Ancient Imperial Examination Daily

Chapter 51 Discussing Countermeasures
She didn't dare to follow Du Yunian back, but walked around the village again, thinking of the people in the village who could afford 15 taels of silver, and finally shook her head.

In this village, except for the two houses of Du's family and Li Zhengzhang's family, no one can take out 15 taels of spare money as a dowry at once.

When Meng Qiang's family wanted to marry Du Fangfei, the bride price promised to Niu was only five taels of silver, plus five acres of dry land.And their family is considered well-to-do in this village.

It's not the village, is it the county?Could it be that Du Yunnian is going to sell Du Fangfei to the county?

Thinking of this, Du Jinning felt extremely irritable.

She is too weak now, when encountering this kind of thing, she can only guard against the crime and cannot attack.If Du Yunnian didn't tell her, she couldn't bring this matter to Du Chensheng and Niu Shi.

Although now Du Chensheng is interested in her aptitude and wants to ease the relationship with her and send her to study.But when it comes to Du Yunnian, who knows which side the balance in his heart will lean towards?It is even more impossible for Niu to spend 15 taels of silver to repay his gambling debts.That woman, who could sell her granddaughter for a few taels of silver and a few acres of land, can she still be expected to choose family affection over money and family affection?

After waiting outside the door for a while, Du Jinning came in when he felt that it was almost done.When he entered the door, he almost bumped into Du Fanghui who was about to come out to find someone.

"Brother Ning, where have you been? Mother is going to die of anxiety." Du Fanghui shouted.

Du Jinning dragged her into the yard, and then said: "I went to Lizheng's house to look for Brother Zhang."

At this time, Mrs. Chen also heard the sound and came out of the house.Seeing that Du Jinning was safe and well, she breathed a sigh of relief.

Du Fangling, who came out with her, complained: "Brother Ning, where are you going from now on, at least tell everyone, lest everyone worry about you."

"I'm sorry, mother, I will tell you first when I go out." Du Jinning didn't argue with her, and directly apologized to Mrs. Chen.

Seeing that the door curtain of the upper room moved, Mrs. Chen hurriedly dragged Du Jinning back to the room, then turned to Du Fangling and said, "In the past, no one cared about your brother's going except us. We are not at home. Where does she go?" Who are you going to explain to? You can’t go to the field and tell us first, and then go back to the village to go to Lizheng’s house, right?”

Du Fangling pouted: "Mother, just let her go." She waved her hands and went back to her own room.

Du Jinning was impatient and didn't bother to pay attention to Du Fangling, and wanted to find a place to talk to Mrs. Chen about Du Yunnian.But the two small rooms are too close to each other, and what is done on one side can be heard on the other side.She didn't have to guard against her sisters, but she didn't want Du Fangfei to know her worries.

She had no choice but to talk to Chen Shi first: "Why don't you go to help the second aunt?"

Ever since he ate the food made by Mrs. Chen that night, Du Chensheng intentionally asked Mrs. Chen to cook.However, considering the difficulty of letting Yao go to work in the field, and worrying that Chen would not want to go to the field after doing the kitchen work, Niu decided to maintain the status quo, and only let the mother and daughter of Xiaosanfang go to the kitchen to help out.

But Chen and Du Fangfei are used to doing things, why are they used to sitting in the room waiting for food when they come back from work, but let others work in the kitchen instead?So without Niu's words, they also took the initiative to help.

But today they all sat here safely and did not go to the kitchen.

Mrs. Chen smiled faintly: "Perhaps your second aunt was preventing me from stealing her kitchen work, so she didn't let us in today and drove us out."

Du Jinning knew it well when he heard it.

One reason is Yao's worry that Chen will take away her good job, and another reason is to prevent her from stealing food in the kitchen.In the ancient times when the living conditions were bad and materials were scarce, it was not easy to keep fat and strong, but both Yao and Du Jinshou were chubby, which showed how much Yao spent in the kitchen.

After saying these two gossips, she pulled Chen Shi's sleeves, leaned closer to her ear, and told Du Yunnian that he owed gambling debts outside. She was worried that Du Yunnian would plan on Du Fangfei's marriage again. said.

Chen Shi was taken aback, and said anxiously: "How can we do this?"

"Mother, you didn't help the elder sister's marriage?" Du Jinning stared at Chen Shi and asked.

In ancient times, as long as the family cared about their daughter, they would start thinking about her marriage when the daughter was 13 years old. In this way, when the daughter got married at the age of 16, she would have three years to choose calmly, so that she would not choose too hastily. Wrong people.

Although the original situation of the third room was not very good, but Chen is a mother who puts her children in her heart, so she would not have thought about Du Fangfei's marriage.

Upon hearing this, Mrs. Chen immediately stood up and walked out.

Du Jinning knew that this was not the place to talk, so when he saw Mrs. Chen going out, he hurriedly followed her.

Mrs. Niu and his wife were all huddled in the house because of the cold outside; Mrs. Yao was busy in the kitchen.Chen's mother and daughter went out one after the other, but they were not seen.

"Why are you following me? It's cold outside, so hurry back." After walking a few steps out of the courtyard, Mrs. Chen realized that Du Jinning had followed her, and hurriedly wanted to drive her back.

"Mother, follow me this way." Du Jinning didn't say a word, and pulled her to the east of the village.There is a field over there, there are few people, it is a good place to talk.

During this period of time, Du Jinning was like the backbone of Xiaosanfang. She made up her mind on everything, and it turned out that she handled it very well.

Seeing this, Mrs. Chen didn't say much, and followed her to the east of the village.

At this time, the sky was completely dark, with only a little moonlight.Du Jinning didn't dare to go far, walked a little far from the family at the east end of the village, and said to Mrs. Chen, "Mother, who are you looking for?"

"Do you still remember the Sun family under the big pagoda tree in the west of the village?" Chen said.

Du Jinning frowned and thought for a while, and finally searched out the situation of the Sun family in his memory.

The Sun family is the poorest family in Taohua Village.The head of the family, Sun Dazhu'er, had an accident seven or eight years ago and broke his leg, and was paralyzed on the bed. The aunt of the Sun family is also a medicine jar, who has been taking medicine all year round, so she can't do much.However, this old couple was able to have two children, and they gave birth to ten children, and six of them survived.The oldest is 22 years old, and the youngest is only five years old this year.

The eldest, Sun Gui, is a male, and he should have been married in the early years. It doesn't matter that the parents of the family are burdened, and there are a lot of younger brothers and sisters below, and the family is extremely poor. Which woman would like to marry into his family?So Sun Gui is now an old bachelor.

Du Jinning was taken aback, and asked Chen Shi, "Do you want to marry eldest sister to Sun Gui?"

Tears flowed from Chen's eyes, and she choked up and said, "I don't want to, how can I give up? Your eldest sister has suffered a lot after following me all these years. I don't want her to live a hard life after getting married."

She wiped her tears: "What can I do? You have seen Meng Qiang's marriage, and now your second uncle is here again. How can this peasant family afford 15 taels of dowry? There is only one possibility." , is to sell your eldest sister, and the one who sold it must be a bad family. Instead of this, it’s better to marry Sun Gui. Anyway, he has hands and feet, and he is hardworking and honest. If it weren’t for his parents and younger siblings Why is he not married until now?"

(End of this chapter)