A fierce wife enters the house: She helps up a house full of spineless people.

After the bridal sedan chair left, a minor fight broke out in the second wife's room.

The reason was simple—spending money.

Chen Shuyan spread the ten taels of silver on the kang table, two ingots, each worth five taels.

Liu Yiyi's eyes lit up: "You promised, five taels."

Chen Shuyan's hand remained pressed on the silver without moving.

"We agreed on twenty taels, you'd get five. Now you've only received ten, where are you going to get five more?"

Liu Yiyi's face immediately fell.

"Chen Shuyan, don't you have a conscience? When I returned to my parents' home, you said you'd lend me two taels and pay me back five. Besides, who started this whole thing? Who embroidered my wedding dress? Who arranged the tea when the matchmaker came? The marks on my hand from where your sister pinched me haven't faded yet, and you're telling me there weren't any?"

Chen Shuyan took out two taels of silver from his pocket and stacked them on the corner of the table.

"This two ounces is what I borrowed from you before; I'm returning it. That's all."

Liu Yiyi stared at the two taels of silver but didn't reach for it.

"Two ounces? That's like giving a beggar a pittance."

"Take it or leave it."

Chen Xiufen listened from the next room, not daring to make a sound. It was not appropriate for her, as the mother-in-law, to interfere in the young couple's quarrel. Besides, she was also calculating in her mind—of the ten taels of silver, five taels had to be returned to the traffickers, and the remaining five taels were for Shuyan's exam preparation, so she couldn't touch a single coin.

Liu Yiyi wasn't one to be trifled with either. She sat down on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), crossed her legs, and slowly asked, "Chen Shuyan, how many times have you been to my father's study?"

Chen Shuyan's fingers paused for a moment.

Liu Yiyi continued, "How much would it cost to buy a copy of the *Spring and Autumn Annals with Commentary* at the academy? One tael and two jiao. My father's shop has a complete set of classics, histories, philosophical works, and literary collections. If you could read them freely, you could save a lot of money each year. Calculate it yourself."

Chen Shuyan didn't reply, but his expression changed.

He was indeed short of books. The academy's collection was limited, and many commentaries could only be bought in the prefectural city. Although Liu's Study was a small shop in town, the owner, Mr. Liu, had been a bookseller for twenty years and had amassed a considerable collection of good books.

Seeing his expression soften, Liu Yiyi pressed her advantage: "Give me five taels, and I'll go back and tell my father you can study anytime. You're taking the imperial examination next year; you can't go to the exam empty-handed."

Chen Shuyan remained silent for a while.

"Give me two taels first. Once your father nods, I'll give you three taels."

"Deal." Liu Yiyi swept the two taels of silver into her purse.

Three days later, Liu Yiyi went back to her parents' home.

Mr. Liu sat in the back room of his study, listening to his daughter explain her purpose, then held his teacup without saying a word.

"Father, Shuyan's scholarship is truly excellent. The tutor says he has a very good chance of passing the imperial examination next year."

Boss Liu blew on the tea foam.

"A mere scholar is nothing special."

Boss Liu didn't even blink. How easy was it for a country scholar like him to pass the imperial examination and become a Juren (a successful candidate in the provincial examination)? Unless he could rank among the top students and find a good teacher.

Liu Yiyi quickly added fuel to the fire: "Think about it, a scholar has come out of town to become a scholar, and who is his father-in-law? The owner of Liu Family Study. They'll have to change the shop's signboard."

Boss Liu didn't say anything, but tapped his finger three times on the rim of the teacup.

"Let him come. He may only look at it in the back hall; he may not take it away, nor may he copy any rare books."

Liu Yiyi was overjoyed inside, but kept a straight face: "Father, don't worry, Shuyan isn't the kind of person who lacks manners."

Mr. Liu glanced at his daughter and swallowed back the words he was about to say.

It wasn't because of any particular degree of scholarhood. He only had one daughter, and although he didn't care much about her, if his son-in-law could pass the imperial examination and become a scholar, their lives would be better. Since his son-in-law wanted to study, he'd let him. Reading more might open his mind and stop him from thinking about such despicable things as selling his sister.

Upon hearing the news, Chen Shuyan went to the Liu family's study the next day. He handed over the three taels of silver to Liu Yiyi without hesitation.

-

Before they knew it, it was time for Chen Shujie to return to her parents' home.

Yang Laosan brought it up himself, "Tomorrow is the day we go back to our parents' home. Let's go out together and buy some decent gifts."

Chen Shujie's hands didn't stop moving.

"I won't reply."

Yang Laosan leaned against the door frame, picking his teeth.

"Not going back? It's customary for a married daughter to return home after marriage. What kind of behavior is it if she doesn't? Aren't you afraid of gossip?"

"Let them chew it."

Yang Laosan threw down the toothpick and gave her a serious look.

