CH 11

The whole incident had exhausted Qiao Yuan both physically and mentally. He felt a bit uncomfortable because the original owner had to deal with this unreasonable old witch every day and be bullied by her. Now that he was living comfortably in the Yu family, he felt like he had gotten a free ride. 

Yu Dameng washed several dates and handed them to Qiao Yuan. Qiao Yuan took them and took a big bite.  

Yu Dameng sat by the bed for a while, then suddenly said in a muffled voice, “Yuan Ge’er, don’t do that again in the future.”  

Qiao Yuan was lying on the bed and couldn’t reach him with his hand, so he lightly rubbed his foot and said randomly, “I want a lounge chair.” 

Yu Dameng pulled up the blanket for him and said, “I’ll go to Wangjiawan to order one from the carpenter there. You rest well.”  

When Qiao Yuan saw Yu Dameng about to step out of the door, he called out to him. With his face buried in the pillow, he spoke in a muffled voice, “Yu Dameng, I won’t do it again.”  

In the future, I plan to live a good life with you.  

Yu Dameng didn’t say anything, but his footsteps quickened. Yuan Ge’er asked him for something for the first time, and he only wanted to quickly bring it over to offer it up.  

Surprisingly, the publicity during the incident had actually worked. Mrs. Zhang fulfilled her promise and asked for thirty pieces of red sugar steamed cake upon arrival. Lin Cuifen even gave her two extra pieces, thanking her for speaking up for Qiao Yuan earlier.  

Mrs. Zhang accepted the kind gesture and then asked Zhang Dabao1Literally “big treasure”, usually a nickname used for kids to bring over two large bones, saying that they were good for making bone soup and would be perfect for Qiao Yuan to eat. Through this exchange, the two families became even closer. 

The fragrance of this steamed cake has been wafting through the village for several days. When some people heard about the buy-two-get-one-free promotion today, they couldn’t sit still, afraid of missing out, and came to buy it one after another. Fortunately, Lin Cuifen had been helping Qiao Yuan these days and had become very skilled at making it, otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to keep up with the demand. 

When Yu Dameng returned from the carpenter’s house, Lin Cuifen also recruited him to help out. It took him a while to be free to accompany Qiao Yuan. “Carpenter Li said he’ll have it ready in five days. I paid two hundred wen in advance, and I will pay another two hundred wen when we pick it up.”  

Everything was explained clearly, and Qiao Yuan felt relieved. He smiled and acted coquettishly towards Yu Dameng, saying, “Can you help me massage it again? It still hurts.”  

……  

As the afternoon approached, fewer people came to their door. The family finally had some free time and sat together to count the money they had earned that day. Yu Laoer had sold two hundred pieces, earning one hundred and sixty wen. They also sold more than one hundred pieces to the villagers, earning seventy-five wen. 

Lin Cuifen was amazed and thought to herself, “In just a few days, Yuan Ge’er has already earned almost one tael of silver. It’s like we brought home a golden baby!”  

Yu Dameng did not feel any sense of crisis that his husband would earn more money than him in the future, and he also followed with joy, saying, “Yuan Ge’er is really amazing.”  

Qiao Yuan gently squeezed Yu Dameng’s big hand under the table.  

Yu Dameng didn’t understand and looked at him puzzled. 

Qiao Yuan felt annoyed. Yu Dameng was such a dense person! 

Yu Shanwu’s eyes lit up, “We should sell like this every day! Then we’ll become landlords!”  

Lin Cuifen slapped him and said, “This is all your older brother’s, it’s none of your business! If you have the ability, grow up and earn your own money!”  

Qiao Yuan was amused by this troublemaker. Although the brat usually annoys people at home, he still showed respect to Qiao Yuan as his “sister-in-law” in front of outsiders.  

Qiao Yuan had a good understanding of the situation and explained seriously, “This is just a novelty that everyone is trying out at first. As they eat more, the sales will gradually decrease. This time, we have to take advantage of the village chief’s wedding banquet to promote our family’s steamed cakes and try to get orders for weddings in nearby villages in the future. This is the only way to make a big profit and keep a steady stream of customers.” 

Everyone nodded in agreement when they heard Qiao Yuan’s reasoning. 

Qiao Yuan continued, “The village chief’s family needs a relatively large quantity, and I see that we don’t have enough eggs and dates at home, so we need to buy some in the village. Also, we may not have enough steaming baskets when the time comes.”  

Lin Cuifen said, “I will go to Grandma Jiang’s and Aunt Wu’s house to ask. We use a lot at home, so it’s good to buy more as backup. We can borrow a steamer from someone in the village first, and when we earn more money, we can buy our own.”  

