Shen Hong’s house was lively today. Matchmaker Qiu arrived early in the morning to arrange a marriage for Shen Ziying.
Shen Ziying was already nineteen this year. The family had high standards and found the local young men unworthy, so her marriage had been delayed for years. A nineteen-year-old unmarried girl was rare, if it dragged on any longer, she would truly become an “old maid” with no one willing to marry her.
She sat in the main hall chatting with Liu Fenfang. “That Liu boy from Litun, he’s from your mother’s village. You know him well. If Sister Ying married him, it could still help your family, right?”
Liu Fenfang smiled perfunctorily. She had hopes of marrying her daughter into the town; that little Litun village was beneath her notice.
But she couldn’t offend Matchmaker Qiu, the only matchmaker in the village. In the future, if a young man from the town liked her daughter, she would need Qiu’s help to arrange it.
Just as she was about to speak, Shen Ziying, hiding under the corridor and eavesdropping, blurted out: “I won’t marry him!”
Having been reborn with such good fortune, how could she marry a simple village boy?
Besides, in her past life, she knew Gu Yun was different from everyone else in the village. He could study all the way to the capital! She was determined to marry Gu Yun, then she would become the wife of a scholar, someone respected by everyone.
Matchmaker Qiu frowned. By tradition, parents arranged marriages and matchmakers mediated, the children were not supposed to overhear or interfere.
Sister Ying used to seem sensible; otherwise, Qiu wouldn’t have gotten along with her so well or gone out of her way to help. Why was she acting so unaware now?
“This…” Matchmaker Qiu was starting to lose face.
Liu Fenfang glared at Shen Ziying. What she said might be acceptable, but if Shen Ziying spoke, it would make her appear utterly ill-mannered.
“Sister Ying, go back inside!”
Shen Ziying didn’t feel she had done anything wrong. The thought that Shen Juqiu had invited a boy from Litun to act as her matchmaker felt like an insult. Was she, Shen Ziying, only worthy of a simple village boy?!
The angrier she got, the tighter she clenched her handkerchief, nearly tearing it.
Since being reborn, she had made a point of resting, taking care of her skin, and dressing meticulously. The bruises from her previous fall had long since been removed with careful treatment using eggs.
Recently, whenever she stepped outside, the village men couldn’t stop staring, inflating her vanity even more.
She thought, “I’m already this beautiful. One day, I’ll surely captivate Gu Yun!”
But that Shen Ruo… that day on the ox cart, he had already pulled some tricks. A man with children, and yet so shameless.
Shen Ziying got angry every time she thought of Shen Ruo, but whenever she remembered that he already had children, a sense of satisfaction washed over her.
“Matchmaker Qiu, you can go now. If I ever have someone I fancy, I’ll ask for your help,” Shen Ziying said, slipping a few copper coins into her hand with a smile.
She couldn’t be too explicit, since saying too much might damage her reputation, so she could only give a subtle hint.
Shen Juqiu worked for money, and Shen Ziying believed that money could move mountains. Once the matchmaker received the coins, her expression immediately brightened.
Without speaking further to the still-looking-pained Liu Fenfang, she said to Shen Ziying, “Alright, I’ll go back to Litun for that boy. That boy isn’t worthy of you anyway.”
Shen Juqiu had long perfected the art of speaking differently to different people, sweet words to people, sharp words to mischief, otherwise she couldn’t have become a matchmaker. After praising Shen Ziying a few more times, painting her as almost like a fairy, she finally stopped.
“Alright, alright. If there’s nothing more, you can go now,” Liu Fenfang began ushering her out. These people only hung around hoping for money. Every coin her daughter gave out made her wince; really, she should just keep the money herself!
No sooner had Shen Juqiu left than the door was knocked again.
Knock after knock, with particularly heavy thuds.
Thinking she had returned, Liu Fenfang snapped, “Knock, knock, knock, what are you knocking for? If you break something, you’ll pay for it!”
When she opened the door, her anger froze into a rigid expression, instantly performing a full-blown “face-change” of emotion.
Then she smiled and said, “Oh! Father-in-law, mother-in-law, you’re back? The ride must have been exhausting. Sister Ying and I have been waiting for you.”
