Splendid peasant girl busy farming

Chapter 11916

"Hehe, sorry, sorry, I was too impatient, and that woman made me angry!"

"Hmph!" Cao Bamei snorted defiantly, and the two of them turned their faces away from each other, looking only at Yang Ruoqing.

"Qing'er, do you have any good ideas to break this deadlock?" Yang Yongjin asked again.

"Second brother, are you treating me like a strategist?"

"That's right! You're smarter than all of us, you're a genius!"

"Haha, that's an exaggeration!"

"However, I do have a plan to break this deadlock, it just depends on whether you are willing to give it up."

"As long as we can break the deadlock, there's no such thing as being unwilling to give up anything; breaking the deadlock is the most important thing!"

“Alright,” Yang Ruoqing put down her teacup, “Since you’ve put it that way, then I’ll say it.”

"If you want to split up, you can name your terms,"

"For example, cancel the bride price from the Sixi family!"

"Huh?" Cao Bamei's eyes widened in surprise: "How can you marry off your daughter without a bride price? Isn't that breaking the rules?"

Yang Ruoqing continued, "Rules are rigid, but people are flexible. Not only will you not ask for a bride price, but your family will also provide a dowry."

"And this dowry, which they paid out of their own pocket, was what helped them set up a shop in the county town!"

Well, Cao Bamei got anxious, her face turning red and white in turns, and she shook her head anxiously, saying, "No, no, Qing'er!"

“In the surrounding villages, even if a girl is blind in one eye or lame in one leg, as long as she is a pure and innocent young woman getting married, there is no way the groom's family won't give a dowry. What's the difference between that and a daughter-in-law who was picked up for free? The groom's family won't value her!”

Yang Ruoqing remained silent, only smiling as she picked up her teacup and took a slow, deliberate sip.

At this moment, Yang Yongjin suddenly slapped his thigh, and his furrowed brows finally relaxed.

"This method is brilliant!" he said, his eyes clearing away all the fog and shining with excitement.

Yang Ruoqing smiled and nodded. Her second brother understood, but her second sister-in-law did not.

Not understanding, she asked, so Cao Bamei quickly grabbed Yang Yongjin's sleeve and pressed him for an answer: "What's the clever way? All four daughters-in-law of the Sixi family were married with proper betrothal gifts, but when they come to our family, they don't ask for betrothal gifts?"

"Even if we weren't the Yang family, or just an ordinary family, we shouldn't belittle ourselves like this!"

Yang Yongjin disgustedly shook off Cao Bamei's hand that was tugging at his sleeve, and said, "What do you mean by 'willingly belittling yourself'? How can you talk about your own daughter like that? If you can't speak properly, then speak less. Nobody will think you're mute!"

"Oh, okay, okay, I misspoke, I'll slap myself!" Cao Bamei actually slapped her mouth twice. "Then continue, why can this method break the deadlock?"

Yang Yongjin said, "Foolish woman, let me ask you this: even if we accept the betrothal gifts, shouldn't we keep them for ourselves?"

Cao Bamei shook her head without hesitation: "That's impossible. When our family marries off our daughter, we never withhold the bride price from the groom's family. Not only do we not withhold it, but we also contribute our own dowry. In the end, the bride price and dowry are sent to our daughter's husband's family together so that she can use them as her future dowry. If our daughter has money in her hands, she will have confidence and a strong back in her husband's family!"

It's not like you have to ask your mother-in-law for money every time you see a peddler passing by and want to buy something as simple as needles and thread.

Yang Yongjin said, "Isn't that right? We're not going to keep the bride price anyway, so let's just forget about it!"

“If we don’t ask for a bride price, Sixi’s family will be very happy. For them, having to pay a bride price after building the wedding house will definitely make them very resentful.”

"We're not asking for a bride price now, their family must be relieved."

“If we add more dowry at this time, their family will definitely be happy.”

"Then, we should strike while the iron is hot and bring up the idea of ​​dividing the family property. Even if they hesitate, they won't be able to refuse. If we don't divide the family property, they will ask for a bride price. If we divide the family property, we won't need to ask for a bride price."

"Furthermore, even if we don't separate the family, the dowry we provide is for our daughter and won't go to their family. So, they'll probably be happy to separate the family."

"And when the villagers hear that we don't want a bride price, they will praise us. They won't be able to criticize us for dividing the family property, because we don't even want a bride price!"

"Once our daughter gets married and the family separates, we'll help them rent a shop in the county town. We won't tell anyone about the shop beforehand; it'll be a secret!"

