Raine: Double update birthday bonus <3 ☆: .｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:☆
After Liu Yue’s visit, several more villagers came to ask about the situation.
Some thought that Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi might have heard the village rumors about Chen Xiaocai and Shen Chi, and felt it wasn’t good for Shen Chi, a young Shuang’er, to always stay in the shop. So they assumed Lu Lin had driven both Granny Shen and Shen Chi back home, and came to gloat over their misfortune.
Others came to comfort Granny Shen, while others had their eyes on Granny Shen’s former position and came to gather information.
It wasn’t just Zhang Xiuhe who wanted Granny Shen’s job, many others wanted it too.
“Granny, this Chen Xiaomi is really too much. After all, you worked there for so long, and look at him, he just casually sent you back home. He’s so heartless.”
“No wonder his grandmother said he was born rebellious. You’ve known them for ages, but he doesn’t show any consideration…”
Granny Shen listened to the woman in front of her chattering endlessly and said helplessly, “I wasn’t driven back. I just came back to handle some matters.”
“What matters could there be to handle right now!” Aunt Zheng was convinced that Granny Shen had been driven back but was too embarrassed to admit it.
“This Zhang Xiuhe, well, she isn’t much of a person, but her skills are still decent. Still, if we’re being honest, there are many skilled people in the village. If it weren’t for her brother being the village head, how could it be her turn!” Aunt Zheng said.
Granny Shen fell silent. The matter hadn’t even been settled yet, but the village was already buzzing with rumors. Lu Lin had no intention of hiring Zhang Xiuhe at all!
She suspected Zhang Xiuhe had spread the rumors herself. If the gossip kept spreading, the villagers might start thinking Lu Lin had already agreed to hire her. Then, if he didn’t, they might accuse him of going back on his word.
“Business at the shop is slow lately, so we’re not planning to hire anyone for now,” Granny Shen said.
In the blazing summer heat, several children were cooling off under a tree blooming with pale white flowers.
“Yaya, Shen Chi came back to the village,” Zhang Dabao said to Zhang Ya.
Zhang Ya nodded, a hint of arrogance in her tone. “Yes, I heard he was sent back.”
Earlier, Lu Lin had rejected Zhang Ya’s mother Aunt Ma’s marriage proposal, which had made her furious.
Later, rumors about Chen Xiaocai and Shen Chi spread through the village. This wasn’t originally started by Aunt Ma, but she did add fuel to the fire.
Zhang Ya thought to herself: The Shen family has one old woman with failing eyesight and one young Shuang’er who clearly can’t do much work. Being driven back is normal, it would be abnormal if they weren’t driven back.
“My mother and aunt sold embroidery to Lu Lin and earned a lot of copper coins. I heard Granny Shen earned even more.”
Zhang Ya curled her lip. What did it matter how much she earned? She still got sent back. Though Granny Shen must have saved up a fair amount by now.
“Do Chen Xiaocai and Shen Chi really have a relationship?”
“Of course they do! They used to play together!”
“But that was just playing together, right?”
Arranging a marriage required a matchmaker, so Chen Xiaomi sought out Matchmaker Wang, who was famous in the area.
Matchmaker Wang had arranged dozens of marriages and had quite a reputation in the surrounding villages.
She was very surprised when Chen Xiaomi came to her door. “You want to arrange an engagement between Chen Xiaocai and Shen Chi?”
Chen Xiaomi nodded. “That’s right.”
Matchmaker Wang was puzzled. “But Shen Chi is a Shuang’er!”
Unless a family was really desperate, they generally wouldn’t choose a Shuang’er. From what she knew, the Chen brothers had been earning a lot of money recently. Not to mention the wages from working in town, just from selling those gloves before, they had made a good amount of silver.
She had also heard that Lu Lin once bought a bear without even batting an eye.
Chen Xiaomi shot her a cold look. “What’s wrong with Shuang’er?”
Matchmaker Wang gave an awkward smile. “Shuang’er are just fine.”
