Chapter 90 Memorial Tablets and News After Yao Lang and Zhang Guanren's conversation...

After exchanging words with Zhang Guanren, Yao Lang took his leave.

Mr. Zhang paced back into the house, pacing back and forth like an ant on a hot pan, his heart fluctuating between burning heat and icy coldness.

That day, he fell in love with Pearl at first sight.

Unfortunately, while it's easy to fall in love, it's difficult to reciprocate deep affection. In this world, most men with some power covet marriage alliances with powerful families or wealthy merchants in order to secure a smooth career and a prosperous family business.

Ever since Zhang entered the government office to begin his studies, many superiors have inquired about his family background. Upon learning that he was unmarried and from an ordinary family, they all intended to arrange marriages for him, including the second and third daughters of officials of the sixth or seventh rank.

This is related to current marriage customs. As the trend of extravagant dowries has become increasingly prevalent, ordinary officials would usually give their eldest daughter a large dowry so that she could marry into a family of equal or higher status. However, the second and third daughters would receive less dowry and would marry into families of slightly lower status or even lower status.

Zhang, who came from a wealthy peasant family, was the best candidate among the latter two.

Zhang Guanren understood in his heart that this was a shortcut to advancement for him. However, whenever he lay on his bed, he couldn't help but think of Pearl's appearance, the stunned look in her eyes when she turned around, and the demureness when she covered her face with her sleeve.

When he woke up from the dream, Master Zhang would always feel melancholy for a long time. After this happened many times, he also noticed details that he had not noticed before.

For example, Pearl's daily attire was extremely exquisite. Her jacket and skirt were made of the finest silk, and a set of them cost tens of strings of cash, which was far beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Furthermore, her pearly fingers were as white as scallions, delicate and slender, clearly indicating that she must have lived a life of luxury and had never done any heavy work.

At first, Mr. Zhang thought that Pearl might be from an official's family or a wealthy merchant's family, and a sense of anticipation arose in his heart, so he asked Mr. Yao to help him inquire about her.

At the same time, however, he also harbored other doubts. Although they seemed to be a family, the fabric of the clothes worn by the other three people traveling with them was clearly much inferior to that of Pearl.

Moreover, the three men's fingers were covered in signs of labor, which made it hard to believe they came from the same wealthy family as Pearl.

Zhang Guanren thought that Pearl might be a maidservant from a wealthy family, or she might already be married.

Unexpectedly, Pearl was not only unmarried, but also a first-class maid in the Marquis of Zhongyong's mansion.

Mr. Zhang came from a wealthy farming family, and his family had exhausted all their resources to support his education. If he couldn't find a good marriage, he would probably spend his entire life struggling in the low-level officialdom.

Now, the gates of the Marquis of Zhongyong's mansion are half-open, and the light emanating from within seems to illuminate his path to officialdom, causing Zhang Guanren's heart to pound.

However, Pearl's condition was that she could not act in the name of the Marquis of Zhongyong's mansion.

This fluctuating, unpredictable situation completely threw Zhang Guanren off balance. His mind was a jumbled mess, and he couldn't come to his senses for a long time.

Leaving aside the matter of the Zhang family and the Pearl family wanting to discuss the matchmaking tea, let's talk about what Jiang Zhenniang is discussing with Su Zhihan at this moment: "Ever since I left the mansion, I have had something on my mind."

"Mother, please tell me."

"More than half a year has passed, and your Uncle Xue still hasn't returned."

Jiang Zhenniang's eyes were full of worry when she spoke of this. She was silent for a moment, then whispered in Su Zhihan's ear, "I'm thinking of going to a temple outside the city to set up a memorial tablet for your brother and make a cenotaph. That way, we'll have a place to burn offerings for him during Qingming and Winter Solstice."

Because of the outrageous lie the mother and daughter told when they left the Marquis's mansion, Jiang Zhenniang dared not act rashly after leaving the mansion, fearing that the Marquis's mansion or the eldest daughter-in-law would find out and take the mother and daughter to the authorities.

Now, as time went by, Jiang Zhenniang realized that the eldest daughter-in-law didn't care about them at all, and no one paid attention to their family's affairs.

