Chapter 287 Extra Jiang San
Both of them were stunned for a moment after these words were spoken.
Jiang Wansu gritted her teeth, a hint of embarrassment rising on her face. She didn't know why she had blurted out those words.
"Yu Lin, I..."
She wanted to say that she didn't mean it that way, and that she had never thought of it that way, but no matter what she said, she couldn't bring herself to say it.
Cui Yulin was also stunned, never expecting that Jiang Wansu would have such a thought.
My father lives in the next room. In the past three years, he has worked so hard to support his wife and me that he has developed a host of intractable illnesses.
My father often suffers from backaches and pains, and on rainy or cloudy days, his back and knees hurt so much that he can't stand up straight, but he still goes out to work, leaning on a wooden stick.
Knowing that Jiang Wansu had previously been a young lady from a prominent family, her father would often bring her back some treats.
Jiang Wansu never cared about any of this, but now she's saying such things for a few bites of meat.
Cui Yulin gripped the thin blanket tightly with both hands, gritting his teeth and enduring for a long time.
But when that anger swept over the mess on the ground, the devastation in the house, and even the firewood scattered in the yard, it finally couldn't be contained.
He scoffed coldly, his eyes filled with barely suppressed resentment.
He was eager to say some harsh words, wanting to hurt Jiang Wansu terribly, as if only in this way could he regain control of his out-of-control life.
Looking at the person with a dazed and uneasy expression, Cui Yulin said cruelly, "You're staying in the Xie family? Do you think Xu Chuan liked you and that's why he let you marry into the Xie family?"
"You were able to marry Xu Chuan because of me, because I died."
"Only Miss Shen is worthy of someone like Xu Chuan. And what are you?"
"Your time at the Xie family wasn't something Xu Chuan did willingly. He was just being kind. Do you really think you were so good that Xu Chuan thought highly of you?"
Looking at Jiang Wansu's pale face, Cui Yulin felt a twisted sense of pleasure.
“You keep saying you’ve done this for me, but if it weren’t for me, you would have been sold off to who knows where by Jiang Hong long ago.”
"Does she really think she's some rich heiress or a wealthy lady?"
Cui Yulin gripped the thin blanket, so excited that he almost swayed.
“Wansu, you are not destined for such a life. You were born to be with people like me. Your remembrance of Xuchuan is a disgrace to the kindness he showed me.”
His face was flushed, and his eyes were burning with a scorching light. "You two have been married for a year, and Xu Chuan hasn't been intimate with you at all, has he?"
"Miss Shen is like the bright moon in his heart, and you..."
"If it weren't for me, he wouldn't even glance at you. What are you still daydreaming about?"
Jiang Wansu was shocked, never expecting that Cui Yulin would humiliate her like this.
"The most peaceful days of your life all came from me, whether in the Jiang family or the Xie family."
"If that's the case, then what's there to be arrogant about? What's there to be resentful about?"
"The Jiang family abandoned you. Xu Chuan had to bear this burden of yours because of our brotherhood. What are you unwilling to do?"
Cui Yulin said, "If you truly had a heart full of peace, that would be fine. But you're just after the Xie family's wealth and glory."
"In the end, you're nothing but a vain person, and all the sincerity you speak of is a lie."
No, I didn't.
Jiang Wansu looked at Cui Yulin and tears streamed down her face.
She's not like that.
She genuinely likes Cui Yulin.
The two met in their youth. Cui Yulin and Xie Xuchuan were inseparable. Every time Madam Jiang took her out, she would see a handsome young man smiling at her.
The young masters and ladies of Suzhou Prefecture were outwardly respectful to the Jiang family, but behind their backs they still looked down on them.
Especially someone like her, who was blatantly dragged out by Madam Jiang to be used as a business transaction.
Of all those young masters and ladies, only Cui Yulin would coax and take care of her. He would never fawn over her elder sister.
The lover she fell in love with in her youth was what she sought in her life. How could she be as vain as Cui Yulin said?
she……
Jiang Wansu wanted to defend herself, but Xie Xuchuan's image inexplicably appeared in her mind.
Xie Xuchuan would lie by her bedside and stay with her when she was scared.
Xie Xuchuan was also a gentleman; he would only reach out and hold her hand to comfort her when she asked for it.
No matter what she said or what she liked, Xie Xuchuan would listen and keep it in his heart...
For some reason, Xie Xuchuan's face became increasingly clear in Jiang Wansu's mind.
She shook her head in a panic and squatted down to clean up the broken dishes.
"You're talking nonsense. I'm sincere towards you. If I weren't sincere, why would I spend all my money to treat your illness?"
"You've changed. Your personality has changed drastically ever since you injured your leg."
Jiang Wansu tidied up the things on the floor, tears streaming down her face. "When you were with me before, you were never like this."
