coobybook Chapter 418: Weird House
Chapter 418: Weird House
Qin Luoluo crouched beneath a leafy tree in the yard, lazily basking in the sun. Something was amiss. Why was the tree covered in green leaves so early in the spring? He squinted and examined it carefully. It was an ancient camphor tree, a southern evergreen. It seemed his rebirth had taken him south of Wanjiang.
After Qin Luoqi finished his meal, he called Xiao Pangdun and asked him to tell him in detail about the man’s engagement.
Su Anping rubbed his little hands. He almost poked a hole in the kitchen when he lit the fire for the first time, and was hit on the palm of his hand by Su Xiaoxiao. He was so angry that he wanted to curse, and just as he opened his mouth to say a dirty word, Su Xiaoxiao hit him a few more times.
Now he suspected that the fat girl in front of him was definitely not his sister Su Xiaoxiao. Helplessly, he didn't dare to say anything and just slapped her.
"A few days ago, a matchmaker named Huang came to propose marriage. Dad said it would be shameful for a 20-year-old girl like you not to get married. But you were adamant about not marrying a man you had never met. You said you wanted to find your true love."
Qin Luosheng was stunned. Wow, this girl has quite a good awareness!
"But the matchmaker said that no man of marriageable age from a normal family would be interested in you. You're so big and a butcher, so everyone is afraid that you'll eat too much and no one would dare to marry you."
Luo Yu glared at the fat kid fiercely: "Am I that scary? Besides, what's wrong with being fat? It's such a blessing."
The little fat boy put his hands on his hips and pretended to be righteous and said: "That's right, our whole family is fat, and we eat much better than ordinary people. They are just jealous of us."
"Let's get down to business."
The little fat boy was tired of standing, so he squatted down, picked up a small branch and drew randomly in the mud.
"Matchmaker Huang said that if you don't get married by the age of 20, the government will just match you with a bachelor. So she said she found a good match for you, someone's second wife, and the betrothal gift is quite generous."
Luo Yu asked curiously, "Why didn't I see him coming today?"
"He's very old. My parents said he's already in his sixties. I guess he couldn't walk well enough to come this time. I overheard the matchmaker say that the old man is a wealthy man, and his grandchildren are much older than you. Haha, that's why you refused to marry him and insisted on breaking off the engagement. But my parents were afraid that the government would marry you off to a poor guy, so it would be better for you to marry into a rich family so that you could have a stable life."
Luo Yu glared at the fat boy again: "Oh my god, she's such an old matchmaker. No wonder she's so eager to arrange marriages in the first month of the lunar year. I guess she's introducing me to an old man who's about to be buried, because she's afraid he won't survive the first month of the lunar year, right?"
Luo Yu was very angry. Women in this era were really pitiful. They could not resist the orders of their parents and the words of the matchmaker, and the only way to resist was to commit suicide.
"Little Fatty, I'm such a pitiful sister of yours, but why do I feel like you don't even sympathize with me at all?"
"My mother said it's better to marry an old man. When he dies, you'll have everything. It's better than marrying a poor guy. Besides, with so much betrothal gifts sent to my family, I'll be able to marry a good wife when I grow up."
"..."
Is there any justice in the world? Luo Yu swung the stick and beat the fat boy again.
Originally, Luo Yu thought that his mother loved her daughter, but he didn't expect that this family had such ulterior motives.
No, she had to find a way to leave this haunted place. If the matchmaker knew that she was not a ghost, she might come back and ask her to marry the old man who was about to be buried.
Luo Yu went back to the house and searched around. Wow, all Su Xiaoxiao's belongings were just a string of copper coins and a few sets of tattered clothes.
She thought of taking the household registration away first. Besides, the matchmaker came today to arrange the marriage and should have asked for a lot of betrothal gifts. Anyway, her parents were such a bad person that they wanted to take all the betrothal gifts after Su Xiaoxiao died. It wouldn't be too much for her to spend some money for Su Xiaoxiao who died unjustly, right?
