The next day, when Jiang Chun went to town to sell meat, she heard some new developments from Aunt-Grandma Liu.
Old Lady Liu was sitting on the threshold, with a spinning wheel set in front of her. While spinning hemp thread with the wheel, she hummed and laughed:
“Your grandmother and your aunt have come around. In order to not lose money, they’re insisting with dead certainty that the child in Matchmaker Wang’s belly is your second uncle’s, saying Matchmaker Wang is your uncle’s waishi [outside-room woman; concubine kept outside the family residence]. They also said that the waishi disrespected the superior and fought with the main wife, and as a result accidentally caused the child in her belly to be lost. Even if it’s reported to the county yamen, the county magistrate also wouldn’t judge the main wife as guilty.”
Jiang Chun was a bit shocked: “My grandmother and aunt have this kind of brain?”
Really though, this statement was better than slandering Matchmaker Wang for stealing Ma Shi’s dowry bracelet—after all, that bracelet was handed over to Matchmaker Wang personally by Jiang Hu.
Old Lady Liu had fallen out with her cousin Li Shi years ago, and didn’t like her one bit. Upon hearing this, she first let out a scornful “chi” sound.
Then she revealed the truth: “It was your grandmother who brought your second aunt to find your paternal aunt’s daughter Wang Yin’er, who works as a maidservant in a big household in the county town. It was Wang Yin’er who gave them this idea.”
“Oh.” Jiang Chun understood. “I thought so. This must’ve had a high-level person giving guidance behind the scenes.”
Wang Yin’er had served in a large household for two years, going in and out alongside the daughter of the main wife of the household—clearly, she had gained quite a bit of experience.
Old Lady Liu gloated: “What a pity, the way is a foot high, the devil is ten feet high.” [meaning: just as righteousness improves, evil becomes even more cunning]
“The way is a foot high, the devil is ten feet high? Yo, old lady, you’re quite cultured!” Jiang Chun teased Old Lady Liu.
Then she urged, “Don’t keep me in suspense, hurry and tell me.”
Old Lady Liu rolled her eyes at her, then slowly said: “Matchmaker Wang brought out the marriage contract written by her deceased husband—that merchant from Shu who came to Hongye County for business.”
Jiang Chun immediately let out an “o-ho!”
Old Lady Liu wasn’t wrong—this really was a case of “the way is a foot high, the devil is ten feet high.”
In theory, a marriage contract needs to be registered at the yamen to have legal effect. Without being registered, the marriage contract was just a tool used by that merchant from Shu to coax Matchmaker Wang.
But among common folk, not every couple had a properly formal marriage contract. Even those who did, for fear of dealing with the authorities, often didn’t go through the registration—this was extremely common.
So Matchmaker Wang, holding a marriage contract, was essentially that Shu merchant’s main wife.
To forcibly seize another man’s main wife and make her one’s waishi—this was a major crime.
If Li Shi and her daughter-in-law kept insisting Matchmaker Wang was Jiang Hu’s waishi, then Jiang Hu would be facing a lawsuit and get thrown into prison.
Li Shi and her daughter-in-law immediately became like gourds with sawed-off mouths—not daring to yell that Matchmaker Wang was their family’s waishi anymore.
Throwing a tantrum and playing dirty was also no use, they could only go home and gather money.
Jiang Chun asked curiously: “What about my uncle?”
The two women in the house were jumping around like monkeys, but he acted like he’d turned invisible.
Old Lady Liu sneered sarcastically: “He’s being a filial son in Matchmaker Wang’s house—serving tea, delivering water, feeding meals and medicine—more attentive than when serving his own father and mother.”
Jiang Chun: “……”
Her native tongue was speechlessness. [Literal rendering of a humorous phrase—她的母语是无语—playing on “my native language is silence” to express being stunned or speechless.]
Old Lady Liu rolled her eyes and kindly reminded: “Fifty taels of silver isn’t a small amount. Your grandmother surely doesn’t have that much money on hand. And she’s unwilling to sell land—most likely she’ll come to your house to borrow it.”
Jiang Chun chopped a rib in half with a cleaver and snorted with a laugh: “Don’t even say our family’s money is tight now—even if it wasn’t, it’d be impossible to lend them a single wen.”
Old Lady Liu snorted lightly, her attention drifting slightly: “Would be strange if you weren’t tight. I heard from someone that you just spent a full three taels of silver in the county town on medicinal decoctions for that sickly son-in-law of yours!”
Jiang Chun was simply speechless, she really wanted to kneel to these ancient people — clearly there was neither internet nor mobile phones, yet news could still spread so fast!
Simply couldn’t hide even a single secret!
—
Today was the Mid-Autumn Festival, every household had to celebrate the festival, so pork sold especially fast — within just half an hour it was completely snatched up.
