She got pregnant after the swap marriage, and the scumbag's family regretted it so much they cr

The joy on Li's face didn't last long before Lu Chengde said again, "You don't need to pay attention to Ruyi. She chose her own path, and it won't affect you no matter what."

"Master!" Madam Li clearly hadn't expected Lu Chengde's attitude to change so drastically. "Ruyi is also your daughter!"

“If she weren’t my daughter, would I be cleaning up this mess for her?” Lu Chengde glanced at Gao Yan, then whispered to Li Shi, “You two idiots, you should have thought about the consequences when you dared to do such a thing!”

There was clearly a hidden meaning in those words.

Li couldn't maintain her composure: "Master... what's wrong with you...?"

Lu Chengde coughed lightly, his face stern: "When Huan'er got married, the public funds contributed two thousand taels of silver to prepare her dowry, and Ruyi should also be prepared according to the same standard."

“What can you buy with such a small amount of silver!” Li exclaimed in surprise.

The sound was a bit shrill, and Lu Huan couldn't help but cover her ears.

Madam Li realized her lapse in composure and pleaded, "Master, Huan'er's dowry was thirty-two loads full. If Ruyi's is too small, how will her mother-in-law view her?"

Considering Gao Yan was still there, Lu Chengde didn't speak too bluntly: "Huan'er's dowry was left by her own mother. If you want to give Ruyi a larger dowry, I won't stop you."

However, I treated all three daughters equally with the money from the public coffers, all receiving two thousand taels each.

Li was as if struck by lightning.

When she and Lu Ruyi were planning a marriage exchange, the dowry sent to the Li family was rather perfunctory. Later, because Lu Ruyi was pressing for an agreement, Madam Li couldn't pay attention to Lu Jinxiu's side.

After Lu Chengde reminded her, she finally remembered her youngest daughter.

“Master, our family is a prominent family in Yanjing City. If we only contribute two thousand taels of silver to our daughter’s wedding, won’t people laugh at us?”

"What? When you prepared this for Ruyi, I didn't hear you complain at all. Why are you complaining now that it's not enough?"

Besides, the Li family is your maternal family, so how could there be any gossip?

If we need to make up for it, all three of us should make up for it together!

Lu Huan didn't care about the small amount and immediately said, "Father, I don't think it's too little. If you want to make up for it, give it to Jinxiu!"

"I don't need your fake kindness!" Li shouted at Lu Huan, her eyes bloodshot.

Gao Yan shielded Lu Huan behind him and bowed to Lu Chengde again, saying, "Father-in-law, we'll head back now."

"Go back! Please pass on a message to my mother-in-law. I will send someone over this afternoon to clean up. Once everything is arranged, I will have Ruyi go back to apologize."

"Okay, Dad!" Lu Huan replied, pushing Gao Yan towards the outside.

As they approached the study door, they could still hear Lu Chengde's unusually cold voice: "The money for furnishing Ruyi will come from that two thousand taels."

"Master, must you be so heartless?"

"Heartless? If I were truly heartless, your Li family wouldn't have had the chance to grow to where it is today..."

The two walked away and could no longer hear what they said after that.

They returned to the west courtyard and packed their clothes.

Just then, Lu Zheng walked into the west courtyard with a worried expression, and happened to run into Lu Huan and the other person coming out.

"Young Miss, if you want to leave the city, don't linger outside any longer."

Gao Yan found it strange; such a situation had never occurred in Yanjing City before: "What happened?"

Lu Zheng shook his head: "I haven't found out anything yet. It's just that there are suddenly a lot more soldiers on the nearby streets, and they're patrolling along the streets."

Lu Huan knew in her heart that those families must have discovered the good deed she had done last night.

She smiled at the head steward: "It's alright, Ayan and I are just leaving the city, we should be fine."

However, she certainly wouldn't be out wandering around during such a sensitive time.

The two boarded the mule cart and headed straight for the east gate. They did encounter patrolling soldiers along the way, but since Lu Huan was the only person in the cart, the soldiers merely glanced at him and let him pass.

Who would have thought that the master thief who emptied the homes of five families—Zou, Su, Zhao, Du, and Chen—would be this petite woman in the mule cart?

Lu Huan originally planned to visit the Li family, but by then the sky was already beginning to lighten, and the risk of being exposed was too great.

Moreover, Li Taihong's businesses involved meat shops, slaughterhouses, and horse trading companies, as well as many other properties in the suburbs, which is why she temporarily let him go.

Gao Yan kept a tense face the whole way, and only breathed a sigh of relief after leaving the city.

"I don't know what happened last night, Huan'er, you'd better not go into the city for a while!"

Lu Huan smiled happily: "If my mother-in-law hadn't made me come to the city, I wouldn't have made this trip!"

Gao Yan drove the mule cart through the middle of the village, encountering many villagers along the way. Some were kind, some looked resentful, and of course, some had complicated expressions.

Kong Shufen caught a glimpse of the mule cart slowly passing by outside, and walked to the courtyard gate with her fifth sister-in-law. Watching the cart disappear into the distance, she said with envy, "Look at that young couple, they've probably just returned from the wife's family home, tsk tsk!"

Her fifth sister-in-law, Ma Xiangcao, secretly glared at her and said sourly, "It's no use being envious. Ayan is now the son-in-law of the Lu family!"

"What nonsense are you talking about! Even if Ayan was adopted by the Gao family, he still has the surname Gao, and the clan leader will not allow him to marry a daughter of the Gao family."

Ma Xiangcao retorted defiantly, "I didn't say anything wrong! If the Gao family's daughter isn't good enough, they can find a niece from her own family! How come we never realized before that this Ayan is so capable!"

The mule cart had already stopped in front of the Gao family's house in the distance. A tall and upright figure turned around and helped a woman down from the mule cart.

Kong Shufen would be lying if she said she didn't regret it: "That's right! Did you hear what others said? The clan chief decided to give Gao Yan two hundred taels! I just don't know who will end up with the money."

Ma Xiangcao stood on tiptoe, but could no longer see the commotion over there. She kicked twice in frustration, saying, "Who could it possibly fall into? The Gao family hasn't split up yet, so it must have fallen into the Zhou family's hands!"

"Ma Xiangcao! Kong Shufen! Where have you two lazybones gone to hide away again!" came the shouts of the two grandmothers from the courtyard.

The two of them shrank back, and Ma Xiangcao turned and slipped into the house, not forgetting to say, "It's your turn to cook today!"

The two walked into the courtyard one after the other, but did not see a little girl coming out of the alley next to them.

She wore a light blue jacket, common in the village, neither new nor old. Her long, slightly yellowed and rough hair was combed into two buns and simply tied with a red ribbon.

Before Lu Huan came to Gaojia Village, this kind of attire was considered ordinary. But ever since Fang Xiaoyu saw Lu Huan in a red dress, looking so carefree and dashing, the jealousy in her heart began to grow uncontrollably, like wild grass in spring.

She stared at that tall figure, the resentment in her eyes almost engulfing her.

It's all Lu Huan's fault for stealing her Mr. Right! Otherwise, those two hundred taels would definitely be hers!