SBCEJM -Chapter 260 The Zhang Family Marriage Scam — “Buy One, Get Five Free?!”

【Who told you she got married off?】

The system’s voice was very soft.

So soft it was like a feather drifting down.

Yet it struck like a dull thunderclap, exploding in the narrow alley filled with the scent of pears and overlapping chatter.

The noisy street cries around them seemed to be forcibly muted, as if someone had turned the volume down on the world.

Yun He remained bent over, still in the motion of picking up a pear. His fingertips had just touched its rough skin.

A chill shot up from his fingers and instantly spread through his entire body.

His hand twitched uncontrollably.

The pear slipped from his grasp.

“Roll—roll—roll—”

It tumbled straight into a filthy roadside puddle, instantly stained black with mud.

…Not married?

Yun He’s mind went “buzz”—then blanked out completely.

A terrifying thought sprouted wildly in his head like a poisonous bamboo shoot breaking through soil.

If she wasn’t married…

Then these past three years… in the Zhang household… what was his sister supposed to be?

Feng Zexuan’s hand, holding the pear soup, froze mid-air as well.

Warm steam blurred her vision.

【System, don’t joke with me!】

【Not married? Then where did that “Young Madam of the Zhang family” title come from?!】

【Host, military strategy says: feint in the east, attack in the west.】

The system’s emotionless voice began revealing a secret buried for three years.

【Three years ago, Yun Shu was fifteen, and her younger brother Yun He was fourteen.】

【That year, their mother, Madam Yun, was critically ill, and the family was so poor they could barely survive.】

【Their father… started to scheme.】

At the mouth of the alley, the surrounding crowd instinctively held their breath, afraid to miss a single word.

【He intended to mortgage his daughter Yun Shu to the Zhang family in exchange for money to save his wife.】

“What? Mortgage a daughter?”

“My heavens, that father is trash! Selling his daughter like livestock?”

“Sigh… but poverty drives people desperate…”

Whispers spread through the crowd.

Yun He’s face turned deathly pale.

Mortgage…

He bit his lip so hard it bled, nails digging deep into his palm—yet he felt nothing.

【When they arrived at the Zhang residence, Madam Zhang immediately took a liking to Yun Shu.】

【She said the girl looked strong and obedient—good for bearing children.】

【And coincidentally, her youngest son, Zhang Wenbin, had come of age, so why not just marry her into the family as his official wife?】

Feng Zexuan paused.

【Wait… there’s such a good deal? A mortgage upgraded into marriage?】

【The father, of course, thought he had struck gold. Not only did he get a large sum of silver, but his daughter could also marry into a wealthy merchant family.】

【Without hesitation, he accepted, took the money that very day, and arranged a so-called “wedding” as Madam Zhang instructed, sending Yun Shu into the Zhang household.】

The crowd’s earlier outrage wavered.

“So there was a bride price and a wedding… doesn’t that count as marriage?”

“Right, and I heard Zhang Wenbin is quite handsome!”

“Thirty taels of silver too…”

Yun He, standing nearby, heard it.

A faint trace of color returned to his pale face.

Right…

Maybe it really was marriage… maybe she was living well…

He tried hard to convince himself.

But the next thought from Feng Zexuan poured cold water straight over his hopes.

【So rushed? Married on the same day? No three letters, no formal rites? That’s even sloppier than taking a concubine!】

【Not concubinage.】

The system immediately denied it.

【But also… not marriage to Zhang Wenbin.】

What?!

Yun He’s heart that had just settled was yanked back up into his throat.

【Think about it, Host.】

The system’s voice turned faintly mocking.

【The Zhang family is a wealthy imperial merchant clan. Their publicly known youngest son, Zhang Wenbin, is the legitimate heir of the household.】

【How could they possibly let him marry an ordinary woman as his official wife?】

【Even a minor official’s daughter would be carefully weighed.】

【So…】

The system’s tone suddenly turned cold.

【From the very beginning, this marriage was a meticulously planned scam.】

“A scam?”

“My god, this gets bigger and bigger!”

The crowd erupted.

【Yun Shu’s nominal husband is the Zhang family’s publicly displayed, handsome “legitimate son,” Zhang Wenbin.】

【But in reality, she was treated as an object…】

【and handed over to Zhang Wenbin’s five older brothers—who are never seen in public and are all grotesque, ugly failures.】

“WHAT?!”

Feng Zexuan almost dropped her bowl of pear soup.

【Ugly freaks?!】

【Five of them?!】

【Buy one get four—no, buy one get five?! They’re running a wholesale marriage scam?!】

The entire alley exploded mentally.

“Ridiculous! The Zhang family doesn’t even have five sons!”

“I only know three!”

“The eldest and second sons are married into noble families! I even attended the weddings!”

Yun He couldn’t hear any of it anymore.

His world spun violently.

Five…

Ugly…

Older brothers…

Scenes he had ignored for years surged into his mind.

His sister’s evasive eyes every time she came home…

Her never speaking of the Zhang family…

Her insisting she was “doing well”…

He had always thought she had become reserved after marrying into wealth.

He never imagined—

that behind her silence… was something so disgusting, so unbearable.

【Host, this is the Zhang family’s greatest secret—and their greatest shame.】

The system dropped another bombshell.

【The three outwardly handsome young masters of the Zhang family are all born of concubines, used to maintain appearances.】

【And the Zhang couple’s own five sons…】

【Due to certain “special reasons”…】

【are all deformed, mentally impaired beings who cannot be seen by outsiders.】

The alley fell completely silent.

No one was breathing.

“Concubine-born sons pretending to be legitimate?”

“Five real sons… hidden away?”

“What kind of sin is this…?”

The villagers exchanged stunned glances.

Every face was filled with shock beyond words.