Both she and her mother-in-law’s family were from Litun, and they shared distant kinship outside the five formal degrees of relation. Technically, she should have called them her cousin-aunt, but because of their familiar ties, if not for her connections, she wouldn’t even have had the chance to marry Shen Hong.
So Liu Fenfang was very eager to flatter her mother-in-law.
“What happened just now? Did someone upset you?” Liu Chunhua asked as she carried things down, moving and speaking at the same time.
Liu Fenfang sighed. “I’ll explain later. For now, just help bring these things inside.”
“Okay.” Liu Chunhua and Shen Niushan had been running back and forth for a long time and were already exhausted. Hearing this, they dropped what they were carrying and let Liu Fenfang handle it, heading straight into the main hall to rest.
Hearing the commotion, Shen Ziying quickly came over, calling in her sweet, lively voice, “Grandpa, Grandma.”
“Not seen you for over half a month, Sister Ying, you’ve grown even more radiant,” Liu Chunhua said with a smile, pouring herself a cup of tea.
Shen Ziying had always been confident in her looks, and hearing this only reinforced her belief that after all her recent care and upkeep, she had become even more beautiful.
“Grandma, you’ve been gone for so many days, why are you only back now?” Shen Ziying said, her face showing a hint of grievance, her tone slightly reproachful.
Liu Chunhua replied, “There aren’t many people in Litun. We hired help to rush the harvest at our place, but there they had no one. Once they got busy, it took more than half a month.”
Her family had few adults, many children, and lots of farmland; her two younger brothers alone couldn’t manage the harvest.
“But even so, after helping for over half a month, we brought back more than half a shi of grain!” Liu Chunhua said with a wrinkled smile, it must have sold for quite a bit of silver!
Liu Fenfang, exhausted from carrying, peeked inside and felt a surge of frustration.
But she couldn’t order her in-laws around, so she called out, “Sister Ying, come help! Mother can’t carry it alone.”
“Then call my brother! He’s right inside,” Shen Ziying replied, refusing to carry such heavy things herself.
Liu Fenfang got even angrier. If Shen Fugui were reliable, she wouldn’t have had to call Shen Ziying!
Liu Chunhua took a sip of water to quench her thirst, then finally had time to look around the house.
It seemed that since she left, many more items had been added, giving the place a bit of the feel of a townhouse from the market.
She was very pleased and offered a few more compliments.
Usually, the backyard had a flock of chickens and ducks, plus oxen and sheep, all making noise, but now, after returning, she could hear nothing. It felt strange.
“I’ll go check on the chickens and ducks.”
Shen Ziying had been waiting for her to notice. She didn’t stop her, just pretended to look tearful.
When Liu Chunhua went into the backyard, she immediately noticed that many of the chickens and ducks were gone. The few remaining huddled in the shade, listless and silent.
“What… what’s going on? Where are our chickens and ducks?” she exclaimed. These birds had been carefully raised by her and Liu Fenfang, they were the result of her hard work!
She rushed toward the main hall to question Shen Ziying and Liu Fenfang, but upon entering, she saw Shen Ziying acting all tearful.
She calmed herself a bit and asked, “Sister Ying, did someone steal from us? Why are so many chickens and ducks missing?”
Shen Ziying sniffled, her tone full of grievance. “No… no one stole them. If anyone’s to blame, it’s the ge’er from my uncle’s household. A few days ago, he nearly didn’t survive childbirth, so I had my brother order a coffin from town, thinking my uncle’s family was too poor to afford it. I was just trying to help. If Shen Ruo had survived, of course I wouldn’t have sent the coffin. But my good intentions were taken the wrong way, he said I was cursing him and even tried to extort money from our family afterward!”
“Shen Ruo is absolutely outrageous! Even your uncle’s things he tries to cheat off!” Liu Chunhua’s anger flared. She had never liked that young man from Shen Dashan’s family.
He didn’t act like a proper young man at all, shamelessly chasing after a woman, and then causing the scandal of an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, shaming the whole of Litun.
Who in the village didn’t know the joke of Shen Ruo from Shenjia Village? Even if they didn’t know his name, the story had spread so widely that almost everyone had heard about it!