After thinking for a long time, Cao Bamei finally figured it out.

“Yes, we don’t want the bride price anyway, so we might as well use it to make a deal. Okay, I’ll listen to you,” Cao Bamei said. “But, when we help our daughter build the shop, won’t the Sixi family come out and say something strange?”

Yang Yongjin sneered: "What nonsense can you say? We've already separated the family, so we're not allowed to help our daughter?"

"If any of the sons and daughters-in-law in the Si Xi family are unwilling to accept this, then let them go to their fathers-in-law for help! Right?"

Cao Bamei beamed and nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, that's exactly right! By then, the family will have separated, and we can help them however we want. Sixi's parents can't reach out to help everyone, and the money earned from the shop will all end up in our daughter's pocket!"

Finally, after thanking Yang Ruoqing, Yang Yongjin and Cao Bamei left the Luo family satisfied and happy.

Yang Ruoqing stretched, feeling that she had not only not slept at noon, but had also sacrificed a lot of her brain cells by working on the couple.

Luo Fengtang suggested to her, "Why don't you go back to your room and lie down for a while? Otherwise, your eyelids are burning and it's really uncomfortable."

Yang Ruoqing nodded, "Although I can't sleep, I still want to lie down for a while. Sigh, these two, sitting here for so long, they can really sit still!"

Luo Fengtang just smiled and said, "When I saw them leaving happily earlier, a question couldn't help but arise in my mind."

"What questions do you have? Tell me."

"My second brother and sister-in-law are so confident about providing financial support for Xiu Hong and her husband after their marriage, which gives me a certain feeling."

How does it feel?

"It seems they have enough money ready, just waiting for the young couple to separate, and then they can pour it into their new family without any worries."

"Hahaha..." Yang Ruoqing laughed, "Tang Yazi, we really are a real couple. I had the same question about you before."

"Oh?" Luo Fengtang raised an eyebrow. "You feel the same way?"

“Yes,” Yang Ruoqing nodded, “the two of them give me the feeling of being rich and powerful, as if any problem that can be solved with money is not a problem!”

“They’re even more confident than I am. I’ve been thinking that over the years, my second brother has been helping me manage the restaurant. Besides the money I give him on the surface, I’m guessing he’s been taking a lot of kickbacks and skimming profits behind the scenes!”

Otherwise, it would be impossible for her to be so wealthy as to prepare to subsidize Xiu Hong after Xiu Xiu's marriage.

And please note that they cannot possibly give all their assets to their two daughters, because they also have a son, Xiao Sanzi. They will definitely leave the largest share to their son, Xiao Sanzi.

The second brother is preparing to return to the village next year to take over the management of Yang Huazhong's hundred-odd acres of land. The profits here are definitely not as high as those at the restaurant.

The restaurants in the town are definitely not as lucrative as those in the county seat.

Therefore, Yang Ruoqing speculated that her second brother must have made enough money and lived a comfortable life in the county town's restaurants a few years ago. After being transferred to a restaurant in the town, he gradually felt uncomfortable. In addition, he was getting older, approaching forty, and his daughter was causing him a lot of trouble. He was exhausted and decided to return to the village to find work.

"It's inevitable that they'll skim some profits; if the water's too clear, there won't be any fish," Luo Fengtang said.

Yang Ruoqing nodded: "I know all of this, whether it's my second brother, my fifth uncle, or Chen Biao now, or the young man who will be the manager of the restaurant in town after the New Year..."

"They helped me with things, so it's only natural that they'd skim some money off me; that's only human nature."

"I'll say it again: as long as they don't affect the foundation of our restaurant, I can turn a blind eye. But if anyone goes too far and affects the foundation, I won't give them any face, even if they are my closest relatives."

……

After Yang Yongjin and Cao Bamei returned home, they closed the door and discussed things in the main room.

Then he called Xiu Hong over and carefully analyzed the intricacies of the situation with her.

For the first time ever, Xiu Hong stood by her parents' side and listened to their advice, which made the couple even more gratified.

By the time Xiu Hong went out to talk to Sixi about it, the couple's initial enthusiasm had mostly faded.

Cao Bamei asked Yang Yongjin, "Father, you're in charge of all our family's banknotes. How much money do we have left? I don't even know the exact amount. You can't just throw it all into the shop. Leave some for Xiao Sanzi."

Yang Yongjin said, "Over the years, I have made a lot of money in the restaurant. The gifts and kickbacks that the suppliers gave me were all converted into silver."

For example, when he was the manager of the restaurant in the county town, he had a lot of power because Tianxianglou was one of the three major restaurants in the county town.

