Chapter 9: Sleepless Night (2)

  Lian Wan'er was drowsy and couldn't open her eyes, but she felt someone taking her wrist to feel her pulse. She also heard Lian Shouxin and Zhang speaking, as well as a stranger's voice.

  "...the pulse is still quite calm, so there shouldn't be any major problems. Take a few doses of medicine to clear the heat and calm the spirit, rest well for a few days and see how it goes." Doctor Wang wrote out the prescription, then seeing the anxious and distracted expressions on Lian Shouxin and Zhang's faces, he added, "...these are all common medicines, I just so happen to have some with me. Why don't you follow me back and I'll mix up two doses for the child to take right away."

  Lian Shouxin and Zhang's wife both nodded in agreement, following Wang Taigong out of the west wing. They saw that the upstairs was still lit up, and faintly heard Zhou Shi's groaning sounds.

  Zhang and Lian Shouxin exchanged a glance.

  "Royal Doctor Wang, is my mother's illness serious? Can you also prescribe some medicine for her to take?" Lian Shouxin said with a bow.

  "Your old lady is fine... um, if she needs to take medicine..."

  Lian Wan'er only vaguely heard a few words in the house, thinking to herself: It turns out that this couple clearly knew that Zhou Shi was faking illness and still invited a doctor to come and had already examined Zhou Shi. Truly filial without anything to say.

  …………

  The house next door

  Lian Duo'er was already asleep on the kang, Lian Shouren and Gu Shi were sitting on the kang discussing something in a low voice, when suddenly the door creaked open and Lian Hua'er came in from outside, stretching out her hand and rushing towards Lian Duo'er.

  "What are you doing?" Gu looked at Lianhua's pale face and quickly got up to stop her.

  Lian Hua'er's hand was originally rushing towards Lian Duo'er, but was blocked by Gu Shi and couldn't catch Lian Duo'er.

  "Girl, don't stop me. If I don't teach her a lesson this time, she won't learn from it. Originally a smooth and easy matter, almost got completely ruined because of her." Lian Hua'er said resentfully.

  Gu's heart was also resentful, almost ruining the good things, but both sides of his hand were flesh.

  "All right, haven't you already taught her a lesson? If you hit her again and people see it, that won't be good." Gu Shi advised Lian Hua.

  "Let her off for now, wait until we get back to town..." Lian Hua'er thought Gu Shi's words made sense, and could only force down his anger.

  "Duoer is your own sister..."

  "It's not my own sister, I would have killed her long ago." Lian Hua'er said angrily.

  "Right," Gu suddenly thought of something to ask Lianhua, but suddenly closed his mouth and pointed east with his hand, "Are they all asleep?"

  Lianhua nodded.

  "Just let Fourth Uncle and Fourth Master serve me to take medicine, made a fuss all night, early are sleepy can't move, when I came out, they were all asleep." Lian Hua'er said.

  Gu looked out of the window and saw that there was no one outside, then he pulled Lianhua.

  "Man Er actually survived, didn't she hear that?" Gu Shi asked in a low voice.

  "There shouldn't be, otherwise she would have said it out loud." Lian Hua'er thought for a moment and said, "Looking at her words and actions today, I actually misjudged her."

  "Is everything all right on Yingzi's side?" Gu asked again.

  "That's a shallow girl, she was already won over by my few good words. That bangle, she still thinks it's gold, really hasn't seen the world." Lian Hua'er's tone was somewhat disdainful, "As long as this is hidden until I get married, there's nothing to fear."

  "That's right." Gu nodded.

  "Mother, is there anything to eat?" Lianhua sat on the kang, "I'm starving."

  "Mother knew you were coming for food." Gu smiled and took out a box of pastries from her own bag, "Osmanthus cake from Gui Xiang Zhai in town, your favorite."

  Lotus flowers then took some dim sum from the box to eat.

  "Mother, must we stay here until I get married? Otherwise, let's go back to town tomorrow. The food in their house is really unbearable for me to eat, every meal is millet rice and wotou (a type of Chinese bread), it hurts my throat, and I couldn't not eat at all. Xiuer auntie even gave me some meat to eat, but the meat was too fatty, only suitable for dogs, she thought it was something good. It's laughable that we even quarreled about this during dinner."

  Lian Hua'er couldn't help but burst out laughing in the end.

  "Just bear with it for now, don't come back to live here, rely on your father, how can I prepare the dowry for you." Gu Shi said, glancing at Lian Shouren beside her.

  "I see that Grandma and Grandpa are also poor, and they don't want to sell the land. What can we do for a dowry? Tomorrow when we have money, it's better to go back to town, it's more convenient." said Lian Hua'er.

  "I also mean that, Master Lao. Look, shall we all go back to the town tomorrow?" Gu Shi asked with a smile, turning to Lian Shouren.

  "I and my parents said it was to live until the daughter got married, and then send her off from our old house." Lian Shouren said.

  "Now that we have the money, let's just say what the Sun family said, it's more convenient to send dowry from town." Gu Shi said.

  Lian Shouren hesitated for a moment.

  "It can be said that way, but if Father and Mother know that our town's granary is gone, we will have to stay here until after the New Year. If we leave tomorrow, I'm afraid it will chill Father and Mother's hearts, and this matter won't go well afterwards." Lian Shouren said, "Tomorrow I'll return, you all stay here, and I'll send Dalang and the others back again. Autumn harvest is about to begin, it's also good for you to keep an eye on things here, and exchange some goods in town for rice and flour, enough for us to eat next year."

