Author: 打字机N号
Chapter 38: The search for one’s mom second spring 6/For the sake of my mother’s remarriage 6
T /N: This is MTL work. I tried to edit as best as I could, any mistake plz do put your comment and I will edit it ASAP. This is my first attempt on Chinese novel so please cheer me up! I hope you will find this novel as interesting as I do.
“You stay here and watch the shop, I am going to the latrine.”
Seeing that the tofu on the table was almost sold out, Meng Yun-niang touched the inside pocket of her dress, her mouth tightened in determination as she continued.
“Every piece of water tofu is cut according to the weight. These blocks of tofu price at two coins each, while this old tofu priced at five coins. Don’t mix it up.”
Now there are only two pieces of water tofu and an old tofu left on the booth. She kept reminding her son, worried that he will make a mistake.
“Okay.”
Jiang Liu nodded. He didn’t think much about it. Her beautiful mother suddenly wanted to go to the restroom and decided to leave him to look after at the booth. Meng Yun-niang also asked the woman on the side of the booth to look after her son and then did she finally left with confidence.
The downtown of the county was very lively. The roads were surrounded by small vendors selling their goods. Many of them are rural people from the surrounding villages. Therefore, there are separate latrines provided at the main street for the convenience of these people to use.
Meng Yu Niang made a few turns. She did not go as far as what she had told to Jiang Liu, instead, she went inside an old-fashioned pawn shop.
“How much silver can
I get from this hairpin?”
She took out a fine silver hairpin and from its condition, you can know how
much the owner loves it. The style was a bit old, but it was still looked bright
and shiny, with no trace of oxidation. It was as if it had been wiped and
polished every night.
“I have to look at its’ workmanship first.”
The old treasurer took over the silver hairpin from her hand. The work of this jewellery was not that fine. Even though it looked heavy but it was not pure silver. There was also a layer of copper in it. Inlaid with that piece of jasper, the jade could not be said to be the best. It was only a common one.
“If you want to sell it, I can give you two and a half silver. If you want to pawn it, I can give you one Liang. If you didn’t pay the money within a year, this silver hairpin will belong to us.”
The treasurer quoted a slightly lower price than Meng Yun-niang’s expectation. But her son still needed the money to buy the four treasures of the study. Due to this, Meng Yu Niang’s hesitation was reduced a lot.
“Little lady, your silver hairpin does not worth much. No matter which pawn shop you go, they can’t give you more than the number I just quote. Sell or pawn, you just tell me.”
The treasurer put the silver hairpin on the counter. Meng Yu Niang closed her eyes and said that she wanted to sell it.
When she came out of the pawnshop, Meng Yun-niang’s purse had two and a half silver, but her heart was empty.
She lost in her thoughts.
Meng Yu-Niang took a deep breath and walked back heavily.
There was no need to reminiscence the past. For women, the most important thing is always their own children.
*****
“I would like to exchange this hare with these three blocks of tofu.”
After Meng Yun-niang left, Jiang Liu finally ushered the first customer all by himself.
The other person’s body was tall and burly. Jiang Liu had to look up in order to see the appearance of the person in front of him. The general height of a man in this era was only around one point six-meter, so this man simply stood out and looked extremely prominent.
His facial features were ordinary, but he still looked pleasing to the eye. Even with his clothes hiding it, he still could see his sturdy flesh. Jiang Liu looked at the dead rabbit in his hand. He silently recited [Amitabha] and began to calculate. This rabbit will be more delicious to be roasted, or maybe they should have a spicy stir-fry instead.
They couldn’t blame him for not being able to control his saliva. After coming to this body, because of the filial piety, he had never seen any meet. His daily three meals if it were not tofu then it will be those pickles.
The timing of this rabbit was very appropriate. Yesterday was the last day of his twenty-seven months of filial piety. Strictly speaking, he can start to eat meat today.
“Little brother, these three tofu will not add up no more than ten copper coins. You can sell that rabbit for at least one hundred and two hundred coins. Therefore, you will lose more from this kind of exchange.”
Someone who was passing by started to murmur at that burly man. He simply could not let this stupid fellow to be taken advantage of by the tofu seller.
“I don’t like to eat meat, I love tofu.”
That burly man grunted after replying to the passer-by. He then put the rabbit in the empty bamboo basket next to Jiang Liu.
“There are still people who don’t like meat.”
The passer-by who raised the matter looked at the brawny man before he snorted. He shook his head and left. He felt that if he continues to talk to this fool, he was afraid that he would become a fool as well.
“My mother is not here. Maybe you should wait for my mother to come back and discuss it with her.”
Jiang Liu had long recognized the burly man in front of him. Isn’t this the man who kept tangling with the original and his mother, that Hu Guirong? He was not as dull as the original body. Although the man in front of him loves Meng Yun-niang, he was already satisfied just being able to guard her at the side. If Meng Yuniang can really renew his relationship with this Hu Guirong, Jiang Liu felt that this perhaps is also a good thing.
However, before he let his mother renewed her relationship with this man, Jiang Liu decided that he need to observe this man first.
“No need for that. My mother is waiting at home for this tender tofu. I want these pieces of tofu just fine.”
As soon as Jiang Liu mentioned his mother, that man turned agitated, and directly put the three pieces of tofu on the chopping board inside the bowl in his basket. After that, he quickly walked away from the store.
