elder brother gets married

When Li heard that Zhang Chunfeng was hungry, she quickly cooked rice porridge, baked new pancakes, and stir-fried two dishes and brought them to the table.

Zhang Chunfeng sat at the head of the round table, eating heartily, while Zhang Chuntian, whose face was covered with whip marks, knelt to the side, watching Zhang Chunfeng eat with longing eyes.

Zhang Chuntian's clothes were still wet, probably because Li had chased him outside last night and searched for him all night.

I didn't sleep or eat all night, and I was even beaten.

Zhang Chunfeng frowned slightly.

"Mother, didn't I tell you that you're not allowed to hit him anymore!"

Li wiped her eyes with a handkerchief. "I was so scared. I've never let your brother go out with me in my whole life, and that one time, I lost you! You still have a leg injury. What were we going to do with all that rain last night?"

Li's rambling words annoyed Zhang Chunfeng.

She suppressed her irritation and looked at Zhang Chuntian, who was kneeling on the ground, her back and cheeks covered with marks from the bamboo whip, yet still grinning foolishly when she met her gaze.

"Get up and eat." Zhang Chunfeng tapped the table.

Zhang Chuntian grinned and immediately tried to get up, but his knees twitched, and he looked timidly at Li Shi.

“If we don’t teach him properly, he won’t learn his lesson,” said Ms. Li.

Zhang Chunfeng was even more annoyed. "With his brain, you could beat him to death and he still wouldn't learn his lesson!"

Li was speechless and could only nod to Zhang Chuntian. With her mother's permission, Zhang Chuntian immediately sat down at the table and tried to grab a pancake, but was glared at by Li again.

Zhang Chunfeng handed the pancake directly to Zhang Chuntian with his hand.

"There are no outsiders here, and he's been hungry all night. Why force him to use chopsticks?"

Although Li acquiesced, she still expressed her dissatisfaction: "They have to be taught like this every day, so that they will know how to use chopsticks when they are around outsiders."

Zhang Chunfeng didn't respond, acknowledging that Li was right. There was just one thing she couldn't accept.

“I’ll say it again, he’s already twenty-six years old. If you beat him like this, everyone outside the house will know he’s an idiot, and the Li family will lose face. If he does something wrong in the future, kneeling as punishment is fine, but don’t whip him with a rattan cane anymore.”

Madam Li pondered, "It was my fault. I was really anxious at the time. It was raining so hard. You only came back in the spring and I couldn't find you. I was really worried."

As she spoke, Li sighed again at Zhang Chuntian, "How could I not feel sorry for my own son? It hurts a mother's heart to beat him."

"Spring Breeze, where did you spend the night last night? Spring only said that you were carried away by someone, and your mother was terrified."

At this point, Zhang Chunfeng paused, his hand holding the soup spoon still.

“Mother, do you know if there’s a family named Li at the east end of the village? They have a son named Li Xiuman. He carried me down the mountain last night, but the rain was too heavy, so we took shelter in a cave.”

"You and him, taking shelter from the rain in the cave!" Li's voice trembled. Zhang Chunfeng was drinking the soft, sticky rice porridge she was making. The fragrant white rice grains swayed at the bottom of the bowl, resembling Li Xiuman's fair face. The one or two black sesame seeds sprinkled in the porridge inexplicably reminded her of the beauty mark on Li Xiuman's nose.

Zhang Chunfeng opened his mouth and swallowed the white rice grains mixed with sesame seeds in one gulp.

fragrant.

Li looked embarrassed and didn't ask any more questions. After the meal, she found a doctor to treat the lacerations on Zhang Chunfeng's legs.

Zhang Chunfeng's leg had finally healed, and once she could put weight on it, her naturally active nature resurfaced. After passing the imperial examination, she worked as a tutor in the household of Magistrate Zhou in Ancheng, specifically teaching the magistrate's son, Zhou Zhengdu. Zhou Zhengdu was only three years older than Zhang Chunfeng and doted on her in every way. Upon hearing the news that her leg was healed, he immediately brought her over, and every day they would happily practice swordsmanship and spear fighting on the playground.

