Chapter 50 Three Suitable

Chen Zhao told Jiang Yuan, "My parents want to live on their own. When they can no longer move, we brothers will take turns taking care of them."

Jiang Yuan, Xie Wanniang, and Hao Yu, who were listening in, all thought that Chen Zhao's parents were exceptionally intelligent people.

Not only did they decide to divide the family property among their sons as soon as the potential for conflict between the brothers emerged, but they also did not choose to live with their eldest son's family after the division, unlike most elderly people in the village.

Everyone lived in the same village, and Jiang Yuan was Chen Zhao's brother-in-law. They knew a thing or two about Chen Zhao's brother and sister-in-law's personalities and character.

Brother Chen Zhao is very much like Grandpa Chen; he is usually stern and never smiles, only focusing on his work.

His wife always had a smile on her face, putting on a good show, but secretly she was lazy and always shirked her responsibilities.

If she only acted this way in front of her sisters-in-law, that would be one thing, but the problem is that she acts this way towards her own children as well.

She would never do a job herself if she could delegate it to someone else; if she really couldn't pass it on, she would do it slowly and perfunctorily.

Take weeding as an example; she couldn't finish in three days what Wang Xiaozhi could do in one day.

With a daughter-in-law like that, Old Mrs. Chen dared not expect her to overcome her laziness and take good care of her when she could no longer work.

As for Old Master Chen, he had many more thoughts on the matter.

Firstly, he didn't want himself and his wife, who were already old, to be forced to become substitutes for their eldest daughter-in-law's labor, giving her the opportunity to continue being lazy and shirking her duties.

Secondly, his sons all have children, and the children are all quite young and still need someone to help look after them. If he and his wife were to live with their eldest son's family, they wouldn't be suitable to look after their other sons' children in the future.

Old Master Chen wanted to divide the family property among his sons in order to reduce family conflicts, not to simply abandon them. Therefore, he was willing to help his sons whenever he could.

In any case, when the family divided the land, they would also be able to get a share of the land. If they lived on their own, not only would their sons not have to pay for their food and clothing, but they could even occasionally subsidize their grandchildren's food rations.

Of course, Mr. and Mrs. Chen were not very willing to make this decision.

Chen the eldest didn't want others to gossip about him, saying he was unfilial and that as the eldest son, he didn't take care of his parents in their old age.

Sister-in-law Chen could not accept that she would have to take on half of the household chores from now on, because from then on, whether she was working in the fields or at home, her shirking and cheating would directly affect the family's food and clothing.

The two tried many times to persuade the elderly couple to change their minds, but Mr. Chen insisted on living separately from his wife.

Most people in the village already knew about this, and Chen Zhao and Wang Xiaozhi, as members of the Chen family, naturally knew even more about the fact that their family would be dividing up after the New Year.

Besides what Hao Yu mentioned about needing money for the children's education, Chen Zhao and his family also urgently needed money for another important matter: buying a plot of land and building a house after the family split up.

Chen Zhao had many brothers, and when the family divided the property, they didn't actually receive much in terms of money, grain, houses, or land.

If they don't want to continue living with their parents and siblings in cramped conditions after the family splits up, they'll have to find a way to get the money to buy a plot of land and build a new house.

Chen Zhao and Wang Xiaozhi didn't want to live that awkward life where no matter what they ate, a bunch of people would stare at them longingly. So, after the family split up, they planned to go to the village headman to buy a plot of land for their home.

Even if the money they received was only enough for them to buy a smaller plot of land and build the cheapest mud-brick house, they didn't want to continue living in the old house with Chen Zhao's brothers after the family division.

The couple understood each other's feelings. After exchanging a glance, Wang Xiaozhi felt embarrassed and accepted the hard-earned money from Hao Yu and Jiang Yuan.

She carefully put the money away, then gently opened the thin booklet that she and Chen Zhao had used to record suitable candidates, and pushed it in front of Jiang Yuan and Hao Yu.

"We found out a total of eleven girls over twenty years old who had never been married."

"The first two are from our Baihe Town, the middle five are from Tang County, and the last four are: one from Zhengjiazhuang downstream, two from the neighboring Lingshan Town, and the other from that landlord's family in Dongyangzhuang..."

After giving a general introduction to the eleven eligible girls in the booklet, Wang Xiaozhi then talked about the basic information they had gathered about these girls.

According to her, the young woman named Yang on the first page of the booklet was good at being diligent and capable, had a straightforward personality, and lived in a harmonious family. However, she was also bad at being poor and lacking able-bodied men.

The reason this girl delayed her wedding was because her parents passed away early, and she had to earn money to support her elderly grandmother, as well as her two younger brothers and one younger sister.

The young woman named Wang on the second page of the booklet is from a wealthy family, has both parents, and is herself pretty and charming, but unfortunately, her family has a very bad reputation.

According to the Wang family's neighbors, the family members not only frequently cheated on weights and measures and sold inferior goods in their business dealings, but also fully revealed their profit-driven nature in their daily lives.

They use the guise of "borrowing" to take advantage of others; they focus solely on the size of the bride's dowry when finding a wife for their son; and they demand a dowry of sixty taels of silver as soon as they ask for a husband for their daughter.

Worried that the information might be wrong, Wang Xiaozhi and Chen Zhao specifically asked some townspeople living nearby about Wang's General Store. However, all of them expressed strong dislike for Wang's store.

Some people complained to them about the Wang family's greed, while others enthusiastically recommended another grocery store in town.

Of the next five girls from Tang County, two have already moved into a nunnery, supposedly to be ordained on an auspicious day.

There were two others whose elders were willing to arrange marriages for them, but the primary condition for finding a husband for their children was that the man must have the title of Xiucai (a scholar who passed the imperial examinations at the county level).

The stepdaughter of the landlord in Dongyang Village was in a similar situation; her biological mother was also determined to find her a scholar with the title of Xiucai or Tongsheng.

The last one, who lived in the county town and was of suitable age, had a deep affection for her deceased fiancé and cousin, so she never planned to get married again in this lifetime.

Two girls from the neighboring town of Lingshan, one of whom had a sweetheart, but her sweetheart disappeared while on a shopping trip before their wedding.

His parents couldn't find him, so after a good cry, they built a cenotaph for him, and the two families broke off the engagement.

Only the girl refused to believe that her fiancé was dead. Her parents had arranged two more marriages for her, but she had ruined both of them.

Of course, Wang Xiaozhi also excluded girls who already had someone in mind from her shortlist.

So, after conducting in-depth investigations, only three of the eleven girls in her booklet remained that she felt met Hao Yu's requirements and were likely to marry him.