Pei Yan and Zhou Zijin left just like that. Hu Xing watched in stunned amazement and stopped Pei Man, who was preparing to go out on business: “Chief Steward, is this how you normally speak to Third Master? Aren’t you afraid Third Master will lose his temper?”
Pei Man said: “What Third Master most abhors is when people don’t speak honestly, not when people speak up. Once you’ve spent more time with Third Master, you’ll understand.”
Hu Xing thought to himself: I entered the household at age seven and am also an old hand in the family—what more would it take to count as having spent enough time with Third Master?
This was nonsense.
However, the reason Hu Xing had been able to stand out among the servants in the entire Pei household was not only because he was clever and ambitious, but also because one of his great strengths was self-reflection.
Though he felt dissatisfied in his heart, he still honestly replayed the expressions and attitudes Pei Yan and Pei Man had shown when speaking just now, going over them carefully several times. Suddenly, he somewhat understood what Pei Man meant.
As for the Yu Family, these past few days could truly be called double happiness arriving at their door.
First was the marriage between Yu Yuan and Miss Xiang. Though there had been some twists and turns, in the end they had formally exchanged betrothal cards, and after the Double Ninth Festival, the betrothal gifts would be presented. When Wang Shi thought about this matter, she still felt a lingering fear. She quietly said to Chen Shi in private: “Who would have thought Miss Xiang’s stepmother would be so formidable, saying that since this marriage wasn’t arranged through her first, she absolutely refused to agree. Fortunately, Madam Wei dared to take charge for Miss Xiang and wasn’t afraid of offending Miss Xiang’s stepmother. She brought up Miss Xiang’s deceased mother and forcibly made Miss Xiang’s stepmother back down. I think that in the future, Miss Xiang probably won’t even have a maternal family home to return to.”
Chen Shi felt that Wang Shi was worrying unnecessarily and said: “The way Miss Xiang is now, having a maternal family is the same as having none. Moreover, she grew up at Madam Wei’s place since childhood and is closer to her several cousin brothers than to her own brothers. In the future, treating the Wei household as her proper maternal family will be just the same. I think that Madam Wei daring to clash with Miss Xiang’s stepmother like this is precisely because she has this plan in mind. Otherwise, why would she need to make things so tense in front of us?”
Wang Shi thought this made sense and couldn’t help but feel sorry for Miss Xiang, saying: “People say that a married daughter is like spilled water. I’ll just consider that I’ve gained an extra daughter and treat Miss Xiang well.”
Just as the two were sympathizing with Miss Xiang, Master Xiang quietly sought out Yu Wen and gave him a small camphorwood box to pass on to Miss Xiang. He said that Madam Wei was letting Miss Xiang leave from the Wei household for her wedding, and Miss Xiang’s stepmother had already agreed. In the future, Miss Xiang would probably rarely have a chance to return to see him, her father. This was the last token of affection from him as a father, for Miss Xiang to keep and later leave to her own descendants.
Yu Wen felt that although Master Xiang had married up with his current wife, to act this way was too spineless. He didn’t think much of Master Xiang and didn’t give it much thought, passing the box to Yu Yuan. Yu Yuan thought that no matter what, this was still Master Xiang’s heartfelt sentiment, and to avoid having Miss Xiang feel that her father was indifferent to her marriage, he delivered it to the Wei household that very night.
Madam Wei had gotten into a dispute with the Xiang family over negotiating Miss Xiang’s wedding dowry. She felt that now, while Master Xiang was still alive, Madam Xiang dared to torment Miss Xiang like this—if Master Xiang were to pass away in the future, the Xiang family would probably act as if they didn’t have this daughter. She had wanted to secure more dowry for Miss Xiang from the Xiang family, which was why she had gotten into this quarrel with Madam Xiang. It was just that everyone wanted to preserve their reputation, so neither Madam Wei nor Madam Xiang had spoken of it openly to outsiders.
