Chapter Eighty-One: The Marriage Arrangement

  The foodie brought Wang Kuang and the others to a wine tower, where he told the doorman, "These guests are here for the famous salted water duck." He then bowed to Wang Kuang, saying, "This wine tower has a great flavor, it's one of the best in the area. It's also a good time to come since there aren't many customers. If you wait until dinner time, I'm afraid it will be packed. Please, after you." With that, he left without looking back, leaving Wang Kuang feeling a bit embarrassed for having suspected him earlier.

  "This guy is interesting." Lin Xuanmu shook his head and looked up and down at Wang Kuang, then looked at his own clothes: "He actually paid respects to you Erlang, I'm also a scholar, aren't I? Look, Erlang, you're dressed exactly like a nouveau riche."

  "Hmm, you dress like a scholar but speak like a nouveau riche." Wang Kuang retorted, and beside him, Wang Xian immediately chimed in: "Second Brother dresses like a nouveau riche but speaks like a scholar." Sun Jiaying also joined in the fun: "So he doesn't talk to the nouveau riche."

  "You're all nouveau riche." Lin Xuanmu was getting a bit anxious, "Birds of a feather flock together, so you are too." After finishing speaking, she realized that the sentence had also implicated herself, and she hastily shut her mouth in embarrassment.

  The waiter at the side listened to the three people arguing and found it interesting, but he didn't dare offend the customers, so he suppressed his laughter and led Wang Kuang and the others to a seat by the window on the second floor, then quickly ran away and called other waiters to attend to them.

  Wang ordered a salted duck, a roasted duck, a steamed mandarin fish, a plate of mustard greens, and a bowl of tofu brain for each person. He also asked for a pot of wine, but didn't order anything else. At that time, many dishes in Jinling had not yet taken shape or formed their own characteristics, and most other dishes could be found elsewhere. The only exception was the mandarin fish, which was a must-eat since they were by the Yangtze River. And at that time, the Yangtze River mandarin fish was absolutely wild and uncontaminated.

  The waiter saw Wang's situation and pointed to the mandarin fish, reminding him: "Let everyone know that this ordinary mandarin fish weighs about two catties per tail. You have already ordered two ducks, one duck is more than two catties, almost three catties, I'm afraid you can't finish eating it. Why not order again next time? Or just order one duck?"

  "You're also interesting, actually advising guests to eat less." Lin Xuanmu said with a smile.

  Wang Juan waved his hand: "It doesn't matter, we're here to eat and will leave Jinling tomorrow. If we don't finish it, just steam half a duck and pack the other half for us to eat on the road." The duck is best eaten hot, or it becomes hard when cold. But with those soldiers around, Wang Juan wasn't worried. Thinking of the soldiers, he guessed they didn't have the spare money to eat duck, so he called back his partner who was about to leave: "Pack 30 ducks for us and we'll settle the bill later." The partner happily agreed and went off to work on it.

  "Second Brother, why did you buy so many roasted ducks? If it's for those soldiers to eat, a dozen or so would be enough." Lin Xuanmu was somewhat perplexed.

  "This dish won't go bad, take it to Chang'an for your second uncle and his family to eat. In Chang'an, you can't find such a delicious duck. By the way, second son, help me remember that when we return to Jian'an via Jinling, we need to buy some more to bring back. Wang Kuang's mind had already started calculating, it would be best to bring back a few live ducks to raise in Jian'an. Although later generations in Fujian also have Shaxian roast duck, they use local grass ducks (a single grass duck weighs only over two catties after being cooked, much inferior to Nanjing duck). The limitation of raw materials has destined that Shaxian roast duck is far less famous than Nanjing roast duck, and the taste is also slightly worse."

  "It's hard for the second son, you think of someone, heh heh." Lin Xuanmu read too many books and was a bit clumsy in human relationships, which was still influenced by Wang Kuang over the past two years. Otherwise, with his personality from a few years ago, he would have been a complete bookworm.

  "Less nonsense, this is what we three brothers have prepared for ourselves, you prepare your own." Wang glared at him.

  "Hey, what's the point of distinguishing between yours and mine? Who knows, after a while, I might have to call you brother-in-law. As an elder, you shouldn't be so petty, right?" Lin Xuanmu's family was very strict, with a fixed monthly allowance that was sometimes not enough for expenses. Hearing Wang Kuang say it wasn't his share, he blurted out in a moment of urgency. He knew that his father and uncle were intentionally trying to arrange a marriage between his younger sister and Wang Kuang, but it seemed like Wang Kuang wasn't very interested, because his younger sister was too wild. This year, the Lin family had been intensifying their "education" while also secretly hinting at Sun Ming in front of him, all without Wang Kuang's knowledge.

  "Hmm?" Wang Kuang raised an eyebrow upon hearing this and stared at Lin Xuanmu: "Speak, what's going on?"

  "No, nothing." Lin Xuanmu regretted opening her mouth and wished she could slap herself. This matter had been repeatedly warned about at home, and before her younger aunt's temperament changed, it was absolutely not to be mentioned to Wang Kuang. Now, she had lost control of her mouth and let the secret slip out. When they returned to Chang'an, she didn't know how her second uncle would punish her.

  "Go on, you've already let the cat out of the bag, haven't you? If you say it, those ducks will have a share for you too." At this time, Wang Kuang was like a wolf grandma holding candy, launching a psychological attack on Lin Xuanmiao.