After thinking for a moment, Chen Shujie decided to return to her parents' home, but she wanted to prepare the gifts herself.

The next morning, the Yang family's oxcart stopped at the back door of the rice shop.

There were two things in the car.

It was the same coarse grain packed in burlap sacks, weighing about twenty pounds. Chen Shujie had specifically asked the shop assistant to dig it out from the bottom of the warehouse the day before—it was old grain that the Yang family's shop couldn't sell, which had been stored for a long time and had become damp, with green mold growing on the edges.

This is a homecoming gift for her parents.

The other item was an oil paper package containing osmanthus cake and mung bean cake from the town's Fu Lai Zhai restaurant, which cost a total of 120 coins.

This money came from her ten taels of silver.

Yang Laosan stared at the bag of moldy coarse grains, and for once he was stunned.

"You used the grain from my shop to send to your mother, but used your own money to buy pastries to give to others?"

"That bag of grain was a return gift from the Yang family to the Chen family; we're already quite grateful for it," Chen Shujie said, clutching the oil-paper package to her chest. "This package of pastries has nothing to do with the Yang family; it's mine, Chen Shujie's."

Yang Laosan stared at her for a while, then suddenly laughed.

"You little rascal, you have quite a temper, but you know what's good for you."

The oxcart swayed and rattled into the village.

Chen Shujie handed the contents of the burlap sack to Chen Xiufen. She untied the burlap sack, and a musty smell wafted out.

Liu Yiyi leaned over for a look, picked up a handful of coarse grains, and got green mold all over her hand.

"What is this thing? It's too ugly to feed even pigs."

Chen Xiufen stood there, speechless for a long time.

Chen Shujie ignored them, carrying an oil paper package in her arms, and went to find Chen Tianwei and the others.

She was wearing a slightly worn blue cotton shirt, with a silver hairpin in her hair. Her complexion was better than before she got married, and her cheeks had become a little fuller.

"Sister Tianwei, where's Tianrun? Tell him to come out."

Chen Tianrun poked his head out of the house and ran out in a flash.

Chen Shujie opened the oil paper package, and the osmanthus cake and mung bean cake were neatly arranged inside, emitting a sweet aroma.

"Thank you for what happened last time. This was bought with my own money; it has nothing to do with the Yang family. You don't need to feel guilty about eating it."

Chen Tianrun swallowed hard, his eyes glued to the pastries, but he didn't reach out. Instead, he looked at Chen Tianwei.

Chen Tianwei took the oil paper package, and her nose tingled with emotion.

How are you doing?

"He's not hungry, he's not cold." Chen Shujie paused for a moment, "It's better than at home. Yang Laosan is much better than the rumors say."

"That's good!" The two girls held hands and talked a lot of intimate things. Seeing that Chen Shujie was not too sad, she felt relieved.

After staying for a while, hearing her mother arguing in the yard again, Chen Shujie decided to leave. She hadn't come to see her mother in the first place, and there was no need for her to eat the homecoming meal.

After walking a few steps, she turned back and said, "Sister Tianwei, you and Tianrun should get along well. If you ever need help in the future, you can come to Yang's Rice Shop to find me."

The oxcart turned past the village entrance and disappeared at the end of the dirt road.

Chen Tianwei stood there for a long time, holding the bag of pastries.

Chen Tianrun tugged at her sleeve: "Sis, can we eat the pastries now?"

Chen Tianwei handed him a piece of mung bean cake, took a piece of osmanthus cake for herself, and took a bite.

Sweet.

Seeing Chen Shujie come out, Chen Xiufen cursed, "She just got married and she doesn't even recognize her mother anymore! Go ask around in the village, who takes moldy rice back home after their wedding?"

Liu Yiyi chimed in, "That's right, she's only been married a few days and she's already got too big for her britches. She's even trying to fool her own mother with moldy grain. This daughter has been raised for nothing."

Chen Xiufen was stunned for a moment. She suddenly remembered what Chen Shujie had said on the day she left—"Once I get married, the bonds between our family will be severed."

She didn't take it seriously at the time; it turns out she wasn't just saying it out of anger.

From beyond the courtyard wall, Chen Tianrun's clear voice could be faintly heard: "Sister, this osmanthus cake is so delicious! Let's save some for sister-in-law and parents!"

Chen Xiufen's hand slowly clenched into a fist.

Meanwhile, in the back room of the Liu family's study, Chen Shuyan was engrossed in reading a copy of "The Righteous Meaning of the Book of Rites," completely unaware that his younger sister had returned to the village, come and go, and hadn't even seen him.

On the table next to him was a bowl of cold tea that Boss Liu had his waiter bring over. He picked it up and took a sip without even looking up.

The sound of pages turning rustled.

He made a mark with his fingernail in the blank space of the book page—a key passage for next year's Xiucai examination.

As for where his sister married and whether she was doing well, that was not within his consideration at all.

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