"Little Fatty, do you know where your parents put the betrothal gifts?"
"Su Xiaoxiao, my name is Su Anping, not Little Fatty, so don't call me that."
Qin Luoqi raised his big fat hand, and Su Anping immediately retracted his neck in fear.
Luo Yu then took a closer look at these hands. They were white, but too white, like the bloodless paleness of hands that had been soaked in water for years. In addition, he often used the knife to slaughter pigs, chop pork and bones, so the fingers and palms of these hands were covered with calluses. He touched the back of his hand and found that the calluses were rougher than the old bark of the ancient tree behind him.
Luo Yu became even more determined and decided to get some betrothal gifts and leave secretly.
Su Anping didn't know what she was planning, but this ghost was completely different from his sister Su Xiaoxiao. She would hit him at any time, so he didn't dare to ask any more questions.
"I don't know where it is, but I heard there is a lot of silver, which is reserved for me to find a wife when I grow up."
"Oh, so that's it!" Qin Luosheng chuckled. "You don't need that much money to find a wife. Why don't we go get some and buy some delicious snacks in town? I heard that there are glutinous rice balls with meat, candied dates, and plums in them. Do you want to try them?"
"Really? I want to eat, I want to eat."
"Okay, then tell me where my parents put the betrothal gifts?"
"I really don't know, but I know where Mom likes to hide the key to their room. I'll take you to find it."
"Oh, my Su Anping is so good. I'll buy you a kite and a mask to play with later."
"Really? Then I also want a small scooter. As long as I put one foot on the ground, the scooter will fly very fast."
Luo Yu's eyes suddenly lit up, and he asked the fat boy, "Is our village far from the town or the prefectural capital? Oh, what's the name of our prefectural capital?"
"You don't know this, stupid?" The little fat boy thought for a moment and said bewilderedly, "I know it takes us an hour to get to the town, and two hours to get to the nearest county town by ox cart!"
Luo Yu held his forehead and continued to ask: "Do you know what the county town is called?"
"I know our village is called Quanshui Village. It's very big. There's a big spring at the end of the village that flows all year round."
Luo Yu had seen useless people, but she had never seen such a useless brat. She didn't want to say any more nonsense to this brat, so she dragged him by the collar to find the door key.
It turned out that the key was hidden in a movable earthen brick in the toilet, and the brick was specifically facing the buttocks side. A normal person would never have thought of this trick.
Qin Luoshen used the key to open the main house of the Su family. He asked the fat boy to stand guard outside the door. The fat boy was about to shout, but Luoshen raised a strong arm and the fat boy immediately wilted.
Su Xiaoxiao was very strong. She slapped him without holding back, leaving five red claw marks on the chubby little boy's white arm.
Luo Yu had sensed it when she was moving things. This bedroom was in the inner room, and the outer room contained a tea table and several large boxes. Luo Yu unloaded each box and examined it, finding it was full of junk. She then walked into the inner room and was amazed by the rows of cabinets neatly arranged on either side of the bed. She'd mistakenly thought it was some kind of pharmacy.
The matchmaker had only just delivered the betrothal gifts to the groom's family one morning, and yet, they had already been swept away, leaving no trace of them. However, the large boxes outside looked like the ones carried in for the betrothal gifts. Three large boxes, how could there be nothing of value in them? Or had all the valuables been put away?
Luo Yu refused to give up and opened all the drawers. He even pried open the locked ones because he couldn't find the key. Sure enough, he found a few ingots of silver, about two hundred taels. For an ordinary family, marrying a daughter-in-law was a huge expense. No wonder Su Xiaoxiao's parents insisted on marrying her to this old man who was about to die. Her family had probably never seen so much silver in their lives.
Luo Yu unceremoniously took away ten ingots of ten taels of silver, a total of one hundred taels. She thought that if she really planned to go to the northwest to find Qin Bingrui, this amount would probably not even cover half the journey.
"Su Xiaoxiao, hurry up, I heard someone's voice, it must be Matchmaker Huang who brought people here to make trouble."