Chapter 2: Getting Married

The two daughters of the Xu family were married off at the same time.

One married the wealthiest man in Peach Blossom County, and the other married a lame refugee.

Normally speaking, Xu Chunhua was taking a son-in-law, a custom that was completely different.

However, Xu Chunhua insisted on marrying Xuan Jiuqing with the rites of a bride.

This left many people unable to understand; Xu Chunhua had always been someone who held her nose high in the village.

To put it nicely, he was a refugee; to put it bluntly, he was a beggar.

Yet Xu Chunhua would actually marry such a person.

Especially since Xu Chunhua was the most beautiful woman in Xu Family Village.

Xu Chunhua was born beautiful and loved to dress up, unlike Xu Qiuyue, who always wore coarse linen clothes, making her naturally look exceptionally radiant.

Xu Chunhua felt that Xuan Jiuqing was a prince of noble status and that she absolutely could not suffer such humiliation.

She felt that in her past life, Xu Qiuyue had treated Xuan Jiuqing poorly, which was why Xuan Jiuqing married a side consort later on.

In this life, she would treat Xuan Jiuqing twice as well.

When the time came, Xuan Jiuqing would surely treat her even better.

In her past life, Xu Qiuyue had let Xuan Jiuqing become a matrilocal husband, yet he still wed Xu Qiuyue as his Princess, with ten miles of red dowry; that scene was truly shocking.

He had even specifically chosen Peach Blossom Town because it was the place where the two of them had pledged their love.

This also allowed Xu Chunhua the chance to witness that breathtaking scene.

Even at night, the sky was filled with dazzling fireworks that never seemed to extinguish.

She had heard those fireworks were incredibly expensive, with ten taels of gold only being enough to set them off for a single moment; she didn't know how much the fireworks for that entire night must have cost.

Because Lu Yuan was a stingy man, Xu Chunhua placed great importance on money.

Xu Chunhua cast a triumphant glance at Xu Qiuyue, who was sitting inside the bridal sedan chair.

Others thought Lu Yuan was a good man.

But she knew very well what kind of person Lu Yuan was.

He had given a full three thousand taels of silver, along with two thousand taels worth of other gifts.

Now, when Xu Qiuyue married him, she had nothing, not even a single cotton quilt.

She only brought some rotten pickles.

Lu Yuan would surely lose his temper when he saw such a dowry.

When the time came, Xu Qiuyue's life in the Lu household would definitely be difficult.

Xu Chunhua still remembered that on the wedding night, the first thing Lu Yuan did was inventory her dowry.

He left those dowry items to her, but he took the three thousand taels of silver directly.

Then he left her all alone in the bridal chamber.

She had been stunned at the time; she knew Lu Yuan was an extreme person, but she hadn't expected him to be quite this extreme.

In the end, it was she who went to her father-in-law to wail and complain. The father-in-law gave Lu Yuan a scolding, but Lu Yuan still didn't produce the money; it was the mother-in-law who had to take out her own private savings to give to Xu Chunhua.

But once Lu Yuan found out, he snatched that money away again.

He even made her responsible for cooking meals for the entire family, saying he married her precisely because she was a farm girl who could work, which would save the money spent on raising maidservants.

Xu Chunhua had never suffered like this in the Xu family; in the Xu family, there were Mother Xu and Xu Qiuyue to do the work, so she didn't have to do anything.

Marrying Lu Yuan had truly been a period of torment.

Lu Yuan's mother was a County Mistress who loved to establish rules, making her learn etiquette and tormenting her in various ways every day.

It made her wish she were dead.

Fortunately, in this life, she had not chosen to marry Lu Yuan again.

Thinking of this, Xu Chunhua felt quite smug in her heart.

So what if the wedding scene was a bit shabby now?

When the time came, she would have a grand and glorious wedding.

In this life, Xu Qiuyue could only marry that stingy wretch, Lu Yuan.

A man like Lu Yuan was definitely rare in this world; not only was he a man not found within a hundred miles of our Xu Family Village, but he was even a man rare in the entire Sheng Kingdom.

