"How could both families end up with nothing after all this effort?"
After holding the several taels of silver in his hands, the girl’s father thought that even if he couldn’t marry his daughter off to the old rich man, he could still receive silver for marrying her off elsewhere. In any case, his daughter hadn’t suffered any loss by being married off to a distant rich man.
Mrs. Lai’s relatives had overheard the conversation from around the corner and heard about the several taels of earnest money. How could they allow the money that was within their grasp to just slip away!
Eventually, the two families discussed and agreed that Mrs. Lai’s relatives would take thirty percent, meaning they would receive one hundred taels once the deal was done, and the girl’s family would get seventy taels.
The two families, having conspired successfully, were excited about the significant sum of money soon to be in their hands, not caring about familial affection.
They felt that although Mrs. Lai always brought gifts when she came to visit, she was rather stingy with the money she gave to her parents, which amounted to just several taels of silver over the course of a year.
Sometimes, when the Hongji family also came along for birthdays, they would receive more money. Thoughts of the factory and the three estates, and how many taels of silver that could bring, filled their heads. With their two daughters in that family, they believed they could surely siphon off more money.
Mrs. Lai lay in the ox cart, sighing deeply and continuously patting her chest. She knew they had not yet left the village and that she couldn’t speak loudly at this place.
As the ox cart passed through the village, the glances from the road felt piercing, and that was also Hongji’s father’s guilty thoughts.
"Oh dear, that temptress is so vile. Husband, why would you do something !"
Mrs. Lai caught her breath upon seeing the cart had reached the main road, where there were not many pedestrians, and only occasionally some ox carts, horse-drawn carriages, or riders passing by; presumably, they wouldn’t eavesdrop on their conversation.
But she couldn’t care less at that moment; if she didn’t voice the words that came to her mind, she felt she would suffocate!
"What’s all the fuss? Now that things have come to this, we can’t go home and cause a commotion. Keep your relatives quiet, and if our village and friends end up laughing at us, you and I are finished!"
Hongji’s father didn’t usually say much, but as the head of the family, he cared a lot about his pride, and he sternly warned Mrs. Lai. He was afraid that his scandal would become public.
Even if the truth can’t be covered up like a fire wrapped in paper, he didn’t want his wife to create a scene and embarrass him, leaving him open to ridicule. These were his anxious thoughts.
If the other party didn’t succeed in ruining him and took him to court, he wouldn’t be able to enjoy his wealthy life but would have to suffer hunger in jail instead.
"Husband, look, you’ve fallen for that temptress. Does that mean you won’t let me live comfortably in the future?"
Mrs. Lai never expected that in her old age, while enjoying her fortune, she would have to share her husband with another woman. Now that she was old and no longer beautiful, she didn’t want to share what belonged to her.
Today, Hongji’s father was annoyed by Mrs. Lai’s nagging. He never imagined that a scandal would break out at his age, even though taking a concubine might have been a good thing. It would have been so much easier to quietly give some silver to take a concubine, but now he had to give more and might even end up being a laughing stock and blackmailed for life.
"Stop it! I might as well divorce you for causing all this trouble just by going back to your parental home. Enough of your blabbering!"
Mrs. Lai could not only not make a fuss at this moment, but given her husband’s harsh words, there was a real possibility that he might divorce her.
The thought of losing her life as a landlord’s wife and possibly having to work again if she returned to her parental home distressed her.
Even if she didn’t have to return, she wasn’t particularly nice to her son and daughter-in-law and wasn’t on good terms with the villagers either. She might not receive any sympathy from others and could become the laughingstock of the community.
The rage in her heart could not be suppressed, and though she dared not say more in front of her husband, she then noticed the little maid sitting beside her with her head bowed.
Mrs. Lai hit the little maid’s arms a few times. She dared not strike the maid’s face; some acts of secret abuse would be carried out on parts of the body covered by clothes.
The little maid had been beaten again, her eyes brimming with tears, not daring to utter a sound. The major event she had witnessed today merely resulted in a few more physical bruises.
If her master wished to silence her or sell her off, she wouldn’t even have tears left to cry.
The blows she received were just an emotional burden; after all, she was just a seven- or eight-year-old girl, her eyes tearful from the pain that she couldn’t hide.
But a seven- or eight-year-old girl, especially one that had been specially trained as a maid, already understood that if she really made a mistake, the punishments could be severe. Even if her parents tried to seek justice, no official would take up the case.
This was because their sale had been conducted privately, and the transactions of buying and selling people involved officials protected by law.
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