Chapter 75: I'm afraid I'll be a widow in the future
Song Jin was tired from walking around, so after eating some rice dumplings he stopped walking and went straight to the post station with Ji Shubai in the sedan chair.
Everyone arrived at the inn and rested, and Song Jin also returned to his room.
The room is in a good location, in a corner on the second floor, very secluded. When you open the back window, you will see the bamboo forest. A breeze blows through, making a rustling sound. The sun dances from the tips of the leaves, making the green leaves transparent.
Song Jin sat at the table and looked at the bamboo forest. She could faintly hear the sound of cicadas chirping, and she unconsciously leaned over the table. Before closing her eyes, she thought that she should be able to see fireflies dancing tonight.
When the setting sun moved over the third floor tile, Song Jin woke up, and the first thing he did when he woke up was to go find Ji Shubai.
Apart from looking for him, she seemed to have nothing to do.
The first thing Ji Shubai did when he arrived at the post station was to find someone to chat and ask questions. He also asked Qingshan to arrange matters for the next few days. When Song Jin came to find him, he had already finished his work and was sitting there drinking tea.
"Master Ji?"
Song Jin, with a face wiped with clean water and the hair on his forehead still wet, stood at the door and called him.
"What's up?"
Song Jin said: "Today is the Dragon Boat Festival, shouldn't we have something tonight?"
Ji Shubai smiled and said, "I've arranged for someone to cook. Come in and wait for your meal."
Song Jin jumped into the room and sat with him to drink tea. Ji Shubai watched her drink with interest, which made Song Jin feel embarrassed.
"Why are you looking at me?"
"I've always had a question for you."
"Then ask."
Ji Shubai shook the cup in his hand and asked, "Why did you get lost that day in the Changzhou County Office?"
"ah?"
"I asked you that day, but you didn't want to tell me. What about now?"
Song Jin bit the teacup and muttered softly: "Just going out for a walk..."
"Is it related to that case?"
Song Jin was surprised: "How did you know?"
Ji Shubai smiled and said, "I asked casually when I was talking to the county magistrate that night. Besides, you were too eye-catching to move a bench and sit at the back of the hall."
Song Jin smiled awkwardly: "I won't sit next time."
Ji Shubai didn't care much: "It's okay, listen if you want. But can you tell me now why you ran out alone after listening?"
Song Jin turned the cup in his hand and murmured with a pout, "I don't like the county magistrate's attitude in judging the case. He's trying to smooth things over."
Ji Shubai thought for a moment and said, "The case is complicated, and the county magistrate dare not make his own decision. He can only wait for the county magistrate to come and try the case. If the county magistrate cannot make a decision, I am afraid we will have to file a complaint with the government."
Song Jin pointed at the rim of the cup without saying anything, so Ji Shubai had to ask, "What's wrong?"
Song Jin asked back: "If this case were to be tried by you, how would you rule?"
Ji Shubai frowned and lowered his eyes. After a little thought, he said, "If I were to judge the case, I would have to find another witness to confirm the relationship between Fan and Lin's eldest son. The difficulty of this matter lies in the fact that the Lin family knows nothing about it, and Lin and Fan met in Guangdong. According to Fan's father and daughter, Lin had proposed marriage and was married formally, but he never came to Suzhou."
"Before Lin Dalang died, he did not leave any will, let alone mention his concubine, so this one did not know about it. Now not only has she been found, but she has also brought a son with her. Even his own family members cannot tell the difference, let alone the government office."
Song Jin hung his head and said nothing, so Ji Shubai had no choice but to continue:
"This case cannot be concluded in one or two days. In all likelihood, the lawsuit will be submitted to the state government. If you are interested, I will inform you when there is a result."
Song Jin raised his head, his eyes misty: "I want to ask, what about the original wife Li? The couple got married, but she didn't know that her husband had a concubine outside. When her husband was sick, she took care of him alone. When her husband died, she also took care of his funeral affairs. Now her son is gone..."
Song Jin choked up a little: "Then...what should she do? Is she going to watch others inherit her husband's property while she can't do anything about it?"
"Is this what you're talking about?"
Song Jin said to himself, "I was listening in the back hall. Li originally said that she would remain faithful and not remarry, and would devote herself to taking care of her son and parents-in-law. But now she is like this, isn't she afraid of chilling people's hearts?"
Ji Shubai didn't say anything, and Song Jin continued, "I want to ask, if the child's surname is really Lin, is he a bastard or a child born out of wedlock?"
Ji Shubai sighed and said, "We can consider Li's idea about this matter. If the witnesses prove that the child belongs to Lin Dalang and Li is willing to accept the child, then it will be better for her to keep the child at home."
"What's good about this?" Song Jin was puzzled. Her husband had given birth to a child outside without any notice. Now her own son was gone, and the child born out of an affair was going to inherit the family property. What was good about this?
Song Jin's mood changed from sadness to grief and anger, and his voice unconsciously became louder.
Ji Shubai comforted her: "Just listen to me and I will tell you slowly."
Song Jin sat there, turned his head and snorted.
"You also know that Li said she wanted to remain faithful to her husband, but now that she has lost her son, her life in the Li family will certainly not be as good as before. If Fan's son can recognize his ancestors, she will also have a son. She has no biological children, so having this child will not harm her. If she is raised well, she will have someone to rely on in the future. Otherwise, do you really want Lin to spend the rest of her life with an old couple?"
Song Jin muttered: "Why not ask her to remarry?"
