Lin Sheng's face was pale, and her eyes fell on Su Mu, who was lying on the ground dying. There was even more pity in her eyes. If Amo hadn't asked him to look after Su Mu again and again when he went out, she would not have come to the Su family.
A month ago, Su Yunqiu married into the Wang family in the next village. The Wang family was considered a wealthy family in Wangjia Village. Su Yunqiu married the second son of the Wang family, who opened a shop in the town. The whole family moved to the town early on.
No family in Maolin Village owns a shop in the town. In the eyes of the villagers, marrying into the town, no matter whether you are rich or poor, as long as you are in the town, you are like a golden phoenix flying out of the chicken coop in the eyes of the farmers, and in Maolin Village, you are the first of its kind.
When she got married, the betrothal gifts were generous, and she was the envy of her unmarried sisters and brothers.
Only one month after she got married, a cousin of hers from the Wang family, who was the only child in the family and had broken his leg a few years ago, had a wife and a wealthy family, and wanted to buy a concubine to serve him.
But they didn't want a woman, because they mainly wanted to buy a labor force to serve them and work in the fields. Su Yunqiu immediately thought of his own Su Mu.
Wang's uncle gave Su Mu fifteen taels of silver, with only one request, which was that Su Mu go to the government office to register as a slave and marry into the Wang family as a slave.
The Wang family thought this request was not excessive. They could get about the same price by selling a slave to a human trafficker, and those people had ready-made indentures. However, they wanted someone with a clean family background and knew everything about him, so they chose Su Mu.
Fifteen taels of silver was a huge sum of money for ordinary people. The betrothal gift given to Su Yunqiu by the Wang family when she married into the family was only ten taels of silver, which was already the most expensive marriage for a woman engaged in the village, let alone these fifteen taels of silver.
When Su Yun heard about so much money, she agreed immediately. However, Su Mu, who was always obedient, disagreed. Su Mu, who had been submissive since childhood, resisted particularly fiercely this time, which made Su Yun very angry. She took a stick and beat Su Mu severely, not caring whether he agreed or not.
Su Mu had been accustomed to being obedient since childhood. This time's resistance undoubtedly angered Su Yun. She thought that a beating would make him stop, but who knew that when the Wang family came to pick him up on the fifth day, Su Mu resisted with all his might and refused to leave.
Those people didn't care whether he was willing or not. They beat him if he didn't obey. He gasped when he struggled. They tortured Su Mu until he was almost dying and his life was hanging by a thread.
When he was carried to the village entrance, he suddenly struggled, dragged his wounds all over his body, and jumped into the river at the village entrance with all his might. He had already made up his mind to die. The people on the river looked at each other, but no one went down to save him. Fortunately, Lin Wu, who had just returned from work, saw him and immediately jumped into the river to save him.
However, when he came back, he was severely beaten by Su Gui. Su Gui was a grown man who had been working as a banker for many years and was very strong. He beat Su Mu almost to death. Lin Wu went back and talked to Lin Sheng about it, and this is how the current scene happened.
"Auntie Su, my Ah Mo really loves Su Mu. Please let him marry me. I promise that our family will treat him well in the future. Mu Ge'er is your own son. How can you bear to let him go to the government office and become a slave? If he becomes a slave, what will happen to him in his life?"
Lin Sheng was so anxious that he didn't know what to do. If Su Mu went to the Wang family like this, he didn't know how much suffering he would have to endure in the future. Others might not know, but he didn't know it either.
The Wang family's cousin was a notoriously cruel man who often beat his first wife half to death. Last year, this man came to his house to propose marriage. If Lin Wu had not refused, he would have married into the family as a slave just for the money.
"Oh!" Su Yun sneered, and glared fiercely with her sharp, inverted triangle eyes: "Who my Su Mu wants to marry is my business. What does it have to do with you, an old man who can't get married?"
"Aunt Su! Can you please have some moral integrity? My elder brother is just worried about Mu Ge'er. How can a mother like you sell even your own son?" Lin Wu glared, his face flushed with anger. No matter how fierce his temper was, his words were not as unpleasant as Su Yunshi's.
"Is my own son something you should take care of?"
Su Yun was extremely harsh when he opened his mouth. He yelled at Lin Wu. Lin Wu's face turned red and his trembling lips showed his anger.
Su Yun looked at his expression and raised her voice in vain: "Besides! What are your family's conditions? You can't even afford to make ends meet, yet you expect to come to my Su family to propose marriage. Even if I marry Mu Ge'er to your family, won't he still be hungry and cold every day? If he is sold to the Wang family, he can still have enough to eat and eat, which is better than starving to death in your Lin family, right?"
"Su Yunshi, you woman, how can you speak so harshly?" Lin Ersong, the second uncle of the Lin family, couldn't stand it any more. After all, Lin Sheng's family was his nephew, how could he bear to see others bullying them like this.
“Yo!”
Seeing Lin Ersong speaking up, Su Yun sneered, "What? You think what I said is unpleasant? Then what you, Lin Ersong, did is good? Over the years, you have been secretly supporting those brothers. Your wife doesn't know, but I don't know either? You can't even handle your own family's mess, yet you have the nerve to meddle in mine. I can do whatever I want with my son, why do you have to interfere?!"
In recent years, whenever Su Yunqiu mentioned his marriage, Lin Ersong would refuse on the grounds that Lin Mo would always recover. It was because of Lin Ersong's procrastination that the marriage was delayed again and again. Thinking of this, his hatred for Lin Ersong became even stronger.
"Su Yunshi, how could such a good person be sent to the government office to be registered as a slave? He is your son. If he is registered as a slave, how can he ever have a chance to make a living?"
Wu Daming on the side tried to persuade them, saying that his husband often worked with Su Mu, and he felt a bit sorry for Su Mu, but it was not easy for anyone's family, and they really had no choice.
"What's it to you? Mu Ge'er is ugly. I've been raising him for almost twenty years, and none of you have ever proposed marriage? Now that someone finally wants him, you want me to disagree? What will happen to him in the future? Or are you willing to give me fifteen taels of silver and take him home to raise as your own?"
She glared at Lin Sheng with a ferocious face: "If your Lin family can come up with fifteen taels now, you can take him back. If not, don't talk nonsense with me here!"
Every word Su Yun said undoubtedly pierced Su Mu's heart. His face was already extremely pale and now it was even more terrifying. He knew since he was a child that he was not popular. His father was jealous of him and called him a bastard every day. His mother also didn't like him and usually beat or scolded him.
He thought that after all, he was her biological child, but seeing her selling him like an animal, he felt like he had fallen into an ice hole.
The suppressed emotions suddenly surged up, making it almost impossible to breathe. He had been working like a slave for this family for all these years, and had never complained or disobeyed. He just wanted to live a good life. Wasn't this even possible?
He stared blankly at the azure sky, the emptiness in his eyes making people feel distressed.
Lin Sheng looked at Su Mu and felt even more upset. He was the only one present who could empathize with Su Mu the most, but he still had three younger brothers, while Su Mu really had nothing. The look in his eyes now was the same as when he wanted to commit suicide.
"Brother Mu, Amo really likes you. He went out to do business this time in order to save money to come back and marry you. Our family is not well off, but Amo is in good health now, and Awu has grown up. As long as our family works hard, our lives will get better and better."
Lin Sheng looked at Su Yunshi again and pleaded, "Auntie Su, please agree to this marriage. We will give you the money slowly and definitely!"
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