"Grandma, whose idea was this?" Chiang Xiao glowered.
"Everyone’s idea." Ge Liutao touched her face, soothingly said, "Grandma knows you’re still young, but around here, it’s quite common for people at thirteen or fourteen to become betrothed, no one will laugh at it. After the engagement, our life will go on as usual, it won’t affect anything. Be a good girl and listen."
Chiang Xiao of course knew that it was quite common in their countryside for thirteen- or fourteen-year-olds to become betrothed, but she also knew that around these parts, a betrothal was almost as good as being married. Was she really going to be tied to Meng Xinian?
"Did Meng Xinian agree to this too?" She still couldn’t believe Meng Xinian would also be willing to become engaged.
This nominal sham of a marriage agreement was one thing, but actually setting the date and holding a feast, in their area, meant it was pretty much like being already married.
"If Xinian hadn’t agreed, we wouldn’t be busy preparing , what are you talking about?" Ge Liutao laughed and went about her business.
Chiang Xiao pressed her forehead.
She hadn’t even dared to call him "Little Meng" before, and now she had started calling him "Xinian"?
She went out to look for him and couldn’t find Meng Xinian anywhere.
Xu Linjiang said to her, "He went with Aunt Juan to borrow tables and benches."
So, that guy was actually busy and happy about it?
Chiang Xiao clenched her teeth and simply pulled up a little stool to sit at the doorway to wait. When he came back, she would kick him out immediately! What was this all about? Child betrothals were one thing, playing roles was another, she didn’t care about these. It didn’t matter at all, she was young, and things could be different in a few years, she could overturn everything any time.
But holding an actual banquet was a different matter!
After that, she would be pretty much half-married to him.
However, before she could wait for Meng Xinian to return, she ended up attracting quite a crowd of onlookers instead. Niu Guiying came along, massaging her lower back and leading four-year-old Ding Xiaoni, accompanied by a woman in her twenties holding a nearly two-year-old child.
Seeing Chiang Xiao sitting at the gate, Niu Guiying rolled her eyes and said to the woman, "Look, sister, I didn’t deceive you, did I? If Chiang Xiao, that brat, says she didn’t charm a man into spending money on her, how did that courtyard wall get built? She called Honest Shi and others to help last night, even offering them meat and drinks! That wild man was with her, I saw it with my own eyes! You still didn’t believe it!"
This woman holding the child was Sun Jinhe’s wife, Hong Tao.
Hong Tao’s brother, Hong Tiedan, had come to Siyang Village and, as if bewitched, took a fancy to Chiang Xiao, insisting on taking her as his bride. His mother was driven crazy by his insistence, so she left the matter to Hong Tao.
The Hong Family initially thought it wouldn’t be difficult; the Chiang Family was impoverished, without a scoop of oil to scrape from their pot. The elderly Chiang Songhai and his wife weren’t great at working due to frail health. With only Chiang Xiao, a girl, having a young man come into the family to help with chores and to rely on in old age seemed beneficial. With a man in the house, wouldn’t they be forever grateful?
As for the matter of Hong Tiedan wanting to marry Chiang Xiao, Hong Tao’s parents felt a sense of superiority and charity, as if the elderly Chiang Songhai and his wife would be desperate for it to happen.
However, Hong Tao felt it wouldn’t be that easy.
Her parents in Hongjiawan didn’t understand the situation. Chiang Songhai and his wife were very fond of Chiang Xiao and wouldn’t likely marry her off to a village as poor as Hongjiawan.
After hearing what her husband had to say that day, she had second thoughts, suspecting the Chiang Family might not be as poor as they seemed on the surface. She then thought about sending her sister-in-law Sun Xiaoxing to suss out Chiang Xiao while at school.
But Sun Xiaoxing wasn’t willing and simply brushed her off, saying Chiang Xiao had taken leave and hadn’t been to school for several days!
Unwilling to wait any longer, Hong Tao decided to visit herself.