Wang Xiaotian had directly told his parents that he liked Zhou Xiaocao. Of course, it wasn’t clear if he really liked her or, after dealing with the Sun family bothering him for so long, he just didn’t want to have to marry Sun Guihua. But in either case, he did tell his parents he liked Zhou Xiaocao without any consideration for how it might affect her.
Of course, even if Wang Xiaotian himself was not sensible, that was understandable, he was a child after all. However, Wang Changhe and his wife were adults. After getting this news, they should have done one of two things. One, if they felt the match wasn’t suitable, they should have quietly talked to the Zhou family and separated the children. Or two, if they felt it was suitable, they should have gone to the Zhou family and proposed marriage directly. And if the marriage was really fixed, they would then have nothing further to do with the girl from the Sun family or, at most, she would marry in later as a concubine.
But that second option was unrealistic. The Zhou family was well aware that Wang Changhe had high hopes for his son and didn’t feel that their daughter was a good match for him. This was the whole reason why they had clarified early on that they had no intention of letting Zhou Xiaocao marry into the Wang family. Simply put, Wang Changhe and his wife’s stance on this matter was already known before this matter even happened.
But while the adults all had a certain tacit understanding, the same could not be said for the children. Since a young man and a young woman spent so much time together, this kind of result was predictable. And when it actually happened, since the adults had already decided that the two families would not marry, the correct thing to do would be for them to quietly come over to the Zhou family and make things clear, then separate the two children.
Things could have been easily handled in a low-key manner. The children would have been separated and, after not seeing each other for long enough, their feelings would fade, and everything would be fine. The matter would end there, and neither of the children’s future marriages would be affected.
But from how they handled things, it was as if Wang Changhe and his wife were afraid that everyone else in the village wouldn’t know about the matter. They made a big fuss in front of the Zhou family home, causing rumors to spread everywhere.
And the really annoying thing was that their family’s child was a boy. Truth be told, this damned primitive era was really too tolerant towards men, so the impact of this kind of scandal on a young man was actually not that big.
On the other hand, Zhou Xiaocao was a girl. Moreover, she was already 14 years old and, if nothing went wrong, she would be getting married after another two years or so. And these two years were an important period of her life which her family would usually use to try to find a good match for her.
But when this news spread out, it would inevitably stain Zhou Xiaocao’s reputation and cause people to think of her as a shameful woman. And when that happened, how could she possibly find a good match? Not every family was like the Sun family, able to act completely shamelessly and throw away all face to cling to another family’s son.
And if you said that Wang Changhe and his wife had done this “accidentally”, Su Tang wouldn’t believe it for a second. Clearly, these two villains were afraid that their son might really insist on marrying Zhou Xiaocao, a girl they felt was unworthy of their son, so they decided to just directly destroy her reputation and her future in order to make sure that wouldn’t happen.
The fact that Wang Changhe and his wife would do such a thing showed how vicious they really were.
Madam Qin sighed again and continued, “That child is really too pitiful. A few days ago, the Zhou family tried to send Xiaocao back to stay at her grandmother’s house for a while to get away from this mess but, as a result, there were already a lot of rumors going around even over there. Thanks to that, she even tried to hang herself. Now her parents brought her back home and are keeping a close eye on her for fear that she might try again. It’s really…”
Su Tang shook her head. In order to marry Wang Xiaotian, that Sun Guihua was ready to do anything without any cares. Losing her reputation? She didn’t care at all! Meanwhile, a decent girl was nearly forced to death. This world… Su Tang had to say, was really f*cking disgusting.
“These people all only know how to flatter the ones above and step on those below. I want to go and see her. NuanNuan, accompany me.” When Su Tang heard what kind of situation Zhou Xiaocao was in, she felt she couldn’t just ignore it. She had to go and have a look.
Anyway, she had already sent the orange cat out to listen in on any new gossip in the village, so she had some time and could stay a little longer to wait for him to be back. This way she could even let him ride the carriage back to town together with her instead of forcing him to run back on his own, and the lazy cat wouldn’t be able to harangue her about abusing him again.
Of course, Su Tang really wanted to say that the fat cat really needed the exercise! It could hardly be called abuse.
Madam Qin also felt this was a good idea. After all, she was an elder, so even when she visited she could only talk to Zhou Xiaocao’s parents. But Su Tang and Su Nuan were also both young girls, so they would be able to speak with Zhou Xiaocao more easily.
“Well, Tang’er, go and have a look. You are so smart, so you should be able to persuade her. Let Xiaocao think things through properly.” Madam Qin nodded and agreed.
Thus, Su Tang headed over to the Zhou family home with Su Nuan. Although the Zhou family had also recently finished their farming work, the people of the household were all in a low mood. After all, such a thing had happened to Zhou Xiaocao, and they were all worried for her.
“Uncle Zhou, Auntie, are you here?” Su Tang and Su Nuan stood outside the yard and shouted.
Zhou Dazhu and Madam Yang, Zhou Xiaocao’s parents, were both at home and heard the voices outside calling for them. They stepped out to take a look and saw Su Nuan and Su Tang standing there. They hurriedly opened the door and invited the two girls in, “Tang’er, Nuan’er, you’re both here. Are you two looking for Xiaocao?”
Su Tang had met these two before and remembered that, before this incident, their little family had seemed very happy. But meeting her today, Madam Yang’s face looked drawn and bitter.
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