The Fortunate Lady and Her Mountain Man

Chapter 147: Chapter 147: Offending a Noble

The specific details of the Ji Family’s division spread before long.

The thirty mu of land were divided into four portions: one for each of the three sons, and one kept by Ji Qingshan and Aunt Kang.

This last portion would eventually go to whichever son’s family cared for them in their old age and saw to their burials. It was anyone’s guess whether that would be the third son’s or the fourth’s.

Mrs. Zhu, for her part, was full of confidence.

’The fourth son is going to be a government official. Would he really care about a few mu of land? In the end, it’ll all come to our third branch!’

The first branch received eight mu. The grain was divided per person, so naturally, Ji Xuelan and her three daughters were not included in the count.

In addition, they received one pig, a few chickens and ducks, and various household items like pots, bowls, ladles, spoons, hoes, and plows.

The family’s only draft ox was not divided; it was to be shared between the two families.

From this perspective, while not particularly generous, they hadn’t been mistreated either.

That was strange.

’If they’re dividing the family because of that blowout with Ji Xuelan, would Ji Qingshan and Aunt Kang really hold no grudges and split everything so fairly?’

’Even if Ji Qingshan agreed, Aunt Kang would surely never go along with it.’

Ji Huan couldn’t shake the feeling that this division of property felt like some kind of compensation.

’What incident, or rather, what level of debt, could make Aunt Kang—the family tiger—stay silent even as a knife carved flesh from her own body?’

Widow Xie’s thoughts, however, went in another direction. She felt indignant on Ji Huan’s behalf.

"Compared to your uncle’s family, the way they treated you back then... that ruthlessness! It was as if you weren’t even a granddaughter of their Ji Family!"

Ji Huan just smiled and didn’t pursue the topic. Instead, she asked, "How did they divide the houses? They’re not all still living together, are they?"

It wasn’t uncommon in the village for families to continue living together after a formal division.

It seemed convenient, but it was rife with hidden problems. Seeing each other all day long was awkward, not to mention it would inevitably lead to all sorts of entanglements.

And given the personalities of the first branch, they might well continue to be under Aunt Kang’s thumb.

"Old Man Ji made the decision. He gave the old house to your eldest uncle."

In the countryside, it was common for slightly better-off families to own a few homestead plots.

’The Ji Family’s old homestead is in the northwest corner, by the river ditch. It was built from mud bricks and has been deserted for years. Is it even habitable?’

Widow Xie explained, "He didn’t make them move out immediately. He said they could live with the Ji Family for now, and once they’ve earned some money to fix up the house, they can move over."

Ji Huan thought to herself, ’That’s going to take a lot of earning, considering Ji Liansong is the only able-bodied worker in the entire first branch...’

’Still, no matter how run-down the old house is, it’s an escape route. You build a life one day at a time, and managing to split off is a good start.’

After the first month of the lunar year, the skies finally cleared.

Along with the dispersing gloom, news arrived of a great victory for the Zhou Army.

The specific details were unknown, and one could only imagine how difficult the battle had been. All that was known was that the two sides had been trading blows, with wins and losses on both sides, until the situation suddenly reversed. The Beiliang Army began a steady retreat, and in the most recent battle, the Beiliang commander was even shot off his horse by an arrow from General Kou.

With their commander’s fate unknown, the Beiliang Army’s morale collapsed. As long as the Great Zhou forces pressed their advantage, it was believed Beiliang’s surrender was only a matter of time.

For the common people, what could be more exciting than this?

Just after the fifteenth of the month, although the town market had begun to reopen, stalls were sparse, with only a few vendors in total.

Moreover, they were mostly grain shops, and the price of grain remained stubbornly high.

Now that news of the great victory had spread, the markets in both the town and the county seat had fully reopened.

Under government regulation, the price of grain had also begun to fall, and students were gradually returning to their academies for classes.

This meant that after a whole winter of war and chaos, the lives of the people in the Northern Pass had finally returned to normal.

At the same time, the Hu Family was also going to set up their stall.

Ji Huan needed to drop off her work at the bookshop, so she woke up early, took Dabao, and went to town with the Hu family.

The accumulated snow hadn’t completely melted, leaving only a thin layer that didn’t impede walking.

For over a month, with the disaster of war followed by heavy snow, everyone had been cooped up and miserable. Now that the crisis was over, the marketplace seemed even livelier than when people were shopping for the New Year.

This was especially true at the Hu Family’s stall.

The students weren’t even out of class yet, but waves of town residents were already showing up.

They said they had been craving the stall’s "golden combo" all through the New Year, to the point it was driving them crazy. With the grand reopening of the market today, they figured the Hus would be setting up their stall, so they all came over.

Anyone would be happy to hear such words, and the smiles never left the faces of Hu Liang and Widow Xie.

