Chapter 43 – Husband (1)

“Just tell her directly that you are here to talk about marriage!”

Chen Feng, who was watching, opened his mouth. If they still continued to talk like this, they wouldn’t even reach the main point until dusk.

“You want to arrange a marriage for me?” Su Xiaoxiao’s face looked really surprised.

Mrs. Huang smiled brightly and said, “That’s right. Daya, you see that you are not young anymore, and your marriage was also canceled by that surnamed He. I’m afraid that it will be difficult for you to find a husband again in the future. Sigh… But since you also have the blood of our Chen family, Your uncle and I can’t let you live alone for the rest of your life.”

Su Xiaoxiao asked, “Then, which family aunt planned me to marry?”

Mrs. Huang said, “Of course it’s our Chen family! Marry your cousin and we’ll become even closer!”

She had three cousins ​​from the Chen family, the eldest cousin, the second cousin and the little cousin, who were 19, 17 and 8 years old respectively, and none of them had said anything about marriage.

Su Xiaoxiao said thoughtfully, “My eldest cousin is 19 now. It is indeed the time to talk about marriage.”

Mrs. Huang immediately said, “It’s your second cousin!”

The second cousin is not the aunt’s biological son, but the illegitimate son who was brought back by her uncle Chen Feng from outside.

At that time, Mrs. Huang caused a lot of trouble because of this matter. But in the end, she couldn’t fight against the big family. So she reluctantly kept the child.

Su Xiaoxiao looked disgusted and said, “So it turned out that you wanted to arrange for me to marry that illegitimate child. I still thought that you were asking me to marry my eldest cousin!”

“Your eldest cousin is a scholar!” Mrs. Huang blurted out.

Su Xiaoxiao asked innocently, “What auntie means is… I am not good enough and unworthy to be with my eldest cousin?”

Mrs. Huang : “……”

Just a notorious fat girl, of course she was not good enough for her (Mrs. Huang) son. But you didn’t have to say it out loud!

Mrs. Huang smiled sarcastically: “Your eldest cousin is a bookworm and doesn’t know how to love others. Your second cousin is about the same age as you. He has mentioned it to me a few times, that he likes you very much. Besides, doesn’t your father want to recruit a live-in son-in-law? Whose family will send their eldest son to marry out and join the wife’s family?”

Su Xiaoxiao suddenly realized, “Oh, it turned out because he had to join the wife’s family.”

Mrs. Huang’s face was full of smiles, and said: “You don’t have to worry, we are a relative. We will never annul the marriage after we receive the bride price!”

Here comes the main point.

Su Xiaoxiao asked with a half smile: “How much bride price does Auntie want?”

Mrs. Huang said earnestly: “Although you have been married once, and married twice, the Chen family will not dislike you, and your aunt will not ask for bride price indiscriminately. How much your father gives to the He family, and you can give the same amount to the Chen family.”

Listening to the tone that she had, as if she just had to give some charity for the poor?

From the way she said, it was as if she had become a living Bodhisattva, who had suffered a lot.

Did Mrs. Huang really think that she (Su Xiaoxiao) couldn’t hear her (Mrs. Huang) wishful thinking?

Being able to get rid of an unsightly illegitimate child and earn 20 taels of bride price along the way, it was surely a good way to kill two birds with one stone.

But Mrs. Huang didn’t come to her house earlier or later. Why did she come to the house at this time? 

Su Xiaoxiao remembered that day when she and Su Ergou sat in the ox cart in Yangliu Village. At that time, she also threatened He Tongsheng to return the money.

Presumably, the ox cart driver told the Chen family about this incident after he returned to the village. Then maybe the Chen family thought that it was profitable, so they quickly came to the door.

Mrs. Huang continued: “Your marriage was annulled by He Tongsheng in public. In these neighborhoods, I’m afraid that no one would dare to marry you. And it will be more impossible to be your family’s live-in son-in-law. It was also because your uncle cares about your mother, as they have a good brother and sister relationship, so he agreed to the marriage between you and your second cousin. Your waizufu1 originally did not agree, so your uncle and I tried our best to persuade him for two whole nights.”

1Waizufu (外祖父) : maternal grandfather (mother’s father)

Two nights, the time was right.

Su Xiaoxiao was too lazy to pretend to have a good affection with her, so she said to the point, “In any case, He Tongsheng is at least a Tongsheng2 after all. So from what basis does the second cousin also want 20 taels for the bride price?”

2Tongsheng : a scholar without a xiucai degree; a candidate who has not yet passed the county level imperial exam. 

It wasn’t that she looked down on the second son of the Chen family, but since Mrs. Huang wanted to sell her stepson, she had to allow others to buy with the same value, right?

Mrs. Huang’s expression became a little bad: “How can you talk like this? That’s your second cousin!”