Heirloom

"Lin Fei, without a three hundred thousand betrothal gift, don't you even think about marrying my sister!"

"Coming from the countryside yourself, wanting to marry my daughter is already punching above your weight. If it wasn't for seeing that you are truly devoted to my daughter, I wouldn't give you the chance to set foot in this door at all."

"Our Weiwei has the looks and the figure, and she has plenty of suitors. If you don't have money, you'd better cut off your delusions early and stop pestering my daughter."

Lin Fei stood inside the living room, looking at the three people in front of him with an embarrassed expression.

They were none other than his girlfriend's parents and younger brother.

Seated on the sofa, they held themselves with arrogant attitudes and spoke with harsh words, showing Lin Fei not a shred of face.

"Auntie, wasn't it agreed that the betrothal gift would be one hundred and fifty thousand? How did it suddenly turn into three hundred thousand?"

"You know yourself that I've only been working for a little over a year, so I really don't have much savings."

"My parents are both farmers, and they can't earn much money from one end of the year to the other. For Weiwei's and my marriage, they had to borrow money from relatives just to scrape enough together..."

"Enough!"

Liu Yuxiang raised a hand, cutting Lin Fei off.

"I don't care how your family got their money; without a three hundred thousand betrothal gift, I will never marry my daughter to you."

Ma Yiming walked up to Lin Fei and poked Lin Fei in the chest with his finger.

"To tell you the truth, my girlfriend's family is demanding a three hundred thousand betrothal gift from me, and not a single fen less."

"My sister has already agreed to let me use your betrothal gift. If you can scrape together three hundred thousand, then you and my sister still have a chance. If you can't cough it up, don't ever come looking for my sister again."

Lin Fei clenched his fists, grinding his teeth in anger.

To think that the money his parents had cast aside their elderly pride to borrow from relatives and friends was all going to be used by this good-for-nothing Ma Yiming.

Was this really his parents helping him get a wife?

Or was he helping Ma Yiming get a wife?

Lin Fei was well aware of his family's financial situation. Both of his parents were honest, down-to-earth country folk, and their annual income from farming was only a little over twenty thousand yuan.

Usually, his dad went out to do manual labor, tackling grueling and exhausting heavy work, and managed to earn tens of thousands of yuan to bring home each year.

However, as he grew older and engaged in long-term heavy physical labor, physical problems began to plague him, leaving him constantly plagued by soreness in his lower back and waist.

He had just gone for a physical checkup not long ago and was found to have a lumbar disc herniation.

The doctor recommended surgical treatment, but because of Lin Fei's upcoming wedding, his dad begrumbled spending the money on the surgery and stubbornly insisted he was fine.

As for his mom, she went without saying: an uneducated rural woman who farmed year-round and occasionally took on odd jobs to supplement the household income.

Recently, for the sake of his wedding, she had been going out to do odd jobs from before dawn until after dusk every single day.

With the wedding date fast approaching, he never expected the Ma Family to raise the price at the last minute and double the betrothal gift.

"Auntie, can you please let me see Weiwei?"

At that moment, the bedroom door opened, and Ma Weiwei walked out.

Lin Fei and Ma Weiwei were college classmates, and the two of them had been in love for three years. He believed that the feelings between them could not be measured by money.

"Lin Fei, I heard everything you just talked about."

"When faced with family affection and romantic love, I can only choose one. For the sake of my younger brother, I must have this three hundred thousand betrothal gift."

"If your family truly cannot cough up this three hundred thousand, then let's... break up!"

Hearing this, Lin Fei's heart instantly grew cold, and he couldn't help but let out a self-deprecating laugh.

A fine "for the sake of my younger brother"!

Did romance ultimately fail to withstand money after all?

"Fine, you chose family affection, and I don't blame you."

"Return the one hundred and fifty thousand betrothal gift our family gave you, along with the heirloom my mom gave you, and I'll leave right now!"

Liu Yuxiang sneered, stood up, and said, "What are you dreaming about? We aren't returning a single fen of the betrothal gift."

