The Xia Chen family.
The more Xia Chenshi thought about it, the more she realized that Xia Chunmei's words made a lot of sense. What if she ruined the marriage between the Fan family and Xia Chunmei, and the Fan family didn't agree to the marriage?
It should be noted that the Fan family has not made any promises.
Besides, even with a verbal promise, it can be reneged on.
After thinking it over, Xia Chen called Xia Xiumei to her side and whispered to her, "Xiumei, come here, I have something to tell you..."
Xia Xiumei's face quickly turned red, and she lowered her head.
"This concerns your happiness for the rest of your life, so you must seize this opportunity, understand?"
“Mother, I understand. Tomorrow is his day off from the academy. He will definitely go back to Fanjia'ao in the afternoon. I will go and test him.”
...
After saying that, Xia Xiumei set off for the Land God Temple in Taojiachong. The path in front of the Land God Temple was the only way for Fan Baowen to return to Fanjia'ao, and it was also one of the places where they often met.
After waiting for almost half an hour, Xia Xiumei finally saw the person.
"Brother Baowen."
"Sister Xiumei." Fan Baowen's voice was gentle, his skin was fair, and he had a faint smile on his face when he spoke. Every time Xia Chunmei spoke to him, she felt her heart race.
"Brother Baowen, you said before that you would marry me if I helped you break off your engagement with Xia Chunmei, was that true?"
Upon hearing this, Fan Baowen paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "Sister Xiumei, I never said you should call off my engagement with Miss Chunmei. You must have misunderstood."
Xia Qiumei stared at him in disbelief, her face filled with shock.
Fan Baowen sighed and continued, "Xiumei, you are very good, but Chunmei is already pitiful because she has no parents. Our marriage was arranged when we were young. It would be too cruel for me to break off the engagement now, especially since her grandfather has been kind to my family."
Xia Xiumei burst into tears: "That's not what you said before!"
"Perhaps I didn't express myself clearly before, I apologize." After saying that, Fan Baowen tentatively asked, "You didn't do anything to Chunmei, did you?"
Xia Xiumei hesitated. She didn't know whether she should tell him about how she had framed Xia Chunmei and almost caused Xia Chunmei to lose her virginity.
If I tell him, will he think my family is too bad?
After much hesitation, Xia Xiumei chose to conceal the truth: "No, we are sisters from the same clan, how could I possibly harm her?"
Fan Baowen could tell that Xia Xiumei wasn't telling the truth. He was suspicious of her sudden question to him today; could something have happened?
"Then...do you like me?" Xia Xiumei asked shyly.
"Of course I like her, but Xiumei, in this world, besides liking, there is also responsibility. Chunmei is my responsibility. Even if she is crippled, blind, or terminally ill, I will still marry her. As long as she doesn't make an unforgivable mistake, she will be the eldest grandson's wife of the Fan family!"
"I like you, so I don't want you to be subordinate to anyone else, and I don't want you to feel wronged."
Hearing this, Xia Xiumei cried even harder.
He hated Xia Chunmei to the core, feeling that she was the one who had hindered his happiness.
"I won't let anyone stop us from being together!" Xia Xiumei's eyes were sharp and her tone was firm.
Seeing this, Fan Baowen was overjoyed, but on the surface he still pretended to be kind and affectionate: "Xiumei, don't do anything rash."
"Don't worry, I'm satisfied with what you said. It's getting late, Baowen, you should go back now."
"Then I'll be going now. Be careful on your way back." After saying that, he took out a carved wooden hairpin from his sleeve and gave it to her.
Xia Xiumei was overjoyed. The carved wooden hairpin wasn't worth much, but few people in the village had one. After all, they couldn't even afford to eat, so how could they bear to buy such a thing? Most importantly, it was a gift from Fan Baowen, a token of his affection.
"Thank you, Brother Baowen, I really like it."
"Then I'll put it on you." Fan Baowen gently inserted the hairpin into her hair bun and praised, "Xiumei, you look so beautiful."
Xia Xiumei's face turned bright red, and she smiled shyly, "I'll go back now."
After Xia Xiumei ran far away, Fan Baowen's expression changed drastically. The gentleness in his eyes disappeared completely, replaced by a sharpness!
When Fan Baowen returned home, he asked his parents about Xia Chunmei.
"Speaking of this, I'm also furious. Xia Changjiang is the clan leader, yet he couldn't even defeat a mere young girl!"
"Mother, please tell me in detail what happened."
"They've already tried to harm Xia Chunmei, but they failed. I don't know the specifics of their plan."
All that was known was that Xia Chenshi's aunt, Shi Zhenxiang, had been beaten by Xia Chunmei, almost blinding her in one eye. Xia Changjiang and his wife wanted to solidify Xia Chunmei's reputation for being ruthless and disrespectful to her elders, but Xia Chunmei stubbornly denied it, and they couldn't produce any evidence. In the end, not only was Xia Chunmei unharmed, but Shi Zhenxiang even had to compensate Xia Chunmei with one hundred eggs.
"Not only that, Xia Chunmei knew that she couldn't get the compensation back on her own, so she mobilized her clansmen to help her and successfully obtained the compensation."
Madam Fan Jiang then told Fan Baowen exactly what Xia Chunmei had said that day.
Fan Baowen was terrified!
"Xia Chunmei is actually quite shrewd!"
"So son, let the Xia family handle the annulment of the engagement. Xia Chunmei isn't stupid, so we shouldn't interfere. As long as Xia Xiumei likes you and the Xia family wants to marry their daughter to you, they will step in."
Even if Xia Chunmei is somewhat clever, she is ultimately just an orphan with no outside support. If the Xia family wants to deal with her, she definitely can't defend herself; it's only a matter of time.
"Mother is right."
When Xia Xiumei returned home, she proudly showed off to her mother, Xia Chenshi: "Mom, look, this is something Baowen specially bought for me. Isn't it beautiful?"
Fan Baowen came back and even brought a gift for his daughter, which made her happy. She smiled and pulled Xia Xiumei into the house: "Besides giving you the hairpin, did he say anything else? Did you tell him what I told you?"
Xia Xiumei then realized that she had forgotten to mention the matter in her excitement because of his words of liking her.
"I...I forgot."
Xia Chenshi was furious and raised her hand to hit her, but Xia Xiumei quickly said, "Mother, as long as Xia Chunmei breaks off the engagement with him, he will definitely marry me!"
"Promises are the most unreliable thing."
"Brother Baowen wouldn't lie to me."
Xia Chenshi felt helpless seeing how much her daughter trusted Fan Baowen.
She decided to take a two-pronged approach: on the one hand, she plotted against Xia Chunmei to ruin her reputation, and on the other hand, she made sure that Fan Baowen and Xia Xiumei had a fait accompli. Once Xiumei got pregnant, he wouldn't be able to deny it!
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