"Little Ru, we had a date, why did you bring your brother Wu Yong along?" a stunned Zhang Xiaoshan was pushed away.
The man was Wu Xiaoru's brother, Wu Yong.
Wu Xiaoru's face looked very ugly at this moment, her attitude neither cold nor warm.
Wu Yong sneered as he spoke.
"Zhang Xiaoshan, my sister didn't come to see you for a date today, but to discuss serious matters. Let's not beat around the bush. Should my sister speak, or should I?"
Wu Xiaoru hesitated for a moment, then looked at Zhang Xiaoshan and began to speak.
"Little Shan, today my mother asked me to meet with you about the bride price, I want to talk to you about it again!"
"Bride price?"
Zhang Xiaoshan was taken aback.
"Bride price? Didn't my sister-in-law already agree with your family on this? 88,000, and we've already given your mother 50,000. The remaining 38,000 will be brought to your family on the wedding day. What else is there to discuss?"
"88,000?"
Wu Yong sneered as he spoke.
"88,000, do you think we're beggars? Today I'm here to tell you that the bride price has gone up. Add another 200,000, making it 288,000 in total."
"What, add another 200,000?" Zhang Xiaoshan's complexion changed instantly.
The geographical location of White Dragon Village is very poor, with blocked traffic and very limited sources of income for the villagers. It's not easy for a family to ensure their living for a year; half the families in the village don't have any savings, and some children have to drop out of school. 288,000 is absolutely an astronomical figure.
Especially for Zhang Xiaoshan's family, their situation is even more special. His parents passed away early, and he and his brother, Zhang Dashan, depended on each other. However, a few years ago, when Zhang Xiaoshan was in high school, his brother also passed away, leaving his only relative to be his sister-in-law, Yu Xiuxiu.
Zhang Xiaoshan said with a troubled look on his face.
"Isn't that too much? And we had already agreed, how can you go back on your word? The wedding date is already set. This sudden addition of so much money, isn't that outrageous?"
"It wasn't easy for my sister-in-law to put me through university, and this bride price was also scrapped together with great difficulty. We definitely cannot afford any more. Xiaoru, how about this, I'll try to find a way to borrow another 20,000 from my university classmates for your mother, would that work?"
"20,000, do you really think we are beggars?" Wu Yong looked at him with disdain.
Wu Xiaoru, standing to the side, looked at Zhang Xiaoshan as if she herself had suffered an immense wrong.
"Adding another 20,000, am I only worth a total of 108,000 in your heart? Am I that cheap to you? My sister-in-law's situation may be tough, but my mother hasn't had it easy either. She raised me all these years, and asking for 288,000 is only fair."
"Now that things have come to this, I won't hide it from you anymore; my brother has found a girlfriend and is planning to buy a house in the county town. It's only because my mom had no other choice that she asked me to come to you for the money. If I don't get this money from you, my brother won't be able to get married, and my mother will be unhappy. Just think of it as doing it for me, and give my mother another 200,000."
"I'll wash clothes and cook for you, bear your children. Isn't all of this worth the 288,000?"
Wu Xiaoru's words nearly drove Zhang Xiaoshan mad.
Suddenly, Zhang Xiaoshan remembered the thing that Luo Meili had told him in the health room before.
"Have you been going behind my back to meet with other men?"
"What blind date, no, no..." Wu Xiaoru hastily denied, looking flustered.
But Wu Yong sneered.
"Hmph, sister, what are you afraid of him for? Zhang Xiaoshan, you'd better listen up. My sister did go on a blind date, with the son of the richest family in town. So what?"
"You're not willing to give my sister 288,000; there are plenty of people who are."
"What, is that true?"
At that moment, Zhang Xiaoshan felt his dignity being trampled on.
His fiancée had secretly gone on a date with another man behind his back? And he had been foolish enough to believe her.
His eyes, red, fixed upon Wu Xiaoru.
"I gave up a good job in the city for you, so I could come back to our hometown and be a village doctor, and now you despise me for being poor and want to climb up the social ladder? I won't stop you from looking for someone wealthy, but why would you do such a thing after we got engaged?"
Zhang Xiaoshan only felt his head buzzing.
Wu Xiaoru knew she was in the wrong and hung her head, muttering.
"I, I had no choice, my mother made me do it. She only has my little brother, who, who will take care of him if not me?"
"Forget it, Sis, don't bother with him. I told you this poor wretch couldn't cough up the money. I've said it before, don't waste our time. Now you can give up on him, let's go, back home."
Wu Yong was dragging Wu Xiaoru away.
Zhang Xiaoshan wouldn't have it.
"Don't you dare leave, make yourself clear…"
Zhang Xiaoshan rushed forward and grabbed Wu Xiaoru's arm, wanting an explanation.
"F*** off, let go."
Wu Yong punched Zhang Xiaoshan hard twice, but Zhang Xiaoshan didn't let go at all.
"To hell with you."
Wu Yong punched Zhang Xiaoshan in the head again, hard. The big guy had plenty of strength. Zhang Xiaoshan immediately felt dizzy, and then Wu Yong kicked him fiercely in the chest, sending Zhang Xiaoshan stumbling back several steps.
"Bang."
Zhang Xiaoshan's head hit the White Dragon Mural hard, and a large amount of blood gushed from his head.
"Zhang Xiaoshan."
Wu Xiaoru cried out.
"Forget him, if he's dead, he's dead, better off dead, then you can righteously marry into the township. Come on, let's go back home."
Uncaring, Wu Yong pulled Wu Xiaoru's arm, and the two left the ancestral hall.
Throughout the process, besides glancing at Zhang Xiaoshan, Wu Xiaoru didn't do anything.
What they didn't notice was Zhang Xiaoshan's blood seeping into the mural.
The White Dragon Mural was very old, with many spots where the paint had peeled, but at that moment, the whole mural burst into a dazzling light, illuminating the dim ancestral hall. The white dragon in the mural seemed to come to life, starting to move as if it were alive. The next instant, it drilled straight into Zhang Xiaoshan's body.
In a daze, Zhang Xiaoshan felt a gentle power fill his body, and he slowly opened his eyes.
All around was a vast expanse of fog.
A breathtakingly beautiful woman stood before Zhang Xiaoshan.
The woman had snow-white skin and delicate features. Her eyes were like stars in the night sky, about one meter seventy in height, with a curvaceous body. She was wearing only a layer of white gauzy silk, barefooted, revealing a pair of polished feet.
"My Lord, does this servant look beautiful?" the woman asked in a coy voice, looking at Zhang Xiaoshan.
Zhang Xiaoshan, as if enchanted, just meekly nodded his head.
"Beautiful, of course beautiful, I have never seen such a beautiful woman."
"Hehehe."
The woman laughed like a silver bell, then approached Zhang Xiaoshan until they were face to face, only twenty or thirty centimeters apart.
The woman raised her hand, with her delicate fingers, she tapped Zhang Xiaoshan's chest. Her eyes fixed on Zhang Xiaoshan, she shyly said,
"Then you should help this servant."
As she spoke, her exquisite body pressed against Zhang Xiaoshan's.