Yingbao couldn't help herself and quietly ran to West Village to watch the fun.
A large group of villagers had gathered in front of Chen Laoshuan's house in Xicun.
Chu Man's biological mother, Sun, was arguing with Chen Laoshuan and his wife.
"You must give the Chu family an explanation for this matter. My innocent daughter should not be taken advantage of by others for nothing."
Faced with such a shameless family like the Chu family, Chen Fengshi was so angry that she was going crazy, and she was even more disappointed with her son.
But in front of so many people, she couldn't let her son lose face, so she put her hands on her hips and cursed: "Where did you come from, you whore, to dare to falsely accuse my Erlang! Don't you see what your daughter is like? How can my Erlang like her?"
When she said this, Sun was so angry that she rushed over and started fighting with Chen Feng.
Everyone rushed forward to separate the fight.
Chen Changhai's wife took sides and hugged Sun tightly, saying, "You can't just hit people casually. People say that family disgrace should not be made public. How can you be so ignorant and throw the pot of shit on your own daughter's head?"
Sun struggled hard and shouted, "It's obviously the Chen family who did something wrong, I don't care! You must give my daughter an explanation, otherwise, we will go to the government to argue!"
When Chen Laoshuan heard this, he frowned.
His son had just passed the imperial examination in June and had not yet received an admission notice, so he had not yet entered the county school.
Because before admission, the county school officials would examine the moral character of the county's fifteen new students one by one. If any of them were found to have poor moral character, they would be directly deprived of their admission qualifications.
His son couldn't be criticized at this time. Maybe the school officials would come to inspect them soon.
"That's enough! Let's all go inside and talk!" Chen Laoshuan shouted, and his wife winked at him.
Chen Feng understood, straightened her messy hair, snorted, and turned to go into the house.
Chen Laoshuan said to Madam Sun, "Please come in and talk to Madam Sun. We can discuss anything slowly."
This was exactly the result Sun wanted, and he immediately nodded in agreement.
Afterwards, Chen Laoshuan asked his third son to go to Chujia Village to call the Chu clan leader and Chu Cunzheng, and the two families sat down formally to discuss the matter of their children in detail.
The final result was that Chu Man had to marry into the Chen family and become Chen Changping's second wife, otherwise everyone would face each other in court.
Chen Laoshuan had no choice but to agree, but he used the excuse that his family had no money and could not afford much of a dowry, and asked the Chu family to decide for themselves.
Patriarch Chu and Chu Cunzheng looked at each other, gritted their teeth, and agreed to the Chen family's rude request.
But when Chen Changping came to pick up the bride, the newlyweds had to wear all green.
According to folk customs, the wedding dress for marrying a wife is green, but if marrying a second wife, the wedding dress the man gives to the woman is bright red.
It's not just because red cloth is cheaper than green cloth, but because that's the custom in the country.
Chen Feng refused outright, claiming that etiquette cannot be abolished. Her own granddaughters and grandsons were watching her, and she could not be disrespectful to her son's ex-wife.
So, the two families started arguing about the color of the wedding dress, and finally they both gave in and let the bride wear a red dress and a green skirt.
In this way, Chu Man married into the Chen family on the 24th of the winter month and became Chen Changping's second wife.
When he first entered the house, he was relatively stable and treated Chen Wan, Chen Zhao and Chen Xubao kindly.
That day, Chu Man took her clothes to the pond to wash them, but before she finished washing one piece, she complained that the water was too cold and ran home to stop washing.
She threw the clothes to Chen Wan and asked her to wash them.
Chen Wan was of a soft nature and was used to being submissive, so she picked up her clothes and went to the pond to wash them.
Seeing her like this, Chen Zhao was so angry that he quickly chased after her and scolded his elder sister.
"Why are you washing her clothes?" Chen Zhao said angrily, "These are her own clothes, including her own small clothes. Why should she let us wash them?"
