Chapter 20: Chapter 18: Four Silver Beans
For this family letter, Wei Tu didn’t trouble the Shan Family. Instead, he entrusted it to a cart driver who regularly traveled between the County Town and Sanyuan Town to deliver it to the Li Mansion.
The driver’s fee wasn’t high—just a dozen or so copper coins, about the cost of a meal.
...
After the letter was sent.
About seven or eight days passed.
Xinghua also entrusted a reply to the same driver.
In the letter, Xinghua first expressed her happiness that Wei Tu had been accepted as a Disciple by Shan Wuju. She urged him to serve his new master well, as he was a man who clearly appreciated him...
...and told him not to worry about coming home for the New Year.
Then, Xinghua recounted the details of the wheat harvest from the three mu of land their family had leased this year.
—The first mistress, Mrs. Li Tong, had been very considerate, arranging for a few tenant farmers to help with the harvest at no cost.
At the end of the letter, Xinghua mentioned that she had sewn him a winter coat from cotton cloth and asked if it fit well or if it needed to be altered.
She added that she wasn’t sure about the waist measurement and told Wei Tu to adjust it himself.
After reading the letter.
Wei Tu thought for a moment before opening the package the driver had brought.
Inside, besides a padded purple woolen jacket, were two pairs of newly sewn soft satin shoes.
Next.
Following Xinghua’s instructions, Wei Tu stood up to try on the winter clothes and shoes.
But as soon as he put on the jacket, Wei Tu found that the padded purple garment was indeed a poor fit; it was too tight around the waist.
Wei Tu found a pair of scissors and began snipping the stitches. The moment he started, however, he discovered a small, written note and a few silver beans hidden inside the jacket’s padding.
Xinghua’s note was brief. It said she had tucked four silver beans into the winter coat, totaling a little over one tael. She wanted Wei Tu to use this money to buy a proper gift for Shan Wuju to mark his discipleship.
Wei Tu found all four silver beans, one by one, in the cotton padding of the jacket. He clutched the sum, a little over one tael, and it felt almost hot to the touch.
"A wife three years older holds a brick of gold."
"What Mrs. Li Tong said was absolutely right."
Wei Tu sighed. ’I owe Xinghua so much already.’
Xinghua was three years his senior and had joined the Li Family two years before him. Combined with the fact that women mature earlier, she had always taken good care of him.
After they married, Xinghua deferred to him as her husband on important matters, but she never completely shed her habit of guiding him on how to do things.
’A new bride is a second mother...’
Wei Tu shook his head with a smile. After composing himself, he decided to follow Xinghua’s instructions and use the money to buy a discipleship gift for Shan Wuju.
In the days since becoming a Disciple.
Shan Wuju had truly treated him like a personal apprentice, not just a Disciple in name only.
Pile Skill.
Archery.
Equestrian Skill.
Military Strategy.
Shan Wuju held nothing back, teaching Wei Tu everything about these subjects required for the Military Examination. When coaching him on writing Military Strategy essays, he even told Wei Tu about the personal preferences of the examiners in the County Town.
Lately, Wei Tu had also been thinking about giving Shan Wuju a belated discipleship gift.
However, he had only just bought his freedom, so money was tight. The family’s savings were with Xinghua, and he hadn’t been able to bring much with him...
He never expected Xinghua to have thought of it too—and to have acted on it far more decisively than he had.
—After all, the discipleship was already official. In the eyes of a less discerning person, not giving a gift at this point wouldn’t seem important.
Leaving the second courtyard.
Wei Tu said a word to Deng An, the long-term hand who was mixing feed for the horses, and then led a horse out of the stables and left the Shan Mansion.
In the past few days, while teaching him mounted archery, Shan Wuju had told him that, aside from his own preferred Yellow Steed, Wei Tu was free to use any of the other three horses in the stable to practice his Equestrian Skill.
Deng An, standing to the side, watched this with an envious expression. He stared at Wei Tu’s departing back for a long time, stunned.
