Early that morning, Yun Su got up. She had breakfast first, watered the small vegetable patch in the yard, then took a shower, changed into new clothes, and tied her hair up neatly. After that, she waited for the Ji family to arrive.
The day before, the family had already soaked various dried seafood. Early in the morning, Yun Su’s mother and father went to the kitchen to start simmering the abalone and sea cucumber.
For lunch, the family planned to serve dried seafood hot pot, boiled prawns, white-cut chicken, and rich seafood soup. All the ingredients were from their own supplies, so preparation wasn’t too difficult.
Yun Su’s older brother hadn’t taken the day off. He had gone out fishing on the boat in the middle of the night, hoping to catch the freshest seafood to entertain his future in-laws
“Big Sister, Big Sister! Brother Ji is here…”
As Yun Su was chatting with her parents at the kitchen door, she heard her little brother Fuzai shouting as he ran toward them.
Fuzai loved a good spectacle. After breakfast that morning, he had gathered a bunch of village kids and squatted at the village entrance waiting for Ji Xiangtian’s arrival.
Yun Su turned to see the boy charging through the open gate with a crowd of children behind him, sweating profusely and looking very excited. Before she could say anything, she heard the roar of a car engine.
She playfully poked her little brother and told him to take the village kids back outside. Then she walked out to the roadside in front of the yard and watched as a familiar jeep pulled up at their door.
Several villagers who had heard the commotion stood by the roadside, craning their necks toward the scene. They gathered together excitedly, all looking at Yun Su with envious eyes.
—
By now, Yun Su was already smiling warmly at Ji’s mother as she stepped out of the car. “Good morning, Auntie! Have you eaten? We have rice noodles and seafood soup at home. If you’re hungry, you can have some seafood rice noodles…”
“Haha, we ate, we ate. We had breakfast early before coming. Xiao Tian kept urging us the whole time, afraid we’d be late…”
Ji’s mother teased her son, and Ji Xiangtian looked a little embarrassed. But he really had been anxious. Although he knew Yun Su wasn’t going anywhere, until things were officially settled, he couldn’t fully relax.
Hearing this, Yun Su blinked at Ji Xiangtian. Then she greeted Ji’s father, who had just parked the car, and led them into the yard.
Yun Su’s house wasn’t much different from the others in the area, but it was kept very clean. A few chickens were penned in a corner behind a fence, so they didn’t run all over the yard making a mess. There were some vegetables planted, and the garden beds were neat and tidy.
Altogether, it looked comfortable and pleasant.
Yun Su’s parents had also changed into new clothes to entertain their future in-laws. Even Fuzai had run inside to put on a clean shirt.
Neither family was difficult to get along with. Once they sat down and chatted a bit about their children, they quickly grew familiar with one another.
Seeing the adults laughing and talking, Yun Su exchanged a glance with Ji Xiangtian, and they both breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
They liked each other and had decided to get married. But having their families get along would be the best possible outcome.
Seeing that the conversation was going to last a while, Yun Su signaled to Ji Xiangtian to step out with her.
As soon as they exited the main hall, they saw quite a few people gathered outside the yard, clearly there to watch the excitement.
Some of the bolder ones saw them come out and grinningly asked, “Xiao Su, are those your fiancé’s parents?”
Yun Su didn’t act coy. She nodded.
Someone else asked what they had come for.
This time, Ji Xiangtian answered: “To discuss the marriage!”
Everyone burst into laughter. A few elder women shouted that Ji Xiangtian had guts and that he suited the fishing village’s temperament.
—
Yun Su exchanged a few lighthearted words with the villagers, then took Ji Xiangtian to the kitchen to check on the various ingredients that were simmering. Seeing that everything was fine, she pulled him aside and told him about the burglaries in the village on Friday.
Ji Xiangtian had been busy with work all week, trying to free up Sunday. Now hearing that three nearby villages had been robbed, his brow furrowed deeply.
Especially when he heard that Yun Su had come home alone from work to find the house’s doors wide open. His frown deepened. He couldn’t help looking her over, worried that she might have been hurt somewhere he couldn’t see. If it weren’t for the crowd outside, he would have pulled her into his arms to properly check if she was all right.
Yun Su read the concern in his eyes and shook her head with a smile. “I’m fine. Really, I’m fine. I value my life. As soon as I saw something was wrong, I didn’t go inside. But about this incident—the police haven’t caught anyone yet. I suspect the Li siblings are involved. You said earlier you’d have someone look into them. Any progress?”
Ji Xiangtian: “Yes. Those two are from the outskirts of Yangcheng. A few years ago, their village was hit by a flood, and more than half the villagers died. Only the two siblings survived from their family. After that, they engaged in some speculation and black-marketeering around Yangcheng. In June, Li Hong was caught for such activities, detained for a month, and then released. She shared a cell with Hu Chunhua at the time.”
Hearing this, Yun Su wasn’t surprised. It was roughly what she had guessed. But there were probably some things they couldn’t uncover. This wasn’t the future with surveillance cameras and big data everywhere. In this era, investigating someone could sometimes be very easy, because people rarely moved around. But other times it was extremely difficult, because information didn’t circulate.
For now, it seemed the only thing they really could do was stay vigilant.
—
Since the parents were still chatting inside, they couldn’t stay out for too long. They came out of the kitchen and prepared to go back to the main hall.
Inside the main hall, the conversation had already progressed to discussing the bride price and dowry.
