Transmigration: The Evil Mother-In-Law Is Actually Innocent!
Chapter 392: Fortune_1

Chapter 392: Chapter 392: Fortune_1

Lady Miao could no longer sit still, "Oh my, I just remembered that I have to pick up some jewelry today. I’ve been sitting for a while now, and it’s getting late. Sister-in-law, I must be off."

Lady Hua hurriedly rose to her feet, "I also just remembered that I have some matters to attend to, so I must take my leave as well."

Zhulan stood up, "I’ll see you out."

Lady Hua and Lady Miao waved their hands, "No need, no need, please stay."

With that, the two ladies, followed by their maidservants, quickly left.

Lady Li was stunned, "Mother, they weren’t here for even half a quarter of an hour, how could it be that they’ve been sitting for a while? And they didn’t seem like they had other matters either!"

Zhulan smiled playfully, "Because, you see, they felt sick of the whole thing."

Lady Li blinked, recalling her mother’s words. Alright, their own family had gotten used to it, so they no longer found it sickening. When she first joined the family, she too felt unbearably sickened.

Zhulan also had her intentions, as she had received a stack of invitations the day before. She had no desire to have visitors every day treating her like a monkey to gawk at; this time, she estimated no one would come again.

Indeed, as Zhulan had said, her words had spread throughout the city by that evening, sometimes the speed of gossip among officials’ families was the fastest.

The next morning, Zhulan received quite a few reply letters with apologies stating that other engagements prevented them from visiting.

Lady Li, seeing how pleased her mother-in-law was, soon caught on. Her mother-in-law indeed had a part that wished to show off, but she was mostly just annoyed by the bothersome visitors. Her mother-in-law was truly something else!

At the government office, Zhou Shuren learned about Zhulan’s clever maneuver and found that particularly today, he was extremely unpopular, especially with Mr. He!

With the end of the year approaching, the government office’s account books showed an influx of silver, and Zhou Shuren didn’t have to worry about next year, making the daytime office hours dreadfully uninteresting.

Zhou Shuren held his tea cup, "Mr. He, have I ever done anything to offend you?"

Mr. He thought to himself, there were plenty of ways he had been offended, but he was not as deep-rooted as Mr. Chen, who could afford to push back. Could he? The thought of all their clothes being the same style as his wife’s made him want to spew blood. His wife had a good appearance and was full of spirit; the only downside was her love for bright colors, and he had come home yesterday to find bright silk fabrics.

Mr. He was self-aware; his looks were passable, but the thing was, he was dark. This year, having traveled around and gotten even more tanned, he didn’t regain his lighter complexion as Zhou Shuren and Mr. Chen had—they had darkened too, but they had managed to recover their fair skin, and he had just become darker.

Mr. He could already imagine becoming the laughing stock of Lizhou Province for that year!

Mr. He forced out a laugh, "Mr. Zhou, I truly entreat you, could you perhaps carve jewelry for my sister-in-law in secret in the future?"

Especially to avoid making matching Jade Pendants and hairpins for himself!

Zhou Shuren was on the verge of laughter, knowing full well what Mr. He didn’t express outright. Looking at Mr. He’s dark face, Zhou thought to himself that Mr. He with a tan looked no different from Mr. He without one!

Mr. He pursed his lips, aware that Mr. Zhou could see the amusement in his eyes. He detested the old fox the most—without even saying it outright, the old fox had already guessed his intentions!

As the end of the year drew near, because of Zhulan’s shenanigans, it appeared that the situation had resolved itself: wives were competitive, and no one was willing to admit that their husband did not cherish them above all. The jewelry stores and fabric shops in Lizhou City bloomed with business.

Particularly the jewelry stores; there was a surge in carving Jade Pendants, as not every woman had the confidence to order clothing. Fearing to take a bold step with their outfits, they instead turned their attention to Jade Pendants and hairpins.

After that, Zhulan’s family received more New Year’s gifts from the fabric shops and the jewelry stores, and although these were gifts they received for free, Zhulan still reciprocated to avoid giving rise to any talk.

The Zhou family truly received a lot of New Year’s gifts. It’s not quite right to say it like that, the gifts were so numerous that Zhulan’s family reckoned they wouldn’t need to steam buns for a long time.

