Reading Reminders:
- Female lead has a golden finger.
- Daily-life style farming story, sweet story.
One-sentence summary: The domineering pig-slaughtering woman and the delicate little husband who is a powerful minister
It was early autumn, and there was already a bit of chill in the mornings and evenings.
But Jiang Chun had a shoulder sling hanging around her neck, and both sleeves were rolled up to the elbows, sweating all over her head as she moved pork onto the wheelbarrow.
Father Jiang He took on a pig slaughtering job and had gone out at yin chu (寅初, 3 a.m.).
Jiang Chun slaughtered a pig by herself—letting the blood, removing the hair, skinning, deboning, and handling the internal organs—she had busied herself for a full one shichen [时辰 = 2 hours].
Seeing that it was already mao shi (卯时, around 5 a.m.), she was afraid of missing the morning market and hurriedly pushed the wheelbarrow toward the town.
Daliushu Village was not far from Hongye Town; if walking, she could reach it in two ke (刻, each = 15 minutes; so, 30 minutes).
But Daliushu Village was in the north of the town, while the morning market was in the south—she still had to pass through the entire town to reach her family’s pork stall.
Though, this just happened to be convenient for her to check in along the way.
Speaking of it was also speechless—she was just a muddle-headed author, who finally exploded in popularity after writing a “beautiful, strong, tragic” male supporting character. But before she even got the manuscript fee, she breathed her last.
And then she transmigrated into the novel she wrote, becoming that “beautiful, strong, tragic” male supporting character Song Shi’an’s deceased wife.
The cause of death was: red apricot tree branch climbing over the wall [红杏出墙, idiom: a married woman having an affair], then being dunked in a pig cage by Song Shi’an.
Of course, that was the original plot. Jiang Chun wasn’t stupid—letting go of a future grand chancellor who held sway over the court, just to have an affair with a butcher? Had she gone mad?
Divorce? That was impossible. The peerlessly beautiful and wise power minister she wrote with her own hands—of course she had to benefit herself.
So she slaughtered pigs diligently every day, worked hard to check in and sign in, hoping to get rich early and let Song Shi’an live days of eating fragrant food and drinking spicy wine [吃香的喝辣的, idiom: living a rich and enjoyable life].
Before slaughtering pigs, they were always fed well first. Song Shi’an too—if she didn’t raise him well, how could she feel good about following him to the capital and becoming a titled lady?
[Ding! Sign-in successful at 【Hongye Town Bank】, obtained 15 wen of copper coins.]
[Ding! Sign-in successful at 【Hongye Town Medicine Shop】, obtained 2 liang of honeysuckle.]
Jiang Chun: “……”
Her sign-in system was now Level 2. Every day at midnight, it would automatically add 2 sign-in points, which could be used to check in at the doors of two stores marked with a yellow exclamation mark (!) to receive rewards.
She prioritized the bank and the medicine shop.
Inside the bank there wasn’t only copper coins—there were also silver and gold, and even silver notes.
As for the medicine shop, it didn’t only have medicinal herbs, but also spices. You should know, in ancient times, valuable spices could only be bought at medicine shops.
And yet these two stores—one gave her 15 copper coins, the other gave her 2 liang of honeysuckle.
With her shitty luck, getting rich off the sign-in system was clearly not realistic. She still had to properly slaughter pigs.
Jiang Chun pushed the wheelbarrow to the stall and had just reached to untie the rope securing the basket when she was bombarded head-on by Old Woman Liu.
“You come when the sun’s already high in the sky, are you sincerely not planning to do business anymore?”
“Don’t think just because you live in a blue-brick tile-roofed house and married a live-in son-in-law, you can be lazy.”
“Just those three blue-brick rooms—your father has one, you and your husband have one, and the middle is the kitchen. It’s enough for now, but what about when you have a baby? Where will the baby sleep?”
“And your live-in husband, he’s just a medicine jar [药罐子, idiom: a person constantly sick and taking medicine], don’t even talk about working to earn money—his daily medicine costs are no small matter.”
“You take a look, everywhere needs silver money. How can you even sleep at night? Even the donkey pulling the mill in town doesn’t dare rest like this!”
Jiang Chun: “……”
She speechlessly said, “Auntie Liu, please be reasonable. I didn’t slack off. My father went to Mao Family Village today to slaughter pigs for Landowner Mao. I handled a whole pig by myself—from yin chu (3 a.m.) till now—I haven’t even had a sip of water.”