Shen Ziying sobbed, “Yes… he even grabbed a kitchen knife and tried to attack me! He scared me so badly I fainted. My whole body was bruised, it took so long for the marks to fade!”
“I’m going straight to Dashan’s house to get our chickens and ducks back! This is outrageous, how can Dashan just let him run wild?!” Shen Niushan, who hated seeing a woman cry, had listened quietly for a long while and now stood up.
Liu Chunhua, chest tight with anger, also turned to leave. She had always felt that Dashan’s kid brought nothing but trouble.
Shen Ziying couldn’t just let them go and had to pull them back.
Even though this mess was caused by Shen Fugui, if her brother hadn’t purposely used her injury to extort money, Shen Ruo wouldn’t have tricked them like that!
But she couldn’t say that to her grandparents.
“He took twenty of our chickens and ducks and even two sheep, but at the time we signed a receipt. If you go directly, Grandpa and Grandma, you might not get them back! Then he’d be in the right,” Shen Ziying explained.
“Who signed the receipt? This is absurd! You could even sign that?!” Liu Chunhua shouted, furious.
Shen Ziying pretended to sob softly. “…I did, but at that time he said I was cursing him and had to pay to ward off misfortune. If I didn’t give him the chickens, ducks, and sheep, our family would have to pay four taels of silver!”
“Four taels of silver?! He’s really got a nerve! Selling him wouldn’t even be worth four taels!” Liu Chunhua’s eyes glinted with ferocity. She asked, “Sister Ying, what do you think we should do?”
Shen Ziying, having achieved her purpose, stopped crying and whispered her plan into her grandparents’ ears.
Liu Chunhua wasn’t foolish, otherwise she couldn’t have kept her hot-tempered daughter-in-law Liu Fenfang in line.
Shen Niushan, as always, followed whatever his wife said. Without changing their dust-stained clothes, the couple picked up their carrying poles and headed north toward Shen Dashan’s house.
ᘻᘿᓍᘺ
Shen Ruo wiped the sweat from his brow. He was squatting on the ground, recording data, how many jin of cloth each aunt brought and what they exchanged it for, writing everything down in modern characters and Arabic numerals.
Without paper and pens, it was really inconvenient; he planned to buy some next time he went to town.
Ergou had just returned from the sun-drying yard. After running back and forth in the scorching heat, his little face was bright red. Seeing his uncle writing and calculating, he squatted beside him, occasionally scratching the ground with his finger.
The characters of this era were very different from those of the twenty-first century, more like seal script. Shen Ruo couldn’t write them, but he had a copy of the compensation form in triplicate and a contract signed with Boss Lan. By guessing and deducing, he could recognize a few characters. But if he had to write it himself, there was no way he could.
He was worried about misleading Ergou, so he reminded him, “Ergou, don’t copy what your uncle is writing, uncle is just scribbling nonsense. If you really want to learn, how about I send you to school later?”
Ergou’s face lit up with a bright smile, and he nodded vigorously. “Ergou wants to learn!”
Li Shantao was still checking the cloth brought by the tenth aunt. Hearing this, she couldn’t help laughing: “Our Ergou is smart, just like your father!”
The aunt was also influenced by the atmosphere in Shen Dashan’s house. The child here was so obedient and even knew he had to learn, unlike her own kids, who were wild and only knew how to run around!
Zhou Lan came by in the afternoon to help as well. She had previously taken the large rooster that Shen Ruo gave her, and now brought a few better pieces of cloth. She refused to exchange them for anything else, insisting on giving them to Li Shantao. To avoid hurting feelings, Shen Ruo told Li Shantao to accept them.
As for Liu Sanniang, she still refused to leave, insisting on watching to see if anyone mixed in damaged cloth, almost confronting everyone there.
Shen Ruo felt a mix of amusement and exasperation but couldn’t bring himself to drive her away, so he let her stay.
Ergou saw that the tenth aunt was already at the weighing stage, so he immediately got up and ran toward the sun-drying yard. But after running just a few dozen meters, he collided with someone.
“Hey! Who is this? Are your eyes even open?!”