  "Father is right, let the elder brother and sister-in-law handle this matter, they are used to it. My mother and I will follow father back to town, also to prepare for my dowry." said Lian Hua.

  "Isn't it that Master has something on his mind and needs to get rid of us women to do it?" Gu Shi smiled slyly at Lian Shouren.

  "Nonsense, I'll tell Father and Mother tomorrow morning, and we'll all go back together." Lian Shouren said hastily.

  Gu and Lianhua exchanged a smile.

  "Father, mother, have you prepared my dowry?" Lian Hua'er asked again.

  "Master Sun didn't say that he doesn't need a dowry, he said he's marrying you as a person." Lian Shouren hastily added, "You also saw it, our family can't afford to prepare a dowry anyway."

  "If Father says so, then it will be difficult for Father to do things in the future." Lian Hua'er wiped the crumbs from her mouth with a handkerchief.

  "What's this nonsense you're spouting? You're even making things difficult for your father now?" Lian Shouren was getting annoyed.

  Gu was busy persuading them on the side, "You two have something to discuss, let's talk it over properly."

  "Dad, don't forget, the money borrowed tomorrow will be repaid by me. Tomorrow, we'll borrow 540 taels, 300 taels to repay Yang Chengfeng, and 240 taels left over. The 40 taels can be kept for you to use yourself, and the 200 taels will be used for my dowry, barely enough to get by." Lian Hua said, clearly having calculated it all out in advance.

  "What, you want 200 taels to prepare the dowry?" Lian Shouren was anxious. "According to our village's rules, a dowry of 20-30 taels of silver is already very respectable. Since you're marrying into the Sun family, I'll give you..."

  He paused for a moment, then continued with a heavy heart: "I'll give you 100 taels, and the rest will be used by our family. The 20 taels that were hard to save, I've already given back to your grandparents for your sake. In total, you have 120 taels as your dowry."

  Lian Hua'er saw Lian Shouren say this and hastily gave Gu Shi a signal with her eyes.

  "Master, this matter is what Lianhua said. The Sun family is a big household, and if Lianhua's dowry is more generous, we will have face. In the future, when our families come and go, we will also be able to speak easily. Besides, it's only a matter of two or three months. Once Lianhua marries over, Sun family's young master becomes our son-in-law, are we still afraid that we won't have money to spend?" said Gu Shi.

  The mother and daughter talked about it again and again, and also mentioned Lian Shouren's future, only then did Lian Shouren reluctantly nod his head.

  "Flowers, I've done it all for you, but now our family is ruined."

  "Dad, rest assured, I understand." Lian Hua'er smiled, "Dad's affairs, I will definitely make Sun Lang pay attention. In the future when Dad becomes an official, I will also rise with the tide in the Sun family."

  "We're smart just like flowers." Lian Shouren said with a smile.

  The three of them discussed it and decided, and only then did Lianhua return contentedly to the east wing to sleep.

  ………

  The candle in the east wing had long been extinguished, and He Shi slept until midnight, suddenly waking up, thinking of something, and kicking Lian Shouyi beside her.

  "His father..." said He.

  "What's up," Lian Shouyi muttered, without even opening his eyes.

  "Big brother must have reported a false account again. Tomorrow you follow big brother to the town, think of a way to get a few taels of silver to use." said Mrs. He.

  "This is all you have to say." Lian Shouyi heard the silver, and quickly came to his senses. "Father's mind is set on making Big Brother a successful official, so he can follow in his footsteps and become an old man. He doesn't listen to anything else. In recent years, our family's wealth has all been squandered by Big Brother. They may have deceived Father and Mother, and deceived Third Brother and Fourth Brother, but they can't deceive me."

  "What about this time, the Sun family is a wealthy family, I heard they are relatives of the Shen family in Fu City, it's not difficult for big brother to get an official position." He said, putting one leg on top of Lian Shouyi's leg.

  "It seems like this time it's really going to be a wild ride." Lian Shouyi said as he pulled open the door of the He family's carriage.

  "Then can we go too?" He Shi asked happily.

  "It goes without saying, we haven't separated from the family yet, so Father and Mother will definitely go, and our whole family will follow." Lian Shouyi said, "I heard that Li Ban, the county head, said that the county magistrate in our county has brought several brothers and younger uncles to the yamen, and everyone who sees them has to call them 'old master', their hands are so soft when they collect silver. We can't be worse than him at that time."

  He's delighted for a while, then thinks that following others to bask in their glory is not as good as being the master himself. He thought so, and suddenly became dissatisfied again. "Dad, if you continue to study, this good thing will be yours?"

  "Don't mention studying again, every time I mention studying, I get a headache. We don't have a daughter like Hua'er either. All these years, we've also supported our elder brother, and followed him to enjoy good fortune, that's only right." Lian Shouyi kicked He Shi with his foot.

  "Your father, your elder brother is ruthless enough. This time, it's still lucky that Man'er has a big life and survived." He Shi suddenly said, "That cheap woman Gu Shi, like a fox spirit, can she really take care of us when the time comes?"

  "There's still Father and Mother there, he dares not neglect them." Lian Shouyi snorted, "Besides, I'm not that fool Old Fourth. Eldest Brother has had many weaknesses in my hands over the years, what is he afraid of!"

  "What's going on?" Mr. He immediately sat up and asked with wide eyes.