Song Jincai was utterly disappointed in his daughter and now could barely stand to look at her.
Zhang Juyun was also angry with Song Yueqin but, after all, her daughter was a part of her. If she didn’t care for her, who would?
"Yueqin, why on earth did you have to go looking for trouble with An Hao? Haven’t you suffered enough at her hands? Look at yourself now, nearly twenty and of marriageable age, who would dare to marry you?"
Song Yueqin, lying on the bed staring out at the locust tree outside the window and daydreaming, felt extremely unhappy when she heard Zhang Juyun’s words. "If no one marries me, then I won’t get married! You two can just keep supporting me."
In the yard, Song Jincai, who was about to head to the edge of the village with a shovel to irrigate the fields, heard Song Yueqin say this and kicked the door open in anger. "Us support you? Why should we? We’ve given you everything good to eat, drink, and wear since you were little. We had hopes that you would make something of yourself when you grew up. And now, look at you!"
"That’s enough, stop talking. It’s hard on her too," Zhang Juyun quickly tried to console her husband. With one problem after another at home, her husband was no longer as tender as he used to be.
"Hard on her? She’s the one who’s suffering? Eating and drinking all day, just thinking of ways to hurt people, and she’s still suffering? Look at what people your age are doing. Even Yanjiao has started working in a factory, what about you?" Song Jincai grew angrier as he spoke. "I really don’t know how you and your mother ended up . Others are leading more comfortable and prosperous lives day by day, but our family’s life is getting more and more frustrating."
"Talk about her all you want, but why bring me into it?" Zhang Juyun’s face darkened. "Song Jincai, do you even have a conscience when you say these things? When I married you, what did you have? Isn’t it because I’ve been constantly bringing money and things from my family to support the household over the years?"
"With your family being so great, why don’t they find Yueqin a job?"
"Isn’t it all because... The shameful things Yueqin has done are now written in her records, and when people see her records, they don’t want her," Zhang Juyun was exasperated.
"Yeah? Seeing that they can’t count on their future niece anymore, didn’t your parents, just like so many years ago, cut off relations with you?" Song Jincai taunted Zhang Juyun. "Not so arrogant now, are we? Remember how capable you used to think you were?"
As the couple continued their bickering, Song Yueqin became irritated. "Can you two take your argument outside?"
"You think you’re in the right?" Song Jincai simply gave up on going to irrigate the fields, threw down his shovel, grabbed Song Yueqin by the ear, and dragged her off the bed. "Go, go work in the fields. I won’t support a parasite like you for nothing."
"I won’t go. If you can, then strangle me to death," Song Yueqin was adamant about standing up to Song Jincai.
"Ancestors! Stop fighting, please. I’ll go, is that okay?" Zhang Juyun cried and screamed.
Song Jincai was nearly driven to his wits’ end by the two women in his family, never having imagined that his once lovely daughter could have turned out this way.
Now her reputation was tarnished throughout all the surrounding villages.
And she was now unmarriageable!
The house was in chaos for a while before things finally quieted down.
Song Jincai, no longer in the mood to work, squatted on the ground and vented, "Yesterday, the village chief’s wife came to see me. She was thinking about her idiot son who’s also not young anymore and can’t find a wife, considering whether to take Yueqin as his bride, she asked for my opinion!"
Zhang Juyun was startled and heard her husband continue, "I think since things are this way, let Song Yueqin marry that fool."