That day, Zhang Chunfeng had just been brought back by Zhou Zhengdu's sedan chair when Zhang Chuntian immediately ran excitedly to Zhang Chunfeng's side.

When Zhang Chunfeng was young, he grew up on Zhang Chuntian's broad back, but now Zhang Chuntian doesn't even dare to touch the hem of Zhang Chunfeng's clothes.

He ran over excitedly. The whip marks on his bare upper body had faded considerably, but upon closer inspection, there were still dark bruises.

"Sister, I'm getting married!" Zhang Chuntian shouted in a rough voice, completely disregarding the marks on his back and the injuries on his face. He was overjoyed and almost jumped up in the yard.

"Get married?" Zhang Chunfeng asked in confusion. It wasn't that she hadn't thought about her brother's future. If she passed the imperial examination, raising a slightly mentally challenged brother would be no problem at all. But getting married was not on Zhang Chunfeng's mind.

"Mom's going to get me a wife, I want a wife too! Dazhu and Xiaozhu both have wives, I'll have a wife too! I'll have one too!" Zhang Chuntian didn't understand what a wife actually meant; he just imitated others like a child. All the men in the village had wives, and when it was just Zhang Chuntian, they would inevitably tease the somewhat simple-minded man. Over time, Zhang Chuntian also wanted a wife, and today, Li Shi actually agreed, so he was naturally overjoyed.

Li was still wearing a blue floral coarse cloth outfit. She came out of the main room and invited Zhang Chunfeng in, where he sat in the main seat on the right.

The Zhang family had three rooms. In the center was Li's main room, to the left was Zhang Chuntian's room, which was next to the kitchen stove, and to the right was Zhang Chunfeng's room. Although it appeared that Li's room was the main room, it was actually dilapidated from years of neglect. In fact, only Zhang Chunfeng's room was larger than Zhang Chuntian's and Li's rooms combined.

The main seat in the house today also belongs to Zhang Chunfeng.

"Mother, are you really going to arrange a marriage for my brother?" Zhang Chunfeng asked, still wearing the riding and archery uniform he had worn at the martial arts arena earlier that day. The red and white Hu-style clothing had all the cuffs rolled up with wrist guards, a matching jade belt hanging from his waist, and black embroidered butterfly boots on his feet. His black hair was tied up in a crown adorned with rubies.

The more Li looked at it, the happier she felt.

She knew that Zhang Chunfeng's clothes were a gift from the county magistrate, and that a person as phoenix-like as him shouldn't be living in this old village. The thought that after she passed away, her daughter would be the top scholar in the imperial examination filled her with a sweet feeling, and she felt even more strongly that her family shouldn't be a burden to Zhang Chunfeng.

"This is what your mother is thinking: your brother is mentally challenged, and I am getting old. I can still discipline him now, but what will happen in spring after I pass away?"

Just as Zhang Chunfeng was about to speak, he was stopped by Li.

"If you really become an official in the future, Chuntian will be an even greater burden to you. If he really becomes mentally challenged and commits a crime, or if he has not committed any crime but is framed and all the blame is thrown on you, and you are pulled down from that position, what will you do?"

"After much thought, your mother believes that your brother's situation cannot be entirely supported by you. He should establish his own family, get married, and then have a wife to accompany him, manage him, and keep him in check."

Zhang Chunfeng had heard that Li had worked as a maid in a wealthy family in the capital in her early years, and later returned to her hometown to marry and have children.

The Li family's schemes and calculations nowadays truly resemble those of a high-ranking official in a wealthy family.

"Mother is so shrewd. I just don't know which girl is so unlucky as to be both a wife and a mother."

“Not a girl, but a male wife,” Li said.

Male wife! Zhang Chunfeng was even more shocked. But then he belatedly realized that his mother's plan was indeed brilliant.

