"What do you think of Lan's appearance?" The village party secretary continued to ask.
Liu Baishan glanced at Yang Cailan. He thought, 'This woman is certainly pretty. Otherwise, there wouldn't be that many murderous looks staring at me? Regardless of Yang Cailan's family background, she was still a pretty famous village beauty.'
"She looks good!" Liu Baishan pursed his lips and said truthfully.
"Would you marry Lan?" The village party secretary felt that this matter was acceptable and could be considered to be able to explain to others.
"No! Lan had promised to others! I'd accept the money! Even if she dies, she'll die in her husband's house." said Bai Hua. She could not allow anything bad to happen to Yang Cailan's marriage. She was waiting for the money to help her son marry a wife and treat his illness. She could not possibly let Yang Cailan marry someone else. Bai Hua deemed Liu Baishan to be a poor fellow based on his appearance.
"When a man is talking, you women should keep your mouth shut. Yang Laoda, are you a dummy? Control your wife!" said the village party secretary as he kicked Yang Laoda again. Yang Laoda's body was covered in yellow soil and one could not bear to look at him.
"Would you keep it down, woman?!" Yang Laoda said hoarsely. He tried to pull his wife away, but she would not move an inch. His wife, Bai Hua, was the head of the family.
"Yang Laoda, I'm telling you, we can't let this happen. Unless he can afford ¥200 as a betrothal gift, I won't agree," said Bai Hua as she stretched out two fingers.
The surrounding people gasped. They all thought that the Yang family was too ruthless. They actually dared to ask for ¥200! It was ¥100 as an apology earlier, and now it was ¥200 as a betrothal gift! No matter how good-looking Yang Cailan was, no one could afford to spend so much money on her.
Last year, each person in the village only received about ¥50, and now the Yang family was asking for ¥200. It was equal to robbing Liu Baishan! They were asking for the money as if Liu Baishan did not need the money for a living. It was no wonder that so many young men in the village had failed to propose marriage. It seemed that the families were planning to sell their daughter.
"Cough! Cough! Mother, I won't agree with that! I've already recovered!" The crowd parted, and a young man carrying Bai Hua's favored child on his back came over.
That favored child was the eldest of the Yang family's children, and also the person Bai Hua insisted on saving even if she had to sell her daughter.
"My son, why are you here? This has nothing to do with you. Your body can't stand the wind! Hurry up and go back! You don't have to worry about this." said Bai Hua. She got up from the ground and rushed over to stop her son from getting off the ground.
"Mother, you've already sold Lan once. Don't do it again, okay?" Yang Ping, who was kneeling on the ground, could not take it anymore. Ever since he fell sick, his mother wanted to sell all the girls in the family.
The Yang family's second child had been a child bride when she was ten years old. The third child had also been sent away. Now, there was only one daughter left. If it was not for the fact that she had to share the housework at home, she would have been sent away long ago.
Yang Ping always wondered if his family sold his sisters away just to treat his illness.
"Yang Ping, what are you doing? Men have a reputation to keep, you can't kneel down like a slave! Every woman will have to marry someone someday? It also happened to me when I married the Yang family when I was in my teens and gave birth to you! Lan was already eighteen years old. She should have gotten married a long time ago!" Bai Hua's heart ached when she saw her son kneel down.
Yang Ping only felt tired. He really wanted to jump into the river and die, but he realized that he was too weak. He did not even dare to jump into the river.
This kind of thing happened in many villages. The children of poor families were married early. However, they were married off as a child bride and were not even adults. They married for the sake of reputation.
"Mother, I won't recover, forget it! Don't you know what kind of life your other daughters who married are now? Don't marry off Lan…" Yang Ping knelt on the ground and cried uncontrollably. He regretted that he did not die and he did not dare to die.
"Which woman doesn't live like this? It's their bad luck to marry a bad man! Who could they blame?" Bai Hua said confidently.
If Yang Cailan was not pretending to be unconscious, she would have beaten Bai Hua up!
"She's mine for only ¥200, right?" Suddenly, a deep voice rang out amidst the crying and cursing.
"Ah?" Bai Hua had not recovered from her son's anger. "You would really pay for that?"
"Just say yes or no!" Liu Baishan thought that it was a good idea to marry Yang Cailan. Since it was already like that, he would marry her. From the village party secretary's introduction, it could be seen that Yang Cailan was also a person who lived a good life.
"That won't do. You have to pay ¥300 and Lan will be your wife!" Bai Hua blinked and immediately raised the price.
Everyone sighed, 'What did the Yang family do in their previous life to get such a wife? If Lan was really married to someone for ¥300, then she would have nothing to do with this family. After all, what they were doing was the same as selling their daughter away.