Now seeing Yu Yuan deliver something, Madam Wei angrily threw the box on the ground, saying: “Who wants his false pretenses, saying that aside from A-Ying’s mother’s dowry and three thousand taels of silver, there isn’t an extra penny…”
Before she could finish speaking, everyone was stunned.
The box fell to the ground and with a “clang” burst open. A large bundle of banknotes was blown by the cold autumn night wind, fluttering like paper butterflies.
“Quick, quick,” it was still Master Wei who shuddered and came to his senses first. “Don’t let the wind blow them away. These deposit notes from the silver house start at ten taels of silver each, and looking at their size, the smallest must be one hundred taels…”
Madam Wei also panicked and hastily called out to Yu Yuan: “What are you standing there dumbly for? Quickly pick up all these banknotes.”
Yu Yuan was so alarmed that he didn’t even know how he ended up staying overnight at the Wei household, nor how he rushed back to the Yu household just as the city gates opened. He only remembered standing somewhat trembling before Wang Shi and saying to his father: “So many banknotes—Madam Wei said there must be at least forty to fifty thousand taels, enough to empty out the Pei Family’s silver house on Long Prosperity Street in Lin’an. She also asked me whether, since silver deposited in a silver house doesn’t earn much interest, I wanted to buy a few shops in Hangzhou and move to Hangzhou to do business.”
Both Wang Shi and Yu Bo were also stunned. They woke Yu Wen and Chen Shi from their sleep and asked Yu Wen how to handle this matter: “Does your in-law mother mean she wants A-Yuan to move to Hangzhou? Or does she just want to ask us what to do with so much silver?”
Yu Tang was awakened by the commotion. She was still somewhat dazed, but hearing these words, she became alert as well.
She tried hard to think about her previous life.
She really hadn’t heard anything about the Wei family and Miss Xiang.
Nor did she know which family Miss Xiang had married into in her previous life.
Her eldest cousin’s marriage had truly been struck by a golden egg.
Yu Wen was quite calm about it, yawning and saying to his restless elder brother before him: “I vaguely heard that the Xiang family was wealthy. Back when the Shen family formed a marriage alliance with the Xiang family, they didn’t even mind that Master Xiang was remarried—all because Master Xiang is particularly good at business. I didn’t expect it to actually be true. As I see it, you should just do what you would have done anyway. Would you not marry Miss Xiang into the family just because you don’t have these forty to fifty thousand taels in banknotes?”
Hearing his younger brother say this, Yu Bo gradually calmed down as well. After thinking it over, he said: “What you say makes sense. We let greed cloud our judgment and lost our composure. A dowry is originally the wife’s private property—how she wants to use it is naturally up to her. I’m just afraid that when the time comes, our A-Yuan will suffer a loss.”
Yu Wen directed Chen Pozi to brew him a cup of strong tea. After drinking several sips and finally feeling more alert, he had Chen Pozi go make breakfast before continuing: “When the Wei family took a liking to our family, wasn’t it precisely because our family treats children well? Our family can’t blame others for being too wealthy just because we ourselves aren’t as rich as them, can we?”
“Quite so, quite so,” Yu Bo said.
“So everyone needs to maintain their composure,” Yu Wen said. Rarely having an opportunity to lecture his elder brother, he was somewhat in a flowing mode as he continued: “We’re not after other people’s silver. If we’re not as good as others now, does that mean we’ll never be as good as them for our whole lives? After the daughter-in-law enters the family, if there are things that aren’t good, we should still speak up when needed. Where things are good, we should still praise them. We just need to be fair about it…”
While her father was speaking, Yu Tang kept watching her eldest cousin.
She saw Yu Yuan’s ears turn red and found an opportunity to quietly move to sit beside him, whispering: “You’re not feeling uncomfortable too, are you?”
Yu Yuan glanced at his parents, who were talking with his uncle, and said in a low voice: “A little. But I think Uncle is right—that they have money is their business. As long as we don’t covet theirs, naturally we can walk straight and sit upright.” Speaking to this point, his tone paused, and he continued hesitantly: “However, when Madam Wei suggested I buy a shop in Hangzhou, I was genuinely tempted. No wonder I was thinking this way and that at the time—I still harbored greedy thoughts.”
