Coming out of the bookstore, Xia Yuan followed the flow of people to a fairly large market, where he found a stall to eat some random things, bought fabrics of various colors, bought snacks and candy cubes, and bought a new toothbrush for his little daughter-in-law.

The toothbrush she brought with her was almost gone, and it didn't look like a toothbrush, but like a smoking gun.

Anyway, a toothbrush is not as expensive as imagined, and you can buy one for twenty or thirty yuan.

By the time Xia Yuan arrived at the entrance of the village with a package containing various items, it was just dusk.

The villagers eat two meals a day, and they also eat early, basically they will have dinner at four o'clock in the afternoon, usually at this time, most of them have already filled their stomachs, and are sitting under the big tree at the entrance of the village to enjoy the shade and chat.

But when Xia Yuan passed by the entrance of the village, he didn't see a person, and walked all the way home full of doubts, and there were basically no people on the road.

This made him feel an inexplicable sense of foreboding slowly rising in his heart.

When he walked to the door of his house, a small figure was squatting in front of the courtyard gate of his house, wearing a homespun shirt, with snot on his face, and holding a wheat straw in his hand and pulling it on the ground.

Seeing Xia Yuan coming back, Erniu threw away the wheat straw in her hand, and hurriedly ran over and said, "Brother Yuan, the bride of your family was captured by the patriarch and taken to the ancestral hall." ”

Hearing the words of being arrested and taken to the ancestral hall, Xia Yuan didn't know what was wrong, the situation was obvious, it must have been the village that knew about his new daughter-in-law being dropped, so he arrested Zhao Yuerong for questioning, or... It should be said that it is more about asking for sin.

There was no time to delay, and thanked him casually, Xia Yuan threw the things he bought on the ground, turned around and hurriedly ran towards the ancestral hall.

Erniu wanted to follow along to see the excitement, but when she saw the package that Xia Yuan threw on the ground, she hesitated, squatted down silently, and helped watch things.

When he came to the outside of the ancestral hall, Xia Yuan stood at the door and saw that the courtyard of the ancestral hall was full of people, and the villagers of Xiajiazhuang were gathered here, and they were talking about it at this time.

"How can this Zhaojia Village do things like this, isn't it ugly?"

"This is simply bullying our Xia family."

"The patriarch must be severely punished."

"Yes, ...... must be punished severely"

Hearing the word severe punishment, Xia Yuan secretly said that it was not good, and hurriedly squeezed into the crowd, "Uncles and aunts, please let go, please let go." ”

Hearing the voice, the villagers turned their heads one after another, and when they saw Xia Yuan coming back, a few familiar ones asked: "Brother Yuan, why did you come back, do you know that your daughter-in-law has been replaced?" ”

Xia Yuan opened his mouth and just wanted to answer, when he heard a scolding voice from the ancestral hall, with obvious anger, it was the voice of the patriarch and the elder.

Hearing this, he didn't care about anything else, and hurriedly said: "I know, why don't I know, come on, come on, let me go in and have a look." ”

As he spoke, Xia Yuan struggled through the crowd and walked quickly into the hall of the ancestral hall.

The patriarch, as well as several elders in the clan, and his own uncle were all in the hall.

The little daughter-in-law Zhao Yuerong knelt on the ground, her eyes were red and her hands were at a loss, her little body trembled slightly with fright, and her face was helpless.

Seeing Xia Yuan come in, her eyes lit up, and then she became a little redder, and tears instantly filled her eyes.

Xia Yuan gave her a look of not being afraid, and saluted the elders in the hall in a proper manner, and before she could speak, she heard a cold snort.

"Hmph." The patriarch held the armrest of the Taishi chair, snorted coldly, and deliberately turned his head to accept his courtesy, "You are a scholar, and you have a reputation for showing talent, you don't worship officials, you are a bad old man, how dare you accept your courtesy?" ”

Faced with this kind of seemingly sarcastic, but actually angry words, Xia Yuan's mind turned, and he instantly understood the reason why the other party was angry.

In this era when the patriarch is equal to the village chief plus the chief of moral construction, plus the director of the police station, everything in the village must be told to the patriarch and let him help adjudicate.

And he didn't tell him about his deceived marriage at all, which made the old man feel that he didn't take him as a patriarch seriously.

Thinking about the reason, he bowed deeply to the old man, "Uncle is an elder and a patriarch, so this gift is naturally acceptable." ”

This time, the patriarch calmly accepted it, his face softened slightly, and he asked with half-closed eyes: "It turns out that I am still the patriarch and an elder." Then let me ask you, your daughter-in-law has been replaced, do you know about this? ”

"Yes." At this point, Xia Yuan had no intention of hiding it, and nodded and admitted.

Seeing Xia Yuan nodding and admitting, the patriarch slapped the table angrily: "Since you know that why didn't you come directly to your uncle yesterday?" ”

The old patriarch was an anxious man, and before Xia Yuan could answer, he slapped the table angrily again, "What the Zhao family wants to do, it's really unreasonable!" ”

"It's too deceitful to do such a marriage cheat."

"Take this woman with you, let's go to Zhao's house now to ask for an explanation."

"If they refuse to admit it, I, Xia Youde, will not let go of this old face, and I will ......."

Speaking of this, the patriarch squinted his eyes, saw the uncle of the Xia Yuan clan who was in place, and said: "Xia Ru, your nephew is being bullied like this, what are you still doing in a daze, go, write a paper, if they don't recognize it, let's go to the yamen to sue the official!" ”

With the old man's order, two stout women walked into the lobby, each stretched out their hands, and clamped Zhao Yuerong's slender arm.

Zhao Yuerong was so frightened that her little body shrank a little, she wanted to struggle but didn't dare, the tears in her eyes instantly blurred her eyes, and she cried and said, "Husband, woo woo....."

She felt that she was dead this time, and her husband would definitely not be able to save herself, she was discouraged, and she felt very unwilling, her good life had only passed for a day and a night.

There is no cave house yet, and there are no children for her husband.

At this moment, she suddenly felt that the two pairs of hands that were tightly clenching her arms lost their strength, and then, her body fell into a warm embrace.

In a trance, she only heard a soft voice sound.

"Uncles, uncles and aunts, let's stop this matter, I have decided to let her stay."

As soon as these words came out, the entire ancestral hall could be heard, and everyone couldn't react for a while, perhaps more doubting their hearing.

In this era, women are the first to pay attention to their names, and men are not, and it is a shame for the newlywed wife to be replaced, and if you still swallow your anger, you will definitely become a laughing stock.

Everyone looked at Xia Yuan dumbfounded, not understanding what he was thinking.

In front of everyone's eyes, Xia Yuan only symbolically hugged the little daughter-in-law in his arms, feeling the little body in his arms trembling slightly, he gently patted her back to show comfort, and then leaned into his ear and said softly: "Don't be afraid, I'm here." ”

With that, he let go of his hand.

Zhao Yuerong looked up with red eyes, the sunset shone in, Xia Yuan stood with the light on his back, bathed in a halo all over his body, and he couldn't see it really, but it made her feel an unprecedented sense of security in her heart.