Dong Liang spun around slowly to look at Lin Weisen, who clearly wished for nothing more than chaos in the world. He had no time to deal with that man right now. His gaze pierced through the crowd that had automatically parted for him and landed on the entrance. There stood Wang Caixia, usually a plain woman, dressed in a bright red wedding outfit with meticulous makeup, staring back at him with utter disdain.
There was quite a distance between them, and Dong Liang unconsciously took a few steps forward. As Wang Caixia’s face came clearly into view, he realized that when the usually dusty, disheveled woman wore makeup, she was actually quite beautiful.
She glanced at Dong Liang, then turned to Gu Laoqi, who had come to fetch the bride, and said, “Quick! Call him Papa!”
As she spoke, she gave her son a gentle push on his back.
Xiaobao was still young and genuinely called out sweetly in front of everyone, “Papa!”
That single word “Papa” felt like a resounding slap across Dong Liang’s face. He wasn’t even dead yet, and his own son was already calling someone else “Papa”! Wang Caixia was pushing things way too far!
Dong Liang’s face darkened completely, his fists clenching so hard that his knuckles cracked. Standing at the doorway, he glared up at the woman on the back of the pickup truck, demanding through gritted teeth, “Wang Caixia, what do you think you’re doing?!”
Wang Caixia acted as though she had only just noticed him. She waved at him with a sweet smile and said, “Getting married, of course. I’m marrying Gu Laoqi, and he will be Xiaobao’s father from now on.”
Dong Liang’s brow furrowed into a deep frown. “I am Xiaobao’s father.”
“You are the old father; Gu Laoqi is the new father. Who else is going to raise Xiaobao from now on?” Wang Caixia swept her eyes over the beautiful bride inside the courtyard, then looked back at Dong Liang’s pitch-black expression, adding in a thoroughly infuriating tone, “Oh, by the way, Xiaobao’s name has been changed now. He’s called Gu Yang!”
The surrounding crowd erupted into a clamor, and even Lin Weisen gasped. This woman was truly ruthless; she had actually changed Xiaobao’s surname.
At this time, household registration management was lax, and mismatched identities were very common, let alone changing names and surnames.
Lin Weisen’s stomach was aching from trying to hold it in. He hadn’t intended to cause a scene today, but he found it too amusing to control himself, and a laugh slipped out with a loud snort.
Haha!
His laugh was incredibly prominent. Like a drop of water falling into a pan of hot oil, the scene instantly boiled over.
People who had previously only been exchanging glances now began whispering to one another, discussing this fresh piece of gossip.
“I told you long ago that Gu Laoqi and Wang Caixia were seeing each other, and you didn’t believe me!”
Dong Liang looked at Gu Laoqi, his eyes sharp as daggers. “What right do you have to change my son’s surname?”
Gu Laoqi hadn’t been the one to change Xiaobao’s surname; Wang Caixia had insisted on it. But at a moment like this, he couldn’t push his own wife forward as an excuse, so he could only remain awkwardly silent.
Gu Laoqi was timid, but the Gu family was not. In particular, the Gu family boasted a large number of members. It hadn’t been easy for Gu Laoqi to marry a wife and gain a son for free, so they were determined to defend this marriage.
They shielded Gu Laoqi behind them and glared back at Dong Liang. One person could never be a match for a crowd, so Dong Liang had absolutely no way of dealing with Gu Laoqi and Wang Caixia, and could only swallow his anger and accept it.
Both sides proceeded with their respective weddings.
Lin Weisen caught a good opportunity to ask his daughter, “Have you heard if Wang Caixia plans to hold a banquet?”
Lin Qionghua shook her head. “I haven’t heard anything.”
She wanted to ask about it too. “Is she not planning to host a wedding feast?”
Even though it was a second marriage for Wang Caixia, it was Gu Laoqi’s first time getting married. Since the wedding was being held, it would be a huge financial loss not to collect the wedding gifts and host a banquet. But if their family was going to host one, shouldn’t they have notified the villagers in advance?
However, this confusion was soon resolved. Lin Qionghua ran over to the Gu family’s place and told him upon her return, “Uncle Gu said the banquet will be held tomorrow, and they are just fetching the bride today.”
Lin Weisen was speechless; he had never seen a wedding conducted this way.
