Chapter 201 - 150 I’ll Just Marry Her_3
Qian Dagui and Lady Wang, after hearing what Qian Sangui and his wife had said, were both angry and worried, fearing the worst. They thought that the Old Yang family was shameless beyond belief. How could they demand such a large dowry not even a month after their daughter-in-law had entered their household, and yet the mother-in-law still felt it wasn’t enough. The thing people fear the most is shamelessness; once someone has abandoned all sense of shame, there are no limits to how low they might stoop.
Anxious about what other great losses Qian Mandie might have suffered, they sent a young lad from Lady Wang’s maternal side to discreetly gather information in the town, even giving him some silver as a bribe.
The youngster returned in less than half an hour, reporting that he had inquired with two neighbors of the Old Yang family.
The Old Yang family was notorious for being stingy and disagreeable, disliked by their neighbors, who also sympathized with the family’s two daughters-in-law. Having received a bribe, the neighbors told everything they knew.
Qian Mandie’s father-in-law, due to his stinginess, had earned himself a nickname - Yang Laokou. Though miserly and tight-fisted, he was still a decent person and quite astute in business. That’s how he managed to go from being an ordinary farmer to owning an oil dealership in town within just over two decades.
But his wife, Old Lady Yang, was truly detestable; she was aggressive and shameless, endlessly quarreling with the neighbors over trifles and known for having stolen chickens from others a few times, which made people reluctant to interact with her.
She was even colder towards her daughters-in-law, often heard berating them in the courtyard. As soon as the elder daughter-in-law had entered the family, her entire dowry was taken, and she wasn’t even allowed a sip of chicken soup from her maternal family during her postpartum recovery, yet was still expected to do all sorts of chores. Her husband, Yang Youcai, was no better – a troublemaker who would beat his wife at the slightest provocation from his mother.
The elder daughter-in-law’s family were poor country folk who saw her marriage to the Yang family as an honor. Aware of their daughter’s plight but powerless to intervene, they would occasionally bring a chicken or duck in the hopes of pleasing the Old Yang family and earning some kindness for their daughter.
Perhaps satisfied with the success of subduing the elder daughter-in-law, they sought to utilize the same tactics on the second daughter-in-law. Moreover, the latter had brought a dowry that incited jealousy, being several times larger than that of her sister-in-law.