During the Hongxi period of the Ming Dynasty, there was a family named Dai in cypress town in Jiujiang Province, and there were two sons in the family, the older brother was named Dai Peng, and the younger brother was named Dai An. The family has been in business for generations, and in Dai Peng's generation, the market trend has been good for several consecutive years, and they have saved a lot of savings by luck.
When the two sons grew to be more than twenty years old, Dai Father and Dai Mother began to think about it and tell the two sons a good family affair. But the strange thing is that although the two sons grew up together, their temperaments and temperaments are very different.
Older brother Dai Peng, usually good and bad work, always trying to be lazy when working, and also likes to linger in the flower streets and willow lanes; younger brother Dai An, but likes to study in the room, when there is nothing to do, take the initiative to help the family to do things, people are also diligent and down-to-earth.
When he heard that his parents wanted to kiss him, the two sons reacted differently: Dai Peng resolutely opposed it, because he felt that with his daughter-in-law, he could no longer go out freely to play, and even gambled with his parents and did not go home for a few days. The younger brother Diane said that he would consider becoming a relative until his brother became a parent.
On this day, when Dai Father and Dai Mother were worried about the eldest son's affair, Dai Peng suddenly returned from outside, and as soon as he returned, he said to his parents: "Father, mother, I have a crush on Li Cuirong, a girl from the Li family, so you should go to the Li family as soon as possible to propose to you!" ”
It was said that Dai Father and Dai Mother were very surprised, how did his son suddenly change sex? Under careful questioning, I learned that Dai Peng, a few days ago, when drinking in the restaurant, saw a very beautiful girl walking by the door, he fell in love at first sight, and later inquired from many parties, only to learn that it was the girl of the Li family.
In order to reassure his parents, Dai Peng also swore to heaven that as long as he could marry this daughter-in-law, he would never go outside to spend the day and drink again. Seeing that the son insisted, Dai Father and Dai Mother also spent a lot of thought and asked the matchmaker to tell the family affair.
Not only did the matchmaker be promised a lot of rewards, but the dowry also cost a lot of money. The Li family saw that the dowry was very rich, and they also responded to the family affair, and after a month, the two became relatives.
At the beginning of the marriage, Dai Peng did stay at home honestly as he said, but the good times were not long, but after a month or two, he returned to his old ways, and even his parents could not control him, let alone the new wife.
Speaking of Li Cuirong, she originally thought that Dai Peng was an honest and peaceful person, but after marrying over, she found that her husband was a lustful character, and she naturally held a breath in her heart.
Soon after, Dai's father and mother began to plan for the second son's family affairs, and this time they made the decision, and married a woman from a peasant family to his younger brother Dai An, named Zhou Yi.
Although Zhou Yi grew up in a farmhouse, she was born very beautifully, and her temperament was also diligent and willing to work, since marrying into the Dai family, she has been busy outside, boiling water for cooking, and serving the family comfortably. On the other hand, Li Cuirong is not willing to do any work, compared with the two, the in-laws naturally often praise Zhou Yi, and li Cuirong is counted.
Li Cuirong was already dissatisfied in his heart, and now that he saw his sister-in-law beautiful and virtuous, he naturally developed jealousy and always wanted to find an opportunity to destroy his brother's family. Soon, she waited for her chance—
Due to the increasing number of people in the family, the original old house was too small to live in, so Dai's father and mother decided to open a new house next to it for the Dai An family to live in. It just so happened that Li Cuirong's brother was doing carpentry work, so she took the opportunity to return to her mother's house, found her brother, and said to him:
"Brother, sister, after I married into the Dai family, I was angry every day, not only my in-laws fell on me every day, but even the brother and sister-in-law always gave me a look." Now that they're going to build a new house and go out to live, is there any way you can teach them a lesson? ”
As soon as brother Li heard this, he believed it to be true, and said, "That's easy to do, I'll go find a few craftsmen to apply for the conscription together, and I just happened to give them a few lessons." Therefore, the Li family's brother gathered a few craftsmen who were friends on weekdays to help the Dai family build a new house.
When the house was about to erect beams, he took advantage of the fact that the Dai family was not paying attention, secretly dug a few small holes in the beams, and took out three chopsticks and inserted them into the holes in the beams. Later, Li Cuirong was busy asking if things had been done, but her brother just smiled mysteriously and asked her to wait for the good news.
It is also strange to say that shortly after diane's family moved into the new house, there were frequent accidents: first, when Diane went out, he did not notice the rain on the side of the road, slipped, was injured, and had to recuperate in bed for a month;
Then there was the window of the house, there was always an inexplicable strange noise at night, disturbing people's sleep; another time, when Zhou Yi went to the river to wash clothes, suddenly a big fish jumped out of the water, knocked over the wooden basin, and the clothes fell into the river. Since moving, she has been unlucky.
During this period, Li Cuirong also instigated Dai Peng to say bad things about Zhou Yi in front of Dai's father and mother: "Since this new daughter-in-law entered the door, everything in the family has not gone well!" Shouldn't this new daughter-in-law's eight characters clash with her brother, or leave her alone! ”
For Li Cuirong's words, Dai Father and Dai Mother did not quite believe it at first, but with the frequent occurrence of strange things, some of them were suspicious in their hearts, so they came to Diane and persuaded him to take a leave of absence from his wife and marry another one.
Diane resolutely disagreed, and said: "Zhou Yi is not at fault, how can I easily divorce my wife?" Even in court, the law will not allow it. Although his attitude was resolute, these words were heard by Zhou Yi. She was very sad, and she always wept secretly at night, and even asked Diane to go back to her mother's house for a few days.
Unfortunately, on the night that Zhou Yi returned to her mother's house, a strong wind suddenly blew. The windows were not closed, some air leaked, and Diane was sick in bed and could not move, and did not sleep well all night. When it was almost dawn, something suddenly landed heavily on the roof, smashing a large hole in the roof.
After dawn, the neighbors who heard the movement came to watch and saw a rough wooden manhole cover that did not know whose house it was, which was just blown down on the roof by the wind, which leaked the roof.
Seeing this scene, and because Diane was inconvenient to move, a young man who lived next door volunteered to find a ladder to see the situation on the roof. But after going up, he glanced at the beam that seemed to be a little wrong, when even shouted out: "Strange, how can there be three chopsticks inserted in this room beam?" ”
After listening, the neighbors talked a lot, and there was a humane in the crowd: "Diane, what enemies has your family provoked?" Insert chopsticks on the beam, this is to make your family affairs not go well, the flow of years is not good! ”
Subsequently, there was another human: "This beam is so high, who can easily climb up?" It is estimated that it was the craftsman who recruited when building the house, as long as the craftsman is recruited, the truth will be revealed! ”
Dai Father and Dai Mu, who had heard the news, also heard this, and only then did they understand that they had wrongly blamed their brother and daughter-in-law, and they were busy suing the officials about this matter. After Yamen's interrogation, Li Cuirong and her brother's conspiracy to murder Diane's family was revealed, and both were sentenced to prison.
After learning of his wife's plot, Dai Peng also regretted that he had said bad things about his brother, and vowed to change his heart from now on. Later, as their parents grew older, although Diane and Dai Peng brothers separated, they still worked together to make the business flourish.
A few years later, Dai Peng also married a new daughter-in-law who looked ordinary but had a virtuous temperament, and her life finally went smooth.