Chapter 6
Zhen Zhen said: "You say."
"Eryong is of marriageable age. Tao Aihong is pretty and capable, and Eryong likes her. The Tao family wants the two children to get married early."
Now that schools have been suspended, rural people who cannot receive education have all married early, and those who have families now have hope.
Meng Eryong, as the second son of the original owner, is one year younger than Meng Daguo. When Meng's father got married, he only stayed at home for five days and returned to the army on the third day after the wedding. However, he did not delay the sowing at all. He left, but left Meng Daguo behind.
He was gone for a year. When he returned home to visit his family the following year, Meng Daguo was only three months old. Old Man Meng did not delay at all and quickly gave birth to Meng Eryong.
Meng Eryong is only one year younger than Meng Daguo, so he is not young at all.
Zhen Zhen nodded in agreement, "It's better to get married early! I also want Eryong to settle down soon, so that I can give an explanation to his father."
Jiang Hua thought of Old Man Meng and sighed with regret.
At that time, Zhen Guizhi married a soldier. The man sent money home every month. She had money to spend every month and she didn't have to serve him. I don't know how many people envied her.
It was thought that Father Meng could pave the way for his sons in the army, but who would have thought that he would die gloriously while on a mission.
Jiang Hua smiled, "Men should get married when they are old enough, and women should get married when they are old enough. Eryong is not young anymore, and it is time for him to start a family. Marriage is something that the two families have to discuss and negotiate. The Tao family wants to give a dowry of 80 yuan."
Zhen Zhen smiled: "Eighty? No."
There was no food at home, where did she get the eighty yuan to help her cheap son get married?
Jiang Hua choked and said with a smile:
"Of course I know that in this area, a twenty-dollar betrothal gift is considered good. Eighty is really too much! But Daguo's father is an officer in the army after all. I heard that the army will provide subsidies to officers who died gloriously. Although I shouldn't say this, your Meng family has three sons after all. It's a big deal for one of them to get married. If Daguo's father could see this in heaven, he wouldn't object to you using his subsidy to help Eryong get married."
Zhen Zhen smiled, so this was the idea.
"Jiang Hua, I'll tell you the truth. Daguo's father's subsidy has not come down yet. We can't even afford to eat. We really can't afford eighty yuan. It only cost twelve yuan to marry the eldest son. Now the second son is getting married. If I give eighty yuan, how do you want the Jiao family to look at me?"
Jiang Hua didn't expect that she would say such words in a friendly manner. Indeed, what Zhen Guizhi said made sense. In a family with many sons, the mother-in-law is the most difficult to deal with. It only cost twelve dollars to marry the eldest son, but eighty dollars for the second son. It would be outrageous if it got out.
Fortunately, she didn't come here for the eighty yuan today.
Jiang Hua smiled, "I understand your difficulties, but the Tao family also has a saying that the money for marrying off a daughter is used to marry a son. You know the situation of Aihong's brother. I think there is no need to hurt the relationship over such a small amount of betrothal money! It is better to compromise. You see, the Tao family has a son and a daughter, and you also have a daughter. Why not... exchange marriages between the two families!"
After she finished speaking, she kept her head down and drank water guzzlingly, fearing that Zhen Guizhi would hit her with a stick and kick her out.
You have to know that Zhen Guizhi is not good at other things, but she is very good at making trouble and playing tricks. She suffered a lot when she was at her parents' home.
"Exchange of marriage?"
Zhen Zhen glanced at her coldly and sneered:
"The Tao family has a very good plan! How long have they slept to have such a daydream? Tao Jiang is almost thirty years old, and he is an old bachelor with a broken leg. My daughter is only eighteen this year. How can he have the nerve to ask my daughter to marry him and be ruined by him!"
As soon as she spoke, Jiang Hua stood up trembling, like a maid pouring tea.
It’s strange, why is Zhen Guizhi’s momentum getting stronger and stronger!
"Oh my, Aunt Zhen, that's not what the Tao family meant. What the Tao family meant was to combine the two good things into one. Can the sons of both families get married? Everyone will be happy, right?"
"Everyone is happy? How can everyone be happy? The Tao family is happy, the crippled bachelor son has a beautiful wife, and the daughter who can't get married has a husband! If I marry a daughter-in-law like this, not only will I be in trouble for the rest of my life, but I will also have to lose a daughter. What is there to be happy about?"
Jiang Hua was so angry that she didn't dare to say anything. She was really unlucky to be stroking the beard of this vicious tiger.
However, Aunt Zhen is a well-known evil mother-in-law and is also known to favor boys over girls. It is said that she has no feelings for her youngest daughter, so why is she still protecting her?
"Auntie Zhen, please think about this carefully. Batou Village is so poor. It would be great if there is a girl willing to marry here. You don't want your son to be a bachelor all his life, do you?"
"There's nothing to consider!" Zhen Zhen said firmly, "I have many sons, and one or two less won't be a problem, but I'm saying this: my son can be single, but he can't be disobedient and have no conscience. If anyone dares to do something against his conscience, I'll shovel him out of this house like a pile of dog shit!"
Jiang Hua's face turned pale. She dared not to provoke the bad guy from Batou Village anymore. She patted her butt and ran away without looking back.
After the people left, the gate of the yard was pushed open and a man walked in. He looked somewhat like Meng Daguo, with a long face, good features, and a lively look between his eyebrows.
It was the original owner’s second son, Meng Eryong.