Qiao Yuan agreed. “Let’s do that.” He then counted out two hundred wen and gave it to Lin Cuifen, “Mom, you keep this money for now. I plan to use the rest to start a food business in town later. I need to make some capital first. When I earn big money, I will then show my filial piety to you!”  

Lin Cuifen refused to take the money and wouldn’t accept it no matter what Qiao Yuan said. She just said that he could show his filial piety to her later when he made more money. 

Qiao Yuan remembered the person who gave birth to him but did not raise him and neglected him in modern times. Later, his mother who asked him for retirement money made him feel that there is no harm without comparison. Fortunately, he went through twists and turns and now he found a mother who cared for him wholeheartedly. Everything that was once out of reach, such as family affection, love, and a harmonious family, seems to be slowly approaching him. 

That evening, Lin Cuifen used the two pork ribs that Mrs. Zhang had given her to make soup for Qiao Yuan. The soup didn’t taste good because she didn’t remove the gamey smell properly. However, it was still a heartfelt gesture from a mother. Qiao Yuan held his breath and drank it all in one gulp.  

…….  

It was cloudy all day, and it rained at night as expected.  

The floor was cold, so Qiao Yuan asked Yu Dameng to go back to bed and sleep.  

However, Yu Dameng said that this was unreasonable and refused to do it no matter what, which angered Qiao Yuan greatly.  

The next day, it was still raining heavily. Yu Dameng didn’t need to go to the shop and stayed at home to accompany him.  

Qiao Yuan sighed while wrapped in a blanket in bed, “I’m bored.”  

Yu Dameng frowned and thought for a moment. He then pulled out two books from the cabinet. 

“What kind of books?” Qiao Yuan became interested. Since he arrived here, he didn’t even know what the written language looked like! He didn’t want to become illiterate after studying hard for more than ten years just because he traveled through time. 

“Storybooks.” Yu Dameng handed the book to Qiao Yuan to look at. 

“Storybook? How come there are still storybooks at home?” The one who can read in this family is probably Yu Laoda, as described by others, he didn’t seem like someone who would read storybooks.  

“General gave them to me before to pass the time.” 

“Do you know how to read?” Qiao Yuan was a little surprised. Xu Xiuhua’s youngest son, who was his cousin, attended a private school. Qiao Yuan knew that the writing materials, such as brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones, were all very expensive.  

Wealthier rural families can afford to send their children to private schools, but many families cannot afford to send their children to school. He saw that twins brats were causing trouble at home all day, and he thought it was because their family couldn’t afford to send them to school.  

“I learned some from a private school before, and later on there was specialized teaching in the army, but I didn’t learn much.” Yu Dameng felt a little embarrassed.  

“That’s still impressive!” Qiao Yuan immediately praised him, ” You can forge iron, read, have military experience, and have knowledge.”  

Love makes people look more beautiful.2情人眼里出西施 (qíngrényǎnlǐchūxīshī) – This is a Chinese idiom that means “In the eyes of a lover, even a plain-looking person can be as beautiful as Xi Shi”, one of the Four Beauties of ancient China. 

Yu Dameng blushed even more at Qiao Yuan’s teasing. He felt even more embarrassed.  

Qiao Yuan hooked his lips and timely changed the topic, “Why don’t Shanwen and Shanwu attend a private school?”  

When Yu Dameng was young, even though his family had a lot of external debt, they were still able to afford to send their children to school. It didn’t make sense that they couldn’t afford to send two children to school now. 

“My mother said that the characters recognized Fourth and Fifth after finishing their basic education are not as many as I knew back then. They also misbehave and make the teacher unhappy, wasting money. Therefore, she does not allow them to continue their education.”  

Qiao Yuan: “……”  

Apparently, the entire family’s talent for studying is all in the hands of the eldest brother, Yu Laoda.  

On the cover of the first book, there were three large characters that read “Fu You Zhuan3扶游传 (fú yóu zhuàn) – The Tale of Fu You/The Tale of Mayfly“. Qiao Yuan roughly flipped through the contents, fortunately the writing in this time and space was similar to his original world, although it was in traditional characters, he could still recognize quite a bit through guessing and inference.  

The second book is quite peculiar, called “The Tough Husband of the Farmer’s Family4农夫家的悍夫郎 (nóng fū jiā de hàn fū láng) – The Tough Husband of the Farmer’s Family “. Qiao Yuan laughed so hard that he almost fell off the bed. After stopping his laughter, he asked Yu Dameng, “Have you read all of these?”  

Yu Dameng felt a little embarrassed, his ears turned red, “Not yet.”  

Qiao Yuan became interested and wanted to read the storybook with Yu Dameng. He moved over to make room for Yu Dameng to join him.  

Yu Dameng pursed his lips, feeling a bit hesitant. He thought it wasn’t appropriate to do this, but Qiao Yuan didn’t seem to mind. 