The person he ran into was the furious Liu Chunhua. Squinting, she realized the boy was none other than Shen Feng’s child!
Seeing her angry, Ergou rubbed his forehead, which had bumped into her, and apologized: “I’m sorry, great-grandma.”
Ergou was only four years old and quite short; with the sun behind him, he couldn’t see the person’s face clearly.
Hearing his words, Liu Chunhua’s temper flared, this grandson of Shen Dashan really was born to bring her trouble! And he didn’t even call out!
“You little brat, I’m your great-grandmother!”
Ergou scratched his head, bewildered. He hadn’t had much contact with his great-grandparents before and was a little confused.
Soon after, one of the nearby elders lifted him up.
“Let me go! Let me go! Waaa! Mother! Uncle! Help!” Ergou kicked his feet in fear, worried they might throw him, and shouted loudly.
Shen Ruo’s ears were sharp, he immediately heard Ergou’s cries.
Liu Shan also heard and rushed out of the house. Li Shantao put down the cloth he was checking, and the three of them ran toward the source of the noise together.
The spot was already very close to the sun-drying yard. When the aunts there heard a child crying for his mother, many of them immediately paid attention and started heading over as well.
Soon, quite a crowd had gathered around the spot.
Liu Chunhua had originally planned to make a scene at Shen Dashan’s door, but people had quickly surrounded the area. She told the old man to put the child down and said to the onlookers, “He’s just playing with his great-grandfather. There’s nothing to see here, so everyone can disperse.”
Everyone in Shenjia Village recognized Shen Niushan and Liu Chunhua, and then saw the boy being held up, wasn’t he Brother Feng’s child, Shen Dashan’s son?
It turned out it was just play, but the child’s crying was so heartfelt that anyone who didn’t know the situation might really think some kidnapper had come to snatch him!
“This boy can’t even walk straight and bumps into me, and he doesn’t even call out for anyone, just calls me great-grandma. Sigh, such poor upbringing.” Liu Chunhua put on a look of deep sorrow and dismay.
By the time Shen Ruo and the others arrived, they overheard this remark.
Liu Shan immediately ran forward, scooped Ergou into her arms, and comforted him, gently stroking his tear-streaked face: “It’s okay, it’s okay. Our Ergou is the bravest.”
As soon as Ergou was in his mother’s arms, he kept crying, hiccupping as he sobbed.
Li Shantao, who had been disciplined by her mother-in-law before the family split, and hadn’t interacted much since, felt both old and new grievances welling up as she saw him.
Her Ergou was well-behaved and polite; if he bumped into someone, he would apologize properly. Which child in the village could match her son’s upbringing?
Shen Ruo reached out to pat Li Shantao’s chest, signaling her not to bottle up her anger, and took a step forward.
“Great-grandfather, great-grandmother, Ergou is still little and doesn’t know better. Please don’t take it out on him.” Shen Ruo rolled his eyes inwardly, these were Ergou’s great-grandparents now? When Ergou was just born, they hadn’t even come by to see their own great-grandson or give a red envelope!
“Look at what you’re saying, as if I’m picking on a little child.” Liu Chunhua snapped irritably.
Isn’t that exactly what you’re doing, Shen Ruo thought.
Shen Niushan snorted coldly: “All of them are ungrateful grandchildren, ingrate wolves! Big ones, small ones, all of them.”
“Really unlucky! One gives birth and drags the whole litter along.” Liu Chunhua chimed in, giving them no respect at all.
Shen Ruo almost laughed from anger, his family were ingrate wolves? Shen Niushan and Liu Chunhua really dared to say that!
His father had been the family’s mainstay, working hard for twenty years, and finally married the wife he had pursued. Only Li Shantao had liked this honest, steady man enough to marry him; otherwise, Shen Niushan and Liu Chunhua could have treated Shen Dashan like a workhorse.
In contrast, Shen Hong just used his words to charm his parents and enjoy the benefits.
Earlier, they were giving them face when Ergou called out “great-grandfather, great-grandmother,” but now Shen Ruo was disgusted.
Since they had crossed the line with his family, Shen Ruo decided not to give them any face at all:
“If I had great-grandparents like you, it must have been a curse in my past life!”