CH 53

Chapter 53: 做梦 (Dreaming)

That day, Zhong Ziqi and Shen Yu Bei talked for a long time before returning to the shop. The topic they were talking about for a long time was around Shen Amu’s related topics before it gradually turned into their daily life’s topics. Shen Yu Bei has been in the business for so many years so he knows how to open a person’s heart and let him relax.

Zhong Ziqi was not a veteran,in the end he was slowly being led by Shen Yu Bei. The two talked happily, Zhao Zheng’an would stick in a sentence from time to time. The three of them got along very well. Before he was leaving, Zhong Ziqi politely invited him to his home.

Although he was quite resistant to strangers, this man was after all his uncle,so it was reasonable and fair for him to go and see where his house was and recognise the place.

“It’s getting late today. Some other time ba! ”

Shen Yu Bei said thoughtfully as he took a look outside the window. He would like to go and have a look. He didn’t have much time left here because as the head of the family he couldn’t be away from home for too long . Besides that, he had to go back and tell the news to his father and Amu. For sure, there would be a lot of grief and heartache.

This time he would go and remember where he lives so next time he could just come straight away.

After leaving Jin Hua, Zhao Zheng’an asked Zhong Ziqi, “I feel this ‘advantageous’ uncle is quite nice. What do you think?”

“It is quite nice.”

Zhong Ziqi nodded his head, his uncle’s personality was polite and amiable. He also didn’t look down on them, these country folk -_-||. Many rich people looked down on them as ordinary folk. The way they looked at them was particularly disdainful and disliking. But he didn’t feel any of these in Shen Yu Bei, so he had a good feeling about Shen Yu Bei.

“He seems to be going back soon. Why don’t we invite him to the house tomorrow?”

Zhao Zheng’an wanted the uncle and nephew to get in touch and have their feelings connected. Otherwise, he (ZZq) would always be all alone without a family, as if there was no one to rely on. It wasn’t the same as the love he gave. It didn’t matter if he was alone, but he wasn’t sure Zhong Ziqi would look forward to having a family member that he could rely on.

“Okay, so tomorrow morning we’ll fry all the chinese breadsticks and buy the ingredients back. Let’s go home and clean up the house today.” What if he would stay at home later?

“I think our home is just fine. Moreover, you cleaned it every day.”

He wasn’t bragging. Unless Zhong Ziqi had something to do or was too tired, he had to clean the house at least no more than two days so there wasn’t even a speck of dust to be found.

“Still, we need to clean up a bit too. And the quilt, we are still lacking a bed. Why don’t we buy a new bed and a quilt?”

Zhao Zheng’an nodded, “Okay! Listen to you.”

By now, the sun was setting in the west. The summer has passed. The days in autumn were getting shorter and shorter everyday and quickly becoming darker every day.The streets were much scattered. Everyone’s face carried the urgency of wanting to go home.

“How come I didn’t see our fruit wine at the restaurant today?” Zhong Ziqi and Zhao Zheng’an walked unhurriedly, occasionally dodging a few passers-by who were walking with their heads buried.

“I heard the Boss say that it was taken to his Clan’s home .Because of the rarity of the fruit wine,by taking it there,he could get a good price.”

“Where is the main family of Jin Hua? Do you know?”

Zhong Ziqi was quite curious. He always heard them talk about the main family, where exactly was the family clan’s main family?

“I’m not sure about this either. It seems to be in the capital ba! But, we don’t need to care about that, we are just ordinary people, we can’t have anything to do with those people.”

“En.”

Zhong Ziqi agreed upon this as he gave him a response. The writing in this world was a little different from modern writing, but the original body was a literate one combined with his memories, it wasn’t impossible for him if he wanted to go for the imperial examinations.

But the royal court was not that good to muddle in, especially if you come from the lower status, you must ‘pretend to be helpless and miserable’, try to ‘benefit from both sides’ {literal: ‘strike the water right and left’左右逢源}, humble himself (the literal one is to lower one’s voice and stifle one’s anger),and currying favor with the big officials. People would look at you, as if you were an ant that was ready to be pinched at any time. If something happens, he would be that ‘one hundred percent of cannon fodder’, put out as a shield for blocking the gun and put to death.

