Chapter 224 The whole village must be invited

Old Mrs. Chen was also very curious, "Yeah, what kind of surprise is it?"

Chen Zhancai waved his hand mysteriously, "You'll know when the time comes. This will definitely be a new milestone for our Chen family."

"What monument?" Old Man Chen was confused again. "Why would you erect a monument on such a happy day, kid? Forget it, it's unlucky."

"Dad, you really don't understand anything. This monument isn't what you think it is. This kind of monument commemorates some major landmark event. Forget it, you won't understand even if I tell you."

"That's right, don't waste your words on him!" Old Mrs. Chen rolled her eyes at Old Man Chen. "Just keep your mouth shut. You don't understand anything, so why are you pretending? Just stay quiet."

"Okay, I was wrong." Old man Chen shrank his neck in fear.

Chen Zhancai passed the imperial examination and became a scholar. As the head of the village, he came to congratulate him as a formality, but he could not interfere in the affairs of the Chen family. If he failed to manage them well, he would be blamed.

Seeing Chen Zhancai being so pretentious, Wu Baoan suppressed his annoyance and stood up.

"Aunt, since the banquet has been decided, I won't bother you anymore. You and your family should take care of the arrangements for such a big event."

"Wait, don't leave just yet!" Old Mrs. Chen hurriedly stopped him and said with a smile on her face, "Security, there's something else I need you to do. I'm afraid others won't be so generous."

"Aunt, you flatter me too much. Your Zhancai is now a scholar. Even the county magistrate has to give him some face when he sees him. Is there anything else I can help you with?" Wu Baoan spoke modestly, and his words unconsciously raised the threshold for the Chen family.

Old Mrs. Chen felt as happy as if she had been fed with honey. Now even Wu Baoan didn't dare to mess with the Chen family. They could really walk around the village with impunity in the future.

She grinned and said, "Security guard, please don't say that. This favor belongs to you. I'm afraid it won't work if someone else steps in."

"Auntie, if you have any questions, just tell me. I will do my best to help you."

"Well, since our family is planning a grand celebration, we must invite everyone in the village to the banquet.

Although Zhancai passed the imperial examination, he is certainly not as famous as you in the village, so could you please inform the villagers and tell them to come to Zhancai's wedding banquet in three days?"

After hearing this, Wu Baoan was stunned for a moment, then nodded and agreed, "Okay, no problem, I'll find time to notify every household, don't worry!"

"Thank you, security guard. I'm sorry for the trouble." Old Mrs. Chen said with a calculating look on her face, "Remember to invite everyone in the village. Don't leave anyone behind."

Wu Baoan looked embarrassed. He had already helped to notify the villagers because Chen Zhancai had passed the imperial examination. Now, it was really a bit too much to ask him to invite all of them.

The old couple of the Chen family had no popularity in the village. In recent years, because there was a scholar in their family, they felt superior to others, and the villagers had long been dissatisfied with them.

However, no one in the village would easily offend a scholar, so they would all come to congratulate him.

But he couldn't guarantee anything for Chen Zhanshan's family. Qing Yatou was a woman of integrity and she didn't succumb to the tyranny of Old Lady Chen even in the most difficult times.

Now that her family is getting richer and richer, I'm afraid they won't give Chen Zhancai this face.

I wanted to refuse, but then I thought that passing the imperial examination would be a happy event for Nanshan Village.

Even if Qing Yatou had any objections, she would not refuse. After all, they would meet each other sooner or later, and it would not be good for her to offend Chen Zhancai.

It's human nature to get together.

Thinking of this, he nodded and agreed, "Don't worry, I will definitely notify everyone."

"Okay, okay, just let me know."

"Okay, you guys are busy, I'm going back first."

"Then walk slowly."

Just as Wu Baoan left, she saw Sun coming back from outside. Old Mrs. Chen hurriedly asked, "Where's Dabao?"

"Mom, Dabao went to town to deliver goods. He probably won't be back for a while."

"What a fool he is, running around town like a donkey all day long. He doesn't even know there's such a big happy event happening at home!"

"Mom, look how unreasonable you are!" Sun frowned and retorted unhappily, "Dabao has his own things to do. He can do whatever he wants. Why do you have to insult and scold him?"

Chen Zhanliang's face darkened as well. "Exactly. What do you mean by a fool without a heart? How can you talk about your own grandson like that? If Dabao hadn't been working for Qingyatou, our family would have starved to death when there was no food last autumn. How could we survive until now?"

"Who says it's not true? At that time, the family was out of food. Why didn't you ask the third brother for money to buy food? Ruolan's betrothal gift was only 250 taels of silver. Why didn't the third brother think of leaving some for the family?"

Sun rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"As the old saying goes, things smell good from afar, but smell bad up close. What you can do is not as good as what you can say, and what you can say is not as good as what you can pretend. A good heart will never be as good as a good mouth."

Chen Zhancai's face turned red with embarrassment. He knew that his family was out of food, but the little money he had was not enough to cover his expenses. He had lied so many times to get 150 taels of silver out of Liu Fengjiao. Otherwise, how could Ruhua follow him so wholeheartedly?

Liu Fengjiao was speechless. She thought Wang Qichang would let her go after receiving fifty taels of silver as a hush money, but the beast broke his promise and extorted another fifty taels from her, a total of one hundred taels of silver.

But in the end she underestimated Wang Qichang.

Wang Qichang took the money but did not intend to let Liu Fengjiao go. Instead, he threatened her even more severely, saying that if she dared not to have sex with him, he would tell everyone that she had seduced him and ruin her reputation.

She was afraid, so she endured it...

Listening to Sun's criticism of them, Liu Fengjiao bit her lip with a sad expression.

"Second sister-in-law, all the mistakes are mine and Zhancai's fault. We took the money because we were afraid that Ruolan would suffer, and we wanted to leave her a way out. We dare not spend a penny of this money carelessly, and we gave it to Ruolan a long time ago."

Chen Zhancai lowered his head and suddenly raised it, agreeing repeatedly, "Yes, yes, we really have no money now, otherwise how could we bear to ignore our family."

Mentioning Chen Ruolan, Old Lady Chen remembered her beloved granddaughter and hurriedly asked, "Zhancai, Fengjiao, how is Ruolan doing? Is Fan Tong treating her well?"

Liu Fengjiao shook her head and smiled bitterly, "Mother, I've never seen Ruolan before. I've been to the Fan family a few times, but they never even let me through the main door."

Chen Zhancai was also very angry. He thought that if his daughter married a wealthy man in the town as a concubine, he would be able to benefit from it. However, he did not expect that the Fan family would not recognize him as their father-in-law at all.

I remember that not long after Chen Ruolan entered the Fan Mansion, Chen Zhancai and several classmates went to the Qingfeng Restaurant to eat, drink, and have fun, reciting poems and writing essays, and having a great time.

During the meal, in order to show his status, he told his classmates that he was Fan Tong's father-in-law.

A few people didn't believe it, so Chen Zhancai got excited and decided to take a few people to Fan's house to see Chen Ruolan...