Male wives are naturally available regardless of gender. In wealthy areas, male wives are mostly married for pleasure. In poor areas like villages, where education is lacking and people are not enlightened, only poor families marry male wives, treating them as a means of acquiring labor.

“Your brother is mentally challenged, and he probably doesn’t even know how to… enjoy sex. Marrying a woman would only be a waste of her time. But if it’s a man, it’s like buying a brother, which isn’t a bad thing. Besides, if a woman is more naive than a man, what if she gets deceived by another man and abandons her youth? Wouldn’t that be pitiful? But a man doesn’t have that problem,” Li explained.

In this remote and impoverished area, once a woman becomes a male wife, she loses face, and most women will no longer associate with him, so naturally they will not abandon Zhang Chuntian.

"Furthermore, I'm planning to buy a few more acres of land. You're going to the capital soon to take the imperial examination, and you'll need a lot of money then. But only one person in the family can work in the fields in the spring. Why don't we buy another one to keep your brother company?"

Zhang Chunfeng nodded slowly.

This way, they had both labor force and someone to take care of Zhang Chuntian, and they could also ensure that he wouldn't run off with anyone else in the future. Li's calculations were truly extremely clever.

"Which shop does Mother want to buy from?"

"This family is quite connected to me; they share the same surname as my family, Li."

Zhang Chunfeng's heart suddenly skipped a beat. He had been busy these past few days catching up on the horseback archery practice he had missed, and had completely forgotten about Li Xiuman.

Now, the mere mention of the name "Li" fills Zhang Chunfeng with an inexplicable unease.

Where do you live?

"East end of the village."

Zhang Chunfeng raised an eyebrow slightly. "What's his name?"

Mrs. Li tilted her head and pondered, "What's his name? He just told me his name yesterday, Li something? Look at my brain, I can't remember. His parents are both dead, and he has no family ties. I've already given the betrothal gifts, and we'll be getting married tomorrow."

Orphaned? Zhang Chunfeng nodded; judging from that, it couldn't be Li Xiuman.

"The wedding is tomorrow? So soon?"

"The village fortune teller said that tomorrow, August 23rd, is an auspicious day, most suitable for marriage. The two parties will be in love and never be separated." Li's withered face smiled: "Mother wants this eternal separation, to ensure that your brother will be taken care of. If we miss this day, we will have to wait more than three months. By then, you will be going to the capital. Why not tomorrow?"

Zhang Chunfeng snorted coldly, inwardly mocking what a great immortal he was. He was just a third-rate Taoist priest who knew a couple of characters and had been kicked out of the nearby Taoist temple for stealing.

But she didn't argue with Li, and Li's plans were fine too.

If there were truly someone who genuinely cared for Zhang Chunfeng, Zhang Chunfeng would be willing to spend money to buy them.

“I just received thirty taels of silver,” Zhang Chunfeng said.

Madam Li quickly shook her head and grabbed Zhang Chunfeng's hand. "You must remember to leave all your money behind. I've told you so many times that you'll need money for the trip to the capital. I only spent twenty copper coins to buy this person."

"Twenty copper coins!" Zhang Chunfeng was shocked. This was no longer a time of war. Back then, it was acceptable to spend three copper coins to buy a person, but now he could spend twenty copper coins to buy a living person.

“Mother said that since both his parents are dead, he can live alone or with us, it’s all the same.”

Madam Li explained, "Chunfeng, I called you here today to discuss tomorrow's wedding."

Zhang Chunfeng was puzzled.

"Could you go and marry that person on behalf of your brother tomorrow?" Madam Li asked.

Zhang Chunfeng frowned slightly. Zhang Chuntian was just mentally challenged, not paralyzed and bedridden. Why should she be forced to marry him?

Li sighed.

