Volume One, Chapter Seventeen: Another Bride Price
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Seeing Xiangyu in this state, Wang Dong felt both heartache and amusement, along with a deep sense of warmth.
The very first time he had met Xiangyu in his previous life, the silly girl had been wiping away her tears.
Even during the first few years after they were married, whenever anything happened, the silly girl would either cry right in front of him or secretly wipe away her tears behind his back. She was, in every sense, a born crybaby.
But later…
Wang Dong had been cheated in business and lost his entire fortune. Not only had he lost all his money, he had even gambled away his family home.
Carrying his daughter and holding Xiangyu by the hand, he had walked across the bridge over the Kolo River. The bitter wind had chilled him to the bone, and he had truly felt like ending his life.
Yet at that very moment, that silly girl who had cried through half her life did not shed a single tear.
She had clutched Wang Dong’s hand tightly and, without saying a word, led him away from the bridge over the Kolo River.
After that, Xiangyu never cried again. In one way or another, it had become one of Wang Dong’s deepest regrets.
It was he who had forced that carefree girl to become a mature mother…
If only he had been more careful. If only he had not trusted people so easily. If only he had properly examined those contracts…
Fortunately, fate had given him another chance.
To see Xiangyu sobbing her heart out while wiping tears and snot from her face once again filled Wang Dong with indescribable happiness.
There was still a chance to change everything.
“Hey, hey, my darling girl, if you’re going to cry, don’t do it right in front of their door! If they hear you, they’ll think this old man did something to you!”
The bald old man tossed the bag in his hand beside the gate and wiped Xiangyu’s face with his greasy sleeve.
“All right, all right. That young fellow doesn’t blame you. He came to see Little Hong, not to cause you trouble. Don’t be sad, don’t be sad. It’s nothing, nothing…”
With that, the bald old man kicked the tightly shut gate.
“You damned bastards! Why are you keeping the gate shut in broad daylight? Old Black! Black’s wife! Why are you shutting the gate in broad daylight? Having an affair? Why didn’t you call me? I want to have an affair too! I want to have an affair too!”
“You son of a dog, what the hell are you shouting about?!”
Wang Dong stood to one side, utterly dumbfounded.
He knew perfectly well why they had shut the gate in broad daylight.
Why?
To keep Xiangyu out!
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That was precisely why, after seeing this scene, Wang Dong felt not only a touch of relief but also a fair amount of delight.
Still… the bald old man’s way of handling things was indeed ferocious. He and Aunt Wei truly were a perfect married couple—clever, certainly, though somewhat shameless…
After only a few words, he had forced the people inside to hurriedly open the gate.
A married couple stood there to answer it.
Sure enough, in the northeastern provinces, people might get your name wrong, but they would never get your nickname wrong.
The pair were blacker than black.
The man was around forty or fifty years old, dark as charcoal. His features were otherwise fairly typical of a northeastern man; otherwise, people would surely have mistaken him for someone from Africa.
The woman was slightly younger, apparently in her early forties. Though she was also somewhat dark, compared with her husband she was practically fair-skinned. Standing beside him, she even looked a little pale.
They opened the gate only a crack and did not spare a glance for Xiangyu, who was sobbing outside. Instead, they immediately began cursing the bald old man.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed? Why are you knocking on our door at a time like this? Can’t you see we’ve got trouble here?”
The bald old man gave a foolish chuckle.
“Who cares whether you’ve got trouble or not? My wife told me to come, so here I am. Here, young fellow—this is Old Black and his wife. Their son, Du Hong, is the little brat you saved!”
Well, would you look at that!
The bald old man’s single sentence instantly transformed the expressions of the Black couple, whose faces had looked so unpleasant only moments before.
The moment Old Black’s wife heard that Wang Dong was the savior of their child, she dropped to her knees with a thud. Her eyes widened, and her wailing, mixed with cries of gratitude, carried for more than a mile—her voice was even louder than Xiangyu’s.
“Thank you for saving my child! Thank you…”
The moment Old Black’s wife let out that tremendous howl, all the neighbors opened their doors and craned their necks outside, eager to see what was happening.
Old Black could not keep up the pretense any longer. He hurriedly pasted on an embarrassed smile, grabbed Wang Dong, and pulled him inside.
“Brother, brother, let’s talk inside. Inside. It’s inconvenient out here.”
Brother?
Looking at the middle-aged man’s forty- or fifty-year-old face, Wang Dong felt his own face grow hot. But when he saw Xiangyu squatting by the gate like a wronged little mouse, he stopped walking.
“Uncle, let her come in too. What kind of thing is it to have a young woman crying outside your gate like this?”
At those words, Old Black’s expression turned awkward. His wife, standing beside him, even straightened up and began shouting at the top of her lungs.
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“If this vixen hadn’t harmed people, how would our child still be lying in bed? It’s not that I don’t want to do you a favor, young man, but she absolutely cannot come inside! He’s our only child, Little Hong. I’m truly afraid, truly afraid… Aaaaah!”
As she spoke, Old Black’s wife began crying again.
Hearing this, Wang Dong frowned and asked, “Then… if that’s the case, why not simply reject her? Why keep dragging this out? Aren’t you only hurting yourselves and that girl as well?”
Old Black and his wife both froze.
This time, they were completely stunned. Even their expressions were nearly identical, as though they were both suffering from severe constipation.
“Heh, isn’t it all because of the bride price?”
The bald old man, who had been standing to one side, spoke with a chuckle.
“You wanted to get back the bicycle, sewing machine, wristwatch, and radio, but the girl’s father refused, didn’t he?”
What?
The household goods? Her father?
Wait. Something was wrong!
The moment he heard this, Wang Dong turned toward Old Black and his wife. Sure enough, the awkward expressions on their faces confirmed that the bald old man was telling the truth.
When Wang Dong had first met Xiangyu in his previous life, both her parents had already passed away. He had never known the exact cause, but judging by their ages, they had probably died from some incurable illness.
Even so, he had made inquiries in Second Bend Village. Xiangyu’s parents had not been bad people.
According to the villagers of Second Bend, forget a bicycle, sewing machine, wristwatch, and radio—even if it had been a mountain of gold and silver, if it did not belong to them, his future father- and mother-in-law, whom he had never even met, would never have taken it.
But… how had things changed this time?
Could it be that being reborn had altered the course of the world?
Wang Dong looked toward Xiangyu, who was still wiping away her tears nearby. But before he could even ask, Xiangyu covered her bright-red face and ran away crying.
This was bad!
Judging from her reaction, it was clear that the bald old man had been telling the truth.
Xiangyu’s father really had refused to return the bride price!
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