Old Woman Liu used her pair of sunken yet still sharp little eyes to look Jiang Chun up and down, as if evaluating whether her words were true or false.
A moment later, she gave a cold snort from her mouth, picked up the basket by her feet, and went off to the morning market to snatch up bargains.
Jiang Chun shook her head and lightly laughed. She simply opened Old Woman Liu’s main gate, and from the west wing room, carried out the tables, chairs, cutting board, cleaver, and other stuff for her family’s meat stall.
Old Woman Liu was the daughter of Jiang He’s mother’s maternal aunt Li-shi [李氏, the “Shi” suffix denotes a married woman’s maiden surname] — that is, Jiang He’s maternal aunt, and Jiang Chun’s maternal grandaunt.
Her house just happened to be located on the street where the morning market was.
So Jiang He rented the space in front of her house to set up a meat stall.
Speaking of it, this Old Woman Liu was also a pitiful person. Her husband died early, and she raised a son and a daughter by working as a wet nurse for rich households.
Who knew that her son, who became a sailor, drowned in a shipwreck, and her daughter eloped with someone and went missing.
In order to have someone to depend on in old age and perform her funeral rites [养老送终, “raise in old age and send off in death”], she adopted a little boy abandoned by his family. But after raising him to sixteen, the boy went back to find his biological parents.
Perhaps she realized that relying on mountains, the mountains fall; relying on water, the water floods — only the silver money in one’s hand is reliable. So now Old Woman Liu has her heart set on grabbing money.
Not only does she work hard to grab money, she can’t sit still for a single moment, and she can’t bear to see others slack off.
Whenever she has free time, she’ll nag at Jiang Chun a few sentences—Jiang Chun’s ears were about to grow calluses from her nagging.
However, while Jiang Chun is fierce to others, she is especially tolerant of Old Woman Liu, this widowed grandaunt. Although she talks back, she never takes it to heart.
—
Jiang Chun had just hung up the meat when a customer arrived.
Matchmaker Wang, who powdered her face and painted her rouge but turned her face into a monkey’s butt due to poor makeup skills, swung her handkerchief and sashayed her way over.
After stopping in front of the stall, she dramatically looked around in all directions and pinched her voice to say, “Chun-niang, why are you alone here? Where’s your father?”
Clang! Jiang Chun threw the cleaver in her hand onto the chopping board and coldly said, “Buying meat or not? If you’re not buying meat, get out of the way—don’t delay my business.”
Same money-grabbing nature, but Old Woman Liu walked the straight path, grabbing money by her own hardworking hands. This Matchmaker Wang, however, took nothing but crooked paths.
In all the ten-li eight-village radius [十里八村, idiom meaning the surrounding area], any man with a few silver coins in his hand had all fallen under her skirt.
Jiang He, who had a bit of money, lost his wife, and had only one daughter at home, naturally got targeted by Matchmaker Wang—she wanted to marry him and become his second wife.
Unfortunately, Jiang He was a proper man, and to her seduction, he remained unmoved.
This instead aroused Matchmaker Wang’s competitiveness, and she would come wandering near their meat stall every few days, seeing if she could find an opportunity to capture the man.
Matchmaker Wang gave a flick of her handkerchief and said with a sarcastic tone, “Aiyo, you little woman, doing these white knife in, red knife out barbaric tasks [白刀子进红刀子出, idiom for slaughtering/killing], that’s already enough, but even your speech is so coarse. Be careful you won’t be able to marry…”
Halfway through the sentence, her eyes caught sight of the neatly tied married-woman bun on top of Jiang Chun’s head, and her tongue twisted directions at once: “Poor thing, if only your father had been willing to marry someone like me who can take charge into the house as his formal second wife, you wouldn’t have ended up marrying a sickly one as a live-in husband.”
There were too many problematic points in this statement—Jiang Chun didn’t even know which line to start roasting.
She let out a disdainful “chi” sound: “Your abacus beads are clacking so loud, I can hear them all the way from Daliushu Village.”
Marrying her as stepmother, only to have her sell off her stepdaughter for money, scrape clean the Jiang family’s foundation, and maybe even put a few bright green hats on Jiang He? [戴绿帽子, “wearing a green hat,” idiom for being cheated on]
Jiang He might be honest, but he’s not stupid.
Even if she hadn’t transmigrated in, according to the original plot, Jiang He still wouldn’t have boarded Matchmaker Wang’s bandit ship.
