Chapter 4

“Dad, about my marriage to Brother Shaoxing…”
Song Mingshan sounded a little nervous. No matter what, this kind of matter still required Song Yuanshan’s approval.

“Yuanshan, I actually think Comrade Zhang is a pretty good man—well-mannered and polite. Yes, he’s divorced, but don’t they say divorced men know better how to treat a woman?”
“And besides, if our Mingshan doesn’t marry into that family, we’ll have to return the money—the bride price…”

The money was already in hand—there was no way Feng Cuifen could bear to give it back.
More than that, she now completely believed that if her daughter married Zhang Shaoxing, she’d one day become a wealthy lady, living a life of luxury.

Little did she know, Song Mingshan had already placed one foot in hell.

“No way!” Song Yuanshan almost coughed up blood.

“That Zhang Shaoxing is no good. If Mingshan marries into that family, all she’ll get is suffering. If anyone should marry him, it should be Qingdai!”

“Dad, that’s not true!” Song Mingshan was practically panicking.

There was no way she could tell her father she had been reborn.

Absolutely not.
It was enough that her mother knew.

“Song Yuanshan, what’s that supposed to mean? Are you saying I would harm our daughter?”

“Zhang Shaoxing is the deputy director of the textile factory. If Mingshan marries him, she’ll be the factory director’s wife. Who knows? Maybe one day he’ll start his own business. Marrying him is marrying into comfort and status!”

Inside the storage room, Song Qingdai burst out laughing when she heard this.

Hahaha…

Good, go ahead and marry him.

Congratulations, Song Mingshan. Your personal hell is about to begin.

Outside, the mother and daughter pleaded and persuaded with all they had before Song Yuanshan finally gave in.

At the Gao household.

Just as Gao Han walked into the courtyard, a labor-issued military rubber shoe came flying at him.

He nimbly dodged it, clearly well-practiced.

“You little bastard! So you do know how to come home!”

When he entered the house, both his father and mother were sitting inside with dark expressions on their faces.

“Ma, what’s for dinner?”

His mother let out a cold snort. “Dinner? You can’t even bring back a wife and you still want to eat my food?”
“If you want to eat, cook it yourself!”

“Hmph. You quit a perfectly good job as a military academy instructor to come back and work at some brick factory. Your father and I are absolutely humiliated!”

Gao Han had always been considered the most promising young man in their family for generations.

He was recruited into the army at a young age and went off the grid for several years. The next time they heard from him, he had been injured on duty.

Later, he passed the entrance exams to become a military academy instructor—a very prestigious role.
But he unexpectedly quit and came back to work in a brick factory. Gao’s father was so furious he nearly passed out from rage.

“Ma, how much money do we have?”

Gao Han was unfazed and instead asked his mother calmly.

“What do you want money for?” His mother eyed him with suspicion.

This brat—had he gotten mixed up in something shady out there? Was he planning to use the family’s money?

“I’m going to propose marriage tomorrow.”

“What?”

The old couple thought they misheard.

“I’m going to the Song family to propose.” Gao Han got straight to the point.

“Song… Song family? Which Song family?” Gao’s father’s eyes widened. In all of Hongxing Town, which other Song family could it be but the one down the alley in Nanhuxiang?

“Song Qingdai.”

“WHAT?!”
The couple shouted in unison.

“B-But isn’t that girl from the Song family supposed to marry the textile factory’s deputy director, Zhang Shaoxing? Wasn’t the engagement just tonight?”

“It’s off.” Gao Han said curtly. “I’m going to propose first thing in the morning.”

“You little brat, are you serious?”

Gao Han’s face remained cold. “Serious.”

He might be indifferent about other things, but when it came to Song Qingdai—he was dead serious.

If he hesitated even a little, the Song family might change their minds again.

So the moment the sun rose, he had to lock down this engagement.

“…Well…” The couple looked at each other in disbelief.

Their son had always avoided women—to such an extreme that, even when set up with the most beautiful girls, he wouldn’t so much as glance at them.

For a while, they even wondered if their son liked men instead of women…

“And that marriage with the Zhang family, how did it fall through so suddenly?”

Gao’s mother was baffled. Gao Han, however, didn’t explain a thing.

He simply stated, “I’m marrying Song Qingdai.”

There was a firmness and even urgency in his tone. The couple exchanged another glance, still trying to process the sudden change.

Usually, whenever they brought up marriage, their son would act like it was a death sentence.
Now he was suddenly bringing it up himself?

“But if you’re proposing so urgently, and we haven’t prepared anything… showing up empty-handed…”

This finally stumped Gao’s mother. She sighed and said, “Qingdai lost her mother early, and after her father remarried, he became a stepfather in every sense of the word. If you’re really marrying her, we can’t be careless about the proposal.”

“No way!”

She slapped her thigh and gave her husband a shove. “Don’t just sit there! Go to Butcher Zhang’s place and reserve two pig’s trotters and a slab of pork belly for tomorrow morning!”

Butcher Zhang lived next door and sold pork. He usually slaughtered pigs before dawn.

If they reserved early, they could head to the Song family’s house first thing in the morning for the proposal.

Gao’s mother used to know Qingdai’s birth mother. After her illness and passing, she had genuinely felt sorry.
That woman had been the flower of their courtyard, but was tormented to death by the Song family.

Strangely enough, no one in Hongxing Town knew where Song Qingdai’s mother came from. It was rumored she’d fled to the town as a refugee during famine.

The police had tried helping to find her family, but no one ever turned up.

Back in those days, a woman without family support would always be bullied once married—and that’s exactly what happened to Qingdai’s mother.

Worse still, her first child was a girl—Song Qingdai—which made her even more unwelcome in the Song household.

To Gao’s mother, Qingdai’s mother had always been quiet and reserved, but with a beauty that was simply too striking—so much so that it attracted the unwanted attention of scoundrels.

But beauty is not a crime. Every flower deserves its right to bloom.

Unfortunately, in Qingdai’s mother’s case, her beauty became her curse. Even Song Yuanshan believed that her troubles were her own fault for “tempting” others, and would often beat or berate her—dragging his resentment onto Qingdai as well.

Gao’s mother had seen it all—and felt deeply for them.

Now that she thought about it, if her son really married Song Qingdai, she’d treat her well.
It would be a way to fulfill the wish Qingdai’s mother never lived to see.