Chapter 8 Bride Price After Marriage
"I want five hundred." Wang Minzhi heaved a sigh of relief when Ye Xiaomei said this. She calculated in her mind that she would have to get at least four hundred of the five hundred from her mother-in-law.
Why do you want it? Just say it’s for your grandson’s schooling, right!
Li Cuihua also smiled. This girl was not stupid. She knew to ask for more. However, five hundred yuan was a lot for ordinary people. For the Ma family, it was just one month's allowance for Ma Qijun. She felt that it was a loss. Why didn't she ask for more?
Zhao Mei didn't react at all, she just thought they were discussing how to sell her daughter for a good price.
Wang Lan was straightforward: "Okay, five hundred is five hundred." As she spoke, she was about to take out her wallet. If she didn't settle down today, what would happen if he ran away tomorrow?
Ye Xiaomei took a deep breath and said, "Auntie, there's no rush for the money. You can give it to me after I get married to Brother Ma."
Wang Minzhi was stunned.
Li Cuihua - stood there stiffly as if struck by lightning, her mouth opened but no words came out.
Zhao Mei looked at her daughter honestly. How could the betrothal gift be given in this way?
Wang Lan was also stunned for a few seconds, then she slapped her thigh and laughed, "I said Xiao Mei is a reasonable girl. Okay, I won't let you suffer a loss, nor will I let others laugh at you. If you want to give the betrothal gift after marriage, I'll give you one thousand."
"One thousand?" Wang Minzhi's eyes widened.
Li Cuihua stretched her neck and saw the disgraceful look of her eldest daughter-in-law: "Minzhi, what's with that expression? My in-laws have said that this is settled."
Li Cuihua actually felt a pain in her heart. Would the money be able to reach her pocket? It seemed like a long shot.
Wang Lan struck while the iron was hot and directly asked for Ye Xiaomei's horoscope, saying that she would find someone to reconcile them and set a good day to come back.
Ye Xiaomei stood at the door, looking under the scorching sun at the four-wheeled military car slowly approaching from the end of the village road.
Ma Qijun turned around to look at her before getting into the car.
Ye Xiaomei quickly avoided his gaze and lowered her head to look at her toes. It was not until the buzzing sound died away that Ye Xiaomei realized that the big toe of her cloth shoe was almost exposed.
Often at this time you have to patch it up before it breaks, otherwise it will not be strong enough after it breaks.
In the car.
Wang Lan looked at her son fiercely and said, "Qijun, this is the first time I've heard of someone asking for a dowry after marriage. Where does this girl get the determination to take care of you for the rest of your life?"
What if the girl gets cheated? What if the money is not given after marriage? Could it be that she has never thought about these problems?
Ma Qijun let out the breath he had been holding for a long time, but he actually didn't understand it.
Seeing her son was silent, Wang Lan questioned, "You wouldn't be like what the villagers said, that the person you liked when you opened the phone was the second daughter of the Ye family, not Ye Xiaolin at all."
"..." Ma Qijun's forehead was full of question marks.
"You little bastard, you better behave yourself after you get married. You'd better not even talk to that Ye Xiaolin." Wang Lan saw that her son was silent and acquiesced. She looked at her son's legs and said, "Forget it. You'll have to rely on your wife to take care of you for the rest of your life. You don't have the ability to cause trouble."
Ma Qijun was hit twice by his mother and thought it was bad luck. His mother thought he was two-timing, but in fact he had never been on either boat.
However, things had come to this point, and Ma Qijun was too lazy to make excuses. He just leaned tiredly on the back seat and dozed off. Ye Xiaomei's charming figure kept appearing in his mind, and even her back looked so soft.
Her every frown and smile was so gentle and graceful that it instantly broke down Ma Qijun's protective urge.
The news about Meihuazhu, Ma Qijun and Ye Xiaomei spread quickly.
