CHAPTER 40: CHAPTER 039: BEING A BACHELOR FOR LIFE

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"What do you mean ’your sister’? We haven’t even come knocking yet, and you better hand over my second elder brother immediately. It must have been your darling sister who lured away my brother, and even instigated him to steal all the money from our home!" As soon as Zhang Baonni heard Lin Aiguo’s words, combined with what her mother had said earlier and the empty room of her second brother, she instantly concluded that Lin Aimei had a significant role in it!

After all, how could a grown man really think of fleeing home with money and remember to take clothing and quilts with him? Her brother Zhang Dongliang was just a big child who only knew how to eat, drink, and have fun; how could he possibly know that out in the world, it’s not always possible to buy clothes and quilts with money!

Having reached a conclusion, Zhang Baonni immediately turned the tables and hit back, pointing at Mrs. Lin who had just come in and screaming, "Let’s go, Mom, we need to report this to the authorities, saying that Lin Aimei learned about the large sum of money we had at home and she incited my brother to steal the household silver and run away!"

"What?!" Mrs. Lin, upon hearing Zhang Baonni’s words, was startled and asked back in shock.

"That’s right. Just now, my mom checked where the silver was kept. The 300 big silver that we had just received yesterday are gone, and so are the wedding clothes and quilts prepared for my younger brother. If it weren’t for your Lin Aimei’s instigation, with my brother’s brains, how could he have thought that outside home, supplies are hard to come by and that these life necessities need to be prepared?!"

Zhang Yunni was not dumb either. Hearing her elder sister’s words, she quickly pieced together the cause and effect of the incident. She thought of the thirty big silver coins her mother promised to give her that were now gone, and felt a wave of discomfort. She immediately joined her elder sister in the sarcastic retaliation.

Lin Aiguo, seeing the reaction of the Zhang Family’s mother and daughters, immediately followed the direction they had come from earlier, rushing over to check, and indeed saw an empty new room. Not only were there no new wedding clothes or quilts, there were not even any old clothes to be seen!

Mrs. Lin, following her son to inspect, was also disbelieving. After looking over, she began to feel a sense of panic.

"You see your precious sister, eloping with the sole son of our family, and we haven’t even come to your door about it, yet you have the audacity to make a scene at our house?"

"Who’s lured whom is not yet decided!" Lin Aiguo, hearing what Zhang Yunni said, furrowed his brows, knowing that if indeed those 300 big silver coins were gone, it must have been his sister who incited it.

"Fine, Lin family, you better return the big silver and my son!" Lin Zhaodi, originally panicked about the disappearance of the silver and her son, reacted upon hearing her daughters’ words, charged towards Mrs. Lin screaming and shouting, and the two elderly women, not yielding to each other, started grappling.

Lin Zhaodi and Mrs. Lin were both concerned about saving face and weren’t experts in fighting, merely pulling at each other’s hair and clothes and seldom using pinching.

Lin Aiguo, seeing his own mother fighting with someone, had no interest in helping out since the other party was an elderly woman. Noticing that Zhang Yunni and Zhang Baonni seemed like they wanted to help, his eyes lit up as he stepped forward. If they dared to help Lin Zhaodi, he wouldn’t hesitate to rush in and take advantage!

It was really Lin Aiguo’s lecherous gaze, too direct for comfort. Being stared at with such a wolfish eye by him, the Zhang sisters, knowing his notorious reputation, didn’t dare to move any closer.

Fortunately, Lin Zhaodi and Mrs. Lin weren’t truly going all out. Both belonged to the Lin House, and even though there were no blood relations between them, they were still of the same surname and held back their full force.

"Aunt Zhi Guo, are you there?"

Just when everyone was at a standoff, a young man shouted from outside the courtyard!

"Alright, stop it!" Lin Aiguo, seeing that the Zhang sisters weren’t taking action and hearing the voice of an outsider from the courtyard, had to speak out due to his concern for appearances.

"Here they are!" Zhang Baonni only responded after seeing her mother and Mrs. Lin part ways. Noticing that her mother’s clothes were disheveled and her face was scratched, Zhang Baonni hurriedly ran out of the main gate and, upon seeing it was a fellow villager, she smiled and greeted them:

"Brother Feng, what brings you here?" The visitor was from her own village and Zhang Baonni knew him well.

"Oh, Zhang girl, this is something Dongliang asked me to bring back for you to give to your mom. I just brought it over on the way." He said, handing her an oil-drenched bun. Seeing that she took it, he didn’t linger, "I’ve delivered the item, my wife is waiting for me to return home, so I must be going." After saying that, he left.

It was as if there was a big stink bug behind him.

Zhang Baonni saw this but didn’t care. Considering that her looks were outstanding in the village, any married young men who encountered her would behave similarly, as if a few more words with her would cost them their lives.

In fact, such outcomes could be blamed on Zhang Baonni herself. If she weren’t so vain, who would, after speaking a couple of words to her, go around claiming to others that XX was good to her and couldn’t stand to see her tired? Because of this, more than half of the village’s young men had been troubled by their wives. Who would dare get close to her now?!

"What is this?" Zhang Baonni casually took out the contents of the package, and she was dumbfounded.

She was walking into the courtyard as she simultaneously took out the item.

Having already acquired a marriage certificate, she certainly recognized what the item was in her hand!

"I spit on it," Lin Aiguo, who also saw it, snatched the household registration book from Zhang Baonni’s hand and indeed saw his sister’s name in it! "Zhang Family, this isn’t over between us!"

"Hey, wait a minute, it isn’t over for our Zhang Family either! You’ve only seen your sister’s name, what now, could my brother have snuck into your house to steal the household registration book? Eh, if your sister wasn’t so scheming, could my brother have been deceived? Could your sister really be worth 300 big silver coins as a bridal price?"

Seeing Lin Aimei’s name, Zhang Baonni burst out as well! This meant that her brother and Lin Aimei were already husband and wife, and Lin Aimei was officially a daughter-in-law of the Zhang Family!

On another note, it also meant that the 300 big silver coins were truly gone, and there was no part of it for her and her elder sister!

Lin Aiguo was so furious he couldn’t listen to any nonsense from the three women of the Zhang Family. He directly charged into the Zhang Family home and smashed everything in sight! That was not enough to quell the hatred in his heart; he picked up a stick and started wildly smashing tables and chairs!

"God, you conscienceless monster, stop it! Yuni, Baonni, hurry and get someone!" Lin Zhaodi screamed upon seeing the torn household registration book and the mess Lin Aiguo had made of the house.

Zhang Yunni and Zhang Baonni, reminded by their mother, rushed out of the Zhang Family home one after the other— one heading for their own house and the other to call for help from Elder Uncle.

Even Mrs. Lin was shocked silly by her son’s actions.

At this moment, Lin Aiguo knew he was finished. Without a sister and not much silver at home, he could only remain a bachelor for life!

Thinking of his wife and children being far away, where could he find reason? The frenzied Lin Aiguo only wanted to smash and shatter everything in front of him!

"My child, that’s enough, that’s enough!" Mrs. Lin, seeing that the Zhang Family home was left with no intact item, finally snapped back to reality and rushed forward to embrace her trembling son, crying out in heartache: "Stop smashing, that’s enough, let’s go back home first, don’t be afraid, your mother is here!"