When Yang Heping arrived at the door carrying gifts, the Meng family had just finished eating.
Zheng Wan had left work early today and made it in time for the Meng family’s dinner.
To show his sincerity regarding the discussion of the bride price, Yang Heping had once again brought quite a lot of things.
Seeing Yang Heping carrying so many gifts, Meng Jun guessed that they had come to discuss the bride price, and he immediately hosted them with proper etiquette.
After the adults of both families exchanged a few pleasantries, they gradually got down to business.
Once the formal mention of the bride price amount and the necessary items came up, Meng Jun spoke the words he had prepared long ago.
“Since both children have agreed, let’s talk about the bride price for the engagement. My family wants 2,800 yuan, one or two pieces of gold jewelry, and at least one major household appliance.”
Sitting opposite him, Yang Qing heard this and knew that a 2,800 yuan bride price was not a small sum.
Although he had been working for four or five years, more than half of his salary during these years had been handed over to his eldest aunt. The money in his bankbook totaled only about 2,000 yuan.
If his uncle hadn’t withdrawn 6,000 yuan for him today, he truly wouldn’t have been able to afford this bride price.
While Yang Qing was thinking, Yang Heping readily agreed first. “A 2,800 yuan bride price is no problem, and a major household appliance is no problem either.”
Hearing Yang Heping agree so readily, Li Mei thought to herself that the amount she had discussed with Meng Jun at noon was too low; she should have asked for more if she had known.
When she and Meng Jun discussed the details of the bride price at noon, the 2,800 yuan was her suggestion, while the gold jewelry and appliances were Meng Jun’s.
The gold jewelry and appliances certainly wouldn’t end up in the Meng family’s pockets, so she didn’t care whether they were included or not.
Meng Jun mentioned gold jewelry and appliances to keep up appearances. He was, after all, a restaurant owner; he couldn’t let his daughter be married off in a shabby manner and be laughed at by others.
In the next second, Yang Heping spoke again. “Comrade Meng, I will add another 1,000 yuan to the bride price as a gesture of our Yang family’s sincerity for this marriage. As for gold jewelry, our family will have three pieces made for Xiao Ruo.”
Yang Heping felt ashamed whenever he thought about Liu Xiuying taking it upon herself to find Meng Ruo in an attempt to ruin the marriage.
He also felt self-reproach and guilt for all the years Liu Xiuying had spent tarnishing Yang Qing’s reputation. Therefore, these were all intended as compensation for them.
Yang Qing looked at his uncle in surprise.
Li Mei, listening from the side, widened her eyes. An extra 1,000 yuan? And he said it so easily. Just what kind of family was this Yang family?
Sitting in the corner, Zheng Wan, who had been listening the whole time, also widened her eyes in shock.
3,800 yuan? To her, this was simply an astronomical figure. In the past, when people in their village got married, she had often joined in the fun.
Back in her hometown, if a family could produce a bride price of six or seven hundred yuan, it was considered quite good. It was rare to see a bride price over a thousand; those cases were essentially people “selling” their daughters—regardless of the man’s conditions, they would let the daughter marry if he could pay that price.
Yet Meng Ruo’s bride price was 3,800 yuan, plus a major household appliance. The key was that the man wasn’t bad either—he was a college student, tall and handsome, with a decent job.
It would be a lie to say she wasn’t envious of such good conditions.
However, it was Meng Jun’s next words that truly left the mother and daughter speechless with shock.
“I, as her father, will not take a single penny of Xiao Ruo’s bride price. On the day Xiao Ruo gets married, I will personally place it in her dowry chest as her ‘box-packing’ money.”
“As for gold jewelry, her mother left behind a bracelet. When the time comes, that will also be placed in the dowry chest to ‘press the box,'” Meng Jun spoke grandly, his face looking somewhat excited.
Meng Jun had always had rather complex feelings for his daughter, Meng Ruo. As his biological daughter, he naturally didn’t want to treat her poorly, but she was, after all, just a daughter, and a daughter would eventually be married off. A married-off daughter is like spilled water. No matter how well he treated Meng Ruo, once she married out, she would belong to someone else’s family.
Today, Meng Jun was being unusually generous to his daughter, largely because he was moved by Yang Heping’s sincerity. Yang Heping was only Yang Qing’s uncle, yet he was so heroic and generous toward his nephew; how could he, a restaurant owner, be any worse than an electronics factory worker?
