Bride Swap Backfire: My Cousin's Rebirth Made Us a Power Couple-Chapter 50 - 40: Breaking Off the Engagement (Part 4)

The old woman timed her interruption perfectly. "Mr. Zhao," she began, "you have to understand. My husband and I truly knew nothing about Wanyue being promised to someone else. It was all our third son’s doing."

Miaohua scoffed. "Your third son was in town making sesame cakes this morning and didn’t get home until after noon. Mrs. Wang said they went to your house early in the morning, and that it was you and your granddaughter who personally received her."

The old woman was so furious she rolled her eyes. "What damn business is it of yours? We don’t need an outsider who married into the family stirring up trouble."

"It doesn’t matter if I’m an outsider who married in. I’m part of the Zhao Family now. You’re bullying one of our own, and I won’t stand for it."

The old woman looked ready to strike again, but Mr. Zhao cut in with a sharp cough. "We all know full well who did this. Dachang, just tell us, what are you going to do about it?"

Chen Dachang just fiddled with his pipe, polishing it over and over, but he couldn’t manage to say a single useful word.

Not that the old woman expected Chen Dachang to say anything. She had always ruled the roost at home. If Chen Dachang ever dared to go over her head, she’d claw his face off.

Things had come to this, and playing dumb wasn’t going to work anymore. The old woman said, "There’s no point in arguing about whether we promised our granddaughter to someone else. The engagement is off either way. And after all, your Zhao Jing never really intended to marry our girl in the first place."

"Who says Zhao Jing didn’t intend to marry your girl? It was your granddaughter who wanted to break the engagement! Jing didn’t want to force the issue, so he asked his uncle to step in."

"Who can prove that? I didn’t hear it with my own ears, so I refuse to believe it."

"You... you..."

Mrs. Zhao clutched her chest, which ached with anger. Miaohua saw this and rushed over to help calm the older woman.

Meanwhile, the old woman scanned the room. Convinced no one there was a match for her, she grew increasingly smug.

She added, "So what if our Wanyue was the first to mention breaking the engagement? Just look at Zhao Jing’s behavior. We’re from the same village, and they’ve been engaged for nearly ten years. You tell me, how many times has he visited our home? Even when he delivered gifts, he would just stop at the gate and never take a single step into our courtyard. If that’s not looking down on our girl, what is?"

"Bullshit! Our Jing is a scholar! He was observing propriety!"

"We’re all poor villagers, so propriety my ass! Besides, there’s no conflict between being proper and showing you care for a girl. If he’d just brought her a flower or some other little thing once in a while, it would have shown he valued her. But what’s the reality? All these years, has Zhao Jing ever given Wanyue a single thing on his own?"

"You think we can’t see what that means? It’s precisely because we understood that we had to call off this engagement!"

"Let me be perfectly clear. We only have one precious granddaughter, and I can’t let her be entrusted to the wrong man. I went to see Mrs. Zhao a few days ago to talk about calling it off. She’s the one who kept hesitating!"

As she said this, the old woman glanced at Xu Suying, whose face was full of contempt, and then at Chen Wanqing, who was frowning in clear disapproval of her words.

Anger flared within her, and she fabricated a story on the spot. "Mrs. Zhao said at the time that Zhao Jing wasn’t getting any younger, with his mourning period about to end. ’A man should start a family before establishing a career,’ she said. ’But how easy would it be to find him another wife and hold a wedding before he takes the exams next year?’ She said calling it off wasn’t impossible, but that I had to give her my other granddaughter as compensation!"

Without any warning, the blame was suddenly shifted to Chen Wanqing. She was completely stunned.

Everyone there turned to look at her, Zhao Jing included. Chen Wanqing’s scalp prickled with shock. In that instant, she had no idea what to do.

Xu Suying was absolutely livid.

’This old woman... she might not kill you with anger, but she’d disgust you to death.’

’She’s covered in mud herself, and now she’s dragging my daughter down with her! Aaaaargh, I just want to claw someone’s eyes out!’

Xu Suying burst out, "Don’t you dare spout such nonsense! Mrs. Zhao is not the kind of person to make unreasonable demands!"

Chen De’an jumped in as well. "Grandmother, please don’t just make things up."

The old woman shot them a sidelong glance. "’Make things up’? What’s that supposed to mean? You educated folk always talk in riddles I can’t understand. All I know is that Mrs. Zhao took a fancy to Wanqing and insisted she marry Zhao Jing. They’re both my granddaughters, aren’t they? What’s the difference which one marries him?"

The old woman continued her shameless tirade, repeatedly insisting she had done nothing wrong by promising her granddaughter to another. After all, whose fault was it that Zhao Jing had such a poor attitude? Besides, hadn’t she already fixed everything? She had even agreed to give them Wanqing as compensation!

Everyone in the hall was left speechless, unsure if they were more stunned by the old woman’s audacity or by the stark realization that her proposal was, in fact, entirely plausible.