The first time in history

Qian Mingduo stepped over the high threshold and saw several shop assistants introducing and recommending products to customers.

"Mr. Zhou," a young man came up to greet him, "Why did you come into town so early today?"

"I have something to do," Qian Mingduo smiled, "so I came here early."

"I'll take you to the backyard." The waiter said attentively, "The master and his mistresses have just finished breakfast."

There is a small door at the northeast corner of the counter, and out of the door is a small courtyard. The south room is where a few young men live, and the north room is used as a warehouse.

There was a screen wall in the southeast corner of the courtyard. The waiter took Qian Mingduo to a door behind the screen wall and then bowed and went back.

Qian Mingduo knocked on the door, and an old maid immediately opened the small door. "Is it Mr. Zhou?" Seeing that it was Qian Mingduo, the old maid stepped aside and made a "please come in" gesture.

Qian Mingduo entered the inner house of Master Su and walked straight to the hall. He saw an old man sitting there with a serious face.

Qian Mingduo thought to himself, "This old man must be Master Su, my father-in-law. Why is he so serious?"

"What are you doing here?" Master Su raised his eyes and asked. "Oh!" Qian Mingduo knelt on one knee and clasped his hands together in a bow according to ancient etiquette: "The son-in-law greets his father-in-law."

"Sit down." Master Su said indifferently. "Thank you, father-in-law." Qian Mingduo muttered in his heart, "Why does this old man treat his son-in-law like this? Does he know that I came here today to cancel the engagement?"

"What are you doing coming into the city so early?" Master Su glanced at Qian Mingduo. "Are you here to reply to what I told you last time?"

"Hmm?" Qian Mingduo looked confused. "Last time... I don't know what the last time that father-in-law is talking about is...?"

"Are you pretending to be confused with me?" Mr. Su raised his voice, obviously unhappy.

"I dare not." Qian Mingduo raised his eyes and looked at Master Su. "I really don't know what happened last time. I hope my father-in-law can explain it clearly."

"On the third day of last month, you came to the city to celebrate Ling'er's grandmother's birthday." Master Su glared at Qian Mingduo fiercely and continued, "I mentioned the cancellation of the engagement to you, and you promised to go back and think about it for a few days and then give me an answer. You came here today. Have you thought it through and agreed to this matter?"

"Damn it!" Qian Mingduo said to himself, "It's really a case of searching for something without any effort! It turns out that the woman had been thinking about breaking off the engagement for a long time."

"My dear father-in-law..." Qian Mingduo lowered his head to hide his smug expression. He took a deep breath, looked up at Master Su, and pretended to be pitiful. "This matter... This matter is up to my dear father-in-law to arrange."

"Okay!" Master Su nodded. "Since you have agreed to this, the engagement between our two families will be cancelled. However..." Master Su glanced at Qian Mingduo. "Don't write a divorce letter, write a letter of withdrawal from the engagement."

"You proposed to cancel the engagement, whether it's a letter of cancellation or a letter of cancellation of engagement." Qian Mingduo looked at Master Su in confusion and said, "It should be written by the father-in-law, right? How can it be written by the son-in-law?"

"Oh!" Master Su pretended to be serious and said, "My Su family is also well-known here. If others knew that it was my Su family that proposed to cancel the engagement, it would be bad for my Su family's reputation... You are alone now, and your family is not as well off as before... So..."

Qian Mingduo suddenly realized that Master Su took the initiative to cancel the engagement because he saw that Zhou Jun's parents had both passed away and his family had fallen into poverty. But he was afraid that outsiders would say that he was a person who despised the poor and loved the rich. Therefore, he wanted Zhou Jun to propose a breakup so that he could also have a good reputation.

"Your Master Su is actually such a person. I'm not going to retreat for the hell of it." Qian Mingduo looked up at Master Su and was about to argue with him.

"Master," Cuicui walked out of the side door of the hall, glanced at Qian Mingduo, then bowed and said, "The young lady asked the master to go to her room, saying that she had something to tell the master."

"Tell the lady that I'll be there soon."

Qian Mingduo lowered his head and thought, "If I don't cancel the engagement with Miss Su, I don't know what impact it will have on her." He knew that in ancient times, women's marriages had to be completely arranged by their parents, and there was no such thing as free love.

In fact, if he did not break off the engagement, he could have a wife and a concubine. This is illegal in modern society, but it was very normal in ancient society.

But Qian Mingduo thought of Diao Chan's passionate eyes and her stunning beauty, and he sighed, "To have such a beauty is enough for me to be her wife."

He looked at Master Su again, nodded, and said in his heart: "Who cares? Let's help each other!"

"Okay," Qian Mingduo stood up, "I'll write the letter of withdrawal. If you think it's necessary to find a middleman or a guarantor, then go find them. If you don't think it's necessary, then I'll write it now."

"A middleman and a guarantor are definitely needed." Master Su did not expect Qian Mingduo to agree to cancel the engagement so readily. "Nephew, please take a seat first." He called out loudly, "Auntie Zhang, tell Shopkeeper Wang to go and invite..."

Qian Mingduo and Master Su didn't speak for a long time until a maid brought a tray and placed it in front of Master Su. Then he said, "My dear nephew, this is twenty taels of silver. When your parents were alive, the betrothal gifts and gifts they gave to my family were probably a little over nineteen taels of silver."

He pushed the tray in front of Qian Mingduo and said, "Outsiders only know that you broke off the engagement. Logically, the betrothal gifts and the betrothal gifts cannot be returned, but between us... it is not something that outsiders should know. Don't you think so?"

Qian Mingduo looked at the tray, smiled, and casually put the silver into his sleeve pocket.

Mr. Su had a good friend who worked as a county magistrate in the county magistrate's office. He told Mr. Su that the county magistrate's second son wanted to marry one or two wives. So Mr. Su asked the county magistrate to pass Miss Su's horoscope to the county magistrate's mansion.

Mr. Su felt that it would be better for his daughter to be the concubine of the county governor's son than to be the principal wife in Zhou's family.

He also thought that he could become a relative of the county magistrate in the future, which would be very beneficial to his business and reputation.

"Hmph!" Thinking of this, Master Su rolled his eyes at Qian Mingduo, who had a blank expression on his face but was ecstatic inside.

Under the witness of the guarantor and the middleman, Qian Mingduo and Mr. Su respectively signed and sealed the letter of cancellation of the engagement.

When Qian Mingduo was about to leave, Master Su said hypocritically: "My dear nephew, if you have any difficulties in the future, just come to me, Uncle Yu."

Qian Ming listened to what Master Su said. No matter whether it was true or false, it was considered to be a human saying.

Qian Mingduo was just about to say a few polite words, but he didn't expect that after Mr. Su finished speaking, he turned around and strode away without paying any attention to Qian Mingduo's reaction.

"Fuck you!" Qian Mingduo, who was halfway through bowing, looked at Master Su's back and cursed in his heart: "You change your attitude faster than turning the pages of a book! Damn it!"