Ariel watched as the woman who should have welcomed her with open arms rummaged into her treasure sack. She took out things and said aha every so often.
There was a big pile at her feet of things she deemed fit to be part of Ariel's dowry. Ariel furrowed her brows and looked at Wu Zian, who laughed nervously.
"Mother, don't you think that the dowry is big enough?" He attempted to sound brave, but when his mother leveled him with a glare, he shrunk in on himself.
"Big enough? You get your rich bride, and then you want to keep all of her fortune for yourself! Cheap son! How are your poor parents going to live in their old age? Or do you want to see us beg for a copper, so we can eat a steamed bun a day?" Crocodile tears begun to appear in Madam Wu's eyes, and her son rushed to console her. She placed the sack in his arms and the tears stopped. "You keep that open, you hear? I'll leave you plenty to sell at that cheap trader's shop."
