Chapter 91: Laughing Buddha Jade Pendant

Chapter 91: Chapter 91: Laughing Buddha Jade Pendant

She reached out and snatched the Jade Pendant from Liu’s hand. "Your dowry? Your Liu family is so poor they can barely eat, let alone give you this as a dowry. Who do you think you’re fooling?"

Liu looked unhappy, but she argued stubbornly, "My Liu family might be poor, but we aren’t stingy. This Jade Pendant is a family heirloom. What’s so strange about it being part of my dowry?"

Old Mrs. Bai snorted. "That *is* strange. Your younger brother couldn’t even afford a wife until he was in his thirties because your family is so poor. Given how your parents dote on him, would they really give something this valuable to you and let him stay a bachelor because of poverty? Tell that story to someone who’ll believe it."

Liu’s face flushed as she retorted, "It’s a Liu family tradition to pass it down to daughters, not sons. So of course it was given to me. What’s the problem with that?"

Old Mrs. Bai shot her a glare, then hollered, "Dazhu, get over here!"

Dazhu, who had been cooling off in the backyard, heard the call and hurried over. "Ma, you were looking for me?"

Old Mrs. Bai cut straight to the chase. "When your wife married you, did she have any dowry besides that one worn-out cotton quilt?"

Bai Dazhu immediately shook his head. "Nope. Besides that worn-out quilt, nothing else. Oh, wait, there was also an outfit, altered from one of her mother’s lightly-used ones. But that was it."

Old Mrs. Bai turned her eyes to Liu. "Did you hear that?"

Liu opened her mouth to argue, but Old Mrs. Bai cut her off with an impatient wave. "Shut up. You think I don’t know what kind of family the Liu family is? Three of their children starved to death before you were even born! You expect me to believe they had a treasure like this and didn’t trade it for money to survive? And then they let you bring it to our Bai Family?"

Liu knew it was useless to argue further, so she clamped her mouth shut. She shot a vicious glare at her son and husband, filled with regret. ’If only I’d found it first, there’s no way I would’ve let that old hag snatch it away.’

Of course, Old Mrs. Bai knew the Jade Pendant in her hand was valuable. After a few glances, she quickly stuffed it inside her clothes. Then she turned to Bai Dabao. "Da Bao, where did you find this? Was there anything else with it?"

Da Bao pointed to two wooden stand legs nearby. "I think it fell out of one of those. There was nothing else."

Old Mrs. Bai picked up the stand legs, examining them over and over. She found a thin stick and poked around in the cracks for a good long while, but couldn’t pry anything out. Finally, she had Da Bao split the legs open. Sure enough, there was nothing else inside.

Da Bao asked, "Grandma, how could there be a Jade Pendant inside a stand leg?"

Old Mrs. Bai shook her head. "I don’t know. We bought this corner stand from the general store in town more than ten years ago. It was secondhand. Maybe the previous owner hid it inside. Who knows? But it’s landed in the hands of the Bai Family now, so it belongs to us."

Bai Dabao eagerly grabbed Old Mrs. Bai’s arm. "Grandma, this must be worth a lot of money, right? If we sell it, we might get even more than we would have for selling Bai Zhi." Because their attempt to sell Bai Zhi had failed, his marriage prospects were on the verge of collapse. Now, with such a treasure in hand, it felt like a new hope on the horizon.

Old Mrs. Bai took the Jade Pendant out from her clothes again, examining it from all angles. She didn’t know much about jade, only that it looked exquisite, but she had no idea what it was actually worth. "This is such a fine treasure. We should keep it as a family heirloom to pass down. How could we sell it? What if we get cheated? The loss would be far greater than any gain."