The man's eyes lit up, and he stepped into the house.
He looked around the room while talking to Jiang Jiaojiao.
"Since your maternal grandparents also share the surname Yang, please stop calling me 'Uncle.' I'm only in my early thirties, not that old. You can just call me cousin."
"This... isn't a good idea?"
"Going back five generations, you could all be from the same clan. What's your name, young lady?" The man asked with a friendly smile, his gaze seemingly casually sweeping over Jiang Jiaojiao's face.
The man was gentle, shared the same surname as his mother, and lived not far from here.
Having experienced betrayal and abandonment by everyone, Jiang Jiaojiao suddenly felt a deep sense of kinship with the man in front of her.
She readily accepted this distant, unfamiliar relative.
"My surname is Jiang, and my given name is Jiaojiao." Jiang Jiaojiao was too ashamed to mention her father's former official position.
"My cousin has a lovely name, Jiaojiao. She lives up to her name, as beautiful as a flower." The man offered a timely compliment.
“My cousin is teasing me. I am but a willow, how dare I compare my beauty to that of a flower.”
Jiang Jiaojiao felt very pleased to be praised.
The man glanced at Jiang Jiaojiao's married hairstyle and asked, "Cousin, you're married? Is your husband's family treating you well?"
That tone—definitely that of a member of the bride's family.
Jiang Jiaojiao felt a warm glow in her heart, as no one had cared about her like this in a long time.
"Thank you for your concern, cousin. I haven't been married long, but my husband has taken concubines one after another. Do you think he treats me well or not?"
The man stood in the courtyard, glancing around absentmindedly before his gaze settled on Jiang Jiaojiao's face.
"What kind of family did my cousin marry into? They took a concubine right after the wedding! Where is the propriety and decorum?"
The man's reprimanding tone led Jiang Jiaojiao to mistakenly believe that someone had finally spoken up for her.
Moved, my eyes immediately welled up with tears.
"Let's not talk about that family anymore. I just want to transfer this shop and leave the capital."
One felt deeply wronged, while the other spoke out righteously.
The two became increasingly intimate as they talked, as if they were long-lost relatives reunited.
The man entered the backyard but did not go into the side room to check, which made Jiang Jiaojiao feel even more that her cousin was a well-educated and polite person.
She invited the visitor to the front hall and poured him a cup of coarse tea that had just been brewed that morning.
Jiang Jiaojiao quoted a price based on the amount of money she put in, and the man agreed without hesitation.
Jiang Jiaojiao wanted to get up to find a pen and ink to write the transfer contract, but the man quickly took out a silver ingot from his pocket. "Cousin, you're too kind. Keep this deposit. Tomorrow, your cousin will send someone to take over the shop with the remaining payment."
A single ingot of silver cost a full ten taels, and no contract was required.
The man's generosity made Jiang Jiaojiao instantly develop a good impression of this cousin.
Jiang Jiaojiao didn't refuse, put away the silver and sat down again.
The man, speaking in the tone of someone from the bride's family, began to subtly probe Jiang Jiaojiao's private affairs.
Once she was no longer wary, Jiang Jiaojiao revealed all her plans, except for mentioning her parents and husband's family background.
When Jiang Jiaojiao said she would leave the capital after dropping the divorce papers.
The man patted his chest and said confidently, "My cousin will arrange for my cousin to leave the capital. I happen to have a shipment to take me out of the capital, and I will deliver it wherever my cousin wants to go."
The two chatted for nearly an hour. It turned out that the man was a merchant who traveled between various states year-round.
Jiang Jiaojiao was worried about how to leave the capital, so she immediately decided to hitch a ride with her newly acquainted cousin.
The next day, the man indeed sent two employees to take over the shop.
The shop assistant respectfully handed over the silver, saying, "Miss, please check if the amount matches. My master said that if there is any discrepancy, he will hold me accountable."
Hearing this, Jiang Jiaojiao's opinion of her cousin's character improved even more.
She took the silver and counted it; it was just the right amount, not too much, not too little. She thought that carrying silver was always inconvenient.
The shop assistant seemed to read her mind and bowed, saying, "If Miss, you find it inconvenient to carry silver on your journey, you can go to Wantong Money Shop to exchange it for silver notes. You can also exchange the silver notes freely when you go to other places."
Jiang Jiaojiao glanced at the bustling crowds on the street and nodded. "That's exactly what I was thinking too."
"The master instructed me to accompany Miss Cousin to the money exchange, as there may be thieves on the street."
Another shop assistant said, "Master is busy preparing goods today, so please stay at the shop for a couple more days. Once the goods are ready, Master will come to pick you up personally."
Jiang Jiaojiao, accompanied by a shop assistant, went to exchange the banknotes.
After returning to the shop, the two shop assistants left, and Jiang Jiaojiao found a pen, ink, paper, and inkstone, and began to write the divorce agreement carefully.
There was no ink pad in the room, so she went next door to borrow some and pressed her fingerprint onto it.
Judging by the timeline, Su Peng's uncle's dyeing workshop should have already started operations.
With money in hand, Jiang Jiaojiao no longer wanted to cook lunch herself.
She saw a noodle shop at the other end of the street, locked the door, and went to eat a bowl of vegetarian noodles.
After lunch, back in her room, Jiang Jiaojiao dreamed about her bright future after leaving the capital.
She went to live with her father, who was stationed in another region. There, no one knew her past. She let down her married woman's hair and remained the same unmarried young lady.
My father is a county magistrate, so finding a good marriage there shouldn't be difficult.
Although she was not a virgin, having been through many sexual encounters, she was confident that she could fool her husband on their wedding night if he had no sexual experience.
It's just a little bit of pigeon blood; you can find it anywhere.
Thinking about her future ideal husband, Jiang Jiaojiao took a nice afternoon nap.
Perhaps a huge weight had been lifted from her heart, for when she woke up, she saw the setting sun squeezing in through the cracks in the window.
Oh no! I overslept.
Jiang Jiaojiao jumped up, casually tied her hair into a bun in front of the broken bronze mirror in the room, and then braided her long hair at the back of her head.
Looking at her familiar appearance in the bronze mirror, Jiang Jiaojiao smiled with satisfaction.
He took out the divorce papers from under his pillow, tucked them into his bosom, locked the shop door, and walked lightly toward the Su family home.
After arriving at the Su family's gate, Jiang Jiaojiao hesitated at the door for a long time without daring to knock.
If she knocked on the door and gave the divorce papers to Madam Qin, she would inevitably be met with a severe scolding from Madam Qin.
She looked up at the sky, guessing that Su Peng hadn't returned home yet at this hour.
She also didn't want to see her father-in-law again, who reeked of sourness and decay; she felt disgusted just talking to him.
I don't understand where he gets the courage to be so self-righteous about being poor.
Seeing that the second branch of the Su family was returning to their residence at the alley entrance, Jiang Jiaojiao simply walked behind the big tree in front of the door.
The second wife's family did not get along with Qin, so they were not close to her. When they met, they were just nodding acquaintances.
Seeing the hem of her skirt peeking out from behind the big tree, the second wife pretended not to see it and went through the gate on their own.
Sure enough, a moment later, they heard Su Zhengxing humming a tune as he approached from afar.
Jiang Jiaojiao peeked out from behind the big tree when she heard the creak of the gate.
Seeing the door close, Jiang Jiaojiao felt a great sense of relief.
As the sun dipped below the thick clouds, Su Peng was still nowhere to be seen at the alley entrance.
Did he go home a long time ago?
"Unlikely," Jiang Jiaojiao immediately dismissed the idea. Su Peng had once said that he would be busy for a while when he went back home for the New Year.
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