roccoschili Chapter 7 She Publicly Annulled the Engagement
Chapter 7 She Publicly Annulled the Engagement
Knowing he was in the wrong, Lu Jiangting stammered and couldn't say anything.
His parents, however, were still trying to make amends for him.
"No, we'll help her this once and that's it. How can we help her forever? Yuyao, this time, it was Jiang Ting's fault. I won't allow him to help again next time, so please forgive him this time."
Lin Yuyao sniffled and said in a tearful voice, "Uncle, can you give me back my dowry first?"
what?
“This…” Lu Cong looked at Lu Jiangting, “Jiangting, all the money is in your hands, how much do you have left?”
Lu Jiangting shook his head, "No, I lent them all to Fang Qing."
"Huh? You had over a thousand yuan on you, did you borrow it all?"
"Yes." He looked indignantly at Lin Yuyao and said, "How could you go back on your word? Didn't you say you'd pay me back in three months?"
"Three months? After the shop is transferred, she needs to renovate, buy the necessary equipment, and open for business. It's impossible for her to pay it back in three months."
“I told you, if she can’t pay me back, I’ll help her.”
Lin Yuyao gave a bitter smile, "Didn't you say that if we got married, you would give me all your money?"
Lu Jiangting: "..."
"Your salary is all mine, how are you going to pay it back? Are you going to pay it back to yourself with my own money?"
Everyone suddenly realized.
"Yes, Xiao Lu, isn't saying that the same as using your own money to pay yourself back? Aren't you just trying to prevent Fang Qing from paying you back?"
He never intended for her to pay it back, but now that he was being pressed, Lu Jiangting said bluntly, "So what if I don't pay it back? Jianjun saved my life. Isn't my life worth a little over a thousand yuan?"
Lin Yuyao said, "Everyone sees that, right? It's all just an excuse. What about borrowing money, what about helping her pay it back? It's all just an excuse he used to coax me. The truth is, he never intended for her to pay it back. He owes someone his life, he can pay it back with his own money, why should I be dragged into it? I don't owe them anything."
"What do you mean 'you' and what do you mean 'me'? We're married, so we're one, husband and wife, and there's no distinction between you and me."
Lin Yuyao sneered, "It's not a matter of 'yours' or 'mine.' What's yours belongs to Fang Qing, and what's mine still belongs to Fang Qing, right?"
Lu Jiangting: "..."
Lu Cong: "Yu Yao, although Jiang Ting was in the wrong, you shouldn't say such hurtful things. What belongs to you two is naturally what belongs to you two, how can it belong to Fang Qing?"
Lin Yuyao looked at Lu Cong's thin and frail appearance, and how he still had a cigarette in his hand.
Because of her long-term smoking of inferior cigarettes, her health is poor, and she will have to take care of him for at least ten years before she dies.
Lu Jiangting's mother has cataracts, and they will get worse in the future.
The elderly woman didn't understand the concept of cataract surgery, and even when her condition worsened to the point of blindness, she still didn't get it done.
She served the old man until he died, and then she served the blind old woman. How could one word describe her misery?
She won't let herself become the person in her dreams.
Now that enough people have gathered around and the reasons have been explained, it's time for her to propose annulment.
It's not her fault for breaking off the engagement; it's Lu Jiangting who went too far.
"Father, Mother, I don't want to live this kind of life. I want to break off the engagement."
Lin Dawei and Ye Lian had already planned to call off their engagement when they saw their daughter crying so pitifully.
Upon hearing her say she wanted to call off the engagement, the two readily agreed.
"Okay, let's not get married."
hiss!
Everyone gasped.
Lu Jiangting's expression also changed. Lin Yuyao had been pursuing him and liked him for so many years, how could she break off the engagement?
"You want to break off the engagement?"
"Yes."
His blind mother leaned against the door frame, looking at Lin Yuyao's blurry figure, and said, "Yuyao, marriage is a serious matter and you can't joke about it. Jiang Ting is wrong, but I'll help you beat him up and make him change. You can't call off the engagement."
Hearing this, Lin Yuyao laughed so hard she almost cried.
Think of that poor woman in my dream, who heard the blind old woman say the same things countless times.
Every time she got really angry with Lu Jiangting, the old lady would jump out and say she would beat Lu Jiangting up for her so she wouldn't be angry.
Then she symbolically patted Lu Jiangting a few times, scolded him lightly, and turned to Lin Yuyao, saying, "Look, Mom helped you hit him. He knows he was wrong, so don't blame him."
The cycle repeated itself, and so he wasted his entire life.
Lin Yuyao shook her head. "Whether you hit him or not is your business. I am not willing to take on the risks that will come with the marriage. I must break off the engagement, and you must return my dowry."
Lu Jiangting: "Lin Yuyao, are you serious?"
"It's real, even more real than a pearl, so please return the marriage certificate to me and give back my dowry."
"But the marriage application has already been submitted, and they should have received it by now. We're not breaking off the engagement, we're getting a divorce. It's a military marriage, and I don't agree to it. You can't get a divorce from me."
Lin Yuyao didn't mention that the marriage certificate was on its way back, because she was afraid that if Lu Jiangting made another call, the person would chase after the package and take it back.
So she said, "So you've got me cornered now, just to steal my three hundred yuan dowry?"
"I..." Lu Jiangting was speechless for a moment, then sighed and said, "I didn't think that way. I didn't marry you for three hundred yuan."
"You always say nice things, but they're just empty words to flatter me. You don't have to keep them, so of course you can say whatever you want."
"But what did you do? You said it wasn't for my three hundred dollars, but what happened? I gave you three hundred dollars the day before so you could use it to buy things for the wedding. The next day, you took my dowry and went to repay your favor."
The neighbors started gossiping about Lu Jiangting, saying that the young man was dishonest and had deceived the Lin family's young girl.
They always say nice things, but their actions are another matter entirely.
If you owe someone your life, then you should repay it yourself. You can even repay them with your entire life.
But you can't use a young girl's dowry to compensate for it, what kind of logic is that?
Lu Jiangting blushed with embarrassment after being reprimanded. How could he not know that what he had done was wrong?
He knew it, but he did it anyway.
Then he felt that since Lin Yuyao was his wife, she was one of his own, and therefore they should be husband and wife as one.
Therefore, it's only right for him to make her suffer any injustice.
Her only mistake was becoming his wife.
Ye Lian hugged Lin Yuyao and cried, "My dear daughter, you've suffered so much. It's alright if we get married, we'll get a divorce anyway. If that man surnamed Lu doesn't agree to the divorce, we'll go to his boss. We'll expose his dirty deeds to the highest authorities, I don't believe that the higher-ups will protect him."
Lin Dawei raised his carrying pole and said, "You dog, if you dare not divorce me, I'll beat you to death."
Lu Jiangting opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word.
But his father, Lu Cong, pushed him and said, "Go and get the money back. Go tomorrow. Yu Yao, I'll have Jiang Ting get it back. Let's not get a divorce, but we'll still have the wedding banquet."
“How can this be?” Lu Jiangting said, “I just gave them the money today, and I’m going to ask for it back tomorrow. What will they think of me? How can I face Jianjun?”
[P.S.: Lu keeps saying he's already married, firstly to deceive the villagers who don't know any better, and secondly because he thinks that once the documents are submitted, the marriage certificate will be issued without a doubt (in those days, some systems weren't as perfect as they are now, where both people have to be present to get a certificate).]