Xu Chunxia gasped upon hearing this.

Twenty mu of land?

Even at three taels of silver per mu, it could still sell for sixty taels.

Good heavens!

How much dowry would be needed to match that?

The family's savings, plus the money the son earned delivering goods to his mother-in-law, totaled only ten taels of silver.

She originally planned to give five taels as a bride price, which was already considered a lot in the village and acceptable in the town.

I'll buy another set of red cloth to make new clothes for my son and daughter-in-law.

Looking at it now, it's simply not presentable.

Xu Chunxia silently crossed Liu Zhuzhu off her shortlist of daughter-in-law candidates in her mind.

Liu Yunwan never imagined that what she thought was an advantage would turn into a disadvantage.

Qian Yulan, who was sitting to Yan Xia's left, was in a somewhat depressed mood.

Twenty acres of land!

Her niece was no match for her. Even with her help, she would only receive four or five taels of silver as dowry, and nothing more. Qian Yulan sighed softly.

That's all.

Let's just consider it as bringing my niece to Yan Xia's house for a visit.

She had given up hope.

Yan Xia remained silent.

She hadn't expected Liu Zhuzhu's dowry to be so large; it didn't match Yuanshan's at all. She had underestimated the Liu family; she had originally thought they were just small landlords.

At most, they would give their daughter a dowry of seven or eight taels of silver.

Twenty acres of land, worth several dozen taels of silver—this is hardly the behavior of a small landlord. He's either playing dumb to outsmart others, or he's spoiled his daughter to an extreme degree.

"Ah, help me—" Just as the four were lost in thought, a scream came from the pond.

"Oh no! Miss Liu has fallen into the water!" Jing Shui cried out for help.

Upon hearing this, Yan Xia reacted quickly. She immediately stood up, ran down the steps, and rushed towards the pond.

The three of them also stood up.

After Qian Yulan lifted the light gauze curtain of the pavilion, Liu Yunwan saw her niece fall into the pond, flailing her arms and crying and screaming. Liu Yunwan was so frightened that she trembled all over. She did not know the depth of Yan Xia's pond and thought her niece was going to drown.

He was shaking like a sieve, and his body slumped uncontrollably to the ground.

Qian Yulan and Xu Chunxia helped her up and comforted her.

"It's alright. How deep can the pond be? Someone has already gone to rescue him. Yuanshan is there too. Yuanshan can swim, so don't worry. I saw him running towards the pond."

"Yes, don't be afraid. I'll help you up. Let's go over there quickly. Zhuzhu must be terrified."

Liu Yunwan's eyes were somewhat vacant, and she nodded.

"Yes, you're right, everything will be alright, everything will be alright. Quick, help me up! Quick, I need to save Zhuzhu!"

As soon as she finished speaking, Liu Yunwan burst into tears.

Her vision blurred, but thinking of her niece still at the pond, she forced herself to stand up and, with the help of Qian Yulan and Xu Chunxia, ​​descended the steps one by one.

Yan Xia had already jumped into the pond.

She grabbed Liu Zhuzhu and pushed her ashore. Jing Shui and Xiao Ji then pulled her up as well. Only after she was successfully ashore did Yan Xia climb up.

"I'm sorry, Auntie, I can't swim."

"Mother, I can't swim either, thank goodness you came quickly." Jing Shui and Xiao Ji said to Yan Xia with guilty expressions.

"It's alright, our pond isn't deep, no one will drown," Yan Xia reassured them.

When her family dug this pond, she was worried that someone might accidentally fall in, so she changed the original depth of two meters to one and a half meters.

Liu Zhuzhu is quite tall, about 1.65 meters according to modern measurement methods.

Yan Xia guessed that she might not be able to swim, so she panicked when she fell in and started thrashing around wildly, thinking she was going to drown.

"Zhuzhu, are you alright? You scared your aunt to death—" After regaining her senses, Liu Yunwan ran over and threw herself at Liu Zhuzhu, tears streaming down her face.

"She's alright, just frightened. The pond in my manor isn't deep; it only reaches waist-deep. Don't worry, it's lucky it's summer, the weather's warm. If it were winter, she'd freeze. Jing Shui, take your sister Liu inside to change into clean clothes. Xiao Ji, quickly boil some water for Miss Liu to wash up. Also, tell the kitchen to make some ginger soup; the pond water is quite cold, a bowl of ginger soup will warm her up. Sister Liu, don't cry, it's alright, I'm here. I won't let anything happen to the girls."

Yan Xia gave Xiao Ji and Jing Shui a wink, and after giving them instructions, she squatted down to comfort Liu Yunwan.

"Auntie, you're soaked too. Let me ask Xiaosu to help you go back and change your clothes," Xiaoji said, very worried.

She was afraid that Yan Xia would catch a cold, so before noon, a light breeze started to blow, and the breeze made her feel chilly all over.

"Alright, I'll go change. Jing Shui, quickly take Miss Liu to your room."

"Yes, Mother. Sister Liu, get up. I'll help you to my place and get you some new clothes so you don't get cold." Wang Jingshui helped the frightened Liu Zhuzhu up and led her away from the courtyard. Liu Yunwan followed after them, still worried.

Yan Xia was also helped back to her room by Xiao Su to change her clothes.

"Yuanshan, weren't you watching from the side? What happened? Miss Liu fell into the water, why didn't you save her? Your sister can't swim, but you can!"

Xu Chunxia pulled her son aside and asked him in a low voice.

“Mother, I am a man, and men and women should not touch each other. If I jump in, wouldn’t I have to marry Miss Liu? I don’t want to marry her. Besides, I knew when Aunt Yan dug the pond. The water is not deep at all. How could anyone drown? So I found a tree branch and tried to pull her out, but she went crazy, shouting and yelling, and ignored me. Just then, Aunt Yan came. What happened next is what you see.”

Wang Yuanshan spoke the truth.

This put Xu Chunxia in a dilemma, unsure whether to scold or not.

“You, you, you can’t just stand by and watch. Forget it, thankfully nothing happened today, but you can’t do this again, you know? Is a human life more important than these trivial matters? Everyone was there. What do you mean by ‘don’t touch people’? Saving her doesn’t mean you have to marry her. And even if you want to marry her, she might not necessarily marry you. Her aunt just said that this Miss Liu’s family has a dowry of twenty acres of land. Our family is far too high up to reach her. It’s good that you’re not interested in her. I never wanted you to marry her anyway.”

Xu Chunxia breathed a sigh of relief upon learning that her son had not taken a liking to Liu Zhuzhu.

There's not much money in the family.

She felt ashamed if she gave too little, and also felt sorry for Miss Liu, after all, the dowry was so much. If she gave too much, where would she get the money?

Even if you empty your pockets, you'll only have ten taels of silver. You can't sell your land and house to borrow money to get married.

Forget it, she dared not even dream of it.

After Xu Chunxia finished speaking, she turned her head and looked at the two sisters by the pond.

They were terrified, but Qian Yulan comforted them.

"Auntie, I was so scared! I thought she was going to drown."

“Sister, don’t talk nonsense. How could she have drowned? Didn’t you hear what Aunt Yan said? This pond isn’t deep at all, it’s only waist-deep. Miss Liu was frightened and couldn’t stand up. You shouldn’t say such unlucky things. Luckily, Aunt Liu isn’t here, otherwise, what would she think if she heard that?”