The Du family elders had been sitting there cracking melon seeds and gossiping, viciously insulting Mu Yuting while fantasizing about their son's future. Hearing this, they felt their pride wounded and stood up in a rage.
"Mother of our in-law, your words are too harsh!" Du Dawei's father, Du Daqiang, kicked his stool aside and strode over. His tall, burly frame paired with a booming voice made him quite intimidating.
Seeing her husband speak up, Du Dawei's mother, Zheng Xiangmei, decided not to take the lead herself and instead continued munching on melon seeds while watching the drama unfold. If her brutish husband failed, she would step in and make a scene. The other side cared about saving face—she did not.
Younger brother Du Xiaowei remained seated, unmoved. He was accustomed to making his move last, never charging ahead. After all, he would side with whoever seemed stronger. If both his parents failed, he would definitely be the first to flee.
Du Dawei stepped aside to let Mu Yuting and her mother enter.
"Who's being harsh? Could anyone be as harsh as your whole family! What kind of nonsense were you spouting just now?" Mu Yaojia walked in arm-in-arm with her daughter.
Before coming, Mu Yaojia had felt that since her daughter was the one who initiated breaking off the engagement, their family owed the Dus an apology. Now, she deeply regretted that thought—how had she failed to see what a disgusting family they were? She had nearly pushed her daughter into a pit of fire.
After just a year of dating, this family hadn’t spent a single penny, yet they expected several apartments from the bride’s side for the wedding. And now that the engagement was off, they had the nerve to demand "compensation for youth lost" from the woman? Twenty thousand, no less! Why not just rob a bank?
Seeing Du Daqiang’s aggressive approach, Mu Yuting instinctively shielded her mother, adopting a protective stance.
"Are you trying to hit someone?" she snapped.
Du Dawei shuddered all over. His few days of "jail time" had made him particularly sensitive to the words "hit someone." The detention center had left him with a bone-chilling, indelible impression. Reflexively, he rushed over and grabbed his father, Du Daqiang, by the arm.
"Dad, let's sit down and talk this through properly," he said, dragging his father forcefully toward the dining table. If they resorted to violence again, there would be even less money for compensation.
Du Daqiang, thinking his son was still infatuated with Mu Yuting, spat in disgust, "You spineless fool! I'm standing up for you! For our whole family!"
Du Dawei guided his father to the head seat, next to his mother, Zheng Xiangmei. He quickly took a seat on the other side of his father to prevent the hot-tempered man from getting up and throwing punches. His younger brother, Du Xiaowei, sat beside their mother. The four of them were neatly arranged.
Mu Yuting helped her mother, Mu Yaojia, take a seat opposite them, the farthest spot possible.
"Bring the food first, I'm starving! Whatever needs to be said can be discussed over the meal, or after we finish eating—whatever works," Zheng Xiangmei clamored loudly.
Hearing the call for food, the server outside immediately entered and politely asked, "Is everyone here? May we start serving the dishes?"
Though her expression was grim, Mu Yaojia still cared about maintaining appearances in public and could only say to the server, "Everyone's here, please serve the dishes. Thank you."
"Wait a minute, is there lamb chops on the menu? If not, add an order. And abalone—we’ll have eight, two each, just right. Also, braised pork trotters, spicy chicken feet, spicy frog legs, and spicy crab..." Du Xiaowei mistook the Mu mother and daughter’s silence for submission and grew even more audacious, rattling off dishes at lightning speed.
The server politely interrupted him, "Sir, the portions at our restaurant are quite generous. Adding so many dishes may lead to waste, as it’s likely too much to finish."
"Who cares if I can finish it or not? It's not like you're paying! What's a lowly waiter yapping about? Keep it up and I'll have your boss fire you!" Du Xiaowei said smugly.
Zheng Xiangmei deliberately spat melon seed shells far away, wearing an arrogant expression: "My son can order whatever he wants! Just add the dishes as he said!" Since this meal wasn't coming out of their own pockets, they might as well order extravagantly and enjoy a good feast.
Mu Yaojia trembled with anger; this was the first time she had seen these people reveal their shameless true colors. Inviting this family of scoundrels and ruffians to a meal was probably the second biggest regret of her life. The first was being blind enough to agree to this marriage in the first place.
Mu Yuting sneered coldly: "Whoever is paying gets to add dishes. Go ahead." She handed the initiative back to the trashy family.
The Du Dawei family was dumbstruck, looking at each other in confusion, unable to say anything for a long while. They were unwilling to pay—being stingy to the core was their fine tradition.
Seeing that they had quieted down, the waiter smiled and said, "Then we will proceed with the original menu. Please wait a moment."
This time, no one raised any objections.
Nine dishes and one soup were soon served, completing the meal. There was fish, meat, both meat and vegetarian dishes, soup, and staple food—a well-balanced spread. As a financial supervisor who often dined out with superiors for business meals, Mu Yaojia was naturally skilled at ordering.
"The sweet and sour mandarin fish is delicious, and the roast duck is great too..." Du Xiaowei had long discarded his chopsticks, grabbing food with both hands and eating with greasy lips.
Du Daqiang and Zheng Xiangmei fought over the braised pork trotters and all the meat dishes, completely disregarding any sense of decorum. Only Du Dawei ate more gracefully, as he was always ready to pursue a wealthy beauty and made a habit of maintaining his image in public.
Mu Yaojia felt indescribably conflicted. This meal had made her deeply aware of her mistake. If her daughter were to marry into such a family... it would be worse than a nightmare. Because nightmares eventually end.
Since this meal was meant to discuss matters, and not happy ones at that, Mu Yaojia had not prepared any alcohol, fearing the other side might cause a scene if drunk.
Once everyone had mostly finished eating, Mu Yaojia said, "The main purpose of today's gathering is to discuss calling off the marriage."
The ones scrambling for food at the table paused for a moment before continuing to devour their meals ravenously. They had already heard from their son that today was about ending the engagement and didn’t care much, even planning to extort some money out of it. After all, they would prefer their son to marry into an official's family or find a wealthy beauty.
"Calling off the marriage is fine, as long as you agree to our conditions," Du Daqiang said with a mouth full of meat, his words slurred.
"What conditions?" Mu Yaojia asked with a frown. Even though she already knew her daughter had settled the agreement to end the engagement, she wanted to see just how shameless this family could be.
Du Daqiang stated the first condition: "You must tell everyone that the reason for breaking off the engagement is that my son didn’t want your daughter, so he dumped her." If word got out that he was dumped by the girl, how could he maintain his reputation as the toughest scoundrel?
Zheng Xiangmei added, "The second condition is that without our family’s consent, you cannot marry any other man." If their son really liked Mu Yuting, they could just drag it out and prevent her from marrying anyone else, and then later... heh heh...
"The third condition is that you compensate us 200,000. No, make it 400,000 for emotional damages," Du Xiaowei chimed in.
Mu Yuting glanced out the window and said, "It's already dawn."
"What do you mean?"
"The sun is up, and you're still daydreaming," Mu Yuting sneered.
Du Dawei clenched his chopsticks.
"Do you know how many years you can get for extortion?"
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