She suddenly remembered that Chen Xiaomi was also a Shuang’er, and there was another foolish little Shuang’er in the family. In any other family, a simple-minded Shuang’er like that would definitely not have a good life, but Chen Xiaomi doted on his younger brother and spoiled him endlessly.
Chen Xiaomi nodded proudly. “Of course. Girls are too delicate and fussy. Shuang’er are better, they’re tougher.”
Matchmaker Wang immediately understood Chen Xiaomi’s intention. He just wanted to find someone for the family who could do work.
Lu Lin took Chen Xiaocai to pick out engagement gifts, while Chen Xiaomi went to choose the matchmaker.
It was only afterward that Lu Lin found out Chen Xiaomi chose Matchmaker Wang.
“You picked Matchmaker Wang?” asked Lu Lin, sounding a bit strange.
Chen Xiaocai nodded. “Yes, since we’ve already decided on the person, it doesn’t matter which matchmaker we find.”
“That’s true, but this Matchmaker Wang was the one who tried to match Lu Tong with that widower,” Lu Lin said.
Chen Xiaocai blinked. “Ah, I forgot about that.”
Lu Lin shook his head. Lu Tong’s marriage had also been full of twists and turns. At first, Aunt Tang looked down on Li Ji for being a widower and drove the matchmaker away. Later, because no one was willing to pay such a high bride price, she turned around and married her daughter to Li Ji anyway. He doubted Li Ji had a good impression of his mother-in-law.
Lu Tong’s life at the Li family didn’t seem very good, but this couldn’t be entirely blamed on the Li family. Aunt Tang had swallowed all of her daughter’s bride price and would go to their door to ask for favors from time to time. It would be strange if the grandmother of the Li family treated Lu Tong well. Besides, although Lu Tong was pretty, she was very spoiled and couldn’t do any work.
At the Shen’s house
Granny Shen looked at Shen Chi, who kept glancing toward the door. “Stop looking. The auspicious day is three days from now, they should choose that day to come.”
Shen Chi nodded and softly replied, “Oh.”
Granny Shen sighed. The villagers seemed to think they had been driven back and were secretly gloating. Granny Shen was too embarrassed to say they had come back to prepare for the engagement. If she said this too early, people would probably think she was lying.
Shen Chi rubbed his hands together, his face red, feeling somewhat nervous.
When he was in town, he knew about Lu Lin proposing marriage for Chen Xiaocai. Although he was very happy, he wasn’t too surprised. Shen Chi had some vague feelings for Chen Xiaocai and faintly felt that Chen Xiaocai seemed to like him too, but he was always afraid he had misunderstood, so he didn’t dare think too much about it.
After Lu Lin talked to Granny Shen, Chen Xiaocai also went to see Shen Chi.
Chen Xiaocai gave him a small silver pendant that Chen Xiaocai had bought when he was in Liu Town.
The two sat in the courtyard and chatted for a long time.
Earlier, when Shen Chi went out to wash things, he was pointed at and gossiped about by several village girls. The leading girl said he was improper, which was why he was driven back.
It never occurred to Shen Chi that villagers could be so vicious. He suddenly realized that Xiaocai and Brother Xiaomi had probably grown up enduring such rumors, and the rumors Xiaocai and Brother Xiaomi had to bear were much more than his.
Shen Chi had originally been very confident about Chen Xiaocai, but the villagers all said he wasn’t worthy of Chen Xiaocai and that he had been driven back. At first it was fine, but after hearing it so much, he started to doubt himself.
Granny Shen hadn’t told anyone about Xiaocai and Shen Chi’s matter. She only said they’d come back to handle some matters, which caused various rumors to boil over in the village.
Then Matchmaker Wang paid a visit, and just like that, the gossip stopped.
Matchmaker Wang was in the business of arranging marriages, and she loved to chat with everyone she met.
When curious villagers asked why she came, she told them she was there to get Shen Chi’s birth date and time to match it with someone’s horoscope. Naturally, they asked who the match was for, and Matchmaker Wang didn’t hide it, directly saying it was Chen Xiaocai. If things went smoothly, Chen Xiaomi would come to propose marriage in a few days.