Neither of them felt they could interrupt such a topic, so they sat quietly on the side, secretly writing in each other’s palms to exchange news about what had happened over the past few days.
Both sets of parents noticed their little gestures but pretended not to see, continuing with the words they had prepared earlier. However, they instinctively became even more polite, afraid that the other side might be dissatisfied with something and affect their children’s happiness.
All in all, the atmosphere was excellent. There was none of the back-and-forth haggling Yun Su had heard about from later times—arguments over how much bride price or how much dowry.
“It seems you really want to marry me quickly, don’t you?” Yun Su wrote directly on Ji Xiangtian’s arm.
It was summer, and everyone was wearing short sleeves. Ji Xiangtian’s arm was as warm as the back of his neck. As Yun Su wrote on it, she felt her fingers getting a little hot.
As for Ji Xiangtian, he felt that every stroke Yun Su made was like writing directly on his heart. When she had been writing on his palm earlier, he felt as if a feather were tickling his heart—the more it tickled, the itchier it got. Now that Yun Su had switched to tracing on his arm, the sensation became even stronger.
After she finished writing, Yun Su saw Ji Xiangtian’s eyes suddenly redden, veins bulging at his temples, and a flush spreading from his ears all the way down his neck. She immediately realized that her writing pressure might have been a bit off.
She coughed dryly and properly withdrew her hand. But her eyes still couldn’t bear to leave the man. She found that the more she looked at him, the dizzier she felt.
Both of them were immersed in this wonderful feeling, completely unaware that their parents had stopped talking at some point. The parents looked at each other, their eyes flickering with helplessness, amusement, relief, and a touch of urgency.
—
Originally, they had planned to get engaged in September and marry in December. Now, seeing the interaction between the two young people, it was better to move things up. They didn’t want the couple to lose control of their emotions. That wouldn’t be good for either of them. Gossip in this era could be terribly hurtful.
So, when Yun Su finally came back to her senses, she heard her mother say to her: “The bride price is 500 yuan, plus a sewing machine, a bicycle, and a radio. As for the dowry, besides returning the entire bride price, the family will give you an additional 80 yuan as ‘bottom-of-the-chest’ money, plus other daily necessities.”
Yun Su had no problem with this and simply nodded. Then she looked at her mother quizzically.
Yun’s mother shot her daughter an exasperated glare. Only then did Yun Su notice that everyone else had gone outside. Yun’s father was leading the three members of the Ji family into the yard to watch her older brother clean the fish. Her brother had returned from sea at some point without her noticing.
“You, you. When negotiating important matters, you don’t speak up, and you don’t even listen carefully.”
Yun Su felt a bit embarrassed. She couldn’t exactly say she had been too captivated by a man’s charm to focus.
Yun’s mother didn’t want to scold her further and continued explaining the details they had just agreed upon.
“The engagement will be at the end of August. The wedding will be in early November.”
This moved the timeline up by a month. But Yun Su actually wanted to get married sooner anyway. So she obediently nodded.
Yun’s mother laughed. “Oh, you little girl. You really are…”
“Mom, since I’m going to marry Ji Xiangtian anyway, marrying a little earlier gives me more time to adjust.”
“They’ll start fixing up the wedding house as soon as they get back. As for the dowry, we’re already preparing it at home. There’s plenty of time.”
—
At lunchtime, Yun’s father personally went across the way to invite Grandpa Yun and Grandma Yun over. Everyone sat down together to eat and get to know one another.
Meanwhile, Liu Zhaodi, seeing her in-laws being invited away, was overcome with jealousy again.
“Da Yang! Tell me, why are we so unlucky? Third Brother only had one daughter, and she’s marrying so well. I just heard from the neighbors—the bride price alone is 500 yuan. And what about us? We have four daughters, not one of them is any use. You always say we should be good to our daughters. Good for what? Being good to them is useless—they’re all worthless. None of them can find good matches. What good is marrying a fisherman?”
Liu Zhaodi grumbled and cursed right at the dinner table.
Second Uncle Yun was also annoyed by her words. The truth was, Yun Su’s bride price would make anyone green with envy. Third Brother had never been as clever as him. And yet, in the end, his daughter was marrying so well.
His own four daughters weren’t bad-looking! So why couldn’t they find such good matches?
Earlier, he had been smug that Yun Feng had the ability to find a regiment commander. But that man, for all his impressive title, had been missing for half a month. And his widowed mother was difficult to deal with.
It was true—without comparison, there was no harm!
Yun Feng felt even more bitter hearing her parents’ words. She had also heard about Yun Su’s bride price.
Given Gu Zhengrong’s situation, he couldn’t possibly come up with that much.
How could she—who had sworn since childhood to trample all over Yun Su—save face now?!
Besides Yun Feng, Yun Yan, Yun Que, and Yun Ying all wore sour expressions.
Yun Huaicai was still young and, as the family’s “precious root,” had no such thoughts. He only envied Fuzai. Just think—such a wealthy future brother-in-law! Fuzai would definitely have endless candy, enough to last a lifetime.
Just as the whole family was stewing in jealousy, Yun Yan suddenly spoke up.
“Dad, Mom, don’t worry. I’ll make you see one day that I’m the most capable daughter in this family. Just wait and bask in my glory.”
Whether there would be any glory to bask in remained to be seen.
But just a few days later, the burglary case involving the three villages was solved. Along with that news came the results of the processing factory’s recruitment drive.
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