Chapter 99

He told him where the shop was located.

Lu Liu was dumbfounded. “Huh?”

His brother already talked it over with Da Feng? Da Feng knew about it this whole time? Then why was he the only one left out?

Was he seriously the only idiot in the world?

After telling Lu Liu about the dinner, Xie Yan turned his donkey cart around and left.

Same mountain path as before—just head straight and you’d be out of the village.

Strangers didn’t pass through often, so when he showed up, the villagers were curious and friendly, asking who he was looking for and if he was someone’s relative.

Xie Yan answered, “I came to see Li Feng, but he wasn’t home.”

A helpful villager told him, “Da Feng’s making rice cakes in the new village—it’s the one near the main road. His place is right by it, you’ll see it when you get there.”

Xie Yan would pass through the new village on his way home anyway—perfect chance to talk to Li Feng again about the dinner.

Lu Liu had acted pretty flaky earlier—first all resistant, then totally spaced out. Not reliable at all.

Xie Yan figured he’d better explain it again directly to Li Feng and get him to promise, no matter what, that they’d come into town for a meal. If they did that, then Brother Yang would finally agree to go see the doctor.

That thought gave Xie Yan a burst of motivation. He smiled and thanked the villager.

While he was chatting with the kind local, he could feel someone watching him.

He didn’t think too much about it. Glanced back—didn’t recognize the person—so he just looked away and kept driving the donkey cart toward the new village.

The person staring was Yao Fulang.

Back at the market, Yao Fulang had been with Lu Liu when they ran into Xie Yan. Xie had noticed there was someone else there but hadn’t paid attention to his face—he didn’t recognize Yao Fulang at all.

But in Yao Fulang’s overly dramatic imagination, this was clearly a tangled emotional mess.
Xie Yan must have deep feelings for Lu Liu.
After bumping into him in the county, he couldn’t let it go, so he chased him all the way to the village. Who knows what they talked about? And now he was even going to Li Feng’s place to “discuss things.”

Wow… such a hopeless romantic.

Panicked, Yao Fulang rushed off to find Lu Liu and give him a heads-up—he’d better hurry up and choose already.

A husband can’t have two men. And look—he didn’t even have two men yet, and drama was already exploding.

Yao Fulang wanted to talk some sense into Lu Liu. If he didn’t settle his heart soon, he’d never have peace.

He rushed off in a flurry, and right behind him, a few chatty Fulangs sitting around saw their chance to stir the pot and started gossiping about Lu Liu.

“You see how anxious Yao Fulang is? Bet he’s worried Lu Fulang’s not being honest. He says there’s no fight, but if no one’s been hit, why’s he in such a hurry?”

Madam Yao’s second sister-in-law didn’t like that talk and snapped, “Then why don’t you go take a look? Chat a little, fine—but it’s almost New Year’s. All this talk of death and drama, don’t you think it’s a bit much?”

The others were just watching for entertainment. Knowing Chen Fulang’s personality, they started egging him on like a stage show.

Someone joked that he didn’t have the guts to go. Someone else hyped him up, saying of course he’d go, that there was nothing he wouldn’t dare.

Eventually, he got carried along with their teasing and declared that he’d definitely go over to Li Feng’s place to see whether the “fierce Fulang” had been beaten up or not.

Back to the other side of things—in the new village, Xie Yan successfully found Li Feng.

They were making rice cakes in the courtyard, the main gate wide open.

A bunch of hungry kids had gathered outside, each with a few copper coins they’d pooled together, trying to buy a taste.

Some of the kids just wanted plain cooked glutinous rice to mix with sugar at home.

Shun-ge was handling the sales, taking their coins, handing out rice cakes and rice.

They mostly sold to locals at village prices, the same rate they gave the grain merchant—not much profit to be made, and definitely no room for haggling.

Xie Yan was curious about it all, and when Li Feng finally came out, he craned his neck to peek into the courtyard.

There were three men pounding the rice cakes—two wooden mallets shared among them, taking turns smashing the sticky rice. A few other men were hauling, washing, and prepping the rice. The courtyard was big. On the other side, a few young wives and Fulangs sat at a table, pressing the rice cakes into molds.

They had two types of molds—long rectangular ones and round ones. Once the rice cakes were shaped, they were laid out on round bamboo trays to dry. The courtyard had two tall drying racks, each shelf lined with those trays. Once the cakes were dry, they were packed into bamboo baskets lined with rice sacks. The empty trays were then passed back to the tables, ready for the next batch to be molded.

Everyone was busy. Every single person had a task.

