Chapter 6 Chapter 6 Engagement and Replacement
At this time at home, Tian saw that everyone had gotten up but there was no sign of Lin Chuntao and the others.
While cursing, he shouted at Lin Chuntao and the others to get up quickly.
But no one in the house responded, so Tian threw away the broom, picked up a piece of bamboo pole, and prepared to go upstairs to beat someone up.
She rushed upstairs quickly, but found the bed empty!
Ran away? Impossible, where could a few girls run to?
She hurried downstairs and called Lin Changhe and Qian: "Where are those damn girls?"
Lin Changhe and Qian were both confused, but Qian was the first to react.
"I didn't see him. I thought he wasn't up yet? He's not upstairs?" Qian asked the old lady, but she remained silent. Zhang, who was standing next to her, exclaimed, "He didn't run away, did he?"
"What should we do if the betrothal gift comes but the betrothal gift is not there?"
Hearing Zhang's words, the old lady's face darkened. She looked at the people standing still in the yard and cursed, "Go find someone! What are you still standing there looking at?"
Qian's temples pounded as she thought of Lin Chuntao and the others running away. Lin Changhe beside her was still stammering, "Where are we going to look for them?"
"Look in the sky! Where else can you look? Look in the surrounding mountains and ask if anyone has seen them."
Lin Changhe was scolded by the old lady. He touched the back of his head and prepared to take action, but before the people from the old Lin family left the yard, they heard a commotion outside. When they opened the gate, they saw that the betrothal proposal had arrived!
Six or seven people were driving a donkey cart with a red cloth hanging around the donkey's neck. The cart was carrying a whole piece of meat, two bags of grain, and two whole pieces of cloth.
In this village, two ribs of meat, a few feet of red cloth, and a bucket of grain are usually enough to marry a daughter-in-law. I have never seen any family give such a large gift.
Seeing this scene, the people in the village stopped working and just wanted to join in the fun, following the betrothal team to the gate of the Lin family compound.
As agreed upon before, the matchmaker greeted Tian warmly as soon as she saw her: "Sister-in-law Tian, I have brought the Zhang brothers to propose marriage to your eldest daughter."
The villagers gathered at the door and murmured when they heard this: "Big girl? Chuntao? Isn't she married?"
The faces of matchmaker Qian and the Zhang family changed slightly. They turned around to look at the villagers who were talking, and then looked at Tian in confusion.
Tian looked embarrassed, but she forced a smile and said, "Eldest sister, you must be wrong. The one who wants to be the matchmaker is our second daughter, Chun Xing."
The matchmaker frowned and looked at Qian, who also smiled. "Aunt Qian, we were talking about the second girl before. Hurry up and stop standing at the door. Come in and have some water first."
Matchmaker Qian grumbled in her heart, but the Zhang family behind her didn't seem to care. They just said, "Then go in and talk, and meet the person by the way."
Matchmaker Qian agreed with what she thought. No matter whether it was the eldest or the second girl, they had to meet someone.
Tian welcomed the guests in, and Zhang asked them to sit down while asking the second daughter-in-law to serve melon seeds.
After the person who was hired came in, the people in the village also followed into the yard, some squatting and some standing.
The children in the family were very keen to join in the fun. Boys and girls were standing in the yard. The matchmaker looked at the girls in the yard. Qian knew that she was looking for someone to marry today.
Zhang Bao also followed the matchmaker's gaze and looked around. After looking around, his eyes fell on Lin Xian'er who was leaning against the door. He thought it was her and immediately felt happy.
Qian noticed this and felt bad. She hurriedly said, "Aunt, we thought you would come in the afternoon. The second girl and the others went into the mountains to work early. Eat some melon seeds first. I'll send someone to call them back."
After saying this, Qian turned around and asked Lin Changhe to take a few nephews to go and call them.
*
In order to deceive their family, Lin Chuntao and her friends cut a basket of pig grass and carried it on their backs on the way back.
He picked two large leaves, wrapped the copper coin in them and held them in his arms. While cutting grass for the pigs, he also picked some water chestnuts on the ridge and wrapped them in leaves.
