The journey of the only child of a peasant family to take the imperial examination

Uncle Xu had a sad face and didn't answer. He took a handkerchief and wiped the blood from his nose.

The two cousins' faces were swollen like pig heads. Cousin Tianshou said vaguely: "Ask my mother, it was my mother who came up with it!"

Shen slapped her thigh and cried, "You two little heartless people, who am I doing this for?!"

His face was covered with tears and snot. He had completely disregarded his image and felt very wronged.

Uncle Xu is not in the right in this matter, and even Mrs. Xu can't find a reason to be biased. If it were Wu Ya or Liu Ya who was deceived into marriage, she would definitely go to the house and tear her in-laws apart.

The commotion was so loud in the afternoon that several families who were free at home rushed over to help.

The girl's family didn't bring many people with them, but they came prepared and acted with discretion. Although Uncle Xu and his men looked scary, their injuries were not serious and were just superficial.

Jin Bao Niang and Xu Shi talked back and forth, telling the whole story from beginning to end.

It turned out that after settling down, Uncle Xu had been worrying about the marriages of his two sons. He was afraid that his two sons would not be able to find wives and would remain single in the future. So he wanted to find a daughter from a poor family in a nearby village. The betrothal gift would be lower, and as long as she could give birth to children, he would not be picky about that.

Besides, my family has cooking skills, so there is no problem with food. My two sons are also good-looking, so it should be easy to find a marriage partner for them in the village.

At that time, Uncle Xu was quite optimistic and thought that his family had lowered their requirements. However, when he actually asked a matchmaker to go to the nearby villages to find a wife for his son, he found that finding a wife in the countryside was not as easy as he thought.

Especially in the nearby villages, the living conditions are not too bad, and they can often go to the city to sell vegetables and eggs to supplement their lives. They have some knowledge and are not easy to fool.

After asking the matchmaker to talk to several people, Uncle Xu finally faced the reality.

In the end, there are two types of girls in the village. One type is from a family that loves its daughters more. The living conditions of such families are not too bad and they are relatively wealthy. They don’t worry too much about the betrothal money, but they pay special attention to the man’s own conditions. The first requirement is that he must have a house.

The other type is those who purely hope to marry their daughters for money to supplement their family. They say they are marrying but in fact they are selling their daughters. They don’t care what family their daughters marry into. Most of those families are really very poor, or they are extremely patriarchal.

Uncle Xu is self-aware. He knows that he cannot marry into the first category, so he can only spend more money on betrothal to the second category. After all, it is more important for his son to get married.

But this kind of family is really difficult to deal with. When the matchmaker responded, it felt like buying livestock. Both sides bargained back and forth, which was so frustrating. There was no dowry at all.

After running around so many times, the matchmaker grew impatient. The last time she came, she sarcastically said, "I'm talking to the Xu family. This betrothal silver isn't that high compared to the ones in Lin'an. What's more important, the silver or the daughter-in-law? Besides, don't you see what your family's conditions are like? Who would be interested in yours? I've made seven or eight trips out of town for your family's affairs. My legs are worn out from running. And this is just a small gift of thanks. What else do you expect? This time, this family has said that the betrothal silver must be at least eight taels and eight cents. Otherwise, they will exchange their daughter for marriage with another family. Think about it carefully!"

After saying that, he stood up and walked out, muttering loudly as he walked out the door: "Don't even mention a virgin if you think it's too expensive. Calling her a widow is cheaper!"

Upon hearing this, Uncle Xu felt embarrassed and suffocated. He thought back to when they were in their hometown, their family was considered one of the best in the surrounding area, and they had no trouble finding a wife. But when they arrived in Lin'an City, it was even difficult for them to find a wife!

After hearing this, Shen was so angry that she started cursing. Her marriages kept getting worse and worse, and she had reached her limit!

After the matchmaker left, he firmly opposed finding such a girl, thinking it was not worth it at all, and was also worried that she would be a burden to his family in the future.

Although the family is renting a house in Lin'an City now, after living there for so long, Shen feels that she is half a Lin'an person. She has an inexplicable sense of superiority when facing country people. She felt that it was unfair to her son to ask him to come from the village, let alone this kind of thing.

Finally, Shen came up with an idea. She asked Uncle Xu to find a less reliable matchmaker, give her more money as a thank you, and ask the matchmaker to visit better families in the nearby villages to see if she could make a marriage happen.

Uncle Xu was not very willing at first, but after dragging it out for a while, he had no choice but to go against his conscience, spend a large amount of money as a matchmaker, and find a good talker to go to a nearby village to propose marriage, lying that the rented house was bought by his family.

The matchmaker was a person who often walked the streets and dealt with all kinds of people. She had a pair of sharp eyes and could see through Uncle Xu's lies at a glance.

However, because the matchmaking fee was really high, three times the usual amount, the matchmaker pretended not to know and even helped to cover it up.

At that time, Uncle Xu never thought that he would be able to find such good in-laws with two families. Not only did they ask for a small betrothal gift, but they also gave his daughter a decent dowry.

He originally just wanted to be better off than those poor people who sold their daughters.

After hearing what the fiancée had said, Shen was quite satisfied.

In order to compensate the girl's family in disguise, Uncle Xu insisted on making the wedding banquet more decent.

The whole family thought that they could keep the secret for a while. By then, the grandson might have been born, and the girl's family wouldn't be able to do anything. Moreover, if they could raise enough money, they would just buy a house and cover up the lie.

But when they returned to their parents' home on the third day, the news was exposed by the old woman from the neighboring house. Her family also rented a house and was not well off. They were also worried about finding a daughter-in-law. When they saw that the Xu family had found two such good daughters-in-law, they asked a few questions curiously when the couple passed by the door on their way back to their parents' home.

The two daughters-in-law were stunned when they heard this, but they were young and inexperienced, so they did not react at the time. After they returned home and told their parents and brothers about this matter, the news exploded.

When the girl's family heard about this, they were furious and beat up the two cousins ​​Tianshou and Tiancai. Then they rushed to the Xu family to demand an explanation and beat up Xu's uncle as well. However, they did not touch Shen. Before leaving, they threatened to sue the government and accuse the Xu family of marriage fraud.

No matter how you look at it, the Xu family is wrong in this matter. After Jin Bao's mother knew what happened, she also followed Xu in cursing a few times, and she looked down on Shen even more.

After hearing this, Zhang Ping'an did not hide his contempt in his heart, and he was no longer anxious or worried. He thought that uncle Xu and his sons deserved the beating they received!

People who commit marriage fraud are even more despicable than hooligans. Marriage is a major event that affects a woman's life, especially in ancient times!

"Oh, son, what are we going to do now?" Mrs. Xu scolded him and then said worriedly, "This perfect marriage has now been ruined by a lawsuit. If your uncle and cousin really go to jail, what future will they have when they get out?!"