The Country Maiden: Fields and Leisure
Chapter 266: Dowry (Requesting Monthly Pass)

Chapter 266: Chapter 266: Dowry (Requesting Monthly Pass)

"I had no other choice, I’m carrying your child, and if I didn’t listen to the elders, I would be kicked out, and the child would have no father! Plus, my parents even said that as long as I behaved well, I could marry Brother Da Wei in a proper wedding! I was blinded by love, too eager to marry you, Brother Da Wei, that’s why I did what I did! Brother Da Wei, for the sake of the child, please forgive me!"

Li Jinzhi cried as she spoke, and upon hearing her words, not only did the Cloth Store’s proprietress but also He Dawei turn their gaze toward the He Family elders.

Her accusations seemed vivid and lifelike. Could it be possible?

The way people looked at the He Family elders changed! That was too mean, using such tactics to coerce a woman who had no family to rely on and was carrying their family bloodline. How despicable!

He Laoshuan grew even more wary of Li Jinzhi. This woman was too venomous; the lies slipped off her tongue so easily. If he didn’t clarify things quickly, the He Family might lose all their dignity in town.

He immediately started swearing oaths: "If it really was our old couple who had such ideas, who let this vile woman, Li Jinzhi, do such things, then may our He Family be cursed to have no descendants!"

This really was a vicious oath.

It was common knowledge that the He Family had only one heir across generations, and He Dawei was the only one. Once this oath was taken, half of the suspicion was lifted from everyone’s minds.

Seeing how she had pushed He Laoshuan to utter such a curse, Li Jinzhi realized that this matter needed to be faced sooner or later. As everyone’s attention was on the He Family at the moment, she slowly started to slip away, trying to find an opportunity to escape first and find a place to hide for a few days.

But someone noticed: "Hey, look, Li Jinzhi is trying to run away—"

And with that, a crowd of people chased after her.

Li Jinzhi ran desperately, fear and panic making her feel a dull pain in her stomach.

Looking back and seeing the people getting closer, she hurried her pace, but soon she couldn’t run anymore and collapsed to the ground. Looking up, she saw a pair of dust-covered cloth shoes in front of her, complete with a few patches.

Slowly lifting her head, she met Wang Yongping’s expressionless face.

A flicker of hope arose in Li Jinzhi’s heart, and she clung to Wang Yongping’s legs: "Fourth Brother, Fourth Brother save me! They want to kill me! Please, save me, save the child in my belly! I know it’s all my fault, but I was forced into this! It’s all the He Family’s doing! Really, Fourth Brother, I had no choice! If I didn’t do those things, they wouldn’t acknowledge me or the child in my belly. I just had no other way out!"

"Fourth Brother, I know you’ve always been generous. And even though I did those things, your family wasn’t harmed, right? Fourth Brother, I know you like me! I was foolish before, blind, and chose that bastard He Dawei. But now I regret it! I truly regret it!"

"Fourth Brother, Fourth Brother! I don’t want to wait until my next life to repay you, can I do it in this life instead? Can I marry you, become your wife? Can the child I bear recognize you as its father? Fourth Brother, I can bear children well, can I give you another ten or eight children to make it up to you? Fourth Brother—"

At that moment, Li Jinzhi truly was making a last desperate bet. She knew she had completely offended the He Family, and He Dawei didn’t want her anymore. She needed to find someone to rely on.

The moment she saw Wang Yongping again, she decided to grab hold of him.

Now the Wang Family was also living comfortably, and Wang Yongping was a simple-minded man without much wit. Even if he was angry with her in the past, if she humbled herself and coaxed him, and later bore him a few children, could they escape from the palm of her hand?

Besides, she wasn’t getting married to Wang Yongping for nothing; she had something to rely on: "Fourth Brother, I know I’m marrying above my station by marrying you, but I have money, I have money now! Really, I have a dowry, and when the time comes, I’ll marry you grandly, and both the dowry and I will be yours!"

"Dowry?" Wang Yongping squatted down and stared at Li Jinzhi’s swollen pig-like face for a long while, then abruptly asked a question.

"Yes, I’ve also saved quite a bit of money these days, really, don’t believe me, look!" Seeing Wang Yongping asking, Li Jinzhi thought he was tempted and quickly reached into her chest, fumbled for a while, and pulled out several warm silver notes to show Wang Yongping.

Wang Yongping had learned to recognize a few characters in the past, and at a glance, he could tell that these were all silver notes of ten and five taels each, totaling twenty to thirty taels.

Indeed, this was quite remarkable in the countryside.

The He Family people caught up and saw the silver notes in Li Jinzhi’s hands. He Dawei’s mother immediately exploded: "Li Jinzhi, you shameless home-wrecker, eating from my He Family, dressing from my He Family, and even daring to pocket my He Family’s silver to dally with your lover!"

Li Jinzhi felt that at this moment, Wang Yongping should accept her for the sake of the silver, and immediately she became assertive: "Fourth Brother is not some lover! You He Family look down on me, don’t you? Don’t give me any status, right? I, a pure maiden, have given myself to your son, slaved for the He Family all these days; this silver is what I deserve!"

"You disdain me! Naturally, others will cherish me! I’m going to marry Fourth Brother Wang! From now on, I’ll make sure the He Family’s bloodline calls someone else ’father’ and provides for them in their old age!"

The onlookers, watching Wang Yongping, immediately started to look at him strangely, not understanding that there were men in the world who actually liked wearing green hats.

Hearing Li Jinzhi’s words, He Dawei was so angry he felt his lungs would burst, pointing at Wang Yongping: "Wang, you’ve got guts! So you like picking up shoes that belong to your work buddies? And you’ll even raise work buddies’ sons? I tell you, even if you marry Li Jinzhi, this cheap woman, you still have to remember, she’s a woman I slept with and didn’t want—"

"Who said I would marry her?" Wang Yongping finally spoke up.

He stood up, dusted the dirt off his legs, and mercilessly pulled his leg out.

A cold laugh, he looked down at the stupefied Li Jinzhi: "Li Jinzhi, do you really think I, Wang Laosi, am a dog that comes when called? Don’t you even look at what state you’re in now? Your face is swollen like a pig’s head, your reputation stinks through the streets, you’ve got another man’s bastard in your belly, and you dare talk about marrying me? Just for those twenty to thirty taels in your hand? You’re such trash that even if you gave me a thousand or ten thousand taels, I wouldn’t want you! I tell you, even if all the women in the world died out, leaving only you, I, Wang Laosi, still would not want you!"

"All of you get lost! Seeing you adulterers is a blight on my eyes, get out before my fists start flying without discrimination!" Wang Yongping waved his fists.

He Dawei shrank back, then remembered the fear of being ground against the ground by Wang Yongping in the past.

He Laoshuan gave his wife a look, and she stepped forward. She snatched those few silver notes, stuffing them into her own bosom first, then grabbed hold of Li Jinzhi’s hair and slapped her several times: "Shameless woman! You think you’re still a pure maiden? Spit, you’re a loose woman who wouldn’t even be wanted by the country bumpkins—"