“Huh?” Fang Zhengzhi felt that the situation escalated too quickly.
Wasn’t it a tearful scene of a long-awaited reunion previously? How did it suddenly turn into a grandson topic? Was it time for him to marry a wife and have children?
No, it did not seem so?
He was just 18 years old. Although it was not rare to be married at 18 years old, not doing so would not result in him being cast aside by his family?
“You’re already a Cang King now, Mother is aware, that you’ve already become a king. Things are slowly piling up, and you won’t know when will you be leaving again. Mother heard from Xian King that he wanted to let you marry the Thirteenth Princess? Then, you rejected her marriage?” Qin Xuelian looked at the flabbergasted Fang Zhengzhi, as she explained patiently.
“Yes.” Fang Zhengzhi nodded his head.
He was not surprised that the Xian King Lin Yun had told Qin Xuelian above this happening. Because Lin Yun still had the thought of getting the Thirteenth Princess in their family, through Qin Xuelian.
“Hmmm, it’s good to reject her. Although I’ve heard that the Thirteenth Princess is a smart and sensible girl, but if she is going to marry to our poor family, it might not be suitable for her. Mother thinks that Yuer is pretty good, why not you get the marriage settled soon?” Qin Xuelian nodded again and winked at Wu Yuer, who was standing against the door.
“Ah?!” Fang Zhengzhi seemed to have figured out how all these had happened. It actually wasn’t his own mother, but the scheming Wu Yuer who had hatched this plan.
“I’m determined, just settle the matter this way!” Qin Xuelian said stubbornly, trying to force her way through, and not caring about what Fang Zhengzhi had in mind.
“Mother……This can’t be it? Are you really going to let me marry Wu Yuer? You really don’t know much about Wu Yuer? She…..is……Hmmm, she is just someone who looks at money. This lady, I can’t marry her!” Fang Zhengzhi looked at Qin Xuelian, and tried to persuade her nicely.
“Fang Zhengzhi, you’re asking for death!” A frustrated sound came out, and thereafter a figure zoomed towards Fang Zhengzhi.
“Mother, look……Didn’t I tell you that I can’t marry her?” Fang Zhengzhi said calmly, with no intention of attacking back as he stood still on the ground.
“You…” Wu Yuer stopped moving, as her expression changed immediately. Looking at the surprised Qin Xuelian, she had to force herself to smile and said, “Aunty, I was just playing with Fang Zhengzhi.”
“Playing? I see……Oh right, dear Yuer, why not you play a song for us?” Fang Zhengzhi looked at the forceful smile from Wu Yuer, as he grinned and flashed a smile.
“Fang Zhengzhi, you…..Hehe, sure, you want to look at me play a song right? Sure, I shall go and prepare. I’ll make sure you’re satisfied.” Wu Yuer sighed but still clenched her teeth and left.
“Remember to stick a big red flower on your head.” Fang Zhengzhi exclaimed as his smile get bigger.
Want to rely on Qin Xuelian to force a marriage?
Game on!
“Zheng’er!” Qin Xuelian’s voice came out again.
“Mother, you rest early, I…” Fang Zhengzhi knew his mother’s character, so he had to escape before waiting for her to finish.
“Zheng’er, Mother is right, just take Yuer. No matter what, please just bring Yuer home for Mother. If not, don’t think of calling my Mother!” Qin Xuelian said, with no intention of letting Fang Zhengzhi leave.
“…” Fang Zhengzhi paused and did not leave. The Fang family’s house was just so small for him to run around.
But this matter really did give him a headache.
All this while,
He had always known about the tradition in the Mountain Village, which is that males and females would marry one another after getting older. He also knew about the matchmaking laws and words that come along with marriage.
But little did he know that…
One fine day he would also become one of the sacrificed in this system.
Forced to get married?!
And just by looking at Qin Xuelian’s attitude, there was almost no possibility of her changing her mind.
No choice?
Marrying this Wu Yuer?
Fang Zhengzhi had definitely considered about this matter before, but it was merely just a small thought in his mind.
But he didn’t think that…
Wu Yuer could make Qin Xuelian this determined in just a short span of half a month.
