Transmigrated Farmgirl's Scheme to Get Rich - Chapter 190
Mrs. Li’s Interference
In Mrs. Li’s eyes, the Cao family were the best possible in-laws in the village. It wasn’t that she didn’t want her daughter to marry into the Cao family and climb up the social ladder, but rather that she didn’t dare to. But now, she thought that her opportunity had come.
Xiuying had heard many stories from storytellers, and in them, the concubines were more often than not sold to their husband’s family for money like prostitutes. After entering their husband’s family, the concubines’ statuses are also similar to servants, and the main wife can abuse them as much as she wants. Even if a concubine has children, they would be considered mistress-born, and there is a world of difference between them and the main wife’s children.
Xiuying naturally wouldn’t agree with her mother’s opinion, but Mrs. Li had set her mind and was insistent on making this marriage occur.
Ignoring Xiuying’s complaints, Mrs. Li went to Ms. Liang’s to rescind the engagement, taking the four items of the minor engagement gift with her.
“I think we should stop the engagement plans between our children!”
Ms. Liang opened her mouth to ask why, but thought it sounded like she was begging Mrs. Li, so simply said, “Let’s stop the engagement plans then!”
Mo Feng was laying down the foundations of the house with Mo Zenian at the south of the courtyard when he heard his engagement with Xiuying had been rescinded, and instantly threw his shovel on the ground, “If the engagement has been rescinded, why are we building foundations?! Why are we building a house?!”
Ms. Liang went over to poke him in the shoulder, “What? With your looks, their family is the one that has to impress us and not the other way around. It’s a good thing that this engagement has been rescinded. You’ll get a better offer from a matchmaker in no time.”
Mo Feng pouted while squatting on the ground, “But I don’t want to, I like Xiuying. You can’t find a better wife than her!”
Mo Zenian also said, “Xiuying is a very capable worker, even better than Mo Ling.”
“But that family is truly too detestable, each and every one of them is obsessed with money.”
“In the future, Xiuying will become one of our family, and will have to rely on our family for everything, especially when she gives birth to a child. There’s no way she wouldn’t plan the best possible life for her child.”
“What use is saying these things now, when their family had just rescinded the engagement?”
At the same time, Xiuying’s family was also engaged in a heated row. The only person who wanted to have ties to the Cao family was Mrs. Li, and the first to object was Mr. Li, “It was fine for you to become a servant of the Cao family for a salary. But now, you want our daughter to become their concubine, not even the main wife. Our family cannot bear such a stain on our reputation!”
“What’s wrong with being a concubine? She’ll be able to live a good life in the metropolis in the future, have you ever been to the metropolis?”
While Xiuying’s family was locked in a heated argument, the tension in the Cao family could be cut with a knife. It was so thick it was suffocating.
“Zhang’er, I’ll ask you one last time. Are you willing or unwilling to carry on with this marriage?”
Cao Zhang’s face was calm, and he indifferently said the three words ‘I am unwilling’ before returning to his room.
Mrs. Cao switched the target of her ire to Mr. Cao, “It’s all your fault for manipulating my son behind my back. He doesn’t listen to me anymore!”
Mr. Cao slapped the table in anger for the first time because of her, “Our son’s grown up, he won’t listen to you for the rest of his life. Do you want him to ask your opinion on everything even after he becomes an official?”
“I’m just doing this for his future!”
Mr. Cao laughed coldly, “His future! The Lu family isn’t the emperor, and it’s not like marrying their daughter will be able to let him live the rest of his life without worry. Don’t forget, the Lu family is just a military family, and even Lu Junming hasn’t taken the imperial examination, not to mention an outsider like Zhang’er.”
“What are you bringing Lu Junming up for, he was born from a mistress. Lu Jiao was the firstborn wife-born daughter of the Lu family, and her grandfather is the administrator of the Upper Valley, who talks to officials from the palace on a regular basis. Even Lu Hong was only able to become an official in the Upper Valley because of him.”
“He still has to go to the battlefield and live a life of danger.”
“He is a military official, and wouldn’t be able to go to court without a summons. If he doesn’t have a massive contribution in war, he won’t be able to be memorialised in his lifetime. Our Zhang’er will become a scholastic official in the future, and be able to talk politics in court.”
They were still bickering over this matter when Mrs. Li said loudly from outside the house, “Madam, Madam are you here?”
