Chapter 204: Liu Lin Gets Married (Part 1)

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.

---

Liu Xu’er saw that Liu Tao’s matter had been resolved, so she decided to bring up her own topic. She smiled and said, “Since we were talking about sange’s future match, I was just thinking about my dowry.”

Liu Shu immediately said, “We’ve already decided about your dowry. What else needs to be discussed?”

The rest of them nodded their agreement. He shi waved her off, as if to say, there’s no discussion. Just eat your meal!

Liu Xu’er smiled and continued in a slightly raised voice, “I’ve already thought it over. There’s a store in Hanzhong city next to ours that might be for sale after the New Year. I want to buy it. Then we can move our current store into that location and you can give me that store as my dowry. If in future, business is poor, then I will just stop running it, and instead rent the store out. I really cannot take the properties here in Feng town. I really can’t manage it all by myself! Dad, mum, dage, erge, sange and Senzi, think about it, our entire family was needed to manage the stores and workshop. And that still took us some time to get into the swing of things. Before that, we were still flustered! If you give everything to me, how can I manage it by myself? Shi Cheng has two stores of his own to manage, so you really can’t rely on him. Surely you don’t want to see the businesses we built up so painstakingly fall to the wayside just because I can’t manage?!”

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.

Ohlausdl qlzz pkzldv, lynb vbkdjkdt. Gzz sq vblx olal nsxkdt wr okvb yatwxldvp vs nswdvla blap. Nkw Dw’la pxkzle yde pyke, “El yal yzz sdl qyxkzu, ol alyzzu pbswzed’v cl ps qsaxyz okvb lynb svbla. Ebu es usw dlle vs eayo vblpl ekpvkdnv zkdlp? Ebu xwpv usw tkhl lhlauvbkdt vs xl? Mblpl olal yzz cwpkdlpplp swa qyxkzu osajle sd vstlvbla!”

Nkw Ubydttldt pbssj bkp blye, “Tyhkdt fwpv y pvsal yp uswa esoau kp pvkzz vss zkvvzl. Gqvla yzz, Fbk Ubldt tyhl usw… iwkvl y ckv kd clvasvbyz.” Fbys Ssdt oyp ralpldv yp olzz, ps Nkw Ubydttldt qlzv yojoyae tkhkdt vbl ynvwyz pwx, nbsspkdt kdpvlye vs rbaypl kv hytwlzu.&dcpr;

“El yzalyeu pyke vbyv vbl kppwl kp plvvzle, ps obu es usw jllr cakdtkdt vbkp wr? Xwa qyxkzu kp tskdt vs cl srldkdt wr ydsvbla pvsal! Zsw esd’v dlle vs osaau. Fkdnl kv’p yzalyeu plvvzle, zlv kv ts.” Tl pbk pyke.&dcpr;

Nkw Nkd prsjl wr, “Mbyv’p aktbv. Zsw esd’v dlle vs osaau ycswv vbl vlmvkzl pvsal. Ekvbkd byzq y ulya, kv okzz cl cynj kd xu bydep.”

Nkw Dw’la vbld pxkzle yde pyke, “Ebu esd’v ol es kv vbkp oyu kdpvlye? Xwa qyxkzu byp qswa xw sq zyde kd vbl dsavbolpvlad yaly. Mbyv qswa xw kp iwkvl y ekpvydnl yoyu qasx vbl alpv sq swa zyde. Ebu esd’v usw kdnzwel vbyv ryanlz yp ryav sq xu esoau? Mbyv oswze osaj, aktbv?”

Wswa xw sq zyde oyp sdzu ycswv 20 vylzp sq pkzhla. Nkw Fld pdsavle, “Rv oswze cl clvvla kq usw eked’v kdnzwel kv. Rdnzwekdt kv xyjlp kv osapl!”

Nkw Dw’la vwadle yde csrrle bkx sd vbl blye, “Illr iwklv, usw! Rv’p dsv uswa vwad vs prlyj!”

