734 Getting a Wife

Qiao Mei carefully identified these herbs. She could plan to grow rare herbs on this mountain in the future. The idea of growing such things actually did not appeal to her.

The money she made from selling ginsengs was enough to buy the entire mountain. Was there a need to spend so much effort to nurture a large number of precious herbs?

What she had in mind was to lead the way for the village’s development and let the villagers become rich as well. However, her plan excluded Qiao Zhuang’s family, of course.

Qiao Zhuang’s family gathered for a family meeting every day. There were too many issues in the family recently. Liu Ying and Qiao Hua had run away. Wang Qin only knew how to come up with bad ideas for the family. Their reputation in Foshan Village had already been tarnished.

At least Qiao Wang and his wife did not create any issues and knew how to share the family’s burden. Qiao Liang was useless and only knew how to do manual labor in the fields every day to earn work points.

“It’s time to get Qiao Liang a wife. What do you think?” Qiao Zhuang said.

Wang Qin’s expression darkened. At that time when Qiao Wang got married, she had to contribute 300 dollars. That was all her savings. She did not want to take out the money but Qiao Zhuang kept urging her.

“Let my family express our opinion first. Father, I’ve been serving you, our mother and our entire family at home. I don’t have much time to earn money. My husband just goes to work in the fields and doesn’t have any other skills. We will contribute 20 dollars. This is already all our savings,” Jiang Ye said sincerely.

She was telling the truth and Qiao Zhuang knew it in his heart. Qiao Wang’s children were still very young and there was no one who could earn money in his family. It was already very generous of her to contribute 20 dollars.

It was Jiang Ye’s way of thanking Qiao Liang for helping Qiao Wang when they worked in the fields back then. Otherwise, Qiao Wang would have been permanently disabled. She considered this gesture to be returning the favor.

Qiao Zhuang nodded in agreement and turned to look at his eldest son, Qiao Fu. Although his eldest daughter-in-law had run away, his son should still have some money.

“I… I’ve gambled all my money… I only have 10 dollars left. I’ll give it to you…” Qiao Fu reluctantly took out a crumpled wad of money from his pocket and handed it to Qiao Zhuang.

Qiao Zhuang took it and counted it before agreeing. The fifth son, Qiao Gang, was still in school and did not have any money. Everyone looked at Wang Qin and Qiao Gui.

Qiao Gui did not bother about anything at home. He tugged at Wang Qin’s sleeve, not knowing how to reply to Qiao Zhuang. Wang Qin smiled and said, “Father, have you decided whose daughter it’s going to be? What’s the amount of betrothal gifts that they want?”

“Your fourth brother has long taken a fancy to the daughter of the Huang family. She said that she won’t marry for less than 200 dollars,” Qiao Zhuang said.

During this time, when people got married in the countryside, betrothal gifts were usually settled in the range of tens of dollars. An amount of 50 dollars was considered a huge sum for betrothal money, so asking for 200 dollars was indeed too much.

Wang Qin had seen the young lady from the Huang family before. She was young and not good-looking. Her face was covered in pockmarks and she could not even walk very well. However, Wang Qin had heard that she was quite good at cooking and her culinary skills were not inferior to Qiao Mei.

“Our family doesn’t have that much money either. We can only contribute 20 dollars,” Wang Qin said.

Qiao Zhuang looked straight at Wang Qin. He might be old, but he was not stupid yet. For so many years, on the matter of whether Wang Qin had touched any of the family’s money, he had an idea of what was going on.

“Your family will contribute 100 dollars,” Qiao Zhuang said.

“Father! You’re being too unreasonable! Eldest Brother only gives 10 dollars and Third Brother’s family gives 20 dollars. Why do we have to give 100 dollars! When Third Brother got married, I was the one who paid for the betrothal gifts. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten about this,” Wang Qin questioned.

“Since you’re talking to me about the past, let me ask you. The money that everyone hands over monthly, where is it? Does some money enter your pocket every month?” Qiao Zhuang asked.

As soon as he said that, Wang Qin did not have any retort. She said obediently, “I understand. I’ll give it to you tomorrow.”

Everyone knew what kind of person Wang Qin was. That money was meant for the old man’s retirement and had nothing to do with them. Besides, all of them did not earn much money at all. It was only the eldest and second sons’ families who were able to contribute money.

They were people who only knew how to earn work points, so they were not angry at all. They still had to thank Wang Qin for giving them more work points every time!

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