After saying that, Xia Chunmei ran away crying without looking back.
"Chunmei, Chunmei..." Fan Baowen wanted to go after her, but Xia Donglai held him back tightly: "You think you can run away so easily? Come with me!"
Xia Donglai carried Fan Baowen, preparing to return to the village to discuss their marriage.
It took Fan Baowen a long time to calm down while sitting on the oxcart back to the village.
Looking at Xia Xiumei with an angry expression, he said, "I always thought you loved me deeply. I never thought you would scheme against me. I, Fan Baowen, was blind and misjudged you."
Fan Baowen wasn't stupid. He quickly realized that today's events were a setup, deliberately orchestrated by Xia Donglai and his sister for him. He also concluded that Xia Chunmei had been tricked into coming here, with the aim of getting her to break off their engagement.
"What you're doing is ruining my reputation and destroying my future. What good does it do you? I've already said I'll take responsibility, so why are you in such a hurry?"
"Heh." Xia Donglai sneered, "Fan Baowen, you can only fool my silly sister with those words."
The reason why Chen Sanhua only threatened Fan Baowen secretly before was because she still wanted to avoid ruining Fan Baowen's reputation, so that Xia Xiumei would still have a chance to become an official's wife after marrying Fan Baowen.
However, Fan Baowen secretly plotted against Xia Xiumei!
Chen Sanhua and her son didn't care about anything else, as long as their daughter married Fan Baowen, that was enough. After all, Xia Xiumei was already pregnant and couldn't find anyone better.
Even if Fan Baowen has a bad reputation, at most he'll be labeled a womanizer, or worse, he won't be able to continue his studies. But his family is still relatively well-off in the surrounding area. If Xia Xiumei marries into their family, at the very least, her material life won't be bad.
Just as they were about to leave the city, the Du family rushed over and blocked their way. The leader of the group was Du Hu, the Du family's steward.
"What do you want to do?" Xia Donglai asked in a deep voice with a dark face.
"Master Xia, is it? Let's talk in private."
Xia Dong glanced at Fan Baowen and then said, "Please."
Xia Donglai and his sister, Fan Baowen, and Butler Du walked into the empty noodle shop next door.
Steward Du gave the shopkeeper two taels of silver, and the shopkeeper wisely avoided the situation immediately.
Butler Du said, "Let's leave it at that. Name your price."
With the arrival of Steward Du, Xia Donglai confirmed Xia Chunmei's words: Fan Baowen did indeed want to marry someone else.
"One hundred taels."
Upon hearing this number, Butler Du smiled and said, "That's fine, but your sister and Young Master Fan cannot have any connection. You must admit to the outside world that today's events were a deliberate frame-up of Young Master Fan."
Xia Donglai had only mentioned the number casually, but he was stunned when Butler Du actually agreed.
One hundred taels of silver is enough for their family to live comfortably for a lifetime, even if they do nothing.
"No way, I want to marry Brother Baowen!" Xia Xiumei genuinely liked Fan Baowen, and upon hearing the condition, she immediately jumped out to object, "I must marry Brother Baowen!"
Steward Du laughed and said, "You can marry Young Master Fan, but you can only be his concubine, and you will only be given fifty taels of silver. In addition, you must admit to others that you tried to seduce Young Master Fan but failed, and that you deliberately framed him."
“No way!” Xia Xiumei immediately shook her head and refused. “Baowen and I are clearly in love. Why should I be Baowen’s little brother…”
"Miss Xia, don't rush to refuse. Think about it: if you accept, your family will not only receive a huge sum of fifty taels of silver, but Young Master Fan can also continue his studies. You like Young Master Fan so much, you wouldn't want him to be unable to study because of this, would you?"
Xia Xiumei bit her lip and remained silent.
Xia Donglai said, "If you want my sister to take the blame, then my sister must be the legal wife."
"Master Xia, why are you doing this? Do you really want to go against the Du family?"
Although Xia Donglai didn't know the background of the Du family, he was certain that someone who could easily produce one hundred taels of silver was no ordinary family.
He couldn't afford to offend a family like that.
Xia Dong glanced at Fan Baowen, then smiled and said, "How could I dare offend Master Du? But as you can see, my sister is deeply in love with Fan Baowen, and now that she's pregnant, an abortion would be harmful to her health, and she might not be able to find a more suitable husband in the future. This money..."
Upon hearing this, Xia Xiumei was horrified: "Brother, what nonsense are you talking about? This is my and Baowen's child, I will never have an abortion, nor will I marry anyone else!"
Butler Du: "Master Xia is a pragmatic person, but your sister..."
Upon hearing this, Xia Donglai slapped Xia Xiumei across the face, while Fan Baowen remained unmoved.
But Xia Xiumei seemed unconcerned, crying as she questioned Xia Donglai: "Why did you hit me! I'm going to marry Brother Baowen! Xia Chunmei already said she wanted to break off the engagement."
