Chapter 30

Chapter 30

The next day, after selling his meat, Jiang Chun carried the five pounds of eggs that Liu Pozi had bought for him at the morning market and went to visit Wang Yiner at her home.

As Dr. Cao had predicted, Wang Yiner did indeed develop a high fever during the night, but thanks to Jiang Xi's tireless care throughout the night, her temperature had dropped somewhat by morning.

Jiang Chun touched her forehead, using his experience from when he used to get fevers in his past life, and estimated that her current temperature was around 100.4°F (38°C).

He instructed Cao Pozi, who was taking over the care, "Continue applying cold compresses to her forehead. Change the water and re-soak the cloth whenever it gets warm. Don't stop."

Cao Pozi, perhaps seeing a chance for her granddaughter to survive and wanting to make up for her previous mistakes, was very enthusiastic.

She nodded vigorously, saying, "Don't worry, would I not take good care of my own granddaughter? I'll make sure she's well taken care of."

Jiang Chun nodded in satisfaction. "You really do love your granddaughter."

"Grandma, I want some millet porridge. Can you cook some for me?"

Wang Yiner found an excuse to send Cao Pozi away and then said to Jiang Chun, "Liu Ergirl sent someone this morning to bring back the things I left at the Liu family's house. She also gave me a set of silver jewelry and twenty taels of silver."

She reached into her bedcovers and pulled out a money bag, handing it to Jiang Chun. "Here is the silver jewelry and the twenty taels of silver. Could you please keep it for me?"

Jiang Chun weighed the money bag in his hand and glanced at Wang Yiner.

This girl was quite pragmatic. In the past, even calling him "cousin" seemed like a life-threatening task for her. Now, relying on his help, she called him "sister" with such affection.

However, Jiang Chun didn't refuse.

There were few good people in the Wang family, and his cousin Jiang Xi was weak and easily bullied. Who knew if they might take advantage of Wang Yiner's helplessness while she was bedridden, swallow her hard-earned money, and kick her out?

If that happened, Wang Yiner would be penniless and unable to walk. It would be more than just "pitiful."

Theoretically, her misfortune wouldn't have much to do with him as her cousin.

But his mother, Jiang Xi, was Jiang He's elder sister and had helped Jiang He greatly. If Wang Yiner truly fell into such a dire situation, Jiang He wouldn't stand idly by and would definitely provide her with financial support.

So protecting Wang Yiner's property was also protecting their family's property.

As for the eighty taels of silver still in the hands of the Wang family, it depended on whether Wang Yiner wanted to reclaim it. If she did, she could figure it out herself once she recovered. Jiang Chun didn't want to get involved.

After leaving the Wang family's house, Jiang Chun bought buns and soy milk at a bun shop, returned to Liu Pozi's house, and pushed the wheelbarrow back to Daliushu Village.

He placed the buns and soy milk on the dining table, called out to his father, and then opened the door to the west room. Smiling, he said to Song Shian, who was sitting at the kang table binding books, "Husband, come down and have breakfast."

Song Shian did come down, but he ignored Jiang Chun, sitting at the dining table and quietly eating a plain bun.

Jiang Chun placed a bowl of soy milk in front of him and asked with a smile, "Are you still angry with me, husband?"

Song Shian picked up the bowl, took a sip of soy milk, and continued to silently eat the plain bun.

Even the dull-witted Jiang He could see that they were having a disagreement.

He glared at Jiang Chun and scolded, "Chun, you should know your limits. Don't bully your son-in-law just because he seems easy to push around."

Song Shian thought about how she had "bullied" him last night, blushed, and choked on the bun in his mouth, coughing violently.

Seeing this, Jiang Chun immediately put down his meat bun and gently patted his back.

Once Song Shian recovered, he quickly pushed her hand away and moved his stool farther away from her.

Jiang He glared at Jiang Chun again.

Song Shian was usually mild-tempered. For him to be so upset in front of his father-in-law, his daughter must have done something really bad.

Jiang Chun rubbed his nose and changed the subject. "Father, eat quickly. After you finish, you need to go to the field and dig up the remaining radishes."

Jiang He buried his head in his food without saying another word.

Newlyweds often quarrel, but reconcile in bed. As a father, all he needed to do was scold his daughter a bit to show his stance, and let them handle the rest themselves.

After finishing breakfast, Jiang He put the hoe in the wheelbarrow and went to dig up the radishes.

Jiang Chun washed the dishes and, taking advantage of the sunny weather, spread out the radishes they had dug up a few days ago to dry.

