The more Tang Jiaojiao thought about it, the more she felt this was a great idea.
That way, she and her sister could stay together for the rest of their lives.
“What do you mean, ‘good idea’?” Zhou Ping flicked Tang Jiaojiao on the forehead, snapping her back to reality. “Do you think this is ancient times? So Lu Ye marries you, and then he’s supposed to take your sister as a concubine?”
“No!” Tang Jiaojiao covered her “injured” forehead and declared firmly, “How could my sister be a concubine? She’d obviously have to marry him first.”
Tang Youyou: “…”
At this moment, she genuinely didn’t know whether she should marvel at Tang Jiaojiao’s unbelievably intense sister complex or shed a sympathetic tear for Lu Ye.
Fortunately, Tang Hao was still the only sane person in the room. He pulled the conversation back on track.
“We’ve saved quite a bit of money over the years. When the time comes, we’ll split it into two portions, one for each of you sisters.”
What he meant was that he had already decided to let Tang Youyou marry Zhao Yunzhou.
As for Qin Yuchen, he wasn’t even considering him.
Tang Jiaojiao raised her hand.
“I don’t want my share. Give it all to my sister.”
“No.” Tang Hao shook his head. “The Lu family is a working-class family. If you don’t have any dowry, he’ll have opinions.”
“He’d better not!” Tang Jiaojiao stuck out her neck. “He proposed to me last time, didn’t he? I told him I had no dowry and wanted a lot of betrothal gifts, and he agreed.
“Oh, right, Sis. Once Lu Ye and I get married, take all those betrothal gifts with you when you go to the countryside.”
In Tang Jiaojiao’s mind, there was simply no way her sister could suffer.
Not even a little.
Tang Hao was touched by how thoughtful and generous his daughter was, while Zhou Ping’s eyes reddened at the thought that she would soon have to part with her daughter.
Meanwhile, Tang Jiaojiao was already thinking about how to transfer as much of the Lu family’s wealth as possible into her sister’s pockets.
“Um…” Seeing that her family seemed to have already made up their minds, Tang Youyou helplessly raised her hand. “I don’t want to go to the countryside. I don’t want to live a hard life. Besides, I’ve already agreed to the marriage swap with Grandma, and I’ve already taken part of the dowry she gave me.”
Tang Hao froze for a moment.
He stiffly looked at the wooden trunk on the dining table, then stood up and hurried over.
“I’ll return it right now. I’ll tell your grandmother that we’re absolutely not doing the marriage swap.”
“Don’t!” Tang Youyou rushed over before him and threw herself onto the trunk. “These are things I worked so hard to pick out. If we ask Grandma for them again later, she’ll definitely refuse.”
Although she had her dimensional space, if the second branch of the family didn’t do anything, she could always sneak into the ancestral home and clean it out.
But anything she stole couldn’t be openly brought out.
And that would be a little less fun.
Tang Hao grabbed a handful of his hair.
It was now even messier.
“Youyou, listen to Dad.”
“I won’t!” Tang Youyou pouted.
She had already figured out that Tang Hao wouldn’t get angry with her.
And he definitely wouldn’t dare hit her.
Tang Jiaojiao couldn’t stand seeing Tang Youyou looking so pitiful.
She opened her mouth, softened immediately, and suggested, “How about this? Let Sister marry Lu Ye.”
Zhou Ping felt a headache coming on.
She thought Tang Jiaojiao was about to suggest that two sisters serve one husband again.
But Tang Jiaojiao continued,
“Since we’ve already swapped marriages, let’s just swap again. I’ll marry Qin Yuchen, and Sister will marry Lu Ye.”
Seeing everyone looking at her, Tang Jiaojiao laughed and reassured them.
“Don’t worry. I’m this capable. Even if the Qin family is a den of dragons and tigers, I’d still dare to charge right in.
“As for Lu Ye—Sis, I’ve already trained him well for you. He absolutely won’t dare bully you.”
She patted her chest, looking exactly like someone saying, *Leave it to me. I’ve got this.*
Tang Youyou and Tang Hao exchanged a glance, both feeling utterly helpless.
But Zhou Ping thought about it more and more and actually found the idea reasonable.
“I think it could work. Little Lu is a good man. We can talk to him about it. You two can have a fake marriage first. Once this whole mess is over, after Jiaojiao divorces Qin Yuchen, you two can switch back.”
