When Chen Xueru heard her father say about marrying herself, she suddenly raised her head, and her already crimson face became more and more red: "...... Dowry.? …… I don't want everything at home to be my two younger brothers, how can I take them to my in-laws' house. ”

In the end, it was my daughter's house, and as soon as the word "mother-in-law" came out, I lowered my eyebrows embarrassedly.

Chen Xuejiao, Chen Qi'an, and Chen Qiping looked at Chen Xueru together, this sister has always been sensible, and never made any requests to the family, only knew that she worked behind the Li family, and ate and wore the worst of the children, that is, she only wore a few new clothes this year.

Chen Xueru has never complained about this.

"Sister, you are full of love for me and Qi Ping, I know, but Qi Ping and I have the same thoughts about you as you think about us. If you are young, you will pay the most for your family, and any rough work will fall on you, and our family should give you a dowry. Qi Ping and I are boys, and boys should love their sisters, build a family, and shine on the lintel. Originally, there are not many people in our family who can marry my sister now, and I feel very uncomfortable in my heart, and I can't wait to earn a family business for my sister in person. ”

Chen Xuejiao and Chen Qiping also nodded in agreement.

"My brother is right, sister, how can you marry into the hands of the Han family in the future without a few physical yourself, although the Han family doesn't care how much your dowry is, but everything has a case, as the saying goes, if you have food in your hands, don't panic in case of trouble, you have a physical body by your side, and when you go to your in-law's house, your waist is hard." Chen Xuejiao thinks more realistically, she has seen a lot in modern times because she is not financially independent. A woman who lives a life of looking at people's faces in her in-law's house. Although it is ancient here, what is important to women is the virtue of their husbands and children, but their essence is still the same. If the woman does not have a dowry in her hand and does not have strong support from her mother's family, it is very rare for her to be respected by her in-laws when she marries.

Don't talk about it far away, just talk about the fourth aunt Zhang, because there is no marriage, the mother's family is not angry, and every time Mrs. Chen uses this to crush her to death. On the other hand, the third aunt Cai is different. When she got married, she had a rich marriage and a solid family, so she dared to stand tall and want to split up without a son.

Lee met with a few children. Especially Chen Qi'an is so sensible and humble, and an indescribable feeling in his heart wells up.

"Xue Jiao is telling the truth, you have the silver in your hand, and when you go to your in-law's house, your waist is hard, even if you encounter something, your mother-in-law's family will not dare to insult you at will. Over the years. Why are you trying to trouble me? Scolding me, I can still straighten my waist and pole, because I was thick in marriage back then, and what I ate and drank was my own, and I didn't lose anything in my heart. Li said.

The Li family is a well-known and honest family in ten miles and eight townships, and they did give the Li family a rich dowry back then, so why is their family still living in such poverty. Xue Jiao thought about it and understood that Old Lady Chen was such a shrewd person, and she could make out everything hidden in the rat hole. What's more, the daughter-in-law has such a rich dowry in her hand.

Li Shi seemed to see Xue Jiao's thoughts, and explained to several children: "...... Most of my jewelry, silver, and so on back then subsidized your milk. I suffer a loss on the truth, your grandmother always pulls face on me, I will find the reason from myself, think if I am not filial piety or something, I will take out the silver to honor your milk, your milk will be to me for a few days, and then I came back to the taste, but it is too late, we are daughters-in-law, if we are with my mother-in-law, I can pass this level, and I can't pass the rumors outside. ”

Li let out a long sigh.

"What about the rest of the body." Chen Xuejiao asked.

“…… Some of the money was spent on me. Chen Xiucai drank a big bowl of sobering soup, turned his head half-drunk and half-sober.

Xue Jiao, Xue Ru, Qi Ping, and Qi An looked at Chen Xiucai together.

"I was unwilling to teach in a private school, and I always wanted to try the imperial examination, so your mother took out the fifty taels of silver for the dowry, but my father failed the list, and the money was spent in vain." Chen Xiucai looked at Li guiltily, "I made you suffer before, but now our family has a few money, but we only care about food and clothing, and when I go out to do business in a few days, I make a lot of money, and I also let you live the life of a rich wife." ”

Chen Xiucai went to Beijing to participate in the scientific expedition, and it was the first time that Xuejiao's children heard about it.