After a few days of drying, once the outer skin and any remaining dirt were dry, they could be stored in the cellar.

In the harsh winter, with no modern greenhouses, almost every household relied on radishes and cabbage, which were easy to store, for their vegetables.

After spreading out the radishes, he washed his hands and entered the west room. He first took out the three bolts of fine cotton fabric he had bought and received from signing in yesterday.

He picked up a half-burned piece of charcoal from the stove, wrapped the end in a piece of scrap cloth, and took a strip of paper that Song Shian had cut off while binding books from the kang.

Then he found the wooden ruler that the original owner often used and said to Song Shian, "Husband, come down. I need to measure you for a cotton coat."

After his mother passed away, all the sewing work in the house fell to him. Initially, he only had a basic skill level, but with practice, he had improved to a fairly good level.

Of course, this was limited to mending and patching; he couldn't do embroidery at all.

Song Shian remained seated, his pen never stopping, clearly not wanting to acknowledge him.

Jiang Chun crossed his arms and looked at him sideways, chuckling, "One autumn rain, one chill. Winter will be here soon. Do you plan to wear Father's thin padded jacket through the winter?"

Song Shian's brush paused.

Prefecture Qi was located in the north, and he had spent two years there in his previous life. He knew well that the winter cold here was comparable to that of the Imperial City.

A strong person would struggle to withstand the cold in a thin old padded jacket, let alone someone with a weak constitution like himself?

If he continued to sulk and refused to let her make him a thick cotton coat, he would surely suffer from the cold once winter arrived, and he would have to compromise then.

But if he let her off so easily, she would have no fear and not only dare to do it again but also become more presumptuous.

After a moment's thought, he chose a middle way.

He got up from the kang and stood on the ground, but still refused to speak to her.

But that was enough.

Enough for Jiang Chun to see that he wasn't really angry, just pretending to scare her so she wouldn't dare to be frivolous with him again.

Not being frivolous was impossible.

She had spent money and effort, serving him day and night. Was she here in ancient times to do charity?

Even servants who served their masters received monthly pay; what was wrong with her asking for some "interest" from him? It was completely reasonable!

She tiptoed and placed the wooden ruler against Song Shian's broad back.

An ancient chi (foot) was about 33 centimeters, clearly not as wide as his shoulders. She pressed her finger at the end of the ruler and moved the beginning of the ruler to her finger.

The wooden ruler, having been used for too long and originally part of her mother Zheng's dowry, had most of its red paint markings worn off, making it hard to read.

Jiang Chun leaned over, squinting to make out the measurements.

Her hot breath on Song Shian's neck made him feel as if tiny caterpillars were crawling on his skin, causing an itchy sensation that made his limbs go weak.

Yet, since she was doing something serious, he couldn't bring himself to push her away.

After much effort, Jiang Chun finally measured the shoulder width.

She quickly put her feet back on the ground, half-laying on the kang, and wrote down the numbers on a piece of paper with a charcoal stick.

From his vantage point above, Song Shian could clearly see the content on the paper strip, and his phoenix eyes widened, his pupils trembling several times.

If he wasn't mistaken, these were the characters of the Great Food (Arab) Kingdom!

A year ago, a merchant caravan from the Great Food Kingdom came to present gifts to the emperor. On the day they entered the capital, he happened to be drinking tea with his friend Zeng Ziqing at a teahouse and saw similar characters carved on the carriages of the caravan.

Could it be that this person was actually a wandering spirit from the Great Food Kingdom?

No wonder he was so "unconcerned with trivialities"!

Perhaps too shocked, he momentarily forgot about his decision to ignore her for a while and said with certainty, "What you wrote is the script of the Great Food Kingdom."

Jiang Chun was stunned.

She thought she had written Arabic numerals; how did they relate to the script of the Great Food Kingdom?

Suddenly, she froze.

In ancient times, Arabia was known as the Great Food Kingdom...

Had she slipped up?

Don't panic, don't panic, think of a way out.

Jiang Chun's mind raced, but she couldn't come up with a suitable excuse after a while.

It was clearly impossible to blame village head Zou again. He had only attended a few years of private school and wasn't even a scholar, so there was no way he could recognize the script of the Great Food Kingdom.

Not to mention Zou, even in Hongye Town or Hongye County, no one could possibly recognize the script of the Great Food Kingdom.

There was no need to consider places further away; even if someone there could recognize the script, a village girl like Jiang Chun, who had never been farther than Hongye County, couldn't possibly know them.

