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Lu Songli swayed along in her carriage as she arrived at her sister-in-law’s family home, the Tian family. They had set off early, so it was only around the Hour of the Snake (10 a.m.) when they arrived.
From a distance, Lu Songli noticed a carriage parked in front of the Tian family’s gate. Several people were carrying things out of the house and loading them onto it. Her elder brother was speaking to two half-grown children.
“That’s enough, that’s enough, A Xiu and A Wen, no more.”
“Brother-in-law, we can’t listen to you on this, nor can we listen to my sister. We must listen to our mother.”
“That’s right, brother-in-law. You’ve helped us so much lately; this is nothing.”
As the carriage drew closer, Lu Songli poked her head out, “Elder Brother, Sister-in-law?”
Hearing her voice, Lu Zhiyuan turned around and was surprised to see his younger sister. “Little sister, what are you doing here?”
When Lu Zhiyuan first saw his own sister, he feared something had happened to their parents. It wasn’t until Lu Songli denied his concerns that he finally felt relieved.
“What’s going on here?” Lu Songli asked, noticing the fully packed carriage behind them, already suspecting the situation.
Lu Zhiyuan explained, “We just heard about the Empress Dowager’s decree granting the marriage. Your sister-in-law and I were planning to return home today.” Since such a major event had occurred in the family, as the eldest son, he felt it was his duty to be home to help his parents. He had been regretting not returning sooner ever since he heard the news.
Lu Songli thought to herself, “News travels fast.”
“Let’s not stand outside. Let’s go inside first.” Lu Songli’s sister-in-law, Madam Tian, noticed the neighbors starting to look curiously and even dealt with a couple who wanted to come over.
As Madam Tian led her inside to rest, Lu Songli said, “No rush. I’ll go check on Mother-in-law first.”
Madam Tian then led her to see Old Madam Tian, who had injured her left hand and left leg in a fall and was currently bedridden.
Lu Songli watched as her sister-in-law helped Old Madam Tian sit up, seeing how difficult it was for her. On behalf of her parents, Lu Songli expressed a few words of concern, while Old Madam Tian was very courteous and grateful for her brother’s recent help and her parents’ kindness.
Lu Songli only stayed for a short while, spoke briefly, and then left without further disturbing the patient.
After that, Lu Songli followed her sister-in-law to the main hall, where her elder brother was already seated.
“Little sister.” Upon seeing her, Lu Zhiyuan wiped his face, trying to perk himself up.
“Elder Brother, you look really tired?” Lu Songli noticed his sallow complexion, the red veins in his eyes, and the dark circles under them, all signs of exhaustion. It seemed he had been working hard recently.
Lu Zhiyuan gave a bitter smile. Their family had originally come to celebrate his mother-in-law’s birthday and only planned to stay for two or three days before returning. At that time, his father-in-law and brother-in-law had just left town to look at medicinal herbs. They had just finished packing their bags to head home when his mother-in-law had a serious fall, breaking her hand and leg.
The Tian family ran a medicinal herb shop. When his father-in-law and brother-in-law were around, they handled the business. If they were away, his mother-in-law would take over. Now that his mother-in-law was injured and unable to move, the remaining younger brother- and sister-in-law were only eight years old and couldn’t help. Without anyone to manage the household, the Tian family would be in chaos if they left. So, he had no choice but to stay and help with his wife and children.
Lu Zhiyuan didn’t want to dwell on his situation for now, as there wasn’t much more to say. He was more concerned about his sister and the family. “Little sister, what’s this about the Empress Dowager granting a marriage?”
Lu Songli then briefly recounted the recent events that had happened at home.
Lu Zhiyuan was stunned. He never imagined that in just the short half-month he’d been away, such drastic changes had occurred at home. The situation with his dear sister changing her fiancé was so convoluted. Xie Zhan, who had been her fiancé for nearly ten years, had now become Zhao Yutan’s, while Zhao Yutan’s fiancé, Qin Sheng, had become his sister’s fiancé.
“This is ridiculous! What on earth is Xie Zhan doing?” Lu Zhiyuan slammed the table in anger, pacing back and forth in the main hall with his hands behind his back. He hadn’t expected that a small incident of someone falling into the water would lead to such significant consequences.
Lu Songli didn’t say much, letting him vent his frustration. The situation had already been settled.
“I should have gone back earlier,” Lu Zhiyuan regretted.
Lu Songli, eating freshly baked pastries, casually responded, “It’s no big deal. Even if you had returned, you wouldn’t have been able to do much.”
In modern times, she preferred savory traditional pastries and disliked sweet ones like cakes, which she rarely ate. But perhaps because sugar was scarce in this era, her body now craved it, and she found these sweet pastries made by the Tian family to be quite enjoyable.
Lu Zhiyuan thought to himself, “Little sister, that really hits hard.”
“Little sister, it’s all my fault for keeping your brother here at my family’s place for so long,” said their sister-in-law, Madam Tian, filled with guilt. She hadn’t expected such a big incident at home. When Tian An went back, their parents-in-law had sent a message saying they could handle things, allowing the couple to stay at the Tian family’s house to help.
After some hesitation, she agreed. With the in-laws in charge at the Lu household, they thought everything would be fine. However, if they left her family, there would be no one to take charge.
“Sister-in-law, don’t blame yourself. What I said was true. Even if my brother had gone back, the situation wouldn’t have been much better. By staying here, the family even saved half a month’s worth of food.”
Lu Zhiyuan thought, “That hurts even more. So I’m just a freeloader at home?”
He let out a few huffs and said, “Even though I didn’t help out at home, I didn’t come back empty-handed during these two weeks.”
Lu Songli was curious, “What did you get?”
Lu Zhiyuan nodded to his wife, who smiled and went into the room.
He turned to his sister and said, “You’ll find out in a moment.”
Soon after, Madam Tian returned with a well-crafted wooden box. At Lu Zhiyuan’s signal, she handed the box directly to Lu Songli.
Lu Zhiyuan lifted his chin, “Take a look.”
Without hesitation, Lu Songli opened the box and immediately recognized its contents. “Wow, is this wild ginseng?” she exclaimed. That made sense since ginseng was only wild in ancient times; there wasn’t yet the concept or technology for artificial cultivation.
She lifted the box to examine the ginseng’s root, body, and hairs closely. The root was thick and short, with yellowish-brown skin, two legs extending outward, and a shape resembling twisted iron wire, tightly coiled and deeply grooved, with ring patterns on it.
Leaning in to catch a faint whiff of the ginseng’s aroma, Lu Songli said, “This ginseng is about fifty years old, isn’t it?” And it was in excellent condition.
Lu Zhiyuan was surprised by his sister’s knowledge. She got the age of the ginseng spot on—it was indeed fifty years old, give or take a little. The surprising thing was that when he had decided to buy this ginseng, he had consulted an expert, a master who was skilled in identifying ginseng. It had cost him twenty taels of silver just to have this master take a look.