"Have you forgotten how Han Ruochen caused trouble the last time we tried to get money from her? And your dad has already said that I have to take care of your expenses and also save for your dowry. If I am not able to save enough money for your dowry, then I can forget about getting money from him. He will not pay me a penny from now on, and I have to settle all your expenses. Do you want to get married with a dowry, or do you want me to get twenty thousand yuan for you now?"

"Dad really said that? Impossible! You told me last time that Dad feels guilty for me because I have no parents, and even blames himself for not doing enough for me. Now you are telling me that he will not give me any dowry, how could this be?" Han Ziyan frowned hard. She knew her mother’s skills; though this woman was not good at anything, she knew how to coax a man. All these years, she had done a damn good job in controlling her adoptive father.

How come he was suddenly acting all crazy and not listening to a thing that her mother was telling him!?

If she knew that this was going to happen, then she would have tried to stay close to her father and please him even better. What was the point of listening to her mother? She could not even provide for her!

"I heard this from his own mouth! Can I still lie to you? I don’t know what kind of voodoo that Han Ruochen has done on your dad, but he just listens to her now. He only has his own children in his heart, especially Han Ruochen. And he has made his stance clear. If I cannot arrange for the savings, then I will have to take care of you. That is the end of the story." Meng Yunhan felt wronged. Even in her darkest time, she had never felt this helpless.

Han Yichen had taken care of her and even listened to her without saying anything, but now all she had to do was open her mouth, and he would retort at her with countless things. Meng Yunhan wondered where she had gone wrong because she never thought that one day she would suffer in such a manner.

She sucked in a breath and cut off the head of the chicken before saying in an annoyed voice, "If I take the money out now, then you can forget about getting married with a huge fanfare; no one will marry a girl with no dowry."

"I don’t want that!" Before Meng Yunhan could even finish speaking, Han Ziyan rejected the notion right away. "If that’s the case, then I might as well never marry anyone. I won’t even have any face to. Because of what happened between Brother Jianming and me, the entire village is already spitting on me. I cannot marry in the village; I have to marry in the county or the city, or else my husband will look down on me all my life!"

Her eyes turned red as she complained, "Because my sister was so ruthless to me, I don’t even have a way out. The entire village knows about it. If I marry someone without a dowry, what face will I have then? I might as well stay as a spinster!"

"How can you stay unmarried? Your father and I are waiting to see you get married to a big official so that you can help us a little. To put it bluntly, Han Ruochen now has a boat; she will definitely marry well. Her status as the owner of the motorboat alone will bring her a lot of matches. I don’t want you to marry any less than her. I want you to be married to someone even more successful than her. The only good thing is that she can at most marry a merchant with her status. You, on the other hand, have a job, so you can catch the eye of an officer and marry him."

"It’s going to be the Dragon Boat Festival very soon, and there will be some odd jobs, so I will take them on and add a little to your dowry. But if you want more than twenty thousand yuan, then I cannot arrange it."

Instantly, Han Ziyan stopped making a fuss and frowned. "Mom, I don’t want the twenty thousand yuan for now, but what about three thousand? You can arrange them at least?" She could hold the matter of getting a better job for now, but she still needed to get her hands on three thousand yuan or else she would have to let go of this job as well. The chef was quite a hard-hearted person and wouldn’t let her off a second time.

"Three thousand yuan? Ziyan, I make twenty yuan a day. Even if I save for the entire month, I can at most earn six hundred yuan, and that is after not taking a single penny out of my earnings. But you know what the conditions at home are." Meng Yunhan smiled bitterly. In the past, this sum would have been rather small for her to take out, as Han Yichen trusted her, but now the man was keeping his salary to himself and wouldn’t even take a penny out.

There was no way she could get three thousand yuan now.

"Mom, I really need that money; if I don’t get it, then I will never be able to go back to my job!" Han Ziyan turned stiff and said firmly. "Why is my dad doing this to me? Can’t he see that I am suffering as well? I did do something wrong, but why is he treating me like I have committed a sin? It’s not like I am involved with Brother Jianming anymore. Did I not stop seeing him?"

"You say you are wronged; am I not wronged? I stayed with your father despite the things that he did to me and gave birth to five children for him. I went to hell and back for him, and what did he do to me? He ruined my reputation in front of the village and I cannot even step out without being spat at!"