These buns, shaped into the zodiac and other auspicious symbols, were all gifts from the common folk.

Zhou family’s horses nearly ran their legs off. As the New Year approached, Zhulan bought a good amount of meat, instructing Steward Ding to deliver it to the common folk who had brought the buns. The New Year was drawing near, and the commoners, who usually would not dare to eat a bite of meat all year round, could now have a family portion of two pounds of meat and two pounds of white flour, enabling them to enjoy dumplings filled with meat on New Year’s Eve.

The New Year’s gift from Mr. Chen’s family consisted of five types of fruit and tea leaves, making a total of six items for the return gifts.

This time, not only did Zhulan marvel at Mr. Chen’s family’s wealth, Lady Li was also astonished, "Mother, what are these three types of fruit?"

Zhulan explained, "These two bunches are bananas, these two pieces are pineapples, and these six are coconuts."

The other two recognized types were tangerines and apples.

Lady Li had never heard of them, and Lady Dong, Mr. Guan’s daughter, was also completely at a loss. Lady Dong realized how limited her daughter from an official’s family’s experience was, and lamented that there was indeed a scarcity of fruit in the north. Lady Dong asked, "Mother, how do we eat these fruits?"

Zhulan had not really seen pineapples before when she went out; she had only eaten bananas. She felt that Lady Hua had purposely sent the pineapples and coconuts not just to show off, but also to vent.

Zhulan remembered her own persona—she had never left Dongbei in her original life—"Bananas, Chang Li, and Chang Yi have tried them. I don’t know about pineapples and coconuts, let me ask around."

Zhulan counted how many bananas there were in each bunch, one had eleven and the other had eight, with marks where they had been cut, probably because they were frozen or rotten and had been trimmed away.

Zhulan had wanted to buy them in Jiangnan as well, but they were expensive and spoiled easily. The bananas available in Jingzhou city were all ripe; she would have preferred to buy them green, but there were none. She had thought of buying from merchants aboard ships, but unfortunately, those were pre-ordered goods from the north, and selling the ripe bananas was merely an attempt to reduce losses.

Of the two bunches of bananas, Zhulan planned to offer one to her parents. As for the pineapples, she thought it best not to, given her parents’ age and less robust digestion, so she selected just two coconuts for them to try for novelty’s sake.

The New Year’s gift from Mr. He’s family was clearly prepared by Lady Miao, containing plenty of silk fabrics, with the other items not being particularly remarkable. As for the colors of the silk, Zhulan really couldn’t compliment them.

The various New Year’s gifts received by Zhulan’s family were more than enough to last until the spring!

As the New Year approached, this year’s Lizhou Prefecture City was no longer like last year with few people on the streets and an air of desolation. This year, the newly opened market in Lizhou was bustling with people, selling couplets, sugar-coated haws, and red lanterns, the whole market was a sea of red, as if foretelling a prosperous year ahead.

On New Year’s Eve, every household hung red lanterns and pasted couplets. The Zhou family got busy early in the morning.

With the house’s many courtyards came many red lanterns to hang. Just putting them up took quite a while; Ming Teng and Ming Rui, being young boys, couldn’t wait to set off firecrackers and clamored to do so even before the time had come.

Zhulan waved her hand in agreement, but insisted they be supervised by Zhou’s eldest, as even with modern technology, there were incidents of people getting injured—let alone in ancient times.

This year was a year of reunion, and Zhou Shuren also took a rare break. He didn’t feel like doing much but rather preferred to sit and chat with Zhulan.

Unfortunately, they hardly began their conversation when Zhou’s eldest ran in, "Father, a government officer has arrived."

Zhou Shuren dropped the seeds he was holding, wondering what the Emperor had done this time.

Zhulan and Zhou Shuren went to the front yard together. It wasn’t a government officer, but rather a special delivery from the Imperial court, an urgent correspondence sent over a hundred miles, consisting of one Zhezi and a bamboo tube.

On such an important festival, Zhulan gave a generous tip in silver. After the messenger left, Zhulan and Zhou Shuren returned to their room. Zhou Shuren had already started reading the Zhezi, while Zhulan opened the bamboo tube, which contained two calligraphed "fortune" characters—a gift from the Emperor!