Chapter 354: Forced Marriage
Chapter 354 Forced Marriage
Mother Xiao Hua hurriedly explained, "Hua, you should know that our family doesn’t have the money for a dowry, so their family proposed that it’s okay not to provide a dowry. They just want you to marry Yi’s brother."
Jiang Mengyu frowned: They’re actually using Xiao Hua as a bargaining chip for marriage?
Xiao Hua stood up, "No, I won’t be part of a bride exchange. Whatever dowry they want, we’ll give!"
Mother Xiao Hua said, "How much money can you have? These days, getting a wife costs a dowry of US$ 100, where can we get so much money for the dowry?"
Actually, at this time in the mountains, the dowry money wasn’t that much, generally around sixty yuan, eighty at most. When he said one hundred, he was deliberately making things difficult for Xiao Hua.
Xiao Hua looked towards Jiang Mengyu, and Jiang Mengyu nodded.
Xiao Hua immediately said, "I can borrow the one hundred yuan dowry first from my classmates, but I must continue my education."
Seeing that her daughter really wanted to study, and was capable of doing so, Mother Xiao Hua also hoped that her daughter could get into university and bring glory to the family.
She looked at Father Xiao Hua, "Since our daughter is willing to borrow money for the dowry, let’s not go through with the bride exchange."
Father Xiao Hua frowned when he heard his daughter would borrow money for the dowry, "Our family’s situation is such that it will be difficult to repay the borrowed money."
Xiao Hua quickly said, "You don’t have to repay it, I will repay it myself in the future. Moreover, I can also give another one hundred yuan, to allow my brother to marry his bride with honour."
To avoid being part of a bride exchange, she was going all out. Jiang Mengyu had only given her two hundred yuan, and she planned to use it all.
Father Xiao Hua was swayed by his daughter’s words and looked towards his eldest son, "Since it’s like this, let’s not do the bride exchange, and just provide the dowry."
Having a hundred yuan as a dowry already gave the bride’s family a lot of face.
Besides, bride exchanging doesn’t sound respectable.
But Brother Xiao Hua, Xiao Zhu, didn’t agree, "No, you must marry Ru Yi’s brother."
Jiang Mengyu found it strange, her sister had already agreed to pay, and their parents had agreed not to do the bride exchange, so why was her brother still insistent on it?
Could there be something more to this?
"Brother!" Xiao Hua looked at her brother incredulously, "You could easily get a wife without a bride exchange, why do you insist on me being exchanged?"
Brother Xiao Hua, Xiao Zhu, avoided his sister’s gaze, "This is a demand from the Tian Family. Otherwise, they won’t marry their daughter to me."
"It was before, when they thought our family was poor and couldn’t offer a dowry that they proposed this. But now I’ve already agreed to put forward the money.
With the Tian Family receiving a hundred yuan for the dowry, they could marry another girl, why would they need a bride exchange?"
Xiao Hua’s parents both looked at their son, they too felt it strange; now that there was money for a wife, why insist on a bride exchange? After all, it didn’t sound good.
Moreover, although people at that time favored boys over girls, their Xiao Family was considered decent; otherwise, Xiao Hua couldn’t have continued her education through high school.
Most girls could only attend school until middle school before they had to stop.
Under pressure from Father and Mother Xiao, Xiao Zhu finally told the truth.
The matchmaker had introduced a family from Fengmugen to them, the girl was named Tian Ruyi.
It turns out Tian Xianhua, Tian Ruyi’s brother, saw Xiao Hua Xiao shopping with a few classmates in the county and took a liking to her at first sight.
Later, he asked his companions about her and learned that the girl was Xiao Zhu’s sister, currently studying in the county high school.
So, after returning, he approached the village matchmaker, hoping she would introduce him to Xiao Hua.
But the matchmaker was very certain in telling him that the Xiao Family cherished their daughter greatly, and heard she was even preparing for university.
With Tian Xianhua’s status, the Xiao Family’s parents wouldn’t easily marry their daughter to him.