Zhao Meiyun casually slammed the two bottles of Red Sorghum Liquor down on the table.
“So this is what the family of a big factory director is like? I never expected you to be even more calculating than us country bumpkins!”
“Your Lu family has never raised a daughter, so you don’t know how precious a daughter is. Our Zhixia was a perfectly respectable unmarried girl, and after marrying into your family, is she really worth only these two bottles of cheap liquor?”
“What, are you trying to fob us off like some poor relatives? Even a young man from an ordinary rural family could easily come up with this much. You’re the son of a factory director, and you actually have the nerve to bring this?”
Every word was meant to belittle the Lu family’s stinginess.
Lu Huaiyuan was already looking cold, and the hostility radiating from him instantly threatened to break free.
He had not even had the chance to question them about the room full of junk, yet this snobbish woman actually dared to turn around and accuse them first?
Lu Huaiyuan was just about to explode when a hand gently tugged at his clothes.
Shen Zhixia stepped past him and moved forward, standing in front of him.
Looking at Zhao Meiyun’s indignant face, Shen Zhixia spoke calmly.
“Aunt Zhao, food can be eaten carelessly, but words cannot be spoken carelessly.”
“Everyone across the country is advocating thrift, frugality, and plain living. The Lu family is a cadre family, and as the director of a factory, my father-in-law naturally sets an example. We absolutely do not engage in extravagance and waste.”
“The Great Leader himself taught us that corruption and waste are serious crimes. Could it be that you are deliberately trying to frame a revolutionary cadre?”
Shen Zhixia spoke clearly and firmly, immediately placing an unmistakable political accusation over Zhao Meiyun’s head.
“In that case, I’ll have to speak to the production team leader and tell him that your political awareness is too low and that you need to spend more time studying!”
Zhao Meiyun was stunned by the retort. She opened and closed her mouth several times, but couldn’t come up with a single response.
Shen Zhixia had no intention of letting her off so easily.
“Besides, Huaiyuan and I have only just gotten married, and we still have a long life ahead of us. These gifts may not be the most expensive, but they’re quite respectable by rural standards. If you really don’t like them, we’ll simply take them back.”
Shen Zhixia made it as though she were about to gather the bundles from the table.
“Hey, hey! You ungrateful little wretch! Stop!”
Seeing that she couldn’t win the argument, Zhao Meiyun immediately resorted to the signature tactic of a village woman. She slapped both thighs, sat directly down on the floor, and began making a scene.
“Oh, Heaven above! It’s true that a child who isn’t your own can never truly be your own! I worked so hard to raise her. Even if I don’t deserve credit, I deserve recognition for all the hardship I endured! Now that she’s married into the city and gone off to enjoy a good life, she comes back with this pile of junk to fob me off with, and now she’s even lecturing me! Being a stepmother is so difficult…”
Zhao Meiyun wailed loudly, but barely shed any tears. Every so often, she glanced toward Shen Dashan, who had remained silent the entire time.
Shen Dashan was still hunched over on the low stool nearby, the hand holding his cigarette trembling slightly. He opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something.
But after glancing at Lu Huaiyuan’s expression, he ultimately closed his mouth.
Lu Huaiyuan looked at Zhao Meiyun throwing her tantrum on the floor, the disgust in his eyes almost overflowing.
He grabbed Shen Zhixia and pulled her behind him, his tall body blocking Zhao Meiyun’s revolting gaze.
“Shut up. Stop wailing!”
His voice wasn’t loud, but the authority that came naturally from years of mixing around on the streets, combined with the coldness in his tone, caused Zhao Meiyun’s wailing to stop abruptly.
“And you actually have the nerve to complain that the gifts aren’t enough?” Lu Huaiyuan looked down at her condescendingly. “I haven’t even asked you how the room my wife slept in for more than a decade became a storage room the moment I took her away for one day.”
Zhao Meiyun’s expression stiffened, and her eyes began darting around.