It was as if the wind direction had changed suddenly. Some said that Ma Qijun had liked Ye Xiaomei from the beginning, but was just pretending to be dating Ye Xiaolin and frequented the Ye family.
Ye Xiaomei and Zhao Mei, who were plowing the land, finally felt relieved. At least no one scolded their daughter as a slut anymore.
"Xiao Mei, what are you doing? Be careful not to get scratched by the bean sprouts on your face." Zhao Mei straightened up, lifted the towel around her neck and wiped the sweat off her face.
Not far away, Ye Xiaomei dropped her hoe and squatted among the bean sprouts, pinching a piece of grass and looking at it repeatedly.
I seem to have seen her somewhere.
"Mom, do you remember that time I asked you for a dollar?" Ye Xiaomei stared at the ordinary green grass, and occasionally lifted it up to look at the sun. There was a faint hint of red in the veins inside.
Zhao Mei didn't stop working: "You have been sensible since you were a child. The number of times you asked me for money can be counted on five fingers. You haven't asked me for money in recent years, so you must be talking about when you were eight or nine years old."
"Yes, that year, our superiors sent several experts in agriculture and livestock to teach us how to raise crops. They also brought a lot of professional books for everyone to read for free. But the book called Materia Medica that I borrowed at the beginning was lost, and I had to pay for it later, so I asked you for a dollar."
Ye Xiaomei's voice was as calm as water, and her thoughts had long been attracted by the grass at her fingertips.
At that time she was illiterate and her grandmother did not allow girls to go to school. But later the superiors opened night schools as a policy to eliminate illiteracy. Ye Xiaomei went to the brigade yard to study at night after work, and only then did she recognize a few big characters.
"Yes, Xiaomei, these are all things from your childhood. Why are you asking this? Besides, didn't you find the book last year?"
Zhao Mei felt that her daughter would not be getting married for long, so she decided to put down her work and have a good chat with her daughter. There might not be many days like this in the future:
"Mom still remembers the time when you found out that your grandma had taken the book to use as a table leg. It was also the first time you talked back to your grandma and cried. You looked so pitiful."
Ye Xiaomei smiled with dimples: "Yes, I remember, Mom, you put the book away later. You can bring it back to me when you get home."
"You...can you recognize all the words written on it?" Zhao Mei felt quite guilty when she thought about it.
Xiao Mei earned money to send Xiao Ya to school. She said that girls also need to be educated, otherwise they will not be able to leave the mountains. But she herself never went to school for a single day. She just liked to ask questions from people who could read.
"Mom, just give it to me." Ye Xiaomei now knows almost all the traditional Chinese characters, except for the rare ones.
At night, Ye Xiaomei hid in the room without even taking a shower.
Although the pages of the book had turned yellow and the printed sketches were not very detailed, Ye Xiaomei was able to turn to that page easily with her strong memory.
Compare it with the grass on the table.
Ye Xiaomei's fingers were so excited that they turned white because of excessive force when she was holding the book. Great! This is it.
The next morning, Ye Xiaomei got up early. This time she brought a cross-body backpack made of scraps of cloth.
After clearing the weeds from the bean seedlings in an acre of land, Ye Xiaomei also picked up a lot of that weed, filling a cloth bag full.
When I got home, I washed the grass and took it out while taking a shower. I climbed up to the eaves using the wooden ladder and placed the grass on the eaves to dry.
When I got down the wooden stairs, it was already past ten o'clock in the evening and the laughter coming from the east room was still there.
Ye Xiaolin——"Let me tell you, I feel annoyed if I look at Ma Qijun for even one more second now."
Wang Juan——"Why?"
Ye Xiaolin——"Crippled, crippled! Damn it, that damned girl Ye Xiaomei should just follow Ma Qijun and get out of here. It makes me sick to my stomach to see her."
A burst of laughter, Wang Juan - "Do you hate your cousin or Ma Qijun?"
"They are all disgusting."
Wang Juan——"You are not in love with the guy you met at the gathering the day before yesterday, are you?"
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