"before……"
Seeing Jiang Wansu squatting on the ground with her head down, silently shedding tears, looking extremely disheveled, Cui Yulin felt a pang of sadness.
The cathartic release doesn't bring complete comfort, but rather a sense of emptiness.
He didn't want it to be like this, but a gloomy feeling from somewhere kept enveloping him, making it impossible for him to shake off or break free.
Cui Yulin's Adam's apple bobbed, and after a long while, he bent down and struggled to help Jiang Wansu pick up the things on the ground.
"I...I'm sorry."
Jiang Wansu wiped away her tears and did not agree.
An argument began silently, started fiercely, and ended in unusual silence.
The Cui family home was small, and Cui Yulin's room only had half a bed and a table. At night, the two shared a bed but had nothing to say to each other.
Jiang Wansu did not help him get into bed and cover him with a blanket as she used to, and Cui Yulin did not say a word either.
An eerie silence filled the room; life went on as usual, yet something had changed.
Autumn has passed, and the weather is getting colder.
Jiang Wansu carefully turned her brocade dress inside out and patched it up.
She needed to find loose threads of similar color and fabric colors that were not immediately noticeable.
Even if coarse cloth and brocade are similar in color, the difference is not insignificant.
Besides, she could no longer find scraps of fabric in such a bright color.
She clutched the brocade skirt, stubbornly unraveling and sewing it again and again, but when she finally turned it over, a glaring patch would still be visible on the front.
Jiang Wansu was furious and raised her hand to tear the brocade skirt, which was already faded from washing and had fibers everywhere, to shreds.
She had just raised her hand when she stopped.
This dress was the only proof that distinguished her from the other uncouth women in the alley; without it, she would truly be just like them.
She was even inferior to those women.
After all, those women's husbands were still able-bodied.
She sat there, looking at her rough, bluish-red fingers, feeling inexplicably annoyed.
A moment later, Jiang Wansu threw off her brocade skirt and got up to go find Cui Yulin.
“Yulin…”
She walked up to Cui Yulin and stammered, "Do you have any money?"
Cui Yulin looked up, "What do you need the money for?"
Jiang Wansu said, "My skirt is torn, and I need a piece of brocade to mend it. It doesn't need to be very big, just about..."
She stretched out her hand, first gesturing with a piece of cloth the size of her palm, but then widened it outwards as her hand landed.
She gestured a square foot in size, but considering that her brocade dress already had many tears, this might not be enough.
After thinking for a moment, Jiang Wansu said, "Half a bolt of cloth."
Cui Yulin pursed his lips and remained silent for a long time.
Fearing he might disagree, Jiang Wansu said, "I haven't bought any fabric to make clothes in a long time. This is the only one I can wear at home."
“Wan Su”.
Cui Yulin looked troubled. "Even the worst brocade costs twenty or thirty taels for half a bolt. The dress you're wearing is Xie family brocade, and half a bolt costs nearly a hundred taels of silver."
"Let alone the fact that we don't have that much silver at home right now, even if we did... we still couldn't afford to buy you brocade."
She stubbornly tugged at the dress, as if unwilling to let go of the past.
Both Cui Yulin and Jiang Wansu understood that what she didn't accept was her current life.
Even if she still doesn't acknowledge it, there's no money left to buy a scrap of cloth to patch her up.
Cui Yulin said, "The weather is getting colder, so we need to save money at home for winter food and firewood. Also, the coats that Father, you, and I are wearing are getting too thin, so we need to stock up on some new cotton this year."
He hesitated for a moment, then said, "Wansu, how about I cut you a piece of new cotton cloth this year and make you a new jacket?"
Jiang Wansu clenched her fists slightly, looked down at the brocade dress in her hands, and shook her head after a long while.
"No, I don't want any new coats, I just want a piece of brocade. We don't need half a bolt, just this size, no... the size of a palm is enough."
Jiang Wansu stubbornly handed the brocade dress in her hand to Cui Yulin, "Yulin, look, I only need a palm-sized piece of fabric to mend the dress, it doesn't cost much."
"Give me a tael of silver, and I'll go to the silk shop and beg the manager to sell me just one piece..."
Seeing that Cui Yulin remained unmoved, Jiang Wansu pleaded, "I'm not asking for much, just a small piece of cloth..."
Cui Yulin softened his voice: "Wansu, this dress is already very old, there's no point in patching it anymore. Why don't you sell it and buy a cotton dress instead..."
"The new cotton dress is unique in this alley."
"Even if it's patched this time, what about next time? This brocade skirt can't be patched for a lifetime."
"Now that we're in this situation, why don't you let go of those thoughts and just live your life properly?"
Jiang Wansu clutched her skirt, her face pale: "Yes, I do. I live the life you want every day, but this is not what I want."