Matchmaker Wang glared at Jiang Chun, couldn’t be bothered to tangle with this monkey-spirit-like oil-dragging bottle any longer, and twisted her hips as she walked away. [“猴精猴精” (monkey spirit) = cunning, clever; “拖油瓶” (oil-dragging bottle) = derogatory term for a child from a previous marriage.]
That oil-dragging bottle’s sickly live-in husband looked like he wouldn’t live long. Once she married into the Jiang family, as soon as the sickly husband breathed his last, she’d sell her off to some rich lord in the county town to be a concubine.
Although this oil-dragging bottle had a poisonous mouth and fierce temper, her appearance was first-class. The townspeople secretly called her “Pork Xishi.” [Xi Shi was one of the renowned Four Beauties of ancient China.]
With such looks—even if she had taken in a live-in husband—she’d definitely fetch a good price if sold.
Jiang Chun didn’t know that Matchmaker Wang was plotting behind her back to sell her off, because the Mid-Autumn Festival was near, and locals had a custom of visiting married-out daughters before the holiday. So customers buying meat came one after another—how could she have the time to pay attention to Matchmaker Wang, that filthy thing?
Busy through the entire morning, she didn’t close the stall until chen zheng (辰正, around 8 a.m.).
Jiang Chun put the tables, chairs, and stools back into the west wing room, and carrying two cleanly trimmed leg bones, she said to Old Woman Liu, who was in the courtyard washing clothes, “Want some leg bones? You’re getting old, drink more bone broth to keep your bones strong.”
Old Woman Liu didn’t even lift her head and said with a curl of her lip, “Boiling bone broth wastes firewood. You think buying firewood doesn’t cost silver?”
Jiang Chun snorted lightly: “So do you want it or not? If not, I’ll take it back home and boil it myself.”
Old Woman Liu was silent for a moment, then jerked her chin toward the main room: “Put it in the porcelain basin on the stove platform.”
Jiang Chun curled her lips—just as she expected.
After leaving Old Woman Liu’s house, she went to the bun shop and ordered a basket of meat buns, two tofu-and-glass-noodle vegetarian buns, and two bowls of tofu pudding.
Then she hurried home.
She first helped Song Shi’an over to the dining table in the kitchen, then took two bowls and poured the tofu pudding from the small clay jar into them.
She set a bowl of tofu pudding in front of him, then handed over the oil-paper wrapping with the vegetarian buns inside.
Grinning, she said, “I walked fast on the way back—right now the tofu pudding and buns are still hot. Husband, quickly eat while it’s hot.”
Song Shi’an lowered his eyes to glance at the tofu pudding and buns before him, then lifted his gaze to glance sidelong at Jiang Chun’s smiling face. His brows slowly furrowed.
Clearly, he had just attended the emperor brother-in-law’s eightieth birthday celebration banquet, and after one sleep, he found himself back in the Jiang family, once again a live-in husband.
As the Grand Secretariat, who held great power and was second only to one person and above ten thousand others, Song Shi’an didn’t feel that his life needed to be lived over again.
But if Heaven gave and one did not take, one would suffer the consequences. Since Heaven granted him a chance to start over, he’d accept it.
If there was any regret for Song, the Grand Secretariat, in his past life, it was that in his early years he had been green-hatted by Jiang Chun, that licentious woman, and became the laughingstock of the entire capital.
Though after the new emperor took the throne and Song’s status as the imperial uncle rose with the tide, no one dared bring it up again.
That didn’t mean the matter had truly been forgotten.
If there existed a Pillar of Shame in this world, then the biggest name carved on it would definitely be Song Shi’an’s.
So after accepting the reality of his rebirth, the very first thing he intended to do was eliminate Jiang Chun, that licentious woman, lest he again lose all reputation.
But the Jiang Chun before his eyes—smiling all over, pouring tofu pudding for him, handing over buns, even knowing his preference for vegetarian food—felt very off.
This clearly wasn’t Jiang Chun.
More precisely, this wasn’t the Jiang Chun of this point in time.
The Jiang Chun of this point in time loathed the sickly live-in husband her father had bought for her. On ordinary days, she was even too lazy to speak a word to him.
Could it be… she, like him, had also been reborn?
And even, through some method, learned the news that he would one day rise to the top ranks of officials, and that’s why she came clinging over?
Song Shi’an clenched his back molars—this kind of shameless licentious woman, what right did she have to be reborn?
But it didn’t matter. Whether she had been reborn or not, it made no difference—in any case, he would not allow her to live until the day he returned to the capital.
Woohoo~ Can’t wait to see how this relationship unfolds!