Chapter 374： Chapter 374: A show of force

Wen Shu talked to Li Xu for a long time before saying goodbye and leaving.

Li Xu sat in the pavilion for a while, then got up and walked out of the village.

Ying Bao and the others got down from the tree only when Li Xu was no longer visible.

Yingbao said to Erni and Huzi Jiang Wu, "Don't tell others what happened just now."

The three of them nodded.

After picking the fruits, Jiang Wu and Huzi carried the basket home. Erni said, "What's the point? It's just two people meeting and chatting. The girl from the village and her best friend also made an appointment to go to the mountains to chop wood together. , it took most of the day.”

"Sister Wen is different from the people in the village. Her family has a very strict upbringing. If something bad comes out, it will be difficult for her husband's family in the future," Ying Bao said.

Erni: "That's good, let's just marry Master Li. Master Li is still a scholar. He will take the examination in the future, and maybe he will become a high official."

Yingbao blinked and felt that what Sister Erni said made sense.

But if Li Xu was interested in Sister Wen, he couldn't keep pretending to be deaf and dumb. He would definitely beg his mother to propose marriage to him.

 No matter whether there is a huge disparity between the two families, he must have someone who takes responsibility.

Yingbao silently set a time for Li Xu in her heart.

Just one month will be enough.

If Li Xu still doesn't propose marriage to the Wen family within a month, but doesn't avoid Sister Wen's overtures, then he will take action, huh!

Unexpectedly, before the one-month deadline came, news came that Li Xu was going to be engaged to Wen Shu.

Since Sister Wen's father is not here, Mrs. Wen and her son Wen Hengyin are in charge of this matter.

Of course, there are also the testimonies of Master Xuetang and Mr. Wu.

The engagement between the two families was sudden, but no one was surprised at all.

Mrs. Wen and her children have been living with Li Xu's mother An, and they understand each other's character.

Mrs. Wen admired An as a person and was optimistic about Li Xu's future, so when An officially asked a matchmaker to visit her, she agreed.

Although the Wen family was from the Xinglin family, no one in the family took part in the imperial examination.

Under the guidance of Mr. Wu, Li Xu has made rapid progress in his studies. Maybe next year, he will be able to pass the exam and come back.

Considering that Li Xu was already twenty-five and had to take the exam next year, and Wen Shu was also seventeen, Mrs. Wen wrote to her husband, setting the wedding date on the eighteenth day of the twelfth lunar month this year, and decided to hold the wedding ceremony in Dongchen Village.

Mrs. Wen didn’t care at all as to whether anyone would come from the Wen family.

In any case, let the husband write a letter to let them know. If they want to come, it doesn't matter. As long as their daughter is happy, that's fine.

In June, Wen Silang hurried to Dongchen Village with two carriages.

He was very dissatisfied with his wife's arbitrary decision, but after meeting Li Xu's mother and son, his anger was somewhat relieved.

Coupled with his daughter's willingness, Wen Silang had no choice but to suppress his anger and start building a house here.

His daughter must marry from her own family, so she must build a house first.

Finally, Jiang Sanlang sold a piece of land from his family to Mrs. Wen, which was enough for her family to build a six-room courtyard.

Chief Chen Fu also sold a piece of low-grade land from his family to Li Xu and asked him to build a house and marry a wife.

Just like that, Dongchen Village became lively again, with an endless stream of oxcarts and donkey carts transporting wood and bricks.

However, Chen Laoshuan's family and Chu Man's natal family in Xi Village started to have a quarrel.

When brother Chu Man saw his crazy sister, he immediately became furious. In order to vent his anger on his sister, he chased Chen Laoshuan and Chen Fengshi with a machete.

When Chen Laoshuan's third son saw this, he picked up a pole and threw it at him, knocking Brother Chu Man to the ground.

As a result, the Chen family and the Chu family completely fell out. The Chu family filed a complaint against Chen Changping and his family to the county government, saying that they abused and mutilated their daughter-in-law.

