with several children. He was more than a decade older than them, yet mentally he was still less mature than the older kids.
When he saw Su Man approaching, he wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth and exclaimed delightedly,
“Manman! Did you come to marry me?”
In the past, Su Man had only felt pity whenever she saw that foolish expression. But after they married, Wang Yong had also turned into a scumbag who used his brute strength to bully his wife. At this moment, all she felt was hatred.
Su Man spoke mockingly.
“You want me to marry you that badly?”
Wang Yong nodded vigorously.
“Fine. But you have to agree to my condition.”
“I’ll agree to anything you want!” Wang Yong said impatiently.
Su Man was famous for her beauty throughout the surrounding villages. If her parents hadn’t died when she was young, the people coming to propose would probably have trampled the threshold of the Su household. How could it ever have been Wang Yong, a fool, who got the chance?
Besides, Wang Yong might have been stupid, but he wasn’t blind. He knew that the woman about to become his wife was a beauty. Every day, he counted down on his fingers, wondering how much longer it would be before Su Man married into his family.
Looking at the foolish idiot in front of her, Su Man felt a wave of revulsion rise in her heart. Crystal-clear drool still hung from his lips, while his eyes were filled with a lecherous look that made her stomach turn.
“I want eight hundred yuan in bride price. Not a cent less.” Su Man’s voice was ice-cold. “And I must be the one to keep the bride price. You can’t give it to my aunt and uncle.”
Wang Yong froze.
He had heard his mother talk about bride price before, but she had said that the money was supposed to be given to the elders of the bride’s family.
But Su Man was simply too beautiful. Her fair, delicate face was as fresh and lovely as a city girl’s, and her figure wasn’t as heavy and clumsy as those of the other village girls.
“If I give the bride price to you, you’ll become my wife?” Wang Yong asked, nervously twisting the hem of his clothes between his fingers.
Su Man curled her lips and gave a cryptic little laugh.
There was mockery in that smile, yet Wang Yong was still completely captivated by it.
“Yes.” She nodded. “And the money isn’t just for me. Once we’re married, it’ll be for both of us.”
That made Wang Yong even more eager.
“Really?”
Su Man widened her eyes and put on an innocent expression.
“Of course. Your mother must have told you that I’m an orphan. If the bride price goes to my aunt and uncle, wouldn’t that just mean giving money to two unrelated outsiders?”
She lowered her voice, adding a hint of temptation.
“Yongzi, surely you don’t want other people spending your parents’ money?”
Wang Yong immediately shook his head from side to side.
“No! My parents’ money can only be spent by me and my wife!”
With that, as if he were afraid someone might snatch the money away, he took off running toward his house.
“I’ll go find the bride-price money right now!”
Su Man watched his hurried retreat. The last trace of mockery disappeared from her face.
A stupid, rotten excuse for a man. Looking at him even one more time would be an insult to her eyes.
But his money would certainly come in handy.
“Thank you. This is just a little token of my appreciation.” Su Man handed a ten-yuan bill to the young nurse at the township clinic. “Please don’t tell anyone about this.”
The nurse quickly pocketed the money and handed her a forged abortion certificate.
“If anything, I should be the one asking you not to tell anyone!”
Su Man smiled knowingly.
At this point, the township clinic was still poorly managed. Getting a fake certificate made with a little money was hardly difficult.
“Of course.”
Su Man folded the certificate, slipped it into her pocket, and turned to leave.
“Did you get it done?”
It was already late. Su Xiu and Yang Shiyong were craning their necks anxiously toward the door.
The moment they saw Su Man’s frail figure, they immediately got up to greet her.
“Did you get it done?”
As she spoke, Su Xiu scrutinized Su Man’s flat stomach, looking her up and down.
Su Man gave a quiet “Mm,” then took the forged certificate from her pocket. She leaned weakly against the doorframe, her face pale, her voice so soft it seemed the wind could carry it away.
“It’s done. The doctor also said I’m young and should recover well. There shouldn’t be any problem having children in the future.”
The moment Su Xiu saw the forged certificate, the worry weighing on her heart disappeared. And after hearing what Su Man said, she was positively delighted.
“That’s wonderful! Then Auntie will arrange for you and Yongzi to meet tomorrow!”
Su Man readily agreed.
“Okay.”
She smiled so brightly that her eyes curved into crescents, but her luminous black eyes were filled with seething hatred.
Just as in her previous life, this pair of beasts truly didn’t regard her as a person at all!
Meanwhile, Su Xiu and Yang Shiyong were overjoyed at the thought of receiving the bride price and seeing their daughter marry into a better family. The husband and wife exchanged a glance and breathed a sigh of relief.
At last, they could get rid of this useless, worthless woman—and even make some money from her. All those years they had spent raising her hadn’t been for nothing!
When the thunderous snores of her uncle, Yang Shiyong, began to rumble from the room next door, Su Man quietly got out of bed, dressed, and slipped outside.
“Manman! Manman!”
Not far away, Wang Yong, having scraped together the full eight hundred yuan, crouched beneath a tree and waved at Su Man.
A full moon hung in the sky, casting a pale white glow over the peaceful world.
Su Man slowly walked toward him beneath the moonlight. To Wang Yong, she looked almost like a celestial fairy who had descended to earth.
As long as he could make Manman happy and get her to marry him, being caught stealing the money and getting beaten by his mother would be worth it!
“Give me the money.”
Su Man didn’t waste any time. She held out her hand.
Wang Yong gave a fawning little chuckle. He pulled a bulging cloth pouch from inside his shirt and eagerly handed it to her.
“Manman, here’s the eight hundred yuan you wanted. Hehe… I waited until my mother was asleep, then searched every corner of the house to scrape together the money. Now you can marry me, right?”
Su Man didn’t answer. She didn’t even look at him.
She weighed the cloth pouch in her hand, then opened it and counted the money.
Sure enough, there was not a cent missing from the eight hundred yuan.