Wen Tie Gets Married
After this year’s autumn harvest came to an end, the discussion about Shen Taohua in the city gradually faded away, and she returned to her usual daily life.
One day, after spending half a day as usual earning points and delivering a batch of new grain to the orphanage, she returned home to find her father, Master Shen, looking very worried.
Shen Taohua leaned over and asked, “Father, what’s wrong? What’s bothering you? Tell us so we can all be happy together.”
Shen Feibai shot her an annoyed glance. “Go away. I’m not in the mood to joke with you right now.”
Resting her arms and tilting her head, Shen Taohua looked at him. “What is it really? Just tell me. Maybe I can give you some ideas. You know I don’t have much else, but I do have plenty of clever tricks.”
Shen Feibai muttered inwardly, what useful idea could you possibly come up with, but still couldn’t help saying, “This year, the county magistrate of Taohua County has reached the end of his term.”
Shen Taohua blinked. “Oh? So what?”
Shen Feibai sighed. “This magistrate has served two terms, six years in total. He can’t really be called a great upright official, but he wasn’t overly corrupt either, and he got along fairly well with us local families. But once he’s replaced, who knows where the new official will come from or what kind of temperament he’ll have? If a greedy one arrives, life will become difficult for everyone.”
Especially for landowners like him, who were particularly vulnerable to being exploited.
Only then did Shen Taohua belatedly remember that the magistrate before the current one had indeed been very corrupt.
She had been quite young at the time, but with memories from her past life, she still recalled that back then the magistrate would frequently find excuses to harass local wealthy families. Her father, in order to avoid disaster through spending money, had constantly been forced to offer large “tributes.”
More than half of the family’s yearly income went into that corrupt official’s pockets, and even over a hundred mu of land had been forcibly taken, along with a profitable shop.
At the time, her parents didn’t want her, a young girl, to worry, so they hid it from her, but she still found out.
She had been young and impulsive then, and had almost tried to make a bomb to blow up the corrupt official’s residence.
Fortunately, before she actually carried it out, that official was brought down by political rivals.
The day the magistrate was arrested and taken away by higher authorities, her father was so excited he nearly held a three-day banquet to celebrate.
Later, the land and shops that had been taken as “tributes” were gradually returned. The new magistrate, likely learning from his predecessor’s fate, did not reach out to exploit the local wealthy families. For years, he had maintained a simple principle: as long as you don’t cause me trouble, I won’t trouble you. Everyone coexisted peacefully.
Because so many years had passed, if her father hadn’t mentioned it, she would have almost forgotten how suffocating life had been under a corrupt official.
Suddenly, a thought struck her. She quickly did some mental calculations and said, “Father, I don’t think you need to worry. This year is the spring imperial examination. Most likely, the new magistrate will be a newly appointed jinshi.”
“These newly minted jinshi have just finally earned an official post. Even if they have intentions of embezzlement, they definitely won’t dare act too boldly at first. On the contrary, in order to climb the ranks, they’ll try to build good relationships with local powerholders and work hard to achieve some political accomplishments as quickly as possible.”
Shen Feibai froze for a moment, then slapped his thigh excitedly. “Exactly! How did I forget that!”
He happily patted Shen Taohua on the shoulder and said, “Good girl! Thanks to your reminder, I don’t have to worry anymore!”
Shen Taohua smiled and said, claiming credit, “So what are you going to reward me with?”, was it going to be more pocket money?
Shen Feibai laughed cheerfully. “A reward? Let me think… Tomorrow I’ll go find the matchmakers and have them quickly arrange a few more suitable candidates for you, so you can find a good husband!”
The smile on Shen Taohua’s face instantly froze.
Are you serious?
As expected of father and daughter, both of them really enjoy ‘repaying kindness with revenge,’ huh?
Shen Taohua said speechlessly, “I just caused such a big stir not long ago. Do you really think the matchmakers still have anyone left for me to meet in such a short time? Or even if they do, do you think those people would be willing to let me pick them apart and critique them?”
If a few months ago her matchmaking results were only being gossiped about within a small circle in the city, after the group interview it had basically become common knowledge throughout the entire city, and even spread to surrounding villages and towns.
Under these circumstances, still wanting to find someone locally? Did they think locals were stupid?
Shen Feibai also realized this point and visibly froze for a moment. He shot Shen Taohua a reproachful look, how dare you say that, wasn’t all of this your own doing?
After thinking for a moment, he said, “If it really doesn’t work, then we’ll just find some outsider and trick him into the trap, cough, I mean, find someone from outside…”
Shen Taohua asked, “So I’m supposed to marry far away? If I get bullied in another place you wouldn’t even know what happened. Or are you planning to find an outsider and make him marry into the family as a son-in-law?”
Wouldn’t that just circle back to the usual discussion about the risks of a man marrying into the wife’s family?
Shen Feibai was completely speechless.
After a long pause, he finally waved his hand helplessly. “Forget it, forget it. I’ll let you relax a little longer! We’ll talk about it after the situation calms down!”
Having successfully gotten her way, Shen Taohua secretly made a V sign: yes!
With that single sentence from Shen Feibai, Shen Taohua indeed spent the next half month without any matchmaking troubles.
No more waking up early to meet candidates, no more worrying about whether to stay up late reading storybooks. She could sleep in as late as she wanted, spend the day playing around, eating, drinking, and enjoying life. The feeling of freedom was truly, incredibly, satisfying.
Until the day Wen Tie got married, she finally perked up a little and went with Ping’an to attend the wedding banquet.
