Disclaimer:
1. This is an unofficial translation and no permission has been obtained from the author/ official publisher. It may be taken down if the author/official publisher requests.
2. This is a fan work and the interpretation represents only the translator’s personal views without any input from the author.
3. No permission has been granted to use, publish, upload and/or copy this translation to any other site except for Second Life Translations.
It was Shao Gui, listening from the side, who started to feel a bit uncomfortable when she heard about the rigged Village Head selection process.
The Village Head had indeed secured the help of his many relatives to gain his position. But her husband’s family were counted amongst the Village Head’s relatives! Yang Youbang, her husband, was closely related to him.
Uneasy, she stammered out a question, “Then… meifu, about the Village Head’s matter, would it implicate any others….”
When Liu Shu heard her question, he immediately understood. He smiled and said, “If they weren’t involved in the rigging process, it would be fine.”
The following parts of the text will be scrambled to prevent theft from aggregators and unauthorized epub making. Please support our translators by reading on secondlifetranslations (dot) com. If you are currently on the site and and you are seeing this, please clear your cache.
Fbys Qwk oyp pvkzz osaakle obld pbl blyae vbkp. Fbl eked’v jdso qsa pwal oblvbla sa dsv bla bwpcyde’p qyxkzu bye clld kdhszhle. Xq nswapl, Zydt Zswcydt bkxplzq elqkdkvlzu oswzed’v byhl clld. Gzvbswtb vbl Akzzytl Tlye oyp y nzspl alzyvkhl sq bkp, Zydt Zswcydt bkxplzq kdvldplzu ekpzkjle vbl xyd yde bkp ekpzkjl bye prkzzle shla vs lhlausdl qasx vbl Akzzytl Tlye’p dwnzlya qyxkzu.
Fbys Qwk oyp osaakle ycswv vbl alpv sq bkp qyxkzu xlxclap. Zydt Zswcydt bye iwkvl y qlo casvblap!
Gnvwyzzu, Nkw Fbw bye yzalyeu bkdvle hlau pvasdtzu yv bkp xlydkdt, cwv bl nswze vlzz vbyv Fbys Qwk pvkzz byed’v wdelapvsse. Tl nswze sdzu pyu kv xsal nzlyazu, “Mbkp xyvvla oyp alrsavle cu xl. Rq R oydv vs rwapwl y xyvvla, vblu oswze elqkdkvlzu zssj kdvs vbl pkvwyvksd xsal nzlyazu. Jwv kq R esd’v qllz vbl dlle qsa y xyvvla vs cl kdhlpvktyvle… vblu oswze dyvwayzzu pvsr nblnjkdt…”
Fbys Twyk kxxlekyvlzu wdelapvsse, cwv Fbys Qwk pvkzz yrrlyale nzwlzlpp. Fbys Ssdt scplahle lhlauvbkdt, ps pbl iwknjzu pxkzle yde rwzzle Fbys Qwk swvpkel, pyukdt, “Kkl, pysgk… Ebu esd’v usw nsxl okvb xl. R byhl psxlvbkdt vs pbyal okvb usw.”
Mbld vbl vball sq vblx blyele vs vbl assx dlmv essa.&dcpr;
Gqvla pkvvkdt esod, Fbys Ssdt pxkzle yde pyke vs Fbys Qwk, “Kkl, Nkw Fbw byp ynvwyzzu pyke kv hlau nzlyazu. Tl okzz dsv rwapwl ydu xyvvlap altyaekdt fklqw’p qyxkzu. Mbl sdzu alypsd vbl nswdvu xytkpvayvl kp kdhlpvktyvkdt vbl Akzzytl Tlye kp clnywpl Nkw Fbw alrsavle bkx, yde Nkw Fbw kp y mkwnyk. Geele vs vbl qynv vbyv vbl Nkw qyxkzu xydytle vs rasewnl qswa mkwnyk yv sdnl, yde okzz rascyczu rasewnl y nswrzl sq fwald okvbkd vbl dlmv qlo ulyap… Eswze vbl nswdvu xytkpvayvl eyal vs sqqlde Nkw Fbw? Wwavblaxsal, vbl Akzzytl Tlye’p sod clbyhkswa – bl lhld pwnjle wr vs y alpvywaydv xydytla, oswze bl alyzzu dsv byhl esdl vbl pyxl vs vbl nswdvu xytkpvayvl? Gqvla ps xydu ulyap, oswze vbl nswdvu xytkpvayvl alyzzu byhl jdsod dsvbkdt ycswv bkx?!”
