575 The Third Party Reaps the Benefits
The eldest son, Qiao Fu, and the second son, Qiao Gui, also craned their necks to take a look. All their money was given to Qiao Zhuang and his wife. They had never seen so much betrothal money.
It was an eye-opener for them today!
“Father, just open it and take a look. This way, everyone will feel at ease,” said the third son, Qiao Wang.
Qiao Zhuang opened the cloth bag impatiently. He had no intention of framing the matchmaker at all. Such a thing was beneath him.
He was actually guarding against these heartless sons and daughters-in-law of his. This amount of 1,000 dollars was like a bomb. Who knew when these sons would turn against one another or conspire with his daughters-in-law to kill him and divide up his assets.
Wang Qin’s eyes widened as she looked at the money in the cloth bag. The last time she saw so much money was at Qiao Mei’s wedding. At that time, Qiao Mei’s betrothal gift money had accidentally scattered all over the ground.
However, she did not manage to see everything then. She only saw a few 100-dollar bills.
“The Guo family is really generous!” Wang Qin flattered.
The matchmaker said haughtily, “Of course. The Guo family said that as long as it’s a girl from Qiao Zhuang’s family, she can marry into the family, no matter who it is. Once she joins the Guo family, there’ll be plenty more things coming.”
According to the norms, if any family hired a matchmaker, they would have to give the matchmaker a pig head as a reward.
Not only did the Guo family give her a pig head, but they also gave her 200 dollars!
It was said that most other people were unwilling to help make the match and no one knew if she was willing to do it. The others did not want to do it as they felt that it was immoral to ruin someone’s daughter by marrying her off to Old Master Guo.
She could not bear to do it as well, but she also had her own children to raise. Moreover, her son was about to get married and the family needed money.
Therefore, even if she was unwilling, she had to make a trip on behalf of the Guo family.
“Brother Qiao Zhuang, is the amount of the betrothal gift money correct?” the matchmaker asked.
“Yes, yes. Come in quickly!” Qiao Zhuang hurriedly put the cloth bag into his pocket and decided to hide the money when there was no one around later.
The matchmaker carefully sized up the situation at Qiao Zhuang’s house. Although the house looked old, it was very clean. There were no spider webs or dust on the ceiling, nor was there any dust on the cabinets and brick bed.
Either Qiao Zhuang’s wife was capable, or these daughters-in-law were hardworking. However, based on what she had heard when she asked around, it should be Qiao Yu who did these chores.
This girl seemed to be the one whom the Guo family had taken a fancy to.
“By the way, where is the young lady? Let me take a look so that I can bring the message to the Guo family. Otherwise, they’ll be unhappy that I concluded this matter without even seeing her,” the matchmaker said.
“The young girl is shy and embarrassed to come out, but don’t worry! She is definitely not bad!” Wang Qin said.
The matchmaker still shook her head and said embarrassedly, “I also know that the young miss is anxious about having to get married. We have all experienced it ourselves! But you have to let me take a look, right? Otherwise, if I ruin my reputation, how can I survive within these eight villages in the future? Sister, don’t you think so?”
Everyone looked at one another. It was not something they could avoid, so they could only clean Qiao Yu up and bring her to meet the matchmaker.
It was not that they did not want to let Qiao Yu come out, but Qiao Yu had chosen not to eat or drink for the past few days and had lost a lot of weight. If the matchmaker saw her in this state, she might worry that the Guo family might be dissatisfied.
“Then wait here. My sister-in-law and I will go and help her get dressed up.” Wang Qin grabbed Liu Ying and walked out with her.
Liu Ying also knew the seriousness of this matter. If Qiao Yu did not appear today, her Qiao Hua would have to get married on Qiao Yu’s behalf!
“Eldest Sister-in-law, you’ve seen the current situation. I can’t persuade Qiao Yu anymore. She looks at me like a mouse seeing a cat and doesn’t want to say a word to me. Eldest Sister-in-law, why not you go and persuade Qiao Yu,” Wang Qin said as she pretended to be in a difficult position.
Of course, Liu Ying knew what Wang Qin was up to. Wang Qin wanted Qiao Yu to bear a grudge against Liu Ying and cause both sides to suffer losses so that she could be the one to reap the benefits.
However, Liu Ying could not think of any other way at this moment. She could not come up with a better idea to resolve this disaster.
She decided to just be the evil person in this situation! As long as it helped her daughter! She did not care about anything else!