“What’s wrong? Did I say something wrong?” Lin Qionghua blinked and looked at her father.
Lin Weisen swallowed hard. “Who did you hear that from?”
“I didn’t hear it from anyone. I figured it out myself.” Lin Qionghua curled her lip. “When Mom married you, didn’t Grandma always find fault with her? Isn’t that just a bad relationship between a mother-in-law and a daughter-in-law?”
Lin Weisen was actually left speechless.
Lin Qionghua continued, “If Sister Xinghua stays at home, it means marrying a man into the family. Won’t all the family property belong to her in the future? If this matrilocal husband turns out to be unkind, Sister Xinghua can just kick him out directly.”
That was true in principle, but Lin Weisen always felt something was off. He sighed, “The logic is sound. But how many matrilocal husbands are actually good? Most are cunning, lazy, greedy, and shiftless. They have wicked hearts. They might even strike first to gain the upper hand. We ordinary folk can’t live our daily lives solely relying on the protection of the law.”
Lin Qionghua understood her father’s point and nodded with an air of mock seriousness.
Lin Weisen didn’t expect her to really understand, after all, his daughter was only eight years old. But seeing her nod, he felt like teasing her. “Do you really understand?”
“Yes!” Lin Qionghua had not only seen it happen, but she also knew what to do. “So marrying a husband into the family isn’t safe. The best way is to keep the child and ditch the father.”
Lin Weisen’s eyes nearly popped out in shock. “Ah! Do you even know what it means to keep the child and ditch the father?”
“Of course I know. Go to another place, somewhere where nobody knows her, find a man who is decent in all aspects to date, get pregnant, break up, come back home, and give birth to the child. Then tell the villagers that the child’s father was a martyr who died protecting the public.” Lin Qionghua laid out the method in full detail.
Lin Weisen gasped. He cupped his daughter’s head and looked her up and down thoroughly. “Are you feeling unwell anywhere?”
Lin Qionghua let him turn her this way and that, as if he feared she was possessed. She allowed him to fuss over her, and only spoke after he grew tired. “Did I say something wrong?”
Lin Weisen shook his head. “Doing that is far too immoral.”
Lin Qionghua put her hands behind her back and nodded with mock seriousness. “It is indeed immoral, but… fortunately, I have no morals.”
She looked entirely unbothered. Lin Weisen only felt mentally exhausted. He stopped arguing with his daughter over whether her idea was right or wrong. “Perhaps when you grow up, you won’t think this way anymore.”
Lin Qionghua looked at him and said faintly, “Dad, it’s not that I’m going back on my word, it’s that you never gave me a choice.”
Suppressing the strange feeling in his heart, Lin Weisen rode the tricycle back home.
As soon as they arrived, Lin Weisen sent his daughter out to play, pulled his wife into the house, and locked the door behind them.
Seeing his urgent behavior, Song Lanfang thought he wanted to fool around in broad daylight and gave him an annoyed glare. “It’s boiling hot, why are you closing the door!”
Saying this, she went to open the door, but Lin Weisen grabbed his wife’s hand and recounted everything their daughter had said, word for word.
Song Lanfang was no less shocked than Lin Weisen. She found it hard to credit and dared not believe it, pacing back and forth on the spot. “This… this…”
After stammering for a long while, she suddenly clapped her hands together. “Oh my goodness, my daughter is a genius.”
How had she never noticed that her daughter was a little genius before?! The child played wildly all day long; except for eating and sleeping, she was barely ever home. Her grades weren’t good either, scoring only sixties or seventies in every subject. But she never imagined her daughter could speak such words. She had never taught her daughter to analyze the reality of marriage this way. She herself had only realized it at her current age and hadn’t even begun to teach her daughter yet.
Lin Weisen didn’t think their daughter was a genius. Perhaps she had just come up with a random idea. She was still young and didn’t understand love at all, which was why she could be so rational.
He looked at his wife, whose eyes were shining with excitement. “Do you really want to do that?”
Song Lanfang nodded like a chicken pecking at grain. “If Qionghua really thinks this way, I think it’s fantastic. We won’t have to worry about her being mistreated after marriage, nor will we have to worry about her having no one to take care of her in her old age. What a wonderful thing.”
She could help raise the granddaughter, leaving her daughter to focus entirely on earning money. What a perfect arrangement.
Lin Weisen felt it was too early to think about these things. “If you get pregnant again and give birth to a son, there’s no need for us to keep Qionghua at home to take in a matrilocal husband. Besides, her idea of keeping the child and ditching the father is unreliable. A child growing up without a father will definitely be bullied by others.”
