Bride Swap Backfire: My Cousin's Rebirth Made Us a Power Couple-Chapter 77 - 49: Business Comes Knocking

Chen Bai could tolerate everything else. After all, he had heard it since he was a child and had long since grown numb to it.

But for them to curse him to have no descendants—which meant cursing the Qian family to have no descendants—made Chen Bai furious for the first time, especially when he thought of his wonderful in-laws and wife.

When an honest man gets angry, he doesn’t throw things or curse people. Chen Bai simply rushed back to the county seat in a silent rage and, from then on, never returned to the village unless absolutely necessary.

A few years later, Chen Bai finally had a daughter. When the Qian family matriarch suggested their granddaughter take his surname, "Chen," Chen Bai refused flatly.

He only said that since the child was born and raised in the Qian family, there was no reason for her to take an outsider’s surname.

The old couple of the Qian family couldn’t persuade him, so they let the child be surnamed Qian. However, in their daily interactions, they insisted on being called her maternal grandparents, not paternal grandparents.

But no matter what they were called, it didn’t change the fact that they were all one family, bound by flesh and blood.

Raised in the palm of such a family’s hand, Yuzhu’s name alone was enough to know how adored she was.

The little girl was raised to be both charmingly naive and clever, a truly delightful child.

She craned her neck, looking all around, but as far as she could see, there was only the empty shop and the two of them. As for anything else—a man, a living one—there wasn’t even a shadow of one.

Qian Yuzhu nudged her cousin’s arm. "Where’s my brother-in-law? I heard he’s a scholar and very handsome. Where’d he go? Why don’t I see him?"

"He had some business to attend to. He left after dropping me off at the shop."

"Ah, what bad timing! I haven’t even met him yet. How awkward would it be if we passed each other on the street and didn’t even know it."

Chen Wanqing smiled. "You’re still just a little girl, yet you talk like a grown-up."

The Qian family line was thin, and bearing children was especially difficult for them. Her second uncle and aunt had married within a few months of her own parents, yet while she was already eighteen this year, her little cousin was only twelve.

Fortunately, after giving birth to her little cousin, her aunt had also given birth to a male cousin, and now another, making the Qian household more lively by the day.

"You’re still so young. How could your maternal grandmother bear to let you run out by yourself? The county is crowded with all sorts of people. If you ran into a bad person and they took you away, your maternal grandparents and your parents wouldn’t even know where to begin to cry."

"Hehe, don’t worry! My maternal grandfather personally walked me to the mouth of the alley and only left after he saw me enter the shop. Relax, sister, I’m very careful about these things."

The little rascal took out some pine nut candy to share with Chen Wanqing, all while chattering on about her new brother-in-law.

She had heard her grandparents talking at home. The uncle and aunt from the third branch of the Chen family were snobs who judged people by their status. Abandoning the Zhao family for the Li family was a truly terrible move.

Since they did business in the county seat year-round, they might not have known everyone from the surrounding ten miles and eight villages, but they were familiar with most of the regulars who came into town.

They knew Zhao Jing. After all, a young man so handsome and with such an outstanding character was truly rare.

If he hadn’t already been engaged, who knows how many families in the county would have been fighting to have him as a son-in-law.

Because of what happened with Chen Bai, the two elders of the Qian family had a very low opinion of Chen Dachang and his wife, as well as the couple from the third branch, Chen Lin and his wife.

When they first heard that this young man, as upright as a stalk of green bamboo, was to be the son-in-law of the third branch, they had lamented that the heavens must be blind to waste someone as fine as Zhao Jing on them.

Then, some time ago, they heard that the Chen family had committed the scandal of promising one daughter to two families—breaking the engagement with the Zhao family to get engaged with the Li family instead. When friends and neighbors asked the old Qian couple about it to their faces, they turned red with shame and staunchly refused to acknowledge that family as their in-laws.

But in private, they clapped their hands in approval of Chen Wanqing’s engagement to Zhao Jing.

The old master of the Qian family even made an inappropriate analogy, saying something about how "a blessed person does not enter an unblessed household." The old matriarch mocked him for it, retorting, "What, you think Zhao Jing is marrying into the family, just like you did?"

Then she added that this was a true case of "a good man gets a good wife." With the young couple both being excellent in character and looks, she was sure they wouldn’t have to worry about their future.

Qian Yuzhu had gotten an earful of all this, and now, repeating it for her cousin, her mouth ran a mile a minute.

She ate candy as she spoke, popping several pieces in her mouth in no time at all. Chen Wanqing got scared and quickly took the candy away, stuffing it into the girl’s sachet. She didn’t dare let her eat any more, afraid she’d get cavities.

Just as the two cousins were talking, another customer entered.

This was a slightly plump girl, dressed in a goose-yellow jacket and skirt set. She wore a pearl hairpin in her hair, a gold-inlaid, gem-studded choker around her neck, and a fragrant sachet and Jade Pendant at her waist. The jade bracelets on her wrists clinked together, making a DING-A-LING sound.

The girl was about coming-of-age, around fifteen. At first glance, she seemed ordinary, but a closer look revealed a round face that looked more and more blessed and fortunate the longer one looked.

The girl zipped into the shop and called out, "Shopkeeper!" as soon as she was through the door. But when she saw only two girls sitting behind the counter—one older, one younger, both as beautiful as flowers under the moon—she realized neither of them looked like a shopkeeper...