The Apple of My Eye
Chapter 887 Bride Price

The voices and commotion in the house were blurred in Laura's mind. She suddenly paused in her tracks when Peggy dropped the news to her on this fine evening. Her eyes darted between Sue and Peggy in utter disbelief. "You... Can you repeat what you just said?" she asked again. There was a small lapse of silence in the whole apartment as Laura waited with a bated breath.

"I said... she's pregnant." Peggy finally spoke. Since Sue seemingly refused to chime in, Peggy decided to tell Laura everything. "The child's father is Anthony," Peggy added as she looked straight into Laura's eyes.

Once again, Laura was in total disbelief. She was truly shocked by Peggy's words. "Is that true? What Peggy said is true?" Laura asked Sue for the umpteenth time.

A small frown made its way to Sue's face. She had never thought that Peggy would expose her pregnancy to Laura. Her hands fidgeted as she had no idea what to do or say next. Fortunately, Anthony inched closer to her just in time and answered his mother, "Yes, that's true."

Anthony gazed warmly at Laura. "Mom, you'll be a grandmother," he added with a gentle smile.

Laura's eyes appeared condescending at first, but she suddenly blurted out, "My son, how dare you! Why didn't you tell me earlier?" It turned out that she was overjoyed by Sue's pregnancy. She patted her son's back to offer her congratulations and then turned to Sue. Laura warmly held Sue's hands in her own and gently inquired about her pregnancy experience, "How many months of your pregnancy? Have you ever felt uncomfortable?"

Sue hadn't even answered her yet but Laura had already started talking again, and her arms were now around Sue's shoulders. "I still remember in the time of my early pregnancy, I had morning sickness every day. I felt badly ill as if bile was threatening to spill out of me," she reminisced.

After Peggy told her of Sue's pregnancy, Laura quickly and suddenly forgone her poor manners and completely ignored Sue's harsh words towards her, as if it never even happened.

Her face lit up with pure joy and excitement with the news. She even started to think ahead about the wedding ceremony. "As you are pregnant, the wedding ceremony should be put on the agenda as soon as possible. Wearing a wedding dress with a big belly or holding the wedding ceremony after giving birth to the child will be the topic of gossips. Thus, we need to hold the wedding ceremony as quickly as we can," she directly told Sue.

A small frown arched on Laura's face for the second time when she realized how much they needed to squeeze in short time because of the pregnancy. "Fine, I have to select a lucky day and book a hotel for the wedding ceremony as quickly as possible," she said after carefully thinking about it.

Even though Laura's mind was full of many fabulous ideas for the wedding, she couldn't help but worry about the limited time they had to prepare for it. "In such a short time, I am not sure whether we could book the hotel..."

Laura was so excited with settling and prepping for the wedding ceremony that Sue almost hated to interrupt her joyous ramblings, but she had to. She cleared her throat and said, "Aunt Laura, the child is mine and he has nothing to do with Anthony."

"Sue, what exactly are you talking about?" Peggy chimed in and gave Sue a stern look. "Ridiculous words. How could you get pregnant by yourself?" she asked Sue in a lofty voice.

"Yes. That is right," Laura agreed and looked at Sue with a tender smile on her face. "Don't worry. If Anthony dares to bully you, you could tell me and I will sort him out," Laura added to reassure Sue. However, Sue wasn't placated by Laura's words. "Aunt, that's not what I meant." Exasperation was evident on Sue's face. 'Why does no one understand me?' she thought.

Meanwhile, Anthony drew Sue's shoulders closer to him and chipped in the conversation. "Mom, how do I even dare to bully her?" he chided. His lips curled upward into a smile. "She is the most important person in my heart now. I promise, she is the last one on earth I will dare bully. Besides, she has my child in her belly," he said with utmost sincerity.

"You'd better keep that in your mind," Laura said with raised eyebrows. She was definitely pleased by her son's words, but in the next second her face contorted to show worry. "What name should we give the baby?" she said tentatively. Anthony's brows shot up to his forehead at his mother's words.

"Mom, what are you thinking about?" he asked her incredulously. "As we still have no idea about the baby's gender, it is too early to think of the baby's name," he added.

Laura smiled good-naturedly in agreement. "Yes, you are right. I was overjoyed by Sue's pregnancy, and I am a little bit muddle-headed," she said in jest. While the rest of them continued to converse, the smel of stew and freshly steamed rice wafted from the kitchen.

Peggy had just finished cooking dinner, and invited everyone to eat first. The smell of food also beckoned Allen and Doris out of their room and they joined in the dining table. After they have all settled down, it was finally time to eat.

