After the meal, Lin Yingxue and Jiang Baozhen did not stay long.
They left the Jiang family’s home with the land deed in hand.
With the deed to those three acres secured, plus the land allocated by the court, Jiang Baozhen now had ten acres in total—more than enough for the mother and daughter to live on.
Jiang Baozhen needed to hurry back and plan for the spring planting.
Before the few able-bodied laborers in the house scrammed, they had to finish the fieldwork.
“Mother, Sister Qinghe is so skilled.
The wedding dress she’s embroidering is beautiful,” Lin Yingxue said, pretending to bring up Jiang Qinghe casually.
Jiang Baozhen stopped in her tracks.
Lin Yingxue had just reminded her of Jiang Qinghe’s upcoming marriage.
She could not marry into the Shan family.
Thinking back to her past life, Jiang Baozhen finally understood why Chen Tianhao chose the exact day of Qinghe’s wedding to expose the Shan family’s scheme.
That bastard probably knew all along that the Shan boy was already married.
He was just waiting to trap Jiang Qinghe.
“Wait here for me.
I forgot to discuss something with your Uncle Shouren and Aunt Guixiang.”
Jiang Baozhen turned around and stepped back through the Jiang family’s door.
Lin Yingxue let out a breath of relief.
Jiang Baozhen was fiercely protective of her own.
No matter how much she and Zhang Guixiang clashed, it did not affect her love and care for her niece, Jiang Qinghe.
Zhang Guixiang was fully aware of this as well.
If Jiang Baozhen exposed the Shan family’s conspiracy, Jiang Shouren and his wife would at least be suspicious, even if they did not fully believe it at first.
The Jiang family cherished their daughter deeply.
Once suspicions were raised, they would secretly investigate.
Given Jiang Shouren’s shrewdness, he would definitely find out that the Shan family had long since broken the marriage agreement.
Then, the Jiang family would hold the upper hand in confronting the Shan family.
Jiang Qinghe would no longer suffer the humiliation described in the book, and her entanglement with the male lead, Chen Tianhao, would be severed.
Jiang Baozhen called Shouren and Guixiang to a quiet corner.
Without beating around the bush, she got straight to the point.
“I heard the Shan family came visiting during the two days I was unconscious, rushing to have Qinghe marry into their home.
Logically, as her aunt, I shouldn’t be gossiping about Qinghe’s marriage, but I feel it’s too rushed to have her marry right now.
Besides, the Shan family fled to another region and hasn’t been heard from in years.
Who knows how they’ve been making a living out there?
What if that Shan boy already took a wife elsewhere?
You two should investigate this carefully.
Marriage is a lifelong commitment, and I don’t want Qinghe to end up like me.”
Zhang Guixiang’s expression shifted at those words.
“Baozhen really only ever assumes the worst in people,” she thought.
If Baozhen did not genuinely love her niece, Zhang Guixiang would have accused her of being jealous of Qinghe’s good match.
“Baozhen, it wasn’t easy for the Shan family to survive in such chaotic times.
They are honest businesspeople.
What bad things could they possibly do?” Zhang Guixiang said, suppressing her annoyance.
“As for the Shan boy taking a wife, there’s not a shadow of proof for that.
Don’t speak nonsense.”
“You can’t judge a book by its cover.
In the past, even if you beat me to death, I wouldn’t have believed Chen Ergou would abandon his daughter.”
Knowing she could not reason with Guixiang, Jiang Baozhen looked at her brother.
Jiang Shouren frowned slightly.
Selfishly, he did not believe the Shan family could do something like breaking a marriage agreement.
But Jiang Baozhen’s words struck a chord with his own hidden concerns.
He felt the Shan family was far too eager to have Jiang Qinghe marry over—excessively eager.
He was indeed touched that the Shan family came to arrange the marriage right after returning to the village.
However, he did not want Jiang Qinghe to marry at this time.
It wasn’t that he was dissatisfied with the Shan family, but rather because the war had just ended.
He hadn’t been able to prepare a decent dowry for Jiang Qinghe, and marrying her off now made him feel guilty.
He wanted to keep Jiang Qinghe at home for another two years to prepare a proper dowry for her.
The Shan family had implied in every conversation that they understood the Jiang family’s difficulties, emphasizing that they did not care about the dowry but only cared about Jiang Qinghe herself.
They acted as if they couldn’t wait to have her move in tomorrow, even offering to pay for the Jiang family’s wedding banquet.
Jiang Shouren had politely declined.
Letting the groom’s side pay for the banquet would only invite people to gossip behind his back and accuse him of selling his daughter.
“Baozhen has a point.
The Shan family left for so many years without a word.