However, people from the county government checked and found that there was no such thing. Instead, Chen Laoshuan's family was troubled by this woman.

As for the scars on Chu Man's face, no one knows what happened. Even Chu Man herself can't tell who hurt her. She just keeps yelling and crazy words, which are not credible at all.

So the county government sentenced Chen Laoshuan's family to compensate the Chu family 20 taels of silver, and the matter ended there. But after such a commotion, Chen Changping was persuaded to quit by the county school and asked him to find another academy to study.

Chen Changping had no intention of entering the academy again, so he simply went home and occasionally wandered over to Li Xu to talk with him about the past and the present.

The twelfth lunar month has arrived in a blink of an eye.

The houses of the Wen family and the Li Xu family were built, completely repainted, and fully furnished.

Anshi has also been growing mushrooms in the past few years. Together with his son's income from teaching, he has saved hundreds of taels of silver.

Having spent less than half of the money on building a house, the rest was used to buy wedding items and betrothal gifts.

There were only a few days left until the official day for her son to get married. Mrs. An invited Chun Niang and Mrs. Zhou to help her son sew a new quilt.

There was a clean mat spread on the ground, and the three of them sat on it to sew quilts.

Zhou sighed: "In a flash, the children have grown up, and they have all started families. When Wen Shu came to us, she was still a little baby under ten years old."

“No.”

Chunniang was running the needle and said with emotion: "At that time, my baby was just a little bit old, but in the blink of an eye, she became a big girl."

In a few months, my daughter Yingbao will be twelve years old, and she is already a beautiful girl. There will be no one better looking than her anywhere in the country.

But it is difficult for a girl like this to find her husband's family.

Since my family background is low, the family I am looking for will naturally not be much higher.

But how could Chun Niang be so willing? If he didn't wait until his son passed the exam to propose marriage to his daughter, he might even be able to marry her into a noble family.

Anshi glanced at Chun Niang without interrupting.

The Jiang family's Yingbao is still young, and it is not convenient for her to talk about other people's marriage affairs.

In fact, she is very optimistic about the marriage between the Wen family and the Jiang family, but she can't say it at the moment.

The next day, a group of horse-drawn carriages suddenly came to the village. There were more than a dozen carriages.

They asked Mrs. Qingwen where she lived and drove all the carriages there.

Wen Silang and his wife heard the sound and came out, and saw several people getting off the carriage.

“Mother, why are you here?” Wen Silang was surprised and quickly saluted Mrs. Wen.

Mrs. Wen is almost seventy years old. She has white hair, thin cheeks, and a very sharp look in her eyes.

"What? I can't come?" The old lady got out of the carriage with the help of the servant, and looked at her daughter-in-law coldly.

Wen Silang and his wife hurriedly stepped forward to support my mother.

The old lady snorted and walked towards the yard.

Several people got out of the carriage, including Wen's third wife, Lin, and her two daughters, Wen Tian and Wen Jiao.

There is also a young boy in his teens, who is the eldest son of Wen Hengchuan and the great-grandson of Mrs. Wen.

Walked into the main room and sat down at the main table. The accompanying maid quickly asked the fourth lady where to make tea.

Xiao Zhenniang asked her mother-in-law to take the old lady's servant to the kitchen, and she saluted her mother-in-law: "Excuse me, mother, to go there myself."

The old lady ignored her and just talked to her fourth son: "Why didn't you see Shu'er and Heng Yin?"

Wen Silang: "Shu'er has gone to her little sister's house. Heng Yin is studying with his master. School is not out yet."

The old lady snorted: "Isn't Shu'er getting married? Why are you still going around? Which family's rule is this?"

Mrs. Wen immediately said: "Shu'er's little sister's home is not far away, and there are no outsiders in her home."

“How outrageous!” The old lady slapped the table and angrily shouted, “My mother-in-law is talking, how can I allow you to interrupt casually!”

Mrs. Wen raised her eyes to look at her mother-in-law, her face darkened.

Your mother-in-law got angry as soon as she arrived. Was she trying to intimidate her daughter-in-law?