Dr. Sun was in a bit of a dilemma. Although he had saved the village chief's life, it was his duty as a doctor to treat and save lives, and he had no choice but to do so. It would be a bit excessive to make a request based on that.
But Yunling's words weren't wrong. This was just a small medicinal herb garden, and not all of it was planted with licorice. Fresh licorice was naturally scarce, so it was normal that she didn't want to sell it.
But when he glanced at the licorice again, he was truly envious. Perhaps it was because he had never seen what fresh licorice looked like. He immediately felt that the ones Yunling grew were really good, and that they might even have different medicinal effects.
This is a difficult situation, a very difficult situation indeed.
Yunling knew that Doctor Sun was a kind person and didn't want to make things too difficult for him, so she said:
“I can pay to buy this land, so I won’t get a free ride. Also, someone in my family is studying medicine. If Dr. Sun is busy in the future, or whatever, villagers who need treatment can come to me. I have also studied medicine, so I can treat them for free.”
"You studied medicine too?"
Dr. Sun was somewhat slow to realize his mistake; he had been rather muddle-headed. Without medical training, he wouldn't have been able to harvest herbs so easily, let alone cultivate them and manage them so well.
"Okay, okay, I will do my best to persuade the village chief. Of course, whether it will work out or not is up to us... no, no, no, I will go and talk to the women who are familiar with the village chief's wife, and try to get this land."
"Thank you, Dr. Sun."
Doctor Sun had no time for formalities with Yunling; he immediately grabbed his robe and went down the mountain to fetch reinforcements.
Seeing this, Yunling and Lu Yinghuai exchanged a smile and said nothing more.
**
The following day, the Lu family invited two top-notch matchmakers to the Yun family. Since the two families were familiar with each other, and Yun Ling and Lu Yinghuai were deeply in love and their relationship was so strong that even ten oxen couldn't pull them apart, the matchmakers were asked to exchange both the draft and the detailed invitations.
Then Zifu and his men brought a load of Xu Kou wine, which was covered in floral scents. The load also had eight large flowers tied with red silk ribbons, eight silver headdresses, and fine silk fabrics.
After Zhang returned with two bottles of fresh water, five live fish, and a pair of chopsticks, Fu Jin's wife arrived in a carriage. As a relative of the Lu family, she came to see Yunling. Everyone knew that this was just a formality, so Yunling cooperated and completed the "inserting hairpin" ritual.
These steps, which were originally planned to be done over ten days or half a month, have now been compressed into one day. Amidst the joy of celebration, everyone is busy with betrothal gifts and dowries.
Yunling felt that in their current circumstances, it was not appropriate to pursue the size of the dowry too much, but Zhang Shi and Yunling's mother did not think so. They were determined to give Yunling a grand and glorious marriage.
Yunling had no choice but to let them go. After all, she had successfully bought a large plot of land for planting medicinal herbs after three rounds of negotiations between Doctor Sun and the village chief. She was busy with other things and naturally couldn't keep an eye on Zhang Shi and Old Lady Yun all the time.
Lu Yinghuai, however, was quite at ease. His betrothal gifts were prepared entirely by his mother and Madam Fu. Given his mother's personality, he had complete peace of mind.
So they took a geomancer from the city who was very good at feng shui to look at the location near the Yun family's house, avoiding all evil spirits and ghosts, and finally chose a flat piece of land near a lychee grove.
Following Yunling's advice, Lu Yinghuai hired men from the village to build houses at relatively high wages. With money to earn, the villagers naturally had no objections to the construction.
Time slips away so quickly, like sand through the cracks in your fingernails, and before you know it, it's winter solstice.
The weather was still a bit cold on the winter solstice, but that didn't dampen the Lu family's enthusiasm for sending festival gifts. Lu's mother hired a carrying pole and sent the gifts to the Yun family as soon as it was light.
This was the first time the villagers had ever seen such a spectacle, and they flocked out of their homes to watch the excitement. Among them were members of the eldest and second branches of the Yun family. They saw that each of the porters was robust, carrying on their shoulders a plump leg of lamb, two baskets of clucking chickens, a basket of live fish, six baskets of fine rice wine, countless pieces of cured meat, ten bolts of silk, and some exquisite little boxes.
The two families were dumbfounded. They had never eaten so much food in their lives. The Lu family was giving it away so casually. Wasn't that a bit too extravagant?
Upon seeing this, Yun Ci thought of the handsome and refined Lu Yinghuai, but then she thought of his infatuation with Yun Ling. Her heart ached, and tears welled up in her eyes. Why wasn't she the one who met him first? If he had seen her first, then all of this would have been hers.
Seeing Yun Ci like this, Meng felt very bad and simply said:
"Isn't the Lu family supposed to be very wealthy? Why is their betrothal gift so meager? We've seen other families in the city give much more betrothal gifts before, and they were much more extravagant."
Liu was also feeling down, but upon hearing Meng's words, she inexplicably cheered up and echoed:
"That's right. Before, they said they liked her so much that they wanted to pluck the stars and the moon from the sky. But look at this little bit of money. They didn't seem to like her that much. Or maybe they found out that Sister Ling is fickle and not worth it. But, you can't take back what you've said, so they have to bite the bullet and accept it."
The eldest son's family thought the same way. Although the dowry Liu gave to their family back then was only two strings of cash and a sick chicken, both families were poor. How could they compare to the Lu family? Even wealthy families only gave such a small amount. Weren't they afraid of being laughed at?
“I told him that Ling’er was having an affair with a man in the village, but he didn’t believe me. He foolishly treated a piece of junk as a treasure. Now that he’s seen the truth, he’s just making excuses.”
The three of them burst into laughter, feeling incredibly happy.
"Who are you saying you seduced? You shamelessly frame others, don't drag us down with you. All the men in this village are upright and honest. If you can't name who you seduced and don't have real evidence, don't make things up!"
Miao's sister-in-law's words immediately ignited the lively atmosphere, and Luo's sister-in-law chimed in with a sarcastic remark:
"You, how many wealthy families have you seen giving betrothal gifts? You dare to show off like this here. Have you ever seen a family giving betrothal gifts without a matchmaker accompanying them? Have you ever seen a family giving betrothal gifts without red silk ribbons on the carrying pole?"
"Don't go around saying this, it's so embarrassing. This is a seasonal gift, a gift exchanged between their in-laws on the Winter Solstice, understand? If you don't understand, then don't spout nonsense."
Ma's wife chimed in:
“They used to complain about being abused by the third branch of the family, but I think they were just making trouble and stirring up trouble. They couldn’t stay in the village anymore, so they came here.”
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