The cousin's family is extremely wealthy; she deserves to be a concubine.

When Wang's mother thought of the tattered wedding dress, she thought of Xiaoya and Fufeng. "So, Xiaoya and Fufeng actually did something good with bad intentions?"

Hua Sirong frowned, "There must be someone behind Xiaoya and Fufeng!"

This person is clearly not from the Xin family.

The Xin family's influence couldn't even penetrate the inner courtyard of the Marquis's mansion.

Granny Yan's eyes gleamed. "Could it be that the Second Miss somehow found out about the Xin family's plans and instructed Xiao Ya and Fu Feng to ruin the young lady's wedding dress, and then she played the good guy and sent over an extra one?"

"This move not only ruined the Xin family's plans, but also made our young lady grateful to her."

Mother Wang chimed in, "No wonder the Second Miss got the news as soon as we discovered the wedding dress was damaged, and came to our aid in our time of need."

It seems she orchestrated all of this secretly.

However, as long as the Xin family's evil intentions don't succeed, I would be happy to be grateful to the Second Miss and kowtow to her.

Hua Sirong wondered to herself, is it really as they guessed?

He Zhihuan was so kind; she discovered the Xin family's plan to switch brides, so she destroyed her wedding dress, thwarting the Xin family's scheme.

Is this really the truth?

For some reason, Hua Sirong always felt that she had missed something.

If she were He Zhihuan, and discovered that her husband's family had ulterior motives, she might have turned the tables and abandoned such an unreliable husband to marry someone else.

It is too early to draw conclusions about this matter.

However, there are no other clues at the moment, so we can only wait until the day of the bride's return to her parents' home to see if we can find any clues.

Seeing that it was getting late, Granny Yan asked Hua Sirong, "Miss, how do you plan to prepare the return gift?"

Hua Sirong snapped out of her daze and said, "There's no need to be overly precious. The Xin family that the second young lady married into is about the same size as our family."

Besides, we're all returning to our parents' home on the same day, so I shouldn't steal the spotlight from the second young lady.

However, she shouldn't be too shabby, lest she embarrass her husband.

Granny Yan nodded, "The Xin family isn't too far away. I'll find an opportunity to inquire and see if I can find out what kind of return gifts they've prepared."

Hua Sirong nodded, "It would be best if we could find out."

Hua Sirong then inquired about something else, "In a few days, quite a few people should be coming from our old home in Xishan, so let's arrange for them to stay in the house for now."

Once they arrive, you should let me know. I'll use the excuse of going to the house to inventory the dowry and meet with them while I'm there.

When Hua Sirong got married, she said that the wedding dress she wore was a gift from the Xishan tribe. This statement may be true or false.

Because of Hua Sirong's marriage, some clansmen did come from Xishan, but due to time constraints, they rushed as fast as they could but still missed the wedding banquet.

Based on the time calculation, even without resting along the way, it would still take several days to arrive.

As for the dowry worn at yesterday's wedding, it was indeed prepared by Hua Sirong's father when he was still alive.

However, as early as last year when Hua Sirong came to Beijing, Wang's mother had secretly stuffed it into their luggage.

Originally, to save face for the Jiang family, Hua Sirong was supposed to wear the wedding dress prepared by the Jiang family. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, she ended up wearing the wedding dress prepared by her late father.

All I can say is that fate has its own plan.

----

The three-day homecoming banquet was held in the main hall of the Marquis's residence.

He Zhihuan and his wife arrived at the Marquis's residence one after the other. Hua Sirong naturally had to pay her respects to Madam Shen, while He Zhihuan, after meeting Madam Zhan, made an excuse to visit her aunt in the second branch of the household.

"My son, why are you putting such heavy powder on your face?" Then, as if remembering something, she smiled and winked, "My son-in-law is really something, he doesn't know how to be considerate."

Although you are newlyweds, and your son-in-law may have a big appetite, you are a woman and your body is delicate.

When you get back, you should also find an opportunity to remind your son-in-law to be mindful of moderation.

Sigh, all men in this world are the same, they're all the same.

You can't be too compliant, nor too rebellious.

Although the second daughter's aunt felt sorry that her daughter hadn't rested well these past two days, this also indirectly proved that her daughter and son-in-law had a good relationship.

As the saying goes, "Husbands and wives may quarrel in bed, but they will make up in bed." As long as the couple is harmonious in their sex life, any minor daily conflicts will never escalate into major arguments.

Thinking of this, she couldn't help but feel that her second daughter had finally found a good home, and that her scheming had not been in vain.

The second daughter, having already entered adulthood, naturally knew what her aunt was gloating about.

Her aunt probably thinks that the reason she looks so haggard today is because of that matter.

Little did they know, it was both yes and no.

The Xin family, especially the mother, had many ways of tormenting people.

Xin Yucheng tormented her in various ways on the bed, inevitably making quite a commotion.

However, the Xin family's courtyard was pitifully small, and Xin's mother couldn't bear to see her son and daughter-in-law being affectionate, so she would find ways to order He Zhihuan around to do this and that.

She was originally a daughter of a marquis, and when she got married, she was supposed to have a maidservant accompany her.

However, when the marriage was being arranged, Xin's mother openly and subtly mentioned that her house was too cramped to accommodate any extra people.

If she were to bring a maid with her, she couldn't possibly have a maid to serve her, but as the mother-in-law, Xin's mother would have to do everything herself.

There is no such thing.

If she insists on bringing a group of maids and servants to serve her, that's fine too. The bride will bring a house as part of her dowry, and Xin's mother will be happy to move into the big house and live as an old lady.

Unfortunately, He Zhihuan was born into the second branch of the Marquis's family, and was an illegitimate child, and the three branches of the family had long since separated.

When she married into the Xin family, her dowry was already excessive. How could the Marquis's mansion possibly have any extra money to buy her a large house in the capital where land is incredibly expensive?

If you want to buy it, that's fine. He Zhihuan went to the Xin family and bought it with his own money; it's none of Zhan's business.

After considering various factors, He Zhihuan decided to go to the Xin family for a couple of days to get used to the situation before deciding whether to bring her maid to serve them.

The second daughter watched as her aunt continued to chatter on and on, imparting techniques for controlling men and such.

She hadn't had a good rest these past few days, suffering a double blow to both her body and mind. She had originally planned to come to her aunt's place to relax for a while.

However, her aunt thought she was living a good life in the Xin family, which made her even angrier.

"Auntie, please shut up." Before she could finish speaking, tears started falling like they were free.

Her aunt was so frightened that she was heartbroken, and only belatedly realized that something was wrong.

"Second Miss, did you suffer some injustice at the Xin family?" Otherwise, everyone would be happy to return home, unlike her second young lady, who was crying so hard she couldn't catch her breath.

Upon hearing this, He Zhihuan could no longer hold back and cried out, "Auntie, the Xin family is a den of wolves."

"They look down on my dowry, yet they still want to take it."

You wouldn't believe it, but they actually used the excuse that the new house was too small. Apart from the few trunks I used to store my clothes, they put all the other valuables in my mother-in-law's room.

She couldn't fit everything in her room, so she cleared out another empty room to put it away.

But the house was locked, and I wasn't given a single key.