Chapter 43: Trap
Su Guilan and Grandma Su’s faces looked extremely unpleasant.
Su Guilan kept giving Feng Laoda meaningful glances, wanting to ask him what was going on; this was not the same as what they had discussed before.
She had told him to hold firm at one hundred taels first, and after she made a special trip, change it to twenty taels; then he just had to wait for the silver to be delivered to his door, and afterward, split ten taels with her.
He only needed to act in a play with her to earn ten taels of silver; wasn’t that hundreds of times better than working outside? Working outside for a year wouldn’t even earn ten taels of silver.
Zhaodi came out from inside, stood in the doorway, and gratefully said to Feng Laoda, “Really? It’s great that you’ve thought it through. Madam Feng just gave birth to the child; you must take good care of her and not let her be too sad. You’re still young; there will be more children in the future.”
“Yes, yes, that’s exactly how I advised my madam. Since it’s all cleared up, there’s nothing more for me here; I’ll be off first.” Feng Laoda quickly slipped away.
This family’s daughter was a monster with great strength; even all their brothers together couldn’t handle her alone. When she came to him again yesterday, he thought she hadn’t beaten them enough and wanted to settle scores and vent. Later he learned she wanted him to cooperate in acting out a play, and the person being deceived was Su Guilan, so of course he fully cooperated; after all, this girl with monstrous strength was not to be trifled with.
After Feng Laoda left, the villagers all congratulated Zhaodi.
Zhaodi smiled and said, “Thank you, thank you. Aunt Li, Aunt Tong, Uncle Yang, I’ll repay the money you lent me in a bit.”
“This undeserved disaster has been resolved just like that; it means your family’s bad luck has been completely dispelled, and from now on it’ll all be good luck. You’re not selling that farmland now, right?”
“Not selling, not selling; our family still needs that farmland to make a living!” After Zhaodi finished speaking, she looked at Grandma Su, “Mom, we’re not selling that farmland.”
“No way.” Grandma Su shouted loudly, “Can’t not sell; you’ve already written the deed.”
Grandma Su waved the deed in her hand.
“Mom, in that situation just now I had no choice but to write the deed, but now we don’t need to scrape together silver anymore, so of course we’re not selling that farmland.” Zhaodi said unhappily.
“Eldest Sister-in-law, you can’t say it like that. You were in difficulty just now, and we all helped think of ways. You promised not only to sell the farmland to us cheaply, but also to marry Yaoguang to Mutou from our family.” Seeing the daughter-in-law she had secured about to fly away, Su Guilan couldn’t care about anything else and directly laid out all her scheming plainly.
“What do you mean? When did I ever say I would marry Yaoguang to your son?” Zhaodi angrily said, “Don’t talk nonsense.”
“The deed is proof. This deed not only says to sell the farmland to us, but also to marry Yaoguang to my son. I helped you plead with the Feng Family to handle this matter, and you give us both Yaoguang and the farmland.” Su Guilan said, “It’s written in black and white; do you still want to deny it? It has your mark on it!”
Zhaodi plopped down on the ground, thumping her thigh in a completely undignified manner, and wailed loudly, “Heavens, this is trying to force us mother and daughter to death! We encountered this upsetting matter, scraped money everywhere, yet my man’s closest kin is scheming against us here. I only have Yaoguang as a daughter; how could I possibly marry her to an idiot like Mutou? This is taking my life!”
Zhaodi got back up and charged toward the opposite side: “I won’t live anymore. Even as a ghost, I won’t let you off.”
“Yaoguang’s Mother, don’t be impulsive; don’t do anything foolish…”
“Exactly, speak nicely if you have something to say.”
“Mutou’s Mother, a forced melon isn’t sweet; since Yaoguang’s Mother doesn’t want this marriage, why keep forcing this mother and daughter pair?”
“Exactly. They mother and daughter were already not having an easy time. Encountering this kind of thing this time was upsetting enough, yet not only did you not help, you even got her to sign such a deed.”
Su Guilan and Grandma Su listened to those rebukes completely unaffected. If they cared what others said, they wouldn’t have schemed against Su Yaoguang and Zhaodi like this.
In short, even if the emperor came today, they wouldn’t let the duck they had in hand fly away.
They had finally tricked Zhaodi; no matter how Zhaodi tried to welsh, this account had to be honored.
“It’s all written in black and white clearly; you can’t welsh even if you want to!” Zhong Lanhua said gloatingly from the crowd, “Even if you report to the authorities, the official will judge by evidence. This evidence is ironclad, so we should execute according to the deed. If it’s anyone’s fault, blame that certain someone for being as stupid as a pig, not even finding someone who can read to look over something before signing and marking it. Too late to regret now; the daughter can only be compensated to them.”
“What are you making a fuss about again?” The Village Head hurried over upon hearing the news.
Behind the Village Head, Su Yaoguang and Zhou Wangshu also followed.
“Mom, what’s wrong with you?” Su Yaoguang helped Zhaodi up, “Mom, don’t scare me.”
“Daughter, Mom did something wrong; don’t hate Mom…” Zhaodi cried, “They tricked me into signing the deed to marry you to Mutou.”
“Marry Mutou? Why?” Su Yaoguang looked at Su Guilan in confusion.
Su Guilan said smugly, “Of course because your mom promised. Since she promised, you have to marry my son obediently.”
“Who can tell me what happened?” The Village Head said displeased, “What’s been going on in your village lately? No peace all day?”
“Village Head, it’s like this…” An eager woman recounted the whole story.
After hearing it, the Village Head looked at Su Guilan and Grandma Su: “Isn’t what you’re doing a bit unethical? They are your kin; at their most difficult time, you deceived them into selling farmland that could have sold for thirty or forty taels of silver for just twenty taels; that’s bad enough, but you even want a fine daughter to marry an idiot.”
“Village Head, we made sacrifices too! Originally we were going to help mediate. One hundred taels of silver, she couldn’t repay that in her lifetime. We originally had to put in a lot of effort to make this happen; the Feng Family not pursuing it was out of friendship between our families. Otherwise, the Feng Family wouldn’t let her off so easily! After all we’ve done, Su Yaoguang marrying my son is only right!”
“You woman are really being unreasonable. This deed was clearly obtained by tricking her; it doesn’t count.” The Village Head said with dignity.
“Then we’ll report to the authorities. The official only looks at evidence; this evidence is solid, so we should carry out as per the deed.” Su Guilan wasn’t afraid of the Village Head’s threat at all.
Anyway, she had to snatch back this daughter-in-law no matter what. Her son was like that; no woman would willingly marry over. Their family couldn’t let the lineage die out; they needed a woman to continue the family line.
“Anyway, she agreed to sell the farmland, so she must sell it to us.” Grandma Su said, “Speaking of which, that farmland was originally ours anyway. This is just taking it back into our hands.”
