Achen had accidentally heard that their family needed ten taels of silver for a wedding, so she came over on her own initiative. Education was expensive, and the family didn't have any extra money. Since someone was willing to marry him, Wang's father sold an acre of prime paddy field and used the money to propose marriage to Achen's family.
When Achen's parents learned that the original owner was about to die and needed a wedding to bring good luck, they were reluctant at first. If she died, their brother would have to be a widow for the rest of his life. It was only after Achen knelt in front of them and begged for a whole day that they agreed.
Thinking of this, Wang Yu felt uncomfortable. He couldn't tell what was wrong, but he just felt that the child was too sensible! After talking to Wang's mother, he went back to the room and saw Cheng Chen sitting quietly by the bed waiting for him. He looked so well behaved.
Wang Yu took out a candy from the space and removed the packaging. He walked up to Cheng Chen and asked him to open his mouth. Then he stuffed the candy into the child's mouth.
The sweetness suddenly melted in her mouth. Cheng Chen looked up at her husband with a gentle smile and opened her eyes wide in surprise. It was so sweet, really so sweet. It was much better than what their family bought in town during the Chinese New Year in previous years.
Wang Yu looked at the pair of sparkling eyes and touched his hair. "If it tastes good, I'll buy you some later. Now we need to rest. Let's go to town to buy some things tomorrow."
Hearing this, Cheng Chen lay on his side on the bed. There was only a quilt on the bed. The two people were lying in the same quilt. Cheng Chen didn't dare to move. The scent of her husband was all around her.
In fact, Wang Yu was also a little uncomfortable with it, as he had always slept alone before. However, he could sense the child's nervousness, so Wang Yu just smiled, touched his head and said, "Go to sleep."
The gentle force on his head soothed Cheng Chen's nervousness, and he closed his eyes, feeling a little lost.
Wang Yu closed his eyes and counted out his belongings: a pair of gold bracelets and a peace locket for his children, a jade pendant for his mother, and two gold bars that the clerk had recommended when he bought the bracelets.
These were originally the gifts he planned to bring back for the Chinese New Year this year. His brother had given birth to his second child, and he had not yet met his little niece. He roughly calculated in his mind that these gold ornaments and gold bars were worth about twenty or thirty taels, and he didn't know how much the jade pendant was worth. These alone might not be enough. He still needed to find a source of income. Now he had to raise a child, and he couldn't rely on the royal father and mother alone.
I got up at the beginning of the next day. It was just dawn, around six or seven o'clock, and it was still a little cold. I folded my clothes, took the backpack, and took Cheng Chen to the village to ride on the ox cart. Pulling people on the ox cart was the livelihood of Zhou Chunsheng, a villager. In addition to plowing the fields with oxen during the busy farming season, he could also pick up passengers to supplement the family income during the slack season.
When we got there, there were already two people sitting on the ox cart, a young boy and a woman. They were Uncle Zhou's son and Aunt Zhou. They were probably going to town. The boy on the ox cart looked very happy, with smiling eyes.
"Is the Wang family boy going to town too? That's your husband next to him, right? He's so handsome!" Aunt Zhou saw Wang Yu walking towards them and thought that he was probably going to town as well, so she greeted them. Aunt Zhou was a warm-hearted person and was kind to everyone.
"Well, hello, auntie. I'm your husband. I'm going back to my parents' home in town to buy some things. I'd like to ride in Uncle Zhou's ox cart today." Wang Yu replied and pulled Cheng Chen onto the ox cart, and gave Mrs. Zhou two cents on the way.
Cheng Chen sat next to Wang Yu shyly, leaned closer to him and pulled his sleeve, but still followed Wang Yu in calling her "Auntie".
Aunt Zhou watched Wang Yu take her husband's hand and place it in hers, sighing inwardly. Wang Yu was also the young man she had her eye on; he lived nearby, his family was kind and hardworking, and he was also a scholar, and she heard he was a good student. However, he had fallen ill, and she was reluctant to let her brother marry him. She glanced sideways at her brother, who knew nothing about her, and sighed. It was not fate for them.
