Zhao Zhihan picked up the things that had fallen on the ground, quickly put them in his pocket, and took his sister's hand as they went to the headmaster.
"Teacher, this is my little sister Daya, she's 3 years old. Little sister, quickly say hello to the headmaster."
Daya looked at the mountain elder's long beard, tilted her little head to look at it, and then looked at her great-grandfather's beard. "Hello, great-grandfather."
Haha, everyone laughed.
The headmaster asked, "Little girl, your name is Daya, right? Why does your brother tell you to call him Headmaster, but you want to call him Great-Grandpa?"
Daya covered her mouth and giggled.
"I don't know what 'headmaster' means, but I do know that your beard is as long as my great-grandfather's, so calling him great-grandfather shouldn't be wrong."
The headmaster chuckled, stroked his beard, and said...
"Well, given my age, it's quite appropriate for you to call me Great-Grandpa. Since you've called me Great-Grandpa, here, take this and play with it."
As he spoke, he took a Bodhi seed bracelet off his hand.
This bracelet was blessed in front of a Buddha statue. The old man has worn it his whole life, so it is very precious.
The Zhao family repeatedly said that it was impossible, as the headmaster was a stubborn old man.
"What do you mean by 'okay' or 'not okay'? If this old man says it's okay, then it's okay."
"It's fate, these children of the Zhao family are just so endearing."
Of course, you should express your gratitude when you receive a gift.
Daya was no exception. Although she didn't know what the bracelet was for, since someone had given it to her, she decided to keep it.
A bracelet hangs from his little arm, and his little hands are clasped in a gesture of respect.
"Thank you, Great-Grandpa. Great-Grandpa gave Daya a gift, and Daya also has something nice to give Great-Grandpa."
Daya took out a milk candy wrapped in glutinous rice paper from her small bag, stretched out her short little hand, and held it up to the headmaster with great effort.
The headmaster smiled, lowered his head to take the milk candy, put it in his mouth, tasted it briefly, and his eyes flashed with amazement.
"This candy is delicious. Da Ya gave it to Great-Grandpa. Does Da Ya have any more?"
Daya tugged at her little pocket that held candy and showed it to the headmaster.
“I still have so many, Grandpa can take a few more.”
Even though he liked sweets, the headmaster didn't have the nerve to take candy out of Daya's pocket.
The old and the young get along well here.
The gentlemen standing nearby, including Magistrate Qiu, are now filled with regret.
Why didn't you bring your own child to the headmaster sooner? If they had shown their face and been noticed, their future would surely have been bright.
Magistrate Qiu has made up his mind to marry Daya to his own brat.
But before Magistrate Qiu could even propose marriage, he was tripped up by the case of the missing girl.
Previously, when the Tu family was searching for Zhao Qingyan with her portrait every day, many cases of missing girls occurred in Qingyang County.
Although the constables searched diligently, they still couldn't find any clues.
Some of the missing girls went out to buy things and never returned home, while others seemed to have only gone out to empty dirty water and never came back.
Eventually, it evolved into the girls sleeping at home at night and disappearing the next morning.
We received numerous reports, and the details of these reports were becoming increasingly outrageous.
Magistrate Qiu could no longer sit still. Not only in Qingyang County, but also in the towns under its jurisdiction, people were filled with anxiety.
Young women are no longer seen shopping on the streets.
Even in families with young daughters, parents would do everything in their power to find matchmakers to arrange marriages.
In order to get their daughters married off as soon as possible and avoid trouble, some families who dote on their daughters even give up the betrothal gifts.
Parents everywhere have the same heart; these parents just hope that once their daughters become wives, they will no longer be targeted by evildoers.
Recently, the business of setting up staking stations and jewelry stores in Qingyang County has been booming. There is an even more profitable industry: the matchmaker market.
Previously, I might get one or two orders a month, which was considered busy, but now I have to schedule appointments.
When the news reached Xi Chunhua's ears, besides feeling sorry for those girls, she also jokingly wondered why she hadn't encountered such good business when she was a matchmaker.
It's truly both laughable and frustrating.
Everyone is getting their daughters married off, so these daughters have been moved from their precious and reserved pedestals to being placed on the shelf.
Previously, some families with limited means were now being introduced to potential partners by matchmakers.
Once introduced, several of them appeared, and these "goods" became more discreet, considering themselves best-sellers.
People are prone to making mistakes when they get carried away.
On this day, Magistrate Qiu presided over a case concerning "polygamy".
The defendant is Chen Sanshun, who is suspected of marriage fraud.
This person is 23 years old. When he was young, he was playing and accidentally knocked over a basin of boiling water, which severely burned one of his arms.
Besides leaving a scar, the burned arm can no longer be straightened.
His father, Chen Dewang, had four sons and three daughters. Judging from his name, Chen Sanshun was clearly not a favored child.
It's neither long nor short, stuck in the middle, just like the saying goes, "neither grandma nor uncle loves it."
Otherwise, he wouldn't have suffered a burn at such a young age and become disabled due to a lack of proper care.
His younger siblings all have sons and daughters, but he's still single.
Although the family ran a small general store in the county, they couldn't keep up with the large number of people in the household.
On the surface, this family seems to be doing quite well, but only the wives who have married into the family know the truth.
The Chen family is just an empty shell, all show and no substance.
Even Chen Sanshun, who had always been a troublesome husband, finally had someone introduce him to a wife.
The introduction included two people. One was Zheng Chunxiang, the daughter of Zheng Anran, who sold wine two streets away. She was 17 years old, of average appearance, and a little dark-skinned.
The bride's family promised to give her 30 taels of silver as a dowry, along with a small courtyard, when she got married. Naturally, the betrothal gifts couldn't be too meager either.
The other daughter was Qu Meili, the daughter of the bricklayer Qu Zhongzhi. She was 16 years old. As her name suggests, she was truly beautiful and a very pretty girl.
The dowry is 15 taels; no betrothal gifts are required.
The previously neglected "goods" suddenly became highly sought-after, causing him to hesitate about who to marry.
Choosing Zheng Chunxiang meant she wasn't pretty, but her dowry was large; choosing Qu Meili meant she was pretty, but her dowry was small.
Chen Sanshun had his eye on Qu Meili, after all, what man isn't "lustful"? But Chen Sanshun's mother had her eye on Zheng Chunxiang.
Although the dowry was a bit much, with my abilities, how could I not control my daughter-in-law?
Once the bride price is paid, she will have complete control over the dowry and betrothal gifts once she enters the household.
However, the other sons and wives disagreed. They argued that there were families who didn't require a betrothal gift, so why should they have to pay one to get a wife?
Thus, the Chen family had a disagreement about which wife to choose for Chen Sanshun.
In the end, Granny Chen made a foolish decision: she wanted to marry both girls.
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