Mrs. Cao sighed before telling her to enter, and Mrs. Li spoke excitedly while entering the house, “Madam, I’ve already rescinded Xiuying’s engagement, we…”
Mrs. Cao shook her head reluctantly, “The main wife hasn’t married into our family yet! Why did you rush pre-emptively?”
Mr. Cao stood up, only saying the word ‘degenerate’ before going to his in-home clinic.
Mrs. Cao’s face was dark, and she stayed silent. Feeling awkward by standing there and doing nothing, Mrs. Li could only return home.
Seeing her return home gloomily, the people in her family knew that things had not gone as she had planned.
On Ms. Liang’s side, now that Mo Feng and Xiuying’s engagement had been rescinded, she started thinking about which family’s daughters would be more suitable. The first person she thought of was Xiaoyue.
As they often had interactions with the Wu family in the past, Ms. Liang decided to personally go to test the waters.
She went to the Wu family with salted duck eggs and a few dishes. Governing official Wu’s back still had not fully recovered, so he was resting in the courtyard.
Ms. Liang entered and said she wanted to find Xiaoyue to ask about the work from the workshop, and governing official Wu pointed inside the house, “Xiaoyue’s in her room! Just go!”
Before coming, she had already thought about how to probe about Xiaoyue. She pretended to take a few steps towards the house before stopping and saying, “Xiaoyue is such a quiet kid, but is capable both in the household and on the fields. Anyone who marries her will have several lifetimes of fortune. Speaking of, Xiaoyue’s already thirteen! She’s of marriageable age, I was wondering what kind of family you wanted to marry her to?”
The meaning of her words was easily decipherable, and governing official Wu understood what she was suggesting. The corner of his mouth twisted upwards secretly as he said, “My Xiaoyue is too honest, and I’m afraid she might be mistreated if she marries to another family, so I was thinking of finding her a live-in husband.”
Ms. Liang’s heart cooled and she said resignedly, “No self-respecting person would be willing to become a live-in husband.”
Governing official Wu faked a sigh, “As long as he is hard-working and treats Xiaoyue well, that’s enough. I don’t care about anything else.”
Ms. Liang would under no circumstances allow Mo Feng to be a live-in husband, and she directly turned to leave without even entering the house. As she left, she encountered Matchmaker Wong as she entered the courtyard. The two looked at each other without saying anything, but Matchmaker Wong’s name was famous in the surrounding villages, and Ms. Liang had seen her in the past.
It went without question that the matchmaker had arrived to discuss Xiaoyue’s marriage. Ms. Liang didn’t go far, and listened outside the courtyard gate.
Matchmaker Wong said, “Governing official Wu, Dagan’s family agreed. They’ll do what you proposed, and I’ll find an ideal date for the ceremony!”
Governing official Wu replied, “Good. Once you’ve found an ideal date, I’ll pick you up to officiate their engagement ceremony.”
Without a dowry, many of the rituals of the engagement had been stripped away, and only the ceremony was left. The two would be engaged after a declaration to the villagers.
The chosen auspicious date for the wedding was May twelfth. It was optimal as all of the villagers would have finished their harvests by then, and the work from the workshop would’ve mostly been completed as well.
Mo Feng was nominally managing the accounts of the work claimed by the villagers, but in practice, he had done nothing at all and was only waiting for a paycheck.
Since their engagement had technically been rescinded, Xiuying hadn’t gone to the Mo family in the past few days.
Today, when Dagan was having his lunch in the kitchen, Mo Yan had also entered and noticed that he wasn’t eating his usual cornbread and salted vegetables. Not only did he have white bread, he also had salted eggs and meat.
“Brother Dagan, what’s the occasion for you to have meat? Did your mother become more generous towards you?”
Dagan smiled and said, “This was prepared to me by Xiaoyue, my mum is nowhere near that generous.”
“Sister Xiaoyue?!”
“We’re about to be engaged.”
Both of them were realistic and hard-working, with amiable temperaments. The only question was how governing official Wu would have chosen Dagan’s family for his daughter.
Dagan followed up by saying, “Truth be told, I’m basically going to be a live-in husband, and just that Uncle Pingshun didn’t made that explicit to save me some face.”
And with that clarified, the engagement made complete sense.
P.S. I am completely exhausted. Real life matters hit me like a truck, so I haven’t been able to post much. Forgive me if some of the quality seems lacking as my brain cells don’t exist anymore. There is naught but cotton between my ears.