Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi spent two hundred and fifty taels to purchase both the residence and the business. The landlord was eager to move out, and seeing how readily Lu Lin paid, he decided to give all the furniture and the remaining merchandise in the shop to Lu Lin as a gift.
Chen Xiaomi walked around the residence, his face full of excitement. “This house is so big!” In fact, the house only had two courtyards, which wasn’t considered large for wealthy families. The reason this house hadn’t sold previously was partly because while it was quite refined, it was too small for most well-off families.
Take the Yang household where Chen Xiaomi often delivered game. With four generations living together and several wives and concubines, they had over twenty people not counting the servants. A two-courtyard house wouldn’t be enough for them. However, for him and Xiaomi, plus Xiaocai and Xiaomai, just four people in total, it was absolutely enough.
Chen Xiaomi visited the shop in front of the residence. There were still some cloth, grain, and oil left in the store, worth about eleven taels in total, which made Chen Xiaomi very excited.
After buying the shop and store, Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi discussed when they should consider moving in.
Suddenly purchasing such a large residence was too eye-catching, so Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi agreed that if anyone asked, they would say the owner temporarily left and asked them to look after the place.
The wedding day for Lu Chengyu and Li Fangyue finally arrived.
Many villagers were paying attention to Lu Chengyu’s marriage. They were all curious about what kind of person Lu Chengyu had chosen after being so picky.
The Lu family arranged quite an impressive ceremony. Lu Chengyu specially hired several sedan chair bearers and rented a beautiful sedan chair.
The Lu family’s grand display made many unmarried young women in the village daydream about their own weddings.
Relatives came over with great curiosity.
Tang had already spread the word that Lu Chengyu was marrying a daughter from an official’s family, so people wondered whether the bride’s family would make an appearance.
Lu Lin weighed his options and decided not to attend Lu Chengyu’s wedding.
First, he left the family with nothing, not even half a foot of cloth, which was equivalent to cutting ties.
Second, no one from the Lu family invited him to participate in Lu Chengyu’s wedding, and if they didn’t invite him, there was no need for him to force himself on them and bring gifts.
However, not showing his face at such an important occasion would inevitably invite criticism. But Chen Xiaomi’s reputation had already hit rock bottom, so it wouldn’t matter if it got a little worse.
The Lu family’s wedding was lively and bustling, inviting every household in the village with even the slightest connection.
While Lu Chengyu was busy arranging the wedding, Lu Lin was considering the specifics of the store.
Lu Lin felt that given the current situation, they were somewhat shorthanded and was thinking about buying a few servants.
Chen Xiaomi looked at Lu Lin and asked, “Buy people?”
Lu Lin nodded, “That’s right.”
Chen Xiaomi frowned, “Do we still have money?”
Chen Xiaomi blinked. Lately they had been buying land and shops, with silver flowing out like the tide, which made Chen Xiaomi feel quite uncomfortable.
Lu Lin nodded, “We do, about fifty taels left. If we sell another batch of wine, we’ll have an income of more than ten taels.”
Chen Xiaomi pursed his lips, “Only fifty taels left!” Fifty taels was actually quite a lot, but Chen Xiaomi had previously felt rich with over three hundred taels. Now, suddenly returning to square one made Chen Xiaomi feel somewhat lost.
Lu Lin glanced at Chen Xiaomi and said, “Although we have less silver now, don’t we have the shop?”
Chen Xiaomi nodded, “That’s true!” However, if the shop didn’t make money, having it would be useless. Chen Xiaomi’s experience was limited. He still felt that if they couldn’t make a living in town, they could at least forage for food in the mountains back in the countryside.
Lu Lin smiled, “Don’t worry, if we can’t make money, we can always sell the shop and go back to the village.”
Chen Xiaomi nodded, “That works too.”
Looking at Chen Xiaomi’s expression, Lu Lin blinked. He had this feeling that Chen Xiaomi didn’t seem to believe their shop could make money at all.
Chen Xiaocai came bouncing in, “Da-ge, Lin-ge.”
“Where have you been?”
Chen Xiaocai scratched his head, “The Lu family is having a wedding today, I went to watch the excitement.”
Chen Xiaomi asked with interest, “Was it grand?”
In this era with few entertainments, perhaps because of this, family gossip spread particularly fast. Lu Chengyu’s affair had caused quite a stir, and Chen Xiaomi also felt somewhat curious.
“It was quite grand, but I didn’t see that Chief Clerk.”
Chen Xiaomi rested his chin on his hand, showing a hint of gloating, “The Chief Clerk didn’t come?”
Lu Lin smiled, “It’s normal that he didn’t show up.”
Now that Lu Chengyu had married Li Fangyue, the Chief Clerk would be Lu Chengyu’s brother-in-law. By rights, the Chief Clerk should have made an appearance. Unfortunately, Li Fangyue’s sister was only the Chief Clerk’s concubine. A concubine’s status was very low. Some wealthy young men even gifted concubines to each other as an elegant gesture.
Although Li Ru was greatly favored, a concubine was still just a concubine. In this era of strict social customs, concubines could never be formally acknowledged. It is no surprise for the Chief Clerk to be unwilling to appear at his concubine’s sister’s wedding.
