"You must be dreaming!" Madam Feng sneered. "It's your Su family that's acting unfairly and has wronged my son. This marriage should naturally be called off by my Feng family."
It's a joke. If the Su family were to break off the engagement, even if her son were to achieve academic success in the future, it would still be a stain on his life.
"We can just go to the county government and talk to the officials to find out the truth," Su Hua said, pulling up the green-eyed boy from the ground and making a move to walk out.
"No—" Feng's mother, Feng Zicai, and the three with green eyes panicked at the same time.
"Oh, what's wrong with that?" Su Hua laughed. "Our county magistrate is an upright and just official. He will definitely find out who is right and who is wrong. When the time comes, those who should go to jail will go to jail, and those who should be stripped of their scholar status will be stripped of their status. Isn't that a good thing?"
"How can you be so insensible, young lady?" Mother Feng's face darkened. "Why take a village matter all the way to the county government?"
After saying that, she sighed heavily again, "The marriage will remain the same as before. When you come of age, you will marry my son."
"Mother!" Feng Zicai said reluctantly.
The Su family was dirt poor, and Su Hua had nothing at all. She was also fat and ugly. Marrying her would be worse than swallowing a fly.
"Can't the Feng family even understand human language? Today, it is my Su family that is breaking off the engagement, and it is a done deal!" Su Hua said, stepping on the toes of Green Eyes's foot.
The man was in so much pain that he knelt on the ground. Now, his groin, feet, and head were all wracked with excruciating pain, as if being cut by knives.
If he tries to frame the youngest daughter of the Su family again, she might cripple him.
After all, it was clear that the Feng family mother and son were no match for this little girl.
He pulled out two taels of silver and held it in his palm. "Grandma, I was blind and didn't recognize your greatness. I shouldn't have tried to harm you for the two taels of silver that Feng Zicai gave me. He said he wanted me to tarnish your reputation, catch you in adultery, and then cancel the engagement. But I didn't even have time to do anything before you almost ruined me. Please, Grandma, have mercy and accept these two taels of silver. Just consider me nothing and let me go."
Green-eyed Man spoke so quickly and urgently that Feng Zicai couldn't stop him in time.
Upon hearing this, everyone's gaze towards the Feng family mother and son changed.
Thirteen years ago, Old Man Su drowned in the river while saving the young man from the Feng family; it was a life-for-life debt of gratitude.
In the years that followed, the Feng family often faced famine and would borrow grain from the Su family. The Su family never refused them, which they all witnessed.
But now, Feng has just passed the imperial examination and is trying to break off the engagement with such dirty tricks. He is even more ungrateful than a white-eyed wolf.
If they do things like this, who will dare to do business with them in the future?
Not to mention begging them to register the land under their name.
They can even harm the daughter of their benefactor. If we owe them a favor, who knows what we'll have to repay them with in the future?
"To say that my son invited you here without any evidence is a joke!" Upon seeing this, Madam Feng's usual gentle demeanor vanished, and she angrily retorted, "I think you're just trying to exonerate that little slut Su Hua. I wouldn't believe you two weren't having an affair!"
"Just empty words?" The beady-eyed man glared at her, holding up the silver in his hand. "There are still ink marks on this silver coin from your son's reading and writing. Everyone can take a good look!"
Everyone looked over at the sound and saw that there was indeed an ink stain on the gleaming silver surface.
In their Shanghe Village, Feng Zicai was the only proper scholar.
"It's just a little ink, what does that prove?" Mother Feng sneered. "My son is the only one in this village who goes to school, but what about the other villages, the town? Who knows if you stole someone else's money and framed my family?"
"You old hag, you won't give up until you see the Yellow River!" Green-eyed scrambled up from the ground, rummaged in his red underwear, and pulled out a money pouch. "You recognize this, right? This was given to me by your son himself. He said it was a money pouch embroidered by his mother."
Having said that, he flicked his hand.
He threw it directly at an old woman.
The old woman clutched the money pouch, examined it for a long time, and nodded, "It is indeed Zicai's mother's embroidery skill."
The women standing nearby nodded in agreement.
Mrs. Feng's face turned red and then black, and she opened her mouth as if to say something.
But the beady-eyed man interrupted him, saying, "If you dare to falsely accuse me of stealing this money pouch again, I'll climb into your bed tonight and steal you!"
"You, you are shameless..." Mrs. Feng was so angry that her eyes went black and she almost collapsed to the ground.
She originally intended to ruin the reputation of the Su family's daughter and take the opportunity to break off the engagement, but why did she end up ruining her own family's reputation?
Su Hua was speechless with astonishment.
The original owner was fortunate not to have married into such a family.
Otherwise, with such a formidable mother-in-law, she would probably have eaten every last bone fragment.
"Grandma, please accept these two taels of silver. It's just a small token of my appreciation." The man bowed and handed over the silver.
"You're quite sensible!" Su Hua raised an eyebrow, took the silver directly, tossed it in her hand a couple of times to satisfy her urge, and then handed it to Su Bai beside her. "Let's call off this engagement as soon as possible."
"Yes, break off the engagement!" Madam Su didn't have time to think about the reason for her daughter's sudden change in temperament. She waved her hand and said, "Dahu, go home and get the engagement document. Erhu and Sanhu, you two take Feng Zicai to get his family's share. Oh, and the Feng family has been borrowing fifty catties of rice from my Su family every year for the past thirteen years. They must return it all to my Su family, not a single grain less!"
"Yes, sons, we'll go right away." The three brothers dragged Feng Zicai out of the temple.
Madam Su Bai then said to her two daughters-in-law behind her, "What are you all standing there for? Can't you see that Hua'er is hurt? Quickly help Hua'er up!"
"Yes." Sister-in-law Zhao hurriedly ran up with her head bowed and eyes lowered.
"Alright, alright, Mother, don't be angry. I'll help my little sister right away." Second sister-in-law Qian said with a smile.
Immediately afterwards, Su Hua felt a weight on her hands and was being helped towards the Feng family's house. She couldn't help but twitch her lips. It was her wrist that was injured, not her foot. Moreover, her wrist, which had been scraped before, didn't seem to hurt much anymore.
Seeing this, the villagers who had come to watch the commotion at the dilapidated temple also followed suit.
When they arrived at the Feng family's door, the Su brothers were holding two documents, and Sanhu was rummaging through the Feng family's rice jar.
The bamboo scoop was scraping and rattling at the bottom of the rice jar, indicating that the jar had been completely emptied.
"Mother, these are the engagement documents from both families." Su Erhu presented them with both hands, a smile playing on his dark face. "The Feng family doesn't have enough grain, only a hundred catties in total. As for the remaining five hundred and fifty catties of rice, how about we have him write an IOU and pay it back with interest?"
"How much interest is appropriate?" Su Baishi took the engagement document, a hint of pain flashing across her wrinkled face.
Originally, seeing that Feng was a reliable young man, she agreed to Feng's mother's engagement, but she never expected that it would almost harm her daughter.
“In this town, it’s a nine-out-of-ten-out-of-thirteen-out-of-ten way to borrow money,” Su Erhu said with a deeper smile. “We certainly can’t fall behind.”
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