Ekvb bla pkpvla’p osaep, Fbys Qwk pvyavle vs wdelapvyde. Fbys Twyk’p cakel oyp dseekdt bla blye, “Mbyv’p aktbv. Mbyv’p vawl.”
Fbys Ssdt nsdvkdwle, “Gp R pyke clqsal, kq kv olald’v qsa Nkw Fbw alrsavkdt vbl Akzzytl Tlye, vbl nswdvu xytkpvayvl oswze rascyczu vwad y czkde lul vs bkp elyzkdtp. Jwv dso vbyv Nkw Fbw byp alrsavle bkx, vbl nswdvu xytkpvayvl oswzed’v eyal vs sqqlde Nkw Fbw. Lyvwayzzu, bl oswze dlle vs elyz okvb bkx…. Gde lhlauvbkdt elrldep sd Nkw Fbw’p kdvldvksdp. Rq Nkw Fbw eslpd’v oydv vs kxrzknyvl vbl hkzzytlap, bl oswze rwpb yzz vbl alprsdpkckzkvu sdvs vbl Akzzytl Tlye yde ynnwpl bkx sq nslankdt vbl alpv qsa blzr…. Eswzed’v vbyv ycpszhl yzz vbl hkzzytlap vbld? Jlpkelp, R yx pwal vbyv vbl nswdvu xytkpvayvl oswzed’v oydv vs byhl vs kdhlpvktyvl yzz vbl hkzzytlap fwpv vs rwdkpb vbl Akzzytl Tlye. Mbyv oswzed’v byrrld.”
Shao Gui finally understood. She nodded her head, “Ah, I get it now…” She started to get excited. Then she looked at Shao Rong strangely, “Mei, you were only married for two days, why have you changed so much! You understand so much more now?”
Shao Huai’s wife smiled and said, “Of course her husband must have explained everything to her! Why are you so dense?”
Shao Rong turned red and smiled.
Shao Gui too understood. She smiled, “Ah, of course… Look at how dumb I am.”
Shao Rong covered her mouth and smiled. Then she called her servant over and took out the bag she had brought. Opening it, she took out two gold hairpins as well as two silver earrings, one set each for each person. Both of them were stunned, and immediately retracted their hands, “Hey! Where did you get these?!”
Shao Rong smiled and explained, “These gold hairpins are something that Liu Shu and I prepared for the two of you. You can just take it. If anything were to happen, you can sell them for cash. As for these silver earrings – they are my mother-in-law’s gifts to the two of you.”
Then she took out some cloth and other useful household items.
Shao Gui started to nag, “You can’t spend so much money. You’ve just gotten married. Don’t let others criticise you for bringing gifts back to your maiden home. It’s very embarrassing.”
The two sisters had always been very direct with each other so Shao Rong took no offense. She only smiled and explained, “I used my own allowance to buy these things.”
Shao Gui and Shao Huai’s wife didn’t really understand. It took Shao Rong a long time to explain the situation before they finally grasped the concept.
Liu Shu and Shao Rong stayed there for an entire day. It was night when they finally returned home.
Over at Liu Lin’s textile store.
The textile store opened on the 28th of the sixth month. They had transferred two of the assistants from other shops, along with He Zhongshuang over to learn the ropes of the new store. By now, He Zhongzhou and his brothers had learnt enough to be able to manage a store by themselves.
By now, they were all very practiced at doing business. On the opening day, they took out some cotton cloth, coarse cloth and fine cloth to conduct a sale with. With the low price offered, it drew a lot of customers over. There were many neighbouring villages surrounding Feng town, and a lot of villagers came by to shop.
The opening few days were not intended to earn large profits, instead, their aim was to draw a lot of attention to their store, and spread the name of their store far and wide. Although they hadn’t intended to stock coarse cloth, they made an exception for the opening and sold some by the chi. As such, the store was plenty crowded with people in the first few days.
Whether or not they earned any money was irrelevant. The important thing was that they needed to spread the name of their store out so that everyone knew about them. Since the seasons were changing, and Liu Lin had just filled his stock with the most fashionable patterns of the year, the wealthier families soon caught wind of them, and came to buy entire bolts of fabric at a time. Others had sent messengers to them, requesting they bring samples down to the households.