Song Lanfang put her hands on her hips and glared at him. “If you insist on having a son to be satisfied, then we might as well get a divorce sooner rather than later. Go find someone else to bear one for you. I won’t cater to this!”
Seeing his wife get angry, Lin Weisen quickly apologized to her. “I’m not saying we absolutely must have a son. Son or daughter, I love them just the same. I’m just afraid of the off-chance that when Qionghua grows up, she encounters a man she likes and insists on marrying out. We would be left with an empty house. What then? Are you going to go to court to sue her for breach of contract? Since our family’s conditions are better now, let’s just have another one. Having two children is wonderful. If the second child is also a girl, I’ll accept my lot and absolutely won’t force you to keep trying for a son. How about that?”
Song Lanfang had been born into a family that favored boys over girls. Back then, her bride price had been kept entirely by her family, and her parents hadn’t given her a single penny as a dowry. Having been married into the Lin family for nearly ten years, her mother-in-law brought it up to criticize her every single time.
She frowned. “If the second child is a boy, how will you divide the family property?”
“I promise to split it strictly in half, one half for each, absolutely no favoritism!” Lin Weisen raised his hand to swear. “Deal?”
Song Lanfang thought about it and found it acceptable.
With that topic settled, Lin Weisen asked his wife, “Should I teach this method to Eldest Brother and Eldest Sister-in-Law?”
Song Lanfang sighed. “It might not be useful even if you tell them. However, you can remind Eldest Brother not to rush into registering the marriage. A matrilocal husband is much more dangerous than a daughter-in-law marrying into the house; he must guard against it.”
Lin Weisen nodded. “It’s too early to speak of this now. Xinghua is still working in the county seat and hasn’t even come back yet.”
He happily told his wife that he and their daughter had done great business today, and the food was almost entirely sold out. “The hair accessories you made also sold quite a few. Hurry up and make more, business will probably be even better next month.”
Song Lanfang was quite surprised. Their town didn’t even have a proper factory, yet so many hair ties could be sold. It seemed she had underestimated everyone’s purchasing power.
Lin Weisen felt that doing business was truly profitable. “Deducting the cost from selling popsicles, grass jelly, and cold dishes, I made a net profit of over forty yuan a day. If it could be this much every day, I could earn one thousand two hundred yuan a month.”
Nowadays, an ordinary person’s monthly salary was only two hundred yuan. He could earn so much just by staying close to home, so how could he not be thrilled.
Song Lanfang shook her head. “How could things be that perfect? Over here, we can only attend the market every other day.”
Lin Weisen told her not to worry. “Our town has market days on the odd dates—the first, third, fifth, seventh, and ninth. But the neighboring town isn’t on the same schedule. Counting it all up, I can attend twenty-three markets a month. It’s much better than growing vegetables.”
The neighboring town was indeed a bit far, but it was not unfeasible if he just went early to claim a spot.
Song Lanfang did a careful calculation and realized it was indeed very profitable. She immediately became energized. “Good, doing business is good. Then let’s not farm the land in the future. It’s so exhausting, and we barely have a few pennies left over by the end of the year.”
Lin Weisen nodded repeatedly. “I was thinking the exact same thing. Once summer passes, I’ll switch to selling braised dishes. I see that the braised food shop in town does a roaring trade, but their dishes don’t even taste as good as what I can make.”
Song Lanfang supported her husband fully and offered him a suggestion. “You need to get a professional display cabinet. Go buy a glass cabinet later. Arrange all the dishes neatly inside and put up labels on it. That way it’s clear at a glance, and it looks clean to customers.”
Lin Weisen gave his wife a thumbs-up. “As expected, you’re the one who thinks things through thoroughly.” He paused. “Right, make me a set of chef’s clothes too. It needs to be white, with a tall hat. I see the chefs on TV all wearing those, it looks classy.”
Song Lanfang naturally agreed readily. “Leave it to me. I’ll go buy the fabric later.”
In the blink of an eye, the day of Dong Liang’s wedding arrived.
Even though it was a second marriage, he didn’t cut any corners. Not only did he secure a Santana as the wedding car, but he also provided a wedding dress for the bride. He himself was even more extraordinary, wearing a large gold necklace, a large gold ring on his finger, and a gold watch on his wrist. He was gleaming with gold from head to toe. Even the standard of today’s banquet was higher than usual, with half of the courses consisting of meat dishes.