When the five of them came back carrying pig feed and holding Pao'er, the yard was full of people.
"Hey, Tao girl, you're back from cutting grass for pigs so early?"
The villagers laughed and joked. Lin Chuntao looked at Pei Ying carrying the pig grass and pursed her lips, pretending to be shy. "Pei Ying is not familiar with our place. Let's take him around to get familiar with the village and cut some pig grass while we're there." She turned around and instructed Chunhe, "Third brother, take your brother-in-law to pick up the pig grass."
After hearing what was said, Lin Chunhe led Pei Ying to the backyard. Lin Chuntao looked at the stranger in the yard and the mule with the red cloth hanging on it, and knew that this was the person who came to propose marriage.
She pretended not to know and begged her cousins to come over: "I pulled some bubbles, do you want to eat some?"
When the children heard this, they all crowded over. Lin Chuntao pulled aside the leaves and grabbed some for each of them.
"I'll leave the rest for Duo'er and the others." As he spoke, he wrapped it up and took it into the house.
Everyone thought that she was holding Paoer in her arms.
Lin Chuntao quickly went into the house and went upstairs with the copper coins in her arms, and hid all the copper coins in the straw under the quilt.
There were so many people in this family that she didn't feel safe hiding the money anywhere, but the straw under the bed was the safest place for now.
She remembered Pei Ying saying that the pot and the rice were hidden. She looked for them but couldn't find them. Finally, she looked up and found that the pot was hidden in a particularly tricky place under the thatch on the beam. It was at the edge of the beam, with the bottom of the pot facing outward. It was dark upstairs, and if you didn't look carefully, you couldn't tell that there was a pot hidden there.
Lin Chuntao smiled. This was indeed well hidden.
She took the bubbles downstairs, and in order not to attract people upstairs, she placed the leaves that wrapped the bubbles directly on the windowsill downstairs.
In the yard, Qian was taking Lin Chunxing to introduce her to the matchmaker and the Zhang family.
"This is our second daughter, Chun Xing. She's very hardworking, capable, and sensible." After introducing the matchmaker and the Zhang family, Qian said to Lin Chun Xing, "Chun Xing, this is the in-law family that mother has found for you."
Matchmaker Qian looked at Chun Xing with a warm and familiar look on her face. She took her hand and started talking.
First, she praised Zhang Bao for working as an accountant in the county town, which was close to the Zhang family. Then she said that Zhang Bao was older than her and was more caring, and that she would enjoy endless blessings if she married into the Zhang family in the future.
Lin Chuntao stood at the door and saw the boy who looked almost the same age as his biological father Lin Changhe. She almost vomited the food she had eaten the night before.
Don't blame me for being unjust if you are unkind.
Lin Chuntao quickly walked over to Chunxing and said with a smile, "Chunxing, why don't you thank Aunt Qian for finding you such a good marriage? You're weak, and your medicine will probably cost a lot of money in the future. If you were to marry in our village, you might not even be able to afford medicine. Luckily, Aunt Qian was kind enough to find you a wealthy family."
Lin Chunxing pursed her lips slightly and lowered her head, "Thank you, Aunt Qian."
The matchmaker's expression changed again and again, and she looked up at Qian.
Qian was furious and pointed at Lin Chuntao and cursed, "Lin Chuntao, what are you talking about here?"
Lin Chuntao quickly covered her mouth, pretending it was unintentional, and tried to laugh it off: "No, no, it was just a slip of the tongue."
The matchmaker and the Zhang family knew something was up. Qian explained, "Aunt, this is just nonsense from the child. It's not true. Chun Xing is in good health."
Zhang also echoed: "Yes, that's right, this girl has rarely been sick since she was born."
The matchmaker's face turned even uglier. Who would believe that he hadn't been sick for more than ten years? He even sneezed when the weather was cold. It was common for him to have two or three sneezes in a winter.
Lin Chunxing grabbed Matchmaker Qian's hand and assured her, "It's all nonsense because my sister doesn't want me to get married. I'm not sick, nothing."
