Courtyard House: The Entire Clan's Extraordinary Marriage to Triplets, a Celestial Beauty

On the other side were Yan Fugui and Yang Ruihua, along with a slender man in his early twenties, who, judging by his appearance, should be their son, Yan Jiecheng.

At this moment, Yan Jiecheng stared intently at the rural woman who was crying with her head down, his eyes filled with excitement and urgency, wishing he could rush up to protect her immediately.

When Yan Fugui and Yang Ruihua saw Li Dabiao enter the courtyard, their expressions changed instantly. They instinctively shrank back and quickly turned their heads away, pretending not to see him. After all, they had witnessed Li Dabiao's power firsthand in the courtyard before. He could even send Yi Zhonghai and Sha Zhu to the police station. They dared not offend this devil.

Wang Hongxia was getting a headache from the argument between the two sides when she saw Li Dabiao walk in. Her eyes lit up, and she quickly waved to both sides, signaling them to stop. Then she walked up to Li Dabiao, a polite smile on her face, and asked, "Dabiao, you're here? You're here to collect your ration book, right?"

Li Dabiao smiled and nodded, glancing at the arguing crowd in the courtyard. Curious, he asked, "Yes, Director Wang, thank you for your help. By the way, what's going on? Why are they arguing?"

Wang Hongxia sighed, a hint of helplessness on her face. She shook her head and explained in a low voice, "Well, what else could it be? The Yan family, that is, Yan Fugui's family, arranged a blind date for their son Yan Jiecheng with a girl from the countryside. Everything was agreed upon, and the bride price was 20 jin of cornmeal. But the girl suddenly changed her mind and insisted on adding another 50 yuan. The Yan family was unwilling, and the two sides ended up arguing with me. I was completely baffled and tried to persuade them for a long time, but to no avail."

No sooner had she finished speaking than the rural woman became enraged. Though thin, she was no pushover. Ignoring Wang Hongxia's status as the street office director, she pointed directly at Yan Fugui and Yang Ruihua, and began to berate them in a shrill voice: "Let me tell you, you city folks are utterly shameful! Do you know the man Liu the matchmaker later proposed marriage to for our daughter? He only glanced at our daughter and immediately agreed to give 50 yuan as a bride price! If Liu the matchmaker hadn't been so nosy and said we accepted your betrothal gift, I wouldn't have bothered coming all this way and wasting my breath talking to you!"

She paused, then straightened her neck and said firmly, "I'll make this clear today: 50 yuan as a bride price, not a penny less! If you give it, I've already prepared the letter of introduction. After today, my daughter will belong to the Yan family. If you don't give it, don't blame me for being impolite; I'll send her to someone else's house right away, and plenty of men will want to marry her!"

Upon hearing the phrase "send them to someone else's house," Wang Hongxia's face instantly darkened. Her brows furrowed tightly, and she strode forward, shouting sharply, "What are you doing? What nonsense are you spouting! What do you mean by 'send them to someone else's house'? You're buying and selling women, do you know that? Just for saying that, I can arrest you all right now, believe it or not!"

The rural woman was startled by Wang Hongxia's imposing manner. She instinctively shrank back, her arrogance instantly diminishing. She quickly waved her hands and whispered in explanation, "Um... sir, please don't misunderstand. I just said it casually, I didn't mean anything by it. And please don't blame me for asking for so much. Our rural area isn't like your city; everyone's struggling to make ends meet. I really had no other choice. Otherwise, I wouldn't have sent my beautiful daughter to the city, would I?"

Looking at her like this, Wang Hongxia sighed helplessly, shook her head, then turned to Yan Fugui and his family of three and said, "Alright, there's no other way now. You two can discuss it yourselves. Since the woman's family is unwilling to compromise and you can't agree on the bride price, if it doesn't work out, I'll have the woman's family return the 20 jin of cornmeal you gave them before, and we'll call it even. You can each find someone more suitable in the future."

Before she could finish speaking, the rural woman became agitated, jumped up, and shouted at the top of her lungs, "No! Why should I return your grain? That was a gift you gave me when you first met my daughter. There's no reason to ask for it back. Besides, my family has already eaten all that grain. Even if we wanted to return it, we wouldn't have any!"

"Shut up!"

Wang Hongxia was truly angry this time, and her tone became increasingly stern. "I'm warning you, if you don't agree to this marriage, you must return the betrothal gifts, otherwise it's extortion! Don't blame me for not only arresting you, but also reporting this to your commune, making your entire village lose face!"

The rural woman was startled by Wang Hongxia's words and immediately shut her mouth, a look of panic on her face. She didn't dare to speak for a long time. After a while, she stammered, "Well... well, we'll have to wait... wait until I get the betrothal gifts, then I'll return the 20 jin of cornmeal to you. Since your Yan family can't afford it, let's leave it at that for today. I'll prepare the 20 jin of cornmeal, and you can come to Zhao Laosan's house in Zhao Family Village, north of the city, to collect it yourselves in three days!"

"On what grounds?"

Yang Ruihua could no longer hold back and started cursing, "Why should we go to your house to get it? That grain was clearly taken from my house by your daughter, so you should return it to us. Why should we make the trip?"

The rural woman narrowed her eyes, a roguish look on her face, and said coldly, "Take it or don't, my daughter went to your house to get the gift herself. If you want it back, go to my house yourself. Stop wasting your breath on me! Let's go!" With that, she pulled the girl who was crying with her head down and prepared to leave.

Upon seeing this, Yan Jiecheng panicked. He rushed forward, grabbed Yan Fugui and Yang Ruihua's arms, and pleaded, "Mother, Father, I've fallen for Xiaobai, I won't marry anyone but her! Please agree, give her 50 yuan as a bride price, I beg you!"

Upon hearing Yan Jiecheng's words, the rural woman stopped abruptly, a calculating glint in her eyes. Actually, while the other family was willing to marry her daughter, the bride price was only 30 yuan. They had only mentioned 50 yuan earlier to try and extort more. Now, seeing Yan Jiecheng's persistence, if she could really get 50 yuan from the Yan family, she would have made a fortune! She knew that a pound of coarse grain only cost five cents these days; 50 yuan could buy thousands of pounds of coarse grain, enough to feed her family for more than half a year.

Upon hearing Yan Jiecheng's words, Yan Fugui became so angry that his nose twisted in anger. He pointed at Yan Jiecheng and shouted, "Are you out of your mind? Do you know how much 50 yuan is? Why should a country girl accept 50 yuan as a bride price? Back then, Qin Huairu only accepted 5 yuan as a bride price when she married Jia Dongxu. Have you been blinded by greed? We're not marrying this girl today. It's utterly shameful!" With that, he grabbed Yan Jiecheng's arm and forcibly dragged him out of the yard.

"Thump!"