Chapter 706 - 244: Your Little Aunt Has a Stomach Problem

It’s easy to go from a simple life to one of luxury, but much harder to go the other way around.

Xu Jiali said stubbornly, "As long as I can be with Gao Qiang, I can live a simple life. We have our own two hands; it won’t be hard to earn enough to support ourselves."

"How spirited. I’ll be waiting to see it," Jie Jingchen said sarcastically.

"Xiao Mei." Xu Jiali looked at Qin Mei with a pleading gaze. She wanted to marry Gao Qiang, and the first step was to gather enough money for the bride price.

"I don’t have any money," Qin Mei insisted.

Seeing that Qin Mei clearly had no intention of lending her the money, Xu Jiali grew resentful. Her tone soured. "Why are you being so stingy?"

’Qin Mei obviously has the money, but she won’t lend it to me. It’s infuriating!’

’Stingy?’ Qin Mei took a breath to calm herself. ’Is she talking about a hundred or a thousand dollars? This is eight hundred thousand she’s asking for.’ "I’m not as generous as you," she said. "A million-dollar bride price... You can’t afford it, yet you’re borrowing money just to handle it yourself. Auntie, are you really that confident your husband will be happy to help you pay back that debt after you’re married?"

"He will." Xu Jiali was certain Gao Qiang would.

Qin Mei fell silent. ’There’s no point in arguing with a woman in the throes of passion.’

"You won’t even lend me this little bit of money? You really are too stingy," Xu Jiali goaded.

Qin Mei stared unblinkingly at Xu Jiali. Her aunt had grown up in the Qiao Family, and her affluent life had left her with no real concept of money. In an era in Huaxia when even city workers earned an average of just a few dozen yuan a month, never mind people in the countryside, one million was an astronomical sum.

Qin Mei mimicked Xu Jiali’s tone. "You need to borrow this little bit of money from me? You really are pathetic."

"So disloyal. Fine, if you won’t lend it to me, I’ll ask someone else!" Xu Jiali shot up and stormed out.

Qin Mei shook her head helplessly and rubbed her temples.

"Meimei, don’t mind her." Jie Jingchen wrapped an arm around Qin Mei’s waist.

"This is all your fault," Qin Mei said, leaning against Jie Jingchen’s chest. "You demanded the bride price, so Xu Jiali came to me for money. You won’t compromise, and I won’t lend her the money, so now she hates us both. Gao Qiang is not a good match for her."

Jie Jingchen lowered his gaze to Qin Mei, who was resting against his chest. He considered his words for a moment before speaking. "Before he met Xu Jiali, Gao Qiang had a fiancée. They were already discussing the wedding, and they’d even set a date. Then the woman suddenly broke off the engagement, and Gao Qiang became a laughingstock."

Qin Mei was stunned. She pushed Jie Jingchen away and asked, "Is that why you, Grandpa, and Grandma are against this marriage?"

Jie Jingchen said meaningfully, "Gao Qiang met Xu Jiali *before* his fiancée broke off the engagement."

"So your aunt was the other woman?" Qin Mei gasped.

Jie Jingchen shook his head. "No. They had only just met. It was only after his fiancée broke off the engagement that Gao Qiang began to pursue Xu Jiali relentlessly."

’Okay, so Xu Jiali wasn’t the other woman. Gao Qiang was just cheating emotionally.’

"But they’d already set a date. Why did she call it off?" Qin Mei asked, her curiosity piqued.

"The rumor is that the woman was pregnant, and the father was another man," Jie Jingchen said.

Qin Mei’s lip twitched. "If that’s true, then Gao Qiang should have been the one to call it off."

"The truth is, Gao Qiang *was* the child’s father. He forced the woman to be the one to break off the engagement. He’d rather be a laughingstock for getting dumped than be known as a heartless bastard who abandoned his pregnant fiancée." A cold glint flashed in Jie Jingchen’s eyes.

’So that’s how he played it,’ Qin Mei thought, astonished. ’These prestigious families are capable of anything disgusting behind closed doors.’

"The woman’s family must not have been very prominent," Qin Mei remarked.

"The Gao family is in decline. No truly prominent family would marry their daughter into the Gao family, but lesser families would. The problem is, they don’t bring the Gao family any benefits. Xu Jiali might not be a true daughter of the Qiao Family, but she’s Madam Qiao’s niece, raised by her side and doted upon. The Gao family has already gotten a taste of the benefits that come with an association to the Qiao Family." Jie Jingchen hadn’t wanted to get involved in Gao Qiang and Xu Jiali’s affairs, but his grandfather’s faked illness had been a ploy to get them back here precisely because of this situation.

"Does your aunt know all this?" Qin Mei asked.

