"Uh..." Chen Dabao was stunned for a moment, then immediately said with a big smile, "Brother-in-law, this... don't listen to that child's words, you can't take a kid's words seriously."

"You clearly said that just now!" the mischievous child persisted.

"you!"

"Alright!"

Chen Dabao was about to chase after the child when Jiang Ming shouted at him to stop.

He was too lazy to argue with Chen Dabao about these things, and went straight to the point, asking, "Since you're calling me brother-in-law, your family should keep their promise, right? Your second sister and eldest sister... and that fifty catties of rice."

"Uh... this," Chen Dabao's face turned ashen, and he swallowed hard a few times, as if he had something difficult to say.

He gave Jiang Ming a look, signaling him to speak further.

Jiang Ming dismissed his attendants and rode after Chen Dabao to a large tree. Chen Dabao grinned, looking embarrassed, and said, "Brother-in-law, my second sister is already married..."

"What?"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Ming's eyes widened, and his face darkened.

"Hey, brother-in-law, let me explain. Let's go home and talk about it, let's go home and talk about it..." Chen Dabao awkwardly twisted the corner of his clothes, not daring to look Jiang Ming in the eye.

Jiang Ming was furious!

He knew in his heart that although he couldn't say he liked that second girl that much, she was still his woman.

Damn it, she got married without even saying goodbye?

How embarrassing!

How will I ever be able to get by in this area again?

But he still suppressed his anger and followed Chen Dabao back to the village chief's house. Once inside, he questioned the village chief and the old lady, and that's when he found out what had happened.

It turns out that the second daughter of the Chen family was originally engaged to the second son of the county magistrate.

The marriage was called off simply because the witch drew Miss Chen's name in the lottery, and the county magistrate's family considered it bad luck.

Later, Jiang Ming went into the mountains and did not return for a long time.

Chen Dabao, through his connections, finally managed to marry his second sister off to a wealthy man!

Just yesterday, Chen Ermei was sent away!

"Hey, hey, hey, this isn't entirely our fault..."

Old Master Chen grinned awkwardly and said, "It's not that we're breaking our promise, but our agreement was that you would come down the mountain the next day. But you didn't, and we thought you'd been eaten by that tiger. We can't... leave our daughter a widow, can we? My dear son-in-law, my eldest daughter is still unmarried. Perfect timing, you two..."

Seeing Jiang Ming's ashen face and unconvinced expression, the old village chief didn't dare to continue.

"Two different things!"

Jiang Ming retorted angrily, "My second sister is my wife, and my eldest sister is my concubine. My wife has run away, and you're playing word games with me? What do you mean by 'one day or two days'? Doesn't it take time to kill a tiger? Can you kill it in one night?"

"Well..." Old Master Chen scratched his cheek and said, "My family will give a generous dowry, my dear son-in-law, what do you think..."

Before he could finish speaking, Chen Dabao interrupted, "Brother-in-law, this matter is indeed... something no one expected. Besides, the county magistrate is your superior; you see him all the time. You see..."

When Chen Dabao said this, there seemed to be a hint of smugness between his brows.

The meaning was clear: Don't be so cocky, kid. You're lucky to have a little sister. I'm not just your brother-in-law, I'm also the brother-in-law of the county magistrate's son! If you offend the county magistrate, you won't have a good life.

"Hmph..." Jiang Ming snorted coldly, glancing at Old Master Chen: "Then, Father-in-law, how do you plan to increase the dowry?"

"Hehe, my dear son-in-law, how about this, I'll give you an extra 20 jin of rice, what do you think?" Old Master Chen said with a beaming smile.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Ming almost laughed out of anger.

"20 jin of rice? I lost a wife, and you only give me 20 jin of rice as compensation?"

"Oh dear, my dear son-in-law, you don't know this, but our Yan state has just gone to war with the Qi state again. The king has ordered the collection of taxes, and the taxes have been collected until the year after next. Our family has no surplus grain. This 70 catties of rice was only scraped together," Old Master Chen explained awkwardly.

Madam Chen chimed in with a troubled tone, "Yes, good son-in-law, you've already been rewarded with 300 strings of cash by the government, you wouldn't care too much about these 20 jin of rice, would you? From now on, we're all family, let's help each other out. My eldest daughter is capable, she's as good as two, unlike my second daughter, who's lazy and loves to eat..."

"Damn?" Jiang Mingxin said. This old lady Chen is not only eloquent and has high emotional intelligence, but she's also good at calculating. She's even thinking about her 300 strings of cash.

The 300 strings of cash, worth 300 taels of silver, was a considerable amount, but the problem was that... the county only made a verbal promise and, citing financial difficulties, did not fulfill the promise in full, only delivering 10 strings of cash.

I am still a poor man with nowhere to stand.

Fortunately, only the tiger skin was given away; the tiger bones, tiger penis, bear skin, and bear gallbladder were still hidden in the bear den. Otherwise, this deal would have been a huge loss!

"Alright, then you should build me a house, right? You don't have any objections to that, do you?"

"Oh dear, no objection, no objection. There's an empty house at the west entrance of our village, perfect for you and your younger sister to use for your wedding..." Old Madam Chen said with a beaming smile.

“My dear son-in-law, from now on you will be the head of the pavilion and I will be the village head. We, father-in-law and son-in-law, must work together well,” Old Master Chen said with a smile, showing his yellow teeth.

With things having come to this point, Jiang Ming had no choice but to outwardly admit defeat.

But Chen Ermei truly couldn't swallow this insult...

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!