The Whole Village Thrives After Adopting a Lucky Girl - Chapter 275:
Chapter 275: Chapter 271: Mixed Vegetable Soup_1
Translator: 549690339
Yingbao couldn’t resist and secretly ran to the scene in West Village.
A large crowd had already gathered at the entrance of Chen Laoshaun’s house in West Village.
Chu Man’s biological mother, Mrs. Sun, was arguing with Chen Laoshaun and his wife.
“You must give my Chu Family an explanation for this. My daughter is an innocent girl, she cannot be taken advantage of.”
Facing such a shameless family like the Chu’s was unbearable for the Feng family, they were infuriated and extremely disappointed in their son.
But in front of all these people, they couldn’t allow their son to lose face, so Mrs. Feng rebuked, “Where did this prostitute come from, who dares to accuse my second son! Can’t you see what your daughter is like, how could my son be interested in her?”
Upon hearing this, Mrs. Sun was infuriated, she lunged at Mrs. Feng and began to grapple.
People rushed in to separate them.
Chen Changhai’s wife jumped in, tightly holding onto Mrs. Sun, and protested, “You should not arbitrarily hit people. It’s said that domestic disgrace should not be publicized. How ignorant of you to smear your own daughter.”
Mrs. Sun struggled vigorously, yelling, “It was the Chen Family who did something wrong. I don’t care! They must give my daughter an explanation, or we’ll take it up with the government!”
Upon hearing this, Chen Laoshaun furrowed his brow.
His son had just passed the scholar examination in June and hadn’t received the admission notice yet, so he hadn’t started attending school in the county.
Before entering school, the school officials examined the character of the new students in the county. If they found any lacking, they would directlty strip their qualifications to attend.
His son could not be criticized at this junction, perhaps the school officials would conduct their investigation soon.
“Enough! Let’s go inside and discuss!” Chen Laoshaun ordered, giving his wife a look.
Mrs. Feng understood, quickly fixing her disheveled hair and headed inside, huffing.
Chen Laoshaun then said to Mrs. Sun, “Mrs. Sun, let us also go inside and discuss. Whatever the matter is, we can negotiate.”
This was exactly what Mrs. Sun wanted, she immediately nodded in agreement.
Afterwards, Chen Laoshaun sent his third son to Chu Village to call for the Chu Clan Leader and the village chief, so that both families could formally discuss the matter of their children.
Ultimately, the result was that Chu Man would marry into the Chen Family, becoming Chen Changping’s secondary wife. If not, they would see each other in court.
Chen Laoshaun had no choice but to agree. However, using the excuse that his family was poor and unable to afford a substantial bride price, he asked that the Chu family handle it.
The Chu Clan Leader and the village chief looked at each other, gritted their teeth, and agreed to the Chen Family’s disrespectful request.
However, they demanded that the new couple’s wedding attire be completely green when Chen Changping came to claim his bride.
According to rural customs, the groom should wear green when marrying a primary wife. If marrying a secondary wife, the clothes sent to the bride by the groom are typically red.
Not only because red fabric is cheaper than green, but also because it was a local custom.
Mrs. Feng outright refused, claiming that rituals cannot be discarded, with their grandson and granddaughter watching, they cannot disrespect his first wife.
Therefore, the two families argued over the color of the wedding clothes. Finally, they reached a compromise, the bride would wear a red top and green skirt.
So, Chu Man married into the Chen family on December 24th, becoming Chen Changping’s secondary wife.
When she first entered the house, things were relatively peaceful, as she treated Chen Wan, Chen Zhao, and Chen Xubao with kindness.
On this day, Chu Man took her own clothes to wash by the pond, but ran back home before finishing as she thought the water was too cold.
She handed her clothes to Chen Wan, asking her to wash them.
Chen Wan was gentle and obedient, accustomed to going along with orders. So she took the clothes to the pond to wash.
Seeing this made Chen Zhao grind her teeth. She quickly followed and scolded her older sister.
“Why are you washing her clothes?” Chen Zhao huffed. “These are all her clothes, some of them are very small. Why should we wash them?”
