Chapter 398 Fangfei Pavilion (5)_1
Upon noticing, Cai Wei quickly hid behind a pear tree near the entrance of Fangfei Pavilion, afraid that they would stumble upon something and stir up trouble.
The forty-year-old woman sobbed, "Evil barrier! Who are you going to find? Is this even a place where reason prevails? If you fail to get your way and end up being beaten instead, our lives will be even tougher in the future."
The man roared in anger, "Can things be worse than they are now? I was a perfectly healthy man, now crippled, unable to secure a job, reduced to an idle life at home just like a maid. Mother suffers from a plethora of illnesses, consuming medicine daily and has turned into a full measure medicinal gourd. We had hopes transposed on my younger sister, thinking she might be able to marry a decent family and live peacefully for the rest of her life. But now, they’ve even promised her to a man in his sixties to be his stepwife!"
"Mother always tells us to bear and forbear, to avoid provoking them. But we have borne until this day and they have not only shown no restraint but also intensified their torment, never ceasing until they’ve driven us to the brink of death. Are we really supposed to endure this in silence, submissively allowing them to slaughter us and let my younger sister marry that old man as his stepwife?"
The woman, after a pause, said in a mournful tone, "Your younger sister might be marrying a man in his sixties as his stepwife, but at least her situation is better than Lady Mei, who was promised to a man in his seventies as his concubine. This is what she had reaped from her own karma; it’s no one else’s fault. We should just resign ourselves to our fate!"
"No, Mother, I will not accept my fate!"
The young maiden cried out, "I would rather die than marry that old beast. If you all continue to force me, I will follow in the footsteps of Sister Mei, escape in secret, or hang myself. But I won’t marry, I swear on my life. Whoever made this marriage arrangement for me can go and marry him instead, I won’t do it..."
The woman, panicked, covered the young girl’s mouth and whispered, "Ancestors, lower your voice, be careful not to be overheard and cause trouble. And discard the thought of following Mei’s example. Haven’t you seen how Auntie Mei has suffered over the past decade or so? Surely, you don’t want to add to the suffering of your elder brother, sister-in-law, nephews, nieces or your mother?"