Chapter 5 Possessions
When Zhong Cai woke up, it was already the next morning.
Surrounded by unfamiliar surroundings, he paused for a moment, then suddenly realized that he was already married to Wu Shaogan and was sleeping in his bed. With that thought, he struggled to turn over and saw the handsome man sleeping next to him.
Wu Shaogan was also awake, and was turned to his side.
Now their eyes met.
Zhong Cai recalled yesterday's events and couldn't help but glare at him jealously, saying with a sigh, "I really underestimated you. Your weak body doesn't stop you from being amazing in that area." He hissed and shifted slightly in pain, "I'm already at the fourth level of the Heavenly Guidance Realm, and my skin and flesh are well-tempered, but you've made my back ache and my legs weak. Tsk tsk."
Wu Shaogan got agitated last night and is now regretting it. He feels he shouldn't have been provoked into doing something wrong. Before he could decide whether to apologize to Zhong Cai or say something conciliatory, he was speechless again.
The two looked at each other, and the atmosphere became slightly awkward.
Even if a lifelong brotherhood is reduced to a single night, it still feels somewhat uneasy, even if it's for the sake of saving a life.
Zhong Caixin was quite carefree; he simply waved his hand to indicate that the matter was over, and then began to carefully observe Wu Shaogan.
Wu Shaogan knew he cared, so he let him look.
Zhong Cai looked him over and then touched his face before saying with relief, "You look fine, and you're not as cold as you were last night. You're alright. You almost scared me to death!"
Wu Shaogan felt a warmth in his heart and flicked Zhong Cai's forehead with his finger.
Zhong Cai flicked back, then relaxed her brows and said happily, "You haven't lost any strength either, you've recovered quite well!"
This is a little game that the two of them often play. Back then, Zhong Cai started it first. Wu Shaogan, a little kid, was "bullied" for a long time before he gave up his composure and "angrily" fought back.
Now that they're doing this again, they both understand each other's feelings and want to get along like before.
Except... well, they're still lying there quite "openly".
·
Zhong Cai didn't rush to get up. She took the several mustard seed bags she had brought from under her pillow and showed them to Wu Shaogan one by one.
"This is my dowry that I brought, and I also took the betrothal gifts from your family. We'll be living together from now on, so I want to build up some wealth. You see, this will give you an idea of what to expect."
Wu Shaogan was slightly taken aback, but he didn't stand on ceremony with Zhong Cai. He quickly scanned the several mustard seed bags and asked, "Which ones are the betrothal gifts from the Wu family?"
Zhong Cai was surprised: "You don't know?" As he spoke, he suddenly remembered the coldness when he married into the family yesterday, and he couldn't help but frown and mutter something indistinctly, but it was obviously not a nice thing.
Wu Shaogan calmly took out the betrothal gift list, looked it over, and said, "The total value is over 500,000 gold coins, which is acceptable."
Zhong Cai thought for a moment and asked, "How so?"
Wu Shaogan explained to him, "The Wu family bases the betrothal gifts and dowries on the aptitude of each child. A dowry of the lowest rank is 50,000 gold, a yellow rank 100,000, a black rank 200,000, an earth rank 300,000, and a heaven rank 500,000. In addition, if a child's strength reaches the Palace Opening Realm when they get married, an additional 100,000 to 300,000 gold will be added, and if their strength reaches the Enlightenment Realm, an additional 500,000 gold will be added. Then there is the contribution from each family's parents, with the direct descendants receiving more and the illegitimate branches with high aptitude receiving more."
Zhong Cai suddenly realized: "So you were originally supposed to get at least a million gold coins for your wedding, but because of your current situation, they've halved it?"
Seeing that Zhong Cai treated him with affection but not in a way that made him feel overly cautious, Wu Shaogan felt quite at ease and replied, "Yes. According to the rules, it shouldn't be this much, but I have made some contributions in the past, so giving it to me like this is both to save face for others and to appease the person who married into the family."
