Chapter 43: The Trap
Su Guilan and Grandma Su’s faces were very displeased.
Su Guilan kept signaling to Eldest Feng, trying to ask him what was going on, as this was different from what was discussed before.
She had told him to hold onto a hundred taels first, and after she made a special trip, they could change it to twenty taels. Then he could just wait for the money to be delivered, and at that time, she would split ten taels with him.
He only needed to play a part with her to earn ten taels of silver, which was a hundred times better than doing labor outside. Even working outside for a year wouldn’t earn ten taels of silver.
Zhang Zhaodi came out from inside, stood at the door, and thankfully said to Eldest Feng, "Really? It’s so good that you finally understand. Mrs. Feng just had a baby, you must take good care of her and don’t let her be too sad. You are still young, you’ll have more children in the future."
"Yes, yes, I also advised my wife the same. Now that it’s clear, there’s nothing more for me here. I’ll be on my way." Eldest Feng hurriedly slipped away.
The girl of this family is a power monster; even if the Feng brothers combined their strength, they couldn’t handle her. When she sought him out again yesterday, he thought she hadn’t hit enough and wanted to settle the score with them. Later he found out she wanted him to play along in a scheme to deceive Su Guilan, so of course, he fully cooperated, as this strong girl was not to be messed with.
After Eldest Feng left, the villagers all congratulated Zhang Zhaodi.
Zhang Zhaodi smiled and said, "Thank you, thank you. Aunt Li, Aunt Tong, Uncle Yang, I’ll return the money you lent me later."
"This unwarranted disaster is solved, indicating that the bad luck from your home has been dispelled, and good fortune will follow. Surely, you’re not selling that land now?"
"We’re not selling, we’re not selling, our family still relies on these lands for livelihood!" Zhang Zhaodi said, looking at Grandma Su, "Mom, we’re not selling that land."
"No way." Grandma Su loudly protested, "Not selling is not an option, you’ve already written the contract."
Grandma Su waved the contract in her hand.
"Mom, given the situation just now, I had to write the contract, but now that I don’t need to gather silver, of course, the land won’t be sold." Zhang Zhaodi said unhappily.
"Sister-in-law, you can’t talk like that. Just now you were in trouble, and we all helped think of solutions. You promised not only to sell the land cheaply to us but also to marry Yaoguang to our Mutou." Seeing her daughter-in-law about to slip away, Su Guilan couldn’t care for anything else and laid out the scheming plainly.
"What do you mean? When did I say I would marry Yaoguang to your son?" Zhang Zhaodi angrily said, "Don’t make things up."
"The contract serves as proof. This contract not only states selling the land to us but also marrying Yaoguang to my son. I pleaded with the Feng family for you, resolving this matter, and you’ll have to give us both Yaoguang and the land." Su Guilan said, "It’s all written in black and white, do you still want to deny it? Your fingerprint is on it!"
Zhang Zhaodi slumped to the ground, ungraciously slapped her thighs, and wailed, "God, they’re trying to push us, mother and daughter, to death! Encountering such a nasty affair, scrounging for money everywhere, yet my husband’s closest kin are scheming against us here. I have only one daughter, Yaoguang; how could I marry her off to someone like Mutou? This is killing me!"
Zhang Zhaodi got up and charged forward, "I can’t live anymore. Even if I become a ghost, I won’t let you off."
"Lady Yaoguang, don’t be impulsive, don’t do something foolish..."
"Indeed, talk things over peacefully."
"Mother Mutou, a forced melon is not sweet, Lady Yaoguang doesn’t want this marriage, why push the mother and daughter so hard?"
"Exactly, their lives are tough enough already. Encountering such issues, it’s already bad enough, and instead of helping, you made her sign this contract."
Su Guilan and Grandma Zhang listened to the reprimanding words, completely unfazed. They wouldn’t have schemed against Su Yaoguang and Zhang Zhaodi if they cared about what others said.
In any case, even if the Emperor came today, they wouldn’t let the duck in their hands fly away.
Having gone through great lengths to take advantage of Zhang Zhaodi, no matter how much she tried to deny it, she must acknowledge this account.
"It’s clearly written in black and white, dodging is impossible!" Zhong Lanhua said with schadenfreude among the crowd, "Even if you go to the government, the officials decide based on evidence. Blame it on someone’s pig-headedness for signing and stamping without even asking a literate person to check it over. Now it’s too late to regret, the girl has to be handed over."
"What are you all arguing about again?" The village chief arrived upon hearing the commotion.
Following behind the village chief were Su Yaoguang and Zhou Wangshu.
"Mom, what’s wrong?" Su Yaoguang helped Zhang Zhaodi, "Mom, don’t scare me."
"Daughter, mom made a mistake, don’t hate mom..." Zhang Zhaodi wept, "They tricked me into signing a written contract to marry you to Mutou."
"Marry Mutou? Why?" Su Yaoguang looked puzzled at Su Guilan.
Su Guilan said complacently, "Of course, because your mother promised. Since she’s already promised, you ought to marry my son obediently."
"Who can tell me what’s going on?" The village chief asked impatiently, "What’s up with your village lately, it’s never peaceful?"
"Village chief, here’s what happened..." An eager-to-impress woman explained the situation.
After listening, the village chief looked at Su Guilan and Grandma Su, "Your actions are not very ethical, are they? They are your relatives, in their hardest time, you trick them into selling land worth thirty or forty taels for twenty taels, and then make a good girl marry a fool."
"Village chief, we also made contributions! Originally, we were to mediate for her. A hundred taels of silver, she couldn’t repay it in this lifetime. We were to exert great effort to achieve this; the Feng family let it go as a favor between our families. Otherwise, the Feng family wouldn’t let her off that easily! We’ve done so much, isn’t it justified for Su Yaoguang to marry my son?"
"You’re twisting words and reasoning. This contract was clearly a fraud on her, it’s invalid." The village chief authoritatively stated.
"Then we’ll go to the authorities. Officials look only at evidence, which is concrete, so we should follow what’s on the contract." Su Guilan was not at all afraid of the village chief’s threat.
In any case, this daughter-in-law had to be seized. Given her son’s situation, no woman was willing to marry in. Their family couldn’t cut off its lineage; there needed to be a woman to carry on the family line.
"In any case, she agreed to sell the land; it must be sold to us." Grandma Su said, "Speaking of which, those lands originally belonged to our family. It’s like returning to our possession."