[dī shēng xià qì低声下气: lit. lower one’s voice and stifle one’s anger / soft-spoken and submissive / meek and subservient / speak humbly and under one’s breath / speak low and repress one’s feelings of revolt / have a servile manner]

He did not have that big of ambition and great aspiration. He just wanted to live his simple life firmly and securely.His grandmother had told him since he was a child that ‘Ordinary is happiness so be satisfied with what you have’. He had always taken this to his heart. It was just that life in the big city, whoever wanted to be bland was bound to be squeezed in the corner. It was too difficult to make money, so he could only move up step by step. He was used to being talked about behind his back so he was used to ignoring it.

Now, life in the other world fulfilled all of his wishes, Except for the fact that this world was too violent, too powerful and without law and order.

The two of them returned to the “Quite Delicious” shop, where Zhao Amu and the others had already started to clean up.

“You’re back?” Huang Amu said.

“We thought something would have happened if you guys didn’t come back!”

“We’re fine. We’ve let you worry.” Zhao Zheng’an went over to help with a cheeky smile and talked in funny ways to cover things up.

On the way back, Zhong Ziqi went to buy a quilt.

“What are you buying a quilt for when it’s not the seasonable time of year yet?”

On the way back, Zhao Amu asked him, he remembered that they had two quilts at home, why did they still need to buy one?

“We have a distant relative coming to our house so we bought the quilt. I’m not sure whether the person will stay for a night or not but we buy it to keep it as a spare.”

“That’s a good point. Otherwise, it would be too bad if they stayed at your place and you didn’t have a quilt.” Zhao Amu didn’t ask who was going. He thought that the guests were a relative from the Zhong family, after all, the Zhong family was also a foreign family. It was normal for them to have a few unfamiliar relatives come here.

“Oh that’s right Amu, I’ll have to trouble Xiao Ning to help me sell things in our stall tomorrow since we’re both going to receive this relative of mine tomorrow.”

Zhong Ziqi said apologetically, it wasn’t that he didn’t want to stop the work he was doing, mainly, the food in their shop, was all connected so if he stopped for a day, there would be much less business and income for everyone so he couldn’t stop open his for the sake of everyone.

“You’re not afraid he’ll lose it for you? you let him sell it for you, the kid is stupid.”

[Zhao Amu mean that Zhao Ning is a clumsy person,not that he is stupid in brain]

“Amu, what are you talking about? How am I stupid?” Zhao Ning had listened well at first, but he didn’t expect Amu to undermine him in the twinkling of an eye.

“Fine, fine, I won’t say anymore. Our little Ning is the most capable.” Zhao Amu said hurriedly to remedy the situation.

Zhao Sheng whispered in his brother’s ear, “And I wonder who it is that can’t even do the math?”

Zhao Ning was furious and pinched his brother’s arm so hard that Zhao Sheng jumped up with a cry of pain and begged for mercy. Only then did Zhao Ning let go of his hand in relief.

The crowd on the sidelines laughed.

After laughing and joking, Zhong Ziqi arrived at the center of the village, after that, they went on separate ways with Zhao Amu and the others. When Zhong Ziqi arrived at the doorstep, he found Wang Cui Hua hovering outside their house again. Zhong Ziqi took the quilt off from Zhao Zheng’an and instructed him to ask what was going on. The Zhong family had just subsided for a while but the Zhao family came back.

Zhao Zheng’an patted Zhong Ziqi’s head comfortingly before he stepped over to his Amu:”Amu, what do you want?”

Wang Cui Hua smiled unnaturally and said, “You’re back? Why didn’t Qi Ge’er come over too? He must be tired after working hard all day.”

Zhao Zheng’an frowned, “Amu, you’re here for something, right? If you have something to say, just say it! There’s no need to ‘cover up’ like this.”

Wang Cui Hua stammered for half a day, until Zhao Zheng’an was impatient then he said: “Zheng’an ….you … Can you and Qi Ge’er lend me some money?”

“Why do you need to borrow the money? How much?”

“Zheng’an, your brother, a few days ago, he has just found a marriage but he still needs some money for the bride price.”

“Bride price? Where is the family money? Didn’t the family sell the grain a few days ago? What about that money?”

Zhao Zheng’an was unhappy, his brother was only fourteen this year, right? He was in such a hurry to get engaged. According to the law of Da Zé, marriage could not be contracted until the age of sixteen. In the countryside, there were many marriages before the age of consent because of the saying of ‘the mountain is high, the emperor far away’, of course, this was a minority, unless there was an emergency.

[ the saying mean that the government didn’t pay much attention]

To be engaged so early just like this, he was afraid that it would be just like his first marriage engagement, if anything went wrong, the marriage would still be repudiated.

“The family has saved some money from selling the grain, but it’s not enough.”