“I reckon they were afraid Dong Liang would change his wedding date, so they kept it a secret the whole time.” The idea behind doing this was likely Wang Caixia’s. Holding a grudge, she simply wanted to humiliate Dong Liang at his own wedding.
When the father and daughter returned home, Song Lanfang lamented, “I didn’t expect the wife Dong Liang married to be quite beautiful. Where is she from?”
“From out of town.” Lin Weisen didn’t know much either. “I heard her family demanded a very high bride price. Twenty thousand yuan, which is twice as expensive as Zhou Dayong’s wife.”
Song Lanfang felt it was normal. “After all, Dong Liang is so much older than her.”
Lin Weisen then recounted what had happened at the wedding venue, and Song Lanfang couldn’t hold back her laughter either. “Serves him right! Let him show off blindly, how utterly embarrassing.”
She then asked, “What about Dabao? How is he?”
Lin Weisen genuinely hadn’t spotted Dabao. He turned to look at his daughter. “Did you see him?”
Lin Qionghua shook her head. “I didn’t see him.”
Song Lanfang didn’t think much of it. “Perhaps he was running around playing somewhere.”
Those words were still fresh in their ears when a moderately significant incident occurred close to dusk.
Lin Qionghua was at home helping her mother cut fabric to make hair accessories when Qingqing came over to look for her. “There’s more entertainment to watch at Uncle Dong Liang’s house, are you going?”
Lin Qionghua jumped up immediately. “Yes, I am!”
She couldn’t miss any entertainment from his house. Not only her, but Lin Weisen also stopped making grass jelly, and Song Lanfang paused her accessory making. The family of three locked the door and ran over together to watch the commotion.
By the time the four of them arrived, the front of Dong Liang’s house was already packed with people.
In their region, there was no custom of wedding hazing. After finishing the banquet, people would either go home or watch the performance troupe play their horns. There was no reason to block someone’s front door like this. These people were likely all drawn in by the commotion.
Because they arrived late, a row had already broken out inside. Song Lanfang patted the eldest sister-in-law in front of her. “What’s the commotion about?”
Mu Xiaocao turned around, and seeing it was her, replied in a low voice, “The bride didn’t know Dong Liang had two sons. Previously, Dong Liang lied to her, saying he was divorced and that both sons were raised by his ex-wife. Just now, Dabao popped out from somewhere, and Dong Liang told him to call her ‘Mom.’ The bride was unhappy, and so a row broke out over it.”
Song Lanfang was filled with disgust. “Isn’t that just marriage fraud?”
She thought as much. Why would such a beautiful girl willingly become a stepmother to someone else’s children?
Yu Feifei had already changed into casual clothes and was holding her bundle, preparing to leave. Dong Liang kept blocking her path to prevent her from going, apologizing to her in a humble, subservient manner.
The surrounding relatives and friends were all helping to persuade her together.
“He already has a son, which saves you the trouble of giving birth. What a wonderful thing. Why are you angry?!”
“That’s right, entering a household and leaving it again isn’t that simple. Why make things so difficult?”
“Dong Liang already dotes on his wife enough, you absolutely cannot leave.”
Yu Feifei wiped her tears, crying in a pitiful and moving manner. “I don’t want to be a stepmother.”
She pointed at Dong Liang and scolded him fiercely, “I told you before that it’s impossible for me to be a stepmother. Why did you lie to me?!”
She clutched Dong Liang’s clothes, pounding and hitting him, leaving the suit on his body entirely rumpled.
Dong Liang coaxed her patiently, promising to take her to the county seat tomorrow to buy new clothes, before she finally let her anger dissipate slightly.
Lin Qionghua looked at the four pieces of gold jewelry the bride was wearing, each one shining brightly. She clicked her tongue in admiration; this woman’s methods were truly sophisticated. No wonder Dong Liang had stumbled into a trap with her.
Yu Feifei was ultimately coaxed back into the room by Dong Liang, and the wedding proceeded as normal.
The horns sounded once more, and everyone went back to their respective homes.
On the way back, Lin Weisen still felt a bit unsatisfied. “The bride was actually coaxed into staying just like that. She was far too easy to persuade.”
He had thought the bride would return to her maiden home, leaving Dong Liang to sleep in an empty room alone. He hadn’t expected the row to be all bark and no bite, and that she would genuinely be won over by Dong Liang’s coaxing.
