The wicked mother-in-law doesn't try to whitewash herself; she only abuses her awful children.

Chapter 606 Reverse Marriage

When the apricots ripened, Tong Huaqiong received news that Gu Ruinian was getting engaged.

As the eldest aunt, no matter how much Tong Huaqiong didn't get along with the people in the old house, she had to inform Gu Ruinian of his engagement and attend his engagement banquet.

"Who is Gu Ruinian engaged to?" Tong Huaqiong asked Gu Honglian.

“Xu Xinghua,” Gu Honglian said, adding, “a son-in-law.”

Tong Huaqiong's lips twitched.

It must have been tough for Gu Ruinian, who went from dreaming of being a son-in-law in the Lian family to becoming a son-in-law in the former village chief's family.

To Tong Huaqiong's surprise, Old Master Gu was actually willing to let Gu Ruinian marry into the family.

It is clear that Mr. Gu has completely given up on Gu Ruinian.

As for Tong Huaqiong, she didn't care what happened to Gu Ruinian in the future, as long as he didn't take action against Tong Huaqiong and his gang of scoundrels.

He and Xu Xinghua got engaged. As her aunt, she would give him some face in the eyes of outsiders. She would attend the engagement banquet and bring a piece of cotton cloth as a wedding gift.

The Gu family's old house has been quite lively these past few days.

Gu Ruinian and Xu Xinghua had already met and were both "satisfied." The two families began preparing for the engagement banquet and exchanging betrothal gifts.

The news that the two were about to get engaged was like a bomb exploding in Qinghe Bay.

There was simply no way for the group to connect Gu Ruinian and Xu Xinghua.

"Have you heard? Xinghua is finally getting engaged. She's saying she's engaged to Ruinian."

"Ruinian? Oh my, what's the connection between these two? But they're quite a match, one with pockmarks and the other with a limp."

Everyone sat at the village entrance gossiping, and the center of their gossip was naturally the exciting marriage.

The people of Qinghewan had a bad impression of Gu Ruinian, and they also had a very bad impression of Xu Xinghua.

It wasn't that Xu Xinghua's pockmarks made people laugh; on the contrary, people used to sympathize with a young woman whose beautiful face had become pockmarked.

The reason why people dislike Xu Xinghua is because she is cunning and malicious.

She's been mischievous and troublesome since she was little.

Especially if a girl is pretty, she'll pick a fight and start a verbal argument, and she'll often threaten to scratch someone's face with a stone.

Over time, everyone started keeping their distance from her.

Everyone felt that the fact that she and Gu Ruinian were together was a service to the people.

“Na Ruinian is a scholar, after all. Can he tolerate Xu Xinghua?” someone asked. “Xu Xinghua has a bad temper.”

"It's not just about endurance; I heard that Gu Ruinian married into the Xu family."

"what?"

The news that Gu Ruinian was going to marry into the Xu family spread like wildfire throughout the village.

There's no way around it. Let alone people of this era, even in Tong Huaqiong's later generations, marrying into another family would be unacceptable to many.

This news is absolutely explosive.

"Ruinian, I heard you're going to marry into the Xu family?"

"Then your children with Xinghua will have the surname Xu?"

When the villagers saw Gu Ruinian carrying a hoe, they gathered around to ask him what was going on.

Now, Gu Ruinian works in the fields every day, just like other young people in the village.

Sowing seeds, weeding, and spraying pesticides every day left him so exhausted that he wanted to jump into the well and return to the next life.

He was used to a life of ostentation and couldn't get used to farm work.

Now, let alone slacking off, even if he straightens up in the field to wipe his sweat, Old Madam Gu will point at him and berate him mercilessly. Gu Ruinian feels like he must have blown up the Milky Way in his past life to be subjected to such filth in the Gu family.

What bothered him even more was that he had to worry every day that Young Master Zheng would send people to collect the cost of the gunpowder. He didn't know why, but since the New Year, Young Master Zheng had never come to the village to ask him about the progress of the gunpowder.

He suspected that the second young master Zheng had forgotten many things and would come back to haunt him sooner or later.

During these unbearable days, he agreed to marry into the Xu family.

He thought he was different from men of this era and didn't mind marrying into his wife's family, but when people asked him about it, he still felt uncomfortable.

Looking at these illiterate, mud-covered men in front of him, he thought disdainfully, "Why do they think they're qualified to talk to me?"

At the same time, a wave of sadness washed over me.

He was so intelligent, possessing knowledge of five thousand years of history and having witnessed all the modernization of later generations. He had skills that people of this era could not acquire, yet in the end, he was reduced to being ridiculed by these peasants.

How unfair fate was to him.

"Ruinian, you really agreed to marry into the Xu family? You're really disgracing the Gu family." Gu Dahu, the patriarch's grandson, asked with a frown after taking a puff of his tobacco.

"Do you know that because of you, all the men in our Gu family are being ridiculed? You've set a bad precedent."

Gu Ruinian slammed the hoe on the ground and roared at Gu Dahu, "What business is it of yours if I marry into your family?"

Gu Dahu was startled by Gu Ruinian's roar.

Gu Ruinian continued to roar at everyone: "So what if I married into your family? Do you want to do the same? Don't you even know if you have the ability to live off a woman?"

"Get out of here, you ignorant peasants, how dare you show off in front of me."

He was talking while wielding a hoe, ready to chop someone up.

The young people in the village weren't afraid of him; they were all used to farm work and quickly took the hoe from Gu Ruinian's hands.

"Are you crazy? We just asked you a couple of questions, why are you getting so angry? It's not like we're forcing you to marry into our family. If you're so tough, go take it out on your father."

"That's right, they still think they're scholars and graduates, looking down on us peasants. But aren't you a peasant yourself now?"

When Gu Ruinian first returned to the village, he was a highly anticipated young scholar.

Everyone knows he looked down on the villagers, and now seeing him reduced to marrying into the family, they feel it's both a pity and a lament.

Gu Ruinian went berserk, completely crushing everyone's sympathy.

"Get out, get out of here."

"I'll marry into your family if I want, but say another word and I'll beat you up."

Gu Ruinian brandished his fist, his eyes gleaming with murderous intent.

After chasing everyone away, Gu Ruinian sat on the riverbank with a hoe in his hand, looking at his lame right leg and the nearby fields, his eyes filled with confusion.

He thought and thought, but he still couldn't understand why he had failed.

"Why are you lying on the riverbank? Hurry up and go home to start a fire!" Old Mrs. Gu went to the vegetable garden to pick vegetables and saw Gu Ruinian sitting on the riverbank, so she started scolding him.

The current Mrs. Gu doesn't indulge Gu Ruinian at all.

Originally, the Xu family was willing to offer fifty taels of silver for Gu Ruinian to marry into their family. Gu Ruinian analyzed the pros and cons for Xu Xinghua, saying that since he was already willing to marry into the family, there was no need to give the fifty taels of silver to the Gu family.

The Gu family shouldn't expect to get a single penny from him.

When Old Madam Gu found out, she was so angry she almost fainted. She had planned to give those fifty taels of silver to Gu Honglian as her dowry, but at the last moment, her grandson betrayed her.

How could she not hate it.

So, in the days leading up to the engagement, Old Mrs. Gu tormented Gu Ruinian in various ways.

Hearing Old Mrs. Gu's cursing, Gu Ruinian cursed her in his heart while standing up without daring to stop for a moment.

If he dares to disobey Old Madam Gu, she won't even give him food.