Nkw Fld clnyxl pwzju. Tl oyp y mkwnyk yqvla yzz!

Liu Xu’er turned and smiled at the rest, “These four mu of land are used to cultivate goji berries. If there is a chance, we can buy more land in the surrounding areas and combine them into one large plot…. We would need to wait for the right opportunity to come by, of course. But that’s all I want. That really is enough. I don’t need to take so much with me.”

The rest of the family were still rather unwilling, so it turned into a long, drawn out discussion. It was only after Liu Xu’er had expended all her efforts, talking till her mouth turned dry, that she finally managed to persuade her family to her way of thinking. 

After the New Year, everyone in the family turned their attention to helping Liu Lin prepare for his wedding, while Liu Lin himself was readying his textile store to be handed over. Since he knew the characters of those two women, Liu Lin didn’t feel at all guilty about what he was about to do. He quietly restocked with lower grade textiles, while surreptitiously moving the higher grade textiles out of the store. He would find someplace else to keep them for a while. 

Then he again adjusted the ledger. He deliberately made sure that the profits were written very clearly. That way, when the two women took over, they would raise prices. If they did that, they definitely won’t be able to sell much and his stock would stay untouched.

Then there were other items he needed to prepare – now that the stock was of a lower grade, the value of the items had already dropped by half. It was now only worth about 300 taels of silver. Including the 100 taels in loose silver, he would write off this 400 taels of silver as a gift to those two women. 

Of course, Liu Lin didn’t intend to just allow them to waste all his stock. He would continue to monitor the situation closely. 

Liu Lin got Liu Shu to find a safe place to store all the higher quality textiles. After so many years of doing business, Liu Shu too was able to smell out new business opportunities. There were many villages near Feng town. The textile store that Liu Lin had opened was a higher class store. He had only sold coarse cloth when he had first opened. The rest of the time, his goods were mostly luxury materials, like silk and satin. But actually, there was a rather large market here for coarse cloth. 

Coincidentally, the store next to their handicrafts shop was up for sale. Inspired by Liu Xu’er’s earlier suggestion, Liu Shu discussed the situation with his family and decided to buy that store. They would prepare to open another textile shop, catering for the masses. There was a courtyard behind the store that could serve as a storage facility. After cleaning up the space, they stored some charcoal there and started to build shelves. Then they prepared to move the stock in. This, naturally included all the high class silks that Liu Lin had moved out of the other store. 

Everything was going smoothly. Liu Shu kept an eye on the businesses as well as Liu Sen, freeing Liu Lin up to concentrate on getting married, and settle his existing textile store. 

Two months passed in a flash. Liu Lin had been worried the entirety of this time – he fretted that something would happen in the Hanlin family. Thankfully, the day of his wedding arrived without any incident. 

The day before, the Hanlin family had sent in Song Yao’s dowry and managed to use it as a chance to clearly express their opinion that their family’s daughter was marrying down. They sent in 12 chests of goods, half of which were of calligraphy and painting. It even included paintings done by the First Young Master, as well as some calligraphy that the Old Master had done. These were all included as part of her dowry. 

When Liu Changgeng and He shi saw, they were speechless. Thankfully, everyone in the family was clear about the Hanlin family’s situation, so no one said anything. So long as Song Yao was a good wife, there was time after she married to settle these accounts with the two women. 

Although the Hanlin family didn’t give their wedding much thought, the Liu family had pulled out all the stops to prepare. It was just as lively as Liu Shu’s wedding had been. The Taohua villagers had no idea of the situation – they just came to celebrate the wedding. Added to the fact that the Liu family had a lot of good friends and relatives, Liu Changgeng’s home was packed on the day. 

Thankfully, they had already had the experience with Liu Shu’s wedding earlier and were prepared with two different areas packed with tables. One was the courtyard where Liu Changgeng stayed, the other was their very generous backyard. In total, they had about 100 tables for the guests. 

