Chapter 2199: Your Days Aren’t Easy, Are They?
Chapter 2199: Chapter 2199: Your Days Aren’t Easy, Are They?
Taking a wife, and he still has to bring along her family back to his hometown, settle them down, and take care of them?
This demand would be outrageous not just for a rich merchant, but for anyone.
Yet that rich merchant agreed without a second word, and the Wei family were overjoyed.
The capital was nice enough, but for the penniless Wei family, it was far better to live in some small place as idle lord and lady, with food and clothes provided and no need to work.
They had even already pictured it all: once Ms. Wei became the rich merchant’s wife, they too could rise with the tide. When they got to the merchant’s hometown, they’d first have this son-in-law (brother‑in‑law) buy them a house, then assign them a few Maids.
If the merchant refused, they simply wouldn’t let Ms. Wei marry him.
Hearing this, Shu Yu could only think the Wei family were unbelievably stupid. On what basis did they imagine that once they moved, as total strangers in a strange place, they could keep daydreaming like that? A man who can build up a business and become the richest in the region, would he let a bunch of fools like them take advantage?
Not just Shu Yu— even Aunt Hong felt they were daydreaming.
She looked at Wei Tang’s expression and guessed, "Your days haven’t been easy since you followed that merchant back, have they?"
Wei Tang wanted to refute her. He opened his mouth, then turned his head away in aggrieved silence.
No, they weren’t easy.
At first they had thought the merchant fancied Ms. Wei because he liked her, and that he would extend that affection to the Wei family as well.
Only after following the merchant back to his home did they realize he only valued Ms. Wei’s birth hours.
The merchant was already past thirty and had long since married, not just once. Yet all three of his wives had died young, without leaving him a single son or daughter.
On top of that, none of the children from his concubines had survived either.
Seeing that his family line was about to die out, the merchant grew very anxious.
Especially since rumors were already spreading nearby that he jinxed wives and children and was doomed to a lonely old age; elders in his clan had even urged him to quickly adopt an heir.
How could that be acceptable? Handing over all this family property to an outsider— the merchant was a thousand times, ten thousand times unwilling.
When he went to a temple to pray to the gods and Buddha, he ran into a monk who cast a divination for him. The monk said he needed to marry a wife whose hours and zodiac signs matched his; if he married her, his house would be full of children and grandchildren, his business would flourish, and life at home would just grow better and better.
That divination was like the last straw to clutch at; the merchant immediately pulled all his strings to search for such a girl.
It so happened that on this trip to the capital, he met Wei Tang, who had gone to a matchmaker to find a husband for his elder sister and had given out her birth date and hour.
The merchant heard it and— wasn’t it a perfect match?
On one side, the Wei family were greedy for money; on the other, the merchant was greedy for the person. The two parties hit it off right away, and Ms. Wei’s own opinion was the only thing no one bothered to ask.
But to them, Ms. Wei’s opinion simply did not matter.
Because the Wei family demanded that the merchant take the three of them out of the capital first, and only then would they allow him to marry Ms. Wei. To avoid complications, the merchant agreed to their terms.
Only after the Wei family had followed the merchant away did they gradually learn of all these rumors about him.
Of course, the merchant did indeed marry Ms. Wei. He even threw a grand banquet, inviting many relatives and friends, making a real show of liveliness, and letting the Wei family see his wealth and have their eyes dazzled.
But that was all there was to it.
The next day, it was as if a basin of cold water had been dumped over the Wei family’s heads; they completely sobered up.
The merchant did indeed arrange lodging for the Wei family, but this lodging was to be paid for with their own money.