Initially, Ye Manman thought that her arranged marriage would cause a huge uproar, but unexpectedly, she agreed easily. Yang Xiumei was pleased to finally get rid of a burden, but those words immediately froze the smile on her face.
"How does that work? There's no reason for the bride price to be collected by the bride herself."
She just knew this little troublemaker had a lot of nerve!
Ye Manman looked at her calmly.
"Oh, so should it be you who collects it? The bride price for my marriage, why would you need to keep it?"
Yang Xiumei: "Whose family doesn't have the parents keep the bride price on behalf of the daughter?"
"Keep as in safeguard?"
Ye Manman laughed, "Who knows whether you're safeguarding it or turning around and giving my bride price money to your own daughter as a dowry."
"What are you talking about? How could we possibly use your bride price money for Xiaotong's dowry? Manman, this bride price should indeed be kept by parents. Stop throwing a fit."
Ye Guoqiang also came out to help, and Ye Manman rolled her eyes.
Really clueless. Sometimes it's hard to tell who's the biological one.
"Bride price and dowry are used by both families to bless and support the newlyweds, not to withhold from them. Are you just trying to see me live poorly?"
"How could that be possible?"
Ye Guoqiang reflexively denied it, but Ye Manman cut him off.
"Then that's settled. If you don't mean it that way, stop thinking about the bride price money."
Hearing this, Yang Xiumei slapped the table, "No way, the bride price money must be kept by us. It's never been heard that a daughter takes it with her. If you insist on taking it, then simply don't get married."
She had originally planned to set that money aside to buy new things for Ye Xiaotong to add to her dowry for show, after all, marrying into a town family couldn't be too shabby.
After much effort to extract that paltry bride price from He Family's stingy shrew of a woman, it couldn't possibly be let go to this little vixen.
"Simply not get married?"
Ye Manman chuckled.
"Even better, I wasn't eager on marrying anyways, especially with my sister around to help with work and chores. What reason do I have to marry?"
Ye Xiaotong couldn't sit still after hearing this, "If I get married, how am I supposed to work for you? Am I supposed to come back every day to work for you? Don't even think about it!"
Yang Xiumei was also very agitated, "Exactly, even if you don't marry, once Xiaotong marries off, you must work for yourself. Anyways, don't dream of taking the bride price."
Seeing them so agitated, Ye Manman had to reiterate the contents of the IOU and reminded them.
"It says as long as I'm home, not as long as you're home, got it? So as long as I'm unmarried, you have to come back to help me with the work. Otherwise, it'd be a breach of contract. If you're not willing to acknowledge it, I'll have to go to the police station to ask how to handle it."
After she finished, she sat down at the table, smiling happily as if she suddenly remembered something.
"By the way, you owe me my dowry. That's the money my mom saved for me, it's best to give it to me along with the bride price."
Upon hearing this, Yang Xiumei stood up, her voice raising a notch.
"What dowry? When did your mom ever leave you a dowry that I didn't know about!"
"You didn't know?"
Ye Manman propped her chin up, lazily looking at her.
"How could you possibly not know? Haven't you been planning to use the money as a dowry for her?"
She casually glanced at Ye Xiaotong, who indeed looked somewhat guilty.
Yang Xiumei continued to argue, "That's the dowry I saved for Xiaotong; don't even think about it."
"Ha."
Ye Manman let out a soft laugh, "Where did you find the money to save? Just from your work points in the field, plus the expenses for you two, you probably couldn't save twenty dollars a year, maybe not even five, right?"
Saying this, she tapped the table with her finger, asking with a curious expression.
"So tell me, where did you get the money you claim to have saved for a dowry? As far as I know, when you came over dragging your whole family, you didn't bring a single penny."
"The dowry my mom left for me is two hundred bucks; dare you say you saved that two hundred yourself?"
Yang Xiumei wanted to speak, but Ye Manman didn't give her the chance.
"If you still dare to claim it's saved money, then let's go to the brigade leader to check the records, see how much you've earned over the years, and see if you could save two hundred bucks, alright?"
Yang Xiumei didn't dare say anything else, standing there with a flushed face, unable to refute.
Seeing them in such a mess, Ye Guoqiang came over to mediate.
"Manman, stop causing a scene. Why don't you two sisters split it evenly, hundred dollars each isn't a small amount."
"Why should I? Am I really your biological daughter? Are you splitting the dowry my deceased mom left me with another woman's daughter with a different father? If I hadn't brought this up today, would you have just pretended not to know while giving all the money to her?"
Ye Manman looked down on Ye Guoqiang for such behavior, not only did he have a soft spot for others, but also had no sense, weak and heartless.
Caught in the eyes of his biological daughter, Ye Guoqiang felt deep anguish, but having promised Xiuxiu Mei, he was embarrassed to go back on his word, caught in hesitation.
Seeing them speechless, Ye Manman hit them with another hard blow.
"Two hundred dollars is not a small sum, now this is a family matter for us. If you really intend to go heartlessly and swallow the money, I'll make a fuss at the brigade, then this won't remain a family issue."
"Didn't the brigade leader just mention the other day that they are considering us for the Model Brigade? I wonder if this kind of issue stirring things up would still let them hold onto that title or not."
Upon hearing this, they were taken aback, remembering the brigade leader specifically visiting each household a few days ago reminding everyone to promote civility and avoid making trouble.
Ye Guoqiang was somewhat embarrassed, "Manman, you know our family's condition, there's truly no way to afford two dowries. Your mom left you so much, please spare a bit for your sister, alright?"
Hearing him pleading so pitifully, Yang Xiumei and Ye Xiaotong exchanged glances, putting on embarrassed and pitiful faces, looking at her.
But Ye Manman just felt like laughing.
Being an heir cherished unconditionally for over twenty years by a wealthy family, she couldn't comprehend how there could exist such a heartless and incompetent shameless father.
"No, this is the money my mom left for me, not money you earned, so you have no right to distribute it. Now, either give me the money, or we go to the brigade, you choose."
The three exchanged looks, eventually deciding not to make a big deal out of it, fearing that if a scandal ruined Ye Xiaotong's marriage, they would suffer a huge loss.
Yang Xiumei, though pained, could only slowly and theatrically go back to the room to get the money amidst her loud crying.
"Oh dear, such a misfortune..."
Ye Xiaotong glared at her resentfully, but said nothing.
Anyway, thinking it through, she was about to become an urbanite, and Xie Fengmian would eventually be very wealthy, so she saw no need to care about such a small amount of money.
Ye Manman, after receiving the money, didn't care what their thoughts were; anyway, she had more or less recovered most things that were taken away from the original owner, things she was entitled to.
No matter what, she wouldn't let them take anything from her again.
"Manman..."
Seeing her return to her room, Ye Guoqiang hurriedly followed, wanting to say something, but Ye Manman slammed the door shut with no regard for him.
The loud "bang" of the door echoed through his heart, making it tremble with unease.