Grandma Tian had only been asked to give Xie Jiujiu a heads-up. Once she left the Huang family’s house, she never mentioned the matter again. Even when her own daughter and son-in-law asked about it, she simply waved them off, making up some excuse to brush it aside.
In matters like these, even if you knew in advance, you couldn’t be the one to stir things up. The one who stayed calm held the advantage. Xie Jiujiu was practically hoping the clan would make the first move.
Otherwise, if they kept quiet about it and she had to go asking for it herself, she’d be at a disadvantage.
People would say the clan had been kind enough to help the orphaned mother and children manage their property, and if she offended the entire clan, even if she got Yun Ke Lai back, it would be hard to keep it running.
Xie Jiujiu kept this to herself and didn’t tell anyone. It wasn’t until the seventeenth day of the first lunar month, when the Xie family brought the prepared offerings back to the ancestral graves in Luming Village to complete the Remove Mourning Clothes ceremony, that they were stopped by the Xie clan elders before they could even get into their carriage.
“On the first day of the new year, Baozhu and Tianyou went to pay you a New Year’s visit. There were several important matters they wanted to discuss with you. You said you’d wait until after Dechang’s mourning period was over. Now that the mourning clothes have been removed, can we talk about these matters?”
“Zuye, you’re absolutely right. My father passed away suddenly back then, and these past few years, my mother, siblings, and I have relied entirely on the clan’s support to get through these three years. I, too, have something I’d like to discuss with you.”
“I’ve reserved a banquet at Xiangyun Lou in town for noon. Why don’t we go eat first and talk after the meal?”
For the ceremony to remove mourning clothes for her father, the family had set out before dawn. By the time everything was done, it was only around mid-morning (around 10 a.m.), still early for lunch.
Luming Village was right next to LuJiao Town. By carriage, it took less than half an hour to get there. On foot, the villagers walked quickly, so it would take a little over half an hour at most.
Xiangyun Lou was the best restaurant in town. As soon as Xie Jiujiu mentioned she had reserved a banquet there, many who hadn’t planned on going were willing to join in the excitement.
First, to see how Xie Dechang’s remaining property would be handled, and second, to enjoy a good meal. By the seventeenth day of the first lunar month, the New Year celebrations were over, and it was still the slack farming season. Many families were eating only two thin meals a day and hadn’t seen meat in days.
Xie Jiujiu deliberately announced it loudly, and by noon, the entire first floor of Xiangyun Lou was mostly taken up by the Xie family.
Not every household came, but at least one man from each family who could make decisions showed up. A few sharp-tongued and sociable aunties also came along, just to watch the excitement.
A table of food cost five taels and eight mace of silver—a top-tier banquet at Xiangyun Lou. There were no fancy, elaborate dishes, just hearty fare like whole fish, pork knuckles, whole chickens, and whole ducks. Many praised Jiujiu for being sincere, saying she didn’t put on airs when hosting a feast.
Zuye and several other elders sat at the main table. The banquet was the same for everyone, but Xie Jiujiu had specially ordered each of them a bowl of rock sugar bird’s nest with blood streaks. The sweet white porcelain bowls held the bird’s nest with its reddish threads, and a spoonful tasted sweet and delicate.
It wasn’t that the flavor was particularly rare or extraordinary, but Xie Jiujiu’s respectful attitude toward her elders was pleasing—exceptionally pleasing. And this sense of comfort made them even more convinced that the women and children left behind by Xie Dechang would be easy to handle.
After the meal, several clan elders didn’t even bother going home. They sat at the table, called Xie Jiujiu over, and announced as if it were an unimportant piece of news, “Now that the mourning period is over, it’s time to settle your marriage.”
“Zuye, my marriage is something my mother and uncle are taking care of, there’s no rush.”
Xie Jiujiu smiled as she pulled a chair from an empty table nearby and sat down. She had no habit of standing bent over listening to lectures.
“Your mother?” Zuye frowned, glancing at Huang Juan, who was sitting with Xie Zhiniang and the other women at the farthest, most secluded table. “Your mother is still young, and our Xie family has no intention of forcing a widow to remain chaste.”