Furthermore, of the two convoys that went to the frontier, one returned empty-handed, while Uncle Xue's family seemed to have encountered some misfortune, and there has been no news of them since.

Seeing this, Jiang Zhenniang completely gave up on the idea, but the thought resurfaced in her mind.

Su Zhihan thought about it and felt that it was time. However, she needed to carefully select a place and an auspicious day to set up the memorial tablet and cenotaph. It would be best to find a knowledgeable fortune teller to take a look.

She voiced her concerns, and Jiang Zhenniang hesitated before saying, "I'm thinking... maybe we should just go home."

"Huh? Going home?" Su Zhihan was taken aback at first, then surprised. She knew that since arriving in the capital, Jiang Zhenniang hadn't mentioned Su Family Village for the past two years: "Mother, are you really planning to put my brother's cenotaph there?"

"Almost everyone over there is dead." Jiang Zhenniang didn't want to go back, but she felt that it was, after all, the place where she was born and raised her children: "If your brother were alive, he would surely love the place where he lived as a child—"

“No way?” Su Zhihan shook her head repeatedly and said frankly, “Compared to being in Su Family Village, I think if my elder brother knew in the afterlife, he would rather be with us than with that person.”

"..." Upon hearing this, Jiang Zhenniang pondered for a moment, then slowly said, "What you said makes a lot of sense?"

“Right?” Su Zhihan said frankly, “Why don’t we buy a plot of land in a temple outside the capital to set up a cenotaph, and then put the memorial tablet at home, so that we can worship him and burn some things for him during festivals in the future.”

“If this were in Su Family Village, we’d have to make the trip every year… Besides, Mother, do you really want to offer incense to the Su family? Repair their ancestral graves? Burn offerings for them?”

If it weren't for the fact that changing one's surname and name is not an easy thing to do these days, and the hurdles required are quite complicated, Su Zhihan would have wanted to change her surname as well.

“Even if there are few people left over there, there are still some. Although they can't do anything to us now, what if they shamelessly come to our door asking for help or to find us jobs... what will we do?”

Su Zhihan thought about it more and more and felt that this was not a good idea, and shook her head repeatedly, saying, "Don't you feel disgusted if those people stick to you?"

Just thinking about it made Jiang Zhenniang feel nauseous. She would rather throw money into water or fire than give those people a single copper coin!

Jiang Zhenniang nodded emphatically: "We'll do as you say, we won't go back to Sujia Village."

Su Zhihan was satisfied: "That's right."

The mother and daughter discussed it and made sure to get it done before the New Year. They covered the memorial tablet with a cloth and brought it home from the temple. Just as they were about to place it in the shrine, Uncle Chai from the front door came over to report that an old man outside was requesting an audience.

"Where did this uncle come from?"

"My uncle's surname is Xue. He said he instructed me to come in and announce my arrival so that my wife would know... my wife?"

"Quickly, invite him in."

"Yes, yes." Uncle Chai hurried out and returned shortly with a middle-aged man wearing a straw hat and a raincoat.

He took off his straw hat and cupped his hands in greeting to Jiang Zhenniang, saying, "Greetings, Madam Jiang."

"It really is Uncle Xue!" Jiang Zhenniang was both surprised and delighted, and hurriedly stepped forward to greet him. "You haven't been heard from for so long, did something happen on the road?"

"Alas, bad luck. My caravan got caught up in the war and they won't let us leave, not even the people and the carriages."

Uncle Xue recalled that experience with a bitter expression: "It wasn't until a little over a month ago that I got the chance, with the help of your eldest son, to escape."

Leaving aside Jiang Zhenniang, Su Zhihan, who was still carrying the memorial tablet bundle in her arms, suddenly opened her eyes wide, threw the things aside, and stepped forward to ask, "Uncle Xue, have you seen my eldest brother?"

"Dalang...is he still alive?"

"He's perfectly fine." Uncle Xue chuckled upon hearing the question and quickly explained to the mother and daughter, "My eldest son is now a deputy commander, a respectable seventh-rank official!"

"Seventh rank, seventh rank!"

"He's actually... a seventh-rank official!"

