"Mother, what should we do now?" Zhou Laosi thought about the family's money. If he used it all to help his younger sister out of her predicament, would he still be able to get married?

"Don't interrupt, let me think about it," Zhou's mother really didn't expect that Liu Zhe, the educated youth, would be so generous.

Mr. Zhou didn't care about all that. "Don't even think about it. Anyway, she's very bold. She's never shared any of the good stuff with the family. Since she treats us like outsiders, let's just leave this matter alone." Mr. Zhou was truly heartbroken.

He believed he had treated his daughter well; compared to the boys in the family, she received the best treatment. Even so, Zhou Mingjiao was not on the same page as her family.

He increasingly felt that the old saying was quite true: girls are outgoing, and if she was already harboring ill intentions towards her family before marriage, would she completely abandon her own family after getting married? Zhou Mingjiao's various actions made Zhou's father think more deeply.

Zhou Mingjiao panicked. She had already spent all that money, so where was she going to get it now?

"Dad, I really know I was wrong, please help me one more time."

"You're wrong? Then tell me honestly, where did you put those big items? In Liu Zhiqing's eyes, is the bicycle at home still your doing?" Zhou's father felt like he had swallowed shit when he thought about this.

Zhou Mingjiao dared not confess. Through her teary eyes, she looked at her father and silently prayed, "Forgive me, forgive me."

For a moment, Zhou's father softened, but when he thought about how much money was involved, he realized that even selling him wouldn't be enough to pay it back, and his heart hardened again.

"Mingjiao, don't blame your father for this. I don't have the ability to solve your problem."

Zhou Mingjiao panicked. Why wasn't it working again? What went wrong?

She kept repeating it to herself, crying with tears and snot streaming down her face, kneeling on the ground, "Dad, I was wrong, I'll never do it again, please help me this last time, I beg you."

Zhou's mother was heartbroken and couldn't help but push Zhou's father, "Old man, Jiaojiao knows she was wrong, please forgive her this time."

A struggle flashed across Zhou's father's face.

Zhou Mingjiao saw it clearly and continued to pray silently, crying even harder, "Waaah, Daddy, please help me."

Mr. Zhou finally softened his heart. “Alright, stop crying. I’m not that heartless, but you know we haven’t had much income. We spent two hundred on you last time, and we don’t have much left. Can I swallow my pride and scrape together some more money?”

Zhou Mingjiao smiled through her tears, "Thank you, Dad," but a faint pain started to throb in her lower back again, like tiny, dense needles.

She didn't say anything at that moment; she could still hold back.

Hearing this, Zhou Laosi panicked. Not only would this drain his family's savings, but he would also have to borrow money from outside, making it even more difficult for him to get married.

"Father, why don't we reconsider?"

Zhou's mother got anxious and slapped him. The old man had finally given in, how could he cause trouble again?

That slap completely extinguished any remaining sense of guilt Zhou Laosi had.

"Mother, did you empty the family's savings just for my little sister? Is she the only one you truly love? No matter what she does wrong, you unconditionally forgive her. If it were us brothers, would you just pretend we were never born?"

"What nonsense are you talking about? This is your own sister," Zhou's mother said, becoming increasingly dissatisfied.

"My own sister?" Zhou Laosi sneered. "If she's my own sister, then what about those bicycles and radios? Why didn't she bring them home?"

Zhou Mingjiao lowered her head and thought to herself that her fourth brother was a hypocrite. He used to say that he loved his younger sister the most, but what happened?

"This is a decision made by your father and me. Do you think you have the right to interfere in this family?"

"So I won't need to get married in the future, right? Mother, you only have eyes for Zhou Mingjiao, don't you?" Zhou Laosi felt a fire burning in his heart.

"What nonsense are you spouting? Fourth brother, I think you deserve a beating. You're making a fuss over such a trivial matter," Zhou's mother said disapprovingly.

"Mom, is a thousand yuan a small matter?" Zhou Laosi realized that his mother really didn't know the value of money.

Zhou's mother paused, then forced herself to say, "Alright, you don't need to worry about it. I know what I'm doing." As she said this, her heart felt like it was bleeding.

They don't have that kind of money.

After this incident, Zhou Mingjiao couldn't bring herself to say that she was going to the provincial capital.

Zhou Laosi was unwilling to give up. "Mother, why don't we just ask my sister-in-law about this? She's our savior anyway, so please don't make things difficult for us."

"Do you think I haven't thought about it? Do you think she'll listen to me?" Zhou's mother was still self-aware of this.

"This won't work, that won't work, are we really going to have to pay money out of pocket?" Old Zhou couldn't help but feel anxious.

"What else can I do?" Zhou's mother rolled her eyes and said irritably.

Zhou Lao Si looked at Zhou's father again, who remained silent. Wasn't that tacit agreement?

He really couldn't understand why other families had precious boys, but his family was different; they spoiled their daughter rotten.

He forgot that he used to be one of them, but sometimes his motivation to get married was really strong.

While they were making a ruckus here, little did they know that gossip was flying all over the village.

This all started with Aunt Zhu. After acting as a witness, she ran into Liu Zhe, a former educated youth, on her way home.

Did he ask Zhou Mingjiao for clarification?

Liu Zhe told everything in detail, including the matter of getting his things back.

Aunt Zhu was stunned for a moment, and by the time she realized what was happening, Liu Zhe had already left.

Having learned such juicy gossip, Aunt Zhu had no desire to go home. Instead, she sought out her close old friends nearby and started gossiping about the Zhou family's affairs.

"No way? That's so unethical! It seems the rumors were wrong. We used to think Liu was pursuing the brigade leader's daughter, but it turns out it was because of a life-saving favor," someone exclaimed.

"That young lady is too uncouth. Luckily, I didn't hire a matchmaker," the aunt, whose family has young men of marriageable age, said with relief.

Someone scoffed at her, "Don't you even look at your lazybones? Do you think the brigade leader's daughter would even look at him? He's got high standards." It's unclear whether this was directed at the aunt or at Zhou Mingjiao.

Actually, the main reason was that her family secretly hired a matchmaker, and that week the matchmaker said something like "a toad trying to eat swan meat," which infuriated them, and that's how the feud started.

This was a rare opportunity to see Zhou Mingjiao make a fool of herself, so she s perked up her crickets.

The power of the Eight Trigrams is boundless; even a blizzard cannot deter a gossip.

Shen Banxia heard these rumors at home, and she really didn't expect that Zhou Mingjiao was so greedy.

But it's none of her business; she'll just watch the show.

However, sometimes you really can't speak too absolutely.