Sitting inside the bridal sedan chair, Xu Qiuyue looked at the dowry behind her. It was covered in red silk, but inside were nothing but fruits and vegetables, and some cushions made of dried hay; there wasn't even a cotton quilt.

Mother Xu held Xu Qiuyue's hand and spoke many words cautiously. Roughly, she said that since Xu Qiuyue was marrying so well, and Lu Yuan was not only the wealthiest man in town but also the only son of the County Magistrate, he possessed both power and influence.

Her younger sister was marrying a lame beggar with a bitter fate, so this money should be kept for Xu Chunhua's husband's medical treatment.

Mother Xu begged Xu Qiuyue not to make a scene out of this; if Father Xu found out, he certainly would not be willing to do this.

Father Xu was a man who valued face above all else and loved nothing more than making connections with the powerful and flattering the wealthy.

He would absolutely be unwilling to offend the Lu family.

Xu Qiuyue did not say much, merely responding with a cold indifference.

She had already learned of her mother's favoritism in her past life.

When Xu Chunhua married in her past life, she didn't leave a single copper coin in the house.

Almost everything was given to Xu Chunhua.

Sitting in the bridal sedan chair, Xu Qiuyue thought about how difficult life was for a woman in this world.

People often said women loved jewels and ornaments.

But the only property a woman could possess was jewels and ornaments.

A woman could not own real estate or land unless she was married; otherwise, no matter how many shops she owned, even if they were dowries given by her own maternal family, if she had no son or stepson, the moment her husband met with even a slight accident...

Unless her maternal family was powerful, all those shops and lands would be divided among those paternal uncles and relatives.

And it wouldn't stop at just dividing the property; those relatives would come to the house every day to eat at banquets, not stopping until they had eaten every last bit of the family's money.

This was also the main reason why Father Xu wanted a son.

Daughters had no property rights.

Once he died, the family's land and money would all belong to others.

Therefore, besides marrying, a woman had no other path to choose.

If a woman wanted to do business but had no man in the house and no property rights of her own, no matter how much silver she earned, she wouldn't be able to keep it.

Even if Xu Qiuyue had her Space, she hadn't been able to contend with Xuan Jiuqing in her past life, not just because Xuan Jiuqing himself was deep and calculating, but also because of this layer of reason.

She had no one in her maternal family to rely on, and a woman could not hold official positions or possess real power.

She could only be trapped in the inner courtyard, fighting with Xuan Jiuqing's side consorts and concubines.

Because she loved Xuan Jiuqing, she could not remain rational and was more often influenced by her emotions.

The two had walked the path together for many years; after all, humans are not made of grass and wood—who could be without emotion?

Xu Qiuyue wondered, since she didn't have her Spiritual Spring Water in this life, she wanted to see if Xuan Jiuqing still had a way to stand up.

And then there was the Xu family. Ever since Xu Qiuyue had woken up, she had no longer added Spiritual Spring Water to her family's drinking water to nourish their bodies.

The Spiritual Spring Water in the Space was limited; the spring was very small, only able to produce a single cup's worth of water per day.

In her past life, it was only after she tried it herself and found it good for the body that she dared to secretly give it to her family.

However, the fruits and vegetables grown in this Space tasted exceptionally good, much better than those carefully grown by oneself on the outside.

Unfortunately, in her past life, she had grown many medicinal herbs in there, but now they were all gone.

Fortunately, based on her memories from her past life, Xu Qiuyue had gathered many mountain goods in the mountains, including high-quality items like ginseng.

In her past life, Xu Qiuyue had taken these things to town to exchange for silver to improve her family's living conditions, but when Father Xu found out, he insisted on giving that money to her paternal uncles' children, saying it was for their weddings.

In this life, Xu Qiuyue simply wouldn't make money.

Anyway, no matter how much money she earned, it would just end up being used by those relatives.

It also saved her from arguments; without money, the family's affection was actually much better than in her past life.

Along the way, Xu Qiuyue thought about these past events.

Soon, they arrived at the Lu Estate.

(End of Chapter)