Chapter 40
Zhou Yuan had just missed the village chief's wife and others who were visiting. He was only here to see Chen Qing. Aunt Sun told him about the village chief's birthday, and the two discussed what kind of gift to give.
"This is your first year in the village, and it happens to be a half-round year for him, so the gift can't be too light, but of course, too heavy isn't good either. If you don't want to give money, just choose something flashy but impractical."
Zhou Yuan thought for a moment. Among the things he had brought back from the capital were two inkstones. Since he didn't study or write, he simply gave them away. After all, they were from the capital and were quite valuable.
Zhou Yuan nodded, and after finishing his explanation, he silently looked at Chen Qing.
Chen Qing lowered his head, avoiding his gaze. It was the first time he had ever whispered behind someone's back, and Zhou Yuan had caught him red-handed. He was feeling quite embarrassed right now.
Seeing Zhou Yuan's gaze growing increasingly intense, Chen Qing quickly stood up: "I'll go make dinner."
Looking at the sun, which had not yet completely set, Zhou Yuan asked silently.
Seeing their back-and-forth eye contact, Aunt Sun decided to hand the battle over to them. So she stood up and said, "I'll go outside and pick some vegetables. Let's have a simple vegetarian meal today."
As she left, she gave Chen Qing a warning look, telling him not to say anything out of line.
Watching Aunt Sun leave, Zhou Yuan sat down next to Chen Qing: "What were you saying to your auntie just now? Did I hear you correctly?"
Chen Qing quickly shook his head: "He didn't say anything. I was asking about Li Xin."
"Yeah?"
Chen Qing nodded firmly, and Zhou Yuan didn't ask him any more questions. Chen Qing looked at him, sniffed, and thought it smelled a bit unpleasant: "What's that smell on you?"
Zhou moved a little further away from him: "I went out to take care of some things this morning."
"Oh." Chen Qing didn't press for details and went out to help Aunt Sun pick vegetables.
On the third day of the Lunar New Year, Li Xin and Qi Shuning came to pay their respects, and Zhou Yuan pretended to follow along. However, when Li Xin saw what Zhou Yuan was carrying, she exclaimed, "Why did you buy this?!"
Zhou Yuan didn't care at all: "What, you have a problem with me giving this to my sweetheart?"
Li Xin rolled her eyes so hard they almost reached the sky: "Who sends their sweetheart a piglet?!"
"Mind your own business."
The two of them walked noisily to Chen Qing's door. Li Xin handed the pastries and fruits in her hand to Aunt Sun: "Happy New Year, Auntie."
Chen Qing was preparing lunch in the kitchen. Although they were very familiar with each other, they still had to observe proper etiquette and make a few dishes.
"You've come all this way, and you even brought things." Aunt Sun took the gifts and stepped aside to let them into the house, when she noticed that Zhou Yuan was still holding something in his arms.
She was startled: "What is this?"
Zhou Yuan laughed: "Yesterday I went to town and saw someone selling it. He was in a hurry to sell it, so I bought it. But after buying it, I realized I didn't know how to raise it, so I had to trouble you, Auntie."
Looking at the piglet, Aunt Sun didn't know much else, but a piglet wasn't cheap; it would cost at least two taels of silver.
Zhou Yuan said, "That person seemed to be in trouble, so he sold me one and a half ounces."
Grandma Sun took the piglet from his hands, and even she, who was usually efficient, was somewhat at a loss.
"How are we supposed to raise them? We don't even have a place to put them."
Zhou Yuan then replied, "The area where the chickens and ducks are kept is so spacious. We can just tidy up a little space for you, and I'll take care of it for you in a bit."
Chen Qing heard the pig squealing, grabbed a spatula and came out. He saw that Aunt Sun was holding a piglet. He was very curious, so he went over to take a look and said, "Mom, is this a pig?"
Grandma Sun wanted Chen Qing to hug her too, but when she saw the spatula in his hand and remembered that he was still cooking, she didn't give it to him: "Zhou Yuan gave it to me, saying he'd keep it at our house."