Everyone enjoyed their meals, especially Laura. She couldn't hide the joy on her face after knowing about Sue's pregnancy. She was all smiles and happy thoughts the whole time.

She warmly kept serving the food for Sue to make sure she would be full. Not to be out-mannered, Peggy also served lots of food to her daughter as a considerate mother.

Sue's bowl was laden with many delicious food, but she had no appetite and hadn't even touched anything yet. She simply stared at them.

Anthony sensed this and turned to her. "What's wrong? You have no appetite to eat?" he calmly asked. However, Sue still remained silent. She continued her staring contest with the bowl of food.

Her lack of appetite did not slip by Peggy's attention as well. "Sue, if you don't want to eat these dishes, tell me what you want to eat later and I'll cook for you," she told Sue with a gentle smile. With the serving of dinner and gentle questions, Peggy played the role of a kind mother.

The dinner continued. During the meal, Laura discussed matters of the wedding ceremony with Peggy. "Peggy, since Sue is pregnant, should we also set out to prepare for the wedding ceremony?" she asked. "To follow your family's local customs, what do we need to prepare? Tell me something about that. I assure you that it definitely helps me to make a start with wedding ceremony," she added with a grin. Peggy looked at Laura who sat across her and thought about it for a moment.

After a short pause, she finally said, "As for the wedding thing, I don't have much opinions about it. After all, Sue is going to marry Anthony. As far as I am concerned, how about following your family's customs to prepare the wedding ceremony?"

"Okay, you can be rest assured that I will hold a decent wedding ceremony for them," Laura replied warmly and stirred her bowl of food. A warm smile made its way onto Laura's face as she thought about arranging the wedding.

However, all their talks about the wedding ceremony only made Sue feel depressed. She could feel the anger boiling within her and just as when she was about to let it out, Anthony held her hand in his. "Believe it or not, I really want to be with you now. I will take charge of the whole thing, and all you need to do is to wait," he reassured her.

Somehow, she suddenly believed in his words in that moment.

She forced herself to calm down and silently observed what would happen next.

"But..." Peggy wanted to say something, but paused. In reality, Peggy didn't actually care about the wedding thing at all. She didn't even want to think of it.

Her tone suddenly became hesitant, as if the next words were difficult for her to say.

Laura felt her uncertainty and reassured her. "Peggy, we will be a family in law right now. If you have anything to say, just say it straight. Everything we do is for Sue and Anthony, so there is nothing we need to hide," she said with a smile.

Peggy smiled warmly back at her. "Yes, you are right. Look at me, I am muddle-headed because of joy," she said. She picked up her glass of water and took a sip.

"Now that you have said that, I will not hide anything from you," she continued.

She paused for a while before proceeding with her next words, "According to our local customs, giving the bride price is still a must. In the south, the more bride price you get, the more decent the wedding ceremony is. As you can see, Sue is now pregnant, so about bride price... can we have more?" Peggy finally finished what she had to say. Across her, Laura still ate her food with contentment.

At that moment, she didn't think too much about it. She simply thought what Peggy asked for was merely for the couple. She temporarily put down her utensils and turned to Peggy. "Don't worry. You can be rest assured that we can afford the money," she said with a gentle smile.

She glanced at her son and back to Peggy again, a proud grin etched on her lips. "Since Anthony had graduated from university, I began to save the money for his marriage. I hope that he can get married as soon as possible, so you can be sure that I will never treat Sue unfairly," she added.

"That is good. That's so kind of you," Peggy responded with a small smile of her own. Even if her facial expressions showed happiness, she was still a bit worried about the monetary matters so she asked again, "Laura, if I may ask you... how much have you prepared?" The dining room was quiet as everyone waited for Laura's response.

Anthony's mother had actually prepared a lot of money for it, but when she found out that Sue's family conditions wasn't good enough, she did not want to give too much money as the bride price. Thus, Laura cut down the supposed amount ten times. "Eight hundred and eighty-eight thousand," she finally said, and smiled at Peggy.

She thought that the number was already outrageous and generous for Sue's family. However, Doris, who kept quiet during the whole dinner, finally spoke out. "Aunt Laura, are you serious? It will be nothing like enough," Doris said in a cold voice. "Everyone knows that the Xiao family is a famous and wealthy family with a high reputation. Besides, Anthony runs a company. Giving such a little amount as a bride price is definitely shameful if the news is spread out," Doris added haughtily.

At that moment, Laura was stunned and definitely shocked by not only Doris' rude words and manner of talking to her, but also because she had never thought that eight hundred eighty-eight thousand wasn't enough for Sue's family.