“Coincidentally, your fourth aunt’s family has a distant nephew who delayed marriage for the sake of studying. If they don’t mind, marrying your mother off to them would be quite feasible.”
The old man had drunk a few extra cups at the banquet. The wine was the cheap, cloudy brew from the town’s distillery, bought and resold by Xiangyun Lou. Almost everyone in town drank it because it was cheap and not very intoxicating.
Xie Jiujiu looked at the old man pretending to be drunk and foolish, her forced smile gradually cooling. She raised her hand and beckoned to Xie Wenji, who was sitting at another table entertaining guests. “Come here.”
“Zuye, is the person you mentioned that Er Laizi who’s notorious even in LuJiao Town?”
Xie Wenji walked over and stood beside his elder sister. Though slender in build, he stood tall and straight. Though he had only caught fragments of the conversation, he could roughly guess what was happening.
“I know that man too. He gambled away his family’s land and house. I recall most of their land was bought by Zuye’s family. He’s a scholar? What kind of scholar is he?”
“You!” The old man hadn’t expected Xie Jiujiu, who had just been smiling and appearing obedient, and Xie Wenji, who had always been quiet and seemingly honest, to tear his face off in public like this.
What made it worse was that Xie Wenji didn’t outright reject the marriage proposal, only said the man was unsuitable. And he even dragged the old man into it—was buying the ancestral property of his daughter-in-law’s nephew at an extremely low price something to be proud of?
Not many in the clan knew about this. How these two youngsters, who had been observing mourning at home, found out was a mystery.
The reason Zuye became Zuye was simply that he had outlived his peers. Two other elders of his generation had become senile, leaving him as the only one in the clan who could play the elder and throw his weight around.
The old man had a bad temper. Having been publicly humiliated by two fatherless youngsters, anger was already showing on his face.
Before he could slam the table and start cursing, he heard two coughs from above his head. Looking up, he saw two burly men standing behind Xie Jiujiu, staring at him intently without saying a word.
These men were borrowed by her uncle Huang He from his father-in-law’s family—properly trained martial artists. Their robust shoulders strained the sleeves of their short jackets, and the vertical crease between their eyebrows gave them a fierce, intimidating look, instantly scaring the words back down Zuye’s throat.
“Today we’re handling Xie family matters. How could you bring outsiders here, girl?”
“Don’t worry, Zuye. They’re not outsiders. These two are my little uncle’s wife’s maternal cousins—all genuine relatives.”
Back when the clan insisted that Manager Pan, invited by Uncle Huang, couldn’t be trusted alone and demanded that the clan send someone to jointly manage Yun Ke Lai, they had argued that clan members were all genuine relatives who would never deceive their own.
Now, hearing these same words from Xie Jiujiu’s mouth carried a certain irony.
The commotion caused by Zuye summoning Xie Jiujiu to his side was considerable, and now the entire Xiangyun Lou had fallen silent. Not only were the Xie family members watching eagerly, but even the few scattered tables of other customers and the shopkeeper were waiting to see the spectacle.
Cases where the clan stepped in to seize the property of widows and orphans were not unheard of, but most were merely rumors. Now that they were witnessing such a situation firsthand, everyone was curious.
“Your mother’s matter isn’t that urgent, but Jiujiu, you’re getting older, and your marriage can’t be delayed any longer. When your father was alive, he loved you the most. You must settle down properly so he can rest in peace.”
The one who responded was sitting on the other side of Zuye. According to seniority, Xie Jiujiu should call him Second Uncle. He had previously maintained a good relationship with the family, but now he was actively helping the clan scheme to take over the family’s assets.
“Second Uncle, there’s no need for you to worry about this. My mother is straightforward—she never keeps her thoughts to herself overnight. Over the years, she and my father raised the three of us together. Now that Father has passed away, how could we even think of pushing her to remarry? What kind of behavior would that be?”
Xie Jiujiu had indeed guessed the clan’s intentions. There were only a few ways to seize the property left behind by widows and orphans.