Speaking of Wen Tie’s wife, it was quite a fate.
She was one of the victims abandoned by Meng Jun, the farm girl who had been forced into a relationship with him because of her beauty.
After Shen Taohua helped her shake off the psychological shadow Meng Jun left behind, the girl regained her strength and worked hard to rebuild her life. However, one time when she went into the city, she was harassed by a group of local thugs.
Coincidentally, Wen Tie and his gang of younger brothers were also considered thugs, but at most, they only acted as enforcers for others, collecting debts and such. They never actually did anything truly evil, and especially never harassed respectable women.
When collecting debts, if they encountered families trying to sell their children to repay debts, they would even beat those people up and force them to go back and work properly to earn money instead.
Those small stalls in the city that paid “protection fees” were also genuinely looked after by them, so people in the city who knew them didn’t feel much dislike or fear toward them.
But the farm girl Liu Xing’er had encountered were truly vile scoundrels with poor character who bullied men and women alike.
Verbal harassment alone wasn’t enough for them, they even tried to drag her to a secluded place to violate her. At the critical moment, Wen Tie just happened to pass by and managed to save her in time.
At that time, Wen Tie didn’t have his usual group of subordinates with him, so while he managed to save her, he also took quite a beating.
Naturally, Liu Xing’er was both grateful and guilty. After that, to thank Wen Tie, she would make him food, bring him herbal medicine for injuries, and over time the two gradually became familiar with each other.
It was also Wen Tie who contacted Liu Xing’er during the incident when they were dealing with Meng Jun’s retaliation. At that time, he already had a good impression of her, and this unexpected incident brought them together again, so feelings naturally developed.
Wen Tie didn’t mind that she had once been involved with Meng Jun, and Liu Xing’er’s family didn’t look down on him just because he was a small-time gang leader. After Wen Tie expressed his feelings to her family, and they confirmed that their daughter also had feelings for him, the marriage naturally fell into place.
At the wedding banquet, Wen Tie kept thanking Shen Taohua, saying that if she hadn’t frequently asked them for help, he wouldn’t have been able to save enough money so quickly to afford a wife, nor would he have had the courage to propose to the Liu family.
Shen Taohua, however, did not take credit for it.
At most, she and Wen Tie could be said to have mutually benefited each other. As for Wen Tie managing to save up his earnings, that was entirely due to his own planning.
However, when she received Wen Tie’s wedding invitation, she had checked the compatibility score between him and Liu Xing’er, it had reached seventy, which showed that their married life would likely be more harmonious than most couples.
She was also quite happy to have indirectly helped such a well-matched pair end up together.
During the banquet, Wen Tie’s subordinates, seeing their boss so full of pride and happiness, also started talking about how they should work hard to save money and try to find wives of their own, to have a wife and kids and a warm home.
The wedding banquet dragged on until nearly dark without finishing. Seeing that the sky had already dimmed and that she was full and satisfied, Shen Taohua left early with Ping’an.
On the way back, influenced by the atmosphere, Shen Taohua couldn’t help but feel a bit envious of Wen Tie’s happy marriage. Just then, Ping’an immediately said, “Then Miss, you should hurry up and find a husband too.”
Shen Taohua snorted and poked her forehead. “You still have the nerve to say that? I haven’t even settled accounts with you over Zhao Danian’s matter yet! Whose side are you on? You actually betrayed your own young lady!”
Ping’an blinked innocently. “I couldn’t help it. The master said that if there’s a suitable match, I must report it, and there would be a reward.”
It wasn’t that she wanted to act as a matchmaker; it was just that the reward from the master was too generous.
Hearing this, Shen Taohua was displeased. So what if her father gave more? Did she look like she was short on money?
She casually pulled out a silver ingot from her pouch and shoved it into Ping’an’s hand. “Take it! Don’t stir up trouble for me again!”
Ping’an happily tucked the silver away. “Yes, Miss! Thank you, Miss!”
One reward from the master, another from the young lady, her savings for a dowry were getting thicker by the day. Being a maid of the Shen family was truly wonderful!
As for the master, she probably shouldn’t leak information to him next time, but the madam’s side was still fair game, hehe.
Shen Taohua, unaware of her maid’s little schemes, rubbed her stomach. She seemed to have eaten too much and felt a bit uncomfortably full.
She looked around, considering whether to find a teahouse and order some digestion tea to ease her discomfort, or simply go home. Out of the corner of her eye, she happened to notice a roadside stall selling hawthorn berries.
They were large and bright red, looking so appetizing that she couldn’t help but swallow.
Too full to move much, she lazily ordered Ping’an, “Ping’an, go buy some hawthorns. We’ll make some hawthorn jelly when we get back.”
Ping’an couldn’t help but swallow as well upon hearing this, and immediately agreed, jogging over to make the purchase.
It was shortly after Ping’an left that hurried footsteps suddenly came from behind. Then a man’s angry and urgent roar sounded out: “Surname Shen! Give me back my wife—!”
Shen Taohua instinctively turned around, just in time to see a fierce-looking man with a twisted, ferocious expression charging toward her with a stick in hand.
Startled, she stepped back on instinct, but unexpectedly stepped on a small stone. She stumbled, and it looked like she was about to fall.
At that very moment, the man’s attack was already right in front of her.
At the same time, Ping’an turned at the sound, and her expression instantly changed. She cried out in alarm, “Miss, watch out!”
Realizing there was no way to dodge, Shen Taohua could only quickly raise both arms to shield her head.