Chen Wan spoke quietly, “It’s just a few clothes, it won’t take long to wash them all. Ah Zhao, don’t be so petty. She is our stepmother after all. It’s nothing for us, the younger ones, to help her.”
Chen Zhao stomped off, upset.
She went to find Yingbao and vent, “From now on, I won’t bother with her anymore. No good deed goes unpunished! She even says I’m being petty. Isn’t that the same as saying I’m narrow-minded? Hmph! Let her wash them herself!”
Yingbao was not surprised at all.
In her previous life, Chen Wan had always been such a soft-hearted person.
The only time she dared to rebel was when she tried to jump into the river.
She thought that suicide could gain attention and sympathy from others, or would make them realize their conscience.
Unbeknownst to her, others did not care about her life or death at all.
Chen Zhao chatted with Yingbao for a while, then suddenly remembered that her brother Xubao was left unattended, so she quickly ran home.
In a blink of an eye, it was the twelfth day of the twelfth lunar month.
The houses in the county town were completed, and Jiang Cheng was about to marry Chou Rong, the daughter of Rongfu Pastry Shop, so the Jiang family all went to the county town to host Jiang Cheng’s engagement banquet.
Chunniang left the chicken and ducks at home for Chuchu and Zhang Meng to take care of, she took her children and rode on the carriage driven by her husband, heading to the county town with several sisters-in-law.
Accompanying them were Jiang Erlang, Dani and Erni from the Jiang Family. The old couple from the Jiang family stayed to look after the house.
When they reached the county town, Jiang Cheng settled all family members in the mansion he had bought himself.
The mansion, only a short distance away from Jiang Sanlang’s house, consisted of two courtyards and a total of nine rooms. There was also a well beside the kitchen in the front yard.
The house was originally an old one, but it had been refurbished and repainted by Jiang Cheng. All household items inside were newly purchased and complete.
Jiang Cheng placed his parents in the main house, and arranged for his uncles, aunts, and siblings to stay in the back yard.
Since Jiang Sanlang and his family had their own mansion, they did not live here.
After checking out her eldest brother’s mansion, Yingbao went to her own shop to inspect her support system.
The five-room house stood neatly. The carved windows and doors were coated with purplish-red tung oil.
The furnishings in the rooms were all complete and fireplaces had been installed in three of the bedrooms.
The one storage room had many empty shelves, without any goods.
When no one was in sight, Yingbao took out all the fungus from her storage room and put them on the shelves, then recorded the inventory in her ledger.
Coming out of the storage room, she saw a well not far from the kitchen. The well was covered with a lid that held a bucket tied to a rope for fetching water.
The kitchen was huge, with three stoves. A pile of chopped firewood was stacked near the stove entrance.
Yingbao nodded in satisfaction and returned to the shop.
Her shop consisted of three rooms, two of which were interconnected and served as the showrooms. They were laid with green bricks and had counters at the back with shelves stocked with goods.
The third room served as the office, which not only had a money box and a desk, but also a small bed for resting.
The door to the office was inside the counter area, so outsiders couldn’t easily get in.
Jiang Yunniang’s snack stall was set up on the right side of the shop. The canopy of the snack stall was just a few steps away from the shop door.
Yingbao stood at the door and looked over.
The snack stall was selling meat pies and mixed vegetable soup. It was lunchtime and the business was pretty good.
After a busy spell, Aunty Jiang Yunniang saw Yingbao watching her, smiled, and asked, “Yingbao, would you like a meat pie?”
Yingbao nodded and sat down beside the small square table under the oilcloth umbrella.
Jiang Yunniang served a bowl of mixed vegetable soup and gave her a freshly made meat pie.
Without being shy, Yingbao took a bite.
The meat pie tasted quite good.
After sipping the mixed vegetable soup, she found that the soup contained chopped greens, diced bottle gourds, and few strips of chicken.
The soup was thickened with flour and flavored with lard, pepper, and salt. It tasted quite delicious.
