153 Chapter 153 Angry
“But, Chengye is…” Mrs. Liu sternly retorted.
The eldest son, Gu Chengzhi’s wife, was the legitimate daughter of a fourth-rank official. Mrs. Liu knew she shouldn’t expect a girl of that standard with their family’s current situation, but at least a girl better than Zhou Ying.
No matter what, she should at least be the daughter of a landlord.
She would rather die than find an illiterate farmer’s daughter to be her daughter-in-law.
But before she could finish, Madam Qiao knocked the ground with her walking stick and scolded, “Look at the situation clearly, will you? We are deemed guilty by the officials, any of our family members can’t take the imperial examination for three generations, and can’t be officials in court.
“Even if there is a wealthy young lady who is willing to marry Chengye, aren’t you afraid that he would suffer in his in-laws’ family in the future? Did you think that you would hold the pants in this marriage?
“You sure you aren’t afraid she’ll order you around like a maid?
“The daughter of a good family might not even be willing to marry into the family and suffer the anger of a bastard like you.”
“Mother, calm down. She’s just bad-tempered…” Father Gu saw his mother really get angry and quickly went forward to comfort her.
He didn’t expect Madam Qiao to push him away. “You’re not any better, and don’t keep thinking about restoring your former glory all day long. It’s not so easy to achieve those without some luck.
“It’s better to humbly settle our family’s affairs and live a steady life.
“Down-to-earth, don’t you even understand what that means?
“Look at Chengrui and his wife. It wasn’t easy to go up the mountain to pick herbs and make tofu, but they still managed to get by.
“Look at you guys now.”
Madam Qiao was so angry that she gasped for breath, shook her head, and wiped her tears. “It’s all my fault.
“If I had known that this day would come, I would have made you suffer more when you were young so that you wouldn’t be so arrogant and have difficulty even making a living now.”
After that, she trembled, returned to her room, and didn’t even finish eating her meal.
Everyone else in the room stared at each other, not knowing what to say.
“Alright, let’s eat. Mrs. Liu will bring food to mother in a moment to apologize.” After being stunned for a while, Father Gu finally returned to his senses and replied.
Mrs. Liu was unwilling when she heard this, so she said to Gu Chengye, “Son, you go.”
Gu Chengye hesitated for a moment but still agreed. He followed Mrs. Guo to get the food.
“Big brother, do you think mother is envious of Chengrui and his wife?” Second Uncle asked in a low voice.
“Of course,” Father Gu said thoughtfully. “Seeing Chengrui’s family life getting better while our days are getting worse, she must be angry.”
“You don’t say. Chengrui and his wife are indeed capable.”
“Of course, they work every day from early morning until late at night. Which one of us can take it?
“In the past, we always said that Mrs. Liu and the others couldn’t see reality clearly, but we are the same. Our family really can’t stand any more turmoil, not to mention that we still have to give the clan 30 taels of silver for the boat at the end of the year.”
“So, we’re not buying a boat?”
“That’s not realistic. We’ll rent a boat when the river opens.
“But for now, let’s think about what to transport or what business we can do. Otherwise, it’s useless to have a boat.
“Tomorrow, you can go to the shop and keep an eye on them to see how they do business. Otherwise, if we continue to lose money like this, we won’t even be able to have a meal next year.”
“Okay, I’ll go to the shop and keep an eye on it tomorrow.” Second Uncle Gu nodded.
On the other side, Qiao Lanlan and the others who were exiled had reached the place of the snow disaster and met with many refugees who had fled.