Chapter 222 (1/2)
The village chief's youngest daughter swiftly grabbed the box and opened it. She cried out, ”Wow! It's a pair of dragon-phoenix bracelets! Look at the details on the dragon and phoenix, they look almost real!”
Madam Zhang s.n.a.t.c.hed the bracelets over and weighed them in her hands. They felt solid and decently heavy. The amount of silver used to make this pair of bracelets had to be around three to four catties worth! Such an expensive gift needed to be carefully put away to avoid other people conveniently stealing them.
Li Xiaomeng also took out a pair of silver hairpins from the jewelry box and spoke to Yu Caidie, ”Look at this. This hairpin has twin lotus flowers on one stalk at the top. The flowers are opened perfectly, so it must mean 'one's married life is crowned with happiness and satisfaction'. The hairpin feels quite heavy in my hands, so it must be made of solid silver. Ai...I really envy you. I'm not as lucky as you to have such a generous Second Brother.”
”This pair of earrings is quite festive. The fiery red color is perfect for the times. Caidie, tomorrow you should wear this pair at your wedding ah!” A matron with a round face placed the red coral earrings next to Yu Caidie's face to see how they looked. A new bride, dressed entirely from head to toe in red bridal clothes and veiled with the red covering, along with these red earrings, would absolutely look auspicious and lovely tomorrow!
The village head's youngest daughter curled her lip and remarked to show off her own experience and knowledge, ”w.a.n.g Family's daughter-in-law, what do you know ah?! This is made from red coral. My fourth sister-in-law also has a pair of stud earrings made out of red coral, but it doesn't use as much material as these and the color is not as fine. Even those cost around ten taels ah! This pair of red coral earrings must be worth at least two times more than my sister-in-law's!”
Who would have thought that this young girl had a good pair of eyes. However, her eldest brother was wealthy while her other older brother was the county magistrate's secretary! From their influence, it could be seen that she was a lot more worldly compared to the other village girls! When Madam Zhang heard this, she hurriedly packed up all of the jewelry into the small box and held it against her chest as if she was afraid someone was going to take it from her. She spoke to her youngest daughter, ”Caidie ah, this stuff is too expensive. Mother will keep these for you. Tomorrow is the day of the ceremony and we'll use these as a part of your dowry. With this jewelry, your well-off husband will also look at you in a better light!”
Although they managed to get back most of the money that was swindled from them, there were many uses for money in the future. No matter how much she loved her daughter, she couldn't give her a dozen or so taels for her dowry. The second son of the Yu Family still had a conscience and didn't forget his younger sister.
Madam Li, who had been silent in the time, secretly left the east room and pulled Yu Dashan into a secluded area of the courtyard. She quietly complained, ”Why is Dahai acting like this? Is he trying to steal your thunder as the older brother? He just easily sent over gifts worth dozens of taels! To the daughter of his enemy, is he crazy or stupid?”
Yu Dashan had also heard the activity within the room while he was in the courtyard, so he didn't feel very good and had a ball of anger boiling inside of him! When he heard Madam Li's words, he threw a heavy slap at her face, ”What do you mean by 'the enemy's daughter'? She is his biological younger sister, and also my sister! You have such a nasty tongue, if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all and sew your mouth shut!! It's none of our business what type of gifts they send to her! We haven't split from the family, so all of the money is in Mother's hands. Therefore, no one can fault us for only gifting her a silver lilac!”
Madam Li wasn't one to take a beating while sitting down, so she immediately exploded after getting slapped. She put both her hands on her fat waist and shrilly hollered, not caring about the noise she made, ”Yu Dashan, you spineless coward!! If you have that much energy, then you should vent when you go out. Hitting your wife isn't the heroic thing to do!! If you feel ashamed, then go make more money! All you know how to do is to use that run-down fis.h.i.+ng boat, yet you don't make much money. You're not even as good as our son, who's working at the docks!”
A few of the village matrons hurried over to mediate their argument, but Madam Li wasn't one to listen to the persuasions of other people. The more she screamed, the more energetic she became. It was only after Madam Zhang came out of the room and glared at her did Madam Li promptly cease. Madam Li was quite afraid of her mother-in-law, a woman who even had the guts to kill someone.
Other than that little episode, Yu Caidie's wedding the next day went quite smoothly. Her husband's family had all pretty much heard of Yu Hai's name. They all knew that he had a G.o.dparent relations.h.i.+p with the lord imperial envoy and also had a working relations.h.i.+p with the imperial merchant family, the Zhou's. Consequently, Yu Caidie's in-law's, who had previously looked down on the Yu Family arrogantly, were now very polite to them. They were especially courteous to Yu Hai as her second brother. The groom also called him ”Second Brother” in a manner that was more respectful than when he was addressing his own older brothers.
Not long after Yu Caidie got married, the first snow of the year unexpectedly floated down. Lady Fang's child in her belly slowly grew larger. Living in a house halfway up the mountain with the northern snows didn't make it easy for her to traverse in and out. Thus, Xiaocao negotiated with her own parents to allow her G.o.dmother to live in their home at this time.
Presently, their family home was much more s.p.a.cious. There were five rooms constructed out of bricks that were surrounded by a perimeter wall that separated the s.p.a.ce into two courtyards: east and west. In the middle was a moon-shaped gate. The whole family lived in the east courtyard that had three rooms. The east side of that courtyard had two wings, while the west side held the kitchen and junk room. The west courtyard had two rooms that had been empty this whole time. The plan was to leave those rooms for Yu Hang when he got married and had a household of his own.
When Xiaocao proposed this idea to her parents, the two of them naturally didn't have any issues. After several months of contact, the two families were closer than most blood-related families. Fang Zizhen and his wife truly treated their youngest daughter as if she was their own blood and bone. Even though Lady Fang was now pregnant with her own child, she didn't change her treatment of Xiaocao one bit.
Every time Fang Zizhen returned from the capital, he always had a bunch of gifts for them. In fact, a lot of these gifts couldn't even be found in the prefectural city. Despite that, they weren't particularly valuable, just more novel. The reason was simple. Fang Zizhen knew that if he bought something expensive, the Yu Family wouldn't take it from him.