After hearing that, Luo Cuilan still wanted to speak more.
Fang Pingying was completely impatient and looked at her with raised eyebrows, "If you say one more word, I’ll take back everything I said, whether you marry or not is your business, nobody owes you anything. Don’t give that nonsense about going back on your word; this is not a courtroom where one is not allowed to retract one’s words."
Seeing this, Zhou Yuni gave Luo Cuilan a look, and Luo Cuilan fell silent; Zhou Yuni also stopped talking.
For Zhou Yuni, helping out Cuilan in front of Fang Pingying was doing her a favor, at the end of the day, it would help alleviate so of her burden.
Because just now, Luo Dashan had taken the responsibility of the dowry upon themselves, which ant that no matter how much the Zhang family gave as a bride price, they would have to chip in sothing.
Luo Zhiyong saw Fang Pingying make this decision and didn’t object, thinking they could discuss the matter later. After all, there was no rush, and his wife’s words were flexible — even a piece of cloth could count as a dowry.
Today, he was thoroughly disillusioned with Luo Cuilan; if it weren’t for the fact that she was his biological sister, he would no longer want to deal with her.
Later, when he saw that Luo Cuilan and the others had stopped talking, his anger subsided, and after being persuaded by Luo Dashan, he did not insist on neglecting Luo Cuilan’s affairs.
The family did not feel like eating much, so after a simple al, Zhou Yuni asked Luo Cuilan and Luo Honglan to go inside the house, and they waited in the courtyard for the Zhang family to arrive.
Soon after the Luo family finished their midday al, the Zhang family arrived.
Fang Pingying had so recollection of Zhang Jianguo’s parents. Mrs. Zhang was Zhang Jianguo’s stepmother, nad Su Yan, and at a glance, one could tell she was shrewd.
Mr. Zhang was nad Zhang Yusheng, who looked honest but was actually sharp and harsh, in so ways even more formidable than Su Yan.
But the girl following behind them, about seventeen or eighteen years old, did not leave any impression on Fang Pingying.
Fang Pingying asked Luo Honglan and then found out that the girl was called Xue Hua, Zhang Jianguo’s sister — not by blood, but brought over by Su Yan.
Apparently, she was not Su Yan’s biological daughter either, as Su Yan was unable to have children and had picked her up from outside when she was young and brought her ho, where she later took the Zhang surna.
It seed that after living through this life again, many things had indeed changed; Fang Pingying rembered that in her previous life, there was not this person nad Zhang Xuehua.
After the Luo family greeted Zhang Yusheng and the rest to sit down and exchanged a few pleasantries, the topic shifted to the marriage between Zhang Jianguo and Luo Cuilan.
Zhou Yuni got straight to the point and directly asked Su Yan, "Sister Su, with things as they are between the two children, how do you plan to deal with it?"
"What do you an?" Su Yan was slightly taken aback, then pretended to realize abruptly, "Are you talking about their marriage?"
"Yes..." Zhou Yuni was dumbfounded by Su Yan’s reaction, not knowing how to respond, as if Su Yan was unaware of Luo Cuilan’s pregnancy.
It was only after recovering that Zhou Yuni tried to explain, but Su Yan cut her off mid-sentence.
She laughed and said, "What more is there to say about their marriage? Didn’t we agree to wait until after the New Year for the wedding?"
Then, seeing Zhou Yuni about to speak up again, she cut in ahead, "Sister-in-law, don’t bla for being blunt, but your daughter Cuilan has a tough fate. If it were soone else’s family, who knows what they might say. But I’m not like those unreasonable parents, and breaking up the kids is not what we should do."
"Still, as country folks, we do need to pay attention to things like Feng Shui and destiny, so the wedding date we’ve set cannot be changed. Otherwise, if sothing bad happens to my family, no one can take responsibility for that."
Now Zhou Yuni was truly puzzled, as Su Yan seed to genuinely not know anything.
So, Zhou Yuni turned to Zhang Jianguo, who was sitting on the other side of the courtyard, and asked, "Jianguo, didn’t you tell your parents about your situation?"
"I..." Zhang Jianguo hesitated, his eyes showing difficulty as he glanced at Su Yan and Zhang Yusheng.
But everyone knew that Su Yan and Zhang Yusheng were aware of the situation, as Luo Cuilan said she had told them long ago.
Clearly, Su Yan was deliberately speaking this way to cover up what she had just ntioned and to express their family’s stance: the wedding date has to be at the end of the year and will absolutely not change.
Since that was the case, Luo Zhiyong didn’t hold back either, directly stating to Su Yan, "Auntie, Jianguo and Cuilan have been together for so many years, and our two families have t several tis. Let’s not beat around the bush."
"You must surely know that Jianguo has gotten Cuilan pregnant. Our family doesn’t care about Feng Shui or destiny, we focus on the practical. Now that Cuilan is carrying Jianguo’s child, and since they were engaged anyway, our side hopes to arrange the wedding as soon as possible."
Seeing Luo Zhiyong speaking so candidly, Su Yan stopped pretending.
She darkened her expression and said to Luo Zhiyong, "My dear nephew, our families had plans from long ago to wait until the end of the year for the wedding. I do not agree to an earlier marriage."
"As for the child Cuilan is carrying, if you all don’t want to go for an abortion, then let Cuilan move into my house. We’ll take care of her, and it’s only a few months until the New Year, so it won’t delay anything."
As soon as Su Yan finished speaking, Zhou Yuni burst out angrily at her, "What do you an by this? Having my daughter stay at your house without the proper status, how will the villagers not mock ?"
Su Yan scoffed, casting a glance at Luo Cuilan with unmistakable sarcasm in her eyes, "What’s there to mock? It’s not like the old days when we all ate from the sa big pot. Now everyone lives in their own ho and leads their own life, never mind what others say."
Su Yan had a sharp tongue, and if it ca to spewing twisted justifications, Zhou Yuni might not be her match.
Zhou Yuni couldn’t be bothered to argue and laid out her family’s plans with an assertive tone, "Anyway, I don’t care about all that from your side, but I need this wedding to be done by the end of this month. I can’t have the whole village knowing my daughter got pregnant before her marriage."
"It’s not the first ti this has happened. If people really wanted to talk, they would’ve already done so, not wait until now." This was spoken by Zhang Xuehua, who was sitting behind Su Yan. Her tone was harsher and likely even more fierce than Su Yan.
Moreover, the way she spoke to Luo Cuilan was clearly filled with disdain, as if this sister-in-law didn’t like Luo Cuilan very much, possibly even hostile.
Fang Pingying sighed inwardly, thinking how Luo Cuilan still defended the Zhang family. In truth, there was not a single good person in the Zhang family. If Luo Cuilan didn’t learn to love herself in this life, her fate might be even worse than in her previous one.
At the least in her previous life, there wasn’t such a formidable sister-in-law in their family.
Zhou Yuni and Luo Zhiyong found it beneath them to get angry with a teenage girl, so they ignored her words, turned to Zhang Jianguo, who had been silent all this ti, and asked him, "Jianguo, what do you have to say for yourself? How do you plan to take care of Cuilan?" (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please vote for it with a recomndation ticket or monthly ticket on Qidian. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian to read.)
Reviews
All reviews (0)