Chapter 198: Back To Square One
Jiang Yihuan saw Su Yaoguang and was attracted by her stylish dress.
She lowered her head to look at her own clothes, a flash of jealousy in her eyes.
How long had it been since she bought new clothes?
Ever since marrying Xiao Yanci, her life had gotten worse and worse, with more and more work to do. She had never done rough labor before; those jobs had people fighting to do them. Now she was a married woman, and most of the people who had shown solicitousness before had left, making her wonder if her charm had vanished. However, when she saw that Yang Quan was still willing to follow her devotedly, she knew she still had charm; it was just that after she got married, those men saw no opportunity to marry her and no longer wanted to hover around her.
She took Xiao Yanci’s arm, strutting past Su Yaoguang like a victorious rooster, steeling herself.
Su Yaoguang rolled her eyes and walked into the gambling house.
“Boss Su, what wind blew you here?” The gambling house boss, that is, Zhong Chushan’s father, came over with a smile. “Feeling elegant today and want to play a few hands?”
“Uncle Zhong, your son already calls my mother godmother, so we’re practically family. If you still want to cheat my money, that’s a bit much.”
Boss Zhong chuckled and said, “He’s him, I’m me. If I stopped earning money just because he recognized kin, how could I do business with this gambling house?”
“If you put it that way, then I’ll have our Wangshu stop tutoring your son with schoolwork. Anyway, he’s him and you’re you; if he doesn’t want an official position, forcing him to study is pointless.”
“No, no, no, Uncle Zhong was wrong. Uncle Zhong wouldn’t cheat anyone’s silver, least of all yours.”
“Uncle Zhong, what were they here for just now? Did they pay back the silver they owed you?”
“A thousand taels of silver—how could they just pay that back? That Fenghua Pavilion shop of theirs is worth something, but the madam snatched it away. I only grabbed some goods here; after clearing those out, there’s still eight hundred taels of debt uncollected. That Mr. Xiao just now came to the door, wrote an IOU, and said he’d pay back this eight hundred taels bit by bit.”
“Bit by bit meaning settling it over ten or twenty years?”
“In his dreams. I gave them a five-year deadline, repaying one hundred sixty taels each year, that is, over ten taels each month.”
“What if they can’t pay it back?”
“That Mr. Xiao wrote the IOU and even got government office people to witness it. Even if he flees to the ends of the earth, he won’t escape this silver. At least twelve taels a month, with the rest settled before year-end. If not, it rolls interest. If they don’t want rolling interest, they’ll have to honestly pay back this silver.”
Su Yaoguang left the gambling house. In a good mood, she bought lots of jewelry at the gold shop on the way, not only for all the female relatives but even a gold hairpin for Zhou Wangshu.
She brought all sorts of gold jewelry back to the shop, then gave the gifts she picked out to all her relatives. When she put the gold hairpin on Zhou Wangshu’s head, the people nearby kept saying it looked good.
“It’s strange, but our Wangshu really looks good wearing anything. Look at how thick this gold hairpin is—if it were someone else, they’d look like a nouveau riche.”
“He’s good-looking, so of course he looks good in anything.” Zhang Pandi said from the side.
Zhou Wangshu touched the gold hairpin and said, “What happened today to put you in such a good mood?”
“I ran into Jiang Yihuan and them at the gambling house doorway just now.” Su Yaoguang told them the news she had learned. “They owe eight hundred taels of debt, and now they have no Fenghua Pavilion anymore. If they have to repay twelve taels of silver a month, that’ll take all their strength. They owe debt, but we don’t. Anyway, we’ve earned plenty of silver now, so of course we should spend it on ourselves. We should dress up pretty and wear nice jewelry, letting everyone know the women in our family are doing well.”
“The men are doing well too.” Zhang Zhaodi added from the side. “Your maternal uncle-in-law’s health is getting better and better. I think before, he just couldn’t get better because there was no silver for his medical treatment or conditioning the body. Right, by the timing, your maternal uncle-in-law is taking this autumn imperial examination. Your maternal aunt is thinking of renting a house outside for convenience so he can study quietly.”
“That’s good news.” Su Yaoguang said. “Maternal aunt, is there enough silver?”
Zhang Yingdi said, “There’s enough. You’re so generous to maternal aunt and maternal uncle-in-law; even buying a house would be covered. But right now, we don’t know the situation with his imperial examination, so we just want to rent a place short-term and not buy a house.”
“Want us to help look around?”
“I told him to find it himself.” Zhang Yingdi said. “He’s not the kind of man who doesn’t know grain from chaff. If I had to worry about even this matter, what hope would I have following him? I just want him to do something for this family too.”
Zhang Zhaodi leaned close to Zhang Yingdi’s ear and said something.
Zhang Yingdi blushed bright red and said embarrassedly, “His body just got better, and he still has to prepare for the imperial examination matters—he can’t be distracted.”
“Does he have that intention?” Zhang Pandi clearly knew what they were talking about.
“I…”
Zhou Wangshu covered Su Yaoguang’s ears and took her away.
“Why cover my ears? Is there something I can’t hear?”
Zhou Wangshu hummed and hawed, “You could hear it, but I’m afraid maternal aunt will be embarrassed to death first. Come on, don’t be so curious.”
“Wangshu, let me tell you…” Su Yaoguang stuck the gold hairpin in his hair. “You look like that young boy under the God of Wealth wearing this gold hairpin.”
Time flew by. Not long ago they were still worrying about renting a house, and now Wang Huanzhi had set off on the road for the autumn imperial examination with Zhou Wangshu and other scholars.
The local imperial examination required going to the Imperial Examination Hall in the provincial capital for the test. They had to set off a few days early, then find a place to stay there. During those days, they needed to mingle with other scholars, exchange news, and find out what the chief examiner was like.
In the horse-drawn carriage, Su Yaoguang lifted the curtain and looked at Zhou Wangshu riding horseback outside.
Seeing her like this, Zhang Yingdi smiled and said, “If you want to ride horseback with Wangshu, just tell him—no need to look so envious.”
In the horse-drawn carriage were Zhang Yingdi and Wang Huanzhi. Wang Huanzhi heard Zhang Yingdi’s words, glanced at Su Yaoguang, and chuckled.
Youth is great.
Su Yaoguang seemed to have endless energy, while Zhou Wangshu looked spirited and full of vigor.
He couldn’t compare to these young people anymore, but he cherished this hard-won opportunity greatly. Therefore, he had been studying constantly lately and had no mind for anything else.
With Su Yaoguang leaning out the window like this, Zhang Yingdi advised from the side that it was very dangerous.
“Wangshu, control this little rascal.” Zhang Yingdi said crossly. “She sees you riding horseback and wants to get out for some air too.”
Zhou Wangshu tightened the horse rope and said to the carriage driver, “Stop the carriage first.”
After saying that, he patted the horse’s back and said to Su Yaoguang, “Come on up.”
