The Domineering Son-in-Law
On the third day after Bai Miaoke and Lu Yu moved into the town, they welcomed their first guest—the old scholar next door.
This old scholar was already in his fifties or sixties. He had been trying to obtain an official title all his life, and the highest rank he had ever achieved was that of a scholar. However, a scholar was already considered a well-known figure in this ordinary town, and he was very arrogant because of his talent.
Upon hearing that a young scholar had moved into the town, the old scholar could no longer sit still and insisted on coming to see the place.
So he knocked on the door of the courtyard in the morning, and when Xiaofeng saw the person coming, he ran to the backyard to pass the message.
In the backyard, Bai Miaoke was practicing martial arts, and Lu Yu was sitting on a stone bench in the courtyard flipping through a book.
They were both surprised to hear someone visiting.
"Do you want to see him?" Bai Miaoke put away the willow branch she used as a whip and turned to ask Lu Yu.
"See, I'll go take a look ahead." Lu Yu stood up and followed Xiao Feng to the front yard.
After a few words of greeting, Lu Yu understood the visitor's intention, which was nothing more than to test his academic background by using his status as a senior.
Lu Yu soon lost his patience to deal with him, so he simply made excuses, saying that he was not feeling well and needed to go back to his room to rest, and then sent the man away.
Unexpectedly, the old scholar came again the next day, and this time he brought his precious daughter, who was born in his old age.
"This is my daughter, her name is Shulan. She likes to ponder poetry and songs on weekdays. I thought you young people would have more things to talk about, so I brought her here." The old scholar introduced her to Lu Yu.
The girl named Shulan was also looking up at Lu Yu, with a blush on her pretty face.
Lu Yu, who was used to this kind of tactics, saw through the father and daughter's thoughts at a glance.
So he sighed and said, "It just so happens that my wife is also good at poetry, Miss Shulan can learn from her."
After saying that, he glanced at Xiaoshan who was waiting on the side. The latter understood and immediately went to the backyard to invite Bai Miaoke over.
Bai Miaoke had been stuck in this yard for several days, and was just reading a picture book to kill time. When she heard Lu Yu invite her to the front yard to talk, she felt a little surprised.
She asked Lu Yu that day and learned that the old scholar next door was a pedantic and old-fashioned sour scholar, so she lost interest and didn't know why he called her today.
She quickly followed Xiaoshan to the front hall. When she saw the girl whose eyes were almost glued to Lu Yu, she immediately realized that this guy was attracting peach blossoms.
Bai Miaoke put on her signature sweet smile and said to Lu Yu, "Husband, you should have called me earlier when there were guests coming." Her tone was both scolding and coquettish.
After saying this, he greeted the two people sitting next to him: "You must be Uncle Wang who lives next door. Nice to meet you." With just one sentence, he changed his proud identity of a scholar into that of an old man.
Then he turned to the woman next to him and asked, "Who is this?"
"This is my little daughter Shulan." The old scholar looked a little unhappy, but he still wanted to introduce his daughter.
After chatting with Lu Yu that day, he knew that this person was no ordinary person. Although he was in poor health, he would be successful sooner or later, so he asked his daughter to come and see him.
Bai Miaoke nodded and introduced herself: "My last name is Bai, you can just call me Yingyue." The alias she used in this town was the one she used when she first met Lu Yu.
Hearing this name again, Lu Yu indeed raised his eyes and looked at him, as if thinking about something.
This move had a different meaning in the eyes of the old scholar. It seemed that he wanted to please Lu Yu. He put on the old-fashioned and serious attitude of an elder and said, "Since a woman is married, she should take her husband's surname."
Bai Miaoke didn't expect the old man to be so ungrateful. Just as she was about to retort, she heard Lu Yu at the side say, "I married into her family, so naturally I don't have to take my husband's surname."
This was the first time Bai Miaoke heard Lu Yu talk about it on his own initiative. She thought that the two of them were hiding in this town under unknown names and he would no longer cooperate with this identity. She didn't expect that he would bring it up on his own initiative now.
Is it to speak for yourself?
Bai Miaoke raised the corners of her lips with satisfaction, gave him a point in her heart, and decided to be gentle with him when asking for his life-saving grace.
Then he raised his eyebrows and looked at the astonished old scholar and his daughter, and said with a smile: "Yes, but my family is not the kind of rigid family. My husband can still have his own name. You can still call him Yu Xiucai."
Lu Yu's alias in this town is Yu Lu.
The old scholar listened to Bai Miaoke's words which contained a hint of sarcasm and responded with a dark face.
He quickly left with his daughter.
After everyone left, Bai Miaoke slumped in a chair and said to Lu Yu, "It will probably be a few days before everyone in this town knows that you are a son-in-law."
Lu Yu nodded and said, "Yes."
Aren't all men good at prestige? Bai Miaoke didn't believe that he would react so calmly, and then asked: "Aren't you afraid of being looked down upon?"
"If a man will be looked down upon if he marries into another's family, isn't it the same for a woman who marries a wife?" Lu Yu asked in return.
Bai Miaoke was stunned. She didn't expect him to say that. It was true. Marriage was no different. It was just that most people thought women were inferior to men, so marrying into a woman's family was more likely to be criticized than marrying a wife.
Once again gaining a new understanding of the Prime Minister's state of mind, Bai Miaoke nodded in approval: "Indeed, the world always has prejudices against women."
"This situation needs to be changed." Lu Yu said meaningfully, as if he already had some plan. When Bai Miaoke wanted to ask more, he kept silent.
It is very rare for someone who has been born with no worries about food and clothing and has a smooth life to see the difficulties faced by the lower classes. Bai Miaoke sometimes feels fortunate that Da Qi has such a prime minister.