“That… that was only because there was nowhere else to put all the things in the house. Besides, she’s already married. A married daughter is like water that’s been poured out…”
“Well, that’s quite a ‘poured-out water’ you’ve got there!”
Lu Huaiyuan let out a cold laugh, his gaze suddenly falling on the hand Zhao Meiyun had braced against the floor.
A brand-new Plum Blossom women’s wristwatch was prominently displayed on her wrist.
It was one of the betrothal gifts the Lu family had given the Shen family.
“Since you say my Lu family is so calculating, then let me teach you how the accounts should be settled.”
“Strictly speaking, although the ‘Three Turners and One Ringer’ are part of the betrothal gifts, families that understand proper etiquette will add them to the bride’s dowry and then send them back with the newlyweds for them to use in their married life.”
Shen Zhixia’s eyes lit up slightly when she heard this. So there was actually such a custom?
She had only been transmigrated into the novel for a month, and in her previous life, she had never experienced the customs of this era. The original owner’s memories contained no knowledge of this either, so she had never known that the ‘Three Turners and One Ringer’ could be taken back!
“I didn’t care about these things originally, but since your Shen family isn’t even willing to leave your daughter a room to stay in when she comes back to visit her parents, then return everything.”
Lu Huaiyuan slowly rolled up his sleeves, his tone carrying an undeniable forcefulness.
The moment he said this, Zhao Meiyun sprang up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
“In your dreams! What kind of sense does it make to demand betrothal gifts back after they’ve already been given? Once they enter the door of my Shen family, they’re the property of my Shen family!”
She instinctively covered the watch on her wrist. Over the past two days, that watch had earned her more than enough envious looks.
“You’re refusing to give them back?” Lu Huaiyuan smiled with a hint of roguishness, but his eyes were as cold as ice. “Fine.”
He leaned forward slightly and spoke without the slightest hurry.
“You can go ask around in the county town and find out what happens to people who take something that belongs to me, Lu Huaiyuan.”
Zhao Meiyun shuddered all over, her face turning deathly pale.
Only then did she remember that after the matchmaker had come to propose the marriage, she had secretly asked someone to inquire about Lu Huaiyuan in the county town.
Lu Huaiyuan was the kind of man who could move freely in both the legitimate and underground worlds. His reputation was notorious throughout Jinxi County. If he ranked second, no one would dare claim first place.
It was only because this place was so far away, practically bordering the neighboring county, that they had heard so little about him.
If they truly drove this living King of Hell to the point of anger, their future days would become miserable, let alone whether they could keep these possessions.
Shen Dashan finally stood up.
“Give them back…”
As he spoke, he tremblingly removed the watch from Zhao Meiyun’s wrist and placed it on the table.
Then he went inside and brought out the sewing machine and radio.
There was also a brand-new 26-style women’s bicycle.
Shen Zhixia watched as Lu Huaiyuan carefully wiped the watch with a handkerchief, and the corners of her lips couldn’t help lifting slightly as her heart swelled with emotion.
Only now did she realize that this man was almost unfairly handsome.
Lu Huaiyuan didn’t want to spend another moment in this household.
After putting the watch on Shen Zhixia’s wrist, he efficiently tied the sewing machine and radio onto the rear rack. Then he pushed the women’s bicycle in front of Shen Zhixia.
“Can you ride?”
Shen Zhixia couldn’t exactly admit that she could, so she put on a hesitant expression.
“I think so… It doesn’t look too difficult.”
As soon as she got on, she deliberately swayed a couple of times from side to side before steadying the handlebars.
Just as the two of them were about to leave the courtyard, Zhao Meiyun’s chest heaved violently with anger, and her eyes seemed ready to bulge from their sockets.
The moment the bicycle was about to leave the courtyard gate, she finally spat out a vicious threat at Shen Zhixia’s retreating back.
“You little tramp, don’t get too pleased with yourself! Don’t forget, your household registration is still in the same book as mine!”
Shen Zhixia slightly turned her head on the bicycle, and a barely perceptible cold glint flashed through her clear eyes.