"That money should be spent on you, what is not spent in vain, I don't dare to think about the life of a rich wife, as long as you are safe and secure outside." Li slanted a glance at Chen Xiucai, his face was slightly red, and he breathed a sigh of relief and said, "The remaining bracelets, hairpins, crowns and so on, there are also more than fifty taels of silver. ”

Li said this, quite annoyed, those dowries were her father's hard-earned money, why did she give it to others so stupidly and lightly.

Chen Xuejiao quickly calculated in her heart, fifty taels of silver, not counting the silk and satin, all kinds of jewelry, adding up to more than one hundred taels, which is a very rich dowry in the countryside.

The silver of this era is very valuable, seven or eight taels of silver is enough for a family to chew for a year.

Like Xuejiao's salted duck egg workshop, the monthly income is only seventeen or eighteen taels of silver.

In the past, Chen Xiucai taught in a private school, and the fifteen to twenty taels of silver a year, plus the Li family's dowry, was enough for a family of six to live a life of food and drink. The reason why I lived so poor in the past was that most of the family's money was looted by Mrs. Chen. Although the money arrived in the upper room, the life in the upper room was not necessarily very good, because most of the silver was privately subsidized by Mrs. Chen Wen Yan and Chen Zichang.

Xue Jiao thought about it in her heart, if it was not cash silver that the Li family married to the Li family back then, but industries, such as land and shops, it would be impossible for Mrs. Chen to fight hard to loot. Because there is a red deed on the land and the shop, and the name of the married girl is written on it, not anyone can seize it, according to the law of this dynasty, the mother-in-law's family forcibly occupies the daughter-in-law's constant property as a dowry, and it is necessary to distribute it to the army. Even if the daughter-in-law dies, all these properties must be given to the deceased's children, and if nothing is out, the permanent property must be returned to the woman.

Since silver and jewelry are unreliable, it is better to accompany the industry than to marry.

"Mother, let's pay attention to the cost of our sister's dowry" Xue Jiao thought for a while. I just talked about my thoughts and concerns.

As soon as the words fell, Chen Xiucai looked at Chen Xuejiao with an appreciative expression.

Li nodded with a smile, that sentence is more affordable. hit the heart of the Li family, and Chen Xiucai also thought the same. The silver in the sky is not as important as the shop's field, but their own house is now less than 100 acres of land, and there are two shops, one is the embroidery workshop jointly opened by Li and Wen Ying, and the other is the salted duck egg workshop under Chen Xuejiao, these two shops are now just profitable. The daily output is only enough for home chewing.

Chen Xiucai came back from earning money, so he listened to Chen Xuejiao's construction and planned to buy more land and more houses. Chen Xuejiao knows since ancient times. Land is the most important thing, whether it is a peaceful era or a war era, the daughter is scattered and never returns. Only where the land is always there. With land, there is a qiē. Not only Chen Xiucai, Li's thoughts are the same as Chen Xuejiao's, when they first got married, they would suffer from the hardship of having no tiles to cover their heads, and once the family had money, they wanted to make up for it twice, they discussed it daily, collected a hundred acres of land, and built a house when they had extra silver in their hands. Make a farm too.

It's just that Chen Xiu has been at home for so long and has run around. There is no suitable land. The best land has been occupied by those powerful nobles, and the medium land is there, but there is no piece, it is all this and that acre, scattered and too far away,

Li and Chen Xiucai thought about it for a while, only to find that their family was pitiful, and now they didn't have the dowry at hand.

Like their country people, they only have a pair of bracelets and a pair of earrings for marriage, and even more so they treat the girl as water spilled out, not to mention the marriage, even the engagement given by the in-laws will be deducted. Chen Xiucai and Li are naturally not that kind of people, thinking that Xueru's marriage is the first happy event in the family, no matter what, they have to be decent. If Xue Ru marries an ordinary family, it is not a small amount to give her the fields and shops at the head of the family, but the Han family is a first-class rich family in the town, and it is good to match the dowry after all.

The original dowry of the Li family was not taken out all at once, but accumulated by Old Man Li and Mrs. Li bit by bit. Not only the Li family, but many families who value their daughters have saved their dowries since their daughters were very young, like Mrs. Chen, who has been saving dowries since Wen Yan was born, so Wen Yan's dowry is very rich, although the Duan family is richer than the Chen family, but Wen Yan has a dowry in his hand and is naturally very confident.

