With Liu Zhi’s fiery temper, hearing that Yu Nian wanted to find Tian Yao a new husband, he instantly flipped his attitude. Only a couple of days ago, he was talking about repaying his savior properly. “You treat him so well, and he’s still not satisfied! This is absolutely outrageous!”
Tian Yao wanted to defend Yu Nian, but one glare from Liu Zhi made him swallow his words.
Liu Zhi put his hands on his hips and continued, “On one hand, he doesn’t respond to your feelings; on the other, he secretly hugs you at night. What, does he get to have all the good things?”
Tian Yao looked miserable. “Then what should I do?”
Liu Zhi was stumped for a moment. “Then just follow his wish then. It’s hard to find a three-legged frog in this world, but two-legged men aren’t hard to find at all, are they?”
Tian Yao shook his head like the rattle-drum Liu Zhi had just bought for the baby. “No, no. That won’t do.”
Liu Zhi looked at him, a mix of frustration and exasperation on his face.
At that moment, Married Man Shen, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, spoke up. “From what Yao Ge’er described, your husband doesn’t not like you. It’s just that he has many worries. He’s lost and unsure about the path ahead, so he doesn’t know how to respond to you.”
Tian Yao’s eyes lit up instantly.
Liu Zhi grumbled, “Men can have so many twists and turns too? My Chen Xu doesn’t think about anything but sleeping and eating.”
Married Man Shen smiled. “That’s because your life is smooth sailing. Yao Ge’er’s husband probably isn’t feeling very good in his heart right now either.”
Liu Zhi’s heart, which had just softened a moment ago, hardened again. “He’s not feeling good?! Our Yao Ge’er has lost weight!”
Tian Yao touched his own face. “It’s not that serious…”
“Then what should I do?” Tian Yao looked at Married Man Shen now as if looking at a savior.
“Based on what you described, I think what he lacks is just a little… push. You said he’s simultaneously scoping out matches for you while also disliking them all. Why not actually find someone who seems suitable in every way, give him a little stimulus, and he might just realize his true feelings.”
Tian Yao scratched his head. “Putting aside whether we could even find such a person… wouldn’t that kind of test and stimulation feel disrespectful to the feelings between two people?”
Liu Zhi frowned. “That… does seem to make some sense.”
Married Man Shen was still smiling. “I’m only offering a suggestion. The decision is yours. I just feel that without a little push, he’ll keep himself hidden away forever. What you can see, what you can feel… it will always be incomplete. Do you want to spend your future days together, always guessing like this?”
Tian Yao nodded heavily. “Alright. I’ll think about it some more.”
Naturally, they couldn’t continue playing cards anymore. The three chatted a while longer before dispersing. Tian Yao returned home. Yu Nian was no longer reading but playing fetch with Little Gray in the yard.
“Back so early?” Yu Nian asked when he saw him.
“Liu Zhi is pregnant, you know. Wanted him to get more rest.”
There was sunshine today. Its warmth on the skin was pleasant. Tian Yao pulled up a chair and sat beside Yu Nian. He looked at him, then asked, “Yu Nian, if you were to find a new good match for me… what kind of person would you wish him to be?”
Yu Nian paused briefly, then followed his line of thought. “Probably… a steady person. A bit older than you. Should know all the basic life skills.”
“But have you ever considered,” Tian Yao’s gaze was somewhat serious, “whether such a person would mind that I was once married?”
Yu Nian’s lips pressed together. “When the time comes, I will explain the whole situation to him.”
Tian Yao let out a scoff. “Well, aren’t you generous.”
It was already noon. However angry one might be in the heart, one couldn’t starve. Even if he couldn’t eat, he couldn’t starve Little Gray.
By the fifth day of the New Year, the market in town would reopen. When it did, they would need to replenish whatever household supplies were lacking. And come spring, Tian Yao would need to think about the new year ahead—what to do to earn a living and support the family.
Hunting was ultimately not a long-term plan. After all, a person couldn’t just live off dwindling resources. No matter how abundant the mountain’s resources, at the rate of hunting, it would harm the very foundation. So he had to find some other way to earn money.
It was just that common docks or labor-requiring jobs did not accept Gers. Even if his strength was tremendous, there were always inconvenient aspects. Moreover, those kinds of jobs usually meant being away from home for at least a month or two. Leaving Yu Nian home alone—he ultimately wouldn’t feel at ease.
The matter Yu Nian had mentioned before, about his enemies… Tian Yao had, after all, taken it to heart.
When the fifth arrived, Tian Yao got up early and got ready. He asked Yu Nian once; Yu Nian said he didn’t want to go out. Tian Yao didn’t push it further. He left the house alone, joining a large group of villagers on the road to town.
“After the New Year, how come Yao Ge’er hasn’t put on any weight, but seems to have lost some?” At the village entrance, Aunt Ge joked with him as they walked together. “When will that belly of yours finally show some news?”
Tian Yao felt a pang of bitterness inside. “Auntie, I’ve gained quite a bit!”
Aunt Ge just laughed heartily, then, after laughing, pulled them into idle gossip. “Hey, do you all know about Tian Wen? My family heard a few days ago, he got his leg broken over the New Year!”
Tian Yao still remembered last seeing Tian Wen during the Spring Festival couplet writing. The villagers had all chosen the ones Yu Nian wrote and no longer bought his. How did it come to a broken leg?
Seeing everyone’s interest piqued, Aunt Ge leisurely began the story. “It all started that day of the couplets.”