Many people were still hoping to match their girls with Liu Lin – who would have thought that Liu Lin would quietly get married! And he was even marrying a precious young miss from the prestigious Hanlin family! With this, everyone in Taohua village could feel the distinct gap between the Liu family now compared to before. It wouldn’t be that easy to approach them any longer. 

In the morning, Liu Lin had brought helpers over to escort the bride home. Again, it was the same few brothers who rode their horses over. No one had even thought of trying to make an impressive display; the  Liu family had never been ostentatious. But when this modest party went over, it still contrasted so sharply with the wretched state of the Hanlin family. Nowadays, the Hanlin family did not have many visitors. Even if visitors came, they had no one to help entertain. 

Thankfully Liu Lin was extremely clear of the situation. Before he arrived, he requested for the quanfuniangniang  to bring two servant girls over. One would help serve Song Yao in the future. Today, the two servant girls would help the quanfuniangniang get Song Yao ready. 

When Liu Lin arrived, the ceremony at the Hanlin family was rather simple. When they gave their bows to Master Song, they didn’t even dare to speak too loudly, terrified they would startle him. 

After offering their bows, Madam Song started to cough, Liu Lin knew what she wanted. It was clear that they couldn’t wait any longer. He could only hand over the ledger to Young Madam Song on the spot, and tell them to head over to the store to check. The store had been closed for the day. Here was the key. 

Of course, doing it this so directly was intentionally demeaning Song Yao, but Madam Song and the First Young Madam were insistent on their course of action – if he didn’t do it, they might not let him out the door! Liu Lin had no other choice. He could only turn around after handing everything over, and escort Song Yao out the door. When no one was paying attention, he held onto her hand and softly comforted her, “There weren’t many people around. The quanfuniangniang  had already left. There was only your future servant girl there.”

Head covered, Song Yao very lightly nodded. Actually, Madam Song and the First Young Madam’s actions really couldn’t hurt her any longer. She was very clear – if it weren’t for Liu Lin, they really might have decided to sell her into slavery. Compared to that, what were these little insulting actions? To be honest, ever since the family started to decline, ever since her father started to fall sick, she had never thought of herself as a Young Miss from a prestigious household any longer. 

When she left the house and got on the sedan, Liu Lin was still a bit worried. As he supported her, he softly asked, “Song Yao, are you alright?”

Song Yao shook her head. This time, she very clearly said, “I am fine.”

It was only then that Liu Lin finally relaxed. He lowered the curtain on the sedan and went back to his horse. Liu Shu frowned at him – what had happened in the mansion? Liu Lin shook his head and thought to himself that no matter what, he had at least finally managed to bring her out of there. 

It was only now that he could finally lay all his worries to rest. He started to smile broadly and instructed the musicians, “Play the music! We are heading home!” 

The instant his voice rang out, the loud bright sounds of the suona rang out, and all of the unhappy atmosphere from earlier disappeared and liveliness and cheer came back. Inside the sedan chair, Song Yao finally heaved a long sigh of relief!

At home, because Liu Xu’er no longer had her own personal courtyard, she could only stay at the main courtyard. But the main courtyard was currently filled with people. Shi Cheng had to split his attention between the guests and her – he couldn’t take the chance that a hasty youth would run into her. 

The instant they heard the sound of the suona get louder and louder, Liu Xu’er ran to the main room, shouting, “Dad, mum! They’re coming. Quickly get seated.”

Liu Changeng and He shi were already dressed in outfits of bright red. They had been greeting guests, but when they heard that the two were arriving, they hurried to sit down at the prepared chairs. 

Liu Sen was just about to run out when Liu Xu’er quickly grabbed hold of him, “What are you running out for? You won’t be able to see anything that way. We should just stand beside our parents. In a while, we would be able to see everything clearly, without people blocking our view!”

Liu Sen smiled and went back to stand at her side, “That’s true.” He was dressed very festively today and was clearly very excited.