Chapter 84: Each in Their Own Stupidity
Li Yin Zhu came out, looking back three times at every step. After walking a short distance, she let out a long sigh, “A Nan, tell me, if I asked my eldest sister for that loom as part of my dowry, would she agree?”
Li Xiao Nan stopped, her eyebrows raised, forming a forehead full of wrinkles. She glanced sideways at Li Yin Zhu with a speechless expression.
“It’s too expensive, I know, I know,” Li Yin Zhu said dejectedly.
“Oh! My third sister, do you know what kind of family you’re marrying into?”
Li Yin Zhu’s wail almost choked Li Xiao Nan to death.
“What kind of family is the Hong family? No matter what kind of family they are, if they don’t weave cloth, what will they wear?” Li Yin Zhu glared back.
Li Xiao Nan slapped herself in the face.
Her third sister was a living example of a palace lady peeling an onion!
“Hong Er’s brother wears silk, from the inside out! Their whole family wears silk, from the inside out!” Li Xiao Nan spat on Li Yin Zhu’s face.
Li Yin Zhu was sprayed by Li Xiao Nan and leaned back.
“Hong Er’s sister has two maids specifically to serve her. Hong Er’s mother, your mother-in-law, asked me if you would have dowry maids when you get married. If not, she would pick some suitable people to serve you by your side after you marry.”
“The day we returned from the Hong family, I told you, did you forget? Or did you not listen at all?” Li Xiao Nan continued to spit.
“I…” Li Yin Zhu took a step back.
She had listened and remembered. She just thought that if she didn’t have to do housework, she could weave cloth properly.
“Then what were you looking at just now? You said before the New Year that you wanted to visit the cloth shops.” Li Yin Zhu didn’t dare to voice her thought of weaving cloth properly and quickly changed the subject.
“To see if looms are expensive, and to look at cloth,” Li Xiao Nan said, giving Li Yin Zhu a sideways glance with annoyance.
“You want to learn to weave?” Li Yin Zhu’s eyes lit up.
“I don’t want to learn! I’m seeing if I can start a weaving business,” Li Xiao Nan flatly refused.
“If you don’t weave, what kind of weaving business can you do?” Li Yin Zhu gave Li Xiao Nan a dismissive look.
“I think this is a good business, since ancient times…” Li Xiao Nan swallowed the words “the world” and “under heaven,” “but I haven’t figured out why no one is doing this business.”
“Because it’s not profitable,” Li Yin Zhu interjected unceremoniously.
Li Xiao Nan let out a long sigh.
The two returned home. Mei Jie was sitting in the sun, sewing shoe soles. Seeing them enter, she quickly stood up and wound the thread around the shoe sole.
“Just after you left, a girl came, saying she was from the Zhang family next door. She said they were sending food to the shop today. I didn’t know when you would be back, so I’ll go make dinner.” Mei Jie tightly gripped the shoe sole and quickly explained a few things before rushing to the kitchen.
“If we weren’t back, you wouldn’t cook? Then what would you eat?” Li Yin Zhu asked, following behind.
“I ate a lot this morning, I’m not hungry,” Mei Jie said nervously.
Li Xiao Nan looked at the chicken, fish, and cured meat hanging in the kitchen and ordered, “Mei Jie, I want stir-fried cured meat with garlic sprouts, sweet and sour cabbage, and then stir-fry…”
“And a side of pickled cowpea will be enough,” Li Yin Zhu interrupted Li Xiao Nan and sat down at the stove to prepare to light the fire. “Mei Jie, I’m telling you, if I’m not home, you can’t indulge A Nan. If there’s anything good to eat at home, A Nan wishes she could eat it all in one meal.”
Mei Jie visibly relaxed, a faint smile appearing, “Old Master Kuan said A Nan is as knowledgeable as a Xiucai Scholar.”
“She’s more knowledgeable than her brother, and much lazier than her brother.”
Li Yin Zhu lit the fire, and Mei Jie quickly washed the rice and started cooking it.
Li Xiao Nan poured two bowls of warm tea from the warm alcove in the main hall, handed one to Li Yin Zhu, and sat beside her, drinking tea and lost in thought.
This fine cotton cloth business, it could clearly make a lot of money, why wasn’t anyone doing it? What was the bottleneck?