Zhong Cai did the math and said, "I have a total of 260,000 taels of gold. I'll keep 200,000 as a safe deposit box and keep 60,000 for our daily expenses. I've already exchanged the cultivation resources I need from the Zhong family's treasury. I also brought you a lot of nourishing and pain-relieving medicines. I'll have my servant who can cook make them for you every day. Oh, right! You should check which ones are appropriate for your symptoms first. You can't just take medicine indiscriminately... Also, those beast pills you gave me before were all of high quality. Anyway, we don't need them. We can sell them to supplement our household income when we need them..."
Wu Shaogan's expression gradually softened.
Listening to Zhong Cai's rambling, he became increasingly calm.
After Zhong Cai finished counting on her fingers, Wu Shaogan picked out the medicinal herbs he could use and slowly revealed his secrets to Zhong Cai.
“Every head of the Wu family has lived in the largest garden in the Wu family mansion. My father was the head of the family this time, and he named it ‘Chongxiao Garden’. After I was born, I was found to have a Heavenly Quality and was assigned to Yunteng Courtyard, which is close to the main courtyard. Its conditions were only slightly inferior to those of the main courtyard. However, I was crippled, so I could no longer occupy Yunteng Courtyard. According to the Wu family’s rules, I was moved to a small courtyard on the outermost edge of Chongxiao Garden. Currently, there are several such small courtyards in different locations in the garden. The one we are in is in the east, and there are no similar small courtyards nearby. It is relatively remote.”
At this point, Wu Shaogan sounded somewhat apologetic.
He had planned to bring Zhong Cai back to the Wu family when he was stronger and able to protect him, and to tell everyone that Zhong Cai was his best friend. However, he never expected that Zhong Cai would be in such a situation when he arrived at the Wu family.
Zhong Cai saw through Wu Shaogan's thoughts but didn't care at all. The current situation was much better than he had worried, so he said, "It's okay. It's better for us to have some peace and quiet, so we don't have to deal with people." He pouted, expressing his dissatisfaction very bluntly, "I'm annoyed by anything that's not nice to you."
Wu Shao chuckled dryly and continued, "I've been locked in my room since I woke up. Apart from Xiang Lin being a guard who can't leave, I don't know if there are any other servants willing to come with me. But even if there aren't, two people will be assigned to do chores as usual. All my belongings from my original room have been brought over, and the storage bag hasn't been taken away." He picked up the storage bag from the pile of clothes next to him, glanced at it, and handed it to Zhong Cai. "My belongings are all still here. I haven't tidied them up much before, so it's perfect for you to take care of them."
Zhong Cai didn't stand on ceremony with Wu Shaogan and took his mustard seed bag to examine it.
Zhong Cai himself had four blue mustard seed bags, which were of low quality and each had a different size, the smallest being only one cubic meter. The one he carried with him was actually a gift from Wu Shaogan, and it had the largest capacity of ten cubic meters, roughly the size of a single room; the mustard seed bags that the three families gave him as compensation of one thousand taels of gold each had only one cubic meter, roughly one cubic meter in size.
Wu Shaogan's purple mustard seed bags are of the highest quality, each containing one hundred cubic meters.
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Zhong Cai looked around and asked questions.
Wu Shaogan spoke frankly and without reservation.
In Wu Shaogan's storage pouch, the most eye-catching items were three large chests, each filled with gold. Each chest, according to its specifications, could hold a million gold coins. On top of the chests sat a small box containing half a box of Xuan Pearls, a total of seventy-eight pearls—Xuan Pearls were something only cultivators at the Suspended Illumination Realm could use; they served as both currency and cultivation resources, each worth ten thousand gold coins, making them extremely precious. Given Wu Shaogan's rapid breakthroughs, it was normal for him to have stockpiled Xuan Pearls beforehand.