Unlike other families, the Xie clan had no intention of keeping Huang Juan as a chaste widow. Instead, they were eager to push her into remarrying as soon as possible. In their view, once a woman remarried, she would have no further ties to her former husband’s family.
The wealth left behind by Xie Dechang would not be allowed to leave with Huang Juan—it was to be reserved for the children. Over the years, numerous aunts and sisters-in-law from the clan had visited, subtly urging her to take another step forward, all under the guise of caring for her well-being.
Once Huang Juan remarried, they would have even more justification to meddle in Xie Jiujiu’s marriage. With the eldest daughter married off, the family would only be left with the frail Xie Wenji and the still-naive Xie Zhiniang.
At that point, if the Xie clan took over managing the assets on behalf of the two children, no one would be able to question it. By the time Xie Wenji grew up and was ready to start a family, it would be uncertain how much of the estate left by Xie Dechang would remain.
Or, if one were to think even more maliciously, it was unclear whether Xie Wenji would even live long enough to establish himself. If Xie Wenji were to die, the family would truly be left without an heir. At that point, whether Xie Zhiniang lived or died would likely be of little concern to anyone.
“My mother won’t remarry. Second Brother is frail and needs to focus on his studies, and Zhiniang is still too young. How could I possibly leave this family to fend for itself?”
As Xie Jiujiu spoke these words, she maintained a smile, but there was not a trace of warmth in her eyes. “So, I’ve already discussed it with my maternal grandfather and uncles—I won’t marry out. Instead, I plan to take in a Zhuixu.”
Upon hearing this, the expressions of everyone in the clan changed. A Zhuixu, once brought into the family, would become a member of the Xie household. With both a son and a son-in-law in the family, the clan would have no legitimate reason to continue managing Yun Ke Lai and the several hundred mu of Shuitian left behind by Xie Dechang.
“You… this…” Several clan elders, along with Xie Baozhu and Xie Tianyou, held influence within the clan, but in truth, they were just ordinary commoners.
Xie Jiujiu had seized the initiative, dropping one piece of news after another without giving them a chance to refute or react. They were momentarily stunned, wanting to oppose her but unable to find the right words in the moment.
“Zuye, rest assured. Bringing a son-in-law into our home is adding to the Xie family’s lineage—it’s a good thing. With me and my husband-to-be managing Yun Ke Lai, you elders can feel at ease.”
Xie Jiujiu glanced at the varied expressions on everyone’s faces and, without giving the old man a chance to interject, dropped another statement that shocked the crowd. “Zuye, I know that these past few years, we’ve been able to observe mourning peacefully, all thanks to the clan.”
“Now, Wenji is studying, and before my father passed away, he repeatedly emphasized that Wenji must study diligently and take the Keju exams in the future. I dare not forget this. I propose establishing a Sishu in the village in my father’s name, using our old house in the village as the premises. I’ve inquired about the annual Shuxiu required for a teacher: thirty taels for an old Tongsheng and fifty taels for a Xiucaigong.”
All our family’s farmland is in Luming Village, and naturally, it has been managed by clan members these past few years. We own three hundred mu of prime Shuitian and two hundred mu of Zhongtian. In these peaceful times, such good land is hard to come by even with silver.
On average, one mu of Zhongtian yields about two dan of rice per year, so two hundred mu yields four hundred dan. One tael of silver can buy two dan of rice, meaning four hundred dan can be exchanged for two hundred taels of silver.
This is the gross output. These two hundred mu are cultivated by five Diannong households. Since four of the five families share our surname, the proceeds have been split fifty-fifty all these years. After deducting various Fushui and Zashui, the net income converted to silver is around eighty taels per year.
Running a Sishu isn’t just about hiring a teacher. Three meals a day must be provided, and in winter, Tanhuo and Muchai are needed. There are also expenses for Dengyou and Bimo Zhiyan. These may seem trivial, but when it comes to actual use, every detail requires spending.
“Given this, I propose using the income from those two hundred mu of Zhongtian to fund the Sishu. This would be our family’s practical contribution to the clan. Do you think this is feasible?”