The bookshop wasn’t open this early, so Ji Huan stayed to help. Many regular customers still remembered her, some teasing her good-naturedly, others just saying hello.

Hu Ximei looked at her with admiration. "Sister Wan, how come you’re not scared talking to the customers?"

Unlike her. When she was clearing bowls, a customer asked her age, and she turned beet red without managing to say a single word.

Ji Huan laughed as she fried dough sticks. "Are you afraid of the uncles and aunties in the village? You’re just not used to it yet. Once you are, it’ll be fine."

Hu Ximei nodded emphatically. "I’ll get used to it as soon as I can."

Thanks to Hu Ximei’s active campaigning, the division of labor in the Hu family was readjusted.

Hu Liang and Widow Xie’s roles remained the same, but the tasks of clearing bowls and other miscellaneous chores would now be rotated between Hu Dacheng and Hu Ximei.

In other words, when one went to town to work the stall, the other had to stay home to look after the elders and the child.

Naturally, Hu Dacheng was unwilling. He was a man; he wasn’t about to stay at home.

But Hu Ximei had secured the support of the family’s two "big shots" beforehand, so his protests were mercilessly crushed. He had to agree whether he wanted to or not.

They saw off another wave of customers, and before they could even catch their breath, it was time for the students’ morning classes to end. The group was once again thrown into a flurry of activity.

Ji Huan thought she was already working as fast as she could, but she still couldn’t fry the dough sticks fast enough to meet demand. Hu Ximei was also in a state of flustered confusion.

When the peak period was over and the last customer had left, Ji Huan plopped down on a stool, so tired she couldn’t even be bothered to move a finger.

Hu Liang and Widow Xie weren’t in much better shape.

The one with the easiest job was probably Dabao, who tended the fire, but even the little boy was sweating profusely from exhaustion.

Ji Huan found a clean cloth and wiped his forehead.

"It’s a good thing Wuan reminded us. Otherwise, if we’d made the same amount as we did before the New Year, we would’ve sold out before we were halfway through. Then we really would’ve been left staring blankly."

Widow Xie’s words were exactly what Hu Liang was thinking, but there was one thing he didn’t understand.

"Wan, didn’t you say before that making too much would cause some kind of fatigue, and that we should use ’scarcity marketing’... Are we not doing that marketing anymore?"

Ji Huan waved her hand, waiting until her breathing evened out before speaking.

"In any popular business, after a short period of inactivity, the audience’s anticipation doesn’t decrease. In fact, it grows day by day. So when you suddenly relaunch one day, you’re bound to see a new surge in demand. I guess you could call that a type of marketing too, but we just stumbled into it. Who could have expected the market to open so late this year?"

Hu Liang seemed to only half-understand. "So, should we keep making today’s quantity from now on, or gradually decrease it back to the old amount?"

"Let’s do it for the first three days. Starting from the fourth day, we’ll go back to the old routine."

After talking for a while, the group got up and started packing to go home.

They were almost at the north end of the street when Ji Huan remembered she still hadn’t been to the bookshop.

Widow Xie told her to hurry and go, saying they would wait for her at the memorial archway.

Ji Huan made a point to explain to Dabao, telling him to go ahead with Aunt Xie and making it clear that she would catch up with them right away.

After the previous incident where Ji Huan came home late, combined with a long period of her reassurance, Dabao’s sense of security had strengthened somewhat. He no longer showed such extreme resistance to her leaving.

He hesitated, then nodded and opened his mouth. "Come... back soon."

"You got it!"

Ji Huan pinched his little cheek, then ran back, clutching the books she had copied.

She had been busy teaching Dabao recently and hadn’t copied many books, but she still earned one and a half taels of silver.

Before she left, Boss Fang stuffed another stack of books into her hands. The academy students were all busy preparing for the three levels of imperial examinations—county, prefectural, and metropolitan—so they had no time to take on extra work. Even Song Jing had temporarily stopped copying.

’I’m an idle person, and with idleness comes more work, right?’

Ji Huan hurried back with the books. Just as expected, Widow Xie and the others were waiting by the memorial archway.

As she got closer, she noticed their expressions were off. They all looked shaken.

Dabao, however, seemed fine. He came over and took her free hand.

"What’s wrong?" she asked.

Hu Liang explained, "Just now at the north end of the street, right after we turned the corner, a group of horsemen came charging straight at us. We barely managed to get out of the way."

Hu Ximei added, "The old man in the lead kept staring at Dabao. He watched him for a long time before leaving."

Widow Xie patted her chest. "Exactly! I thought we’d offended some important person. It scared me half to death!"

"Staring at Dabao?" Ji Huan was puzzled. "What kind of old man?"

Hu Ximei looked troubled. "I don’t know if he was an old man. I mean, his hair was all white, but on the other hand, he didn’t have a beard..."

’No beard?’ Ji Huan’s heart tightened.

’Could it be—a eunuch!’

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