There were also fifteen wooden shelves, each with a hundred compartments. Three shelves were filled with various kinds of rare medicinal herbs, mostly first and second grade, with the fewest being third grade. Two shelves held other kinds of treasures, mostly second grade, with a very small number of third grade, all of which were relatively precious. One shelf was filled with precious materials, not full, mostly metals, mostly close to third grade, with five reaching third grade. Obviously, those that were not of the required grade were materials that Wu Shaogan used to make arrows when he was in the Palace Opening Realm, while the third grade materials were what Wu Shaogan prepared for the Enlightenment Realm, but there was not enough time to prepare too many. The second and third grade beast meat on the third shelf was for eating. The second grade beast blood on the third shelf was used to temper the body but was not used up. The other shelf contained miscellaneous items, including but not limited to beast cores, several sets of second and third grade bows and arrows, other types of Xuan weapons, different kinds of pills... There was also a box of letters that Zhong Cai had written to Wu Shaogan before, all of which were well preserved—Zhong Cai also had a box of such letters from Wu Shaogan.
In addition, there were two empty hundred-compartment wooden shelves, several large cabinets containing different clothes, dozens of boxes containing crowns, jade pendants, belts, etc., and a dozen or so blue mustard seed bags piled together in the corner, and one blue mustard seed bag with a capacity of fifty cubic meters.
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After looking at it, Zhong Cai's eyes lit up, and she couldn't help but say, "There's quite a lot of stuff."
Wu Shaogan's expression was gentle: "It's also because of you."
Zhong Cai looked over blankly: "Me?"
Wu Shaogan confessed, "When we used to go out together, you always saved up resources. I saw how diligently you worked and never wasted anything, and I felt I couldn't keep spending so extravagantly, so I started saving too. It's a pity I didn't do it intentionally, and I only started two or three years ago, otherwise I would have saved more than this." His original intention was just to do the same thing as his friend so that he would have something to talk about in the future, but who could have imagined that things would change so quickly? What he did unintentionally became the capital that would allow him to live a good life in the future.
Zhong Cai was immediately delighted.
He remembered. His buddy's strength was improving rapidly, venturing deeper into the forest each year. The deeper he went, the more savage beasts there were, and this guy often had to clear them out. Naturally, he'd take the time to gather low-grade treasures nearby. After the beasts were killed, this guy would want to throw away anything he didn't need—what a waste! He quickly stopped him and kept the treasures himself. With his poor aptitude, his progress was faster than many others, largely thanks to his buddy… Unexpectedly, his buddy had actually learned to save money because of this!
So, although their current wealth is not comparable to that of cultivators above the Enlightenment Realm, they are considered relatively wealthy among those in the Heavenly Guidance Realm and the Palace Opening Realm, so he doesn't need to be too frugal.
At this moment, Zhong Cai also breathed a sigh of relief. Why was he always worried about not having enough savings? It was because he was afraid that his friend's family fortune had been completely taken away by his parents—this was not just needless worry.
Zhong Cai had seen it all. Within the Zhong family, quite a few clansmen would get into trouble every year. Once something happened, their parents would empty their savings and divide them among their siblings, since they were useless after being crippled. They even called it a fair distribution. Some of the more callous parents would demand repayment for the resources they had previously used… But in reality, the vast majority of children didn't need their parents to provide any resources. The clan rules provided for them, and even crippled clansmen would receive a monthly stipend, since they still needed to live, right?
Fortunately, after he married into the family, the Wu family head and his wife, though cold and indifferent, perhaps only drove his friend away so quickly because they were too disappointed, but they didn't go so far as to deprive their son of his private savings—at this point, they were somewhat like his own son again.
Since the patriarch remained unmoved, the other members of the Wu family naturally dared not make any moves. Otherwise, no matter how strict the Wu family's rules were, there would always be someone who would take advantage of his brother's unconscious state to steal all the good things.
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Zhong Cai started tidying up, first moving all of Wu Shaogan's things into the blue mustard seed bag, then sorting the useful medicinal herbs that Wu Shaogan had picked out into an empty hundred-compartment wooden shelf, and finally emptying all of her own blue mustard seed bags and putting them into another empty wooden shelf.
Wu Shaogan looked at the blue mustard seed bag and suddenly smiled. He had just received it and originally intended to give it to Zhong Cai when they met again... and now it really had ended up in Zhong Cai's hands when they met again.
After tidying up, Zhong Cai took out ten thousand gold coins, stuffed them into a purple mustard seed bag, and handed it back to Wu Shaogan, saying, "For pocket money."
This was a novel experience, and Wu Shaogan couldn't help but smile. He hung the mustard seed bag on his waist and obediently said, "Okay."