「A few days ago.」
He and Wei Tu had both been long-term hands living in the west wing.
Wei Tu had to take orders from him.
But in just a few short days, Wei Tu had completely turned his life around, becoming a man who rode horses. Meanwhile, he was still stuck with the hard labor of cleaning latrines, sweeping courtyards, and chopping hay—the same routine he’d had for decades, without a single change.
...
Heading south.
Wei Tu arrived at the market town in Sanyuan Town. Leading his horse along the bustling street, he scanned the shops on either side, pondering what would be a suitable discipleship gift for Shan Wuju.
A tailor shop.
A blacksmith’s forge.
An apothecary.
Wei Tu’s head spun with all the options.
The tael of silver in his hand was a considerable sum for a poor person—enough to live on for several months if he was frugal. But when it came to choosing a gift for his master, it felt like he was cutting it close.
He couldn’t afford anything too expensive.
But he worried that something too cheap would make Shan Wuju think he was being perfunctory.
’That’s right. Master once said he has sons and daughters to care for him in his old age. All that matters is my filial piety...’
Tired of looking, Wei Tu stopped, recalling those words from Shan Wuju.
With this in mind, Wei Tu hesitated no longer. He strode into a pastry shop and bought three boxes of their most popular cakes, then went to a general store to buy some seasonal fruits.
Finally, Wei Tu went to the butcher’s shop and had them cut two jin of fatty pork.
"Brother Wei, why did you go out and buy so much today?"
"Is there some happy occasion?"
As he entered the Shan Mansion, the servant girls who had grown familiar with him over the past few days greeted him curiously.
In response, Wei Tu explained about the letter from Xinghua and the silver beans she had sewn into his jacket.
He hadn’t presented a gift before.
Now, he was giving one belatedly...
He needed a good explanation.
Besides, Wei Tu saw no reason to be ashamed of Xinghua. He couldn’t just look down on the loyal wife of his humble days now that his status had risen.
Wei Tu hadn’t forgotten that Xinghua had paid for half of his redemption silver.
"Brother Wei has a good wife."
"She’s very thoughtful..."
The people of the Shan Mansion praised her one after another.
At that moment, Shan Wuju, who was drinking tea and enjoying the cool air in the main hall, overheard the commotion outside. He was stunned for a moment, then a smile spread across his face.
When Shan Wuju came out to meet Wei Tu, however, he put on a stern face, saying that all these gifts were unnecessary and that the thought was what counted.
"Master, this was my wife’s idea. She wanted me to present you with a proper discipleship gift..." Wei Tu said, bowing to Shan Wuju.
Hearing this, Shan Wuju no longer insisted. He nodded and had Mrs. Gao of the Shan Family take the gifts from Wei Tu.
"Marrying a virtuous wife can influence a family for three generations. Your wife is a good one," Mr. Shan added, praising Xinghua’s "virtuous deed."
"If your master’s wife were here, she would surely dote on you after hearing that."
Shan Wuju smiled.
Hearing this.
A thought stirred in Wei Tu’s mind.
The master’s wife Shan Wuju spoke of was not, of course, Mrs. Gao of the Shan Family from the third household, but his true, formally wedded wife—Mrs. Min of the Shan Family.
Having been at the Shan Family estate for some time, he had learned a few things about Mrs. Min of the Shan Family, Shan Wuju’s primary wife, from the conversations of the servants and maids.
Shan Wuju had married Mrs. Min of the Shan Family before he made his fortune; she was his first wife, the wife of his humble days.
Shan Wuju himself held his first wife in high esteem and rarely ever cursed at her or argued with her.
It was only that as Mrs. Min of the Shan Family grew older, her health declined. Unable to bear witness to the frequent intimacy between Shan Wuju and Mrs. Gao of the Shan Family, she had moved out of the Shan Mansion a few years ago to live with her son in the Prefecture City.