Her words caused quite a stir. Those who had originally been gloating were all stunned. So Shen Chi hadn’t been driven back but had really come back to handle matters.
People started complaining that Granny Shen had kept everything too secret. If she’d given even a hint earlier, those who’d made snide remarks wouldn’t have ended up so embarrassed.
That evening, Granny Li, Granny Shen’s neighbor, came over for a visit. The two had been neighbors for years and got along realy well.
“You kept it too secret. So you came back to prepare for marriage matters. I thought… Chen Xiaomi was being ungrateful.”
Granny Shen said helplessly, “I didn’t say anything. It was all the villagers spreading rumors.”
“Xiaocai and Shen Chi are quite well-matched.”
Granny Shen smiled and said, “They’re alright. Our Ah Chi is a hard worker, and the Chen brothers like people who can endure hardship.”
“Being hardworking is good. You still need to live steadily. Look at Lu Chengyu. He married some young lady, but what good did it do? The Lu family isn’t any better off. In fact, they seem to be getting poorer.”
Granny Shen lowered her head and didn’t speak. Shen Chi often hung around Chen Xiaomi and had accidentally overheard Chen Xiaomi let slip that Li Ru was just a concubine.
At the time, Shen Chi didn’t realize who Li Ru was, but he mentioned it later while chatting with Granny Shen, which gave her quite a shock.
She immediately warned Shen Chi not to speak carelessly about it. Granny Shen couldn’t figure out whether Lu Lin found out Li Ru was a concubine after the fact, or if he knew even before the marriage but didn’t say anything.
At the Zhang’s
Zhang Xiuhe said gloomily, “This Matchmaker Wang must be talking nonsense. Chen Xiaocai really likes Shen Chi?”
When she saw Granny Shen was back, she assumed that Lu Lin did not like Granny Shen anymore, so she took the opportunity to add insult to injury.
Now, Granny Shen and Chen Xiaomi were about to become in-laws, so naturally Granny Shen wouldn’t be let go.
Zhang Jin looked at his younger aunt and said, “Matchmaker Wang wouldn’t joke about something like this.”
Zhang Xiuhe said with great dissatisfaction, “Didn’t they say Chen Xiaomi has money now? Why would he find a Shuang’er for his brother? Could it be that it’s all just for show?”
“Maybe Chen Xiaocai just likes Shuang’er.”
Zhang Xiuhe pursed her lips and said, “What’s so good about Shuang’ers? The Chen family already has two Shuang’ers, and now they want to bring in another one.”
“What can you do if that’s what they like?”
Zhang Xiuhe grumbled angrily, “That old granny Shen is so sneaky. She deliberately hid the truth and made me lose face.”
“She never said she was driven back. You were the one who assumed she was kicked out.” Zhang Jin felt his aunt had brought this entirely on herself.
Seeing Granny Shen back, she thought it was because the big boss disliked Granny Shen’s poor skills and drove her away. So she put on airs and told people that Granny Shen’s position was definitely hers. As a result, Granny Shen hadn’t been driven back at all, but had come back to prepare for the engagement.
“Da-ge, go talk to Lu Lin,” Zhang Xiuhe said to Zhang Cheng.
She had already spread the word that she would take over Granny Shen’s position. The sudden news of the engagement made Zhang Xiuhe lose face.
“Talk about what?” Zhang Cheng asked.
“My skills are much better than that old woman Granny Shen’s,” Zhang Xiuhe said.
Zhang Cheng took a puff of his cigarette. With anyone else, it might be different, but he had no confidence when it came to Lu Lin. Last time, when Chen Xiaomi was building his house, he had been outsmarted by Lu Lin, making the villagers very disappointed in him later. They felt it was because he wouldn’t let the villagers help Lu Lin build his house that the kang-building skills were learned by people from the neighboring village.
Zhang Cheng felt that ever since Lu Lin married into Chen Xiaomi’s family, something wasn’t right. It was like he had become a completely different person.
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Nooooo, I caught up!
Thank you so much for the translation!!!!!