The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 201 - 190: Engagement (Extra update for 50,000 recommendation votes on Qidian)

Chapter 201: Chapter 190: Engagement (Extra update for 50,000 recommendation votes on Qidian)

Is bamboo rat delicious?

Definitely, even Junior Ms. Qian, who is afraid of them, thinks they taste better than chicken, not to mention the other villagers.

But these creatures are not easy to catch, especially in the bamboo forest, where they can disappear in a flash, darting into bamboo burrows or holes in the ground, and they’re very fast.

Unless they’re as lucky as Zhou SiLang and his company, to corner them in a shallow or single-exit hole.

The day after Zhou Wulang brought back two bamboo rats, the villagers headed to the mountain’s bamboo forest to search for them, but despite a morning’s effort, didn’t even catch a glimpse of their shadows.

So, they had no choice but to head back down, where they saw Zhou Liulang playing with his friends, and they called him over for a chat to learn how they had managed to catch the bamboo rats.

Zhou Liulang, at just thirteen, was at the age where exaggeration knows no bounds, yet nobody believed him. In his frustration, he let slip that Manbao had caught a bamboo rat herself.

The villagers were even more skeptical; how old was Manbao, and could her little short legs even keep up running around the mountainside?

With that question, Zhou Liulang told them the whole story: how they chased the bamboo rats, how they found Manbao on the way back, and how Manbao had a bamboo rat tethered in her hands.

Old Zhou had been standing at the back of the crowd. At first, he was quite entertained listening to his son’s tall tales, but his mood quickly changed for the worse.

Now, not only do Zhou SiLang and Zhou Wulang blame him for running his mouth, Old Zhou blames him, too.

He feels that if it weren’t for his son’s loose lip, revealing the bamboo rat capture, he wouldn’t have punished Manbao by making her kneel, nor would he have hit her with a bamboo switch, leading to her getting a chill; he wouldn’t have frightened her, so she wouldn’t have experienced palpitations, nor would there be the subsequent fever that befell Manbao.

So Old Zhou was furious, and for five days straight, he made his son join Zhou Sanlang in plowing new farmland.

No, in fact, the whole Zhou family of brothers suffered the consequence; Old Zhou chased all of them out to help Third with the land reclamation.

Zhou Sanlang had already decided to reclaim a piece of land and had started clearing the area of weeds, digging out trees, and picking stones from winter downtime onwards.

Of course, Zhou Dalang and his brothers would lend a hand with hoes whenever they had a moment to spare, but that wasn’t very often since they were busy making compost at home.

Next year they needed to fertilize an additional twenty acres, so they needed considerably more compost. Despite it being the off-season, there wasn’t a single day they were truly free.

They required a large amount of compost, so at most, the brothers could take turns relieving Zhou San of his duties, allowing him time to clear the land.

But once Old Zhou got angry, he simply stopped them from staying indoors during winter. Every day before dawn they would wake up, finish the chores at home, compost in the mornings, and in the afternoons, go out and help Third clear the land.

It was supposed to be the off-season, yet they ended up working harder than during the busy farming periods.

Not only were Zhou SiLang and the younger brothers exhausted, but even Zhou Sanlang, who benefited from the arrangement, found it a little too much to handle.

However, Dad was angry, and obviously, no one dared disobey.

So, time flew by, and by the time they had prepared the fallow land, hoed it, and fertilized it to nurture the soil, the Chinese New Year was almost upon them.

Then, Zhou SiLang was going to be engaged.

Manbao, who was so busy with endless tasks every day, was shocked when she heard her mother mentioning the preparations for the engagement gifts.

Her eyes widened as she asked, "Mom, who’s my future sister-in-law?"

"It’s Lady Fang from the Fang family; you’ve met her before, don’t you remember?"

Manbao was stunned, "When did you decide on this, and how come I didn’t know?"

Ms. Qian chuckled, "It’s not you getting married, why should you be involved in every step? It’s enough that your fourth brother knows."

Manbao looked over at Zhou SiLang, who seemed quite pleased, and asked, "Four Brother, so you knew all along?"

"Of course," Zhou SiLang glanced at her and said, "If it wasn’t for you being sick, we would have gotten engaged sooner, and we might even have been able to marry before the New Year."

Ms. Qian then gave him a look and said, "Do you think getting married is child’s play, that you can just set it up as soon as it comes up? Go away... don’t blame everything on your sister."

But in reality, this matter did have something to do with Manbao.

At that time, the two families had taken a liking to each other. The Fang family was somewhat satisfied with the Zhou family, but since their daughter was quite happy with Zhou SiLang, they didn’t turn down the matchmaker.

And Ms. Qian was also pleased with Lady Fang, finding her generous and brave, with a strong decision-making capacity, so she gave the matchmaker a hint.

One didn’t refuse, and the other was interested; the matchmaker sensed that the arrangement was very likely to succeed, so she became even more diligent in her efforts.

During the days that Manbao was ill, Ms. Qian couldn’t spare the time, but as soon as Manbao recovered, Ms. Qian took Zhou SiLang back to Dali Village once more.

This time, they went openly to propose marriage. Ms. Qian and Ms. Cheng laid out both family situations in detail, officially setting the intention to marry.

Afterward, Zhou SiLang could often visit the Fang family to make a good impression.

But because Old Zhou had asserted himself, Zhou SiLang rarely had the time; he only managed to visit Dali Village every couple of days,

either to walk Lady Fang home or to help out at her house.

As a prospective son-in-law up for evaluation, working at the fiancée’s house is part of the assessment, a customary rule of the current times.

At least, that’s how it is in the village.

Only after the Fang family has gained sufficient understanding of Zhou SiLang and the Zhou family will they decide whether or not to marry their daughter into their household.

However, reaching this point in negotiations usually means success unless the man’s performance is extremely disappointing.

During this time, the Zhou brothers were busy with early mornings and late evenings, and Manbao, lost in her studies, wasn’t aware of these developments.

She didn’t know that the candy she gave to her fourth brother out of guilt had ended up in Lady Fang’s hands, becoming a sweet treat for her future sister-in-law.

After a month of scrutiny, the Fang family finally agreed to the matchmaker’s second marriage proposal, setting an official engagement date.

So now, the Zhou family needed to prepare the bridal gifts before selecting a wedding date.

However, after making some calculations, Ms. Qian felt it unlikely the marriage would happen before the New Year, but after...

Ms. Qian thought for a moment and said, "There’s no rush for the new bride to start working before spring begins. So, my suggestion is to have the wedding after spring planting, giving the young lady some time to rest."

Old Zhou nodded his head, "Then we’ll choose a date in May, when the busy spring period is over, and the weather is starting to warm up. That way, the new daughter-in-law will have a couple of months to settle in."

This decision, naturally, was up to the heads of the family, and everyone agreed.

Once Ms. Qian’s plan was communicated to the Fang family through the matchmaker, Ms. Cheng couldn’t help but tell Butcher Fang, "The Zhou family really is a good and honest household. Although SiLang is slightly lacking, his parents are sensible, which means our daughter will have a better life there."

Butcher Fang nodded, satisfied, "When our second daughter mentioned she liked SiLang, I had people inquire about him. None of their three daughters-in-law came into the house right before or after the New Year. All of them were married after the autumn harvest. Our second daughter may not have had perfect timing, but this date isn’t bad either."

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