Zhong Cai carefully put away the blue mustard seed bag, patted Wu Shaogan's arm, and said in a good mood, "Although the method is a bit strange, we are now family, and I am very happy."
Wu Shaogan thought it was indeed a bit strange, but he was also very happy, so he sincerely replied, "Me too."
·
The two stayed on the bed and whispered to each other for half an hour, as if they had endless things to say.
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
Manager He Zhou's voice came in: "Young Master, Young Master Cai, have you gotten up?"
Zhong Cai and Wu Shaogan exchanged a glance.
Wu Shaogan said calmly, "Uncle He, I'll be right there."
Zhong Cai had a pretty good impression of Manager He, but he knew his friend very well. As soon as he saw him like this, he knew that the guy was probably the type who was close but not too trustworthy. So he rolled his eyes and raised his voice, "Manager He, please wait a moment!"
As they spoke, the two found their clothes and put them on. Zhong Cai opened the door first, and Manager He Zhou stood two steps away, his eyes gentle yet with a hint of worry.
After opening the door, Zhong Cai stepped aside to make room for Wu Shaogan.
Wu Shaogan said expressionlessly, "Uncle He, I'm fine now."
·
He Zhou was forced to leave last night without having a chance to explain anything, so he was inevitably a little worried. Today, after much deliberation and hesitation, he finally decided to come and take a look.
Upon seeing this, he quickly made a judgment: the wedding night was over, and the young master's spirit had stabilized. Although his attitude was cold, the young master Zhong Cai did not seem to be offended and was still radiant...
He Zhou breathed a sigh of relief, bowed to Wu Shaogan and Zhong Cai, and said gently, "To avoid delaying the auspicious time yesterday, I was unable to send my gift in time, so I am only sending it today. Please do not take offense."
As he spoke, he presented a blue mustard seed bag.
Wu Shaogan casually took it and said, "Uncle He, you're too kind."
He Zhou quietly observed Wu Shaogan's expression and, seeing that he looked alright, felt even more at ease. He then said to Zhong Cai, "I still have matters to attend to, so I won't stay any longer. If you have any instructions, Young Master Cai, just send someone to deliver them to me." He handed over a jade pendant as proof.
Zhong Cai took it and said with a smile, "Thank you, Manager He."
He Zhou didn't linger any longer. After bowing once more, he quickly left.
After everyone left, Wu Shaogan handed the bag of mustard seeds in his hand to Zhong Cai.
Zhong Cai checked the contents and saw that it was full of gold. He couldn't help but say, "Manager He seems to care about you quite a bit. He sent you ten thousand gold coins because he was worried you were short of money, right?" Isn't that much more loving than his friend's parents?
Wu Shaogan said, "Uncle He was a trusted confidant that my mother brought from the Yang family. When I was young, my mother was busy with cultivation, and there were unusual phenomena when I was born. As the person my mother trusted most, he and my father's bodyguard took care of me, one openly and one secretly. It wasn't until I started cultivating at the age of three that they stopped accompanying me day and night and instead took turns protecting me. When I was nine years old, my strength surpassed Uncle He's, and when I was eleven years old, I surpassed my father's bodyguard. After that, they rarely appeared."
Having shaken off his self-pity, Wu Shaogan was now quite clear-headed. He said, "Uncle He came because he cared about me, but when he went back, he would report everything about me to my mother in great detail. He never acted on emotion." As he said this, he gave a slightly sarcastic smirk, "And my mother would never waste her energy on a good-for-nothing."
Zhong Cai understood.
His friend and Manager He had a pretty good relationship, and Manager He genuinely cared for his friend. However, if his friend had a conflict with his mother, Manager He would definitely side with Madam Yang. Since Madam Yang was a calculating and heartless person, his friend was best not to place too much trust in Manager He. He could accept Manager He's concern if he could, and repay him appropriately when the opportunity arose.
·
That's certainly true.
He Zhou quickly went to visit Yang Jingfei and informed her about Wu Shaogan's current health condition. Yang Jingfei only instructed him not to report any further news about Wu Shaogan to her.
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