3. The Eve of the Wedding

Ye Miao stepped into the cramped shed, and Zhao Feng looked at his rosy face, unable to hold back a laugh. “So happy just because you saw Qin Jin? Come on, sit down and eat.”

In the middle of the little shed stood a backpack frame, and on top of it lay a wooden plank. That was the table for father and son.

Today there was a bowl of stir-fried pumpkin slices on it. There was no cured meat in it, but it glistened with oil.

On the stove sat two large bowls of pumpkin soup. It had simmered long enough that the chunks of pumpkin had turned to mush; this thick, creamy pumpkin porridge was the most delicious of all.

Ye Miao washed his hands, sat on the stool beside the table, and said softly, “I’m not happy because I saw him. I’m happy because of what he said.”

“What did Qin Jin say?” Zhao Feng asked curiously.

Ye Miao quietly repeated Qin Jin’s exact words. When Zhao Feng heard them, his own mood lightened too.

Qin Jin was a man with a sense of responsibility. Since he had agreed to marry, then even if he did not like his little spouse, he would never let him suffer too much.

A good husband.

The kind of good husband that was hard to find even by lantern light.

“Then hurry and eat. When you’re done, go back to making the wedding robe. If you finish early, you can still embroider a few handkerchiefs and save up a bit more dowry.”

“All right.” Ye Miao lifted the pumpkin porridge from the stove and sipped it slowly, mouthful by mouthful.

The pumpkin porridge was sweet, but it was nowhere near as sweet as his heart.

After lunch, he immediately returned to his room to work on the wedding robe.

His family was truly too poor. Though the courtyard was not rented, grain, bowls and chopsticks, and even every needle and thread had to be bought with money.

Right now he and his father had only a few hundred coins between them. His father wanted him to take that money to the Qin family, but he did not want to do that. If he took it all, how would his father live?

They had no fields, and his father knew no craft. On ordinary days he could only sell firewood.

Back then, when his father had been gravely ill and beyond the help of medicine, Old Madam Ye had, in desperation, wanted to use a marriage to bring him good fortune. His father was sturdier than most little spouses and had a decent face, so Old Madam Ye had chosen him and sent him off to the county town in marriage.

After the wedding, his father’s illness had quickly improved, and because of that Old Madam Ye had treated him fairly well. But not long after, Old Madam Ye passed away, and his father’s days suddenly grew difficult. Lady Ye used him like a rough-hand servant.

His father had tacitly allowed Lady Ye’s behavior, because he disliked his father’s appearance and thought him uneducated and uncouth.

After he was born, his father’s situation did not improve. From the age of four, he too had been made to do all kinds of work.

When he was six, his father knelt before his own father and begged to let him learn needlework from the embroiderers in the shop, so that when he grew older he could help bring money into the household.

The Ye family traded in cloth and ran a fabric shop.

His father thought that having one more person able to do embroidery would be useful in the future, so he agreed.

To do embroidery, one’s fingers could not be too rough, or the calluses would snag and tear the precious fabric.

His father took on all the rough labor in the Ye household, only hoping he could suffer a little less and learn a skill that could earn money.

His father had sacrificed so much for him. How could he possibly take all the household money away?

Besides, it was only a few hundred coins. What difference did it make whether he took them or not? Even if he brought every last coin to the Qin family, they would not look at him any differently for it.

He had already made up his mind: every coin he earned before the wedding would stay with his father.

Once he was married into the Qin family, he would work hard and embroider diligently. The Qin family should not make things difficult for him...

Thanks to Lady Ye’s exacting standards, his embroidery was a little better than that of the average seamstress.

A handkerchief sewn by others could sell for only three coins, but his could sell for four, even five.

After returning to the village, most of the necessities for him and his father’s life had been earned through his embroidery.

While Ye Miao busied himself with the clothes, Qin Jin had finished lunch at the old courtyard and returned to his own place.

He still had to go into the county town to buy raw materials today, but for the moment he only wanted to sleep for a while.

He had risen at the Mao hour, around five in the morning, and had been busy ever since. He really was tired.

But though his body was weary and his head felt foggy, he still could not sleep.

Because Ye Miao’s face kept flashing through his mind, driving everything else out.

