"I want to sign up for Yao Yao!"
"This was originally Huanwu's marriage. Even if someone had to take her place, it should be someone from our family. How could it be taken by the women from your two households?"
Ling's mother had long forgotten the injuries she had sustained from the beating, and stood up indignantly.
Ling's father, also looking earnestly on the matter of planning for his daughter, stood up and agreed, attempting to find a good husband for his adopted daughter again.
If the two of them knew that the son-in-law they thought was so desirable was actually the husband of Commander Ling Huanwu, whom they looked down upon, they would probably want to slap themselves for their eagerness.
The second uncle and the youngest uncle laughed in unison, then began to make sarcastic remarks about the couple.
"Your adopted daughter is heavily pregnant and still in prison. It's pitiful that you're still making plans for your adopted daughter even in your situation, while you don't care at all about your own daughter's life or death!"
"Everyone else thinks about their own daughters, but these people are just trying to torment their own daughters every day, all for the sake of an adopted daughter. How could my brother have given birth to such a stupid idiot like you who was kicked by a donkey..."
The words of the two elders were like two heavy slaps to the faces of Ling's father and mother, and they both blushed with embarrassment.
So the two of them had no choice but to cover their faces and flee the ancestral hall.
In the end, the second uncle and the youngest uncle chose Ling Qiao'er, the second granddaughter who looked the most like Ling Huanwu, to become Ling Huanwu's stand-in.
The other granddaughters who weren't chosen all pouted and went back to their empty rooms to continue crying.
The two uncles, on the other hand, urged the overjoyed Ling Qiao'er to quickly consummate her relationship with the commander's son and become his daughter-in-law, so that the entire Ling family could benefit from his good fortune.
The two were excitedly planning how to use their nepotism to get good jobs for their grandchildren.
To be on the safe side, the two of them discussed it and decided to use their savings to have the snobbish former granddaughter-in-law of the newspaper reporter, who had just broken off her engagement, publish a news article about Zhou Jiuzhen and Ling Qiao'er's marriage. That way, Zhou Jiuzhen wouldn't be able to back out later!
The grandchildren clapped and exclaimed that their grandfather was very wise, killing two birds with one stone!
Even though the entire Ling family ancestral home was emptied, it was still filled with a joyous atmosphere.
Only Ling's parents had nowhere to go, and were eventually forced to sleep in the storage room by this ungrateful family. They felt extremely disappointed and silently wiped away their tears.
*
At the entrance of the train station.
Ling Huanwu ate her favorite fried dough sticks and crab shell pastries at a snack stall in a city next to Yuncheng.
They ate five plus five in one go, and then packed ten more to store before boarding the train back to the island.
She knew that once she returned to the island, she would hardly be able to enjoy these tastes of home.
With five minutes left before the train's departure, Ling Huanwu leaned out the window and bought a newspaper to pass the time.
When you turn to the last page of the newspaper, you see a photo of Zhou Jiuzhen and her cousin Ling Qiao'er, with the headline prominently displayed in bold.
"The Ling family and the Zhao family are happily married!"
Ling Huanwu rubbed her eyes, hardly believing what she was seeing.
What Zhao family?
Could this be Zhou Jiuzhen's twin brother?
But clearly, the military uniform the man in the photo is wearing is exactly the same as the military uniform Zhou Jiuzhen is wearing, with the buttons sewn in the wrong place!
As the train whistle sounded and the wheels began to spin, Ling Huanwu slung her bag over her shoulder and, amidst gasps of surprise, leaped directly off the train door.
Regardless, Zhou Jiuzhen got involved in her family's conflict because of her, and she couldn't abandon him and leave!
*
The Ling family ancestral home was decorated with lanterns and colorful streamers.
The second and youngest uncles were heartbroken to see the balance in their savings account, which had been used to prepare for the wedding, suddenly drop to zero.
But thinking of the future glory of the Ling family, which still depended on this grandson-in-law, she reluctantly took out ten yuan from under the floor tile and handed it to her eldest grandson, "Buy some good wine for your brother-in-law. Make sure he gets drunk tonight so that when they enter the bridal chamber... you know what I mean!"
The eldest grandson nodded, "Of course I understand."
He turned his head and muttered that his grandfather was stingy, and that this little bit of money could not buy any good wine.
Besides, what kind of wedding night can a drunk man have? It's more cost-effective to buy some cheap and practical veterinary medicine.
So he went to the supply and marketing cooperative and bought ten veterinary drugs for one cent each, crushed them, and poured them into Erguotou (a type of Chinese liquor).
The ancestral home's main hall was filled with forty or fifty tables of food and drink, creating a lively atmosphere.
In the guest room, Zhou Shuyao looked at his comical older brother, dressed in a bright red wedding robe and adorned with a red flower ball, and laughed so hard he couldn't stand up straight.
"Big brother, are you sure you want to be the groom today?"
Zhou Shuyao wiped away the tears of laughter from the corners of his eyes, and said while suppressing a laugh, "We've asked to see Huanwu several times, but this whole family is deliberately making excuses and refusing to let us see her. It's obvious they want to just find any bride to marry you. Are you just going to let them arrange the wedding ceremony for you like this?"
Zhou Jiuzhen frowned deeply and thought for a moment, "What you said makes sense. Why don't you help me with the wedding ceremony later? You've been married before, so it won't hurt to do it again."
"What nonsense are you spouting?"
Zhou Shuyao's face darkened, and he could no longer smile.
If Ling Huanwu knew that he had been married twice, he would never be able to clear his name.
"Besides, we don't look alike, and the groom isn't wearing a red veil, so how could we possibly fool them?"
Zhou Jiuzhen tapped his forehead, "You know that's good, don't talk about your brother like that, we're all doing this to save Ling Zhiqing."
He only learned in the last few days that her surname was "Ling", not "Lin".
Zhou Jiuzhen suddenly felt a headache coming on, and suddenly remembered that the capitalist's wife on his island also seemed to have the surname "Ling".
The two planned how to publicly lift the bride's red veil during the wedding ceremony, question the Ling family about Ling Huanwu's whereabouts, and then report it to the police.
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