The Female Cannon Fodder With Boundless Merits-Chapter 136 - 140 Phoenix Man, this creature (22)

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Xinghua Village, in recent years thanks to the government’s welfare, underwent major transformations, turning their naturally beautiful little village into a typical tourism project.

With the help of policies, the more resourceful families in the village took advantage of their convenient home conditions to build a variety of agritourism sites and bed-and-breakfasts.

The fields were free of pesticides, the mountains had natural fruit trees, and the ponds were home to wild fish, frogs, shrimp, crabs....

The villagers didn’t understand why these things were so attractive to city dwellers, but it didn’t stop them from using it as a selling point to grow their wallets and improve their lives.

Basically, with the natural advantages of their hometown, everyone was living a good life.

Xinghua Village had now become a famous wealthy village far and wide, and the girls from ten miles around were all eager to marry there.

But there were always exceptions, and this exception was none other than the Zheng Family, who at the time were the envy of everyone.

Zheng Zhanpeng back then was so glorious, the first university student from their village, whose tuition and travel expenses were collected by every household in the village.

But now.... as glorious as he once was, that’s how down and out he had become....

Now when people mention the Zheng Family, they all shake their heads in disappointment.

However, their sympathy back then had now all turned into disdain.

Now that conditions in the village have improved, even Lai Mazi’s family at the edge of the village, burdened with the ill and infirm, could live a decent life if they worked hard enough.

But the Zheng family, all able-bodied, huddled in that dilapidated tile-bricked house waiting for a pie to fall from the sky....

Especially Zheng Zhanpeng, a grown man and a college graduate, yet he didn’t measure up even to the village’s illiterate, with only primary school education, Xiao Pang.

At least Xiao Pang, uneducated as he was, still found ways to provide for his family. But Zhanpeng, he would just stay home all day, never stepping outside the door, let alone going to work, and he still expected his elderly parents to bring food to his doorstep.

Over the years, the old couple had suffered greatly. Not naturally industrious, they relied entirely on food sneakily brought back by their two daughters married out.

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Zheng Youli puffed on his dry pipe, his face lined with deep wrinkles, wearing an expression of profound suffering.

In the village, even Old Xiao, once not as successful as him, now enjoyed the luxury of good cigarettes, while he was still rolling tobacco.

Zheng Youli looked at the dry pipe in his hand and took another deep puff, feeling listless... it didn’t have the flavor of the cigarette Old Xiao had given him the other day.

He let out a heavy sigh and turned to Shi Erxiu, who had returned with a small basket, instructing her, "Go and see if Zhanpeng is awake yet. The weather’s nice today. If he’s up, tell him to come out and go to the mountain with me. We can dig up some bamboo shoots together."

"I heard from Old Xiao that the price for wild bamboo shoots is good this year."

Shi Erxiu pursed her lips and her face showed a look of concern as she complained, "You’re not unaware that our son doesn’t even step out of the house, and you still want him to go up the mountain to work with you?"

Zheng Youli frowned even more and lifted his head, his gaze circling the small basket in Shi Erxiu’s hand, the crease between his brows deepening, "Did you secretly go to the neighboring fields to pick vegetables again?"

Shi Erxiu was unflinching, "If I didn’t pick them, what would we eat, huh? Are we supposed to rely on those heartless daughters of yours who occasionally send over some shabby food?"

Zheng Youli: "This can’t go on forever."

Shi Erxiu had pondered for quite a while and had some thoughts in mind, "You know, Zhanpeng has been divorced for so long now, and that woman was just struck by lightning, making our son so miserable... I’m thinking, should we find another wife for our son?"

"Perhaps he’ll perk up after getting married again..."

Zheng Youli hadn’t considered this before, but after his wife mentioned it, he increasingly felt it was a good idea.

The Zheng Family only had this one precious son; if Zhanpeng didn’t start a family, the Zheng lineage would end.

Zheng Youli took a puff of his cigarette, still somewhat hesitant, "But the dowry... If we really want to go through with it, the house needs to be fixed up too..."

Finding a bride like the former daughter-in-law who didn’t ask for a dowry, didn’t demand anything, and even brought a dowry herself was not easy anymore.

In the countryside, getting a bride started at a dowry of at least a hundred thousand yuan, and they also demanded a car, a house... Even if they found someone with lower standards, who was cheaper, it would still require tens of thousands. Now their family was practically stripped bare; where could they get that money?

Shi Erxiu said, "We’ll just take the dowry money from the eldest and the second; it’s their only brother getting married, they can’t show no regard at all, right?"

"These past few years, both sons-in-law are said to have earned quite a bit."

Zheng Youli said, "Then call them both to come home today, and discuss this matter."

"Even if it’s less, it’s alright, but they can’t not help at all; otherwise, they might as well not acknowledge us as parents."

With a little less, they could marry a cheaper bride. As long as she could bear children and pull her weight, isn’t that all there is to a woman?

Zheng Youli knew that the families of both sons-in-law always supplemented his daughter’s family with money and harbored great resentful energy. But what did that have to do with him? Once married off, she was still his daughter, and a father’s words should still be heeded.

In the room, Zheng Zhanpeng lay in bed, his head covered, sound asleep, while outside the voices of his parents were not quiet. He heard some of it; his parents were again scheming how to exploit his sisters to support him, but he had absolutely no desire to get out of bed.

Let them fuss as they might, he was still stuck living these poor days. He really was unlucky—how did he end up being born into such a poor family?

If only he could swap family circumstances with Su Qing, he would definitely achieve great things.

Just like Su Qing’s younger brother he’d seen on TV yesterday, owing to his family’s wealth, he was born standing at the top of the pyramid; it really was unfair.

Not to mention how Zheng Zhaodi and Zheng Qiudi were pressured by their family, a few days later, the village had new gossip on hand. Both Zheng daughters had been divorced by their in-laws and returned with divorce papers. Another piece of gossip was that the youngest son of the Zheng Family was getting married again.

Originally, people heard that he had found a city-bred beauty, but somehow, they returned home in defeat, and the Zheng Family kept a tight lid on the whole affair.

However, it was said that this time the bride was bought from Vietnam for only twenty thousand yuan. Indeed, with the Zheng’s current situation, which family’s daughter would be willing to marry in? Not to mention that the people in that family were difficult to deal with.

It was rumored that the twenty thousand yuan was also fetched by the daughters from their in-law’s homes. No wonder their men didn’t want them anymore; wives who siphoned off their in-law’s wealth like that would deplete any fortune, truly unaffordable.

No matter how the future unfolded, Zheng Zhanpeng had at least got married again, with Zheng Youli and Shi Erxiu both holding deep hopes that their son would make something of himself this time around.

Zheng Zhaodi and Zheng Qiudi also held deep hopes. Now truly at their wits’ end after the divorce, children not allowed to follow, hardly any money to their names, and the little they had was taken by Shi Erxiu.

But if their brother/son could rise up, he would definitely be more impressive than anyone in the village; after all, he was a graduate of a prestigious university.

But things never went as one hoped; Zheng Zhanpeng did get married, but the bride’s looks...

After tasting a lavish feast, adjusting to simple porridge and sides would be somewhat hard to stomach.

The purchased bride wasn’t reliable either. After living indifferently with Zheng Zhanpeng in the Zheng household for a while, one night, she took her belongings and disappeared while everyone was asleep.

This time, the family had no extra money for Zheng Zhanpeng to marry yet again.