"You wasted three years of my daughter's youth, so consider this money as her compensation for lost youth."

"As for the heirloom you mentioned, that broken bracelet, we can return that to you."

Acting as though she had been prepared all along, Liu Yuxiang pulled a bracelet from her bag, her face filled with utter disgust.

"I honestly thought this broken bracelet of yours was some kind of treasure at first. Luckily, I had someone appraise it; it's neither gold nor jade, and heaven knows what kind of worthless scrap metal it is—completely valueless."

"To think you actually tried to pull a fast one on us and call it an heirloom, bah! Did you take us for fools?"

Liu Yuxiang tossed the bracelet at Lin Fei as if she were throwing away garbage.

Clutching the bracelet, Lin Fei glared at Liu Yuxiang.

This bracelet truly was the Lin Family's heirloom. Whether it was valuable or not, he didn't know, but it had indeed been passed down through many generations.

His mom had taken Ma Weiwei to be her future daughter-in-law, which was why she had passed it on to her.

"Compensation for lost youth?"

"Is my youth not youth, then? This betrothal gift money was all earned through my parents' hard work, plus what they borrowed from relatives and friends—you must return it to me."

Ma Yiming sneered, "You bumpkin, what the hell kind of youth do you have? Since you broke up with my sister, get the hell out of our house!"

Ma Yiming dragged Lin Fei outward. Lin Fei naturally refused to go, and the two began shoving each other.

Seeing this, Ma Baoguo immediately stepped forward to help.

The father and son joined forces and pushed Lin Fei out the door.

Lin Fei grabbed the doorframe with his hand, furious to the extreme.

"Give me my money back! If you don't return my money, I won't leave..."

Ma Yiming kicked Lin Fei right in the abdomen. Lin Fei reeled backward from the kick, lost his footing, and tumbled down the stairs.

This fall left Lin Fei battered and bleeding.

"Get lost! If you ever dare come make a scene at our house again, watch out or I'll find a few brothers to cripple you!"

Ma Yiming cursed viciously.

Everyone from the Ma Family returned inside the apartment, and Ma Weiwei didn't even come out to take a single extra look.

After recovering for a long while, Lin Fei finally climbed up from the ground.

Looking at the already closed door of the Ma Family, he gave up on Ma Weiwei completely.

He only blamed himself for failing to judge character properly, which was why he ended up with a girlfriend who was a leech to her younger brother.

So painful!

Lin Fei wiped the blood from his forehead and casually picked up the bracelet that had fallen beside him. Fresh blood clung to the surface of the bracelet.

Good thing it didn't break...

He hadn't been able to get the betrothal gifts back, and if the family heirloom broke as well, Lin Fei would have no face to face his parents.

He slipped the bracelet into his pocket and limped away.

He went to the hospital first to treat his wound, and then returned to his rented apartment.

This apartment had an annual rent of thirty thousand, spanning over a hundred and twenty square meters.

He had hired someone to completely renovate it, decorating it with the utmost warmth.

Originally, he had planned to use it for his marriage to Ma Weiwei, but now it wouldn't be needed.

If he could cancel the lease, at least it would recoup a fraction of his losses.

Sigh, how am I supposed to tell Mom and Dad about this?

Lin Fei reached out, pulled the bracelet from his pocket, and instantly froze.

The bracelet had actually changed appearance!

Originally, the bracelet had been bright yellow, looking like gold while feeling as warm and smooth as jade to the touch.

Now, some bizarre blood-colored patterns had appeared on the bracelet, and a golden light faintly flowed within its interior.

"What..."

Before Lin Fei could react, the bracelet suddenly transformed into a beam of golden light, merging into his wrist and leaving behind only a circle of bizarre blood-colored markings.

Looking at it, it was just like a tattoo.

"What the hell!"

Startled, Lin Fei hurriedly waved his arm.

Immediately following, a scene that shocked him even more unfolded.

Accompanied by the swinging of his arm, a "door" that faintly radiated white light actually appeared right before his eyes.