Unable to find a scapegoat, she decided to give up.

Blinking her large almond eyes innocently, she said, "What are you talking about, my lord? What is the script of the Great Food Kingdom? I've never heard of it."

Song Shian snorted, sarcastically saying, "Is that so? You haven't heard of the Great Food Kingdom, yet you can write its script. How truly magical."

Jiang Chun put on a look of realization, pointing at the paper on the kang and laughed, "Are you talking about this? This isn't the script of the Great Food Kingdom at all; it's just random marks I made to remember your measurements."

"Do you think I'm mistaken?" Song Shian rolled his eyes at her, sneering, "I've had a photographic memory since childhood and was the top scholar of Tianqi Year 35. Even if others might make mistakes, I certainly won't."

Jiang Chun exclaimed loudly, "Ah? What? You're a top scholar?"

Without waiting for Song Shian to respond, she lamented, "Father was deceived! The slave trader said you were the son of a merchant caught smuggling salt, and buying you would cause no trouble. But you're actually a top scholar!"

She lay on the kang, wailing, "It's over, it's over! A top scholar being captured must mean he committed a grave crime. Now our family is in big trouble!"

As she cried, she suddenly jumped up, clenching her fists and declaring fiercely, "No, we can't keep you, this hot potato. When Father comes back, I'll discuss it with him and get a slave trader to sell you!"

Song Shian: "..."

She had skillfully shifted the topic and caught him off guard.

Her performance was excellent; with her acting, singing, and martial skills, she could probably become a famous performer if she went on stage.

But he didn't believe a word of it.

How could she not know his background when she already knew he was destined for greatness?

Jiang He genuinely didn't know.

If he knew that Song Shian came from a noble family, was the brother-in-law of King Yan, the top scholar of Tianqi Year 35, and had once served in the Hanlin Academy before being exiled and sold into slavery, he would never have dared to buy him.

If not for this, how could Song Shian have ended up being sold and resold all the way to Prefecture Qi?

Though that's the case, it's clearly not time to reveal our cards just yet.

So he calmly waited for her performance to end before saying coolly, "I won't pry into why you can write in Arabic script, and you can pretend not to know my true origins. How about that?"

Jiang Chun composed himself, his face serious as he stared at this outstandingly handsome face.

Tsk, what a pity, such a beautiful person with brains is really hard to fool.

If only he were a silly, easily manipulated and bullied beauty, how nice would that be?

No, if he were a foolish beauty, I wouldn't have the chance to be the illustrious wife of the Prime Minister.

Tsk, thinking about it, having brains is better after all.

She lowered her head and chuckled, then said cheerfully, "Alright, I agree. No matter where you come from, you're my husband now, and I don't care about anything else."

Song Shian secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Though it seemed like a lose-lose situation, he was actually the winner.

She knew his past and future, which gave her leverage over him. While he had discovered her ability to conjure objects out of thin air, that was a secret he couldn't reveal.

It meant he was unilaterally under her control.

Now that he had found a lever to use against her, one that wasn't significant enough for her to want to eliminate him, they were on more equal footing.

With this leverage, their relationship would be more stable, at least avoiding the scenario she had threatened earlier, of selling him to the tooth traders.

Jiang Chun picked up the wooden ruler again and huffed, "Extend your arm, I need to measure your sleeve length."

Song Shian complied.

After measuring the sleeve length, it was time to measure the waist circumference.

Since they only had a wooden ruler and no flexible tape measure, using the wooden ruler for the waist was impractical. So she undid her handkerchief.

Then she stood behind him, reaching her hands around to the front, wrapping the handkerchief around his waist.

They were very close, almost touching.

As Jiang Chun moved, the softness of her chest occasionally brushed against Song Shian's back.

Song Shian stood there like a stone statue, stiff and nearly petrified, his face red as if it were about to bleed.

He grumbled, "Don't dawdle on purpose, hurry up."

Jiang Chun pulled out the handkerchief, measured the position where it had been wrapped around his waist with the wooden ruler, and noted it down on paper, muttering, "What are you complaining about? I'm the one who almost got injured and I didn't even complain."

Song Shian: "..."

You really know how to turn things around!

Jiang Chun finished writing, turned around, glanced at his lower body, and tapped the wooden ruler against her palm with a mischievous grin, "Next, we'll measure the pant length, are you ready, Husband?"

Song Shian: "..."

Can't I just skip making this cotton robe?