The next day after returning home, according to the family's discussion, grandma and fourth sister stayed at home to bargain, while Yuan Fangguo took his parents and third brother to go straight to the girl's house.
Because they set out early in the morning, they arrived at the girl's house around 11 o'clock in the morning.
The girl's family lived on the street in Xiuxi Town. However, the first thing Yuan Fangguo did when he arrived in Xiuxi Town was to find a public telephone booth and call Liu Shengyong.
The phone receiver rang no more than three times before Liu Shengyong's voice came from the receiver.
"Brother, I'm sorry, it can't be done this time." Liu Shengyong said with an embarrassed look on his face, "The new principal of Xiuxi Middle School came from somewhere else, and that guy didn't have a good relationship with my cousin before."
Liu Shengyong told Yuan Fangguo the reason in just two sentences. After listening to it, Yuan Fangguo felt embarrassed towards Liu Shengyong and almost embarrassed others.
However, he did not give up, but prepared to go directly to the principal's house.
"Brother, could you please tell me the home phone number and address of the principal of Xiuxi Middle School? I want to contact him directly."
This favor was easy to do. This time, Liu Shengyong agreed without any hesitation.
After finishing the call with Liu Shengyong, Yuan Fangguo followed his parents to Zhang Qiuling's house.
Zhang Qiuling's home is in the suburbs, a two-story house with its own entrance and courtyard. The conditions are much better than Yuan Fangguo's home. Yuan Fangguo learned from Yuan Fangmin that her family runs a wood processing factory, which is quite profitable.
Yuan Chengzhu and Chen Yongying stood at the door of Zhang's house, their hearts beating fast and they were extremely nervous.
Yuan Chengzhu took a long, deep breath. He knew in his heart that in this kind of matter, the elders in the family must knock on the door, and the children cannot do it on their behalf.
"Knock, knock, knock..." After adjusting his breathing, Yuan Chengzhu gently knocked on the Zhang family's vermilion iron gate with his fists.
After a while, a man's voice came from inside, "Who is it?"
"Is that Brother Zhang?" Yuan Chengzhu said with an apologetic smile.
"Who is it?"
"I'm Yuan Chengzhu."
"Yuan Chengzhu?" Zhang Qiuling's father Zhang Delong began to think of his connections. After thinking about it, he felt that he didn't seem to know any friends or acquaintances with the surname Yuan.
"Who's outside?" Zhang Qiuling's mother also heard the knock on the door.
"He said his last name was Yuan." Zhang Delong said subconsciously.
Mother Zhang exclaimed in surprise, her face suddenly changing color, "Old Zhang, are you from the family of the boy that my youngest sister is playing with?"
After Zhang's mother reminded him of this, Zhang Delong immediately remembered that the boy's surname was really Yuan.
Suddenly, his expression turned ugly, and he began to curse, "How dare they come here?"
"Are you really going to make it impossible for our youngest sister to get married?" Zhang's mother immediately started to criticize her husband. "You're just a fool. If we don't abort the baby, it'll be discovered sooner or later. Then we'll both be laughed at."
Zhang Delong was also a bit stubborn. "Are we supposed to beg them for mercy?"
Zhang's mother said, "This isn't a question of whether or not to ask for it. Regarding the child, our two families should reach an agreement as soon as possible. Younger sister's academic performance isn't good, so whether she can continue with her studies or not is a different matter. But I heard that boy is a good student, so maybe he could be well-educated and go to college. Besides, I heard his family isn't well off."
"What's the use of being good? This isn't our child. The boy's family is from the old mountain area, and he's a real mountain guy." Zhang Delong said angrily.
Shanbang is a derogatory term used by locals to refer to farmers living in the mountains.
"No matter whether he is a mountain guy or a ground guy, it's okay to be a live-in son-in-law." Zhang's mother is a woman, and she is still a little weak in her heart.
"Wouldn't it be a bargain for him to come here? My lumber mill makes tens of thousands a year, and that mountain idiot is taking advantage of me?" Although Zhang Delong had never met Yuan Fangmin, he looked down on this kid from the mountains. He even took out all his anger on his daughter.
"Then I don't care. You handle it yourself. Then the neighbors will laugh at you." After saying this, Zhang's mother left with an angry look on her face.
Zhang Delong ignored the knocks on the door. Instead, his daughter Zhang Qiuling rushed down from the second floor, exchanged a fierce look with her father, and then strode out of the house.
"Stop right there." Seeing his daughter being so useless, Zhang Delong was so angry that his lungs were about to explode.
"No." Zhang Qiuling was very stubborn.
"Stop right there." Zhang Delong "threatened" again fiercely.
"No." Zhang Qiuling still said this stubborn word.
"Give it to me..." Zhang Delong suddenly became angry and ran towards Zhang Qiuling with big strides.
Zhang Qiuling quickly started to jog, but as soon as her hand touched the door bolt, it was violently pushed away by Zhang Delong, who was full of brute force.
"You shameless thing, you've ruined my reputation." After saying this, Zhang Delong slapped his daughter hard in the face.
In an instant, Zhang Qiuling was stunned, and hot tears flowed down her cheeks.
"You are usually not active in other things, but you are very active in these things. You have made me lose face." Zhang Delong said to his daughter angrily.
His voice was very loud, as if he was speaking to someone outside.
Yuan Fangguo and his family outside the courtyard wall also heard it clearly. When they saw Zhang Delong scolding his daughter, complicated expressions appeared on their faces.
The expression on Yuan Fangmin's face was even more complicated, so gloomy that it looked like it was about to rain.
"Let's go..." he blurted out suddenly, "Let's just leave it alone."
Yuan Fangguo, Yuan Chengzhu and Chen Yongying were stunned, and then they saw Yuan Fangmin striding away without looking back.
"Come back." Seeing that the third brother suddenly got angry, Yuan Fangguo couldn't help but yell at him.
Yuan Fangmin was stunned, and involuntarily took two steps forward, and then he really didn't move.
Yuan Fangmin was both afraid of and admired his elder brother.
Zhang Delong heard clearly the conversation between the Yuan family outside their house. Deep down, he was worried when he heard Yuan Fangmin say that he didn't care. However, when he heard Yuan Fangguo ask Yuan Fangmin to stop, his worried heart suddenly relaxed.
However, Zhang Delong's heart soon became tense again.
He had never expected this to happen.
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