The more they explained, the more the matchmaker and the Zhang family felt something was fishy.
Just as she was about to question Qian, Lin Chunxing, who was holding the matchmaker's hand, suddenly twitched. Her feet kept kicking, her body twisted, her head turned to one side, and the veins on her forehead stood up. She looked like she was suffering from epilepsy, and the matchmaker was so scared that she peeled off her hands.
Lin Chuntao screamed and grabbed Lin Chunxing, who was about to fall to the ground, and shouted, "Don't bite your tongue! Don't bite it! Bite my hand!"
As he said that, he stuffed his wrist into Lin Chunxing's mouth and asked her to bite it.
While helping Lin Chunxing, Lin Chuntao looked up at the matchmaker with tears in her eyes.
The villagers were also shocked when they saw Lin Chunxing like this, and they started talking about whether she was suffering from epilepsy.
Others said that they were pitiful because their mother passed away early and was now ill.
Matchmaker Qian was so angry that she looked at Qian and started to scold her. She believed that she could speak sweetly to Qian, but she was actually a sickly person, and she had epilepsy, which was something that everyone wanted to avoid!
Zhang Bao felt relieved when he saw Lin Chunxing fall ill.
This girl is as thin as a bamboo pole, with a pointed face and dark complexion, and hair like dead grass. She is not as blessed as the fair and plump girl at the door.
At his age, if he wants to marry again, he only wants to marry someone who is lucky and can give him two more sons.
If this one doesn’t work, try another one. We haven’t decided on one yet.
He hurriedly pulled Matchmaker Qian aside and whispered, "Don't be angry, Aunt Qian. It's all fate. Even if the marriage fails, it won't create any enemies."
Qian said hurriedly, "That's right, Auntie, calm down."
After Qian the matchmaker sat down, Zhang Bao pulled her over and whispered a few words with her head behind her back. She raised her eyes to look at Lin Xian'er at the door, and instantly put on a smiling face.
"Lilac, that girl is also from your family, right?"
Qian's heart skipped a beat, feeling something was wrong, but she still replied, "This is my sister-in-law. She's still young. My mother wants to keep her for a few more years and isn't in a hurry to discuss marriage."
Matchmaker Qian laughed slowly after hearing this. "She looks a few years older than this second girl."
No one answered. Matchmaker Qian took Tian's hand and said affectionately, "Oh, my dear sister-in-law, you are so kind that you think of arranging a marriage for your granddaughter first. In my opinion, it is right to arrange a marriage for your daughter first. If it is your daughter, his family can add another eight taels of betrothal money, making a total of twenty-eight taels!"
The sisters-in-law of the Lin family looked at Lin Xian'er with wide eyes, while Tian's face turned as black as coal.
"Big sister, you're joking. My daughter wants to stay at home and not get married."
Matchmaker Qian covered her mouth with a handkerchief and smiled, as if she didn't understand. "I understand, I understand. Raising a daughter is like this. We definitely can't decide today. We have to pick another auspicious day."
Tian slowly pushed the matchmaker's hand away and said, "This won't work."
Matchmaker Qian refused to give in and laughed, "Sister-in-law Tian, Brother Zhang is a very kind person, otherwise you wouldn't have agreed to him proposing marriage to your granddaughter, right? He can't be okay with your granddaughter but not your daughter. I know you love your daughter, and it must be that Brother Zhang likes her and is willing to increase the betrothal gift, which shows he really values her!"
"That's it for today. Let's go back and find another auspicious day to propose marriage." Matchmaker Qian said to herself and glanced at Qian Dingxiang: "Dingxiang, when is your sister-in-law's birthday?"
Qian Dingxiang looked at Tian's face and was too embarrassed to say anything. Matchmaker Qian said, "It's okay. Come and tell me about it when you go back to your parents' home someday."
After saying this, Matchmaker Qian prepared to leave with the Zhang family. She looked at the villagers and said with a smile, "If you have any girls or boys of marriageable age, please feel free to come to me. I will definitely help you find a partner."
"In this world, there is no marriage that cannot be arranged by my money and matchmaker!"
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