Chapter 9: What kind of good thing are you dreaming of?

Shi Qingluo sat down leisurely.

She looked at Niu-shi and said, "I'm thirsty. Go pour me a cup of tea."

Niu-shi really wanted to slap this increasingly arrogant daughter of hers. Whose brat would dare to order their own mother around to serve tea?

It was just a pity she didn't dare. She had tried to talk back a few times before, and she had been whipped with a rattan cane by the brat, leaving her whole body stinging with pain.

"Drink it!" After brewing it, she slammed the teacup onto the table. It would be best if she choked to death.

Old Master Shi watched with a pained heart. This was the tea he had hidden away for himself; in the last few days, it had all gone into this wicked creature's mouth. It was infuriating.

Shi Qingluo picked it up, took a sip, and said with disdain, "The quality of this tea is still a bit poor. It's a good thing I won't have to drink it anymore."

In her previous life in the modern era, she had been influenced by her grandfather's tea culture and had grown to love drinking tea.

If this tea were back in her past life, she wouldn't have even glanced at it, but now she had to make do.

Once she earned some money, she would have to go buy some good tea.

Old Master Shi: "..."

She had almost finished the tea he couldn't bear to drink himself, and she actually had the nerve to be so disdainful.

He continued to suppress his anger. "You just said you were getting married. What do you mean by that?"

Shi Qingluo replied, "I've taken a fancy to a family, and I've already talked it over with them. I'm marrying into their house the day after tomorrow."

"Pfft!" Old Master Shi couldn't help but spit out the water he had just taken a sip of.

The others were also stunned.

The third son of the Shi family thought he had misheard. "What the hell? Getting married the day after tomorrow?"

Old Madam Shi and Niu-shi asked in unison, "Which family?"

Shi Qingluo said truthfully, "Scholar Xiao's family in the neighboring Xiaoxi Village."

Niu-shi asked in astonishment, "What? You aren't going to marry Scholar Xiao, are you?"

She loved to gossip outside, so she knew the situation of Scholar Xiao's family.

Shi Qingluo rolled her eyes at her. "That's right! If I don't marry him, am I supposed to marry his younger brother who is only a few years old?"

Niu-shi asked, "Do you know that Scholar Xiao is in a coma and that you'll likely be a widow if you marry him? Do you know that their family doesn't even have money to buy medicine? Do you know that he cut ties with his general father?"

To her, that Scholar Xiao was a fool for rejecting a powerful general father to follow a poor, divorced mother.

Shi Qingluo nodded. "Of course I know. It's precisely because of his family's situation that I want to marry into it."

She scanned the people of the Shi family and said bluntly, "Even if I become a widow after marrying over there, it's still more comfortable than living with you lot."

The Shi family: "..."

Old Madam Shi said with a dark face, "Are you crazy? If the Xiao family hadn't gone through recent events, it would indeed be a good family, but now it's a pit of fire."

Shi Qingluo raised an eyebrow. "No matter how much of a pit of fire it is, it can't be as much of a pit as the Shi family, right?"

"The reason you're saying that, is it because they can't afford a dowry?" She had a good understanding of the Shi family's toxic nature.

Hearing this, Old Madam Shi's face stiffened, and she sneered, "We raised you this big; shouldn't we receive a dowry for marrying you off?"

Whether it was a pit of fire or not, she didn't really care if the brat jumped in.

In fact, she hoped it was a pit of fire, but the key was that the pit had to be valuable, like the Wu family.

Niu-shi couldn't help but chime in, "Exactly. No matter what, if the Xiao family wants to marry you, they must come up with ten taels of silver as a dowry."

She wanted to say one hundred taels, but the Xiao family couldn't possibly come up with that.

Thinking of one hundred taels flying away like that, her heart ached again.

The others felt much the same.

Old Madam Shi agreed, "That's right. If they don't have money, make them go borrow it."

Shi Qingluo looked at them with a half-smile. "You want ten taels of silver? That's fine, but I don't know if you have the life to spend it."

