He did a complete 180 from his last visit.
Mr. Zhou nodded and bowed, calling Ji Ying ’in-law mother’ repeatedly when he saw her.
Even though Xu Nianhua had mentioned in advance that Mr. Zhou would certainly come back to propose anew, actually seeing Mr. Zhou’s ingratiating manner, so different from his adamant refusal to marry his daughter into the Xu family that day, was like night and day.
"In-law mother, are the in-laws not at home?" Mr. Zhou asked with a beaming smile.
Ji Ying responded coolly, "I can’t really accept you calling me ’in-law mother.’ Last time, you were the one who said you wouldn’t marry your girl into our Xu family."
The embarrassment on Mr. Zhou’s face vanished in a flash, and then he said, "There must have been a mistake. Our two families had already agreed on the marriage, how could I not marry my daughter to your Xu family?"
"But, 300 yuan and a bicycle, even if we spent our last penny, we couldn’t afford that," Ji Ying lamented, "You’ve seen it yourself. After the division of the family property, all we got was this old house. It’s fine to live in, but if we wanted to sell it, I’m afraid it wouldn’t fetch much."
Mr. Zhou thought about the Luo family reneging and not mentioning the prior arrangement. Moreover, old Luo was now preoccupied with his own issues; his son had a childhood sweetheart whom he wanted to marry, and all of old Luo’s money had been taken by his son.
Forget about the previously promised 300 yuan and a bicycle; they weren’t giving a single penny now.
"In-law mother, it doesn’t matter if there’s no bicycle, but this 300 yuan..."
Mr. Zhou’s gentle words immediately reminded Ji Ying of her daughter’s advice; it was Mr. Zhou who was in a hurry now.
Besides, rather than giving an extra hundred yuan to Mr. Zhou, it would be better to save that hundred for the future to help Zhou He’s sister, which would essentially be the same as giving it to her eldest brother’s family.
With this thought in mind, Ji Ying maintained the same worried expression as before, "It’s embarrassing to say, but we had to borrow even that 200 yuan. If we have to provide more, we’d have to sell everything we have, and we still wouldn’t manage."
Mr. Zhou’s face took on a slightly ugly look, yet the marriage between the Zhou and Xu families had long been decided. 200 yuan, though not a vast sum, was considered a medium amount in the surrounding ten miles or so.
Some poorer families could only offer 100 yuan or even 50 yuan.
After Mr. Zhou had poured out a litany of nice words, Ji Ying declared, "It’s true we like Xiaohe, but we can’t starve our whole family just to bring her into our home, can we?"
The implication was, that was all the money they could offer.
Mr. Zhou hesitated. Zhou He’s appearance wasn’t bad; otherwise, the Xu family wouldn’t have agreed to provide 200 yuan from the start, even though it had taken a year, but at least they were willing to give it.
Mr. Zhou still wanted to ask for more money.
"If you’re willing, we can give you this 200 yuan immediately and get Xiaohe married over," Ji Ying knew what Mr. Zhou was thinking, and she said, "The third day of the eighth month is a good date."
Now it was the 20th of July, so the third day of the eighth month wasn’t far off.
Mr. Zhou pondered, if things really fell through with the Xu family, would anyone be willing to offer a higher bride price for a woman who had a called-off engagement?
After sending off Mr. Zhou, Ji Ying was all smiles; the marriage was finally fixed, and she had fulfilled her duty to her son.
Ji Ying promised to pick a good day within the next few days to send over the bride price.
This was Xu Nianji’s first time selling bean sprouts. Even though he had previously accompanied Xu Nian’an selling Mung Bean Jelly and was able to shout out loud, Xu Nianji had rehearsed countless times in his heart.