Ji Shubai asked back, "Why don't you ask Li if she's willing? She's made a promise before. If she changes her mind now that her son is gone, what will people say about her?"
Song Jin frowned and twisted his body a little more sideways as if in anger, but his heart was also beating fast.
"Why do we have to keep our chastity for no reason?"
"Don't like it?" Ji Shubai asked softly.
Song Jin turned around and asked, "Who would like it?"
Ji Shubai was stunned by the question and turned away. After a while, Song Jin heard him whisper, "Sometimes... maybe someone will need it."
"Who would want her? If Li hadn't said anything about keeping her chastity, she would have remarried if she wanted to."
Ji Shubai sighed and said, "Some things are not as simple as you think."
Song Jin pouted, and the two of them were angry with each other and didn't say anything.
After a long while, Song Jin spoke first: "Can I ask how my mistress, the second wife of the Bai family, was sentenced in her case?"
Ji Shubai didn't bother with her about what happened before, and answered in a low voice: "I didn't try this case, but I saw the verdict. Your mistress, the second grandmother of the Bai family, proposed a successor who was not only disagreed with by the first house and the clan, but also disagreed with the judge who tried the case. He was weak, incapable of accomplishing anything, and not loved by the clan. It looked like...it looked like the second grandmother had set up a puppet, so the verdict agreed with the person who should inherit, that is, the eldest son of the first house, to inherit."
Song Jin tapped his fingers on the table and asked quietly, "Is there nothing else?"
"No."
"Compensation or something..."
"She picked the wrong guy and got nothing."
Song Jin shut up and said no more.
"I didn't expect that you would still care about the Second Mistress of the Bai Family."
Ji Shubai seemed somewhat relieved, but Song Jin immediately retorted: "No."
"Then why do you ask?"
"I'm afraid I'll be a widow in the future, so I want to be mentally prepared."
Ji Shubai: "......"
Dinner was delivered at the right time. Song Jin took a look and saw that the first things served were sliced salted duck eggs, roasted yellow croaker, fried eel, a plate of soybeans, and a pot of wine.
Song Jin first lifted the lid of the pot to smell it. Ji Shubai, who was standing beside him, saw it and said, "I got sick on the way, so I didn't add realgar wine."
"Isn't that one yellow missing?"
Ji Shubai forgot about the unpleasantness just now and teased her: "Then I'll ask someone to add realgar?"
"No need." Song Jin waved his hands repeatedly: "It doesn't matter if you don't have it."
After the four yellow dishes were served, several more dishes were brought over, and the waiter announced them as they were served. Song Jin looked at them one by one. The vegetarian dishes included lotus tofu, pine mushrooms and wormwood, and river shrimps with leeks. The meat dishes included beef tongue stewed in broth, steamed chicken with autumn oil, fish balls rolled in chicken broth, etc., and the last dish was stir-fried snails. The waiter enthusiastically explained that it was cooked with rice wine and was the best dish to go with wine.
At the end, he said apologetically, "Sir, the post station is simple and we only have these dishes. Please make do with them."
Ji Shubai smiled and said, "It's already very good. Sorry for bothering you. Please go down."
The man bent over and walked out of the door. Song Jin smiled and waited for her to start eating. Seeing her like that, Ji Shubai said, "Eat."
Song Jin picked up a piece of eel with chopsticks and put it into his mouth. While eating, he said, "It's not as tender as the one I fried."
Ji Shubai chuckled: "It's tender, but..."
Song Jin listened to him halfway through his words, turned her head and smiled at him. She remembered that he cried because of the spicy food that night, and her smile became even more evil when she thought about it now.
"Don't be so proud, just eat your food."
Song Jin turned his head and continued eating.
"There's no toothpick for this screw."
"What?"
Song Jin didn't say anything either. He stood up, leaned over to the window, pulled a bamboo branch over, broke off two ends to use as toothpicks, and put one of them into Ji Shubai's hand.
"What is this for?"
"I'll teach you."
Song Jin took a screw in his hand, picked open the lid with a bamboo stick like a toothpick, then inserted it into the meat and pulled out all the snail meat.
Song Jin scraped off the inedible parts from the mouth of the snail, held up the snail meat and said to Ji Shubai, "It's convenient to eat it this way."
Ji Shubai chuckled and started to imitate him. Song Jin poured the wine and took a sip. It was so spicy that she gasped and couldn't help sticking out her tongue.
"Why? Are you afraid of spicy food too?"
Ji Shubai remembered that she had just laughed at him, and now seeing her like this, he couldn't help but tease her.
“This is different.”
"What's the difference?"
“This is choking.”
Song Jin doesn't like drinking white wine. In the past, he drank more red wine. He thinks Moutai is the only white wine that's okay, and he rarely drinks other white wines.
This wine now has some flavor of vodka. For Song Jin, this wine should not be drunk neat, it has to be diluted.
Song Jin held the wine glass and started thinking about the recipe in his mind.
The cherries don't seem to be ripe yet in this season, and you can try melon, but it has less juice. Adding ice cubes can reduce the pungent taste and add more sweetness, which will taste better.
Unfortunately, she doesn't have the conditions at the moment, so she can only make do with it.
"What are you thinking about?"
Song Jin's face was full of smugness: "I can't tell you now. When I have the chance, I will give you some good wine. I guarantee you've never had it before."
That night, Song Jin drank the pungent wine and recalled several cocktail recipes, vowing to drink smooth wine in the Ming Dynasty.
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