Wang Cui Hua was telling the truth, their family had some money, but they had taken it all out and were still short of it. Besides, the family still had to keep some money for their daily expenses.

“Which ger? How much is the bride price?” What kind of bride price do they want?

“The betrothal gift is five taels of silver.”

“Five taels?” Zhao Zheng’an raised his voice: “Why doesn’t he just go and rob somebody?”

“No, that ger, the main reason is to see if the family can afford it, so that when the time comes for the wedding,everything will be fine.”

“From what you’re saying, it sounds like that ger hasn’t agreed to be with Zheng Hong yet?” The more Zhao Zheng’an listened, the more confused he became.

Wang Cui Hua pulled the corner of his mouth awkwardly: “Because that ger’s family is very well-off, they have made it known that they want to do the selection( for choosing the husband for their ger). First of all, the condition for that is the family has to be able to afford the bride price. Many people are full of jealousy.”

What Wang Cui Hua did not say was that their Zhao Zheng Hong’s appearance was not very outstanding. Originally he was not qualified enough, but because Zhao Zhengan and Zhong Ziqi’s reputation is big, that family happened to know that they are Zhao Zheng Hong’s brother and brother-in-law, only reluctantly, took a look at them. Of course, the mere glance was enough to make their family happy.

Zhao Zheng’an was speechless, this was ‘the toad wanting to eat swan meat’: “No. We can’t take out the money for this, and we don’t need to take out the money at all. You’d better find a ‘down-to-earth’ person for Zheng Hong who he can spend and live a good life with! If you do this, he’ll be exposed immediately when they get married.”

[癩蛤蟆想吃天鵝肉 /lài há ma xiǎng chī tiān é ròu :lit. the toad wants to eat swan meat (idiom) / fig. to try to punch above one’s weight/ try to obtain the impossible]

“Zheng’an, you can’t say that! Do you know how much land that Ger’s family has? Forty acres of land! They only have this one ger, so when the time comes, the money will all be our family Zheng Hong’s.”

For the first time, Zhao Zheng’an realized that his Amu was such a dreamer but even if he loved to dream, it didn’t mean that he had to dream along with him.

Zhong Ziqi stood under a big tree looking at the door. He couldn’t hear what they were saying. He could just tell from Zhao Zheng’an’s face which changed from time to time that Zhao Zheng’an was obviously unhappy, yet Wang Cui Hua was obviously still ‘adding oil and vinegar’.

[添油加醋 tiān yóu jiā cù : lit. to add oil and vinegar / fig. adding details while telling a story (to make it more interesting) ]

Finally, Zhong Ziqi didn’t know what exactly Zhao Zheng’an had said to make Wang Cui Hua look so unhappy and extremely angry. Then Zhao Zheng’an got impatient as he said something, no more paying attention to him and waving his hand at him.

Zhong Ziqi walked over slowly, not looking at Wang Cui Hua either. Wang Cui Hua swore while talking, but he didn’t say anything to Zhong Ziqi, because he knew that Zhong Ziqi was even more difficult to deal with than Zhao Zheng’an.

Zhao Zheng’an stopped Wang Cui Hua from coming in as soon as he closed the door behind him.

“What have you all been talking about for so long?” Zhong Ziqi put the quilt on the cupboard designed for putting quilts in it.

“It wasn’t much.” Zhao Zheng’an thought about it and told him the reason for Wang Cui Hua’s visit.

Zhong Ziqi was also speechless: “He’s dreaming, right?”

His family’s little brother, who had ‘his mouth sticks out and one has a chin like an ape’s’ who had such a wretched appearance as he could be, who would be blind enough to marry him? Although, he was not born of the same mother. But after all, they are from the same father, Zhao Zheng’an is a man of striking appearance , handsome and good looking yet the younger brother’s appearance is a tragic sight.

[慘不忍睹 cǎn bù rěn dǔ: spectacle too horrible to endure (idiom); tragic sight / appalling scenes of devastation]

“Who knows? Let’s not talk about them! We don’t need to care about them. Anyway, we can’t let the money out for this. If we lend it to them now, later they will come looking for us if there is the birth of a child or the renovation of a house etc.” Zhao Zheng’an said.

“That’s right! Definitely can’t give him the money.” Zhong Ziqi was very satisfied with Zhao Zheng’an’s attitude. He stood on his tiptoes and patted him on the shoulder with appreciation.

Zhao Zheng’an looked at him and didn’t know whether to cry or to laugh.