The Country Maiden: Fields and Leisure-Chapter 60 - Does it hurt a bit too

60: Chapter 60: Does it hurt a bit too?

60 -60: Does it hurt a bit too?

The He family…

Alright, this was their Achilles’ heel!

He Dawei’s mother softened first, mainly because of what He Dawei had said, suggesting that perhaps Li Jinzhi was carrying a male baby in her womb, which moved her.

If that were true, it would be worth it for their family to hold their noses and take this bride through their door.

He Laoshuan and his wife exchanged a glance, knowing that the other was entertaining the same thought.

With a sigh, “Fine!

Dad will agree with you!

But for everything else, you must listen to us.

Tomorrow, when we go to Qilidun, you must be honest.

No matter what, we have to let the Li family talk things over with the Wang Family and call off the engagement first.”

After the final decision was made, it was getting late, and the He family members went off to rest in their separate ways, none of them able to sleep that night.

Early the next morning, the whole family set off for Qilidun together.

Upon arriving at the Li family, naturally, the Li family did not show them a friendly face.

The He family, because He Dawei insisted on marrying Li Jinzhi, could only bow their heads in acknowledgement, naturally lacking confidence in front of the Li family.

While inviting the Wang family over, Li Dagui brought up Old Granny Zhang’s demand from the day before, but, in his heart, he secretly added ten more taels on top of it.

It was to be their compensation from the Li family.

Although the He family felt the Wang family was asking for too much, Eldest Sister He couldn’t help but express some dissatisfaction, “The Wang family is really going too far, demanding twenty taels just to call off an engagement – that really is heartless!”

Li Dagui, with a guilty conscience, could only put on a pitiful act, “What can be done?

Those two sinners have done such a shameful thing, what else can we do?

We can’t force the child to die, can we?”

Eldest Sister He was taken aback and dared not speak any further.

In the countryside, when such a scandal occurred, if a cuckholded family complained to the clan, it was not unheard of for the adulterer and the adulteress to be bound and drowned in a pig cage.

The He Family Brother-in-Law quickly attempted to smooth things over, “Uncle in-law has thought it through thoroughly, it’s all for the child’s sake!

It should be done!”

While speaking, he gave He Laoshuan a meaningful look, signaling for his father-in-law to show his stance quickly.

Otherwise, if they really angered the other party and they no longer cared about the silver, but took the matter to the clan leaders and dragged the people to the pig cage for drowning, it would be too late even for tears.

Being a matter concerning the life of his ancestral son, He Laoshuan was unusually astute for a moment and promptly stated, “In-laws, rest assured, we’ll pay the money, we’ll pay it!”

Li Dagui nodded with satisfaction.

It seemed the He family had its merits after all, not stingy in the least, and that made this mess a little less distressing.

Giving a signal to his second son, he indicated for him to speak up and get the He family to hand over the silver first.

But the second son and his wife were dull and slow to react, as if they hadn’t seen the signal at all, causing Li Dagui considerable irritation.

He had no choice but to step in himself, and after hemming and hawing for a while, he finally got his point across.

The He family members were taken aback, not expecting the Li family to be so anxious to get the silver now.

Wasn’t it supposed to be counted in front of the Wang family?

Li Dagui put on a distressed face to explain, “Alas, I’m out of options.

Yesterday, the Wang family was pushing hard for the silver.

We’re just ordinary peasant folk, where can we immediately come up with twenty taels?

We scraped together everything we had at home, and even borrowed from friends and relatives, barely managing to gather fifteen taels to give to the Wang family first.

We also invited two clan leaders to witness it in writing.

The Wang family reluctantly agreed, saying that the remaining five taels of silver needed to be cleared today before they would return the marriage book!”

He then produced a written document, pinching the top half with his hand, which vaguely mentioned how much silver had been paid in advance, including the word for “five taels”.

