Seeing Chen Zhancai spitting everywhere, Chen Qingqing gave a cold laugh.
"Stop making empty promises. We've heard these words for over a decade, and we certainly don't expect to benefit from them."
"As long as you don't sell me to a violent brute like Butcher Li for fifty taels of silver, I'll be extremely grateful."
Chen Zhancai's smile vanished instantly. "What nonsense are you talking about? When did I ever say I was going to sell you to Butcher Li?"
Liu Laohan parked the oxcart and came closer. After listening to Chen Zhancai's long-winded explanations, he felt extremely annoyed.
He frowned and snorted coldly, "Zhancai, the Chen family supported your studies, but you promised Qingya to Butcher Li for a dowry of fifty taels of silver. Have you forgotten this?"
I remember when Qingya was threatening suicide and your parents kicked her out of the house, you still took advantage of her misfortune and didn't say a good word for her.
Now that their lives are getting better and better, you suddenly want to support them.
Now that you brothers have separated, whether Chen Han goes to school or not is none of your concern. Don't use the guise of concern to justify your own selfish desires.
Chen Zhancai's face darkened; he was the village's scholar.
In the past, everyone who met him was polite and respectful.
Has Liu Laohan gone mad today? How dare he criticize him like that?
People queuing to register began giving Chen Zhancai strange looks, and several people in the crowd started pointing and whispering about him.
"It turns out he is Chen Zhancai from Nanshan Village. I heard that he wanted to sell his niece to Li the butcher in town so that he could go to school. I didn't expect it to be true."
"They even dare to make advances on their own niece. They're shameless."
"Who says otherwise? I'm from the neighboring village, no more than two miles away. If I fart, our whole village can hear it."
The story has spread throughout our village. This Chen Zhancai has been trying to pass the imperial examinations for over twenty years without success, ruining his once prosperous family to the point where they are almost starving.
He stubbornly insisted on studying, and his mother, being biased, had high expectations for him and wanted him to bring honor to the family.
But the family was truly broke, so they had no choice but to set their sights on their niece.
For fifty taels of silver, he betrothed a beautiful young woman to Li, the notorious butcher in town.
Do you think what they did was human?
I initially thought it was just a rumor, but it turns out it's true.
"Are you talking about Li the butcher who slaughters pigs at Taiping Bridge?"
"Who else could it be but him?"
"Oh dear, that's a beast! No, that man isn't even a beast. I heard he tortured his two wives to death. Marrying her own niece to someone like that is truly despicable!"
"Who can argue with that? Luckily, her niece is a woman of principle and absolutely refused to agree, which is why her grandparents kicked her out to live separately. It seems they even wrote a letter severing ties with her."
"I never would have guessed that Chen Zhancai, who looks so respectable, could be so wicked."
"Yes, they've wasted their education; they've lost all humanity."
"What humanity does he have? If he had any self-awareness, he wouldn't have been so persistent in taking the exam for over twenty years. If it were me, I would have gone home to farm long ago."
"Exactly, he said that he wasn't cut out for studying. I think he's the blockhead. I'm not looking down on him, but he'll never pass the imperial examination in his lifetime."
This remark drew a burst of laughter from the crowd.
Upon hearing these words, Chen Zhancai's face turned pale and then red, wishing he could disappear into the ground.
Qingshui Town is neither too big nor too small; if something unusual happens there, the news will quickly spread for miles around.
In the past, when he saw his classmates and they asked him about him, he would shamelessly say that he didn't know them.
As soon as Liu Laohan uttered those words, all his classmates who knew him looked at him with disdain.
At this moment, Zhao Ping and Lin Yuan, two classmates who were on good terms with Chen Zhancai, stood up and stared at him with mocking expressions.
Zhao Ping sarcastically remarked, "Brother Chen, so it really was you who sold your niece. I never imagined you were this kind of person."
“Exactly, I remember asking you that day, and you actually said it didn’t happen in your village?” Lin Yuan chimed in.
Chen Zhancai felt utterly humiliated and immediately flew into a rage, shouting, "Don't talk nonsense! How could I use the money from selling my niece to go to school? Don't believe her lies!"
Chen Qingqing glanced at Chen Zhancai and said, "I'm just talking nonsense. Everyone probably knows Zhao the matchmaker from Liutiao Village. You can easily find out if it's true or not by asking her."
Lin Yuan chuckled, "Brother Zhancai, stop making excuses. I'm from the same village as Matchmaker Zhao. I knew it was you all along. I didn't say anything to save you face."
Chen Zhancai's face turned bright red, and he hurriedly tried to deny it, "No, I really didn't sell my niece. My mother did all those things, and I only found out afterward. It has nothing to do with me. Besides, my mother has already called off the marriage. Is it even necessary to argue about whether it's true or not?"
Chen Qingqing didn't want to expose Chen Zhancai's shortcomings at the academy anymore; this was intolerable, utterly outrageous.
Her face darkened, and she said coldly, "Is there any need to agonize over this? You make it sound so easy. Don't you know why you married me off to Butcher Li?"
With tears welling in her eyes, Lin took over the conversation.
"You and your mother saw that my Qingya didn't agree to become Li the Butcher's second wife, so you wanted to harm my son and my husband, and even wanted them to enter the palace to become eunuchs."
If you had agreed to take a year off before continuing your studies, why would your mother have forced us to sell our children? How can you do this? Are you even human?
Chen Qingqing continued, “You keep saying that I am the daughter of a peasant, a money-loser, while your daughter is only two months younger than me, yet you spoil her rotten, saying that she will be the daughter of a scholar and will marry someone rich and noble. Your daughter is a person, while I should be the sacrifice for your pursuit of fame and fortune.”
Chen Zhancai felt utterly ashamed and wanted to die. "No, no, it wasn't me, my mother did all of this..."
His explanation sounded weak and powerless amidst the crowd's disdain.
"As the saying goes, there are no innocent people among those who benefit from the system. If it weren't for the need to support your education, these things wouldn't have happened."
Chen Qingqing then changed the subject,
"Alright, I won't dwell on the past. Now our eldest son's family and your Chen family have signed a letter of severance. We are no longer family, and it's none of your business to interfere in our family affairs."
When Chen Han heard that Old Madam Chen wanted to send Chen Zhancai to the palace to become a eunuch so that he could receive an education, a chill ran through him.
Luckily, his older sister was there, otherwise he would have become an androgynous second sister-in-law.
I will definitely live up to my sister's expectations and study even harder so that I can protect her in the future.
He glared at Chen Zhancai. "Sister, we don't talk to people like him. He doesn't deserve it!"
Chen Qingqing nodded. "Xiao Han is right. Let's line up to pay."
......
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