Chapter 3: On the Bride Price, Zeng Cheng Starts Thinking of Revenge!

She hadn’t said it outright, but she had clearly named names, saying that Qian Sanya was lying and framing her daughter.

As soon as these words came out, Old Qian and the Qian family were scared out of their wits and hurried to persuade Zhao’s mother: “We’ll definitely give you an explanation for this. We won’t let Qianqian be wronged.”

Even Qian Sanya, a little embarrassed, walked over to Zhao’s mother and apologized cautiously: “Mom, I’m sorry. I was just too angry just now, so I framed Qianqian.”

Mainly, Zhao’s mother had an excellent reputation—she was known across the nearby villages as a truly good stepmother.

Other people who became stepmothers not only demanded houses and property for their own children, but even not abusing their stepchildren would already be considered good.

But Madam Zhao neither fought for a house nor for property, and she treated the stepchildren very well in everyday life.

Forget outsiders—among Old Qian’s four children, not a single one disliked her.

Zhao’s mother brought three children with her, and they had always called Qian’s father “Uncle.”

But Old Qian’s four children had always called Zhao’s mother “Mom.”

From that alone you could see just how good a stepmother Zhao’s mother was.

Especially the twins, Sanya and Sida (the third girl and the fourth boy), were raised by Zhao’s mother.

So their feelings for Zhao’s mother ran deep.

With Qian Sanya turning on a dime, Zeng Cheng was left unable to defend himself; all the bad reputation landed squarely on him.

Even so, Zeng Cheng still struggled desperately: “Even if you saw me on top of her at the time, it was Zhao Qianqian who seduced me first—after all, that was my newly built home.”

The implication being—

If Zhao Qianqian were truly innocent, why would she take the initiative to come to his house?

In any case, he wasn’t going to shoulder this bad name.

Although things between him and Zhao Qianqian were already entangled and he was eighty percent likely to have to marry her, there was still a difference between a woman throwing herself at him and him wantonly fooling around.

Seeing Zeng Cheng show her no face, Zhao Qianqian said darkly, “Then why don’t we report it to the Public Security Bureau? The innocent aren’t afraid of shadows.”

She knew that, in this era, matters like this generally favored the woman.

“No… we can’t report it… we can’t.” Zeng Cheng shouted loudly.

It wasn’t that he felt guilty, but he couldn’t let the matter blow up and open the door for people with ulterior motives to set him up.

After all, he had only just managed to climb out of the vortex surrounding his maternal grandfather being labeled a capitalist.

If this got to the Public Security Bureau, and they dug up his identity, what if he got implicated and sent to the cowshed as well?

Zeng Cheng’s outburst practically proved that he had been the one to force himself on Zhao Qianqian.

Originally, Old Qian still wanted to scold Zhao Qianqian a few times.

In his view, even if this matter had indeed been instigated by Zeng Cheng first, Zhao Qianqian couldn’t be completely uninvolved, right?

In truth, Old Qian didn’t know that not only had Zhao Qianqian taken the initiative in this matter, but her “good wife” mother, Zhao Saihua, had also put in plenty of effort.

It was, in fact, Madam Zhao who had egged Zhao Qianqian on to do it.

If you had to decide who was worse between Zhao Qianqian and her mother, who would it be?

It would certainly be the mother!

After all, the original owner had only carried out her mother’s orders.

It’s just that Zhao Saihua usually put on a very good act—not only a good wife and good stepmother, but she also earned unanimous praise from the neighbors.

So when something like this happened, not a single person criticized Zhao Saihua for being an unfit stepmother; instead, they turned around and comforted her.

At this very moment, when Old Qian saw with his own eyes how obviously guilty and rattled Zeng Cheng looked, all the words of rebuke that were at the tip of his tongue were blocked by some invisible force—he could not get a single word out.

With all the fault pinned on Zeng Cheng, Old Qian didn’t dare come down too hard!

He didn’t even dare let the matter blow up.

After all, Zeng Cheng had a father who was a high-ranking military officer.

Even so, Old Qian still had things to say: “Zeng Cheng, since you don’t fancy my biological daughter Qian Sanya, and you’ve taken advantage of my stepdaughter Zhao Qianqian, then there are some things we need to discuss properly. Back then, your father mailed me, his retired old comrade, one thousand yuan plus a bicycle voucher—five hundred was designated for you to build a house and start a family, three hundred and a bicycle voucher as the bride price, and two hundred as money for me to look after you.”