So, he had a moment of grand generosity as well.
Meng Jun was being grand, but Li Mei immediately became unhappy and even anxious.
“Old Meng, how can you give the entire bride price to Meng Ruo?” Perhaps out of anxiety, the pitch of Li Mei’s voice was very high, almost sharp, and she stood up excitedly.
Immediately, the remaining four people at the table looked at her together.
Meng Jun disliked Li Mei’s pettiness, which made him lose face in front of an outsider, and he shot her a harsh glare.
In the next second, Li Mei also realized her loss of composure and gave an awkward smile.
She sat down again and said with a forced smile, “What I meant was, the money shouldn’t all be given to the child. She hasn’t really managed a household before; she wouldn’t know how to live a life of careful calculation.”
Meng Jun saw through Li Mei’s thoughts at a glance—it turned out she was eyeing his daughter’s bride price.
“What? Can I not even make the decision regarding my own daughter’s bride price?” Meng Jun asked with a dark face.
Li Mei bit her lip unwillingly, nodded submissively, and whispered, “You can make the decision, you can make the decision. I won’t say any more.”
With an outsider present now, it truly wasn’t appropriate for her to say more. It would be better to wait until the Yang family left to discuss it with Meng Jun again.
“I’ve let you see a joke,” Meng Jun said with some shame. “Women are just petty.”
“It’s nothing, it’s nothing. Comrade Li’s consideration is also correct,” Yang Heping hurriedly said politely.
Hearing this, Li Mei saw that Yang Heping was speaking for her. She wanted to follow his words and express her meaning more subtly. Unexpectedly, before she had a chance to speak, Meng Jun spoke again.
“Since your Yang family has shown sincerity, our Meng family cannot be lacking either.” Meng Jun once again spoke with grand passion. “Didn’t her mother leave her a bracelet? I’ll have another one made for her, making it a perfect pair, to wish for a happy and harmonious union.”
This time, even Meng Ruo looked at her “cheap father” in surprise.
Were these two engaged in some kind of bidding war? One side raised the price, and the other side raised it too.
What was wrong with her cheap father today? Had he been body-swapped or possessed? He was being so generous to her.
The custom for marrying off a daughter in Fengzhou City was that the bride price generally stayed with the maternal family. Especially in families with an older or younger brother, 100% of the bride price would stay with the maternal family and would not be distributed to the married-off daughter.
Why? Because this bride price had to be saved for the brother to get a wife.
Originally, she had planned to find a way to get her hands on this bride price, ideally leaving not a single penny for the Meng family. Who knew that before she could even speak, Meng Jun would simply wave his hand and give the entire bride price to her.
3,800 yuan. A bride price of 3,800 yuan in the 90s wasn’t an extreme amount, but it wasn’t small either.
Money was valuable at this time, and bride prices weren’t as exaggerated as the later sums of two or three hundred thousand yuan. In any case, everyone gave according to their family conditions—some gave as little as six or seven hundred, while others gave up to ten thousand or more.
What Meng Ruo hadn’t expected was that Meng Jun would get so carried away that he added two more gold bracelets for her, turning the “three pieces of gold” directly into “five pieces of gold.”
In another ten or twenty years, a set of “three gold pieces” or “five gold pieces” would be a standard requirement for marriage; without them, one would be mocked by relatives and friends.
Here, Yang Heping seemed to be getting carried away, and Meng Jun followed suit, influenced by his emotions.
One moment the bride price was completely waived, the next he was giving her her mother’s bracelet as a dowry. Now, because of Li Mei’s anxious protest which made him lose face, he added another gold bracelet for her.
Impressive. She hadn’t said a word or done a thing, yet she had gained 3,800 yuan and five pieces of gold.
When Li Mei heard that another gold bracelet was to be made for Meng Ruo, she became anxious again, but she didn’t dare say more. She feared that if she said the wrong thing, Meng Jun would continue his excitement and add even more things to Meng Ruo’s dowry.
“Old Meng,” she only called out.
But Meng Jun immediately glared at her, and she could only fall silent.
At the end of the discussion between the two families, Yang Heping took out a piece of red paper. On the red paper were written two auspicious dates—one for the engagement gifts and one for the wedding. One was three days later, and the other was ten days later.