The bottom portion, clearly visible, confirmed that five taels were still owed, and it bore the signed names of clan leaders from both the Wang and Li families, along with their fingerprints.

Li Dagui showed the document around to everyone to prove he was telling the truth, before sitting back down with a long sigh, “You don’t know, the Wang family is greedy.

I’m worried that if we bring out all the silver in front of the Wang family, they might go back on their word and demand more.

That wouldn’t be good.”

His words seemed reasonable, and aside from He Dawei, who could barely recognize a few characters, and the He family’s brothers-in-law, who were not much literate, a cursory look seemed legitimate, and they believed it.

Since the Li Family said so much, it would be embarrassing not to pay the silver.

Under the signal from He Laoshuan, the mother of He Dawei reluctantly took out four snow-white silver ingots each weighing five taels.

Supressing the joy in his heart, Li Dagui’s hands trembled as he tucked the silver into his bosom, while still saying, “I’m really sorry for letting you spend so much!”

Though the He Family was well off, twenty taels of silver was not a small amount; it did hurt them a bit to part with it, okay?

Seeing the way Li Dagui acted, the He Family found it irritating no matter how they looked, but they felt it was not appropriate to say anything.

After the matter of the silver was settled, everyone felt somewhat embarrassed.

They wanted to discuss the children’s marriage, but the other party hadn’t finished breaking off the previous engagement, so it was not proper to speak about it.

They wanted to talk about the relationship between the two families, but each was holding a grudge against the other, neither wanting to be overly complimentary.

The two sons-in-law from He Family could only make some dry small talk about the weather to barely keep the atmosphere from becoming too heavy.

He Dawei could no longer sit still, he hadn’t seen Jinzhi for several days, and he was worried about her.

Especially upon hearing that awkward and stiff small talk from the two families, he really had no interest; his gaze kept involuntarily shifting outside.

He Dawei’s mother felt sorry for her son, thinking it must be the Li Family’s poor attitude that made him restless, and finally she could not help saying, “Dawei, it’s stuffy in this room; if you’re bored, go outside for a walk.”

He Dawei was just waiting for these words and swiftly got up to slip away.

Leaving everyone else in the room, Li Dagui wanted to get angry.

Whose family rule was this?

His future father-in-law was still sitting there, and he wasn’t trying to curry favor, just up and leaving?

He opened his mouth but, remembering the twenty taels of silver he had just received, he held back.

The two brothers-in-law from the He Family were truly at a loss for what to do with their mother-in-law’s confused behavior.

What in the world was this? freewebnøvel.coɱ

The main character had run off to avoid embarrassment, so what were they, the unrelated, sticking around for?

Not to mention that the Eldest Sister He’s husband, with his sharp eyes, saw He Dawei head straight for a side room and go inside.

Needless to say, it was definitely that family’s daughter’s room.

The engagement hadn’t been broken yet, and he was so blatantly going there, was this appropriate?

Weren’t they afraid that someone from the Wang Family might see?

It was truly exhausting!

All the while, they could see that it was no wonder the girl from the Li Family had gotten involved with their brother-in-law; seeing what happened, her father didn’t utter a word or act as if he had seen anything.

One could imagine from this that the family discipline was lacking; they couldn’t even handle matters of face properly, so in the future, it would be better to interact less.

Therefore, the two brothers-in-law lost interest in making conversation, and the room fell quiet at once.

As for the Li Family’s side, Li Jinhu had gone to the Wang Family.

His wife used the excuse of taking care of the child and had not left the room at all.

Wang Daxiu lay directly in the room hiding from embarrassment.

Only the second-born and his wife sat there stupidly; the couple also did not speak, pretending to be wooden statues.

Everyone looked at each other in silence, creating a peculiar atmosphere.

When Old Granny Zhang and her people entered the room, they were met with such a scene: the Li Family and He Family sat on opposite sides, clearly divided.

Neither speaking to the other nor looking at each other; if they weren’t staring at the ceiling, they were looking at the ground.