Xia Donglai was furious and didn't want to deal with this idiot anymore.
Xia Xiumei looked at Fan Baowen with a pitiful expression: "Brother Baowen, don't you want to marry me? Say something!"
Fan Baowen gave her a cold look: "If you insist on marrying me, you can only be a concubine. Didn't you say that as long as you're with me, it doesn't matter whether you're a concubine or a wife?"
Xia Xiumei was struck dumb, almost collapsing, her eyes filled with tears: "You... so what Xia Chunmei said was true, you really are going to marry someone else, sob sob sob..."
Upon hearing this, Fan Baowen was taken aback and hurriedly asked, "You mean Xia Chunmei knew I was going to marry someone else?"
Upon hearing this, Xia Xiumei burst into tears.
"Why are you crying? Say something!" Fan Baowen snapped, completely devoid of his former gentle and tender demeanor.
Xia Xiumei wouldn't listen to anything; all she knew was that if her brother Baowen didn't marry Xia Chunmei, he would marry someone else.
Xia Donglai said to Steward Du, "Everything will be as you say. One hundred taels of silver. To outsiders, we'll assume it was my sister who tried to seduce Young Master Fan but failed, so she framed him. As for my sister... how could my sister be worthy of a man as refined and noble as Young Master Fan?"
Upon hearing this, Steward Du took out a one-hundred-tael silver note and pushed it in front of Xia Donglai.
Xia Donglai quickly pulled her into his arms, then dragged the sobbing Xia Xiumei away.
"I won't leave, let me go!" Xia Xiumei struggled desperately. "Brother Baowen, you once said you would marry me as long as you broke off your engagement with Xia Chunmei! You said you would take responsibility for me, and I'm carrying your child!"
Xia Xiumei's voice was loud, which immediately attracted many people to stop and watch.
"This girl is shameless; she can say such things in public."
"Look, she doesn't have a married woman's hairstyle yet, which means she's not married yet."
...
The onlookers were discussing it amongst themselves.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Fan Baowen said loudly, "Miss Xiumei, I have never said anything about breaking off the engagement with Chunmei. My sister Chunmei and I have been engaged since childhood, and the wedding date has been discussed. If you hadn't framed me today, my sister Chunmei would never have misunderstood!"
As for the child in your belly, if you hadn't given me that aphrodisiac, we wouldn't have had any relationship at all!
"Oh dear, so that's how they used such despicable methods!"
"Tsk tsk...the world is going to the dogs."
"If I had a daughter like that, I would beat her to death!"
"What a disgrace!"
"Who knows if the child in that belly is this scholar's?"
"It's also possible that she got pregnant from messing around with someone, and seeing that the scholar was handsome and from a good family, she wanted to find an honest man to take care of her."
...
Hearing this, Xia Xiumei cried even harder: "That's not true, that's not true!"
In fact, it was Xia Xiumei who lured them into having sex by burning aphrodisiac incense.
Xia Xiumei was a bit shrewd, but she was ultimately just a country girl who had never seen the world. She couldn't possibly have had the means to buy aphrodisiacs, and she had no idea that such a thing existed. It was all taught to her by Chen Sanhua.
Fan Baowen continued, "Although I was set up, the child in my womb is innocent, and I am not an irresponsible person. You should take good care of yourself and give birth to the child. In the future, we can do a blood test to confirm that the child is mine, and I will take you as my concubine. If not, I will definitely take this to the magistrate and ask him to help me!"
Fan Baowen spoke with such righteous indignation, as if he were truly a victim!
The crowd cheered, supporting Fan Baowen and condemning Xia Xiumei.
Xia Donglai had already received a huge sum of money, so naturally he wouldn't sabotage things at this time.
Xia Donglai's silence was seen by the public as a sign of guilt.
He felt extremely ashamed, so he called two other helpers and dragged Xia Xiumei onto the oxcart and took her back.
Xia Chunmei secretly witnessed the whole scene, and all I can say is that shamelessness is truly invincible.
Fan Baowen really opened her eyes. What if she were blind and chose someone like him in the future?
Forget it, I'll just stay single.
"That Fan Baowen is a real scoundrel," Xia Ping'an said indignantly, having been secretly monitoring and eavesdropping. "Now look at Xia Xiumei, she's quite pitiful."
“There’s always a reason why someone is pitiful. Xia Donglai said he wanted her to abort the child so she could find a new husband, which was for her own good, but she…” Xia Chunmei sighed, “her suffering is yet to come.”
Xia Pingan was utterly shocked: "Even after all this, she still wants to marry Fan Baowen?"
"You can tell from her face that her marriage with Fan Baowen is not over, and she will probably still be Fan Baowen's concubine in the future. Moreover, her children's palace is dull and lackluster, indicating that she has little affinity with children. Her flat philtrum indicates that the lack of affinity is caused by human intervention. There's still a good show to watch."
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