It’s better if we look into this marriage a bit more,” Jiang Shouren said to a disgruntled Zhang Guixiang.
“It’s all for Qinghe’s own good, anyway.”
Hearing that Shouren was willing to investigate the Shan family, Jiang Baozhen felt relieved.
As long as he was willing, Guixiang would not be able to stop him.
The Chen family thought Jiang Baozhen’s kindness toward Lin Yingxue was only temporary.
A few days passed, and Jiang Baozhen’s warmth toward Lin Yingxue remained undiminished.
Jiang Baozhen had new clothes tailored and new jewelry made for Lin Yingxue, refusing to let her lift a finger for any chores inside or outside the house.
Watching Jiang Baozhen treat Lin Yingxue like a pampered young lady, Wu Qiaoqiao and Huang Qiuju were incredibly jealous, while Chen Huaiyuan and Chen Tianhao felt thoroughly bitter.
Chen Huaiyuan still believed he had deeply broken Jiang Baozhen’s heart by giving the land to his older brother and sister-in-law.
To coax her, he did whatever she ordered these past few days—whether it was building a chicken coop or sweeping the yard.
Since he started attending school in town at the age of eight, Chen Huaiyuan had hardly done any manual labor.
These past few days had exhausted him completely.
His three sons, feeling bad for their old father, offered to help him with the work, but Jiang Baozhen scolded them away every time.
He wanted to ask his daughters-in-law to wash his clothes for him, but he cared about his dignity and simply could not bring himself to ask.
Chen Tianhao was not faring much better than Chen Huaiyuan.
His private meals were gone, his comfortable bedding had been taken away, and he was being forced by Chen Gensheng and Chen Tiansheng to carry rocks down from the mountain.
Deep down, Chen Tianhao had long wanted to kowtow and apologize to Jiang Baozhen, but he held out for the sake of his pride.
He refused to believe Jiang Baozhen could just stand by and watch him work himself to exhaustion.
The first to break was Chen Huaiyuan.
Early one morning, seeing that Jiang Baozhen was in a good mood, Chen Huaiyuan changed his clothes and combed his hair.
Avoiding his sons and daughters-in-law, he came before Jiang Baozhen, clasped his hands together, and bowed deeply.
“Baozhen, your husband has come to apologize to you,” he said affectionately.
Suppressing her disgust, Jiang Baozhen snapped, “You shameless bastard, what kind of schemes are you playing?”
She didn’t expect that her angry scolding, instead of making Chen Huaiyuan back down, would be interpreted as an invitation for intimacy.
Taking advantage of the moment, Chen Huaiyuan placed his hands on Jiang Baozhen’s shoulders and continued in an unfathomably affectionate tone, “My schemes are reserved only for you.”
Jiang Baozhen almost threw up right in his face.
Striking with the deadly precision of hitting a snake’s weak spot, she punched Chen Huaiyuan squarely in the nose and cursed, “Chen Ergou, believe it or not, I’ll rip your guts out!”
Over the past few days, Jiang Baozhen had been eating and drinking well.
Unlike when she first woke up from fainting, she was no longer weak and was now full of strength.
With that one punch, Chen Huaiyuan felt as if half his life had been knocked out of him.
The pain brought silent tears to his eyes.
It took a long time for Chen Huaiyuan to recover his senses.
He wanted to lose his temper, but he couldn’t.
He still needed to ask a favor of Jiang Baozhen.
“Baozhen.” Chen Huaiyuan wiped his nose.
His whole mouth tasted sour, but he struggled to speak clearly.
“You can hit me or scold me all you want.
But no matter how angry you are, you can’t joke around with Tianhao’s future.
The private school in town has already started classes.
Let him go to school.”
Chen Tianhao was Qin Sangrou’s child, after all.
After the war broke out, he had lost contact with Qin Sangrou and did not know whether she was dead or alive.
If Qin Sangrou was still alive, she would reunite with her son sooner or later.
He could not allow her to be disappointed in Chen Tianhao when that day came.
If she had unfortunately perished, he had all the more reason to properly raise her son to console her spirit in heaven.
Jiang Baozhen flatly rejected him, as if she had just heard the biggest joke in the world.
“Tianhao cannot go to school.”
Chen Huaiyuan asked in disbelief, “Why?
Don’t you want him to earn you an imperial mandate title?”
Jiang Baozhen stared at him.
“You just flap your lips and say you want to send him to school, but who’s paying the silver?”
After saying that, she didn’t even spare him another glance.
Suppressing his anger, Chen Huaiyuan laid out all the pros and cons for her, but Jiang Baozhen stubbornly refused to budge.
She only had one response: there was no money to support him.