Chapter 393 Is Fifth Brother Getting Married?
Nan Fengling stood up and asked, "Sister-in-law, how did you know it was my sister?"
Du Wanchun smiled and replied, "Fifth Brother is timid by nature, so naturally he wouldn't choose someone who is just as timid."
Nan Fengling nodded. "That's true. But Fifth Brother made a fool of himself. He thought he was interested in the younger sister, so he told the matchmaker that he wanted to marry her. But when we got home to prepare the betrothal gifts, Mother realized that he had always been interested in the older sister."
"This made my fifth brother very anxious, so he went to find a matchmaker himself and managed to change the marriage."
Du Wanchun roughly understood the joke. "Then the Tao family won't mind?"
Nan Fengling shook his head. "No, the Tao family just said that it was a mistake and it can be corrected."
Du Wanchun listened, seemingly lost in thought.
She had heard of the Tao family; they had been farmers for generations, and Old Master Tao was hardworking and capable, so they lived a fairly good life.
He later married a capable wife, and life got better and better.
The couple had two sons and two daughters, which was a happy ending.
But there was a strange thing about the Tao family: Aunt Tao had never liked her eldest daughter.
Many villagers couldn't understand why, even though they were all biological children, he didn't like his eldest daughter.
Du Wanchun later went to their village to collect rice. On the way, she passed a vegetable stall. The old woman at the stall was an elderly woman from the village. She said that when Aunt Tao was pregnant with her eldest daughter, her mother-in-law had been hoping for a big, healthy boy.
She was pampered with good food and lodging every day, but when she was born, it was a girl.
Her mother-in-law would beat and scold her constantly, saying that her womb was useless.
Aunt Tao harbored resentment towards her eldest daughter, feeling that this daughter had stolen her son's place in the afterlife and that this daughter had caused her so much suffering.
When Du Wanchun heard her tell this story, she couldn't help but sigh.
She never imagined that there would actually be mothers in this world who would dislike their own daughters.
After giving birth to her eldest daughter, Aunt Tao immediately gave birth to her second son, then her third son, and finally her youngest daughter.
After having two sons, she doted on her youngest daughter even more.
The Zhou family made a blunder in this marriage arrangement, and it's impossible for Aunt Tao, who is so biased, not to retaliate.
Just as Du Wanchun had thought, something had indeed happened to the Tao family.
Ostensibly, this was to arrange marriages for her two daughters, but in reality, Aunt Tao wanted her eldest daughter to accompany her younger daughter.
The purpose was to arrange a good marriage for his youngest daughter.
Zhou Quan is currently just a schoolteacher.
However, he was still nominally the son of the Zhou family, a well-known wealthy merchant family in Cheng'an County. The eldest son of the Zhou family was the county magistrate. Such a husband's family was hard to find even with a lantern in the entire Qingzhou Prefecture.
Aunt Tao dreamed of marrying her youngest daughter into the family.
But they never expected that Zhou Quan had taken a liking to his eldest daughter that day.
Aunt Tao was very shrewd; she immediately realized that Zhou Quan preferred his eldest daughter.
In order to help her younger daughter get married, she deliberately pointed to her older daughter and talked about how great her younger daughter was in front of Zhou Quan.
This led Zhou Quan to mistakenly believe that he liked the younger daughter, thus prompting the matchmaker to propose marriage.
Aunt Tao's wishful thinking was correct, but unfortunately she did not expect that Zhou Quan, who was usually timid, had already noticed something. He grew up in the palace and, although he was not favored, he could still see through these little tricks.
In order to preserve the Tao family's name, he specifically told Aunt Zhou and the matchmaker that he had made a mistake and had mistaken the older sister for the younger sister.
He even went there in person to warn the Tao family.
Aunt Tao knew she was in the wrong, so of course she didn't make a fuss.
However, as soon as Zhou Quan left, Aunt Tao gave her eldest daughter a severe beating.
And so, the eldest daughter, Tao Yaofang, is still lying in bed unable to move.
Aunt Tao's actions frightened even her own husband; what mother would beat her own daughter like that?
He couldn't help but plead, "Mother of the child, Fang'er came from your womb after all, how can you treat her like this?!"
Aunt Tao, hands on her hips, pointed at the person lying in the room and cursed, "She's a vixen! She was clearly arranging a marriage for her sister, but she insisted on seducing her future brother-in-law!"
Grandpa Tao slammed his hand on the table twice and said, "This is all your fault. I told you that when I was arranging a marriage for Meiyu, I would only take Meiyu with me. But you were afraid that they wouldn't agree to the marriage, so you wanted to bring Fang'er along to be their concubine!"
Aunt Tao thought that her family was not good enough for the Zhou family, so she was willing to use a dowry to marry both of her daughters to Zhou Quan, with the younger daughter as his wife and the elder daughter as his concubine.
This way, the Zhou family wouldn't lose out. However, before she could even bring it up, Aunt Zhou had already subtly instructed the matchmaker that none of the Zhou family's sons would take concubines.
Aunt Tao remained silent, letting her eldest daughter stand behind her the whole time.
On the day of the marriage proposal, Tao Yaofang, the eldest daughter of the Tao family, stood obediently behind her aunt with her head down.
The youngest daughter, Tao Meiyu, stood in front, constantly glancing furtively at Zhou Quan.
Originally, I thought my younger daughter would be more lively.
Unfortunately, a large rat suddenly rushed out of the corner that day.
Tao Meiyu was so frightened that she backed away repeatedly, cursing, "Where did this big rat come from? What bad luck!"
The tone of his voice was harsh.
Zhou Quan understood immediately. Just as he was about to refuse the marriage proposal, Tao Yaofang, who had been standing behind without saying a word, strode over and stepped on a rat that was rushing towards him.
He was startled by the grinning rat.
When they came to their senses, they saw Tao Yaofang lightly grab the mouse by the tail and lift it up, then calmly and casually toss the mouse away.
Zhou Quan was stunned; his heart pounded as the mouse fled.
He thought to himself, "This girl isn't catching a mouse, she's catching his heart."
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