"Oh dear, oh dear, village chief, please don't be angry."
Faced with the village chief's questioning, Jiang Chun slapped his thigh, his forehead dripping with cold sweat. He knew that pretending any longer was pointless, especially since he not only had to deal with the villagers' gossip but also the people of Shi Village.
Shen Ying stopped in the courtyard, holding the woman's hand. He wanted to confront the old man and demand an explanation, while Jiang Yu wanted to get the truth about her origins from him. However, given the current situation, he had more important matters to attend to first.
“Jiang Village, you need to give me an explanation. If the result doesn’t satisfy me, I’ll call the police immediately. Tell the police about your marriage fraud and money swindling. You’re already so old, and if you go to jail for a few more years, it’s hard to say whether you’ll come out alive.”
In the crowd, a man who looked younger than him suppressed his anger and threatened.
He was the father of the simpleton from Shicun, also known as the old carpenter. Because the journey to Jiangcun was quite long, and he was worried that his son might fall ill on the way, he brought a young man from the village to fetch him.
Unexpectedly, this whole scam has come to light. That old man Jiang is truly despicable; he wouldn't even spare his own daughter.
"Brother Carpenter, listen to me, it's not what you think. If my brat hadn't run away from home, and if you hadn't been pressuring me so much, would I have come up with this plan?"
As Jiang Chun spoke, his voice grew softer and softer. Knowing he was in the wrong, he racked his brains for a way to clear himself of any involvement. Suddenly, an idea struck him. Pointing to the matchmaker leaving the crowd, he shouted:
"It was all that matchmaker's idea. She said the marriage was only for the purpose of continuing the family line, and that it didn't matter which daughter she had. If she had nothing to hide, why would she secretly try to run away?"
"Catch her."
No sooner had the village chief finished speaking than villagers blocked the matchmaker's path and pulled her back.
"Both daughters are the same, so you tricked me into coming back to marry in place of Jiang Meier? Putting aside whether it's fair to the family getting married, I'm a woman with a husband and two children, not an object that you can just sell off?"
"Does anyone have a phone? I need to call the police and have this old man arrested."
Jiang Yu, who was trying to calm herself down, heard his words and squeezed through the crowd to accuse Jiang Chun of being morally corrupt.
"If you dare call the police, I'll strangle you to death. Not only you, but those two children won't escape either."
Jiang Chun glared at Jiang Yu with bloodshot eyes. Among this group of people, he only dared to vent his resentment on women.
"I don't care if you're Jiang Yu's father or not, but since you can say such things, especially in front of a whole courtyard of people, you must have done many more scandalous things. It's just that no one knows about them behind your back."
"I guess you've lived too comfortably all these years, thinking no one can do anything about it. Don't worry, your daughter and I will definitely send you to jail. Not only will you get a long prison sentence, but you won't be able to get out for the rest of your life."
Shen Ying's words were definitely not just empty talk. Besides having the ability, he was more worried about the old man's words. Who knows, one day he might really harm the children, and then even if he regretted it, it would be too late.
"Who do you think you are, talking to me like that?"
In Jiang Chun's view, if Shen Ying hadn't suddenly appeared and disrupted his plans, he would probably already be lying on the kang (a heated brick bed) watching TV, having finished his banquet. Therefore, compared to Jiang Yu, he hated this man the most.
"Enough with the nonsense, get this over with. If you keep dragging this out, you'll definitely end up in the hospital before you go to jail."
The carpenter interrupted his cursing. He'd come all this way, only to find he hadn't even seen the bride, and he wasn't even sure he'd get his dowry back. He deeply regretted not having investigated the bride's character beforehand.
If I had known it would turn out this way, I would have rather let my son remain a bachelor for life than become in-laws with him.
"How about you give me a few more days? I'll go look for that daughter again. I've already found out she's in the city. Give me two more days, and I'll personally take her there."
Jiang Chun tried to stall for time, but the carpenter saw through his plan immediately. He gave Jiang Chun no room for negotiation.
"Give me three thousand yuan now, and I'll forgive and forget about this matter. From this day forward, the marriage is off."
Of the money, after deducting the two thousand yuan for the bride price, the remaining one thousand yuan would be compensation. Those present didn't see anything unreasonable about it and waited for him to nod in agreement.
"Three thousand yuan? No, not a single penny. I have no money, but you can take my life."
Seeing that the other party was making exorbitant demands, Jiang Chun plopped down on the ground and started acting like a rogue. The carpenter wasn't going to tolerate him at all and sent someone to move some valuable items from the house to the cart.
Jiang Dalong, who had been squatting in the corner without saying a word the whole time, got up and dragged his fat body after the TV set that he had been moved out of the door.
"Put our TV down, you bunch of robbers, I'm going to kill you all."
He ran extremely fast and kicked the young man carrying the TV indiscriminately. The young man kicked him to the ground and he couldn't get up for a long time.
“In broad daylight, under the clear sky, you dare to hit me? I’m not going to live anymore. I’ll die right here and make all of you pay with your lives.”
Jiang Chun felt sorry for her son, and taking advantage of his unpreparedness, rushed into the house and grabbed a gleaming kitchen knife, only to be kicked away by Shen Ying.
The young men who had finished moving the furniture surrounded him, waiting for the carpenter to say a word before they started beating him. After a few minutes, and with the village chief's earnest persuasion, Jiang Chun tremblingly took out the land deed from the house and handed it to the carpenter.
"This wasn't just my idea. How about I offer 2,500, and the matchmaker takes the remaining 500?"
He seemed reluctant, but what he said made it sound plausible. Seeing that she couldn't escape, the matchmaker claimed she had no money on her and asked to go home to get some.
The carpenter nodded and called two young men to go with him, afraid she would run away. While they were waiting at the door, the matchmaker dialed the police.
"Now that the most difficult problem has been solved, let me tell you about my background. Where did I come from, and who are my biological parents?"
Jiang Yu spoke slowly, since everyone was here, so let's hear why Jiang Chun has been unable to treat his three children equally all these years.
"What does Jiang Yu mean by that? Does that mean she isn't Jiang Chun's biological daughter?"
"Just look at her appearance. What kind of faces do Jiang Chun and his wife have to be able to give birth to such a beautiful daughter? Even if it's a genetic mutation, there's no way they could have such a good mutated gene."
"Jiang Chun's wife couldn't have children when she was young. She only gave birth to two more children after she was almost forty and brought home a baby. The fortune teller said that the birth of Jiang Meier and Jiang Dalong was not because the couple was destined to have both sons and daughters, but because Jiang Yu was destined to have younger brothers and sisters."
Otherwise, Jiang Chun would have abandoned her long ago; how could she have raised her to this age?
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