Chapter 297: Dowry

After the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, Chu Lingxuan stopped being the shopkeeper and started busy delivering betrothal gifts to Luyuan with Guanshi Luo and his son.

On the seventh day of the lunar month, Chen Shi and his family returned to Dingzhou.

On the ninth day of the lunar month, Chu Lingxuan returned to the Yamen to answer the question.

On this day, Carpenter Wu also came to Luyuan, and they wanted to finish the last bit of work. Chen Afu, Wang and Chen Ming were even busier. While they were busy with the dowry, they were also making various preparations for Chen Afu to get married.

On the 20th, Alu and Dabao's long vacation ended and they started studying with Mr. Liao again. But today only Dabao went to Tangyuan alone, and Alu asked for leave because of something important.

At the beginning of the day, the main gate of Tangyuan opened wide. Chu Lingxuan, dressed in festive clothes, took the matchmaker to deliver the betrothal gift to Luyuan. A Lu and Chen Agui, with silly faces on their faces, stood at the entrance of Luyuan to greet them. Chen Ming and Wang were sitting in the hall, accompanied by Mrs. Chen and Chen Ye, waiting for their prospective son-in-law to come and pay their respects. Hu and Chen Aju also came. They stood in the yard, waiting to see how many betrothal gifts Tangyuan would send.

The first load of betrothal cakes, seafood, three animals, various gift boxes, sticker boxes, incense cannons, bracelets, gold, etc. all entered Luyuan, and people carrying betrothal gifts continued to pour out of Tangyuan.

Many villagers and children came to watch the fun on both sides of the path.

Chen Afu was hiding in Fuyuan and was too embarrassed to go out. Little Miss Chu knew that today was the day when her father would send the betrothal gift. She originally wanted to go see the fun, but when she heard the commotion outside, she was too frightened to go out. She only opened the door of Fuyuan a crack and hid inside to watch.

When she saw Chu Lingxuan passing by Fuyuan, she laughed loudly and turned back to Chen Afu in the main room and said loudly, "Auntie, I have seen daddy. Daddy is wearing red clothes and smiling so silly."

Making a few little girls giggle, she quickly added, "Hey, my dad is quite handsome."

When the hustle and bustle outside Helu Garden calmed down, Mrs. Hu hurriedly reached out to open the sticker box and gift box to see how much silver and gold and silver jewelry there was, but Chen Ye stopped her. He cursed, "What a big man, what are you doing?"

Mrs. Hu had no choice but to retract her hand.

Chen Ming has already seen the gift list, and the bride price is two thousand taels of silver notes. He went over and opened several boxes. There were so many gold bracelets, gold necklaces, gold ingots, and gold nuggets that it was dazzling.

Mrs. Chen smiled with a frown on her face and said, "Alu is so lucky that he even gets a betrothal gift for his wife."

Chen Ming said, "We didn't keep any of these betrothal gifts and gave them all to Ah Fu as a dowry."

Chen Ye was startled and said, "Are you stupid? Ah Fu's dowry should be purchased by her biological father. Mr. Chu is giving you a betrothal gift because he is also grateful to our Chen family for raising Ah Fu. What do you mean by giving Ah Fu a dowry?" That's all. The furniture behind the yard and the good materials you bought for her are worth a lot of money. Ah Fu has such a rich biological father, and he can't bear to give you all these things because he can't live a good life. She escorted him there."

Chen Ming shook his head and said, "Afu suffered a lot when she was a child. Later, life got better, and it was also her own money. As a father, I was too embarrassed to keep the betrothal gift given by my husband's family. I gave it all to her, including the dowry. Buying something nice will not only make her husband’s family look up to her, but also make her have a good life.”

Chen Ye said, "I didn't ask you to stay. You only kept the bride price, and gave all the gold jewelry and other things to Ah Fu. Ah Fu himself is rich and has a rich father, so he will not be sad in the future. . On the contrary, although you are better off than me, you are still far behind those big landlords. If you have the conditions to be a big landlord, why do you have to give all the money to richer people? How about the Chu family living a tight life by themselves? "

Old Mrs. Chen also said, "The elder is right, Ah Fu is rich, and the Chu family is even richer. They will not care about this little money anymore. Old ladies all know that money should be spent wisely, and you and A Lu need this." The money should be spent on you.”

Chen Ming still disagreed and said, "The Chu family didn't need to give us a betrothal gift. We could just give the betrothal gift directly to the Chen family. After all, Afu directly married from there. But the Chu family still gave us a betrothal gift. They are benevolent and righteous." , if you take my name seriously, I can’t be greedy.”

The old lady was so angry that she cursed, "Why did I raise such a stupid-headed son like you? How could you be greedy? That's what you deserve. You raised Ah Fu."

"Afu was not raised by me, but by Juan Niang." Chen Ming said stubbornly.

Chen Ye was also angry and shouted, "Then my Chen family always protected Ah Fu, right? She was born and grew up safely because she was born in my Chen family and lived in the name of a descendant of my Chen family. Otherwise , I don’t know how many times she died. Also, Mom, me, and Agui came to protect her several times.”

Chen Ming said, "Yes, the Chen family protected Ah Fu, but Ah Fu also repaid our Chen family. We are living such a good life now because of Ah Fu's help. I was raised by my eldest brother, so I accepted Brother’s love, but Ah Fu should pay back what she deserves to me and you. From now on, brother, don’t always talk about how kind the Chen family is to Ah Fu. She has given everything to her.”

This was the first time that Chen Ming contradicted Chen Ye. Chen Ye was so angry that he greeted Chen Ming with a slap in the face, and then stopped in front of Chen Ming. Hehen said, "Mom, let's meddle in other people's business, let's go." Then, he pushed Mrs. Hu, Chen Aju, and Chen Agui out.

Mrs. Chen and Mrs. Wang were so frightened that they screamed when they saw Chen Ye was about to hit Chen Ming. They were relieved when they saw that the slap did not go down.

When Mrs. Chen saw the eldest son's back, she said to Chen Ming, "Don't blame your eldest brother, he is also thinking about you."

Catching up with Chen Ye again, he advised, "Brothers have grown up. You can't hit them whenever you want like when they were little. Fortunately, the slap didn't go on, otherwise, wouldn't it mean that all the affection you have had for so many years is gone..."

Seeing that they all left, Wang hesitated and said, "Afu is not short of money, how about leaving all the betrothal gifts?"

Chen Ming's face was very ugly, and he said, "No, you have to listen to me. All these betrothal gifts should be given to Afu as a dowry. People's greed is indulged. I'm afraid that my hands will become more and more comfortable with it in the future. That way, it will not be good for Afu, you, Lu, and our family."

Alu also said, "I also think that it should all be given to my sister."

Chen Afu took Chu Hanyan to Lu Garden and saw a room full of colorful betrothal gifts in the upper hall. Chen Ming, Wang, and Alu, who were in it, were not smiling, but had sad faces.

Alu told Chen Afu what happened.

Chen Afu said, "I came here to tell my father about this..."

Last night, Chu Lingxuan came to Fuyuan to discuss the betrothal gift with Chen Afu, and specifically mentioned that Chen Ming should keep the two thousand taels of silver as betrothal gift, or buy land or a shop...