Qiao Yuan looked at him and knew what he was thinking in his mind, feeling speechless.  

Pretentious! Sooner or later, you will be eager to get on my bed! 

“Hurry up!” Qiao Yuan urged impatiently.  

He realized that only when he had a certain expression on his face, would Yu Dameng obediently listen to him.  

Although Qiao Yuan was very curious about the second book, he pretended to be righteous in front of Yu Dameng and said, “Let’s read the first one first. When I was young, my father taught me how to read, but I didn’t learn much. Can you teach me a little?”  

In summary, the first storybook is about a small insect called a mayfly, which is extremely beautiful and quite arrogant. Dissatisfied with the fact that the gods only gave it one day of life, it made a bet with the gods. If it could find a sincere heart among humans, it would gain immortality. Otherwise, its soul would perish, and it wouldn’t be reincarnated.  

The main content of the book is about the love and hate between the protagonist, who transforms into the human form of Fu You, and different men. In the end, even though they received true love, the disillusioned protagonist still chose to vanish into thin air.  

There was a part in the story where one of the men who was deeply infatuated with the character of Fu You saw the mayfly’s original form and asked a high monk to perform an exorcism. Qiao Yuan deliberately asked Yu Dameng for his opinion, “What do you think about this part?” 

Yu Dameng replied, “If one truly loves someone, they will not care about their background or where they come from.”  

He understood it quite well. 

Qiao Yuan intentionally elongated his tone and asked, “Then… what if… I am a monster?”  

Yu Dameng’s ears gradually turned red, “Then you would still be my husband.” 

…… 

After three more days had passed, Qiao Yuan’s waist gradually recovered. Lin Cuifen suggested that Yu Dameng accompany him back home.  

Qiao Yuan felt a bit resistant to the idea but he couldn’t abandon the original owner’s grandmother. This marriage was arranged by her, and Qiao Yuan benefited from it, so he should take good care of her. Therefore, he discussed with Yu Dameng to buy some gifts in the county town and show filial piety to his grandmother.  

During these past few days, Lin Cuifen has been making steamed cakes. Yu Laoer could sell two to three hundred pieces every day. Together with the ones sold individually, Qiao Yuan had almost earned seven hundred wen. Now they have a total of one tael and six qian51 liang (tael) = 10 qian (mace) = 1000 wen (copper coins) in their hands.  

Qiao Yuan felt that he hadn’t put in much effort these past few days and didn’t really want to accept the money.  

However, Lin Cuifen refused, insisting on letting him keep the money and even refused to accept the money for the materials for the dates and eggs from Grandma Jiang and Aunt Wu’s homes. Qiao Yuan knew that Lin Cuifen felt guilty about Yu Dameng’s military service and was finding ways to compensate her own son. She wanted him and Yu Dameng to have more money before they separated. 

A mother’s love is truly selfless. Qiao Yuan couldn’t refuse anymore and had to accept the money, thinking that he could leave the business to Lin Cuifen in the future to support the family. 

Today, Qiao Yuan had to go to town, so he specially put on a new outfit that he had never worn before. It was inconvenient to do housework in his old clothes, so he had only worn his green shirt once before, and the rest of the time he wore his rough cloth short-sleeved shirt to work.  

This morning, he changed into a light blue shirt. It’s as if he transformed into a different person, and people would believe that he was a young master from some family.  

Yu Dameng stared at him in a daze.  

Qiao Yuan hooked his lips and asked him intentionally, “Do I look good?” 

Yu Dameng looked away, his ears turning slightly red as he stuttered, “Y-you…l-look good.”  

Qiao Yuan snorted lightly and poked Yu Dameng’s head with his hand, “You big-headed ghost, you only think about looks!”  

Talk about being swayed by appearances! 

After that, Qiao Yuan rolled up his sleeves and asked Yu Dameng, “What do you want to eat for breakfast?” 

“Huh?” Yu Dameng couldn’t keep up with Qiao Yuan’s train of thought at all.  

Qiao Yuan didn’t expect him to come up with anything specific. It was a bit chilly this morning, so eating something warm would be good for warming up. Qiao Yuan thought for a moment and suggested, “Noodles?”  

Yu Dameng nodded and said, “I’ll help you.”  

Yu Dameng had strong and powerful arms, so the noodles he kneaded would definitely be firm and chewy. Without hesitation, Qiao Yuan handed over the task of kneading the dough to Yu Dameng. Yu Dameng was obedient and did not have any of the disdain or avoidance that men of this era had towards the kitchen. Whatever he was asked to do, he did it without any objections. Qiao Yuan was very pleased and felt like he had struck gold. 

If you like my translation, a cup of coffee is very much appreciated. I will post a bonus chapter for every five kofis received. Thank you!