  The psychology elective course in later generations is really not a waste of study, and Wang Kuang himself has his own set of people's psychological analysis. When Wang Kuang was in college, university students were not as numerous as they were later on the streets. Once, during an all-school faculty and student meeting, a school worker very loudly threw chairs onto the podium instead of moving them, in front of more than 4,000 students. At that time, Wang Kuang said very firmly: "This person is very inferior, he subconsciously wants to use this method to prove that he is better than us." As a result, not long after, it was indeed transmitted that the school worker was detained for beating up a student who shouted at him "Hey" because of excessive self-esteem leading to sensitivity.

  Lin Xuanmo couldn't withstand Wang Kuang's psychological offensive, and soon couldn't resist the temptation he constantly threw out, and one by one, like a spilled bean bag, everything was revealed.

  After Lin Xuanmu finished speaking, Wang Kuang roughly understood the situation. It turned out that the Lin family had brought that little girl over for a blind date last time, but he himself had been kept in the dark. Fortunately, his own affairs were all handled by Sun Mingqian, who let him make his own decisions, and the Lin family was also aware of this. So when they heard that Wang Kuang wasn't interested in the little girl, they didn't mention it again. However, Sun Mingqian did know about it.

  But the Lin family didn't give up just yet. They had Lin Xuanmu investigate what kind of girls Wang Kuang liked. After hearing that Wang Kuang had met Chen Yuer once and helped Wang Ling settle the marriage, they guessed that Wang Kuang probably liked girls similar to Chen Yuer. So now the Lin family is guiding the little girl based on Chen Yuer's personality.

  It's said that recently the little girl has become much more docile and no longer as wild. It's probably due to the competitive spirit of children, who are often compared to those talented young ladies by their elders, so they naturally feel a bit resentful. Now she is diligently studying domestic skills, painting, and writing at home.

  Wang Kuang couldn't help but laugh and cry at the same time. That little girl was obviously just a child who hadn't grown up yet. Children are naturally mischievous, and it's nothing to worry about - as they grow older and become more sensible, they will gradually improve. This was the Tang Dynasty, an era that valued martial arts, and women like Lin Daiyu were extremely rare. Moreover, during this time, women's social status was far lower than in later dynasties, such as the Song and Ming. Not to mention Chang'an, even in Jiankang, it was common to see women dressed as men, revealing their faces. The environment was just like that, and it determined the direction of people's personalities at the time - otherwise, how could there be the emergence of a female emperor? Besides, he didn't like sickly beauties anyway. He thought the Lin family was making a big fuss over nothing, and his lack of feelings for the little girl was simply because he saw her as still having a childlike heart. Subconsciously, he treated her like a kid. Chen Yanniang couldn't compare to her? The children of poor families have to grow up early and take care of themselves, or else they wouldn't know how precious food and firewood are - that's why there are thrifty housewives like his sister-in-law nowadays. Little girls who have never had to worry about food and clothing since childhood naturally develop more slowly.

  "Look at what you've done." Wang Kuang was helpless, he couldn't say that he didn't dislike Xiao Yatou, or it would be even more likely to cause misunderstandings: not disliking her means liking her? He also couldn't say things like "Xiao Yatou is still young", if she found out, she would hold a grudge.

  "I'm still young and don't want to get married so early." Wang Kuang could only make this excuse.

  "Still young? Already seventeen years old, still young?" Lin Xuanmu looked at Wang Kuang as if he was a monster: "In ordinary families, they get married at fifteen years old. You're already seventeen and still young? If you reach eighteen years old and haven't gotten married yet, then you'll be waiting for the imperial court to punish you." What Lin Xuanmu said was that after the war subsided, the imperial court felt that the population was too small. In this era where one more person meant one more laborer, population was absolutely a top priority for the country. Therefore, the imperial court had a regulation: all males who reached eighteen years old and females who reached seventeen years old must get married if there were no special reasons; otherwise, they would be subject to heavy taxes.

  "Don't stare at him, there's a reason for it. Focus on your own affairs and wait until you're done with them. By then, he'll be married too. The engagement was arranged long ago." Lin Xuanmu saw Wang Kuang staring at him and knew what he wanted to say, so he quickly covered his mouth. Lin Xuanmu was already twenty years old and still unmarried, which is why Wang Kuang was staring at him like that.

  Rumor has it that Lin Xuanmu has already settled her marriage, and Wang Kuang and Wang Xi's gossiping hearts have been stirred up. Wang Kuang had long thrown his own affairs to the back of his mind - wasn't he just going to get married before the age of 18? At worst, when the time comes, he can just go around Jian'an and take a look around, and whoever catches his eye, he'll make a move on. With Wang Kuang's reputation in Jian'an, marrying into a high-ranking family would be difficult, but it wouldn't be a problem with ordinary wealthy families. Besides, isn't there still that little girl around? If this little girl has really matured a lot over the past year and is no longer so wild, he wouldn't mind either. The little girl doesn't look bad, at least she's not like those other girls from good families that Wang Kuang has seen, who are fat beyond recognition.

  "Which girl is it? Let's discuss it with you." Wang Kuang's fingers tapped rhythmically on the table, "tap tap tap", as he glanced at Lin Xuanmu with a sly smile, making Lin Xuanmu's skin crawl. He had known Wang Kuang for years and was all too familiar with his expressions. This particular expression meant that Wang Kuang wouldn't rest until he had squeezed out every last bit of information from him.