Bride Swap Backfire: My Cousin's Rebirth Made Us a Power Couple Chapter 157 - 75: Eve of the Move (3)

"I’ll do the packing. You go lie down. Would you like so ginger soup? I can brew you a bowl with plenty of brown sugar, how does that sound?"

Xu Su Ying naturally had no reason to refuse and was hurried to bed by her daughter.

A short while later, not only was the ginger soup delivered, but also a bed warr filled with hot water.

Xu Su Ying finally felt herself coming back to life, and the color returned to her cheeks.

Xu Su Ying had intended to keep pressing her daughter about consummating the marriage, but the girl bustled about, deliberately keeping her distance.

She would ask a question in a hushed voice, but her daughter would pretend not to hear, making Xu Su Ying so angry she shot her several sharp glares.

’That silly girl is just clueless; she doesn’t know how good a man can be. After the New Year, Jing is seventeen, making him eighteen by nominal age.’

’Lads at that age are all bursting with vigor and vitality. With all that energy and nowhere to spend it all day, it’s the perfect ti for a woman to be enjoying herself.’

’—Except that they’re young and lack technique.’

’But that’s not a major drawback. With a little practice, he’s bound to learn.’

’After that, wouldn’t life be grand?’

’But for so stubborn reason, that silly girl still hadn’t consummated the marriage. It was infuriating!’

On the twenty-fifth, the snow finally stopped. Xu Su Ying directed Chen De’an to hitch up the ox-cart and start moving their things to the county seat.

Xu Su Ying was ticulous in managing her household. She never skimped on what needed to be spent, but she was also careful not to spend a penny more than necessary.

For instance, she left just one set of clothes and bedding at their old ho, taking the rest to the county seat.

After all, who would co back, other than for the spring planting and autumn harvest?

The county seat was ho now, so it had to be made perfectly comfortable.

The mont the Chen family began to move, word spread through the entire village.

Neighbors and townsfolk were gossiping about everything under the sun. So said that the mont Chen Song beca the county magistrate’s assistant, he bought a fine house. This ant he had either accepted ’gifts’ from people or embezzled funds.

Others said Chen Wanqing had married beneath her. No one knew what the Chen family was thinking. Since they were planning to move to the county seat, why hadn’t they waited to find a husband for their daughter there? With Chen Wanqing’s beauty, she could have at least married the son of a wealthy rchant or the scion of an official’s family. In any case, it would have surely been a better match than the Zhao Family.

This seed to lend even more credence to the idea that Chen Song had accepted bribes.

The reasoning went that the house was a ’gift,’ but it had arrived too late—at least, after Chen Wanqing was already engaged to Zhao Jing. The Chen family couldn’t break the engagent again, so they had to grit their teeth and go through with the marriage.

And so, they reached a conclusion: if you want to get rich, you have to be an official.

Once you’re an official, people line up to give you ’gifts.’ Not just houses, but shops too—no wonder the Chen family could afford to include a shop in the dowry! It was because things like that were nothing special to them; if they wanted one, they could get it in an instant!

When these rampant rumors reached Xu Su Ying’s ears, she was absolutely furious.

At first, Xu Su Ying didn’t want to bother with it. But if her husband’s na was tarnished, it wouldn’t just affect his official career—it would impact their son’s future prospects as well.

If it got to the point where their son was implicated and couldn’t take the imperial examinations, that would be enough to make her die of anger.

Xu Su Ying was a woman of action. That very day, she went to the house where the local won usually gathered to gossip.

She even brought a small bag of lon seeds. The mont she arrived, she set them on the table, plopped herself down on the kang bed, and imdiately launched into a complaint.

"That stubborn blockhead, Chen Song, goes around scowling all day, and his voice is so gruff he sounds like a cold-faced demon. Now that he’s been promoted, he’s even more determined to establish his authority. He doesn’t even crack a smile these days. Even his old colleagues are a little intimidated by him. I have no idea who would dare give him ’gifts.’ Chen Song is just itching for a chance to make an example of soone. If he caught a person like that, he’d surely use them to show his might."

The village won fell silent for a mont before one of them asked tentatively, "Then how did your family afford that big house in the county seat?"

"I earned it!"

Xu Su Ying slapped the low table on the kang, her whole body practically vibrating with excitent.

She launched into the story of how she had earned money doing makeup, hairstyling, and dressmaking for people in the days leading up to Mrs. Wang’s birthday. Just like that, the source of her silver was explained.

The won were still skeptical. "You can earn enough silver to buy a house just by doing a little makeup, styling so hair, and making a dress? I don’t believe it!"

"Well, that depends on who I’m doing the makeup, hair, and clothes for. Let tell you, Mrs. Wang’s youngest daughter-in-law is a noble lady from the Prefecture! Her dowry was over a hundred chests. When she ca into the shop, all the jewelry on her head was gold inlaid with precious stones. She had a ruby bigger than a pigeon’s egg, and it was so brilliant it could blind you."