Because the owner behind Tianxianglou was the family of the Protector General, many high-ranking officials, gentry, landlords, and other merchants in the county would intentionally or unintentionally patronize Tianxianglou.

Since he was also the general's wife's cousin, many people wanted to establish a connection with him, so they came to him in various ways and through various channels.

A supplier wanted to establish a cooperative relationship with Tianxianglou and sent a lot of cigarettes and alcohol to Yang Yongjin.

However, Yang Yongjin wasn't really into that kind of thing, so the cigarettes and alcohol weren't delivered directly. Instead, they were stored at a specific tobacco and alcohol shop in the county town, and Yang Yongjin would periodically go there to collect the money...

"Over the years, I have indeed made a lot of money. Excluding what I gave Xiuxiu back then, we still have nearly seventy taels of silver in the bank!"

"Ah? So many!" Cao Bamei's eyes lit up.

"How much does it cost to open a shop?" she asked again.

Yang Yongjin said, "I've done the math. The shop rent, plus the cost of goods, and the preparation costs for the first six months... I should have at least twenty taels of silver!"

"Oh...that's good! As long as you can afford it!" Cao Bamei said.

"We won't touch the remaining fifty taels of silver; we'll save it all for Xiao Sanzi."

"With this fifty taels of silver, at the current interest rate, we can steadily earn nearly three taels of silver in interest from the money shop every year!"

“These three taels of silver, as long as we don’t live extravagantly, can cover our living expenses for half a year!” Yang Yongjin said again.

Cao Bamei waved her hand confidently: "We don't need that much. We have our own vegetable garden, chickens, ducks and geese, and seven or eight acres of land. My older brother's family lives next door. If they want pork, they can sell it to them for half price or give it away for free."

"We can live on three taels of silver for a year, unless there are gifts to give to relatives and friends, then it might cost more, or someone in the family gets sick..."

"Shut your mouth, you jinx!"

"Oh, oh, oh, ptooey, ptooey, I'm just bad luck, don't blame me if you turn right!"

……

Meanwhile, Xiu Hong arranged to meet Sixi outside the acrobatic arena at the south end of the village.

Sixi was overjoyed to hear this, and grabbed Xiuhong's hand, saying, "This is a great idea! Thank you, father-in-law and mother-in-law! I feel full of energy!"

Embarrassed, Xiu Hong withdrew her hand, glanced around, and said, "We're not married yet, and we're out in the world. Even if we were engaged, don't grab my hand like that. People will laugh at us!"

Si Xi nodded repeatedly, taking two steps back to maintain a safe distance.

Xiu Hong smiled with satisfaction, then continued what Sixi had said earlier: "Yes, me too! We'll spend our own money as we earn it in the future. As long as we earn money, whether it's in your house or mine, we'll have a strong backbone!"

Sixi then asked Xiuhong, "Regarding the division of the family property and the bride price, will your parents have the matchmaker deliver the message to my parents later, or should I go back now and discuss it with them directly?"

Xiu Hong said, "Don't say that. Let's pretend we don't know anything. Then I'll have my parents find a matchmaker and let the elders communicate with each other."

"Also, don't tell anyone about our business dealings! Everything must be done in secrecy, understand?"

Si Xi nodded seriously: "I understand. I won't say a word about it to my third brother!"

"it is good!"

"The acrobatics are about to start, shall we go in? I heard there are giant monkeys on today!"

……

Si Xi's family.

The sons and daughters-in-law, some with their wives, some with their children, and some with their mothers-in-law, all carried long benches and, after dinner, went to the old maple tree at the village entrance to wait for the show.

Arriving early has its advantages; you can secure a spot close to the stage to watch the performance and hear it clearly.

If you go too late, you won't be able to reach anything.

Suddenly the house felt deserted, with only Sixi's mother and father remaining.

Si Xi's mother was in the kitchen, looking at the pot full of bowls and chopsticks soaking in hot water. She wished she could pick up a hoe and smash them all to pieces!
She glanced at Sixi's father, who was squatting by the kitchen door smoking a pipe, but still didn't dare to grab a hoe to smash it.

But she was still scrubbing the pots and washing the dishes roughly, grumbling under her breath.

"What I hate most is this kind of grand opera performance. All my sons go and bring their in-laws over to watch the opera, which just causes me trouble!"

“I have to kill chickens and buy meat to serve these relatives three meals a day. After that, they all throw down their bowls and chopsticks and run off to watch the opera, leaving me at home to be their slave!”