Hearing this, everyone clicked their tongues in amazement.

No wonder both Qian Sanya and Zhao Qianqian fancied this playboy—city folks really did have money.

Such a grand gesture—the people of Qian Family Village had truly broadened their horizons.

Never mind the three blue-brick, red-tile rooms; just that 300-yuan bride price was one of a kind in Qian Family Village.

Qian Family Village was considered relatively well-off; usually the bride price was between fifty and a hundred yuan.

In poorer villages, the bride price was between twenty and fifty.

So three hundred was sky-high!

After the crowd finished marveling, Old Qian continued: “You’ve seen the house, and you’re already living in it. The five hundred was more than spent. Although each of your three rooms isn’t very big, they’re the best blue-brick, red-tile rooms in the village, costing around 150 yuan per room. We also built you a small kitchen and dug a well, and left a plot of private land behind the house—total value about 600 yuan. I used to think well of you; that extra hundred we lost could be chalked up to a loss. But now you have to make it up.”

Zhao’s mother and the crowd were thinking the same thing: “Before, you thought your biological daughter would be the one living there; a loss was a loss—after all, it benefited your own child. But now it’s the stepdaughter Qianqian’s turn—of course the shortfall must be made up.”

However, Zhao’s mother wasn’t going to speak up at this moment.

She even stopped her two sons, Zhao the Elder and Zhao the Second, who wanted to step forward to speak for Qianqian, shaking her head to block them.

Today, Zhao Qianqian was in the wrong; they would swallow this dumb loss for now.

They could always make it up later!

After all, if Qian Sanya was willing to break off the engagement, then her daughter Qianqian would be the one who truly profited.

In fact, it had been Zhao’s mother who had egged Zhao Qianqian on to seduce Zeng Cheng in the first place.

Who in this world is truly without self-interest?

Even if she was a good stepmother, that didn’t stop her from favoring her own children.

At first she only wanted her daughter to give it a try.

After all, her daughter was beautiful!

Who would have guessed it would actually work?

Zeng Cheng gave a grunt of acknowledgment, which counted as agreeing to Old Qian’s demand.

Then Old Qian went on: “You’ve wronged my Sanya—that’s a fact. From your three-hundred-yuan bride price, take out half as compensation for my Sanya! As for the two hundred your father gave me for looking after you—you’ve eaten and drunk at my house for almost a year, and I, Old Qian, prepared the quilts and other odds and ends for you, so that money was rightly taken.”

Zeng Cheng nodded.

The crowd also felt that was how it should be.

In the end, of the one thousand yuan Zeng’s father had sent, Old Qian only returned fifty yuan and one bicycle voucher to Zeng Cheng—after all, he still owed one hundred on the house!

Then there was the matter of Zhao Qianqian.

Since Old Qian was Zhao Qianqian’s stepfather, and the whole family was very pleased with Zhao’s mother, for Zhao’s mother’s sake, the “face work” still had to be done.

“Zeng Cheng, you took advantage of my stepdaughter, so you have to take responsibility. You’ll marry Zhao Qianqian—no problem with that, right?”

Zeng Cheng answered extremely unwillingly.

What had happened between him and Zhao Qianqian was known throughout the entire Qian Family Village—he had no choice but to take responsibility.

In the countryside, reputation still mattered.

During his time as a sent-down youth, he would still have to rely on the Qian family’s care; he couldn’t afford to offend them too badly!

And most importantly, Zhao Qianqian’s mother was an excellent cook. He still wanted to eat her food often in the future; he couldn’t let things get too stiff.

Besides, if he didn’t take responsibility and Zhao Qianqian went to report him to the Public Security Bureau, he would be the one to suffer.

Even so, being schemed against by Zhao Qianqian like this left him very unwilling, and he even began to harbor thoughts of revenge.

So he spoke with ill intent: “Uncle Qian, you know my father only prepared one thousand yuan for my marriage. Now there’s only fifty yuan left and one bicycle voucher. So that’s all there is for Zhao Qianqian’s bride price. And since we’ve already had such intimate relations, let’s have the wedding soon. As it happens, I’m going to the town tomorrow to pick up a package my father mailed me—there should be a few jin of meat coupons and two jin of sugar. The day after tomorrow, we can hold the banquet right away.”