Yuxi Village is not far from Nanyang Town. The ox cart moves slowly, almost as fast as a person walking, but the advantage is that you don’t have to walk by yourself, so it only takes about quarter of an hour to arrive by ox cart. After Wang Yu said goodbye to Uncle Zhou, he took Cheng Chen and separated from them.
Nanyang Town is the closest town to the county seat, and the county seat has a wharf with many merchant ships coming and going, so Nanyang Town is also relatively prosperous. There are many shops on both sides of the street, high and low, including teahouses, pubs, pawnshops, and large stalls.
Cheng Chen has been looking around since he got off the ox cart. His father brought him to the town when he was a child. Later, when he grew up, his mother kept him at home to learn cooking and sewing clothes, saying that he would not be able to do anything in his husband's family and would be despised. Now that he was in the town, he was overwhelmed by the sight. The town was similar to what he remembered, but that did not stop him from feeling curious.
Seeing the child's curious look, he took his hand and walked to the vendor selling candied haws, bought one and handed it to the child. The candied haws at that time did not have too many fancy things, just simple hawthorns wrapped in sugar, bright red, but it was also the favorite of children. Cheng Chen looked at the candied haws in his hand, his eyes narrowed, and his round eyes tilted up slightly, making him look even more beautiful.
"My husband eats too!"
"I don't like sweet things, you eat it." Looking at the candied haws that the child was holding out to him, Wang Yu pushed it away.
I took him by the hand and went to the pastry shop, bought a box of pastries for twenty cents, and then bought two pounds of meat and shanks from the meat stall. Bones were not valuable in that era and the meat was shaved very cleanly, but since my father-in-law was injured, it was still good to use the bones to make soup to nourish him.
Wang Yu thought about it. His father-in-law was injured and couldn't drink. They had a two-year-old child at home, so he dragged Cheng Chen to the grocery store and bought a bag of brown sugar and a bag of malt sugar, which cost a total of forty cents. Sugar was still very expensive in that era, and such a small bag cost twenty cents.
Cheng Chen pulled Wang Yu away from buying anything, saying that the eggs in the basket were enough. Wang Yu pinched his cheek and said, "Listen to me, ok?"
Cheng Chen had no choice but to listen to Wang Yu and bought three meat buns to fill his stomach. They cost two cents each. The buns at that time were very solid, each as big as a man's fist. Cheng Chen ate one and Wang Yu was full after eating two.
After buying things, when passing by a restaurant, Wang Yu saw a notice recruiting cashiers. He thought this job was also possible, so he came to ask when he came back in the afternoon.
Xiling Village is a bit far from the town. It takes two hours to get there by car, and walking for four hours is not practical, so they rented a mule cart directly in the town. Mules can run on flat roads and are much faster than ox carts. Wang Yu gave ten cents to the mule cart driver to take them to the village.
Cheng Chen sat on the mule cart, his heart filled with joy at going home to see his parents. His round eyes kept shining brightly, but he didn't even notice it. Wang Yu saw his happy expression and thought he was so cute and well-behaved. He couldn't help but reach out and pinch his face and said, "Are you happy?"
Cheng Chen nodded and hummed. Seeing him like this, Wang Yu's mood also improved a lot. Although the mule cart ran very fast, it also raised a lot of dust. Wang Yu was a little uncomfortable at first, but when he saw Cheng Chen happy, he didn't feel uncomfortable anymore.
There were also pedestrians carrying baskets on their backs, or people driving ox carts or mule carts passing by. There were also couples hawking vegetables and eggs on the road. Wang Yu watched them all the way and thought that he had become a local here and would live here like them. He turned around and looked at Cheng Chen. It was not bad to have this child accompany him.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
