"Uncle, Aunt, I'm back! The clan leader is here too." Jiang Miao walked up to them and greeted them. Then he turned around and looked at the three strangers and asked, "Who are you and what are you doing in our house?"
The woman forced a smile and said, "Brother, don't you recognize me? I'm from Liu Chun's family, the one that Jiang Yu is engaged to."
Before Jiang Miao could react, Second Aunt Jiang shouted angrily, "Since you are here to cancel the engagement, don't mention the engagement anymore!"
Engagement? Breaking off an engagement
Jiang Miao was confused by these two words. How could Sister Xiaoyu suddenly get engaged and then break off the engagement? Why didn't he hear about this when he came back for the New Year? Or was it just that no one mentioned it, and he didn't know about it because he had no memory of it
"So you agree to cancel the engagement?" Liu Chunjia's eyes lit up immediately when she heard her say that.
"You want to cancel the engagement? Why don't you explain the reason clearly first? Instead, you want my daughter of Jiang family to suffer this injustice in vain. Do you think it's possible?" Second Uncle Jiang was so angry that veins popped out, and it seemed that he wanted to beat them out.
"Alas, my dear relatives, we have already told you the reason. The two of you are not compatible. You will be enemies even if you get married. It is better for you to part ways in peace now." The man named Liu Chun sighed, looking helpless.
Jiang Miao sensed something was wrong. He had just gotten engaged to Pei Che some time ago, so he naturally knew the engagement process.
"Uncle Liu, you are wrong. It is traditionally the case that people match horoscopes before getting engaged. How can you match horoscopes after getting engaged? Before my cousin got engaged to your family, didn't you find someone to match horoscopes?"
Second Aunt Jiang said, "Why haven't you compared the horoscopes? It's a good match. Now you're making up excuses to cancel the engagement. Do you think our Jiang family is easy to bully? Clan leader, please give us a word. The Liu family is bullying us, and our Xiaoyu can't suffer this in vain!"
Jiang Yu was raised by the two sisters-in-law of the Jiang family. After Jiang Miao's mother died, she stayed with Second Aunt Jiang. In Second Aunt Jiang's heart, she was no different from her own daughter.
"The horoscopes were randomly matched at the beginning. Ever since the engagement, our family has been unlucky. Later, people said it might be because the horoscopes conflict with each other. I took the horoscopes of both of us to a master for comparison, and it turned out that they are indeed conflicting. Chief Jiang, tell me, I won't cancel the engagement, but I can't end up breaking up our family just because of marrying a daughter-in-law, can I?" Liu Chun said confidently.
Facing the pressure from both sides, the chief of the Jiang clan thought for a moment and said, "It was fate that your two families were able to get married before. Whether it will be successful now depends on you. The daughter of my Jiang family naturally cannot be wronged. But if the family is broken up because of the conflict of horoscopes, it will not do. You should discuss it slowly. I have something else to do, so I'll leave first." The chief of the clan left in a hurry after leaving behind a few ambiguous words. At first glance, it sounds okay, but if you think about it carefully, what is the difference between saying this and not saying it
Liu Chun watched the clan leader leave, turned around and said, "Look, your clan leader has said this, what else do you have to say? I don't want my family to suffer any more bad luck."
"Nonsense, what does your family's bad luck have to do with my sister? Maybe you did something unscrupulous and God is punishing you!" Jiang Miao was very angry when he heard that this person wanted to pin the title of jinx on Jiang Yu. Jiang Yu was good in everything except that she couldn't speak. She sewed the new clothes for Jiang Miao and Xiao Shitou for the New Year.
"What are you talking about, kid! Let me ask you, if it wasn't for her bad fortune, how could Boss Jiang and his wife have died? Isn't it her fault?" Liu Chunjia said in a shrill voice.
"She is the one who brought bad luck to you? Then why haven't you died yet? Logically speaking, you are her parents-in-law after the engagement, so why didn't you die of bad luck? And why did you come to my house and complain?" Jiang Miao couldn't control his anger. He had heard such words when he was a child, so he knew how sad the person involved would feel when he heard such words.
"You...you..." Liu Chunjia was so angry that she was shaking. She tried to calm down and said, "No matter what you say, you must cancel the engagement today. I have also invited the matchmaker I found at the beginning. You return the marriage certificate and betrothal gifts, and we will leave immediately."
Second Aunt Jiang said, "If you don't explain clearly, then forget about canceling the engagement."
The Liu family looked at each other and went to the side to discuss. Seeing that they couldn't speak for a while, Second Aunt Jiang looked at the gorgeously dressed woman in the middle and said, "Matchmaker Yu, you should know about this, right? Otherwise, you wouldn't have come with me. Tell us the story clearly. We just want to know why the Liu family suddenly wants to cancel the engagement."
Matchmaker Yu smiled awkwardly and said vaguely, "Isn't it based on voluntary consent when a man and a woman get married? Since the man doesn't want to marry you, it means the marriage is over. Why do you have to keep pestering him?"
Her attitude was clearly on the side of the Liu family, and her words and actions made it seem as if the Jiang family was trying to pester them.
"Matchmaker Yu, you are also a woman, so you must know how important reputation is to a girl? If your daughter's engagement was broken off in public for no apparent reason today, and you could still say this, then I would really admire you!" Jiang Miao said sarcastically.
Matchmaker Yu frowned and said, "How can you talk like that? You haven't gotten married yet, and you haven't had a wedding night yet, how will it affect your reputation?"
