"Wife?" Li Jia was taken aback by the pockmarked man's words, then quickly realized what he meant. "No matter who you are, let go of my hand!"

"Why should I let go? Let me tell you... Ouch!" Just as the pockmarked man was about to continue his arrogance, Li Jia grabbed his wrist. He immediately swallowed the words he was about to say because of the pain. The pockmarked man felt as if his wrist was being pinched by pliers. He cried out and released his hand from Zhou Xiaoyu's arm.

"Xiaoyu, what happened?" Li Jia asked with concern when she saw Zhou Xiaoyu's red eyes. At this moment, several neighbors had gathered at the entrance of the dry cleaner and came in to ask questions.

"Fellow villagers, you be the judge! Zhou Xiaoyu is the little wife I married after spending five thousand yuan on a betrothal gift. I was just waiting for her to grow up so we could have our wedding ceremony. But she ran away from her hometown the day before the wedding. I searched for her for months before I finally found her. Now I want to take her back. Is that illegal?" The pockmarked man loudly proclaimed his identity without any restraint as he saw that there were more people around.

"A child bride?" Li Jia heard a question coming from the crowd. What era is this? Looking at Zhou Xiaoyu's stubborn pout, she said, "Er Mazi! Who is your wife? Whoever you gave the money to, go and marry them! Don't bother me!" After saying that, Zhou Xiaoyu looked at Li Jia for help.

Li Jia nodded to Zhou Xiaoyu, then walked up to the pockmarked man and asked, "Do you have any evidence to prove what you're saying?"

“Evidence? Of course I have evidence!” The pockmarked man said, taking out a receipt from his pocket. It read, “Received today. Five thousand yuan betrothal gift from Fang Erma to Zhou Xiaoyu. Effective immediately, Zhou Xiaoyu becomes Fang Erma’s child bride. Witnesses are Zhang Baocai, and the signatures are Zhou Dazhu and Xie Dujuan.” The handwriting was crooked and ugly, but very clear.

"Xiaoyu, who are these people?" Li Jia handed the paper to Zhou Xiaoyu, who took it and pointed to the names on it. "Zhang Baocai is our village chief, Zhou Dazhu is my brother, and the other one is my sister-in-law."

"So it's true?" Li Jia looked at Fang Ermazi and Zhou Xiaoyu, and made up her mind.

"Is that even possible? Here are the signatures and fingerprints of her older brother and sister-in-law, and the village chief's testimony. You have nothing to say now, right?" Fang Ermazi snatched the paper, put it in his pocket, and reached out to pull Zhou Xiaoyu further.

“She can go back with you, but I have to go with her.” Li Jia stopped Zhou Xiaoyu’s question and turned to look at Fang Ermazi, who was standing to the side, looking extremely smug.

“Alright! Anyway, it’s only a few hours’ train ride from here to our village. You can come and have a drink at the wedding while you’re there. I won’t accept your wedding gift money!” Fang Ermazi looked at Zhou Xiaoyu’s delicate face and high breasts. He kept imagining what it would be like when he and Zhou Xiaoyu were on their wedding night, completely unaware of the coldness in Li Jia’s eyes.

After quickly tidying up, Li Jia and Zhou Xiaoyu left the store with Fang Ermazi and soon boarded the train.

Zhou Xiaoyu's home is in a mountain village not far from City B. The train can only stop at a small station called Houtou Town. It takes another hour to walk to the village, which is a relatively isolated area with only a few dozen households still living there.

Finally, around four o'clock in the afternoon, Li Jia arrived at a village called Yijia Village. The large tile-roofed house at the entrance of the village was the only representative building in the village. This large tile-roofed house belonged to either the village chief or Er Mazi, who was standing next to Li Jia with great pride.

"Let's go! Let's rest at my house first. I'll go find the village chief and then call everyone in the village. We'll hold the wedding ceremony tonight!" Fang Ermazi said, pulling Zhou Xiaoyu into the courtyard. "Wait a minute. I want to go see Xiaoyu's family. Since we're in the village, we have to visit Xiaoyu's family! You go back first, we'll be back in a bit!" Li Jia said, pulling Zhou Xiaoyu into the village. Lin Lei

The village was mostly made up of wooden or mud houses. A few houses were built of stone. Although the village looked poor, the environment was exceptional. Nestled in a mountain valley, the village was filled with lush green trees and wildflowers. Led by Zhou Xiaoyu, Li Jia stood in front of a house that looked better than the others in the village. "Brother Li, this is my home. I sold myself to build this house."

Looking at the house, which was half brick and half mud, Zhou Xiaoyu said with a bittersweet tone, "The reason I came back was entirely because I trusted Brother Li. I believed he could sort out my problems and then go back to the shop with him to continue working."

"Brother Li, you can handle this, right?" Zhou Xiaoyu looked steadily at Li Jia, her words tinged with worry.

“Okay, no problem! Let’s go! Let’s go in and see your elder brother and sister-in-law, and see what kind of people they are.” After Li Jia finished speaking, she took Zhou Xiaoyu’s hand and pushed open the wooden door of the courtyard. The two of them walked into the courtyard, which looked fairly clean.

The door to the house was open, and bursts of laughter came from inside, indicating that there were other people there. Li Feng walked to the door, knocked, and then led Zhou Xiaoyu into the house. As soon as they entered, they saw three women and one man sitting on the kang (a heated brick bed) playing cards.

"Xiaoyu? You brat, you've finally come back!" The people inside the house immediately threw down their cards and stood up as soon as they saw Zhou Xiaoyu, shouting loudly.

"Shut up! Which of you is Xie Dujuan?" Li Jia's face turned cold upon seeing the woman's reaction, and she asked coldly.

"I...I am who you are. Who are you? Why are you with Xiaoyu?" The woman's confidence immediately softened when she saw Li Jia dressed in a suit and tie. It was obvious that "my little sister has found a rich man. Looks like I can make some money again!" She immediately began to plan how to squeeze some benefits out of Li Jia.

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