The fake daughter married into the mountains and had meat to eat every day during the famine

Chapter 212: Arranging the Second Brother's Marriage

After hearing this, Zhao Qiao'e herself was shocked.

"What are you talking about, little girl? I treat you two brothers the same. How could I have ever suppressed them? As for marrying a wife, our family really doesn't have the conditions."

"Is it really the same?"

Song Yuntang's lips curled up into an ambiguous smile.

"When my eldest brother got married, you had just separated from grandma and grandpa. After marrying my eldest sister-in-law, we only had a hundred or two hundred coins left. For a long time after that, we had only rice soup for three meals a day. Everyone in the family was starving. During that time, I almost sold half of my jewelry. From time to time, I brought back some meat and fish from town to keep the family from starving."

"The conditions nowadays should be more than enough compared to that time. Why is it that when it comes to my second brother, mother is reluctant to even give five taels of silver as a betrothal gift? Didn't he pay you some time ago?"

"Although Second Brother hasn't complained, he must have felt wronged in his heart. Mother, put yourself in his shoes and think about it. Have you really treated your eldest and second brothers fairly over the years?"

Zhao Qiao'e was a little surprised.

In the past, Song Yuntang was unwilling to communicate with them. Every time he brought something back without saying a word, they thought she wanted to eat it herself.

It turned out that she was thinking about her family.

She couldn't help feeling a little guilty that she didn't understand her daughter's thoughts at the time. Not only that, when she brought the things back, she also always blamed her for spending money indiscriminately.

From then on, her daughter was even less willing to communicate with her.

I thought carefully about the second brother's situation over the years.

It turned out that what she thought was fair was not fair at all to the second child.

The eldest child was her first child, so she was inevitably more concerned about him. After giving birth to the second child, she gave birth to a daughter and two younger sons.

The daughter was the only girl in the family. Since she was born, Song Jinsheng was often neglected by her. Most of the time, it was the eldest son who helped take care of her. She naturally felt that she owed the eldest son. He was just a child at the time and had to take care of a younger brother who was two years younger than him.

But the second child could only watch helplessly as his mother loved his younger sister and younger brother since he was two years old.

She didn't have a single good piece of food, as she gave it all to her younger siblings. She didn't even have a single good piece of clothing, and for so many years she had been wearing her brother's clothes. Even the new set of clothes that she made for the second child when the eldest child got married last year, she finally gave it to the eldest child.

This year, Song Yuntang bought him two new sets of clothes and a pair of new shoes. One of the sets was worn less often, so she gave it to the eldest brother.

She also often kept telling him that he was not as good as his brother.

Thinking of this, Zhao Qiao'e suddenly felt a little sorry for Song Jinsheng.

"Tang'er, are you coming back today to lobby for your second brother?"

Song Yuntang said calmly, "Second brother has no idea that I've inquired about Xia's affairs, nor does he know that I would tell you this today. If he didn't really want this marriage, he wouldn't have moved into my manor before his injury had fully healed."

Zhao sighed.

"Before your eldest brother got married, our family didn't have any special needs that required saving money. Now your eldest sister-in-law is going to give birth at the end of the year, and mother is worried that she might run into trouble and have no money to use. As you know, giving birth is like going through hell."

Song Yuntang was certainly aware of this.

"In that case, there's no need to rush Second Brother's marriage."

Zhao said embarrassedly, "Didn't I become interested because I saw that Matchmaker Zhou had finally found a cheap woman, and your second brother was of marriageable age?"

"What if Xia Shi doesn't want to marry my second brother and comes to our house to commit suicide? If that happens, the Liu family won't care about your life or death, and in the end, my second brother will still be the one who suffers."

After hearing what Song Yuntang said, Zhao thought about it for a moment and felt a little scared.

"Tang'er is right. We have to ask Xia's wishes before we proceed with this matter. If she refuses, our three taels of silver will be wasted."

Song Yuntang raised his eyebrows, "Are you still thinking of telling my second brother about this marriage?"

Seeing Song Yuntang angry, Zhao felt a little scared. She was really worried that the relationship between mother and daughter would become strained again, so her tone softened.

"Mom really thinks it's pretty good."

Song Yuntang took a deep breath. Today was the day she was going back to her parents' home, and she really didn't want to quarrel with her mother who had lost her mind.

"Mother, please don't worry about Second Brother's marriage anymore. I'll find him a second sister-in-law, okay? You won't need to pay for the betrothal gifts. I'll prepare it for Second Brother. Mother and father will just have to take care of hosting a decent banquet."

The Huang family had previously compensated the second brother for his medical expenses with thirty taels of silver, and now twenty taels are still being kept by her.

Twenty taels is enough to find a second sister-in-law for my second brother.

Zhao Qiao'e felt it was inappropriate when she heard this. "How can a brother ask his sister to prepare a betrothal gift for his wedding?"

Song Yuntang is quick-witted.

"If you were reliable, I wouldn't want to take the lead."

After hearing her words, Zhao Qiao'e looked aggrieved.

"If our family was well off, I wouldn't have set my sights on Xia's. You have no idea how difficult our family is."

Song Yuntang waved his hand impatiently.

"Alright, let's do as I say. Leave the second brother's affairs to me, and keep the money for the eldest sister-in-law to have children. As for the stakes and pillars, if you really are not cut out for it, there's no need to waste money on both of you. With your conditions, you can't afford to send two people to school."

It's just a private school now, and when I go to a college next year, the expenses will only be higher.

If he is a good student, it would be fine. If not, he can just go to a private school for a few years to learn how to read. But by then, you will have spent a lot of money without getting any return.

Zhao nodded.

"Hey, Mom knows. I'll discuss it with your dad when the time comes."

Having said this, Song Yuntang had said everything he needed to say, so he didn't say anything more.

Liu Xiangyun, who was sitting under the eaves of the main hall near the kitchen, had been listening to the two people talking. When she heard Song Yuntang say that she was preparing a betrothal gift for Song Jinsheng and asked Zhao to leave the family's money to her for having children, she was deeply moved.

She was no longer so angry about the fact that Zhao gave Song Yuntang five taels of silver as a dowry.

Song Jinyuan came out of the main hall and saw Liu sitting there alone with red eyes. He quickly stepped forward and squatted in front of her, asking distressedly, "What's wrong? Who bullied you?"

Liu shook her head and whispered, "Although Tang'er was a little cold towards us before, she still cared about us."

Song Jinyuan smiled and squeezed her hand.

"Blood is thicker than water. How could she really not care about our family?"

Mrs. Liu nodded. "We have to treat her better in the future. Maybe you can go and work on her farm like Jinsheng did. You can earn as much as selling bean sprouts."

"Although the soybean sprout business is not as good as it was at the beginning, I can still make fifty or sixty cents a day. I'll wait until the sales really stop." Song Jinyuan said.

Mrs. Liu had a different idea. "Every household is growing vegetables these days, and some are already enjoying vegetable soup. I'm afraid our bean sprout business won't last much longer. Why don't we hand it over to Dad and do something else? My belly is getting bigger and bigger, and I'm going to give birth in a few months. By then, I'm bound to spend some money."

Song Jinyuan pondered.

"That makes sense. I'll talk to Dad about it later. If he agrees, I'll go find a job."

……