Chapter 33: This is good-looking but useless
There are two days left until Mid-Autumn Festival.
Chen Tang sent out all the holiday greeting lists one by one. He also had to prepare a set of invitations for more than a dozen collateral relatives who he wanted to invite to the Qi family's house for a reunion dinner.
After Chen Tang finished her work, seeing that Qin didn't want to use her, she borrowed Qi Huaijing's study and personally copied the Mid-Autumn Festival invitations for the dozen or so families.
His study was in front of the garden, also a neatly arranged small courtyard with three rooms, one bright and two dark. There were sycamore trees planted in the front, green bamboos planted in the back, and banana trees planted under the windows. The courtyard was full of shade from the trees, and the bright windows were half-closed, making it very quiet and spacious.
The last time Chen Tang came to this study was when he was eleven or twelve years old and visited the Qi family. This time he took another close look.
It was early autumn, and a vase of chrysanthemums was placed on the kang table in the main room of the study. There were paintings and calligraphy hanging on the wall, a bed curtain and a screen in the inner room, and a brass incense burner on the ground.
In the middle of the east side is a marble desk, on which are placed writing brushes, inkstones, ivory boxes, and gilded small seal characters. On both sides are lacquered and gilded bookcases, piled with books and account books.
Seeing that she wanted to write, Qi Huaijing took the initiative to give up his desk, personally ground ink, spread paper, and served tea and water, being very attentive.
Chen Tang was not too polite either. He took his seat, picked up the pen and started writing. He had just written two pages when he saw him coming over to grind ink and then to add tea. He thought he was too busy, so he ordered him to sit opposite him and not to walk around.
In the study, the couple sat opposite each other, Qi Huaijing was flipping through the account book, and Chen Tang was copying the invitation. It was like when they were teenagers, sitting next to each other behind a gauze curtain, reading and writing together.
Chen Tang's handwriting is excellent, with small regular script with flower-shaped characters, which is handsome and elegant.
Qi Huaijing exclaimed in admiration.
"The handwriting reflects the person, as expected."
Chen Tang reciprocated the gift.
"You are as good as your name. You are not bad either."
"Your hands will hurt if you write too much. Just let the servants do the writing."
"How can I be so delicate? You look down on me! I have nothing to do anyway, so I just practice calligraphy. Besides, I have this excuse to come to your study and sit for a while."
Chen Tang thought of something else and asked him with his chin propped up.
"By the way, what do you do every day when you go out? And your family's business, I only know the general idea, can you tell me in detail."
Qi Huaijing pondered for a moment.
"Our ancestors made their fortune from sericulture. Dad's generation mainly dealt in raw silk. After my second brother took over, he also started the spice business. Now we have a total of seven shops... In Guangling City, our Qi family is quite famous."
"I know. In previous years, when I happened to go out and pass by the street, my wife would point it out to me and say it was the Qi family's shop. I just don't know how the business is going."
"As for business... since Dad passed away, these shops are mainly run by my second brother, who does a great job, and there are two or three uncles from other branches who also help. I took over the three shops from my second brother when I was seventeen. On weekdays, I mainly listen to the managers' responses, review documents, make decisions when encountering major events, and meet guests and entertain guests. Well, I think the business of these shops I manage... is not as good as my second brother's, but it's still okay."
After hearing this, Chen Tang couldn't help but look up to see Qi Huaijing's expression.
He was calm and composed, and he didn't stop writing. He wrote another piece of paper with his hands full.
Chen Tang sighed: "If I had known this..."
Qi Huaijing looked at her and said, "If you had known that I was so good-looking but useless, you would not have married me?"
"Not really... If I had known this, I should have sent away a few more maids to save some money for the family."
Qi Huaijing never thought she would say that, and was speechless for a moment.
"You...I..."
He stopped writing, couldn't help but lean over, gritted his teeth and flicked her finger.
"Don't worry! Although I'm not as good as my second brother, no matter who is short of money in our family, it won't be yours!"
Chen Tang let out an “Ah,” and rubbed his forehead.
"Humph, I'm easy to support! There are only two of us, and we both know who is hard to support!"
“…”
"I think it's okay. Isn't our Shen family famous for being honest and incorruptible? We have also been able to support the three of us, my sister and my brother. But... as the saying goes, always think of the days that are ahead, and don't wait until the days that are gone to think of the days that are ahead. We have to be frugal in our long-term lives. Husband, we should be more frugal in the future."
Qi Huaijing looked at her seriously thinking, suddenly smiled, moved closer to her and lowered his voice.
"Let's have three more children. I can still afford to support them."
In broad daylight, talking about having a baby, Chen Tang felt slightly embarrassed and reached out to push him away.
"Bah, if there were three children like me, it would be easy to raise them. But if there was a devil like you, one would be... Oh, I haven't finished writing yet, please don't..."
There weren't many invitations to begin with, but somehow the two of them managed to finish writing them until the lights came on. They then arranged for people to deliver them one by one, and finally completed the task.
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