What did this girl do?
“The day after, let’s just settle the marriage the day after tomorrow. Since the Xian King had brought quite a handful of stuff this time round, and that there are so many people in the village, let’s just do the celebration at the field in front of the village.” Qin Xuelian said as she gestured for Fang Houde to come over. “Hey, what are you still waiting for? Go and prepare the wedding gifts?”
“Oh, wedding gifts! Okay, okay… I will go and prepare now.” Fang Houde heard and left the house. He came back shortly after, with a huge wooden box.
“Mother…..Are you being serious?” Fang Zhengzhi stared at the wooden box and let out a bitter smile.
Because he was certainly aware of the things inside.
Other than five more treasures, it included a set of contract…
The contract regarding the ten gold mines in the Southern Region.
It was Fang Zhengzhi’s “collateral”.
Throughout this one year in the Shadow Sect, his knowledge had already reached a flawless leve. As such, his value was already different from the rest.
For more than a year, he had been searching the Shadow Sect for things of important values. Finally, he kept five treasures that were definitely of high value.
When he had returned to the Northern Mountain Village earlier, Fang Zhengzhi had kept the treasures in the wooden box. Only Qin Xuelian and Fang Houde knew about this matter.
Other than them…
Nobody else knew about this matter.
Precisely, Fang Zhengzhi did not tell them about the values of each treasure, as he only explained them that they were some antiques.
That was so as not to let them think too much into the items.
As for why he wanted to keep them at home, the reason was very simple. It was because Fang Zhengzhi had no confidence that he was able to stay alive in the Flame Capital City.
“Of course I’m serious, let’s just give that five items together. Actually, with these five broken antiques, will Wu Yuer treasure them?” Qin Xuelian nodded her head with a generous look on her face.
“Broken antiques? Mother, do you know what are these things?” Fang Zhengzhi felt that his effort and hard work had been humiliated.
“What are they?”
“I won’t talk about the antiques, but you take a look at the contract? Oh, I forgot you don’t recognise the characters in the Southern Region. These are gold mines, ten gold mines!” Fang Zhengzhi lowered down his volume, as he tried not to alert Wu Yuer about financial matters.
“Gold mines?!” Qin Xuelian paused for a while and laughed. “Zheng’er, mother might not have much knowledge or education, but gold mines, I know, those are controlled by the King Dynasty, how could they have given you?”
“Normally it would be that case, but they really are gold mines. Back when I was in the Southern Region, I signed this treaty with the current Princess, Shan Yu. They’re ten gold mines, and the biggest of all in the Southern Region!” Fang Zhengzhi explained patiently.
“You are saying…..that we have ten gold mines?!”
“Yes, and other than these antiques….. Hmmm, let’s see, they’re priceless, which would mean that each antique has the value of a city!”
“We still have five cities?!”
“Not only that, I have some savings on my own, that would add on to be around two million. In addition, I still have the golds awarded to me, there should be two to three boxes of them.”
“Zheng’er, where did you go lately? Did you injure your brain during this trip?” Qin Xuelian looked at Fang Zhengzhi with a worried expression.
“….” Fang Zhengzhi was speechless.
……
Fang Zhengzhi did not care much about Qin Xuelian’s lack of trust in him. It was because, even if she were to trust him completely, her extend of knowledge was limited as well.
Just like how in the previous world, a 18 years old lad would work for two months, before coming home and exclaiming that he had earned a few million.
Who would actually believe that?
Fang Zhengzhi did not explain further, as he took out a stack of two million dollars and placed them gently in front of Qin Xuelian.
It was a huge pile of money, and stacked up to about an inch height. Sunlight shone on the plain fainted white colour, and they looked outstanding even in the day.
Qin Xuelian was shock.
So was Fang Houde who was carrying the box.
There was no point for them to count the money in detail.
“Zheng’er, I have not asked you before, and did not dare to ask you. But today, mother would like to ask you something, what happened….. when you went to the Flame Capital City with the Divine?”
“Nothing much, just that we managed to stop an invasion from the Northern Barbarians.”