Chen Qing's eyes lit up, and he looked at Zhou Yuan, whose eyes were full of smiles.
However, Chen Qing didn't linger for long before returning to the kitchen to cook. The remaining people were excitedly building a shed for the piglets at the chicken coop in the back.
By the time Chen Qing finished cooking, their pigsty had just been built. Although it was hastily made, it looked quite decent.
It was a sunny day, so a table was set up in the yard, and several people gathered around it, creating a lively atmosphere.
Zhou Yuan brought a slightly stronger liquor than Osmanthus Wine today, which he bought in town yesterday. Chen Qing had no memory of the liquor after drinking it once, so he didn't touch it today.
However, Li Xin did not expect that Qi Shuning could not hold his liquor well. After two drinks, he became dizzy and started spouting classical Chinese phrases. Li Xin felt embarrassed and took him home.
After finishing his meal, Chen Qing ran to the back to look at the piglet. Zhou Yuan followed behind him. He was more talkative in front of Zhou Yuan now, so he said, "I was thinking of finding a cat or a dog for my mother to keep, but I didn't expect you to send me a piglet."
"What does it eat? There's no grass here."
"Do you think it can eat the food we eat?"
"Won't it get cold in this weather?"
Zhou Yuan found it amusing. Usually, he would only say a few words if you teased him more, but now he was talking a lot more.
He was even worried that Chen Qing would still be reluctant to slaughter the pig once it grew up.
The days of the Spring Festival are leisurely. When not visiting relatives, the villagers gather together to talk. I don't know where it came from, but it was said that Zhou Yuan's sweetheart was Chen Qing, who lived next door.
When they first heard the rumor, no one took it seriously. After all, Chen Qing was a widow with such a low profile in the village, and Zhou Yuan had such good qualities, so how could he possibly be interested in him?
The source of these rumors is hard to trace now. At first, the rumors were quite harsh, saying that Chen Qing was shameless and that he seduced Zhou Yuan, and that a widowed man like him couldn't settle down.
Those who heard this immediately disagreed with the viewpoint. They had all seen what kind of person Chen Qing was; he had been honest and dutiful for the past five years. He wouldn't have silently stayed in the Meng family for five years, especially since he had even worn mourning clothes for Meng Tao.
But some observant people thought back and realized that when they all thought Zhou Yuan and Li Xin were going to be together, it was always Li Xin who went that way. Now it seems more like she was covering for them.
Everyone was caught up in this speculation, which gradually seemed to become more convincing, especially since someone saw Zhou Yuan buy piglets yesterday, but someone else heard pigs squealing at Chen Qing's house when passing by.
So it's true? Zhou Yuan's sweetheart is actually Chen Qing?
Speaking of Chen Qing, the villagers' biggest impression of him is that they have no impression of him. His presence is too faint. Sometimes, if they don't think about it carefully, the villagers don't even know that there is such a person as him. What is it about such a person that attracted Zhou Yuan?
These words spread throughout the village, and naturally reached the village chief's home as well.
Tomorrow is the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, and the village chief is going to celebrate his fifty-fifth birthday. Right now, he is outside looking at the prepared dishes.
"Do you think Zhou Yuan is deliberately going against you?" Aunt Wang leaned closer to the village chief. "It was one thing to talk about Li Xin before, but what's with this Chen Qing popping up now?"
The village chief clicked his tongue impatiently: "We don't have any brothers or sisters in our family, why are you worrying about that?"
“We don’t have any brothers or sisters in our family, but my nephew from my mother’s side has just reached marriageable age.” Aunt Wang had a well-thought-out plan: to let the two of them meet at the village chief’s birthday banquet. Zhou Yuan was a capable man; although he hadn’t given the village chief any face before, he hadn’t caused any more trouble. If they could really become relatives, their family would rise to a higher status in the village.
"What's so great about Chen Qing? He's so useless, you can't get a word out of him. What does Zhou Yuan see in him?" Aunt Wang continued her nagging.
"If you really want to marry your nephew to him, then figure it out yourself." The village chief said impatiently, leaving her behind.