"Grandfather had someone investigate the Gao family from top to bottom. He showed Xu Jiali everything they found, but she didn’t care at all. She thought the fact that Gao Qiang would abandon his fiancée and unborn child just to be with her was proof of his true love. The attempt to dissuade her backfired, making her even more determined to marry him," Jie Jingchen said, sounding a little defeated.

Qin Mei understood. ’Xu Jiali doesn’t care about the scheming. All she cares about are the great lengths Gao Qiang went to for her. This is going to be difficult to handle.’

’If they let Xu Jiali do as she pleases, they’d just be watching her leap into a pit of fire. Grandpa and Grandma can’t bear that, so they want to stop her by force. But the more you try to stop her, the more determined she becomes.’

’The old couple ran out of ideas, so they had to call for reinforcements.’

"Jie Jingsi, I doubt a high bride price will be enough to make the Gao family back down," Qin Mei reminded him. "If she can ask me for money, she can ask other people."

’She couldn’t get the money from me, but what about someone else?’

’If Xu Jiali manages to borrow the money and gives it directly to Jie Jingchen, that’s one thing. But what if she gives it to Gao Qiang and has *him* present it? Once the bride price is paid, could Jie Jingchen really refuse to back down?’

’The Gao family would get a bride without spending a dime of their own money. At that point, they wouldn’t even care if there’s a dowry.’

Jie Jingchen remained silent. He knew this was only a temporary solution.

"Jie Jingsi, what your aunt values is Gao Qiang’s devotion to her. What if that ’devotion’ were to disappoint her?" Qin Mei said, smiling at Jie Jingchen.

"How would it disappoint her?" Jie Jingchen asked, knitting his brow at Qin Mei.

"Find a woman of higher status than your aunt to seduce him." Qin Mei wasn’t familiar with Xiangjiang, so she didn’t have an ideal candidate in mind, but she was sure Jie Jingchen did. "The person would have to be absolutely stunning, and trustworthy. Otherwise, if she gets turned, the loss would outweigh the gain."

Jie Jingchen sank into deep thought.

Jie Jingchen was a man of action. By the next day, he already had a suitable candidate. Qin Mei was dying of curiosity and pestered him to tell her who it was, even resorting to using her feminine wiles. But after Jie Jingchen had his way with her, he didn’t satisfy her curiosity, choosing instead to keep her in suspense.

In the living room, Qin Mei was curled up on the sofa, sulking.

"She’ll be here in a little while," Jie Jingchen said, looking at Qin Mei with a smile.

"Hmph!" Qin Mei snorted, pointedly ignoring him.

Just then, a servant passed through the living room carrying a tray of food. Seeing that the food was untouched, Qin Mei frowned and asked, "She still hasn’t eaten?"

The servant shook her head. "Miss Jiali hasn’t had a single bite or a drop to drink since yesterday."

Qin Mei didn’t say anything more. ’A hunger strike protest... Xu Jiali is so childish.’

"Young Master, Miss Jiali already has stomach problems. Something bad will happen if she keeps this up," the servant said with concern.

Jie Jingchen remained unmoved. Compromise once, and you’ll have to compromise every time. He wasn’t directly opposing her marriage to Gao Qiang—as long as the one-million-dollar bride price was paid, the next step would be to discuss the wedding date.

The main branch of the Gao family certainly couldn’t produce one million dollars. The entire Gao clan combined might be able to, but you can never know what’s truly in a person’s heart. Who would willingly go all out for Gao Qiang’s wedding? They would only make symbolic contributions, which would put Old Madam Gao in the hot seat. And she would surely be unwilling to sell her own jewelry just to get Xu Jiali into the family.

But Jie Jingchen couldn’t be a hundred percent certain. What if Old Madam Gao was more magnanimous than he thought and actually sold some of her jewelry to cover the bride price, just to get the bride into the family first?

Xu Jiali was trying to borrow money for the bride price from everyone in the family. Qin Mei used the excuse that she had no money. Jing Qi was brutally honest: he had money, but he wouldn’t lend it. When she approached her grandpa and grandma, they found out she was borrowing money for the bride price, which nearly sent Grandma into a fatal rage. After that, Xu Jiali didn’t dare ask the two elders for money again. Instead, she was now on a hunger strike to force Qin Mei and Jing Qi to lend her the cash.

Xu Jiali was using a hunger strike to get them to lend her money. If she were using it to force the marriage itself, Jie Jingchen wouldn’t interfere in her affairs any longer. He would let her jump into the pit of fire if that’s what she wanted.

"Your aunt has stomach problems?" Qin Mei asked, surprised. Most stomach ailments were caused by an irregular diet. In this day and age... to put it bluntly, it meant she’d gone hungry before.

’The Qiao Family is so wealthy. Would they really have let Xu Jiali starve?’