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Upon hearing that Chu Lingxuan had returned, Chu Hanyan excitedly leaped off the table to run outside, with Dabao following closely, only to be stopped by Mama Song and Autumn at the door, “Oh, it’s too cold outside.”
Chu Lingxuan entered the dining room, embracing and holding each of them, exuding the aura of a proud father with both a son and daughter.
Chen Feng smiled and said, “Mr. Chu is back, and we are having lamb soup hotpot tonight to ward off the cold.” She then arranged the cutlery brought by Autumn on the table and sent for some wine.
Chu Lingxuan chuckled, “I was just craving this taste.”
The family of four enjoyed a lively meal together before the servants draped them in cloaks and they headed to the main house. With the New Year festivities, Dabao didn’t have any schoolwork to do, so he joined Chu Hanyan in admiring Chen Feng’s comic strips. Chu Lingxuan sat beside Chen Feng, engaging in a conversation.
During Chu Lingxuan’s absence, he didn’t only attend to official matters, he also found time to visit the capital, checking on the preparations at the Chu Mansion and providing feedback for adjustments.
In hushed tones, Chu Lingxuan and Chen Feng conversed, occasionally sharing a secret squeeze of her hand. They were especially cautious around Chen Dabao, who wasn’t as focused as Chu Hanyan, often glancing up from his book.
Chu Hanyan’s internal clock was precise, as the hour of the Dog (7-9:00 PM) approached, her eyes grew heavy. Chu Lingxuan rose, saying, “Daughter, it’s time to rest.”
Pouting playfully, Chu Hanyan said, “Daddy, you should rest alone. Hanyan likes sleeping with Auntie, she smells nice.”
Although spoken innocently, Chu Lingxuan’s mind wandered to another thought. The mention of “Auntie smells nice” stirred something within him. In just over two months, he wouldn’t be sleeping alone, the person who smelled nice would be by his side…
With a good-natured smile, he replied, “Alright, if my girl wants to sleep with her Auntie, then let’s sleep together.”
Chen Feng felt a bit frustrated, she had been looking forward to a break upon Chu Lingxuan’s return, but it seemed that she wouldn’t get one. This father and daughter duo were quite a handful.
The next day, Chu Lingxuan even had breakfast at Fengyuan. It was the eve of the Lunar New Year, and Chen Feng and Dabao were set to have a family reunion at the main branch. Around noon, the Chu father and daughter returned to Tangyuan, planning to have their New Year’s Eve dinner at Luyuan.
Chen Ming’s family headed to the village first as they had ancestral rites to perform.
Chen Feng, along with her son, and Xue Dagui and Autumn carrying gifts, went to the main branch.
Dabao and Dahua, along with Chen Daya, played in the courtyard while Chen Feng went inside to talk to Chen Aman. Ever since Chen Aman’s engagement to Yang Mingyuan, Chen Shi and his wife had forbidden her from working and even bought her a little maid.
Mrs. Hu grumbled sourly, “Oh, both girls are now young mistresses and don’t have to work. Poor A’Jue, also a daughter of the Chen family, yet destined for a life of toil. My own daughter, at a young age, had to support her siblings, couldn’t study, had to scrape a living from the soil, delaying not just her but also her children…”
Her physical ailment had resurfaced, the old problem returning. Changing landscapes is easy, but altering one’s nature is challenging, this saying holds true.
Grandma Chen and Chen Ye were already in a somber mood, and Mrs. Hu’s words only added to their distress. Implied in her comments was the fact that both brothers had achieved great wealth, and their descendants were thriving, making their own family feel left far behind.
At the dinner table, Chen Ye, intoxicated, began to cry. Witnessing her eldest son’s tears, the old lady wiped her own eyes and sleeves. Subsequently, Mrs. Hu and Chen Daya also burst into tears.
The problem wasn’t poverty but inequality, a reality starkly portrayed within the three Chen brothers.
Seeing their strong eldest brother cry openly, Chen Ming and Chen Shi felt saddened and quickly expressed their enduring gratitude for their brother’s past kindness.
Chen Gui also advised, “Parents, please don’t be upset. Cousin Feng has given us good seeds, I’ll tend to the crops diligently. With more money, we can buy more land. I’ll become a wealthy landowner, ensuring A’Jue marries well and providing you both with a comfortable life.”
Amidst tears, Mrs. Hu lamented, “Once you become a wealthy landowner, your sister will remain unmarried, her youth fading away.”
Chen Ming and Chen Shi promised to contribute fifty taels each from their households to buy land for the main house. Along with the ninety taels from the main house’s profits, and the forty taels given to the main house a few days earlier, they could purchase over forty acres of land.
Initially, the main branch owned twenty-five acres, and after earning some money from growing watermelons, they added twenty more acres. With the additional forty-plus acres, the main branch would now be considered a small landowner, ranking just below Gao Lizheng in the village and surpassing Hu Laowu’s family in wealth…
After some persuasion, Chen Ye’s mood improved slightly.
Despite not evenly distributing the shares of the restaurant and being unable to get Chen Feng to contribute money, Mrs. Hu still felt somewhat resentful. However, seeing the men shed tears, she wisely chose not to cause any further disturbance.
Mrs. Zhang gritted her teeth in frustration but restrained herself, heading to her room to cry.
Mrs. Wang went to console her, and Mrs. Zhang tearfully expressed, “We dare not compare ourselves to your second household. We’ll accept the ninety taels. With our profit of over three hundred taels this year, along with my husband’s monthly salary and the money earned from the skewer business, our total income for the year is over five hundred taels. It sounds like a lot, but we still have to repay the initial investment for joining the business and the money borrowed to buy the yard. After all these expenses, we’re left with just over two hundred taels. We need to make a living, and Aman will be married by August, so I want to provide her with a decent dowry. Yu is getting older, and we need to save for his marriage too…”
Mrs. Wang suggested, “If you’re short on money, we could lend you some…”
Mrs. Zhang cried, “Before, it was borrowing money to renovate their house, now it’s borrowing to buy land. Before, it was Mrs. Hu crying, now it’s their whole family in tears…”
Chen Feng silently continued eating, feeling that she had already given everything she could to the main branch and had fulfilled her obligations. As for Chen Ming and Chen Shi wanting to be passive recipients, she had no way to intervene.
Teaching a man to fish is better than giving him a fish. She provided seeds to the main branch and food formulas to the third branch, all in hopes that they could earn money and stand on their own feet. The only time she gave without expecting returns was when she granted the main branch a portion of the restaurant shares. In hindsight, she regretted even that decision.
After dinner, the second branch returned to Luyuan. On the way, Dabao and Lu, boasting about their plentiful firecrackers, led a group of children, including Shitou, to play outside Fengyuan.
Approaching Luyuan, they spotted Mama Song leading Chu Hanyan at the gate of Tangyuan, gazing in their direction. Delighted to see them return, the little girl ran towards them.
Chen Ming felt sorry for Wang Laowu spending the New Year alone and sent for him to join them.
The main room only had one table set, but due to Chu Lingxuan’s special relationship with them, he dined with the Chen family at the same table. In the back rooms, two additional tables were set up for the servants from Tangyuan, Fengyuan, Luyuan, and the returning Zeng Shuang and Wang Laowu.