Tang Hao fell silent, apparently considering whether the plan was feasible.
Tang Youyou was speechless.
She really had to admit it.
*This family was absolutely full of weirdos.*
There was just one thing—
*Sis, did you ever think about how Lu Ye might feel about this?*
She cleared her throat and interrupted their increasingly outrageous plans.
“We have to think of another solution. No one in our family is going to the countryside. Not a single person.”
“There is no other solution.” Tang Hao frowned. “Once the Tang family is investigated and punished, even if you’ve already married, you may still be implicated. I’ll do everything I can to pull some strings and keep you girls out of it.”
“No!”
The two sisters spoke at the same time.
But they meant completely different things.
Tang Jiaojiao said, “I’m your daughter. How could I cut ties with you just to keep living a comfortable life?”
Tang Youyou, however, said, “No one can go to the countryside. Especially Mom.”
Under everyone’s puzzled gazes, Tang Youyou dropped a bombshell.
“Mom, don’t you know you’re pregnant?”
“What?!”
Three identical shocked faces appeared at once.
Tang Hao’s hand began to tremble.
“P-pregnant?”
He stared at Zhou Ping in disbelief.
Zhou Ping was dazed as she instinctively touched her stomach and murmured,
“Pregnant?”
Thinking about it carefully, her period really was a few days late.
But she’d assumed it was because she’d been worrying too much about the Tang family’s impending downfall.
No.
She firmly shook her head.
“I’m not pregnant.”
Tang Youyou knew exactly why she was denying it.
It was nothing more than the fact that she didn’t want to add another burden at such a critical moment.
Being sent down to the countryside was different from ordinary educated youth being sent down.
The conditions were harsher, and people under investigation would be watched and scorned by others. Rural living conditions were also poor.
Zhou Ping was about to turn thirty-nine. She was already an advanced-age mother, and even the slightest mishap during childbirth could put both her and the baby at risk.
For her own sake and for the sake of the child in her belly, Tang Youyou would never allow her mother to be sent down.
Naturally, Tang Hao thought the same way.
But if they wanted to keep Zhou Ping from being sent down, there were only two options.
The first was exactly what Tang Hao had suggested earlier: divorce her and publish a notice in the newspaper severing their relationship.
The second was to throw money at the problem and somehow pull strings to get around it.
But the second option was much easier said than done.
Actually succeeding was almost impossible.
Otherwise, Tang Hao wouldn’t have already prepared a fallback plan.
Thinking of this, Tang Youyou looked at him.
“Whether she’s pregnant or not, we’ll know once a doctor examines her.”
“That’s right!” Tang Jiaojiao finally came to her senses. “There’s an especially skilled old doctor at the People’s Hospital. He can tell just by taking her pulse.”
Zhou Ping opened her mouth, wanting to say that she wasn’t pregnant.
But Tang Hao and Tang Jiaojiao weren’t listening anymore.
They had no idea how Tang Youyou knew, but even if there was only a one-in-a-million chance, they had to make sure.
Each of them took one of Zhou Ping’s arms and started walking toward the hospital.
Tang Youyou followed slowly behind the three of them.
The moment she held Zhou Ping’s hand, she already knew.
She was the eighteenth-generation successor of the Tang Family Medical Clinic.
After graduating from medical school at twenty-two, she had been rejected when she tried to pursue graduate studies—not because she wasn’t qualified, but because the old professors felt that she was already a once-in-a-generation talent in traditional Chinese medicine and had little left to learn.
All she lacked was clinical experience.
Immediately after graduation, she inherited the Tang Family Medical Clinic passed down through her ancestors.
She didn’t have white hair or a long white beard, yet through her extraordinary medical skills, she had become a renowned traditional Chinese medicine practitioner in the surrounding area.
Therefore, even though Zhou Ping had been pregnant for less than forty days, Tang Youyou could still clearly sense the faint pulse of the new life within her.
### Hospital
The old doctor withdrew his hand, his expression solemn.
Tang Hao was nervous.
“How is she, Doctor?”
The old doctor didn’t keep them in suspense.
“She is pregnant. It’s just still very early, so the pulse isn’t very clear yet. Come back for another examination in half a month.”