Yang Yuzhen heard this person slandering her sweetheart’s family, and was furious. She wanted to lash out but was stopped by her mother. After they had walked away, she said, "Mother, I think this person is biased. He might be a relative of the Li family grocery store. How could Zhou Ziang, such a polite person, have a family capable of such things?"
People in love usually don’t listen to others, so Ye Qiu could only agree with her and said, "You have a point. Let’s ask a few more people. Maybe we’ll hear sothing different? Mother won’t just believe one person’s words."
With Ye Qiu saying this, Yang Yuzhen beca instantly happy, "Then Mother, let’s go quickly."
"Rember, today you have to listen to and not act recklessly. Even if you see Zhou Ziang, you can’t run up to him and greet him. We’ll secretly observe him for two days. I don’t distrust him but want the best for you. You’re so pretty; you can’t rush into marriage. If you run to him, you’ll lose your value, understand? Besides, if he’s really as good as you say, there’s nothing to fear from my observation."
"I understand, Mother, don’t worry. I will be reserved, and you’ll certainly agree with him. I’ll hide quietly and won’t let him notice." Yang Yuzhen said confidently.
However, as they walked along, her face darkened because Ye Qiu had asked two local people in the county, and none had a good impression of the Zhou family.
"Oh, the Zhou family. Their shop is a place to avoid; it cheats people and will sooner or later close down," one woman said disparagingly.
Then another woman joined, also angry, "Last month, they said they were selling last year’s cheap rice. I was greedy and bought ten pounds, which turned out to be more than a pound less, and the rice crumbled to dust when pinched. How could anyone eat that?"
"Why would you even go there? It’s known that the rice is soaked in water; such a heartless act, and they dare to sell it."
"Last month, my son got married, and we didn’t have much money, so I thought of buying cheap rice to make do. Who knew it’d be so difficult? Because of this, my family lived on coarse grains for half a month; it almost choked ."
The two won, one after another, had nothing good to say about the Zhou family’s grocery store. Ye Qiu glanced at her daughter and, sure enough, saw her face was very dark.
But she stubbornly said, "The ones buying things are his family, surely that wasn’t Zhou Ziang. He’s so nice and polite; he wouldn’t do such shaful acts."
"Did you just talk about Zhou Ziang?" one of the discussing won turned and asked.
"Oh, a girl from our village said Zhou Ziang from the Zhou family wants to marry her. Her parents asked us to check out his reputation when they found out we’d be in the county. From your words, you seem to know him well?" Ye Qiu smiled with curiosity.
"Oh, how could we not know about him? His reputation is awful here."
Upon hearing this, Yang Yuzhen’s face turned pale. Ye Qiu quickly pinched her, and she forced herself to stay composed.
"I heard he’s a promising young man, why is his reputation so bad? Because of his family?"
"No, his bad reputation stems from him enticing won with his looks. Many won in the county have been victimized by him. Those won are too shy, fearing exposure would an they wouldn’t be able to marry, so they stayed silent. Later, he impregnated a widow, and her family ca to confront him, which is how we found out. Alas, if Zhou Ziang had admitted it and married the widow, it would have been fine. But he refused, claiming she seduced him, even when she showed his personal belongings as proof. The widow was ultimately forced to jump in the river, leading to a double death. When discovered, her body was swollen from the water. Zhou Ziang may have feared her ghost seeking revenge, hence he hired a Taoist to perform rituals!
"That’s not all! A girl from the countryside ca to sell embroidery, sohow ended up at his grocery store, and was coaxed into working for free. Her family noticed their money was off and confronted him, but he denied it. A good maiden’s reputation was ruined, foolishly believing he would marry her.
"Any pretty girl who enters his grocery store wouldn’t escape his harassnt, even married ones weren’t safe. The brothel further down the street counts him as a regular custor. His confidantes include won like Hong Liu and Lu Ying.
"In short, marry anyone but Zhou Ziang. Though his family has property and stores, he’s handso but why would he marry a village girl? Simply because no one in the county would marry their daughters to him!
"Girl, go back and make sure your villagers know and avoid being fooled by him."
"I will definitely warn them. Thank you for today; otherwise, another good girl would’ve been ruined."
"Exactly, people like him sohow avoid being caught. The best place for him would be jail, so he stops harming others."
Once they had walked away, Ye Qiu said coldly, "You heard it all, didn’t you? Zhou Ziang isn’t a good man."
"I don’t believe it," Yang Yuzhen said, pale-faced. "Ziang’s such a nice person, he can’t be like they say. Maybe they are interested in Ziang too and say this to scare us away so they can marry him to their daughters."
"Are you truly naive or just pretending? If one person says this, it might be possible, but two people saying the sa thing, are you still deceiving yourself? If they really wanted to marry him, they would be arguing over him."
Yang Yuzhen pursed her lips, remaining stubborn.
Disappointed, Ye Qiu said outright, "Since you don’t believe others’ words, let’s go see for ourselves if Zhou Ziang is truly a frivolous, irresponsible flirt."
"Mother, I..." Yang Yuzhen was actually beginning to believe but was too afraid to admit her poor judgnt, nor did she want to acknowledge that her closest friend was deceiving her.
Yang Mudan couldn’t possibly be unaware of her cousin’s nature, yet she sent ssages for him, leading her into this trap. What was she thinking?
She thought it was strange; Zhou Ziang seed so nice, why wouldn’t Mudan’s family further connect with him? Clearly, this was a pit.
"Let’s go, seeing is believing."
"Elder sister-in-law, co again next ti!" Zhou Ziang chuckled and wrapped a package for an elderly woman, giving her a playful pat as she left.
However, rather than being angry, the woman winked at him and said coquettishly, "You little rascal, always taking advantage of ."
"Elder sister-in-law is so pretty, I can’t help it," Zhou Ziang joked.
Hiding in the shadows, Yang Yuzhen could hardly believe this was the sa Zhou Ziang who had treated her with such grace and courtesy before. She was furious to the point of tears.
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