“If the person who brought the child here today was the village chief, then the child must be the village chief’s and Widow Chen’s child.”

  Father Wei was angry. “How dare they implicate us after doing such indecent deeds? How can they put the child at our doorway? Are they thinking of implicating us? They are so evil. This won’t do. I must reason it out with the village chief. He is inhumane!”

  “Wait.” Mother Wei stopped Father Wei. “It is certainly impossible for us to forget about this. We must reason it out with the village chief. However, we can use another approach.”

  Mother Wei was a scheming person. Perhaps Wei De had inherited his craftiness from her.

  The next day, Mother Wei visited the village chief with all smiles. She said that she wanted to chat with the village chief about the happenings in the village.

  When the village chief’s wife walked away to pour water for her, Mother Wei told the village chief that she knew about the identity of the baby girl.

  The village chief was in shock that he failed to hide his emotions. His wife came out right then. Mother Wei greeted her with a smile and left.

  The village chief left his daughter at the doorway of the Wei family as he knew that Mother Wei could no longer conceive another child and they only had a son.

  It was just nice that he sent his daughter to the Wei family. They would have a son and a daughter.

  He thought that no one would find out about this. To his surprise, in less than twenty-four hours, the Wei family found out about his bad deeds and used it to threaten him.

  The village chief who was scared out of his wits had no choice but to meet Mother Wei behind the mountain.

  No one knew what they talked about. But the conclusion was that the Wei family would help raise the daughter of the village chief.

  After the child grew up, Wei De would marry her.

  Of course, the Wei family would not help the village chief raise his child for free. As the village chief, he had to help the Wei family in whatever ways that he could. He must help him out in his career.

  If Wei De was successful, the daughter of the village chief would be able to lead a good life.

  \r \r \r

  Since the Wei family received help from the village chief, their days got better and they had enough money to raise an unrelated child.

  Mother Wei treated the girl fairly well. She only had to help out with simple household chores. Although she was not treated like the princess, at least they did not ill-treat her.

  She always had enough to eat. The Wei family did not starve her or scold her or raise their hands on her because she was adopted.

  Therefore, the Wei family had a good reputation in the village.

  Later, when Wei De and the young lady grew up, the village chief sent word that he hoped that Wei De would marry the young lady as soon as possible.

  Mother Wei was smart. She knew that the country was recruiting soldiers and the village chief was able to help her son become a soldier.

  The village chief threatened and enticed them with an offer—unless Wei De was his son-in-law, he would not help him be recruited.

  In fact, this was the reason why the village chief urged Wei De to marry the young lady.

  The village chief knew that Mother Wei had him under control as they knew about his secret.

  As soon as the news that the country was recruiting soldiers, the village chief knew that Mother Wei would definitely come looking for him, threatening him to help Wei De join the army.

  Since he had no other choice but to help Wei De, he must stand to gain from it as well.

  The Wei family was scheming and calculative. Perhaps the Wei family would be able to strike it rich.

  If Wei De was as scheming as his mother and found out the secrets of some big-shots after leaving the village, he would then be able to make endless demands of him and have a promising future ahead of him.

  The village chief thought of getting his daughter to marry Wei De in order to protect his interests.

  As long as Wei De married his younger daughter, even if he could not tell everyone that he was her father, by the time the Wei family was rich, he had his means to make sure that Wei De acceded to his demands.

  Wei De was very happy to hear that he had the opportunity to be a soldier.

  However, when he heard that the prerequisite for becoming a soldier was to marry his sister, Wei De became suspicious and asked his parents about it.

  After learning the circumstances of the matter, Wei De told his mother to demand money from the village chief secretly.

  Everyone in the village knew that the Wei family adopted the young lady and no one knew who her biological parents were.

  Therefore, if Wei De married the young lady, they would not need to go through the same procedure as other people.

  After demanding money from the village chief, Mother Wei listened to her son and held a four- to five-table wedding banquet, hosting the villagers and the village chief and his family.

  In the village, as long as the couple held a wedding banquet, they were considered married.

  Wei De was well aware of that. He made use of the loopholes to hold a wedding banquet to reassure the village chief and to be confirmed of a place in the army.

  Furthermore, Wei De was not young anymore. He was at an age full of vigor and vitality.

  The younger daughter of the village chief was pretty and had delicate features.

  After marrying the lady, Wei De was her husband and could be intimate with her.

  Regardless of his intention to answer to the village chief or to satisfy his own needs, he was intimate with the lady on the night they had the wedding banquet.

  Wei De had to report to the army the next day and there were a lot of procedures to go through. Wei De felt that this was the only time that they were intimate and it would not be a big issue. He did not think much about it and only concentrated on planning his future.

  Wei De was indeed scheming. Back then, he did not know Zhai Hua and he never dreamed that he would have a chance to date the daughter of the chief. But he already knew the significance of the marriage certificate.

  He followed the customs of the countryside to hold a wedding banquet and marry the young lady. However, he never once brought up the need to collect the marriage certificate.

  The reason why Wei De did this was to leave a way out for himself, thinking that there would be a day where he might get to know a better girl.

  In the end, Wei De was lucky and he had planned it well. He met Zhai Hua, who was a silly girl and she was taken in by his lies, falling for his tricks.

  Since Wei De did not collect the marriage certificate with the woman, the Zhai family would not be able to find out from his profile that he had a wife in the countryside.

  Father Wei might like to take advantage of others, but he was timid and not evil-natured. Unlike him, Mother Wei and Wei De were truly mother and son. They were equally scheming and ill-natured.

  Mother Wei was elated when she knew that her son dated the daughter of the chief in the army.