Chapter 50: Lu's eldest brother
Chapter 50
Lu Songli rode in a horse-drawn carriage to her eldest sister-in-law's family, the Tian family. They set out early and arrived at noon, which was around ten o'clock in the morning.
From a distance, Lu Songli noticed a carriage parked in front of the Tian family's gate, with people carrying things from the house and stuffing them into it. Her eldest brother was talking to two half-grown children.
"That's enough, Axiu and Awen, stop moving."
"Brother-in-law, we can't listen to you or my sister about this matter. We have to listen to our mother."
"Yes, brother-in-law, you have helped us a lot during this period. This is nothing."
The carriage approached, and Lu Songli stuck her head out of the carriage, "Brother and sister-in-law?"
Hearing the voice, Lu Zhiyuan turned around and saw Lu Songli, who was very surprised. "Little sister, why are you here?"
When Lu Zhiyuan first saw his own sister, he thought something had happened to his parents. He didn't feel relieved until Lu Songli denied his guess.
"What are you doing?" Lu Songli looked at the carriage that was filled with things and had a guess in his mind.
Lu Zhiyuan said, "Your sister-in-law and I just heard about the Empress Dowager's decree to grant the marriage, and we were planning to go back today." With such a big thing happening at home, as the eldest son, he should have been at home to help his parents share some of the burden. As soon as he heard the news, he had been regretting not being able to go back earlier.
Lu Songli thought, this news spreads quite fast.
"Don't stand outside, let's go inside first." Mrs. Tian, Lu's wife, noticed that the neighbors were starting to peek in, and she even dealt with two people who wanted to come over.
Mrs. Lu led her to rest, but Lu Songli said, "No hurry, I'll go see my mother-in-law first."
Then Mrs. Lu took her to see her mother-in-law. Mrs. Tian had injured her left hand and left leg and was currently lying in bed recuperating.
Lu Songli saw her sister-in-law help Mrs. Tian up. Seeing that she was in great discomfort, Lu Songli said a few words of greeting on behalf of her parents. Mrs. Tian was very polite and grateful for her brother's help in recent times and her parents' tolerance.
Lu Songli only stayed for a while, finished speaking, and came out without disturbing the injured person's rest.
Then, Lu Songli followed Mrs. Lu to the main room, where her elder brother was already sitting.
"Little sister." Seeing her, Lu Zhiyuan wiped his face, trying to cheer himself up.
"Brother, you look so tired lately?" Lu Songli saw that he looked sallow, with red bloodshot eyes and dark circles under his eyes. He looked very tired. It seemed that he must have been working very hard recently.
Lu Zhiyuan gave a wry smile. Originally, his family had come to celebrate his mother-in-law's birthday, planning to stay for only two or three days before returning. His father-in-law and brother-in-law had just left to look for medicinal herbs in another province, and they had just packed their bags and were about to return home when, just as they were about to do so, his mother-in-law fell. The fall was quite severe, breaking both an arm and a leg.
The Tian family owned a herbal medicine shop. When his father-in-law and eldest brother-in-law were around, they would run the shop. When they weren't home, his mother-in-law would go and check on the shop. Now his mother-in-law had fallen and was unable to move. The remaining brother-in-law and sister-in-law were both young, only eight years old, and incompetent. The Tian family had no one in charge, so if they left, the entire family would be in chaos. He had no choice but to stay with his wife and children to help.
Lu Zhiyuan didn't want to talk about his situation for the time being, and there was nothing much to talk about. He was more concerned about his younger sister and his family. "Little sister, what's the matter with the Queen Mother's arranged marriage?"
So, Lu Songli briefly recounted what had happened at home recently.
Lu Zhiyuan was stunned. He had never imagined that in just two weeks' absence, his family would undergo such drastic changes. His sister's fiancé change was so complicated. Xie Zhan, his fiancée for nearly ten years, became Zhao Yutan's, and Zhao Yutan's fiancée, Qin Sheng, became his brother-in-law.
"Isn't this nonsense! What is Xie Zhan doing?" Lu Zhiyuan slammed the table in anger, and then walked around the main room with his hands behind his back. He didn't expect that a small incident of falling into the water would lead to such huge consequences.
Lu Songli didn't say much and let him vent. The matter was already a foregone conclusion.
"I should have gone back earlier." Lu Zhiyuan regretted it.
Lu Songli ate the freshly baked snacks and said nonchalantly, "It's okay. You won't be able to help much if you go back."
In modern times, she preferred salty traditional snacks and disliked sweet snacks. She rarely ate cakes or anything like that. Perhaps it was because of the sugar shortage in this era, and her body was craving it. She actually found the Tian family's homemade sugar horns quite delicious.
Lu Zhiyuan: Sister, this hurts my heart.
"Little sister, it's all my fault. I dragged your brother to stay at my parents' house to deal with things." The eldest sister-in-law, Tian, was also very self-blaming. She didn't expect such a big thing to happen at home. Before Tian An went back, his parents-in-law brought them a message saying that they could handle and take care of the family affairs, and asked them to rest assured to help the Tian family.
She hesitated for a moment and then agreed. Her parents-in-law were in charge of the Lu family, and if they left, there would be no one in charge of her family.
"Sister-in-law, don't blame yourself. What I just said is the truth. Even if brother goes back, the situation will not be better than it is now. If he stays here, the family will save half a month's worth of food."
Lu Zhiyuan: This is even more heartbreaking. Does that mean he is just a good-for-nothing at home?
Lu Zhiyuan snorted twice and said, "Although I, your brother, haven't been able to help at home, I haven't been without results in the past half month."
Lu Songli was curious, "What did you gain?"
Lu Zhiyuan nodded to his wife, Tian smiled at her and went into the house.
He turned to her and said, "You'll know soon, little sister."
Not long after, her sister-in-law came out with a wooden box made of good material. At Lu Zhiyuan's signal, she handed the wooden box directly to Lu Songli.
Lu Zhiyuan raised his chin and said, "Look."
Lu Songli took it and opened the wooden box without hesitation. She recognized it at a glance, "Oh, is this wild ginseng?" That's right, ginseng was all wild in ancient times, and there was no concept or technology for artificial cultivation.
She lifted the box and carefully examined the ginseng's stem, body, and whiskers. This ginseng had a short, thick root with a yellow-brown skin, two legs stretched out to the sides, and its shape resembled wire, dense and deep, with ring patterns on it.
Lu Songli leaned closer and sniffed the faint ginseng scent, and said, "This ginseng is fifty years old, right?" What's more, it is in good condition.
Lu Zhiyuan looked at his sister in surprise. She even knew about ginseng? The age of the ginseng she described was correct: fifty years old, no more, no less. The problem was that when he had planned to buy this ginseng, he had asked a master to examine it. This master was very good at identifying ginseng, and he had even spent twenty taels of silver to have this master examine it.
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