Sure enough, this was exactly what Yue Jiuyue had guessed.
The idea of valuing sons over daughters was deeply ingrained in ancient times. As a result, natural disasters occurred year after year, making it seem as if God did not want people to have a way to live. Under such circumstances, not to mention girls, many boys also suffered the fate of being sold.
In the past two years, only newborn girls have been sold, while boys have fared much worse. During the natural disasters, families were reluctant to sell their grown children and grandchildren who were already able to work as laborers. Instead, they sold their half-grown boys who only knew how to eat, and even newborns were sold.
This has resulted in many older single men in various villages, like Lin Chaonan and Lin Chaobei, still remaining bachelors.
It's not that her family won't let her get married, it's that there's no one else she can marry unless she goes to a brokerage.
Those who married before the natural disaster, those who married while it was easy to marry during the disaster, and those who were lucky enough to marry after the disaster—these men are now just parents of two- or three-year-old children. By the time those children grow up, the bachelors will be thirty-something-year-old men, and some will even be called "grandpa" by others.
Of course, this is only the case in most cases. It's not that there aren't families who can't bear to part with their children, and who wouldn't sell them no matter how hard or tiring it is. It's just that those people are ultimately a minority.
Therefore, if Lin Chaonan and his fellow bachelors are not lucky enough or rich enough, they may remain bachelors for life.
Yue Jiuyue originally didn't want to pry into the children's private affairs, but when she thought about her current status and how people in this era arranged marriages according to their parents' wishes and matchmakers' words, she couldn't help but pinch the bridge of her nose.
She really didn't want to meddle in other people's business!
But if she ignores everything, won't her two brothers misunderstand and think that she doesn't want them to get married?
Oh no! She's a single woman, yet she has to arrange weddings for two young people. Suddenly, she just wants to quit.
What do people do?
She's never even had a sweet romance herself, and now she's going to be someone's mother and grandmother. Her life is so hard!
Thankfully! She had already sent her children out to fend for themselves, so she no longer has to eat dog food every day or worry about seeing those cringe-worthy pixelated scenes.
Does this mean she had foresight?
However, she was, after all, a mother, and it wasn't the first time she had thought about her two children getting married. She thought that Lin Chaonan was already twenty-two years old and Lin Chaobei was already twenty years old, truly making them the older youths in this world.
By the way, she remembered that the marriage law of this dynasty stipulated that if a man or woman did not marry by a certain age, they would be subject to double taxes, and in some places there was even official forced marriage.
They don't have the concept of forced marriage here, but they still have to pay taxes. However, because of the natural disasters a few years ago, the taxes were waived, which is why the family escaped a disaster.
If the two children are still not married this year, they will be fined next year.
Sigh! Life in ancient times must have been so hard! You couldn't even have the freedom to choose your own marriage partner, and you'd be fined for not marrying. It was truly miserable!
That evening, with only three people at the dinner table, Yue Jiuyue didn't mince words and asked directly:
"You two brothers are not young anymore, and you meet a lot of people outside every day. Is there a girl you like? If so, please tell me quickly so I can get you two married as soon as possible."
Lin Chaonan and Lin Chaobei: (ー_ー)!!
Why weren't they happy that their mother finally remembered they were both old bachelors?
"Mother, I don't want to get married yet!"
Lin Chaonan immediately refused.
"Mother, I don't want to either, but I'm still young. Please take care of my third brother first!"
Lin Chaobei, that clever little devil, immediately lifted Lin Chaonan up and put him on the fire to roast.
Lin Chaonan rolled her eyes at Lin Chaobei, then shifted the blame:
"Mother, I have an older brother. We'll talk about it when he gets back."
At this point, he added another sentence, just to avoid embarrassing himself later.
"However, if I find a girl I like, I will definitely tell you right away, and then I will trouble you, Mother, to help me arrange it."
Lin Chaobei hadn't expected Lin Chaonan to do this, and quickly followed suit, saying:
"Your Majesty, me too!"
That was the end of the conversation about urging marriage. The mother and her two children finished their meals and went back to their respective rooms.
On the way back to Dongling, Lin Chaobei kept chattering, trying to dig out Lin Chaonan's little secrets. He seriously suspected that Lin Chaonan must already have a girl he liked, but she probably hadn't agreed yet, otherwise why would he have said that in the end?
"Tell me, I promise I won't tell Mom. Who is this girl? Her standards are so high! She doesn't even like my tall, handsome, rich, and landy third brother?"
Lin Chaonan remained silent, while Lin Chaobei continued talking to himself.
"You've been minding the shop in town since winter. Could that girl be from town? There are a few girls around that age there, hmm... Is she Butcher Wang's granddaughter? Or that tofu beauty?"
Lin Chaobei rubbed his chin back and forth with his index finger, transforming into Sherlock Holmes.
"Don't make wild guesses, you'll ruin the girl's reputation."
After saying that, without waiting for Lin Chaobei to say anything more, he opened the door and went in, leaving Lin Chaobei with only the door slamming shut behind him.
Lin Chaobei, who was almost bumped in the nose, was so startled that he jumped back, forgetting what he was going to say, and was so angry at Lin Chaonan that he jumped up and down.
"Lin Chaonan! You've gone too far!"
Yue Jiuyue is a very open-minded mother, so when the two children said they had no ideas for the time being, she stopped asking and planned to ask again next year.
Asking about marriage once a year at this frequency shouldn't be annoying, right?
As for the two kids never getting married, they both have a lot of savings, so even if they are fined five times the amount, they can afford it themselves. In fact, they can increase tax revenue for the country, so it's their contribution.
After that, everything returned to normal. Nothing happened at home or in the shop, except that it was almost time for the wheat harvest.
The wheat harvest season is very tight because it's in the summer, and no one knows when it might suddenly rain. Therefore, Yue Jiuyue always participates in the wheat harvest.
This year is different from previous years. Many people followed the trend of Yue Jiuyue and wrapped themselves up tightly. This was the case for the women of the Zhou family, as well as many of the mothers-in-law at the top of the pyramid in the village. On the contrary, most of the younger daughters-in-law did not take any sun protection measures, just like in previous years.
Yue Jiuyue had no time to care about others; she was bent over tying up the wheat, and by now her back was so tired it was practically numb.
She hasn't done any physical labor for a year!
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