Carefree Farmwife: Training the Husband, Raising the Bun - Chapter 144

Ying Su nodded and asked, “How’s business at the shop these past few days?”

“It’s alright. But how can you not be anxious? If it were me, I’d have rushed back to the village already to settle accounts with the old house!” Liu Chuncao said angrily.

Ying Su shook her head. “They were the ones who agreed to it. Let them marry if they want. I’ll be going home soon anyway.”

Liu Chuncao admired her deeply. If this had happened to her, she would never have had such composure. “A couple of days ago, your younger brother came by, saying you should take the little bun home right away, your eldest brother has returned.”

A flash of joy crossed Ying Su’s face. Shen Cuihua’s eldest brother had really come back? At last, their family could reunite. She grew impatient to take the little bun home. 

She wondered how the house was coming along, worried about her mother’s illness, and thought she must quickly find that Imperial Physician Wang to examine her.

Thinking of the little bun, Ying Su didn’t linger long at the shop. She took some silver from the accounts and, knowing her parents had no ox cart and would otherwise need to borrow one to come into town, she went to the market to buy a cow to pull a cart.

After looking around, she spotted a cow with a patch of white hair on its head. When she reached out her hand, the cow nuzzled her palm, its eyes bright and clever.

“How much is this cow?” Ying Su asked the seller.

The seller, a middle-aged man, smiled. “Madam, you’ve got a good eye. This calf is strong, raised on good feed since young. It’s only eight months old, with plenty of years of work ahead. Just one tael and five qian of silver.”

Ying Su stroked its fur and bargained. “Give me your real price. If it’s fair, I’ll buy it.”

The man pulled a pained face. “One tael and four qian. No less.”

“I see you’ve got a cart over there. How about this, I won’t press the price down further, but throw in a cart and help me hitch it up. How about that?” Ying Su said. She knew sellers needed to make a profit and didn’t want to bargain too harshly.

The man, pleased by her straightforwardness, laughed. “Deal. You’re forthright, I’ll be the same. I’ll get the cart ready for you.”

After paying, Ying Su drove her new ox cart back to the village. The dirt road was so bumpy her backside felt like it would rattle apart. She thought that one day she should hunt a wolf and use its pelt to wrap the wheels for cushioning.

Knowing the little bun was at Madam Li’s house, she stopped there first. She knocked for a long while, but no one answered, not even Li Jinfeng was home. Puzzled, Ying Su guessed Madam Li must have taken the children out, so she drove the cart back to her own home.

But when she arrived, the place was noisy. From afar she heard the little bun’s cries and Madam Li quarreling with someone.

Ying Su tied the cart to a nearby tree, pushed through the crowd, and entered. At once the onlookers parted to make way.

Inside, Madam Li held Huzi and Dazhuang by the hand. Huzi looked fierce like a little wolf cub. Opposite them stood Feng Qiufang and a burly woman, each holding paste and red paper, clearly intending to plaster a marriage notice on Ying Su’s door.

The moment Huzi saw Ying Su, he dropped his fierceness and clung to her, eyes rimmed red. “Mommy, Third Grandma’s bullying us…”

Relieved to see her, Madam Li hurried over. “Good you’re back. Your Third Aunt went and arranged a marriage for you on her own. The old house even accepted the betrothal gift. Today she brought people to paste the wedding notice, saying you’ll be married off in two days!”

Ying Su patted the little bun’s head, then looked coldly at Feng Qiufang and the others. “Third Aunt, I may be a widow, but my mother-in-law is still alive, and I still have my family. You’ve no right to meddle in my marriage. I’ve never seen a family force a widow to remarry! I may have lost my husband, but I am not shameless. You may not care for propriety, but I do!”

Feng Qiufang’s old face flushed, but she retorted, “Cuihua, I’m only doing this for your own good. Raising Huzi alone isn’t easy. My sister-in-law doesn’t care because she wants you to guard Erlang’s memory forever. But I can’t bear to see you waste away young. The groom I’ve found is a fine man. This here is your future sister-in-law, come meet her.”

After the fiasco at the Lark Pavillion, Feng Qiufang and her husband had schemed again. They realized that since Ying Su’s madness had lifted, she was clever and good at making money. Li Zhi thought of a way to both deal with her and benefit, marry her off.

They decided it was best to keep the “wealth within the family.” Since she was resourceful and earning well, marrying her into their own relatives would mean steady gain.

Feng Qiufang happened to have a distant cousin. That cousin’s family were all idle and greedy. His son was fond of meat and wine, turning violent when drunk. His previous wife had nearly been beaten to death before her family stormed his house, forcing a divorce.

At first, when Feng Qiufang proposed a widow with a child, they refused. But once she mentioned Ying Su owned a shop in town, with booming business and silver in hand, the cousin’s family couldn’t wait to marry her in.

Li Zhi and Feng Qiufang had also been eyeing Ying Su’s spacious brick house. They hated living crammed in the old house. Li Yin was already past twenty and ready to marry, if he could move into such a fine home, suitors would line up at their door.

Old Master Li always listened to his youngest son. So when the matchmaker came, at Li Zhi’s urging, he took the betrothal gift, five taels of silver. Once he had it in hand, he refused to return it.

That sum had been deliberately set high. “You can’t snare the wolf without sacrificing the child,” Li Zhi had said. Feng Qiufang had worked hard to convince her cousin’s family, who scraped together the money at last.

The cousin’s eldest daughter was a lazy woman herself, married to an honest man whose earnings weren’t enough to feed her appetite for meat. She was always begging her father for money. When she heard her brother was to get a wealthy wife, she volunteered eagerly to come along.