Just as Su He was wondering whether she should head to the mountainside again to try her luck.
Bang!
The courtyard gate was suddenly flung open with force.
Xiao Jun rushed inside, a furious look plastered across his face.
“This is absolutely infuriating!” He kicked a pebble by the door, radiating pure anger.
Su He was taken aback and turned around to look at him. “What on earth happened?”
Xiao Jun’s face was red with rage. “I just went to look for Hu-zi to play, and only then did I find out that the Shen family actually plans to hold their wedding banquet tomorrow as well!”
“What? For real? No one mentioned anything about it yesterday,” Xiao Yue stammered, looking completely bewildered.
The more Xiao Jun spoke, the angrier he became. “The whole village knows about it now; it’s set for tomorrow! Isn’t this an open challenge to our family?” He grew even more resentful at this point. “Eldest brother and Shen Feng are even under the same battalion commander’s regiment! When their colleagues arrive, whose house are they supposed to visit? Isn’t this putting eldest brother in a terrible position?!”
If the superiors and colleagues all went to the Shen family, where would that leave his eldest brother, who was also a company commander?
“…”
Su He’s brow furrowed slightly. She suddenly recalled crossing paths with Su Lan and Shen Feng at the clothing shop earlier today; they seemed to be picking out a red bridal veil back then. She hadn’t thought much of it at the time, assuming that even if they were choosing a veil, it was simply to prepare for a wedding somewhere down the line. She never expected it to fall on the exact same day.
Truth be told, she felt entirely indifferent toward Su Lan, who came from the same Minister’s manor. From the original owner’s memories, Su Lan was an incredibly competitive and aggressive person who insisted on being first in everything, loved to overshadow others, and desperately strove to be the most favored maid by the eldest young lady’s side. Su Lan had always been overly critical and bitter toward Su He, who was also a first-class maid. She particularly harbored deep resentment over the fact that the eldest young lady had handed the management of the courtyard over to Su He, yet she couldn’t bring herself to give up the prestigious opportunities to accompany the young lady outdoors.
The original owner, being mild-tempered and soft-spoken, preferred not to bicker with her and simply maintained a basic relationship. The current Su He felt exactly the same way. As long as this person didn’t flaunt herself right in front of her face or use underhanded tactics to cause harm, she would treat her like a total stranger. Her only goal right now was to improve her standard of living and lead a good life. As for other irrelevant people, she couldn’t be bothered to waste her energy on them.
However, based on Su Lan’s track record, this sudden banquet arranged by the Shen family most likely had everything to do with her.
“Alright, don’t be angry anymore. If they want to hold a banquet, just let them. We can’t stop them anyway,” Su He consoled the siblings in a gentle tone. “Besides, there’s no rule stating that only our family is allowed to host a banquet tomorrow.”
Xiao Jun froze. The logic made sense, but he just couldn’t swallow his anger. “Our family announced our banquet way before them. For them to choose the exact same day is just plain underhanded!”
“Exactly! It’s just meant to disgust people~” Xiao Yue nodded in agreement.
Su He didn’t mind it much. After all, their family was only setting up two tables at most tomorrow, and it was impossible to invite the entire village to drink. Therefore, the guest lists wouldn’t overlap entirely!
That said, it remained to be seen how the village chief and the camp’s superiors and colleagues would choose. But looking at it from another perspective, this was a perfect opportunity to test people’s true colors.
“Alright, stop being angry. Those who are meant to come will naturally come. If you two have nothing to do, come and help me cut some red paper.”
Distracted by this disruption, Su He also abandoned her idea of going up the mountain. Tomorrow was a major day, and with the critical moment approaching, she shouldn’t act rashly and risk affecting tomorrow’s banquet.
It just so happened that she hadn’t touched the red paper she bought back, so she pulled the siblings over to start cutting out double-happiness characters and window paper-cuts. This way, they could at least decorate the simple courtyard tomorrow and add a bit of festive cheer.
“Sister-in-law, I know how to do paper-cutting. Let me help you.”
Xiao Yue immediately diverted her attention, and Xiao Jun chimed in to join them as well.
Thus, the three of them gathered around the table. The scissors clicked and snipped as sheets of red paper were spread out one by one. Gradually, “double happiness” characters and simple window paper-cuts began to take shape.
The sky gradually darkened. As night fell, the oil lamp in the main room was lit, its warm yellow glow illuminating the pile of red paper. It also brought a sense of grounded comfort to everyone’s hearts.
After an unknown amount of time, footsteps finally echoed outside the courtyard gate.
Creak~
The door was pushed open.
Xiao Zheng stepped back from the darkness of the night, carrying a large wooden chest on his shoulder. Although the craftsmanship didn’t look exceptionally fine, it was perfectly square, steady, and appeared highly durable and sturdy.
“Eldest brother! Did you commission a new chest?” Xiao Jun immediately went up to him upon seeing it, his tone filled with surprise.
“Mm.”
Xiao Zheng set the chest down. He turned to look at Su He, his voice a notch lower than usual. “This is for you, to make it easier to store your things.” He paused, then added another sentence. “Consider it a… betrothal gift.”
Naturally, a betrothal gift was required when taking a wife. However, theirs was a marriage assigned by the imperial court, and on top of that, she had entered the household empty-handed with no belongings whatsoever. Before this, as a grown man, he had lived a rough-and-ready lifestyle, not paying attention to many details and just scrambling through his days.
But a woman was different. Therefore, on the very night he brought her through the Xiao family gates, he went to look for the village carpenter, Carpenter Xiao, to commission a new chest.
“…” Su He blinked, truly not expecting him to prepare this.
This room was indeed simple and crude, lacking even a decent storage unit. She had originally planned to add pieces slowly in the future, but she hadn’t expected him to already arrange it for her.
“This chest of yours couldn’t have come at a better time!” Su He stood up and examined the wooden chest, a look of genuine pleasure on her face. “I like it very much. Thank you.”
Standing to the side, Xiao Jun couldn’t help but laugh. “No wonder eldest brother kept running out these past two nights. So you were going to Carpenter Xiao to get a chest made!”
“Watch your tongue,” Xiao Zheng shot him a glance, though the tips of his ears burned slightly hot.
Hearing this, Su He smiled warmly, a sense of tenderness slowly spreading through her heart.
Xiao Zheng cleared his throat slightly and softened his voice as he asked Su He, “Where do you think is the best place to put this chest?”
“The end of the brick bed, I suppose. It’ll be convenient to grab things from there,” Su He thought for a moment.
“Alright.”
The two of them walked into the inner room one after the other and settled the chest in place. The room instantly looked a bit more complete, at least no longer appearing so barren and empty.
Just as Su He was about to turn around and head out, Xiao Zheng suddenly hesitated for a moment and pulled something out from his robe. “This… is for you.”
Su He looked down; it was actually a wooden hairpin.
She took it to examine it closely. The hairpin retained its natural wood color without any lacquer, but the front end had been meticulously carved into the shape of a rice seedling sprout.
A seedling? Su He? This corresponded to her name.
The carved lines of this wooden hairpin were extremely simple, unlike the intricate and complex floral patterns found on the market, but it carried a unique charm of its own. At any rate, Su He genuinely preferred clean and simple things; anything too ornate or magnificent felt rather burdensome to her.
Xiao Zheng spoke with a trace of awkwardness. “I learned how to carve this wooden hairpin myself. You can make do with it for now.”
Su He gently traced the carved top with her fingertips, the corners of her lips curving up into a wide smile. She truly liked it. A gift this simple, yet made with such genuine care, was exactly to her taste.