Jiang Chun first went to the pastry shop and bought six jin of mooncakes and two packs of pastries. The mooncakes at this time were super big — one mooncake was exactly one jin.
She took two jin of the mooncakes, plus two jin of meat that she had especially set aside, and sent them to Old Lady Liu as a festival gift.
Old Lady Liu said with her mouth it wasn’t necessary, but the corners of her mouth couldn’t help but lift up.
She didn’t take Jiang Chun’s things for free — gave Jiang Chun a piece of finely woven linen she had personally spun, so she could make a small jacket to wear.
Jiang Chun knew Old Lady Liu was someone with strong self-respect — if she were to refuse now, it would be difficult to give her things again in the future, so she didn’t refuse either.
Happily accepting it: “Aunt-Grandma’s handiwork is so good, I’ve taken your old treasure.”
Coming out of Old Lady Liu’s house, Jiang Chun went to the restaurant again to buy a roast chicken and two jars of wine, packed them in the basket, put them on the wheelbarrow, and pushed it back to Daliushu Village.
At home, Jiang He was cleaning fish. When he saw Jiang Chun come back, he raised the fish in his hand and said with a smile: “Your Uncle Jiang Wan went to Jing Lake to catch fish, gave our family two. Dad’s cleaning one for us to eat tonight, and the other one we’ll keep in the water vat for now.”
“Caught from Jing Lake? Jing Lake is that far, and my Uncle Jiang Wan really doesn’t mind walking.” Jiang Chun raised her eyebrows in surprise.
Jing Lake was in the neighboring Qingyan Town — just walking there one way would take two full hours.
As she untied the rope on the basket, she laughed and said: “I bought two jin of mooncakes, a jar of wine, and also set aside two jin of meat for Sixth great-grandpa. Dad, after you finish cleaning the fish, send them over to Sixth great-grandpa.”
Jiang He felt gratified, thinking his daughter was really good at handling people and affairs, and praised: “Dad forgot to remind you, but you still remembered it. Your Sixth great-grandpa and your Uncle Jiang Wan didn’t dote on you for nothing.”
Jiang Chun curled the corners of her mouth smugly.
Not to mention she had received the original host’s memories — even without them, as a modern person, she also knew the custom of buying gifts to visit elders during the holidays.
She brought the items in the basket into the kitchen, put away the wheelbarrow, then with hands in her sleeves, entered the west room.
Seeing Song Shi’an bent over the desk writing, she complained: “Don’t just focus on copying books — move around a bit more. That way your body will recover faster.”
Seeing he didn’t respond, Jiang Chun nagged again: “Our family doesn’t lack the bit of money from your book copying. Either way, I can afford to raise you, so you don’t need to work this hard.”
Song Shi’an: “……”
If you don’t know what to say, then just say less.
Although it was true she was raising him, the way she said it so bluntly — any man with a bit of pride would be ashamed to the point of wanting to disappear.
But such words, to the current him, had no killing power at all — there was no ripple in his heart, he could even continue writing fluently.
Jiang Chun saw he wasn’t listening and muttered, “Truly a stubborn donkey!”
Then pulled a writing brush from her sleeve and tossed it onto the kang table in front of him.
She grumbled:.“There’s no calligraphy or painting shop in town. I just randomly bought one from a general store — make do with it.”
Last night when spreading bedding, Jiang Chun had unintentionally discovered the old brush he was using had frayed.
Although she was a muddle-headed author in her past life, what muddle-headed author hasn’t dreamed of publishing a physical book?
Afraid her handwriting would look too ugly during publishing or signing events and make her lose face, she had especially practiced writing with brush pen and fountain pen for a while.
So she knew very well how annoying a frayed brush was to use.
Today, when passing by the general store, she remembered this matter, so she went into the shop and bought him a new writing brush.
Although it wasn’t a very good brush, at least it wasn’t frayed, right?
Song Shi’an paused his writing, his gaze falling onto the new brush lying horizontally in front of him, his expression somewhat dazed.
He had only discovered the problem with the frayed brush this morning when he got up to copy books. He had planned to wait for her to come back and then shamelessly open his mouth to ask her to help buy a new brush.
He didn’t expect that she had actually taken the initiative to buy one for him on her own.
It showed that although she teased with her mouth saying there was no need for him to work so hard, she still respected his wishes and bought him a new brush.
Such a careful, considerate, and understanding person — could it really be Jiang Chun?
After a long silence, he reached out with his left hand and picked up the new brush, holding it tightly in his palm. He softly said from his mouth: “Thank you.”
At once, Jiang Chun felt like the mountains turned green, the waters turned blue, and the flowers all bloomed.
Her cheeks almost grinned to her ears: “Husband, what are you being polite with me for?”
Then, humming a tune, she skipped and hopped away to go prepare the Mid-Autumn Festival dinner for the evening.