I just want to be a princess, no, you want to be a queen

Yang Nian'er shook off her second sister's hand and ran out. She knelt directly in front of Tian Qing and grabbed his clothes.

"Tian Qing, please save my second sister. Didn't you always say that you like her?"

"If you don't marry her, my father will sell my second sister to Mr. Li's family to bear children for his foolish son."

The courtyard gate was filled with villagers eating melons.

Upon hearing this, Yang Tiezhu's face was humiliated. He picked up the broom and pointed it at Tian Qing angrily, "You bastard, you slept with my daughter and now you're denying it."

"Uncle Tiezhu, I..."

"What do you mean by 'I'?" Yang Tiezhu interrupted, "You think I don't know what you did in the cornfield?"

Tian Qing's mother was stunned. She looked at her son blankly: "Son, did you really do that?"

"I……"

Tian Qing looked at the girl standing at the door of the main hall, his heart aching. He gritted his teeth and admitted, "Yes, I did it."

"Son, why are you so confused!" Tian's mother sat down on the ground and wailed in pain.

Yang Xier raised her head, and the tears that had accumulated for several days fell instantly.

Amidst the lies and farce, the broken engagement finally came to a peaceful end. The crowd of onlookers dispersed, and the two families sat together to discuss the marriage.

Tian's mother naturally wanted her son to marry before he went to the army, while Yang Tiezhu wanted his daughter to stay home and work for a few more years. The two sides finally agreed that after Tian Qing returned and got married, the Yang family would give her a larger dowry.

For ordinary people, marriages didn't involve the formalities of three matchmakers and six betrothals. They simply invited their supporters to a banquet and then registered their marriage with the government. But now they couldn't get married right away, so Tian's mother asked to go to the village head's house to get a marriage certificate.

Coming out of the village head's house, Tian Qing took Yang Xier's hand and said, "Xier, I never thought of breaking off the engagement, it's just that my mother threatened to kill herself and force me to do so."

"I know!" Yang Xier stood on tiptoe and blocked his mouth with her fingertips. No matter what the process was, he chose her in the end, didn't he?

She is very content.

……

The family only had three mu of land, and they could harvest it all today. Yang Xier returned home, took the meal her mother had prepared for her father, and went to help in the fields.

As she walked out the door, she saw Yang Nian'er coming back with corn on her back, so she helped her pile up the corn before going to the field.

On the way, Yang Xier whispered: "Nian'er, I went to my second uncle's house to deliver money yesterday and heard a secret."

"What secret?"

Suddenly a group of people walked past from behind.

Yang Xier was very excited: "Good news, great news. If Dad knows about this, he will definitely not find a random in-law for you anymore. Let's find a place where there is no one, and I will tell you later."

"Is this true? Can anything good happen if I go to my second uncle's house?" Yang Nian'er didn't believe it. She really didn't believe it.

The usually quiet wooden bridge was crowded with people. The two of them looked over, hand in hand happily, and saw their father running out of the cornfield barefoot, his face trembling.

Everyone made way for Yang Tiezhu.

A little boy was lying on the river bank, swollen all over and breathless. It was Yang Jiabao, who was only four years old.

The river that ran through the village wasn't deep, and no one had drowned in it for decades. But now, the son he had prayed for for over a decade lay there, and no matter how he called out, he received no response.

With a loud slap, a heavy slap hit his daughter's face. Yang Tiezhu's veins popped out, "What do you think of your brother?"

Yang Nian'er's ears were ringing. She had clearly told her father when she left with the corn on her back, but she had no idea how her brother had fallen into the river.

Yang Tiezhu carried his son home. His mother fainted from crying, woke up and fainted again from crying. Yang Tiezhu, on the other hand, seemed fine and continued to work in the fields.

A child had just died in the village. Some people expressed sympathy and some expressed sadness, but more people spread mysterious stories about ghosts and gods.

"How could someone drown in that little ditch? It was all because of his second daughter. Just think about it, the second daughter didn't die even with such a high fever. She must have had a very strong life. The King of Hell wanted to take a life from his family this year, but instead of the second daughter, he could only take the weakest son."

No one knew who had come up with this theory, but everyone agreed with it, and it soon spread throughout the village, gaining more and more truth as it spread. Yang Tiezhu, carrying corn stalks taller than his head, made his way through the rumors.

"father!"

As Yang Tiezhu stepped over the threshold, he stumbled and fell, sending the corn stalks on his back scattering to the ground. Yang Xier, who was cooking in the shed, hurried over to help her father.

Yang Tiezhu looked at his daughter's face, his mind filled with the villagers' words. Furious all day, he picked up a shovel propped against the wall and hit his daughter with it.

Yang Xier fell to the ground in pain after being hit hard on the thigh. Before she could stand up, the shovel came towards her again, and her father's ferocious face was all she could see.

"It's all because of you, this money-loser, that your brother died."

The sound startled everyone in the house. Yang Nian'er was so scared that she tried to grab the shovel in her father's hand, but was thrown out by him. Yang's mother threw herself on Yang Xi'er and protected her daughter tightly.

The shovel immediately fell on her, causing her to twitch in pain, but the man swinging the shovel did not lose any strength.

Yang Xier protected her mother, kicked the shovel away, and yelled, "I'm the daughter-in-law of the Tian family now. Can you afford to pay me back if you beat me to death?"

She actually didn't want to ask for help with a reason she despised, but she really couldn't think of any other way now.

The shovel was stuck in the ground, and Yang Tiezhu's hand holding the pole was shaking. In an instant, all the grievances came out.

"I'm the eldest, and if you hadn't given me a bunch of money-losing bastards, would I have only gotten three acres out of the twenty acres when the old man divided the family property? You heartless people are asking around the streets to find out who has so many money-losing bastards. Haven't I been good to you enough? This is how you repay me."

A bag of wheat was placed next to a pile of corn. Yang Tiezhu kicked it over, and the wheat scattered all over the ground. Yang's mother hurriedly crawled to collect it, "Master, if you feel upset, just hit me, don't take it out on the wheat seeds."

That is a big deal that affects their harvest next year.

"My son is gone, who should I take care of for?" Yang Tiezhu squatted on the ground with his head buried deeply in his arms. He seemed to have lost his soul and was left with only a shriveled shell.

"My son, my poor son." An old lady stepped over the threshold and walked towards Yang Tiezhu tremblingly.

Yang Tiezhu quickly wiped the tears from his face, stood up, kicked his wife, and went forward to help the old lady.

"Mom, why are you here?"

"Take me to see my little grandson."

Old Lady Yang pulled Yang Tiezhu into the room, followed by her second son's family, his son, his wife, and his three grandchildren.

Watching everyone go in, Yang's mother held back her tears, raised her head for a rare moment, and warned her two daughters in a low voice: "No matter what happens later, don't cry."