Looking at the food, Lin Weisen whispered to his eldest brother, “Dong Liang really spent a fortune on this.”
Lin Weimu curled his lip, looking down on such a person. “His ex-wife stayed with him for so many years and never enjoyed a single day of good life. The moment the relocation compensation came through, he kicked her to the curb. Just you wait and see, nobody in the village respects him.”
Lin Weisen glanced at the people attending the wedding banquet. He felt his eldest brother’s words were wrong. Looking at these people’s eyes, all of them revealed envious gazes. He let out a sigh.
“He has always been jealous of how beautiful my wife is. Putting on such a grand show is just his way of proving himself to me.” Lin Weisen sneered. “But it only makes me despise him more.”
Fearing his third brother might cause trouble at someone else’s wedding, Lin Weimu quickly reminded him, “We live in the same village. Even if he had designs on our sister-in-law back then, he ultimately didn’t succeed. Don’t stir up trouble, or it will create a feud. Anyway, after the relocation, everyone will go their separate ways in the future, so just ignore him.”
Lin Weisen couldn’t be bothered with Dong Liang. “Even if you asked me to make a scene, I wouldn’t. Isn’t such delicious food better to enjoy?”
He took large bites of the dishes.
Not long after, Lin Qionghua came over to find him. “Dad, I want to eat too.”
If it were any other villager hosting a celebratory event, Lin Qionghua wouldn’t have come over to take advantage of it, but since it was Dong Liang’s celebration, she insisted on coming. It would be a waste not to!
Lin Weisen took a plate, picked up some food, and had his daughter sit beside him.
Lin Qionghua was small and had a small appetite, so she felt full after eating just a little. Returning the empty plate, she was just about to speak to her father when a piercing sound of horn-blowing came from outside.
Someone shouted outside, “The bride is here.”
Lin Qionghua immediately said to her father, “The bride is here! I’m going to take a look!”
She had seen the bride at the mall that day; the woman hadn’t been wearing makeup then and looked quite pretty. This time she would be wearing heavy makeup, so perhaps she would be even more beautiful. It was just a bit of a pity that she was paired with Dong Liang.
She ran out eagerly, only to see a crowd of people surrounding the bride as she entered the courtyard.
The adults stared with wide eyes, while the children, unable to hide their emotions, let out exaggerated shouts and whistles.
“Wow! She really is so beautiful!”
“Too gorgeous!”
“Where is the bride from? She looks so young.”
“She is young to begin with. I heard she’s only 19 years old. A whole twelve years younger than Dong Liang.”
“Ah! That old fellow Dong Liang actually managed to rob the cradle?! He has far too much good luck, hasn’t he?”
…
The relatives, friends, and villagers couldn’t tear their eyes away from the bride. Such a young and beautiful wife was more than enough for Dong Liang; Dong Liang was truly blessed.
Dong Liang felt he had never been as happy as he was today. He no longer needed to envy Lin Weisen; he had married a young and beautiful wife through his own merits.
His back was held perfectly straight, as if he had received a grand reward. His mouth remained stretched wide in a grin, exposing eight teeth.
With a loud bang of a salute, the party poppers exploded, and shiny, colorful confetti burst from overhead, drifting down like scattered flower petals.
Watching his smug, petty-minded expression, a mocking smile appeared at the corner of Lin Qionghua’s mouth. So just like in her previous life, he had married Yu Feifei after all. A good match! Simply wonderful!
The groom prepared to take the bride’s hand and escort her into the house under an umbrella. Just as his hand grasped hers, a sudden loud bang echoed from outside, startling everyone. They all turned their heads to look out.
The master of ceremonies was a bit dazed. “What happened? Who let off a firecracker?”
The wedding procession looked at one another; no one had set one off.
A child standing outside the door shouted at the top of his lungs, “The firecrackers were set off outside!”
Just as his words fell, another series of firecracker sounds erupted, one after another, moving from far to near, followed by the sound of gongs and drums banging away.
Lin Weisen felt something was amiss with this commotion. Disregarding his meal, he rushed out. Once he reached the entrance, he instantly burst out into roaring laughter. He shouted into the courtyard, “Dong Liang, your ex-wife got remarried today just like you! The two of you truly are a match made in heaven with such great mutual understanding, choosing to get married on the exact same day!”
Oh my goodness, he had only ever heard of people holding counter-events to pick a fight, but he had never expected someone to stage a counter-wedding. Wang Caixia was truly a remarkable talent. He admired no one else, but he truly admired her!