This couldn’t be blamed on Yu Yuan, Yu Tang thought. Ever since she and her father and brothers had made that trip to Hangzhou, even she felt that doing business in Hangzhou would be better, let alone Yu Yuan, who in both lives had been thinking about building a great business and making the Yu family prosperous.
The family discussed this matter for nearly an hour. When it was fully light, they sat together again for breakfast.
Yu Wen’s salted duck egg wasn’t even fully peeled when Pei Family’s Third Steward Hu Xing came to visit. Yu Yuan was startled, and the Yu family’s womenfolk hastily carried several dishes to retreat to the kitchen. Yu Wen invited Hu Xing to have breakfast.
“I’ve already eaten long ago,” Hu Xing said with a beaming smile. “I came specifically to inform you that Imperial Physician Yang’s boat is returning to Suzhou shortly, and before leaving, he’ll come to take your household’s madam’s pulse. Since this came up suddenly, I came specifically to tell your household. I won’t have breakfast—I still need to accompany Imperial Physician Yang when he comes over.”
The Yu family was naturally overjoyed.
Yu Wen personally saw Hu Xing out, expressing his gratitude again and again.
Hu Xing smiled and stopped him, saying: “This is Third Master’s intention. In the future, whenever Imperial Physician Yang comes to Lin’an, he’ll come examine your household’s madam. If you have any words of gratitude, say them to Third Master and Imperial Physician Yang. I’m just running errands—you really do me too much honor.”
Previously, people from the Pei family had also been courteous to the Yu family, but not like now, with courtesy tinged with several parts of respect. The Yu brothers could naturally distinguish the difference. After seeing off Hu Xing, Yu Wen couldn’t help but say to Yu Bo: “What on earth has happened?”
Yu Bo thought it over from every angle but couldn’t figure it out. He could only say: “With Imperial Physician Yang treating younger sister-in-law’s illness, he’ll surely be able to cure it completely and thoroughly. This is a good thing. As for what happens later, we’ll deal with that later.”
Yu Wen scratched his head vigorously.
Yu Tang also didn’t know what Pei Yan meant, but thinking about it, this was ultimately a good thing. In any case, when you owe many debts you stop worrying—their family owed the Pei family favors that couldn’t be repaid all at once, so for now they would just remember them.
After Imperial Physician Yang examined Chen Shi’s pulse, he adjusted the prescription somewhat and, after instructing Yu Wen not to let Chen Shi overwork herself and also not to let her get angry, he left.
The Yu household was jubilant, thinking that since Chen Shi hadn’t fallen ill in the summer, as long as Imperial Physician Yang continued treating Chen Shi with medicine, she would recover sooner or later. Yu Wen wanted to find some antique to give to Pei Yan.
Unfortunately, the Yu family only had this much in assets. After searching for several days, Yu Wen couldn’t find anything suitable.
Yu Tang, meanwhile, was pondering at home whether or not to ask the Qu brothers from Banqiao Town to help her with a few matters, just like in her previous life.
In her previous life, in order to bind her to the Li family, when she entered their door carrying Li Jun’s memorial tablet, Lin Shi had spread word everywhere that she was determined to maintain widowhood for Li Jun. Even the Li family clan members said that whether the Li family could earn a chastity memorial arch depended entirely on her.
This was also the main reason why, after she later discovered that the Li family was a quagmire and wanted to break free from them, it took her five or six years of effort.
Back then, the deaths of her uncle and eldest cousin had already made her feel that her family’s misfortunes were connected to the Li family. To investigate and verify this, she had frequently relied on Lin’an’s fixers to get things done, and she had been deceived quite a bit—because she bore the reputation of being the Li family’s widowed daughter-in-law, she didn’t dare come forward herself and often had to rely on others to investigate the Li family’s affairs. Many people took her silver but didn’t help her with her business, and because of this, she didn’t have extra money to support her aunt.
The Qu brothers were among these fixers, relatively trustworthy people.