Lu Lin smiled, “In that case, Lu Chengyu’s efforts were wasted.”
The Lu family had gone to such great lengths just to establish connections with the Chief Clerk, but the Chief Clerk wouldn’t even show his face at their wedding. Obviously, this marriage wasn’t as beneficial as they imagined. With this development, the villagers would probably gossip for quite some time.
Lu Lin narrowed his eyes. Lu Chengyu was probably desperate to pass the imperial examination and had rushed into this marriage. As far as he knew, the Li family had two sons and two daughters. The eldest daughter was the Chief Clerk’s concubine, the second son was also a scholar who acted quite arrogantly relying on the Chief Clerk’s connection, and the third daughter was Li Fangyue.
Lu Chengyu offered thirty taels as a bride price, probably hoping Li Fangyue would bring this money back as part of her dowry. However, if he guessed correctly, the silver Li Fangyue brought back would be limited. The most favored child in the Li family was that Li Hong, who spent money lavishly, and then there was the need to curry favor with the Chief Clerk.
Tang was also a shrewd person, but she might have been intimidated by the Chief Clerk’s title, so she hastily arranged Lu Chengyu’s wedding. Wang and Tang huddled in the kitchen, both looking unhappy.
Wang glumly said, “Didn’t you say that the girl’s sister was the Chief Clerk’s wife? Why didn’t the Chief Clerk come, and why didn’t the girl’s sister come either?”
Tang replied somewhat awkwardly, “They must be busy.”
Wang scowled, “No matter how busy they are, for such a major event as a sister’s wedding, they should at least make an appearance!” It wasn’t a special time like the year-end; how busy could they be?
Tang bit her lip, feeling embarrassed. Today, many guests asked her which one was the Chief Clerk, which made her feel terribly ashamed.
Tang sighed, “We’ll see how things go in the future.”
“What did that girl bring as her dowry?” asked Wang.
Tang was also very curious about Li Fangyue’s dowry, but since Li Fangyue had just married into the family, she felt it wasn’t appropriate to immediately pry into this new daughter-in-law’s dowry. Although she was disappointed that the Chief Clerk did not show up, she still felt somewhat wary of this new daughter-in-law.
“I don’t know yet.” Tang had heard that when some girls from town got married, they would have a grand procession of dowry stretching for miles. Tang also hoped this new daughter-in-law would bring more silver.
Tang had heard that some young ladies from town would even bring a shop as part of their dowry, and she had secretly fantasized about having a shop. Seeing how few people came from the bride’s family, as if they did not take this marriage seriously, Tang felt a great sense of disappointment.
Wang was rather disgruntled. She valued her eldest grandson Lu Chengyu the most, and in her eyes, this grandson was perfect in every way, worthy even of nobility. This new daughter-in-law was brought in at such a high price. The though that she might not be as good as they had imagined made Wang somewhat unwilling to accept it.
“That brat Lu Lin didn’t show up. That little bastard really wants to cut ties, huh?” Wang grumbled.
Tang deliberately did not invite Chen Xiaomi, and as a result, Lu Lin didn’t come and didn’t send any gifts, which made Tang feel somewhat sick. She originally thought that even without an invitation, Lu Lin would come with gifts, and she could put on airs at that time. Instead, Lu Lin simply didn’t show up.
“Since marrying into Chen Xiaomi’s family, that Lu Lin’s behavior has become exactly like that damned Chen Xiaomi,” Tang grumbled.
“The Lu family’s ceremony is too grand. How much money did they spend?”
“Must have been quite a lot. I heard the bride price alone was thirty taels. That’s probably the highest in our village.”
“That’s so much silver!”
“Did anyone come from the bride’s family? Which one is the Chief Clerk?”
“Don’t bother looking. The Chief Clerk didn’t come,” said Zhang Jin.
Zhang Jin sat in his place. He had good relationships with people, and several villagers around him were happy to chat with him.
“Why didn’t the Chief Clerk come?” asked a villager.
“Who knew the Lu family was this rich? I couldn’t tell before. During the military conscription, the old woman would wail daily about having no grain, saying the second son would drive the family to death. But they seem to be doing quite well now,” said another villager.
The second son of the Lu family was just too honest, which was why he lost his life on the battlefield for nothing.
A villager looked around and asked, “Lu Lin isn’t here?”
No one had seen him, so he probably hadn’t come.
“That boy really did cut ties with them! I never would have guessed before.” Severing family ties was considered a serious matter among villagers. The original Lu Lin was seen as an honest man without question, and none of the villagers had expected Lu Lin’s temper to be so strong that he would truly sever connections with his family.
But there was no helping it. His father died in the war, his mother worked herself to death, and he was married off without taking anything. It was inevitable he would harbor resentment.
No matter what, they were still relatives. Even broken bones are connected by tendons.
Zhang Jin smiled and said, “When Lu Lin left, he was carried out on a door plank. Now that Lu Chengyu is welcoming a bride so grandly, he probably feels uncomfortable.”
The villagers looked at each other, suddenly feeling that the elder Lins were too biased. Both were grandsons, yet the treatment was so different.
I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Please consider supporting the author directly.
You can also follow me on Ko-fi to get access to the latest updates on my translation progress and new projects. I appreciate your love and feedback.
