At this point, Lu Yang changed the subject and said to them, “What does Jiu Ge usually like? I’ve always wanted to thank him, but I don’t know what to do, and Li Feng doesn’t know either.”
He seemed to be thanking them sincerely, but his uncle and aunt weren’t sure if he was implying something else.
What kind of county would marry someone off to the mountains? That sounds like a derogatory remark. And what about eating meat buns every day? That’s just sour grapes. What does having someone from the maternal family matter? These are just harsh words spoken in anger. For minor matters, the maternal family wouldn’t get involved; they’d try to mediate if possible.
They looked at Li Feng, who could only go along with Lu Liu’s childishness: “Yes, the two of them are fine.”
Chen Dàjiù sighed in relief. Whether they were truly getting along well was beside the point; as long as they hadn’t offended anyone, that was enough. They would discuss it further once Chen Jiǔ returned home.
At this point, the conversation devolved into polite small talk.
It was nearly time, so they took their leave.
After leaving Chenjiawan, they walked a short distance, pretending to return to Lizi, but actually waiting outside the entrance to Lujia Village.
Li Feng explained the gifts the two Lu family elders had brought to Li Zhai—meat and sugar—and according to the custom of reciprocity, he had originally planned to give five pounds of meat.
Since it coincided with the New Year’s gifts, he could give seven pounds of meat. This one was just over eight pounds. He thought about Lu Liu’s unclear status and how it wouldn’t be good for him to come back home, so he decided to just take it, since it was only a little over a pound short.
“Last time I went to recognize the family, I brought some rice cakes.”
Rice cakes were also expensive, but he didn’t take many. At that time, everyone was selling them, and each family didn’t keep many pounds.
Lu Yang nodded, indicating that he understood.
The two of them didn’t idle away their time. Lu Yang taught him to recognize characters, mainly by distinguishing between character cards.
He had stuck red paper with the names of each item written on them outside each item, and he read them aloud to Li Feng to confirm.
Then he took out single-character cards and gave them to him. Each card had only one character on it. Once he had memorized the names, he could randomly pick up the cards to recognize the characters.
Lu Yang also brought the character cards for mountain goods. Since there were no mountain goods at the moment, it was hard to say.
Fortunately, he had arranged the cards in order beforehand, so Li Feng could just follow the sequence to memorize them.
The time spent learning characters passed quickly. After a while, Lu Liu’s voice came from behind.
He was full of energy, shouting “Brother” from afar, then shouting “Da Feng.”
As the cart drew nearer, Lu Yang and Li Feng’s expressions grew increasingly uneasy.
Li Feng wore a look of envy. If it were Lu Liu, one could tell it was the expression of someone craving chicken. It was genuine envy.
“Do you still have horses at home?”
Lu Yang was confused: “No, I don’t think so. I don’t remember.”
They met at the intersection, but didn’t rush to change clothes. Lu Yang switched vehicles and climbed onto the large flatbed cart.
Once everyone was seated, Lu Yang teased him, “You’ve forgotten your older brother now that you’ve seen a man.”
Lu Liu: !!!
He immediately tried to get back onto the large flatbed cart, but Li Feng held him by the waist, preventing him from getting off.
Lu Yang didn’t mind, telling him to cover his face. Since he was following Li Feng, it wasn’t appropriate for him to show his face.
Lu Liu agreed and kept chuckling.
Li Feng glanced at him: “Having a good time?”
Lu Liu nodded: “Making money! Didn’t I promise Yao Fulang I’d ask about the price of the beehive? I forgot this morning, but as soon as you left, my brother’s friend came over. We talked a lot about business and mentioned selling mountain goods. He said he could order some for gifts. I asked him if he wanted honeycombs with honey, and he offered one tael of silver! Yao Fulang said they could be sold for eight cash, but I sold them for one tael!”
Li Feng couldn’t bring himself to expose the truth. It was clearly a favor for a friend, and they hadn’t even negotiated the price.
Xie Yan also told Lu Yang, “Wu Pingzhi came. He’s a good person. I asked him to lend me a car, and he had his steward bring it to me that same day. The signboard will take some time, but he said he’ll make us a good one. It’ll take about ten days to complete, and we’ll be able to hang it up after the New Year.”
Lu Yang was also happy and caught the key phrase in Xie Yan’s words: “He’s still a good person?”
Xie Yan didn’t think anything was wrong: “Yeah, whatever I asked, he agreed to. Just like before, he’s a good person.”
Lu Yang: “…Then what did you agree to?”
Xie Yan replied confidently, “I agreed to study with him.”
Lu Yang: “…”
Never mind, he wouldn’t dwell on the fact that the top scholar was thinking about the young master. He was rich and easy to talk to, so he was thinking about him too.
They arrived at Lu Jia Village and went straight to the Lu family’s small, dilapidated house.
The courtyard couldn’t accommodate two vehicles, so they were parked on the small path outside the courtyard.
One was a horse-drawn carriage, and the other was a mule-drawn cart, which also carried a load of goods. What a fine specimen.
By then, it was getting dark. Lu Liu got off the carriage and hurried into the house, so no one saw his appearance. Lu Yang and Xie Yan didn’t bother to hide and followed him inside a moment later.
Poor families saved on lamp oil and candles. In the cold winter, they ate dinner early. By the time it was pitch black, they had finished eating and were already lying on the bed to sleep. Remembering Lu Yang’s advice to take care of their health so they wouldn’t get sick, they also cut a few slices of meat to add to the rice.
The four of them felt at ease with this meal. When Lu Liu returned, he hugged them, making the two of them feel uncomfortable.
The room was small, so Li Feng sat in the corner on his own initiative, otherwise standing in the middle would cause everyone to bump into him.
The four of them returned together, and everything was understood without words.
The two fathers were moved to tears, and Wang Fengnian wiped away tears several times.
Lu Liu made gloves for them, which they could wear while working in the winter. If they got wet, they could dry them by the stove.
“I didn’t have time to make hats this year, but I’ll make them during the winter break so you can wear them next year,” Lu Liu said.
The two fathers looked at Li Feng.
They thought that Li Feng originally only had one in-law family, but now he had another one out of the blue, which might make him uncomfortable.
Li Feng didn’t mind, though; he just thought of it as having another set of relatives.
Xie Yan watched them exchange gifts and talk about them, then quietly hid behind Lu Yang.
He had forgotten to bring a gift last time, and he had forgotten again this time.
Lu Yang only remembered when he entered the house, and the cart was empty.
He asked Xie Yan, “Hmm, didn’t you bring the flour I asked for?”
Xie Yan had talked too much with Wu Pingzhi today, and his emotions were too excited. After sending off the guests, he still remembered the task Lu Yang had given him, so he hurriedly taught Lu Liu to read. Later, he got the cart, and it was already closing time. He kept feeling like he had forgotten something, but he just couldn’t remember what it was.
He realized for the first time that his memory wasn’t very good.
He murmured, “Hmm.”
Lu Yang: “…”
He had been so clever all his life, but now he had become a rude person.
Fortunately, Li Feng had bought flour.
Lu Yang took advantage of the two fathers chatting with Lu Liu to go find Li Feng to buy flour.
Li Feng: “…”
He glanced at Xie Yan, who was cowering behind Lu Yang, looking like a scared chicken.
Li Feng said, “Why don’t we just deliver rice instead? The flour will be blown away once we open it.”
Lu Yang sighed deeply, “Alright, rice is fine too.”
Xie Yan was in the wrong, but he had a magical winner’s perspective. He told Li Feng, “We’re supporting your business; this is a good start for you.”
