Shen Congxin wiped away her tears, sniffed, and said to Jiang Ling, "Mother, you and my husband are really good to me! It's just that I'm worried that this pregnancy is a girl."
Jiang Ling gasped upon hearing this. She frowned, looked at Jiang Yaojie, and smacked him hard on the head: "What did you say to your wife?"
Jiang Yaojie covered his head and looked at Jiang Ling pitifully: "Mom, how could you wrong me? Heaven is my witness, I've never said anything like this to my wife, and to be honest, I prefer daughters. Daughters are so much better, either like my eldest sister or my second sister. I feel so sorry for my son!"
"Mother...you...you mustn't misunderstand my husband. He really didn't say anything to me, it's just..."
At this point, Shen Congxin sighed and looked at Jiang Ling and Jiang Yaojie as she recounted her story.
"But, my dad, although he has never mistreated me and has given me the best of everything, the sentence he has said most often over the years is, 'Congxin, why aren't you a boy?' So... I... I really hope this baby will be a son!" Shen Congxin sighed sadly as she said this.
"Shen Qianhe!" Jiang Ling cursed inwardly, but still smiled and comforted him, "Congxin, you're really overthinking it. Look at me, your mother. I'm just a woman, and my business is still thriving."
"Look at your older sister and younger sister, which one is worse? Don't overthink it, okay? Whether this baby is a boy or a girl, it's still my precious grandson. How could I dislike him?" After comforting Shen Congxin, Jiang Ling turned to Jiang Yaojie and said, "If you dare to bully your wife, I'll have Jiang Shan and the others beat you up!"
Jiang Yaojie clasped his hands together and sincerely said to Shen Congxin, "Wife, ever since you married into this family, you've become my own daughter. Please be magnanimous and don't hold it against me! Otherwise, what if Mother gets angry with me?"
As he spoke, Jiang Yaojie deliberately pulled his ear and put on a pitiful expression.
Seeing Jiang Yaojie's comical expression, Shen Congxin couldn't help but giggle.
Seeing Shen Congxin smile, Jiang Ling felt much relieved. Just then, a commotion outside the door shattered the harmonious atmosphere.
"Congxin, you lie still. Yaojie, you come out with your mother!" Jiang Ling glanced out the window and her face immediately darkened.
"Is this the family that kidnapped me and forced me to marry off my daughter?"
"Sister, is this the home of that An family? Tsk, it looks quite luxurious. We'll be able to get a good price for it now!"
"Big brother! How can you say that? It was clearly Er Ya who..."
Of the three people speaking, Jiang Ling only recognized Zhao Erleng's wife, but it was not hard to tell from their conversation that one of the men and one of the women must be Er Ya's parents.
Looking at their greedy and sarcastic expressions, Jiang Ling felt disgusted.
"Sister-in-law Erleng, are these Er Ya's parents?" Jiang Ling asked with a cold face.
All three seemed surprised by Jiang Ling's appearance. Zhao Erleng's wife was the first to react, blushing and nodding shyly.
"Alright, let's go. Let's talk in the inner hall!" With that, Jiang Ling turned and left.
"Tch, what's with the arrogance! So what if she was granted the title of Anren? She's still just a peasant woman at heart! Bah!" Jiang Ling had just turned around when she heard a soft curse coming from behind her.
Jiang Ling wasn't angry. There were plenty of unreasonable people like that. If she got angry with each and every one of them, she probably would have been driven crazy long ago.
inner hall
Zhao Erleng's wife's brother and sister-in-law were practically glued to every corner of Jiang Ling's house; they had never seen such a large and beautifully decorated house before.
Zhao Erleng's wife looked at her brother and sister-in-law and wished she could disappear into the ground.
Jiang Ling chose to ignore it, and simply coughed lightly and said, "You two must be Er Ya's parents?"
Reminded of this, the woman in the patched brown coarse linen clothes immediately puffed out her chest and looked at Jiang Ling, saying, "Yes! Er Ya is my daughter!"
Seeing how readily she answered, Jiang Ling turned to Jiang Shan and said, "Bring Er Ya over here!"
Upon hearing this, Jiang Shan ran out like a gust of wind.
When Er Ya's mother saw Jiang Shan's exposed, muscular physique, she couldn't help but curl her lip and mutter under her breath, "She really doesn't know how to behave like a woman, being all lovey-dovey with a grown man in broad daylight! Bah, what a disgrace to women!"
Jiang Shan moved quickly and soon picked up Er Ya, who was crying so hard she was almost unconscious, and threw her straight to the ground.
Although Er Ya was usually quite clever, she was only a thirteen or fourteen-year-old child, and she had been locked in a dark woodshed for nearly two hours.
Er Ya's nose and tears were all mixed together, and her face was covered in dust from the ground, making her look extremely disheveled and pitiful.
Seeing Er Ya's wretched state, Er Ya's mother, who had just been slammed to the ground by Jiang Shan, immediately erupted in anger.
She jumped up and down, pointing at Jiang Ling and yelling, "Who do you think you are, some kind of 'Anren'! You think you can abuse my daughter like this? No way! You have to give our family an explanation! You have to compensate us five taels of silver! No, ten taels!"
Seeing that someone was standing up for her, Er Ya, looking pitiful, collapsed to the ground and continued to sob.
Hearing his daughter's cries, Er Ya's father revealed his true colors. He slammed his hand on the chair, stood up, and angrily berated the woman, "You vile woman! What kind of woman are you! You don't deserve to be called a lady! Our Er Ya came to work for you, and you mistreat her like this? Fine! We're going to the yamen right now and let the officials judge this!"
The saying "ignorance is bliss" couldn't be more fitting for Er Ya's parents at this moment.
"Brother! Sister-in-law! What are you doing! Do you even know what mistake Er Ya made!" Zhao Erleng's wife, unable to bear it any longer, stood up and said to her brother and sister-in-law.
"Oh ho, you really are like water spilled from a cup after marriage. It's only been a few years and you're already taking the side of outsiders!" Er Ya's mother glared at Zhao Er Leng's wife and mocked.
Although Zhao Erleng's wife was usually quick-witted, she was facing her own family members. She wanted to argue a few more words, but in the end, she could only open her mouth and swallow her previous words.
She looked at Jiang Ling with red eyes and a guilty expression.
Jiang Ling didn't take it seriously and gently shook her head at Zhao Erleng's wife. Then, Jiang Ling's gaze turned cold as she turned to Er Ya's mother and said, "What? You don't even ask yourself why I tied up your daughter before you start spewing accusations?"
"You..." Er Ya's mother was ultimately an uneducated village woman. She was speechless after being rebuked by Jiang Ling's words. She could only stare at Jiang Ling with her eyes fixed on her, as if she wanted to devour her alive.
"What is it? Can anything be more serious than murder? Did the child kill someone or steal something? Why are you abusing her like this?" Er Ya's father roared in fury.
Upon hearing this, Jiang Ling sneered and glanced at the person in front of her, saying calmly, "What if it's an attempted murder?"
"Huh? What does attempted murder mean?"
It was obvious that the two uneducated people did not understand the meaning of Jiang Ling's words.
"I had this idea! But I didn't succeed!" Zhao Erleng's wife explained, rolling her eyes.
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