Li Feng handed off the mallet, glanced outside, and spotted Xie Yan. His lips twisted downward—he wasn’t thrilled to see him.

Wiping the sweat from his brow, he grabbed a cotton coat off a bamboo pole, threw it on, and stepped out into the yard, motioning for Xie Yan to walk a bit farther off so they could talk privately.

Li Feng didn’t yet know what Xie Yan was here for. Playing it safe, he didn’t bring up the marriage exchange business. He assumed Xie Yan was just Lu Liu’s brother-in-law, dropping by to deliver a New Year’s gift.

Xie Yan hadn’t spoken in a while, but now he looked Li Feng up and down.

So this was the man who was engaged to Yang-ge.

Xie Yan said, “Yang-ge is my fulang.”

Yang-ge—Lu Yang.

Li Feng heard the name and instantly realized what this was about.

He could go toe-to-toe with a bookworm like this all day.

He said coolly, “He’s not your fulang—”

Xie Yan glared at him.

Li Feng made a sharp turn mid-sentence, smirking, “—who else would he be married to?”

Last time at the Lu house, their rivalry ended in a draw.

This time? Li Feng clearly had the upper hand and was enjoying every second of it.

Xie Yan pressed his lips together, remembering what Lu Yang had taught him: If he mentioned being the fulang, it would seem like he was bullying Li Feng.

So instead, he just laid out the facts. “Your fulang wants to come with me.”

Li Feng: ???!

“No way!”

Xie Yan, seeing things escalate fast and Li Feng about to grab his collar, rushed to add, “I didn’t say yes!”

Only that made it worse.

Li Feng fumed, “You didn’t say yes?! He wants to go with you, and you dare say no? What, my Xiao Liu’s not good enough for you? You think he’s not worthy?!”

Xie Yan had no clue what Li Feng was going on about. “Fine then. I’ll just go pick him up later.”

Pick him up? Over my dead body!

Li Feng snapped, “Try it. I’ll throw you up the mountain and feed you to the snakes!”

Xie Yan: “…”

These two were a mess.

No wonder Yang-ge had said only he could handle this dinner invitation task.

Anyone else would’ve walked away by now.

So Xie Yan changed the subject entirely. “Yang-ge asked me to invite you both to the county for a meal. I already told Liu-ge.”

That just made Li Feng angry all over again.

“I was trying to keep it quiet! And you just told him like that? What if you scared him?”

Xie Yan thought about it. Yeah… Lu Liu had definitely looked spooked.

Well, what was he supposed to do? He’d already blurted it out. He hadn’t even made it through the door, hadn’t delivered the New Year’s gift…

Wait. The gift.

Xie Yan suddenly snapped to attention. Those books couldn’t go back home.

If they did, Lu Yang would just use them to tease him again.

He turned back to the donkey cart and pulled out a paper-wrapped bundle.

It was a large sheet of handmade paper, pieced together from draft paper and glued tight. Inside were four… “soup books.”

Lu Yang had insisted: Only sage wisdom is worthy to wrap these kinds of books.
Apparently, that’s what intellectuals were into.

Xie Yan didn’t want to dwell on what he’d been feeling when he first packed them. He just handed the bundle to Li Feng and skipped straight to a new topic.

“This is a New Year’s gift for you both.”

Li Feng gave it a squeeze—he could tell right away it was books.

He frowned. “Neither of us can read. What do we need books for?”

Xie Yan, still influenced by Lu Yang’s endless nagging, spoke before he could think.

“To pass the imperial exam.”

Li Feng was absolutely insulted. His round eyes stared daggers at Xie Yan.

Xie Yan: “…”

Was he really that bad at talking? He’d practiced so much. How was he still so awful at this?

He told Li Feng to open it and take a look. Then tried to explain what he meant by “passing the exam.”

Li Feng wasn’t his fulang. He’d never talked dirty with any other man before. Xie Yan opened his mouth a few times but all he could manage was:

“Passing the imperial exam… means making soup.”

Li Feng tore open the paper wrapping, flipped through a few pages.

Each book was a picture book. Lots of pictures. Rooster soup.
He flipped through more pages—yep, all chicken dishes.

Not bad. This gift? Pretty decent.

People like them, who couldn’t read, never knew what to buy when they went to a bookstore. Every time they asked for help, the shopkeepers would pawn off stuff they couldn’t sell—boring, pointless books that were no fun at all.

Li Feng gave a satisfied nod. “Lu Yang told you to bring this, didn’t he?”

Xie Yan shot back, “Why can’t it have been my idea? I’m learning social etiquette.”

Li Feng snorted, “Yeah? More like you’re learning social disasters.”