Aunt Wang was thinking to herself that her sister-in-law had asked her to find a good marriage for her nephew, and Zhou Yuan was the best candidate. If it really worked out, she would be considered Zhou Yuan's elder, and she could get a share of any good things that happened.
She quickly came up with a plan.
Zhang Ran, who was sweeping the yard, overheard their entire conversation and scoffed, "What kind of scoundrel dares to try and climb up to Zhou Yuan?"
He just didn't expect that the rumors he spread wouldn't make Chen Qing the target of public condemnation as he had hoped. Some people even started listing Chen Qing's good points. Were these people blind? How could Chen Qing be worthy of Zhou Yuan!
On the morning of the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, villagers began to visit one after another. They sat together in twos and threes, and the topic of conversation was still Zhou Yuan.
Aunt Wang was a little unhappy to hear this. It was still far from being settled. Besides, how could a widowed man compare to an innocent young man?
She attributed Zhou Yuan's attraction to Chen Qing to the lack of eligible young men in the village. With another eligible young man, Li Xin, already married, he had no choice but to accept Chen Qing as a second-best option. If he could see his nephew, that would be a much better choice.
Aunt Wang's nephew is named Wang Shan. He is nineteen years old this year and has a seventeen-year-old younger brother. They are just waiting for Wang Shan to get married so that they can get a dowry to help him find a wife.
Sure enough, Wang Shan arrived shortly afterward. He greeted the village chief and Aunt Wang very politely, and Aunt Wang immediately pulled him into the house to talk.
"Shan'er, you know why your parents called you here today, right?"
Wang Shan nodded, blushing slightly. "I know." He was handsome, and his blushing made him look even more like a girl from a modest family.
Aunt Wang looked him up and down, comparing him to Chen Qing in her mind. She felt that Chen Qing was nowhere near as good as her nephew. Just looking at Wang Shan's physique, it was much better than Chen Qing's body, which looked like he couldn't have children.
Listening to Aunt Wang's description of Zhou Yuan, Wang Shan also became somewhat interested.
Wang Shan's face turned even redder. Aunt Wang knew something was up when she saw his expression. Wang Shan asked in a low voice, "Auntie, such a good person, isn't he married yet?"
“His situation is special,” Aunt Wang said. “He’s a bit stubborn. You should listen to your aunt, like this…”
She leaned close to Wang Shan's ear and told him her thoughts.
Wang Shan quickly shook his head: "Auntie, this won't do, I..."
"It's not like I'm asking you to strip naked for him, it's just an excuse." Aunt Wang looked at him disapprovingly. "Don't think about taking it slow and getting to know him properly. He's so eligible, if he didn't use some tricks, do you think you'd even get a chance?"
Hearing her say that, Wang Shan's initial shyness vanished. He had thought that his aunt was genuinely looking out for him, but he never expected that her words were all meant to put him down.
"Wang Shan, you're not young anymore. Don't you think your younger brother is of marriageable age?" Aunt Wang's tone turned somewhat harsh when she saw his hesitation.
Seeing that he was still looking down, Aunt Wang continued to persuade him: "Zhou Yuan lives alone in a brick house and has a big yellow ox. He can definitely come up with seven or eight taels of dowry money. Think about it, with this dowry money, it will be much easier for your brother to get married, right? When you earn money in the future, you can be more confident when you go back to your parents' home. Your parents' home will be counting on you for help, and then you can stand up straight."
"If you were even more ambitious and gave birth to a son, you would be the head of the household."
Wang Shan gripped his clothes tightly with his hands, gritting his teeth fiercely. After a while, he raised his head with red eyes and said, "Auntie, I'll do whatever you say."
Zhang Ran, who was in the courtyard outside, heard their entire plan. He spat and cursed the old woman and Wang Shan for being shameless.
Then, his eyes lit up, and he turned and went into his room. He searched through a box and found a medicine bottle.
Any Tom, Dick, or Harry can have designs on Zhou Yuan, so all he wants is to sleep with Zhou Yuan, which isn't a big mistake, is it?
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