After the first few frantic days, they had finally sold off all of their coarse cloth, and the store had settled down into a more normal pattern of business. Liu Lin himself was freed of some of his time.
The textile store was different from the other two stores. The other stores dealt with much smaller amounts of cash – it could be as small as a few wen, to a maximum of a few taels of silver at a time. But the textile store involved at least a few dozen taels to over 100 taels of silver at a time. As such, Liu Shu himself was extremely busy during this period as well,
Actually, ever since Liu Lin had returned, he had been trying to think of a way to return the handkerchief to the wet nurse and let her know that he hadn’t been able to locate Miss Song’s former fiance.
But ever since he had come back, he had been exceptionally busy. Furthermore, it wasn’t seemly for him to visit them directly – he could only wait for an opportunity to come by.
As for Taohua village’s Village Head, now that everyone had finally settled down, he hurried over to discuss the situation with Old Man Liu and Liu Gao shi, and confirmed the date of the banquet to be on the fifth day of the seventh month.
That day, Taohua Village was packed with people. After all, for four of their own to suddenly pass the test to become xiucai was a very glorious thing for them. A lot of them also felt that they had someone to depend on.
Those who had some quarrel with the Liu family were also taking this chance to mend fences. Of course, the Liu family had no reason anymore to hold grudges against them. It was just that those who couldn’t be trusted, would never again be given jobs with the family.
The celebrations were very lively. After they were over, everyone went back to their everyday lives.
They had all been back for more than half a month when Liu Lin started to get antsy. He was keen to return the handkerchief to Song Yao, but had no way to contact her. After all… under ordinary circumstances, their two worlds would never have collided.
However, Liu Lin was well aware that now that the textile store had opened, Miss Song would definitely not come by. And they only ever used to meet at this store. These past few days, he would occasionally pass by the street where she lived, to see if he could chance upon her! Even if Miss Song couldn’t leave, surely her wet nurse would go out occasionally.
Gradually, he started to increase the frequency of his visits and started to drop by every day. He didn’t stoop so low as to pace in front of their residence, but he would always pop his head to check and see if anyone was about on the street.
On this day, Liu Lin had just come out from the store. It was already past dinner time. The days were getting longer, and even though it was now about 7pm, the sky was still bright. There weren’t many people on the road, and what few there were, kept their heads low as they hurried home for their evening meal.
Liu Lin habitually turned the corner, and his feet led him to that familiar street. Just as he was about to reach, he saw that a horse carriage had stopped in front of the door. Liu Lin was delighted – did this mean that someone was about to come out? Would he meet…. The wet nurse?
Just as he thought that, he stood still to continue to observe the situation. Although the door was open, and the horse carriage had stopped, there weren’t any signs of people at the door. The reins of the horse had been tied to the stump, as the horse kicked about impatiently.
Liu Lin was just noticing the strangeness of the situation when he suddenly heard a shrill female voice emerge from the courtyard, “Do you still have the face to stay in the residence?! Our entire family has been shamed by you!”
Liu Lin jumped in shock! Who on earth was that person scolding?! His first reaction was…..
Then he didn’t need to wonder. The wet nurse’s sobbing could be heard, “First Young Madam, you really can’t say that about our Miss. If it weren’t for our Miss, our residence wouldn’t be able to manage till today…..”
“Shut up! Just because we give you some face, you forget your place?! How dare you interrupt when one of the family is speaking?! This is the etiquette you learnt from your Young Miss?!” The woman’s words and tone were poisonous. She sneered and continued, “I should have known, I really should’ve known! You ignored your reputation and station to go out everyday. Weren’t you just concerned about this?! What a joke! A prestigious young Miss giving everything up just for a bit of silver! But when you did that, did you once think about your father and mother’s reputation? Did you consider your gege’s face?!”
Liu Lin was stunned into motionlessness! This family…. Didn’t they say that ladies were all soft spoken and gentle. Why did this woman sound just like a fishwife from the village?
Just as he thought that, he heard a familiar voice. Liu Lin hadn’t realised just how much he longed to hear it till now. His heart was beating like a drum!
“Dasao, it is useless to tell me all of this. I will say it again, I haven’t kept any of the silver for myself. All of the silver has been given to the communal coffers. Also….”
Song Yao’s voice carried a trace of tears, instantly causing Liu Lin to feel heartache for her…..
Second Life Translations' Comment Policy
1. Be kind and respectful. Comments with curses will be put under moderation.
2. No links to other websites or asking for links.
3. No spoilers!