Just now, when Ye Miao had turned and looked at him, his mind had gone blank for several seconds on the spot. When he carried his bowl back into the courtyard, Wang Xiuqin had teased him. Outwardly he had answered normally, but inside he felt all sorts of unease.

Was he really this abnormal?

What kind of man got dazed over how good-looking another boy was?

He turned over, staring blankly up at the roof, his fingers drumming lightly on the bamboo mat beneath him.

He really was a little abnormal.

And the boy responsible for his abnormal state was about to marry him...

Was he happy? Not exactly.

Marrying a boy back home really was not enough to make him grin foolishly with delight.

But if one were to say he was troubled, that did not seem quite right either. He no longer felt the resistance he had before.

At first, when Wang Xiuqin brought it up, he had been so frightened that he leapt straight up from the stool.

And yet, less than ten days had passed, and he...

With a sigh, he closed his eyes and forced himself to sleep.

Forget it. He would cross that bridge when he came to it.

His thoughts were a complete mess, and in the end he still failed to fall asleep. Less than half an hour later, he took his coins and went to the county town to buy supplies.

Of the fifty-two coins he had, forty-seven were spent, leaving only five.

Actually, at lunch, when Qin Bing saw how delicious the pea cakes were and how quickly they sold, he had wanted to give him another two hundred coins so he could make more.

But he had refused. It was only the first day, and no one knew what the future held.

If he made too many and could not sell them, that would be a loss.

He already owed fifty coins, and soon he would have to lose even more money: the wedding expenses.

Ye Miao did not want a bride price, but a wedding still required silver, and the biggest expense was the feast. He had no money on hand, so the cost of the banquet would be advanced by Qin Bing, Qin Wen, and Qin Li, the three brothers.

It was true that they could also collect gift money, but the amounts in the village were small, just ten or twenty coins here and there, and usually one gift covered an entire household coming to eat. The more people, the livelier it was.

In such a situation, holding a wedding banquet was bound to lose money.

Add in the other miscellaneous expenses, and his debt would only grow.

If he were only feeding himself, he would not mind taking on a little more outside debt.

He really did have quite a few little money-making ideas in his head.

But he was about to marry, and once Ye Miao married him, he would be burdened with that debt as well. If he owed too much, Ye Miao would inevitably worry.

So he intended to keep things steady for now, and only decide whether to expand after he and Ye Miao were married.

After buying the supplies and returning home, he first soaked the peas, so that less firewood would be needed when cooking them.

After resting a while, once the sun was not quite so fierce, he took up a small hoe and went into the fields to weed.

Though he now had a little business, the work in the fields could not be abandoned.

That was the foundation.

The next day, he got up before dawn to make pea cakes. Once the cooked peas had been poured into the clay basin, they still needed to set, so he used that time to work in the fields first, returning home when the temperature rose.

Aside from Qin Bing, the eldest brother in the family, the original owner also had a second brother, Qin Wen, and a third brother, Qin Li. Those two had treated the original owner quite well too, or else he would never have developed such a lazy temperament.

So before going into the county town, he sent half a catty of pea cakes each to Qin Wen and Qin Li, letting both households have a taste.

Today he also needed to buy wedding candles, red paper, and the customary bridal gifts for Ye Miao, so Wang Xiuqin went with him to the county town.

Items like firecrackers, happy-character decorations, red cloth, and melon seeds had already been prepared. Today’s purchases were all small things.

When they reached the city gate, he sold pea cakes while Wang Xiuqin went into town to buy things.

There was still a tasting event today, so sales went smoothly. From six catties of pea cakes, half a catty was used for tasting, and after taking out the one catty given to Qin Wen and Qin Li, four and a half catties remained.

At fifteen coins per catty, he earned sixty-eight coins.

After subtracting forty-seven coins in cost, he made twenty-one coins in profit today.

He went into the city to find Wang Xiuqin, bought some more supplies, the quantity the same as the previous two days, and spent another forty-seven coins.

When mother and son returned home, lunch at the old courtyard had already been eaten, but his elder sister-in-law had left food for them.

He rarely cooked for himself, and most of the time he ate at the old courtyard. Qin Bing and his wife did not mind at all.

However, the family had run out of firewood.