Chen Wan whispered, "It's just a few dresses, they will be washed quickly, Ah Zhao, don't be so picky, she is our stepmother after all, it's okay for us as the younger generation to help her with some chores."
Chen Zhao was furious and turned away.
I found Yingbao and complained to her: "I will no longer care about her. Good intentions are not rewarded! She actually said that I am fussy. Doesn't that mean that I am narrow-minded? Humph! Let her wash it off!"
Yingbao wasn't surprised at all.
In her previous life, Chen Wan had such a weak personality.
The only time I dared to resist was when I jumped into the river.
She thought that committing suicide would gain other people's attention and sympathy, or make the other person feel guilty.
Little did she know that the other party didn't care about her life or death at all.
Chen Zhao chatted with Yingbao for a while, then suddenly remembered that his younger brother Xubao had no one to take care of him, so he hurried back home.
In a blink of an eye, it was the twelfth day of the twelfth lunar month.
The house of the shop in the county town has been completed, and Jiang Cheng is going to marry Qiu Rong, the girl from Rongfuji Pastry Shop, so the Jiang family will go to the county town to hold an engagement banquet for Jiang Cheng.
Chunniang left the chickens and ducks at home to Chuchu and Zhang Meng to take care of, and took her children into the carriage driven by her husband, and went to the county town with her sisters-in-law.
Jiang Dalang, Jiang Erlang, Dani and Erni also went to the county town with them, while Old Man Jiang and his wife stayed behind to look after the house.
After arriving in the county town, Jiang Cheng settled his entire family in a large house that he had purchased.
This house is not far from Jiang Sanlang's home. It is a large courtyard with two entrances and a total of nine rooms. There is also a well next to the kitchen in the front yard.
The house was originally an old house, which was later renovated and painted by Jiang Cheng, and all the household items inside were also purchased again.
Jiang Cheng settled his parents in the main house, and arranged for his second uncle, second aunt, and younger brothers and sisters to live in the backyard.
Jiang Sanlang's family has their own house and does not live here.
Yingbao looked at her eldest brother's house, and then went to the shop to see her own house.
Five large houses stand neatly together, with carved doors and windows painted with purple-red tung oil.
The house is fully furnished, and there are kangs in the three bedrooms.
There are many shelves in a storage room, but the shelves are empty and there are no goods.
Seeing that there was no one around, Yingbao took out all the mushroom ears in her cave, put them on the shelf, and then recorded the purchase amount in the account book.
After leaving the storage room, I saw a well not far from the kitchen. The well mouth was covered with a lid, and a bucket tied with a rope was placed on the lid.
The kitchen was very large, with three stoves built in it. A pile of chopped firewood was piled against the wall near the stove mouth.
Yingbao nodded with satisfaction and returned to the shop.
Her shop has three rooms in total, two of which are connected shops. There is a counter made of blue bricks, and behind the counter are shelves with goods placed on them.
The other room is the accounting office, which has not only a cash box and a table, but also a small bed for resting.
The door of the accounting office is inside the counter, so outsiders cannot enter easily.
Jiang Yunniang’s snack stall is located on the right side of the specialty shop, and the stall’s oilcloth umbrella is just a few steps away from the shop’s door.
Yingbao stood at the door and looked.
The food stall sells meat patties and vegetable soup. It is lunchtime now, so business is pretty good.
Aunt Jiang Yunniang was busy for a while, and when she saw Yingbao looking at her, she smiled and asked, "Yingbao, do you want some meat pie?"
Yingbao nodded and sat down at the small square table under the oilcloth umbrella.
Jiang Yunniang served her a bowl of vegetable soup and gave her a freshly made meat pie.
Yingbao didn't hesitate to take it and took a bite.
You know what, the meat pie tastes really good.
Taking another sip of the vegetable soup, I saw that it contained chopped green vegetables, diced gourds, and a few shredded chicken.
The soup is thick and is made from flour. It is seasoned with lard, pepper, salt and other ingredients, and tastes very delicious.