Stinky shit Meng Eryong smiled and pushed the door open cautiously.
"Mom, I haven't been home these few days, are you okay?"
Zhen Zhen sat on the edge of the bed with her legs bent and glanced at him. "Thanks to you, I'm going to be sick soon."
Meng Eryong sat opposite Daya and patted Zhen Zhen's legs flatteringly. "Mom, I have good news to tell you, but don't be too happy after hearing it. Aihong is pregnant!"
Zhen Zhen said nothing.
Meng Eryong said again: "Mom, Aihong is two months pregnant!"
"It wasn't me!"
"What?"
"I said it wasn't me! Whoever did it knows it in their heart! I want to ask that person where he did it to make a girl pregnant in broad daylight."
Meng Eryong's face suddenly turned red. A grown man was so embarrassed by his mother that he couldn't even raise his head. Meng Eryong was not very close to his mother. If he didn't want to ask his sister to marry him, he wouldn't have massaged his mother's legs.
But no matter how much my mother looked down on him, she would never say such embarrassing things.
How should he answer this? He had not even gone to help Tao Aihong two months ago.
It is impossible to say that on that dark and windy night, he climbed over the wall to go out for a date with Tao Aihong, and then he couldn't hold back and lost his virginity in the haystack.
"Mom, please don't ask me questions that you already know the answer to. Haven't you always wanted to have a grandson? Aihong's mother asked someone to calculate and found out that she is pregnant with a boy! He is the eldest grandson of our Meng family!"
After Meng Eryong finished speaking, he waited for his mother to react. His mother was very son-in-law-loving, and because his eldest brother and his wife gave birth to a daughter, she had always been unkind to the first wife and even treated his eldest brother and his wife like a slave. Now that she had a grandson, she should be jumping for joy, so why didn't she react at all?
"Mom! What's in Aihong's belly is..."
"I know, it's a boy, and he's the eldest grandson of our Meng family! So what?" Zhen Zhen asked coldly.
Meng Eryong thought his mother was a little strange. Wasn't this news explosive enough? He was the eldest grandson!
"Mom, you know about Aihong's brother's situation. He broke his leg while working last year and has been lying in bed waiting for someone to take care of him. The betrothal gifts in Xiaoge Village are notoriously high. Isn't our family too poor to afford the betrothal gifts? It just so happens that you have a daughter and I have a sister. As long as you marry my sister over, both of us can get wives. You don't have to spend a penny on the betrothal gifts, and you can also get a big fat grandson for free. This is a good deal!"
Among Zhen Guizhi's three sons, the second one is the most thoughtful. He looks insignificant, but he has never suffered any loss.
In the book, the original owner became critically ill many years later. The second brother felt that the original owner favored the third brother and was unwilling to use the medical expenses to pay for the original owner's treatment.
Zhen Zhen didn't want to comment on what her second son did, but she was Zhen Guizhi now, and her feelings towards her second son were somewhat complicated.
She looked at Meng Eryong until his eyes were evasive, then she spoke slowly:
"I know you want to get married, but for your own sake, you want to marry your own sister to a piece of trash. Is there any brother like you in this world?"
Meng Eryong lowered his head.
"Besides, you know your sister's situation! I haven't raised her for a single day, so how can I have the nerve to ask her to marry someone else?"
This brings up an old story.
The original owner got pregnant unexpectedly after giving birth to Meng Lao San, and gave birth to a daughter the following year. With three sons and one daughter, her life was considered perfect.
Logically speaking, the original owner should have loved his little daughter very much.
However, the original owner disliked this girl. Life was difficult in those years and the family could not afford to raise so many children. It happened that a distant relative of the Meng family had not given birth to a child for many years due to health reasons, so Grandma Meng decided to adopt the little granddaughter to the distant relative.
So even though Zhen Guizhi had a daughter, she never raised her for a single day.
In the original novel, in order to save money on betrothal gifts, Zhen Guizhi forcibly took her daughter back and exchanged her marriage with the Tao family. However, the little daughter was never mentioned again in the book, and her name was a taboo in the family.
Meng Eryong was anxious, "Mom, didn't you say that when I got married, you would call my sister back to exchange for the betrothal money? Why don't you keep your promise? Or are you not satisfied with Aihong as your daughter-in-law?"
Zhen Zhen choked and then he remembered that the original owner had indeed said this.
The original owner gave her daughter to someone else for adoption. Not only did she owe her daughter a debt, but she even had the nerve to snatch her daughter back and recognize her as her own. She is truly an outlier among outliers.
Zhen Zhen said: "Eryong, I did say that, but what I meant by that was to test you. Who would have thought that you would not pass the test? This makes me very sad! I was wrong about you after all!"
Meng Eryong was stunned. Was his mother trying to test him? Why didn't he see it?
"mother……"
"Eryong, your eldest brother is practical and capable, and he is a simple man, but he is not smart enough. Your younger brother is good at studying and has a smart mind, but he is not stable enough. Among my three sons, who is both responsible and smart, and can truly become the pillar of this family, in my mind, there is only one candidate."
Zhen Zhen glanced at his second son at the right time and gave him a meaningful look.
Meng Eryong felt warmed at the sight of this charming and loving gaze.
Mom, do you mean that he is the best among the three brothers?
He is smart and responsible, to put it bluntly, he is brave and resourceful!
Although he has always evaluated himself in this way, his mother has never recognized him.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