After returning from the old courtyard, he first placed the twenty-one coins left from buying supplies into a small wooden box with peeling paint. The box had been around for years; when the family split up, Wang Xiuqin had given it to the original owner to keep money in.

And the original owner had soon spent the two strings of cash inside.

When he had arrived in this world, the box had been empty.

Now there were five copper coins inside, the remainder from yesterday.

These twenty-six coins were all he owned.

After putting the box away, he took up a length of hemp rope and prepared to go into the mountains to gather firewood.

But just as he locked the courtyard gate, Zhao Feng suddenly came out from the neighboring yard, carrying a large bundle of dry firewood.

He hurried to greet him. “Uncle Feng.”

Zhao Feng answered and, seeing the hemp rope in his hand, asked, “Are you going to collect firewood? Perfect. Take this bundle home.”

“No need. You can sell it.” Qin Jin quickly shook his head.

That was Zhao Feng’s only source of income.

“It’s not that much money. You and Little Spouse Ye are about to be married. If you don’t take it, that would be too distant of you.” Zhao Feng crossed the few steps to the front of the courtyard and set the firewood down at the doorway.

Qin Jin could not argue with that. Zhao Feng would soon be his father-in-law, and as the son-in-law, accepting a bundle of firewood was hardly a big deal.

“Thank you, Uncle Feng,” he said.

“You child, you’re too polite.” Zhao Feng’s face broke into a smile. “All right, go home and rest. Working the fields and selling cakes all by yourself is too tiring. If you have time, rest more.”

“...All right.” Qin Jin took out the key, opened the courtyard gate, and carried the bundle of firewood inside.

Actually, this marriage should be all right.

Zhao Feng was a decent man, and Ye Miao was... He unconsciously rose onto his toes, trying to see what was happening in the neighboring courtyard.

He still had not seen Ye Miao today, and he did not know what Ye Miao was doing at the moment.

But their courtyard wall was too high, a full head taller than him, so even on tiptoe he could not see over to the next yard.

Unless he moved a stool over and stood on it.

...

He walked up to the wall and pressed his ear against it.

Two seconds later, realizing what he was doing, he stared at the wall in disbelief, then turned and fled inside the house.

Terrifying.

He really was not quite normal!

On the third day, he went out as usual to sell pea cakes. Since he still offered tastings today, the cakes sold quickly once again.

After deducting the half catty used for tasting, he sold five and a half catties and earned a total of eighty-three copper coins.

Tomorrow was the great day of his marriage to Ye Miao, and he had no time to sell cakes. Standing at the county gate, weighing the money pouch in his hand, he still went into the city.

He planned to make some pea cakes to place on the wedding banquet table, as a form of advertising.

Five Mile Ditch Village was close to the county town, so it was very convenient for villagers to sell their farm produce or come into town for work. As a result, most households lived fairly comfortably.

These villagers with decent means should be willing to spend a coin for a piece of cake.

In fact, the Qin family had once done all right as well. Old Qin could weave baskets, hampers, and back baskets, while Qin Bing, Qin Wen, and Qin Li would go into town for work during the farming off-season. Apart from the original owner, everyone in the family was diligent and capable.

If not for the money spent on treating Wang Xiuqin’s illness, the Qin family could have saved up a bit of a foundation too.

In the afternoon, the Qin family did not go back into the fields. They began preparing for tomorrow’s wedding.

Though there were not so many customs in a poor household, some steps could not be skipped. First they cleaned the courtyard, then hung up festive red cloth.

After that, they borrowed tables, bowls, and chopsticks from neighboring families, ordered vegetables and pork, and ground some flour for the steamed buns to be made tomorrow.

Qin Wen and Qin Li’s families also came to help.

In addition, one of the original owner’s paternal cousins came by to lend a hand.

Ye Miao sat in the room embroidering handkerchiefs. Listening to the noisy voices from the neighboring courtyard, he felt both joy and worry, and the silver needle in his hand would not descend.

Today should have been the day for sending the dowry, but he had not asked for a bride price, and everyone knew his family was so poor they had no dowry to speak of, so that step had been omitted.

He did not know what Qin Jin would think when he discovered that his dowry chest contained only a few old clothes...