…
No one has come to visit since the old scholar left two days ago.
Bai Miaoke practiced martial arts regularly every day, and also learned to cook simple meals with Xiaoyu. After two days, the dishes she cooked were barely edible.
Lu Yu was not idle either. Apart from taking medicine, resting, and watching Bai Miaoke practice martial arts every day, he often spent the rest of his time writing and drawing alone in the study.
Usually at times like this, Bai Miaoke would be very curious about what he was doing and whether he was trying to contact Rong Qing and the others.
Although she wanted to know what he wrote and painted every day, Bai Miaoke never peeked at it because she found that Lu Yu never wanted to hide anything from her.
What he wrote was not confidential, but various manifestos about state affairs.
"Why did you write this?" Bai Miaoke asked as she looked at an article about taxes and levies.
I thought he was doing it for the people or for the court, but Lu Yu simply answered with two words: "Sell for money."
"Ah?" Bai Miaoke asked briefly in confusion, took out her purse, and found that there were only six taels of silver left.
In fact, their daily expenses were not that high. It was just that the medicine that Lu Yu had to take in the morning and evening required two taels of silver every day. Adding that to the things he had purchased initially, the silver he earned from the goldfish head was not enough.
This money has always been kept by Bai Miaoke, but she didn't expect Lu Yu to be so prepared.
"It takes time to recover, and it's not easy to contact Rong Qing. I have to stay here for at least half a month."
"The old scholar said that there are many scholars in the town who want to pass the imperial examinations. This manifesto should be able to sell for some money." Lu Yu said slowly.
Bai Miaoke nodded, thinking that if they knew that this was a manifesto written by the prime minister himself, they would probably ask for a large sum of money, but unfortunately they could not reveal their identities.
"Then I'll take it to the bookstore and ask for you." Bai Miaoke was very bored at home, so it was a good time for her to go out for a walk.
Lu Yu collected several articles and handed them to her, saying, "I'll go with you."
Bai Miaoke noticed with her sharp eyes that there seemed to be a painting under several blank pieces of rice paper. Before Lu Yu could react, she quickly pulled out the painting.
The painting shows a woman dancing with a sword. Her fluttering dress picks up fallen leaves and flowers in the yard, making them fly all over the sky. She looks like a goddess descended from heaven and invincible.
This painting seems to be unfinished, and the woman in the painting has no facial features, but the expression shows that it is undoubtedly Bai Miaoke.
She said in surprise: "You can draw me practicing sword with a broken branch so beautifully?!"
"Well... you are pretty." Lu Yu's tone was calm as if he was stating a fact. Only his rolling Adam's apple showed that he was a little nervous at the moment. He secretly breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Bai Miaoke looked very happy.
Bai Miaoke was happy not only because he painted herself so perfectly, but also because he had thought of a good way to make money.
"Let's go, let's go out for a walk first." Bai Miaoke pulled Lu Yu impatiently.
The latter reluctantly picked up the manifesto that had fallen on the table and followed his careless wife out.
The two of them also brought Xiaoshan with them, and with him leading the way, they went directly to the busiest main street in the town.
There were some vendors hawking their wares on both sides of the street. Bai Miaoke walked and looked, and noticed that in addition to the common stalls selling food and sundries, there were also some scholars setting up stalls to write letters for others and vendors selling calligraphy and paintings.
She first asked the scholars of that generation who wrote letters, and learned that it cost ten to twenty coins to write a letter; then she went to look at the calligraphy and paintings, and found that the quality was very average. If they were sold in the capital, no one would probably take a second look at them, but here they could be sold for several hundred coins to one ounce of silver.
Bai Miaoke knew what was going on, so she asked Xiaoshan to take them to the largest bookstore in town.
The bookstore was at the end of the main street. A middle-aged shopkeeper received them and took Lu Yu's manifesto and read it again and again.
Xiao Shan whispered to Bai Miaoke, "This shopkeeper Wu was also a scholar before. He failed the imperial examinations many times, so he opened a bookstore. Unexpectedly, he made a lot of money from the bookstore, so he didn't take the imperial examinations again."
Bai Miaoke nodded to indicate that she understood.
The shopkeeper had also finished reading the manifesto and was talking to Lu Yu: "Did Yu Xiucai write this himself? Such a talented writer shouldn't just be a scholar."
Before Lu Yu could reply, he said, "It must be that the officials in the imperial court were corrupt in the imperial examinations and buried your great talent."
Lu Yu interrupted him and said, "My health is not good, so it is difficult for me to serve the court."
The shopkeeper stopped talking and looked at the tall man in front of him. Apart from his pale face, he couldn't see any problem with his health. But this was a personal matter, so the shopkeeper didn't ask any more questions.
Finally, the two men reached an agreement, and Lu Yu sold the manifesto to the shopkeeper at the price of one tael per copy. The shopkeeper could copy it and sell it in the bookstore, and Lu Yu would get 30% of the profits.
After talking with the shopkeeper, Lu Yu noticed Bai Miaoke carefully selecting books in front of a row of bookshelves, so he walked up to her and asked, "What books do you want to choose?"
"Picture book, which one should I choose?" Bai Miaoke was holding two books in her hands, one was a record of the romantic life of a female hero, and the other was a record of the pretty widow and her ten sons-in-law.
Lu Yu's mouth twitched, and he glanced at the bookshelf in front of him, took a book from it and handed it over: "Let's take this one."
Bai Miaoke took it and looked at it. On the cover it was written: A Domineering Official Fell in Love with Me.
When the last two people left the bookstore, Xiaoshan had three tightly wrapped books in his hands.
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