"I thought that Xue Ru would take two or three years to get married, and in these two or three years, I would do business outside, buy more land and buy shops, and I would definitely not lose her at that time." Chen Xiucai said.

"Yes, it's all because I didn't think far away before, if I saved a dowry from a young age, I can save a lot now." Speaking of this, Li's eyes turned red again.

She also knew that this was just a vain talk, what kind of life did Xueru live when she was a child, she had no money in her hands and no food, even if she wanted to save it, she couldn't save it.

Chen Xueru saw that her parents kept talking about her dowry, and her face was very tender before she left the cabinet, so she bowed her head and went to the inner room, and sat down with Jing Hao to play with her.

"I think, why don't you give my sister the thirty acres of land on the edge of the Xiaohuai River first." Chen Qi'an cautiously mentioned yì, but looked at Chen Xuejiao.

That land originally belonged to Zhao Yiming's family, and it was bought with the money that Xue Jiao got from selling tea and eggs at that time. From how many people in the village look at that piece of land, you can know how fertile that land is, and the grain produced every year is of the highest quality.

Chen Xuejiao smiled, knowing that her brother was asking for her opinion.

"That's not good, that's Xuejiao's, Xuejiao will be out of the cabinet in the future, accompany her." Lee categorically disagreed.

Xue Jiao was willing to give Xue Ru in her heart, she didn't have a sister in her previous life, and she really felt the pain of her sister here. Not to mention that it is only 30 acres of land, even 300 acres of land, she is willing to give it to Xueru.

"Mother, I agree with my brother's opinion, the family doesn't talk about the two families. If I didn't have the protection of my parents, brothers and sisters, I wouldn't have grown up so much, my sister hurt me when she was young, gave me new clothes, gave me delicious food, I remember all these in my heart. My mother said to accompany me with that land, I know that my mother loves me, but my mother thinks about it, how old am I, of course our family must be close to my sister first, and in the future, our family will get better and better, and I can get less of my dowry. Xue Jiao said to Li with a smile.

After listening to Xuejiao's words, Chen Xiucai and Li felt proud of such a smart and sensible girl.

Chen Xuejiao talked about the dowry in front of her parents, frank and unrestrained, not like other girls. It's a child, and I don't even know how to get married. A doting smile appeared on Lee's face.

"Cheng, we have to write the dowry list carefully, although the Han family will not covet our idea, but in case there is a ...... in the future."

Before Chen Xiucai finished speaking, Li almost spat on her husband's face in disgust: "If something doesn't happen, you can't scare your daughter." ”

As he spoke, he spat on the ground and snorted a few times.

Although the words are ugly, but people are not as high as the mountains and rivers, although Li felt unlucky in his heart, he still patiently obeyed her husband's advice.

"I've spotted a house, it's in the town, and when you have time, you'll go with me to see it, and you have to live comfortably for something as big as buying a house." Chen Xiucai suddenly talked about the house.

"Really, Dad, we're moving." Chen Xuejiao was extremely happy when she heard the news.

Li was worried and happy in his heart, happy that he finally got rid of Mrs. Chen's face, and worried that he was really reluctant to leave these villagers for more than ten years.

"For the sake of the children, we have to move." Li gritted his teeth, "She milked that person, there will be a quarrel at the two ends of three days, and in the future, Qi An, Xue Jiao, and Qi Ping will say kiss, I don't know, when I see this situation at our house, I was scared and scared away." ”

Lee's statement is more realistic, in fact, it is. Many people outside are in love with the snow, and the reason why they don't come to the door to propose relatives is because they are afraid of having relatives like Mrs. Chen.

The family talked about Chen Xueru's dowry to moving, and the more they talked, the happier they became, and when they opened their eyes, it was evening, and at this time, they saw Chen Xuewa coming to the door with Xueyan in her arms.

"Uncle, auntie, there is a fight in the upper room." Chen Xuewa said excitedly while teasing her sister in her arms.

"What's going on?" Li Shi took Xueyan over and asked.

Chen Xuejiao grabbed the fruit for Xueyan to eat, and handed Xuewa a cup of tea: "...... Take your time. ”

"Our grandfather and our grandmother scolded each other together, and everyone was fighting in the room." Chen Xuewa said in a low voice.

From Chen Xuewa's mouth, everyone knew that Old Man Chen drank too much and went home to sleep, and when he woke up at night, he reprimanded Mrs. Chen a few words. (To be continued......)