"Since you think it has no impact, I will visit your house every day starting tomorrow and chat with your daughter and daughter-in-law. Anyway, I am not getting married with them, and it will not affect my reputation. What do you think?" Jiang Miao raised one corner of his mouth and looked at Yu the matchmaker with ill intentions, making Yu the matchmaker so angry that her face turned blue.
"Okay, okay, okay. I've come here in vain today. I've been gossiped about for nothing. From now on, when your family wants to get married, I won't dare to come." Matchmaker Yu said as she walked out, not forgetting to threaten them with the matter of marriage.
"Hello, but you're welcome to go. It's just that Butcher Zhang is dead and we don't eat mixed-hair pigs. It's not your turn to interfere in the marriage of our Jiang family." Jiang Miao sneered, obviously not taking her threat seriously.
Uncle Jiang said sullenly, "Just say it. We can't be broken off for no reason!" The matter has become so serious, what else can we do if we don't break off the engagement? If they force them to marry Xiaoyu, will Xiaoyu have a good life in the future
After listening to this, Liu Chunjia hesitated for a moment and said, "Then let's be honest. Jiang Yu is good, but she can't talk. At first, we thought it would be fine if she was quiet and just cared about the family. But now it's different. Our Liu Wang has made a living and started a small business. How can we marry someone who can't talk? She won't be able to help at all when the time comes..."
Liu Chun's family kept complaining, but in the end, they still disliked Jiang Yu for not being able to speak. They could refute everything else, but this was the only thing they couldn't refute.
Uncle Jiang gave Aunt Jiang a look, and Aunt Jiang understood and went into the house to get a small wooden box, which contained the marriage certificate and two small silver ingots given when they got engaged, totaling two taels.
"Bring our Xiaoyu's things here." Aunt Jiang said coldly.
Liu Chunjia took out a yellowed piece of paper from her bosom, on which were written their birth dates. Second Aunt Jiang snatched the birth dates, then stuffed the small wooden box into Liu Chunjia's arms and shouted, "Get out of here, there will be no relationship between our two families from now on!"
Liu Chunjia did not leave immediately as she had said before, but opened the wooden box in front of everyone. She first took out the marriage certificate and the horoscope and looked at them, then took a small silver ingot, weighed it in her hand, and then put it in her mouth and bit it.
Jiang Miao didn't know her intention at first, but now that he knew, he was immediately disgusted. Could it be that she was trying to verify the authenticity of the item? He looked around and found a broom on the ground, so he bent down, picked it up, and waved it at Liu Chun.
"You're crazy!" Liu Chun was shocked and immediately tried to block it with his hands, but the broom seemed to have eyes and hit him on the body and face. Seeing this, Aunt Jiang also took something to hit Liu Chun's family. The two of them worked together to drive the two annoying things out.
The neighbors in the yard had also left, and the Jiang family members returned to the room with anger still on their faces.
"Uncle, Aunt, is this the reason you asked someone to tell me to come back?"
Uncle Jiang nodded and said, "Some news came out from there before, so I thought of asking you to come back and listen to it and see what to do. I didn't expect them to come today and bring Matchmaker Yu with them."
"They dislike Sister Xiaoyu because she can't speak. But Sister Xiaoyu couldn't speak before either. So how did they get engaged?" Jiang Miao asked indirectly, wanting to know more about what happened before.
Uncle Jiang sighed, "The engagement was three years ago, when Xiaoyu was just sixteen years old. When someone brought the Liu family to their house, they were very nice. They said they heard that Xiaoyu was of the right age, and wanted to ask for Xiaoyu to marry them on behalf of their children."
"I told them at the time that Xiaoyu couldn't talk, and they said nice things, saying that they would never despise Xiaoyu and would treat her as their own daughter. At that time, your grandmother was still alive, and the person who introduced her was from her mother's family, so we paid attention to her and asked around."
"After asking around, I found out that the Liu family seemed to be quite honest, but they were very poor and could only offer two taels of silver as a betrothal gift. How could a family like ours dare to complain about others being poor? Besides, Xiaoyu really couldn't talk. They seemed to be the most reliable family among those who came to propose marriage. I made the decision with your grandmother and let them get engaged."
"It was originally agreed that you would get married that year, but your grandmother passed away not long after. Xiaoyu observed mourning for a year, and just as she was done, something happened over there. In the end, the matter was delayed again and again until today. I didn't expect that family had already considered canceling the engagement!"
So that's how it is, Jiang Miao sighed in his heart, this must be the test set by God to prevent Xiaoyu from falling into the fire pit. But that family didn't return the money before, and insisted on canceling the engagement after they became rich, maybe they wanted to leave a way out, right
"Uncle, this is better than Sister Xiaoyu seeing his true face after she gets married." It will be really difficult to get a divorce at that time.
Uncle Jiang sighed, "That's what he said, but it's very hard for Xiaoyu. She hasn't smiled since she heard the rumors, and she doesn't want to go out, for fear of being criticized by others. Now that the engagement has really been cancelled, she must be even more upset."
Yes, not all villagers are reasonable. In the eyes of most people, a woman whose engagement is rejected by a man must have done something wrong. If a woman whose engagement is rejected wants to marry again, she will only find worse men.
"How about letting Sister Xiaoyu go with me to the city for a while? After this matter is over, we can see if she wants to come back?" Jiang Miao suggested.
Uncle Jiang thought for a moment and said, "Then let her go with you first."
(End of this chapter)