"Yu Lin, have you forgotten? When we first got together, you said you would provide me with a life of luxury. You said you would buy me gold hairpins and all the sweet fragrance of osmanthus in the world. You said it, you promised me..."
The brocade skirt in my hand no longer felt smooth to the touch, and because there were too many broken threads, it had become rough and prickly.
Even so, she cherished it very much.
She no longer wanted fine clothes and delicacies; she just wanted to mend this brocade dress...
Jiang Wansu lowered her eyes, tears falling.
"I just want to mend this dress. I don't need fine clothes and delicacies, or the fragrance of osmanthus. I just want to fix it..."
"Yu Lin, my request isn't unreasonable. I have nothing left..."
Even when she was in the Jiang family, she had never suffered such hardship.
Even Zi Tang had never been this destitute.
"I……"
Cui Yulin was in a dilemma, but she couldn't bring herself to refuse.
After a while, he said, "Let me think of a way."
“Yulin…”
A smile appeared on Jiang Wansu's face as she lowered her head and lay prone on Cui Yulin's legs.
Actually, life wasn't that hard; she still had Yu Lin by her side.
"Yu Lin, thank you."
Jiang Wansu looked up at Cui Yulin with her watery eyes.
Cui Yulin looked at her, but slowly avoided her gaze.
When Cui Cheng returned in the evening, Cui Yulin went to see him.
Winter is approaching, and the textile and dyeing plantation needs to stock up on raw materials in advance. Cui Cheng spent the whole day moving goods and was so tired that he could hardly straighten his back.
When Cui Yulin arrived at his room, he saw Cui Cheng rubbing his lower back with some inferior liquor mixed with Panax notoginseng.
"Father……"
Cui Yulin pushed his wooden wheelchair forward and picked up the liquor on the table.
"I'll do it."
It was getting late, and Cui Cheng hadn't lit any candles. When Cui Yulin got closer, he saw a large, bloody gash on Cui Cheng's body.
"How did you do that?"
Cui Cheng said, "Today a scoundrel came to the shop. When he was carrying goods, he pulled one out from the middle, and the things stacked on top of it fell down."
"It's alright, it doesn't matter."
As he spoke, Cui Cheng patted some medicinal wine onto his body.
The intense stimulation made him shudder, and the wound he was stung turned inside out.
Cui Yulin felt a pang of pain in his heart as he read this.
"Did you come to see me for something?"
Cui Yulin shook his head, took the medicinal wine, and began to rub it on Cui Cheng.
After a moment, he said, “Father, I’ve made some money these past few days. Please take it to Doctor Sun tomorrow to get some wound medicine.”
“You work so hard every day, if you don’t deal with this, it will easily lead to problems.”
He placed a few pieces of silver on the table, and after thinking for a moment, he also took out the loose copper coins from his pocket.
"There's not much food at home, so please buy some steamed buns for the workers."
Seeing this, Cui Cheng patted him on the shoulder.
Cui Yulin couldn't stay any longer and left Cui Cheng's room.
Jiang Wansu's brocade skirt, now worn smooth from washing, is neatly hung out to dry in the courtyard.
Cui Yulin looked for a long time before slowly stepping forward.
The next morning, Jiang Wansu got up to take care of Cui Yulin.
She was very happy yesterday, hearing that she could buy new fabric to mend her brocade skirt today. Last night, she went to Granny Sun's house and spent half the night choosing embroidery thread.
He didn't return until midnight.
Jiang Wansu held a string the size of a finger in her hand, looking at Cui Yulin with a smile.
“Wan Su…”
Cui Yulin pushed away her hand that was trying to help him up, and said blankly, "I'm sorry, Wansu, I had my father take your brocade skirt to sell this morning so I could buy you a thicker coat..."
"What……"
Jiang Wansu was stunned, then cried out hysterically, "Why? This is the only brocade dress I have left! Why? I don't want any thick coat, I just want this brocade dress!"
Cui Yulin said, "It's not appropriate to wear this in this alley. It doesn't belong here. Is it worth making your family suffer through the winter just for a piece of clothing that's beyond repair?"
"worth."
Jiang Wansu's eyes shone brightly: "It's worth it!"
Cui Yulin lowered his eyes and remained silent.
He couldn't bring himself to ask his father for money for a tattered garment; he simply couldn't do it.
If Jiang Wansu remains obstinate, there's nothing he can do.
Seeing him bow his head and remain silent, Jiang Wansu suddenly burst into tears.
"You did this on purpose, Yu Lin. I know you well, we've been husband and wife. You did this on purpose."
She looked at the silent Cui Yulin with tears in her eyes, her heart filled with sorrow.
The wooden door slammed shut, and Cui Yulin looked up to see only the other person's back.
Watching the person disappear before his eyes, Cui Yulin suddenly felt a sense of relief for some reason...
——————
I've combined two chapters into one for the later side stories, otherwise it would be too long.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
