Once Wen Ruhua had recovered enough and was able to walk again, the village chief’s family immediately started preparing for Wen Ruhua and He Xiaohua’s marriage. The bright red lanterns and colored banners that immediately appeared around the entire village angered Wen Ruhua to the point he collapsed back onto the bed.
Ning Shu felt that she also counted as Wen Ruhua’s maternal family, so she earnestly prepared several outfits, a brand new blanket, and several silver ingots. She presented them to Wen Ruhua, saying that this was the dowry she had prepared for him.
When Wen Ruhua heard the word ‘dowry,’ he exploded and slapped away all the ingots before glaring at Ning Shu. “I’d rather die than take He Xiaohua as wife.”
Ning Shu picked the money off the ground as she corrected him. “Cousin, right now you’re marrying into the He family. It’s Lady He taking you as husband, not you taking her as wife.”
“Bai Qinxiang, are you really only going to be satisfied once you destroy me?” Wen Ruhua’s now skinny face was extremely sinister.
Ning Shu acted baffled, then said with a wronged expression, “Cousin, how could you think that? Everything I’m doing is for your own good. If it weren’t for Lady He’s ginseng, you’d already be in the depths of hell instead of here talking to Qinxiang.”
Wen Ruhua: …
Ning Shu continued, “Don’t worry, Cousin. Just focus on recovering, leave everything else to me. I’ll definitely make the preparations grand so that you’ll be able to hold your head up proudly as you join their family.
“Also, a lot of people were witness to that event. Could it be that you’re going to pretend you didn’t make the promise? Are you really going to ruin Lady He’s reputation? Didn’t you hate this kind of behavior the most? Haven’t you always looked down on the way He Dahua teased women and ruined their reputations? Cousin, there’s no way you’d do something like that, right?”
Wen Ruhua’s lips trembled with anger, but Ning Shu ignored it and continued, “Qinxiang only did this to save your life. Lady He is a good lady as well, she’s a very good match for you.”
“You injured me, then sold me for a ginseng, and you’re saying it was for my own good? Bai Qinxiang, you shouldn’t push your luck!” bellowed Wen Ruhua.
Ning Shu pretended to feel even more wronged. “Cousin, I told you that I didn’t know it was you. If I had known, I definitely wouldn’t have done that. You should’ve called me from outside the tent instead of sneaking in. Anyone would think that a person who snuck into a lady’s room in the middle of the night was up to no good. In addition, the ginseng has already been used, and it wasn’t on me, so how could you say that I sold you for a ginseng?”
Wen Ruhua was so angry that he couldn’t even get any words out and could only shout her for to scram.
So Ning Shu hastily scrammed and left Wen Ruhua to moan in pain while clutching at his injury.
The village chief used an old almanac to pick an auspicious day for the wedding.
The weather this auspicious day was very nice. The village chief’s family set a lot of firecrackers off, so the atmosphere was very lively. That lively atmosphere even spread to Wen Ruhua’s crappy thatch house.
Ning Shu enthusiastically received the guests. Meanwhile, the bridegroom, Wen Ruhua, had already been fixed up and forced into the crimson wedding garments. Right now, he was being brought out and helped onto the cattle back in preparation to head towards the village chief’s house.
Wen Ruhua’s face was completely ashen, there was not a trace of happiness. His eyes were filled with hatred as he looked towards Ning Shu, but Ning Shu just smiled sweetly and said, “Cousin, you should head over first. I’ll be there soon.”
Wen Ruhua’s face turned even more ashened and his body trembled so much he seemed about to fall off.
When Wen Ruhua got to the village chief’s house and saw that the courtyard was filled with vegetables, squawking chickens, and ducks. These were the congratulatory gifts that the villagers had sent.
The coarse villagers had faces that were telltale signs of poverty as they stood here in a place filled with the stink of animal feces. Wen Ruhua was unwilling to accept this. In his heart, he was bellowing that this wasn’t his life. His life wasn’t supposed to be like this!
It wasn’t supposed to be like this! As he watched the bride be helped out, this feeling became even more intense. This wasn’t the wife he wanted to marry. This wasn’t the life he wanted! He was even marrying into the family, that meant he had to obey the village chief’s family.
Wen Ruhua turned back to look around. When he saw Ning Shu, his heart suddenly filled with an acrid feeling. It was hatred, but also contained a softer lingering emotion. Wen Ruhua couldn’t get rid of that feeling that was between love and hate.