Jiang Zhenniang and Su Zhihan were so happy they didn't know what to say. They both thought Su Lifeng had already passed away, never expecting that he had made a name for himself on the frontier.

"Okay, okay...okay, okay..." Jiang Zhenniang's eyes reddened, and she slumped into a chair, unable to hold back her sobs: "Why didn't he ever reply to his letters...why didn't he write home..."

Uncle Xue hurriedly took out the letter from his crossbody bag and handed it to Jiang Zhenniang: "I told her that I was sent by Jiang Niangzi and Su Niangzi to find him. At first, Dalang thought I was a fraud."

"He didn't believe me until I told him your family name and then your names."

"Uncle Xue, please, please sit down." Su Zhihan watched Jiang Zhenniang flipping through the letter and realized that the two were so excited that they had forgotten to invite Uncle Xue to sit down. She invited them to sit down and then had someone fetch tea and snacks before moving closer to Jiang Zhenniang and leaning over to look at the letter.

After reading the letter, Su Zhihan was filled with rage.

They lied to the eldest daughter-in-law, saying that the Su family deliberately kept it from them and prevented them from contacting their brother. Unexpectedly, the Su family was even more shameless, writing letters to each other every year in the same tone as the mother and daughter, and asking Su Lifeng for money every year.

It wasn't until Su's father passed away and Jiang Zhenniang fled Su Family Village with Su Zhihan that the Su family changed their story, saying that Su's father was seriously ill.

When winter came, perhaps fearing that something might happen later, they changed their story and said that Jiang Zhenniang and Su Zhihan had both met with misfortune and died in the snow disaster.

They thought Su Lifeng was dead, but they never expected that Su Lifeng also thought that the mother and daughter were dead.

Uncle Xue was nearly killed on the spot when he sent a letter to find this person. Fortunately, he had the letter and later revealed his name, which saved his life.

"Okay, okay, okay..."

"Mother, thank goodness we didn't go back to Su Family Village." Su Zhihan was still shaken. The people of Su Family Village had fabricated stories about their deaths and even tried to instigate Su Lifeng to continue paying for the repair of Su Family's houses and school, and to purchase land.

If they discover that they have left the manor, they might have other evil intentions, and it's not impossible that they might just kill them.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Zhenniang was filled with lingering fear. She clutched the letter tightly and nodded repeatedly, "...Yes, yes."

She gradually calmed down, first apologizing to Uncle Xue, and then asking Uncle Chai to fetch some money from the account. She then took out a 20-string coin and stuffed it into Uncle Xue's hand.

Uncle Xue was startled and repeatedly refused.

Jiang Zhenniang hurriedly said, "You suffered so much and almost lost your life. It is only right that our family gives you some compensation. Please accept it!"

“My mother is right. Uncle Xue suffered a great loss this time and lost so much business. Please accept it,” Su Zhihan also advised from the side.

After being persuaded by the mother and daughter, Uncle Xue finally accepted the gift with a blush on his face. Hearing that he had come to tell the mother and daughter about it before preparing to go home, Su Zhihan quickly saw Uncle Xue off and arranged for a sedan chair to take him home.

When she returned to the house from outside, she saw Jiang Zhenniang holding the letter and refusing to let go of it, reading it over and over again, until she finally broke down in tears.

Su Zhihan stood at the doorway, seemingly relieved, yet her heart was filled with mixed emotions.

The original owner's impression of her elder brother was that he was a great man, unlike Su's father, he was a very responsible person.

Su Zhihan, however, had never seen it before.

She tried hard to recall the plot of the book, but she couldn't find any trace of Su Lifeng, or rather, even the rest of the plot had become blurry.

Perhaps it's because everything has changed, or perhaps it's because Su Lifeng and the mother and daughter are generally NPCs in this world, leaving so few traces that they are almost undetectable.

Su Zhihan didn't know whether having an older brother was a good thing or a bad thing. She lowered her eyes and looked at her slightly trembling hands, which seemed to be revealing the emotions left over from her predecessor: excitement, surprise, and happiness, or perhaps revealing her own emotions: excitement, fear, and joy.

At least, they have one more relative.