Only then did Tian Yao learn: That day, after packing up his stall, Tian Wen had returned the unused paper. Having earned no money, he naturally didn’t dare go home. He went to a tavern to drink. There, he happened to run into an old classmate, who invited him to the pleasure houses in the Prefectural City, saying it was his treat. Tian Wen eagerly followed.
Tian Wen, of course, didn’t have much money on him. True to his word, the classmate did pay for the pleasure house. Afterwards, that classmate said he wanted to go check out a gambling den. In the end, both of them ended up at the gambling table.
That classmate’s family was moderately wealthy. After losing, he knew when to cut his losses. He didn’t even have time to say goodbye to Tian Wen before hastily leaving.
Tian Wen, however, had good luck. After winning a couple of rounds, he also knew to quit while he was ahead. Only, he could quit there, but not here. Taking his winnings, he went straight back to the pleasure houses, lost in drunken dreams and pleasure, utterly carefree, even forgetting that the New Year was approaching.
It was only when his money ran out that he, without a second thought, headed back to the gambling den. But this time, his luck never returned. He lost everything cleanly. Still unsatisfied, always believing he could turn his luck around, he borrowed money from the gambling house… and lost it all again.
The gambling house people knew he had no money. They beat him severely, then escorted him back home, saying if they didn’t pay up fifty taels of silver plus five taels of interest, they would report him to the authorities. The Tian family still dreamed that Tian Wen would pass the exams and become a great official someday; naturally, they couldn’t let him be jailed.
So Wang Cuihua had no choice but to take the family’s entire savings—including Tian Liu’s future dowry—and hand it all over to the gamblers. For this, Tian Liu had a huge fight with Aunt Tian. But even those savings were still not enough.
Producing fifty taels of silver all at once was simply too difficult for their family.
“I heard their family is already thinking of moving back to the village,” Aunt Ge snorted. “For the sake of his studies, the second son is out doing hard labor all day. And Liu Ge’er is embroidering pouches every day just to trade for a few copper coins. The eldest and second are what, twenty-one this year? Still delaying marriage, too.”
Another married man added, “If he passes and becomes a scholar, then it’s a meteoric rise. That Wang Cuihua, her eyes are always on the top of her head. Which family would even want to marry their child into that household?”
Tian Yao simply listened silently, having no desire to offer any opinion. It just seemed that speak of the devil, and he shall appear.
As they walked the road toward town, the ones coming from the opposite direction… were the Tian Wen family. They were seated on an ox cart, all their worldly belongings piled behind them.
Aunt Ge, always the most outspoken, called out, “Oh my! Where are you off to?”
Aunt Tian forced out a smile. “We just… weren’t quite used to living in town anymore. Might as well come back. You’re all heading to town, I see. We’ll talk properly when you’re back.”
Tian Liu hung his head low, twisting the handkerchief in his hands incessantly.
So they passed quickly on their ox cart. Behind them, Aunt Ge said with a sly grin, “A scholarly family, you know. Their words are always so… restrained.”
Everyone burst into laughter. The laughter was so loud that Wang Cuihua, on the ox cart, glared fiercely at Tian Wen.
Upon arriving in town, everyone dispersed to do their own shopping. Tian Yao first bought household supplies. After some thought, he went to the town clinic.
During the New Year, no family wanted to associate with medicine at the very start of the year. So the clinic was very quiet. Only an old physician, his beard nearly reaching his chest, sat dozing. Tian Yao only then registered that this clinic seemed to have changed hands.
The old physician cracked open an eyelid as Tian Yao walked in. “Consultation?”
His hair and beard were all white, but his voice boomed like a great bell. Tian Yao trembled slightly and quickly replied, “No, no.”
The old physician sat up straighter. “I can see that. You, lad, are sturdy as an ox. You wouldn’t easily fall sick anyway.”
Tian Yao: “…”
“It’s not me. It’s my husband,” Tian Yao said. “His leg was injured a while ago. I wanted to ask if it can still be healed.”
“You’re a funny one, Ger. If you don’t bring the person here, how am I supposed to know whether he can be healed or not?”
Tian Yao felt a bit indignant. “But medical texts even mention diagnosing via a silk thread held to the pulse!”
“You run a silk thread from here all the way to your house, and you see if the person in that book can diagnose you a blooming flower.”
Tian Yao: “…”
The physician closed his eyes again. “If there’s nothing else, out you go. Don’t disturb an old man’s good sleep.”
Tian Yao edged a little closer. “Just one last question, alright?”
“Speak.”
“My husband wants to learn some introductory medical principles. What medical books should I buy for him to read?” Tian Yao asked sincerely.
“What, your husband doesn’t want to benefit other people’s pockets, figures he’ll just treat himself?”
Tian Yao: Does this old man never get punched talking to patients like this?!
“No, his legs are inconvenient. Staying at home all day with nothing to do, I just wanted to buy him some medical books to read, so he doesn’t sit around brooding all day.”
“You certainly know how to dote on someone.” The old physician stood up, rummaged through a cabinet to the side, and pulled out a tattered, worn handbook. “Here. Take it.”
Tian Yao accepted it with both hands. He could only recognize a few characters; this ragged booklet was densely packed with writing. He looked at the physician with some doubt. “Why are you giving me this?”
“Can’t I just find you pleasing to the eye, Ger?” The old physician snorted. “Go on, now. Don’t hinder my business.”
Tian Yao then fumbled for money from his pouch, only to be glared at by the old man. “I don’t want money. If you truly wish to repay me, when spring begins and you hunt some game in the mountains, bring me a bit.”
Chased out by the old physician, Tian Yao stood there, holding the handbook, feeling somewhat dazed.