………………………………
After the first lunar month, the prefectural school reopened, and various visits, literary gatherings, and banquets came flooding in. Li Xue Dong had not missed a single class the previous year and had written excellent homework, earning him an outstanding grade. Hong Zhen Ye arranged for him to host a banquet for the teacher and then another for his classmates. Both of them were extremely busy.
Li Yin Zhu’s wedding date was approaching. Almost every day, she followed Aunt Tang to pick out dowry clothes and jewelry, candle holders, washbasins, chests, cabinets, and fertility pots. She was also extremely busy.
Li Xiao Nan went to the cloth shops and ready-made clothing stores in Pingjiang City alone.
In the blink of an eye, it was mid-February. In the morning, when Li Xiao Nan woke up, her sisters and brother had already left, as usual. Mei Jie was washing clothes in the courtyard.
Li Xiao Nan slowly brushed her teeth and washed her face, ate breakfast, and held a cup of tea, slowly sipping it while planning where to go today.
“Is Miss Li at home?”
A question came from outside the courtyard gate. Li Xiao Nan leaped up and rushed out.
“You’re back!”
Li Xiao Nan rushed to the door, her face beaming as she looked at Wan Jing.
Wan Jing’s face was tense. Facing Li Xiao Nan’s joyful expression, her tense face relaxed, but her shoulders drooped, and her eyebrows and eyes sagged. She looked mournful and said, “It’s all your fault!”
“My fault?” Li Xiao Nan pointed to her own nose and cried out in surprise.
“It is your fault! You insisted on leaving the matching tokens with me for safekeeping. When I went back, everything was agreed upon, everything was fine, everything was settled!
“I remembered that your matching tokens were still with me, so I went to find Shi Gun. By chance, the Young Lord saw me. The Young Lord asked, and when he heard it was about matching tokens, he said I was entrusted with a task and fulfilled my duty!”
Speaking of fulfilling her duty, Wan Jing almost burst into tears.
“You can’t blame me for this. It’s clearly your bad luck. Why did you happen to run into your Young Lord when you went to find Shi Gun? Alas, forget it, let’s make the best of it.” Li Xiao Nan patted Wan Jing, “Are you here to return the matching tokens? Did you come all the way from the Capital City? Are you alone? Didn’t your Young Lord come with you?”
“If the Young Lord didn’t come, why would I be here?” Wan Jing retorted sharply, took a step back, and coughed forcefully. “Miss Li, my Young Lord requests your presence.”
“At the tea house?” Li Xiao Nan pouted, looking at Wan Jing, who had instantly entered work mode.
“Yes.”
“Mei Jie, make braised fish with cabbage and stir-fried scallion eggs for lunch. I might not be back, so eat half and save half for me,” Li Xiao Nan said as she turned back to give instructions.
“Do you have servants?” Wan Jing craned her neck to look into the courtyard.
“She’s not a servant, she’s my cousin. Let’s go,” Li Xiao Nan pushed Wan Jing out. “How long will you be staying this time?”
“Alas! Not for a while yet!” Wan Jing sighed. “The Young Lord brought his summer clothes.”
“How is your A Hu?” Li Xiao Nan quickly changed the subject.
“He’s fine. He was very happy to see me, but then I left again,” Wan Jing sighed again.
“Can’t you talk to your Young Lord and your Princess Consort and tell them you don’t want to come to Jiangnan? Your family is all in the Capital City, and so is your A Hu. Can’t they be more understanding?” Li Xiao Nan offered Wan Jing advice.
They were almost at the alley entrance when Wan Jing stopped and looked at Li Xiao Nan speechlessly.
“What do you mean by that? You want me to tell our Young Lord and our Princess Consort: ‘Because of my A Hu, I can’t accept this task to go south.’ That would mean my dog is more important than my Young Lord?”
“No, that…” Li Xiao Nan blinked rapidly at Wan Jing’s sudden turn of logic.
In the past, she had indeed felt that her beloved cat was more important than her boss…
Across the alley, Gu Yan stood at the entrance of the tea house, squinting as he watched Wan Jing pointing at Li Xiao Nan, and Li Xiao Nan leaning back from Wan Jing’s pointing. He took a deep breath and forcefully suppressed the urge to throw his folding fan at the two of them.
Now, he was completely certain that the last time Wan Jing abandoned her husband and children to accompany Lu Xiu north was because she was stupid!