Song Lanfang, however, didn’t think there was anything strange about it. “She’s an out-of-town bride, where do you expect her to go?! Besides, the marriage is already finalized. If she wants to back out, she would have to get a divorce. Do you think she can bear to divorce him?”
Dong Liang was indeed dishonest, but he had money now. If Yu Feifei divorced him, she would become a divorcée. The options available for a second marriage were far inferior to those of a first marriage. Other people wouldn’t care about the reason behind her divorce.
Lin Weisen thought about it and realized she was right. He couldn’t hold back his amusement. “I feel that since Wang Caixia married back into the same village, the ex-wife and the current wife will be in the same place. There will be plenty of entertainment to watch in the future.”
The scene Wang Caixia made today was clearly targeted at Dong Liang. If they ever dared to mistreat Dabao, Wang Caixia would definitely make a massive scene at the Dong family home. Dong Liang would have to mediate between his ex-wife and current wife, so his household would be filled with excitement from now on!
Seeing his schadenfreude, Song Lanfang laughed along with him.
As the family of three walked back, Song Lanfang spoke of her plans for tomorrow. “You’re going to the neighboring town’s market tomorrow, so I need to make a trip to Meihua Village.”
Lin Weisen raised an eyebrow. “Why? The concrete floor hasn’t finished curing yet. It’s too early to move in now.”
“No.” Song Lanfang was in no hurry to move out. “I want to go see my mother. At the same time, I’ll ask my mother to help water the fields. You have to do business now and I still have to make hair ties, so we don’t have time to water the fields. My mother is right there in Meihua Village, so letting her help achieves both goals perfectly.”
Lin Weisen nodded. “That works too.”
He thought for a moment. “Remember to wear all the gold jewelry I bought for you, and let that eldest sister of yours who doesn’t get along with you see how comfortable your life is now. Let her envy you too.”
Song Lanfang burst out laughing. “She’s already married out and won’t be returning to her maiden home tomorrow, so how would she know?”
“Word spreads from one person to ten, and ten to a hundred. It won’t take long before she finds out. Besides, married daughters return to their maiden homes during holidays and festivals. She will find out sooner or later.” The more Lin Weisen thought about it, the better he felt about the idea. “You’ll never have to envy her again. Perhaps once she learns you have four pieces of gold now, she’ll even be jealous of you.”
Ever since Song Lanfang bought the gold jewelry, her fixation on their childhood discord had faded. However, hearing her husband’s words, she couldn’t help but feel amused.
Listening to the conversation between the two, a thought suddenly popped into Lin Qionghua’s mind. “Mom, she might not necessarily envy you just because you bought gold jewelry. But if you also go to the county seat to buy a house, she might truly be jealous of you.”
She was trying her hardest to urge her parents to buy a house in the county seat, as housing prices would skyrocket in the future.
Song Lanfang, however, didn’t like living in the city. “The space there is so small, how could it be as comfortable as the village? Furthermore, once I’m in the city, I won’t know anyone. I won’t even have anyone to talk to. I’m definitely not going.”
Failing to persuade her, Lin Qionghua wasn’t discouraged either. Having pondered over it repeatedly these past few days, she had already thought of a way to make her parents willingly buy a house in the county seat. However, there was no rush for this matter. She looked at her mother. “In that case, there’s no need for you to show off this time. It’s just a few pieces of jewelry, nothing worth flaunting. She might even call you a bumpkin who treats gold like a precious treasure.”
Song Lanfang felt differently. “A house is just for living in; it doesn’t matter where you live. Jewelry is different. It doesn’t provide food or drink, which shows that your father cares about me and is willing to spend money on me. What do we women compare? Isn’t it just about whose man knows how to dote on his wife?”
Lin Qionghua felt helpless. Her mother was happy, but given her maternal grandmother’s personality, would she remain indifferent upon seeing the gold? Her mother hadn’t experienced the incident of being rejected by her relatives from her previous life yet, so she didn’t know that her maternal grandmother didn’t actually love her. In short, her mother hadn’t accumulated enough disappointment yet and wouldn’t be able to withstand her maternal grandmother’s coaxing at all. The moment she visited her grandmother’s house, those gold ornaments of hers wouldn’t be safe.
Upon returning home, Lin Weisen and Song Lanfang went about their respective tasks.
Lin Qionghua went back to her own room, opened the drawer, and looked at the few pieces of fake gold jewelry lying inside. A brilliant idea flashed through her mind.