Upon hearing that she wouldn't be given control of the wedding gift money, Xu Yan'er exclaimed, "Why? Isn't it always the women in the family who manage the money?"
Granny Cui covered her face and cried loudly: "Xue Zhuang, you have such a black heart! You have ruined my daughter. She can't even get a decent meal."
Oh, my poor daughter!
There were no dowry or gold jewelry for the wedding, and she wore someone else's old wedding dress. How could you be so blind as to marry such a stingy man? I should have just let him die.
When she mentioned that she had almost been beheaded for violating military discipline, Xue Zhuang's forehead veins throbbed. His future was ruined, and he would be constantly scorned by others.
He raised his hand and overturned the table: "If you don't want to eat, then don't eat. You can forget about getting the gift money."
He understood that the mother and daughter in front of him were trying to blackmail him by threatening to expose his premarital infidelity.
For ordinary people, this might be a concern, but Xue Zhuang didn't think so: doing that kind of thing wasn't something that could be forced.
He admitted that he couldn't control his urges at the time, and that he couldn't blame himself entirely.
Xu Yan'er, a young woman, has no shame. She takes off her clothes and lies in bed talking to a man. Who can stand that?
If she had been more reserved and indifferent to men, it wouldn't have been so easy for me to undo her belt, and things wouldn't have come to this.
He ended up losing his job and was forced to get married.
This mother and daughter are still not letting go of their own important life events, which are being handled so hastily and carelessly.
Xue Zhuang was indignant: he had picked up a worthless piece of trash.
People are strange like that; when they don't have something, it's wonderful, but once they get it, they discard it like a worn-out shoe.
The groom overturned the table, the bride wailed, and an old woman sided with the bride, turning Xue Zhuang's bridal chamber into chaos.
On the other side, Song Zhenping walked home angrily, while Song Dekui advised him from the side: "Daping, you were too angry today. Xue Zhuang is a military household member, and so are you. You will have to deal with him in the future. What if he deliberately makes things difficult for you?"
Song Zhenping clenched his fists: "You can hit me or scold me, but if anyone bullies Yun'er or Xiao An, I'll fight them to the death."
Song Dekui: "...!"
Consider that this person once fainted from hunger and had his leg broken while trying to protect his younger brother. What does losing face matter now? If he says he's going to fight to the death, he'll probably mean it.
Xue Zhuang currently holds no official position and is a fellow military household member. To put it bluntly, he may not necessarily be better than Xiao Yun and Da Ping in the future.
Okay, let's pretend I didn't say anything!
Without saying anything else, the two returned to Baolin Residence together.
In the courtyard, Hei Jin, who was playing cat's cradle with Xiao An, suddenly stopped, leaped onto the wall, glanced outside, made a gesture, and then turned and darted towards the side courtyard pavilion.
Song Liyun was airing the freshly boiled acorns when she saw Hei Jin's movements. She guessed that someone had arrived and deliberately asked, "Xiao An, look who's here?"
Xiao An didn't even need to look; he ran towards the courtyard gate, shouting, "Brother!"
The courtyard gate opened, and Song Zhenping and Song Dekui came in.
Song Dekui hadn't seen Xiao An at noon, but upon seeing her now, he immediately picked her up and weighed her in his arms: "Xiao An seems to have gotten a bit heavier!"
Xiao An blushed, awkwardly pushed him away, and ran into the side courtyard to hide.
Song Zhenping asked with some curiosity, "Yun'er, I didn't even knock on the door, how did you know we were back?"
Song Liyun chuckled: "Just a guess!"
Because Hei Jin was extremely ugly and a "fierce ghost," Song Liyun was worried that Song Zhenping would have an overreaction, so she kept asking Hei Jin to avoid him.
These days, whenever Song Zhenping is not home, Hei Jin will play with Xiao An, and when Song Zhenping returns, Hei Jin will hide back in the attic.
Xiao An also listens to Song Liyun. With his older brother at home, he doesn't go looking for Hei Jin.
So, over the past few days, Song Zhenping has been completely unaware that there is such a monster in his home.
The corvée labor has been suspended, and everyone is just waiting to go home.
Song Dekui no longer went back to the migrant workers' shed and settled down in Baolin.
He waited for Song Liyun to cook some strange and unusual things for each meal, and spent the rest of his time helping Song Zhenping tidy up the yard.
Besides the houses, the Ji residence also has a large courtyard, which used to be planted with flowers and plants, but now only grass remains.
First, dig up the grass roots in the yard, clean it up, and then dig out the ashes from the backyard and pile them together to compost. When spring comes and the fields can be plowed, transport them out to fertilize the fields.
After weeding, they started grinding acorns into flour, keeping them extremely busy.
With lodging, food, and things to do, Song Dekui easily passed the time, and three days flew by.
The other laborers waited in the work shed until the army settled their wages and sent them home.
Little did they know that while they were waiting, something bad would happen in Broken Gold Town.
Luo Baihu hasn't dared to leave the military camp these past few days. He has no money and no money to settle accounts with the laborers.
The captured laborers worked for more than twenty days, and the Suijin Pass, which is twenty miles from the town, was barely repaired in half a year.
This pass is one or two zhang high, built entirely of stone, and spans the Huangsha River.
Dikes were built on both banks to tightly block the river channel, with a water passage stone channel and a gate stone in the middle.
During the dry season, lowering the stone gate allows water to be stored; lifting the stone gate from above creates a ten-foot wave on flat ground.
For the Di barbarians to try to pass through here again would be an impossible task.
The repairs were completed, but the cost was astronomical. Luo Baihu made several trips to the higher-level garrison to ask for money, but they couldn't provide any funds.
There is no other reason.
This year, the Ministry of Revenue of the Imperial Court said that Princess Yuhua spent 800,000 taels of silver to repair the Jingsheng Temple, and that the government was short of funds.
The Zhenbei Army's pay is in arrears again; let them overcome this on their own.
Luo Baihu would curse whenever he thought about it: The money the imperial court spends to support a grand princess is almost as much as the money spent to support an army.
In the future, when the Di barbarians invade our borders, don't send soldiers to the battlefield; just hang the Grand Princess on the city wall and parade her around.
Despite his complaints, he only dared to mutter them to himself.
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