After returning home with the child, her ex-husband knelt down and gently coaxed her.

Anning didn't have time to listen to the rest and hurriedly rode her electric scooter home.

From less than two meters away from her doorstep, Anning could hear lively conversation coming from inside the house.

Chen Yumei was also at her house and immediately spotted Anning at the door.

She quickly waved to Anning, "Anning's back? Come quick, come quick, we've been waiting for you!"

An Ning's mind went blank.

Upon entering the main room, An Tianhua and Li Chunfang were both present, along with a stranger.

Wearing a short-sleeved shirt and shorts, and plastic slippers.

He was of average height and build, with slightly curly hair, wearing glasses, and a short, round face with stubble of shaved sideburns.

He looked at An Ning, his eyes filled with satisfaction.

"Anning, this is my nephew, Chen Dajun. He is tall and handsome, and a reliable person. He works as a programmer at a technology company and earns seven or eight thousand a month."

Chen Yumei enthusiastically rattled off all of Chen Dajun's information in one go, only mentioning the good points.

She pulled Anning next to Chen Dajun, "Dajun, this is Anning, you two should get to know each other."

Chen Dajun couldn't take his eyes off An Ning. He stood up like a savior and said, "I'm Chen Dajun. If we get married, you won't need to go to work anymore. You can just stay home and take care of my parents and the kids."

"Yes, Anning, this is a good day."

Chen Yumei quickly facilitated this good thing, saying, "So many women would love to stay at home as full-time housewives and not have to go out in the wind and sun."

An Ning wouldn't listen to anything. She stared straight at Li Chunfang and An Tianhua, who were standing silently to the side. "Dad, Mom, what does this mean?"

An Tianhua took a few deep drags on his cigarette, his eyes fixed on the ground. "You're not young anymore. Your mother and I have arranged this marriage for you. We'll pick a date to get it done."

Li Chunfang chimed in, "Anning, Dajun is an honest man, and he's also your Aunt Chen's nephew. You won't make a mistake marrying him. Don't worry, your parents are doing this for your own good."

An Ning stared at the two of them in disbelief, her mind completely blank.

How could her marriage have been arranged so quickly?

"But I'm only twenty-two years old..."

"Is twenty-two still young?"

An Tianhua glared at her. "Other people get married and have children when they're seventeen or eighteen. Xiao Rou next door married a construction foreman when she was nineteen, and now her family is building a house in the suburbs. What about you? You're in your twenties, with no family and no job. Why don't you take advantage of your youth to get married? Do you want to stay at home and eat for the rest of your life?"

Knowing An Tianhua's temperament, Chen Yumei saw that the father and daughter disagreed, so she said goodbye and left with Chen Dajun.

Before leaving, she reminded him, "Um... Chunfang, if this marriage goes through, we'll be in-laws, and Anning will be my nephew's wife. Then Old An won't have to pay back the money he owes for the drinks; consider it my gift as his aunt."

After Chen Yumei left, only three people remained in the cramped main room.

An Ning's eyes were red-rimmed. "Is it for the 200,000 yuan dowry?"

An Tianhua smoked a cigarette, remaining silent.

Li Chunfang sighed, "Anning, getting married is for your own good. The bride price is just icing on the cake, and it will also help raise money for your brother's surgery."

"Mom! If it's for Yu-chan's surgery money, I can work and earn money. I don't need to rely on getting married!"

When Anning shouted those words, her voice was trembling with tears welling up in her eyes.

She hoped there was still room for maneuver.

She can remain unmarried her whole life, but she cannot marry someone she doesn't love.

She didn't want to repeat her parents' loveless marriage, spending their lives blaming and arguing with each other, which suffocated her every minute.

An Tianhua was also furious, slamming his cigarette to the ground. "How long will it take you to save up 200,000 yuan by working?! If you can give me 200,000 yuan right now, I'll call off this marriage!"

His words were clear.

Anning's heart finally sank into a deathly silence.

Ultimately, it all comes down to money.

The sky outside the window gradually darkened, and the drifting dark clouds almost swallowed the sun.

With tears in her eyes, she stared intently at An Tianhua and Li Chunfang, then ran away without saying a word.

She rode the tram back to her rented room, her hands trembling as she pulled out all her bank cards, big and small.

Finally, they gathered all the loose change together.

She asked her employer for an advance on her salary for the month and made several phone calls to borrow money from everyone she could.

She doesn't want to get married!

I don't want to at all!

In the midst of the chaos, a card appeared before my eyes.

She turned around, and there was Song Xiaoyu.

Song Xiaoyu looked at her with a worried expression, pursed her lips, and said, "I happened to be off work this morning... I just overheard you making a phone call to borrow money..."

"Ningning, I have over 30,000 yuan here. It's not much, but you can use it first."

An Ning's vision blurred as she stared at Song Xiaoyu for a long time.

The tears that had been held back for so long finally fell.

She pouted, her lips drooping downwards little by little, choking back sobs and unable to speak clearly.

"Little...Little Fish...I don't want to...I don't want to get married..."

......

The sky had completely darkened by the afternoon, with lightning and thunder.

The leaves on the trees lining both sides of the street were rustling loudly in the strong wind.

Soon after, a torrential downpour began.

In the alley, the lights were still on in that low-rise house.

Anning returned in the rain, completely soaked.

With a white canvas bag tucked into her arms, she stood at the door, just about to push it open when she heard An Tianhua and Li Chunfang talking inside.

"Old An, I feel terrible about marrying her off like this just for the sake of the bride price. But Yu Can is our own son, and I can't just watch him die."

An Tianhua smoked a cigarette. "Seventeen years ago, we spent three thousand yuan to buy her back, which saved her life. If it weren't for us, she might have been sold to the deep mountains by human traffickers, either dead or crippled, or her arms and legs might have been broken and she might have been left to beg on the streets, living a life worse than death."

Her steps suddenly felt like they were made of lead, and she couldn't move forward.

Li Chunfang sighed, "I feel really bad. I raised her for seventeen years, like my own daughter. She was also obedient and sensible."

"Right now, we just want her to get married, as a way of repaying the An family for raising her for seventeen years," An Tianhua said. "Besides, the other party is not bad in terms of economic conditions, and we know each other well in the neighborhood, so it's not like we're pushing her into a fire pit."

Li Chunfang chimed in, "If we had known we'd gotten Yu Can pregnant the year we bought her, we wouldn't have ended up like this—"

"You wouldn't go so far as to buy me back, would you?"

The door was pushed open, and An Ning stood outside, soaking wet, her face pale and wet with tears that were hard to tell whether they were from rain or tears.