When Meng Yun-niang came back, Hu Guirong had already left for a while.
“The tofu is already sold
out?”
Seeing that, Meng Yun-niang already prepared to pack up in her mind. She
started to sort out the stalls like it was nothing. When she was about to ask
her son to whom did he sold the tofu to, she finally saw the rabbit inside the
bamboo basket.
“From where did this rabbit coming from?”
Pointing at the rabbit, Meng Yun-Niang asked her son with a serious face.
“Some weirdo came and wanted to exchange this rabbit with the tofu. I told him to wait for you to come back. But he seemed to be scared of something that he just took the tofu and ran away.”
Jiang Liu said that while observing Meng Yun-niang’s expression. He wanted to see her true thoughts from her eyes.
“To think that such an idiot exists. Who would actually exchange a whole rabbit with a few pieces of tofu?”
Meng Yun-niang appeared to be shocked. She certainly could guess the person coming out from her son’s mouth. But she really could not reveal any hint of it because she I don’t know if there were any people in this street who knew about her past relationship with Hu Guirong.
For her son to be a scholar, he obviously could not have a scandalous mother. So she could only pretend to feel nothing as she swallowed all the bitterness that she felt into her stomach.
“In the future, if that weirdo coming over once again, you are not allowed to use tofu to exchange with the meat. Mother taught you now. We must have our own moral integrity, you should not act so cheaply.”
Meng Li Niang did not forget to impart a few bits of advice to her son.
“Mother, I know.”
Jiang Liu could not see anything from Meng Yun-niang’s expression. He was still unsure. It was either because this beautiful woman did not have any feelings towards Hu Guirong or whether she could not guess that the man he talks about was him.
On their way back, Jiang Liu could not help but tried to probe his mother a few times.
“Mother, that weirdo
is really tall, I wonder if I can grow taller in the future.”
This sentence was actually Jiang Liu’s inner thought. He really could not
imagine that the average height of the ancient man was that worrying. After he
came to this world for so long, he could only see a handful of men with heights
more than one point seven-meter, let alone one who was like Hu Guirong who was
closed to one meter eight.
If his memory was correct, the height of the original body was not that great. He didn’t know if he can change his body’s structure this time. He wonders if he should start to eat more food now. Will he be able to make up for it?
“You should not eat just for the sake of your height. It’s your head that you should make up for. You will be able to learn faster in the future.”
Meng Yun-niang smacked her son’s head after saying those few words. She did not see the change in her son’s expression after hearing about her big head theory.
******
“Rong-zi, you’re back.”
Hu Guirong returned to his house at the foot of the mountain with a bowl of tofu. His blind old mother was sitting in the yard, waiting for him.
“Mother, now the weather has not yet warmed up, why did you come out? You should be careful not to catch a cold.”
Seeing his old mother standing outside the house, Hu Guirong quickly put the bowl of tofu on the window and walked towards his old mother. He put her mother’s hand into his as he helped her to warm it up.
“You wait for me inside the house. I am going to cook, we should be able to eat immediately. Today I bought you tofu. It was tender and soft. You can eat it without teeth, so you should remember to eat more, okay?”
After placing his mother
inside, Hu Guirong went to the kitchen to heat up the remaining porridge in the
morning and then mixed it with the bowl of tender tofu.
His aging mother’s teeth were almost gone. Thus, accompanied by the sweet and
tenderness of the tofu, she ate more than usual.
“Today’s tofu is really good. It tasted more fragrant and tenderer than what I had bought before.”
The old lady said that with a smile. She let out a silly laughter before sighing.
“Ei, if it weren’t for my bad condition, my son will already manage to elope with Yun-niang.”
“Mother, that girl had already married. It will be bad if those words got passed out. At the beginning, Yun-niang family asked for 12 chests of bride prices. But I can’t even prepare that for her. How could it be your fault?”
Hu Guirong bowed his head and picked up the dirty dishes as he refuted his mother’s words.
“You don’t have to comfort me. I know that I am the one that dragged you down.”
The old lady was blind and she knew that the girl had come to their house to ask him to run away with her. But because he did not have anyone to take care of his blind and ageing mother, Rong-zi had refused her.
On the night when that girl got married, her son had suppressed his cries the whole night in his room. She was also unable to sleep as she kept turning the whole night.
The next morning, the son
woke up as usual as he went hunting in the mountain and took care of her daily
life.
All these things, even though she did not see it, but she still heard it.
“Yun-niang is a good
girl. If she is willing to remarry, I will treat her as my own daughter. I will
never say anything in regard to the fact that she used to be a widow. If she is
willing to bring her children, I will also treat him like my own grandson.”
That old lady also knew that the girl had recently become a widow. Although she
felt quite sorry for her son, she thought that this was finally her son’s
chance to be with his beloved.
“Mother, you don’t have to think about it, I am already good.”
Hu Guirong smiled, just like how his mother knew him, he also knew about her mother.
Jiang clan will never going to allow that girl to remarry because of the tofu’s recipe which should be inherited by the Jiang family. Therefore, for her son, she will never agree to marry him.
His fate with her may shallow, but, as long as he can still look and occasionally help her, he was already satisfied with it.
The author has something to say:
What does it mean to see the update in advance? Yes, it means that you will get additional chapters. There are two chapters later on.
T/N: Such a good man!!! I want!!!!
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