Meng Jun looked at the dates and felt they were fine.
Subsequently, the two families spoke about the banquet.
Meng Jun became grandly passionate once again. “I run a restaurant. Let’s do this: the banquet will be held at my place. I’ll save you some money and charge based on cost; it will be at least half as cheap as holding it elsewhere.”
Yang Qing once again shook Meng Jun’s hand and said gratefully, “Then thank you, future in-law.”
Listening from the side, Li Mei rolled her eyes and nearly fainted from anger.
When others married off their daughters, they gained a certain amount of money; no sucker married off a daughter and then paid money into it. Li Mei’s heart was full of regret; if she had known, she wouldn’t have mentioned that 2,800 yuan bride price to Meng Jun.
Who knew her wasted efforts would end up benefiting that girl Meng Ruo, with the money ultimately going into her pocket?
After the two from the Yang family left, Meng Jun was still immersed in his grand generosity. He felt that there couldn’t be many fathers in the world as grand as he was, and probably very few who treated their daughters as well as he did—but he, Meng Jun, was one of them.
When he finished his bath and returned to the bedroom, he began to give Li Mei instructions.
“The gold bracelet Xiao Ruo’s mother left behind—I remember you put it away, right? Give it to Xiao Ruo. In two days, go to the jewelry store and have another one made in a similar style.”
“Ask me for the money,” Meng Jun said grandly.
Li Mei was originally still angry about the bride price, but when she heard Meng Jun mention the gold bracelet, she panicked.
The gold bracelet left by Meng Ruo’s mother had long ago been taken by her to the jewelry store to be melted down to make a pair of earrings, a ring, and a necklace for herself.
Because it was a memento left by Meng Ruo’s mother and she had handled it without permission, she hadn’t dared tell Meng Jun.
But she immediately thought of a way to solve it.
“Old Meng, I think a mix of one new and one old would look rather bad. Why don’t we melt the old bracelet and make it into a new one? That way both gold bracelets will be new, and they’ll look good on the bride’s hands,” Li Mei suggested.
In any case, she would be going to the store alone to have the bracelets made. At that time, she would have the jewelry store people make a “gold-wrapped silver” piece—the weight would be there, and money would be saved.
“That works,” Meng Jun said nonchalantly.
After saying that, he seemed to remember something and said, “However, you should still ask Xiao Ruo what she thinks. That gold bracelet is her mother’s memento, after all.”
“Yes, yes, yes,” Li Mei agreed with a smile.
She wouldn’t ask; asking would expose her.
After speaking, Li Mei asked tentatively, “Old Meng, do you really intend to give the entire bride price to Meng Ruo?”
“Of course,” Meng Jun said as a matter of course. “Besides, I promised in front of the Yang family. Can I, a grown man, not keep my word?”
“Yes, yes, I was just asking.” Seeing that she couldn’t change anything, Li Mei could only say resentfully.
Li Mei’s plan for the gold-wrapped silver was clicking away in her head, but this plan soon came to naught.
The next morning at breakfast, Meng Ruo told Meng Jun that she had taken half a day off because she wanted to go to the jewelry store with Li Mei to choose the style for the bracelets.
Meng Jun, of course, agreed wholeheartedly.
“Sure. Your Auntie Li has nothing to do at home anyway; you can go whenever.”
“By the way, your mother’s gold bracelet is with your Auntie Li.”
“Originally, I thought about going to the jewelry store to have another bracelet of a similar style made for you. But yesterday your Auntie Li said that having one new and one old on your hand wouldn’t look good, so she suggested melting the old one to make a new one.”
“Since it’s your mother’s memento, whether to melt it or not is up to you.”
Meng Ruo nodded with a smile. “Alright, Dad.”
She actually knew that her mother’s gold bracelet had long been melted by Li Mei.
Because in the original book, this matter was also exposed later, though it didn’t have much impact on Li Mei at that time.
Precisely because she knew this, Meng Ruo guessed that Li Mei would definitely tamper with the pair of gold bracelets.
So, by suddenly proposing to go to the jewelry store together to choose styles in the morning, her main goal was to catch her off guard.
And indeed, the test worked. Talking about “one new and one old looking bad”—finding such a dignified excuse.
Since the memento left by the original owner’s mother had already been melted, she might as well use this point to make Li Mei “bleed” heavily.