“Congratulations, congratulations! Uncle Guan, this is such a joyous occasion, and so is it for Li!”

Carpenter Guan was grinning from ear to ear, unable to contain his happiness. He kept responding, “Same joy, same joy! From now on, we are all family.”

Hearing this, the second daughter-in-law of the Zhang family snickered and turned to the people around her, laughing, “Listen to that! I’ve never seen someone so eager to marry off their daughter!”

“The way he talks, it’s as if he couldn’t wait to send his daughter away!”

The surrounding people instinctively wanted to laugh along but hesitated.

After all, Carpenter Guan was known to be a good man, and besides, the two families were indeed becoming one.

What he said wasn’t wrong.

Holding back their laughter, someone instead said, “You can’t put it that way. Carpenter Guan raised his daughter alone, playing both father and mother. It hasn’t been easy. Now that he’s settled her lifelong happiness, it’s also a way to give her late mother some peace.”

“That’s right. And besides, Guan Li isn’t young anymore. When kids are little, you don’t feel the urgency, thinking you can take your time to find the best match. But once they reach a certain age, you start getting anxious—so anxious you wish they could be married off the next day!”

“You wouldn’t understand if you haven’t experienced it yourself.”

The Zhang family’s second daughter-in-law didn’t get the reaction she expected, so she scoffed and turned to look toward the courtyard.

Then, she shouted, “Let’s see the betrothal gifts! I want to broaden my horizons!”

Her mother-in-law had said many times at home that Shen Qing was unbelievably stingy and would never give anything valuable as a betrothal gift.

Back when the two families were close, Shen Qing had even mentioned to her mother-in-law multiple times that she was waiting for Guan Li to get older, hoping that the Guan family would be desperate enough to marry her off without a dowry.

And now, wasn’t it exactly as expected?

Carpenter Guan seemed even more eager than the groom’s side.

Maybe the red cloth bundles weren’t worth much at all, which was why they weren’t revealing them!

The other villagers, wanting to share in the joy, joined in, “Auntie, open them up! Let us have a look too!”

“That’s right! It’s been a long time since we had a wedding in the village, especially between two village families. We have to take a good look!”

Shen Qing ignored Zhou Ti—Zhou Chuncao’s second daughter-in-law and also her niece from her maternal family.

She considered her a fool. Instead, she smiled at the other enthusiastic villagers and said, “Alright, but they aren’t anything valuable. It’s just for good luck.”

Then, she started opening them one by one.

The largest bundle contained pastries.

“Wow! So many pastries! How long will it take to finish them all? Auntie, you’re really generous!”

Zhou Ti snorted inappropriately and muttered, “I knew it. Just worthless things. No wonder it’s such a big bundle.”

What’s the point of buying so many pastries?

They weren’t cheap and didn’t keep for long. Wasn’t this just wasting money for the sake of appearances?

Such an act of “putting on airs!”

Hearing this, the two people beside her silently took a couple of steps away.

They thought to themselves, “We all live in the same village. Don’t we know the usual standards for betrothal gifts?”

Zhou Ti herself only got two packs of pastries when she got married. And now, she dared to scoff at someone receiving more than twenty packs?

She really had “no skills but plenty of arrogance.”

Next, Shen Qing opened the second large bundle, which contained pink, pomegranate-red, and gauze fabrics.

Zhou Ti stared at the neatly folded cotton fabrics and fell silent.

The large red cloth used to wrap the gifts alone was enough to make a full outfit. And inside, there were several sets of fabric—all made of cotton!

For village girls, having one new outfit was already good, whether it was cotton or linen.

But Guan Li had received four sets of cotton fabric!

The men in the crowd remained neutral, but the women and girls couldn’t hide their envy.

They thought, “If only I had a few sets of cotton clothing, they would last me a lifetime.”

Next, Shen Qing opened a small cloth bundle, revealing hair ornaments, a silver hairpin, and a silver bracelet.

This time, even the men fell silent.

They could ignore the previous items, thinking they could afford them with effort. But silver hairpins and silver bracelets were real silver.

That must be at least two taels of silver!

Who could just “buy that on a whim?”

Zhou Ti’s face turned extremely ugly.

She bit her lip, remembering how she had only received two red hair ribbons when she got married.

Her mother-in-law had even told her that she was the only one who got them, while her sister-in-law did not.

Back then, her mother-in-law asked her if she thought she was being treated especially well.

“What a joke!”

Her sister-in-law didn’t get hair ribbons, but receiving them wasn’t such a great deal either!

Now, she realized how foolish she had been, treasuring those two hair ribbons as if they were proof of her special status in the family.

Then, she suddenly noticed something unusual.

Her eyes narrowed as she scanned the fully opened red cloth bundles, and she raised her eyebrows, exclaiming, “Aunt Jiang, is this everything?”

“Where’s the betrothal silver? Did you not prepare any?”

“That’s right, I didn’t prepare any,” Shen Qing replied openly.

Carpenter Guan had told her that no matter how much she prepared in betrothal silver, he would double it and give it back to Guan Li.

The Guan family had finally paid off their debts and barely had any money left.

He only said that because he had already planned to use both Guan Li’s and Guan Xiaoshan’s future wages to make up for it.

Since she knew this, giving a betrothal silver—even just the standard amount—would only be draining the Guan family’s last resources.

Carpenter Guan, Guan Li, and Guan Xiaoshan were deeply moved by this.

Carpenter Guan even felt guilty for speaking too soon—now Jiang Saozi was taking care of them yet getting criticized for it…

Zhou Ti, however, smiled triumphantly and sneered, “I knew it! That’s why there were pastries, fabric, and silver jewelry. Even with all that, it’s only worth about five taels. Compared to the usual seven-tael betrothal silver, Auntie Jiang still saved two taels!”

Jiang Ying’s expression changed slightly as she quickly said, “There’s also ten pounds of malt sugar!”

“Pfft! Ten pounds is only worth seven qian. Auntie, you’re really good at spending less to get more!”

Back when she got married, she had seven taels of betrothal silver.

That was a full seven taels!

Yet Guan Li’s betrothal gifts weren’t even worth six taels—one tael less than hers!

Zhou Ti looked at Guan Li with a pitying gaze.

But then, Shen Qing calmly said, “I didn’t prepare betrothal silver because I thought, with the wheat harvest coming, it would be more practical to gift a donkey and a donkey cart to the Guan family instead.”

A shockwave rippled through the crowd.

“What? The donkey cart is part of the betrothal gift?”

“No wonder there were four donkeys and one ox, but only one cart. It was meant for the betrothal! And it’s probably for Xiaoshan’s sake too!”

“That’s incredibly thoughtful!”

“Thoughtful? It’s way beyond that! A donkey alone costs at least eleven taels of silver—I checked! And the cart must be worth another two or three!”

“Including everything, that’s nearly twenty taels!”

Zhou Ti’s face turned ashen.

A donkey was more valuable than two strong men. Many families could afford a bride but not a donkey.

And yet, Shen Qing had given a donkey and a cart.

Was she out of her mind?!