“Northern barbarians?!”
“Yes, and also we killed a Demon King.”
“Demon……Demon King?! What…..What is that?” Qin Xuelian’s mouth opened widely as there was also a tinge of suspicion as well as confusion.
“It can be said to be some kind of beast.” Fang Zhengzhi did not want to make Qin Xuelian worry so much, so he made it sound casual.
“Hmmmmm….Even if you have explained it, I wouldn’t have understood.” Qin Xuelian nodded her head and became silent. Then she waved at Fang Houde again, “Since Zheng’er have a few silvers here, but Yuer is really not bad, so we can’t look down on her just because we have a couple of silvers. Why not, we leave the gold mines here, and we pick two out of the five treasures for Wu Yuer. Afterall we can’t neglect her!”
“Yes, yes we can’t neglect Yuer, we can give her more silvers, since we won’t be spending a lot of them.” Fang Houde agreed.
“Let’s just give 80 thousands of them, for good luck.” Qin Xuelian continued.
“Sure.” Fang Houde said without any objections.
“Father, Mother… Did you understand what I have just said?” Fang Zhengzhi opened his eyes widely, as his life’s greatest achievement was about to be brushed off so casually. He felt speechless, but he really had to voice his opinions at this moment.
“Understand, we both do. Mother know that you’re a filial kid, and that you’re afraid that we won’t have enough to spend, but we really have nothing much to spend on, since we’ll just be staying home for the rest of our lives.”
“…” Fang Zhengzhi felt bitter, “Mother, I don’t want to get married so early.”
“But I want to have grandchildren.”
“But I……Actually, I’m not prepared for all these.”
“No worries, I will help you to be prepared. Don’t you worry about it, you don’t have to meddle in anything, just wait till you two get in the room.”
“No rooms for negotiation?”
“No!”
“Mother, actually I really don’t feel like marrying Wu Yuer, why not…..I go out and get one daughter-in-law back for you?”
“Sure, but you need to marry Wu Yuer first.”
“Why?”
“Would I not know about what you’re thinking? You’re already the Cang King, there’s no problem for you to marry two or three wives. But Mother likes Yuer, you might not like her, but still just marry Yuer first, then marry another one!”
“…” Fang Zhengzhi wanted to add on, you’re really my biological mother. But he swallowed that down as soon as it reached his mouth.
How?
Is he really going to marry Wu Yuer?
Fang Zhengzhi felt his head aching in pain. It was not completely due to the fact that he did not want to marry Wu Yuer, but the time he had to reach the Heavenly Dao Pavilion test was already reduced.
If there were to be his wedding in the village, the Heavenly Dao Pavilion test would have ended even before he left the village.
That was one reason.
Secondly, while he might indeed be a little selfish at times, but regarding such an important milestone, he wanted to think more about himself.
He knew that he only had a few more months to live. If he were to really marry Wu Yuer at this time, and consummate their wedding, he was able to leave grandchildren for them, and it sounded like a perfectly suitable move.
But…..
As for Wu Yuer?
She might need to face a life of being a widow four months later.
If it were to be some other woman, Fang Zhengzhi might not care much about it. But to Wu Yuer, he could never do that. He would never marry Wu Yuer, not least before he knew if he was able to continue living or not.
But Qin Xuelian had no idea about all these.
Fang Zhengzhi wouldn’t want Qin Xuelian to know that he had fewer than four months left to live. He could not bring himself to tell Qin Xuelian the truth.
Escape when the night was dark?
That would be the very last resort, but not it was not what Fang Zhengzhi would want to do, as he did not want Qin Xuelian to worry once again, after seeing her weak facial features.
He had to let Qin Xuelian remain happy, and only that could suppress the knot and the burden that had accumulated in her chest for the past half a month. He was afraid that another betrayal of her wishes would result in an untreatable illness.
He cannot reject Qin Xuelian’s “forced marriage”.
But he couldn’t marry Wu Yuer either. Moreover, he had to leave the Northern Mountain Village almost immediately, and yet still keep her happy while he left the village.
It was a seriously difficult question.
What should he do?