Meng Chijian didn't waste any words with him and went straight up and threw two punches.
"If you dare say another word to her, I'll make sure you never pass the exam again in your life."
He was in a terrible mood and kicked her again.
Zhang Yixing, being a scholar, was naturally at a disadvantage in terms of martial arts. He was covered in dust and grime, his eyes filled with resentment. "Don't you dare run away, just wait and see!" he said, before limping away.
Meng Chijian wanted to find the place where A Mian used to live, but after walking a few steps, he saw Lu Weiwei.
Lu Weiwei was wearing an old dress, and unlike a few months ago, she looked sorrowful and haggard.
She had initially thought that Zhang Yixing hadn't prepared diligently for the exams before, and that he would be fine this time if he put in the effort. However, her husband had truly begun to work hard, not only piling many household chores onto her shoulders, but also ensuring that the expenses for the exams were entirely legitimate and unavoidable.
—The academy alone costs ten taels of silver a year; books are also expensive, and with writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones, the monthly expenses are at least one tael; not only that, after the county examination, there is also the prefectural examination, and the travel and lodging expenses during that time are at least one tael; the examination fee for each session is also one tael…
All things considered, taking the exam for a year would cost twenty-four taels of silver, which would amount to two taels of silver per month.
This doesn't even include daily food, drink, and living expenses.
All the money in the Zhang family was managed by Zhang's mother. When it was allocated to their small household, they received one tael of silver a month, and that was it. There was no extra money at all.
"This is already quite good. Please understand that my son is still studying. If you think it's too little, you can find another way!"
Zhang Yixing was pampered at home. When he ran out of money, he would go to his family with a grin and ask for some more. But he spent all of it on himself and didn't give a penny to anyone else.
What can Lu Weiwei do?
Now, recalling that "prophetic dream," she remembers that when she was at the blacksmith's house, although everything was going wrong and she was arguing all the time (as she is now), it was all about interpersonal conflicts, and she never worried about making a living!
Not only that, the food was also quite good...
Lu Weiwei was only then surprised to realize that there were many fleeting, indistinct images in her dream that she had not paid close attention to before.
In those scenes, Ah Mian often went back to her own home (right next door) to make tofu.
At that moment, her gaze fell upon the gentle man who often helped his wife pack up her stall.
However, Lu Weiwei cannot do that now. Firstly, she doesn't have a donkey, and secondly, she doesn't think much of this business.
A piece of tofu only costs two coins; the money earned is entirely hard-earned.
Now, Lu Weiwei found Zhang Yixing utterly unpleasant. His gentleness was seen as weakness, and his thoughtfulness as indecisiveness. Seeing him get beaten up only fueled her disgust. What use was this man who couldn't even lift a chicken?
Looking at him now, Meng Chijian is tall and handsome, and he naturally has a kind of temperament that makes people want to rely on him and get close to him.
Although she was a bit cold-hearted and never said a kind word, she was very generous when it came to spending money on her family.
This was supposed to be her husband.
"Are you looking for A-Mian's house?" Lu Weiwei tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "It used to be right next door, next to the Zhang family. I'll take you there."
"Need not."
Meng Chijian went straight to A Mian's house. It was now empty, clearly having been sold to someone else, except for a stone millstone in the yard that couldn't be moved.
However, it hasn't been tidied up yet, and the front door is still wide open.
When he went inside, he found the donkey shed half-collapsed, and he could almost see little Amian playing there.
Then I went to look inside the empty room. It seemed to have been cleaned up, as there were no traces of it.
“There’s nothing to see here. Uncle Lu sold the property deed a couple of months ago, and the price wasn’t high.” Lu Weiwei didn’t leave; she followed her to the door and explained softly.
"What happened to A-Mian? I haven't been to the city lately, and I've been thinking about her a lot..."
Meng Chijian glanced at her suspiciously, then simply ignored her and walked away.
He waited for a long time before Lu's father finally appeared at the edge of the woods.
When Lu's father saw him, he mistook him for a creditor who had come to the door (he hadn't even seen clearly who had thrown him out that night), and waved his hands repeatedly, "What are you doing here again?! Didn't we pay you back all that money? We tore up those IOUs!"
Meng Chijian said, "I am A-Mian's husband. I've come to ask you some questions."
Upon hearing this, Father Lu immediately wanted to put on airs as a father-in-law.
“Think carefully and answer well,” Meng Chijian said, taking out a wine flask. “Here you go.”
Upon smelling the aroma of the wine, Lu's father grinned and said, "Of course, of course."
"When did Ah Mian become like this?"
"Huh? What did you say? She's been doing just fine." Mr. Lu scratched his messy hair. "I haven't even settled accounts with her yet. What kind of daughter treats her own father like this..."
Meng Chijian thought for a moment, "What was A-Mian's condition when A-Mian's mother left?"
Father Lu's expression changed, a hint of sharpness flashing in his eyes. He remained silent for a long while. After a moment, his expression softened, and he leaned against a tree: "Anyway, the betrothal money isn't going to be returned to you. Let me think..."
“When I got home that time, it was unusually quiet. I was puzzled because the millstone and the donkey were completely silent. When I got inside, I found that Amian’s mother was gone, but Amian was strange; she was lying next to me, sleeping. I didn’t know where she was or how long she had been there, so I woke her up…”
"After A-Mian woke up, she said that her mother asked her to make a block of tofu to sell later." This old drunkard thought he should have forgotten all of this long ago. All these years he had been drunk as a madman, but it turned out he was trying to avoid those eyes.
His pupils were extremely black, like ink that had been ground for too long, so black that the bottom could not be seen.
"Later we found out that her mother had been gone for two days. When it was time to bury her, we couldn't find her anywhere, and then we discovered that she had secretly hidden inside the coffin."
Meng Chijian asked, "Why haven't you come home for two days?"
"You've been busy all day, and everyone in the village goes to watch the card games in the evening. Doesn't anyone have any social life at all?"
"You've seen cicadas, haven't you? When they're larvae, they live underground for over ten years. As adults, they use all their strength to sing loudly, just to attract females, and then they die within ten days. Don't look at me like that. You don't understand now only because you're young and don't know how lucky the cicada is."
Nothing can withstand the test of time, not even love.
Meng Chijian put away the wine pot, ignoring Lu's father's shouts behind him, and did not give it to the man.
He walked to the tomb and glanced at it, noticing that several of the offerings were still missing.
He rearranged the items and bowed several times, saying, "I will take good care of A-Mian from now on."
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