Once Gao Dongxing was out of Cen Ran's sight, his speed slowed down.

He was conflicted. He knew his mother would definitely not agree, and the village already had a lot of objections to him bringing outsiders in, but they reluctantly agreed because they thought it would be difficult for him to find a partner in the village anyway.

He himself doesn't like trouble. He and his mother were already just making ends meet, and now there's another child and a middle-aged woman. If they have their own children in the future, he really won't be able to handle it.

Suddenly at this moment, he felt that living alone was actually quite good, and selfishly, he didn't want to take on the responsibility of a family at all.

He stood at the crossroads leading to the village chief's house, thought for a moment, and then decided to head home first.

"Mom," Gao Dongxing searched everywhere around the house, but couldn't find anyone. "Where did this person go all of a sudden?"

"Dongxing, are you looking for your mother?" The old lady who lived next door poked her head out.

"Yes, I just happened to need to talk to her about something," Gao Dongxing replied absentmindedly.

"I just came back from the fields, and she was sitting there." The old woman looked Gao Dongxing up and down curiously. "Weren't you supposed to be picking up your bride today? Why are you still here?"

Gao Dongxing had no desire to answer the question right now. "Auntie, I'm going to find my mom first."

Before the old woman could react, he ran away.

"This is all the rush. They're about to get married, and they're still not mature enough," the old woman said, shaking her head.

"Mom, what are you doing here?" Gao Dongxing asked breathlessly.

"What are you doing here at this time? Do you expect me to go back and help you with your bride?" Gao Shuzhen looked at her son with annoyance, feeling that his visit at this time must be up to no good.

"Don't even mention it, Cen Ran not only brought her sister, but also her aunt."

Upon hearing this, Gao Shuzhen immediately exploded, "Our family isn't a shelter. We barely accepted the 'buy one get one free' offer, and now they're bringing in two people at once? Who can stand that? Let me tell you, Gao Dongxing, I can't accept this. Our family simply can't afford to support so many people, and we don't have enough rooms to accommodate everyone else."

"But they're all waiting at the village entrance, what am I supposed to do?" Gao Dongxing looked at his mother cautiously.

"What can we do? Just kick them out. They deliberately hid this before. Once a scheming woman like that enters the house, what place will our mother and son have left?" Gao Shuzhen tapped her son's forehead with a hint of exasperation.

"Come on, I'll go with you to drive them away." Gao Shuzhen grabbed Gao Dongxing's hand and headed towards the village entrance.

"Mom, this isn't right. If it really doesn't work, we can just not accept her cousin." This was the conclusion Gao Dongxing had reached after carefully considering the situation all the way here. He didn't know if he would ever meet a girl like Cen Ran again after missing out on her.

"What do you know? If this continues, who knows how many troubles will arise in the future? You'll still have to bring her over then." Gao Shuzhen was now full of fighting spirit, determined not to let these people take over her territory.

"Why don't we ask the village? Maybe they have a different opinion?"

“What objections could the village possibly have? Do you think they’d give them another piece of land just because of you? They’ve brought back so many refugees this time that they’ve already filled every nook and cranny of the village.”

The refugees Gao Shuzhen mentioned were those she brought back from the city when she went there to exchange for supplies.

Gao Dongxing fell silent and followed quietly behind Gao Shuzhen.

When Godfrey Gao saw that Gao Dongxing hadn't brought the village chief but had instead brought his mother, he guessed what the ending would be.

"Aunt, you've arrived." Being from the same clan, Gao Yixiang and the others, as the younger generation, quickly greeted her.

Gao Shuzhen gave a haughty reply and began to look up and down the three people who were standing there awkwardly waiting for them.

"Hello, Auntie!" Cen Ran guessed from their faces that they were mother and son with Gao Dongxing, and quickly took the initiative to greet them.

Gao Shuzhen didn't respond to her. She circled around them and looked them up and down.

"She's not exactly a beauty queen, so how did she manage to be so infatuated with my silly son? He's even thinking of having two kids with her. No one would accept that in peacetime, let alone during a time of disaster like this. I don't know how he can be so shameless." Gao Shuzhen immediately made Cen Ran look completely worthless.

Cen Ran knew from Gao Shuzhen's opening remarks that today's matter was unlikely to succeed. Without saying anything else, she looked directly at Gao Dongxing and asked, "Do you think so too?"

Gao Dongxing lowered his head and thought for a while before telling Cen Ran in a heavy tone, "The land at home is just enough for my son and me to eat. We originally thought that if you take care of your sister and we all work hard, we can get through it. But now that there are three more people, our family really can't handle it."

Gao Dongxing then looked at her aunt next to her and said, "Xiao Ran, if it's just you and your sister, then we'll go into the village right away."

Cen Ran's aunt nudged her shoulder, "Ran, you and Xiang go inside. I can manage anywhere on my own. You should think about Xiang too."

Cen Ran looked at the village in front of her, then at her younger sister and aunt, and shook her head at Gao Dongxing, "We're determined to be together no matter what. I'm sorry for taking up your time."

After saying that, she took her younger sister and aunt and walked back the way they came.

"It's best if things go this way. You're smart enough to know what's good for you." Gao Shuzhen didn't expect the other party to make a choice so quickly. Afraid that her silly son would change his mind, she quickly grabbed Gao Dongxing's hand and pulled him towards the village.

Aunt was both touched and saddened. She also took Cen Ran's hand and said, "Xiao Ran, this is a rare opportunity. You and your sister should settle down first. I can handle things on my own."

Cen Ran was pulled by her and could only turn around to look at her. "This is the only chance I've given myself. After all, it's already very difficult for these villagers to accept us. I wanted to take a gamble before. But I was too optimistic about human nature."

“But it’s getting harder and harder now. We can only protect one person at a time. Be good, listen to your aunt. We’ll talk to her properly when we get back. Only you and your sister can go into the village.”

Cen Ran pointed to the village entrance, "Everyone's already run away in fright, let's go!"

Having witnessed the whole thing, Godfrey Gao suddenly felt a pang of sympathy for the girl in front of him. Gao Dongxing really had no sense of responsibility; he had given up at the slightest difficulty.

However, he also knew that if this happened to him, his family would definitely not agree.

So he didn't say a word the whole time, just watched quietly from the side.

Perhaps it's a blessing in disguise for this girl not to marry Gao Dongxing.

Otherwise, given her cousin's personality and Gao Dongxing's selfishness, marrying into the family might have been like jumping into a fire pit.