The Shi family: "..." Was that even human language?

Niu-shi was so angry her liver ached. "Don't forget, you were raised by us."

Shi Qingluo scoffed, "I started working at three, and at five, I was sent to a Taoist temple. You even took my wages every month, so are you sure it was you who raised me?"

"Don't be shameless."

Her expression turned cold instantly. "There won't be a single cent of dowry, and you have to compensate me for what you owe me."

Niu-shi asked loudly, looking as if she thought Shi Qingluo was crazy, "What? Not only are you not giving us a dowry, but we have to compensate you?"

Shi Qingluo grabbed the rattan cane she had deliberately placed under the table and lashed out. "Shouldn't you compensate me?"

"For all these years, I've been bled dry by you."

Niu-shi, caught off guard, jumped up. "Ah!"

She wanted to curse or throw a tantrum on the floor, but seeing the cold glare Shi Qingluo shot her way, she held it in.

How did she give birth to such a rebellious and unfilial monster?

Old Madam Shi hurriedly said, "We don't have any. The money in the house has long been spent. We don't even have enough for your fourth uncle to take the scholar exam next year."

Shi Qingluo knew that the family's money was all reserved for the fourth son's exams.

Old Madam Shi valued money more than her own life; it was unlikely she would cough it up.

She had already thought it through. "Then compensate me with grain. Give me one hundred catties of coarse grain, and I also want those three bags of soybeans and mung beans in the kitchen."

This was within the range that these toxic people would find painful but acceptable.

From her memories, she knew this dynasty didn't have potatoes, sweet potatoes, or corn.

Coarse grains were mainly buckwheat, sorghum, and beans.

The Xiao family was short on food, and she didn't want to marry over there and eat wild vegetables every day; eating too much of that caused heartburn.

As for the soybeans and mung beans, she had great use for them.

"No!" Old Madam Shi and her daughters-in-law screamed in unison.

The men of the Shi family also looked disapproving.

Not only were they not getting a dowry, but they had to give away grain? What kind of good thing was the brat thinking of?

Shi Qingluo knew they would have this reaction.

She sipped her tea slowly. "I'm not asking for your opinion; I'm notifying you to get it ready."

"If you really don't want to, that's fine too."

"Then I won't get married, and I'll just stay here until the government forces a marriage."

"The daily eggs, meat, and rice cannot be missing. Otherwise, if I'm not happy, I might not be able to help myself from sending you to the afterlife to keep each other company."

She acted as if she were taking special care of them. "Whether you want to be blown up, sliced up, or whipped to death, you can choose one."

The Shi family: "..." A mouthful of old blood was stuck in their chests.

A monster! How did they end up with such a monster who didn't act like a human!

Old Master Shi said with a dark face, "Which girl in our village gets married like this?"

Shi Qingluo said in a devil-may-care tone, "So I'm setting a precedent."

The Shi family: "..." Why don't you just die?

In the end, forced by Shi Qingluo's fierce threats and the fact that the Shi family truly couldn't stand her anymore, they had to grit their teeth and agree, wishing they could send her to the Xiao family tomorrow.

Early the next morning, Mother Xiao and the village chief's wife went to the Shi family to propose marriage.

Mother Xiao had bought meat and sugar.

The Shi family had a reputation for being difficult to deal with in Shangxi Village, mainly because the eldest son and his brothers and their wives were fierce and shrewish.

Because of this, Mother Xiao and the village chief's wife thought the proposal wouldn't be easy, and the village chief's wife was prepared for how to handle them if they were difficult.

Who knew that although the Shi family didn't look very happy, they were unexpectedly easy to talk to.

There was even a feeling that they couldn't wait for them to take Shi Qingluo away today.

In the end, they agreed on the wedding for the next day, not only asking for no dowry but even providing several bags of grain as a dowry.

After Mother Xiao and the village chief's wife were seen out, they both felt dizzy, as if they were in a dream.