“Our village is to the west, and theirs is to the east. It's going to cross the entire village. How many people will be watching along the way? Usually, when it comes to weddings, the groom rides a horse or a donkey. But this spring, for some reason, he started hugging and kissing a donkey's head when he saw it, refusing to get on its back no matter what. Is he going to walk to fetch his bride tomorrow? Wouldn't that make him a laughingstock in the whole village?”

Only then did Zhang Chunfeng notice that there was indeed a donkey in her yard, but the donkey was extremely short and thin. She guessed that Li Shi was afraid that Zhang Chuntian would not be able to sit steadily and would fall off a donkey that was too tall and get injured, so she deliberately chose a short and thin donkey.

Even with such a short donkey, Zhang Chuntian still wouldn't get on it.

"Perhaps he thought the donkey was too small and would break it, so he didn't get on it." After thinking for a moment, Zhang Chunfeng took a carrier pigeon and sent a letter to Zhou Zhengdu's residence.

A moment later, a servant from the Zhou family arrived with a magnificent horse, its coat a purebred golden brown.

“This is the red tassel I use at the horse farm every day. It listens to me very well, so I let him try it out.”

Zhang Chunfeng summoned Zhang Chuntian, but to his surprise, Zhang Chuntian felt intimidated when he saw such a tall horse.

"Big Horse!" Zhang Chuntian didn't even dare to approach, only staring at the horse's mouth chewing and spitting air.

Zhang Chunfeng demonstrated for Zhang Chuntian a few times. After Zhang Chuntian finally got on the horse, he looked down at his feet and shouted, "Mother, it's so high! So high!"

Seeing Zhang Chuntian clinging tightly to the horse's neck in fear, Li had no choice but to say, "Chunfeng, let it go. Chuntian's mental age is only ten. Who told a ten-year-old to dare ride such a big horse? Tomorrow, you'll have to trouble yourself to bring your sister-in-law over."

Zhang Chunfeng had no choice but to give up and nodded in agreement to do it the next day.

She didn't think that it was a big deal for her to stand in for Zhang Chuntian to marry his sister-in-law. She just thought that this was Zhang Chuntian's once-in-a-lifetime wedding, and she had to do it for him. Even if he was mentally challenged, Zhang Chunfeng felt a little sorry for him.

The next day, just as dawn was breaking, a large number of people had already gathered at the Zhang family residence.

Although Zhang Chunfeng was only sixteen, he had already grown tall and slender. The fine robe originally prepared for Zhang Chuntian was folded slightly and secured with a belt. When it was worn by Zhang Chunfeng, it did not look out of place.

Dressed in bright red wedding robes and hats, with large red flowers pinned to their chests, the wedding procession set off amidst the crackling of firecrackers and the resounding blasts of suona horns and drums.

From the east to the west of the village, it only takes the time it takes to burn two incense sticks, but along the way, children and the elderly all make a fuss and try to stop the groom. The groom has to scatter some fruit and coins along the way as a way of wishing for good luck.

This was Zhang Chunfeng's first time experiencing a wedding, and the slow, halting pace made her feel incredibly uncomfortable. The noise of the crowd and the shrill sound of the suona horns along the way made her head feel like it was going to explode.

She was naturally quiet and disliked noise the most, especially when it was accompanied by risqué jokes.

"How come the spring breeze is the groom?"

"What kind of sister-in-law marries her own sister-in-law?"

"With such a beautiful face as Chunfeng, even my sister-in-law would be unable to walk away upon seeing her."

These words reached her ears, and she rolled her eyes at the gossipy person. Zhang Chunfeng finally arrived at the so-called "bride's" house.

She looked up at the small, secluded courtyard. The two rooms were bright and the yard was clean. They didn't seem like people who were so poor that they would sell their son for twenty copper coins.

After Zhang Chunfeng dismounted, there was another round of elaborate rituals. Only after the rituals were completed was the bride led out by the matchmaker.

The first glance at the bride with the red veil revealed that she was quite tall, but her figure was so cheap. Could she be an ugly monster?