Chapter 125: The Manor of Wealth
The plump auntie’s sudden arrival happened right when she was burning paper money for her late mother.
She had tossed and turned all of last night. As someone who normally never let anger or anxiety fester overnight, she had found herself repeatedly analyzing her performance at the manor the previous day.
Her mother hadn’t answered her. Was it because she couldn’t just appear at a moment’s notice, or was it because her own performance hadn’t been good enough?
After splitting from the family, they were currently penniless and couldn’t even afford to feed their chickens. Yet every single item she had brought back yesterday from the manor her mother pointed her toward was of premium quality.
When she had returned so late last night, she had crossed paths with a frantic Xue Old Third halfway down the road.
Xue Old Third had thought the plump auntie had thrown herself into the river out of sheer anger. He had literally spent half the night wading through the river to search for her, his heart growing colder with every passing moment. If the plump auntie hadn’t shown up in time, Xue Old Third would have been ready to drown right along with her.
Deep down, the plump auntie was a little exasperated by Xue Old Third’s spinelessness—what good would it do to die with me? Did you know I was so mistreated that I wanted to jump into a river? Our daughter is still out there suffering! If you follow me to the grave, what’s going to happen to our girl? She just had a little girl of her own!
But truth be told, a ripple of deep comfort also warmed the plump auntie’s heart.
Her mother’s eye for picking a family for her to marry into, and her own eye for picking a family for her daughter, had both fallen a little short. But her mother’s eye for picking a man for her, and her own eye for picking a man for her daughter, were both reasonably decent.
At the very least, Xue Old Third knew how to care for her.
The plump auntie rummaged through her bundle, pulled out a pair of shoes, and tossed them to Xue Old Third. “For you. Try them on.”
Xue Old Third’s spineless nature flared up again. Feeling that the shoes were far too precious, he refused to try them. “For me? Our house doesn’t even have rice right now; why don’t we take them out to trade instead? The ox has been fed grass, but the chickens are still starving.”
He didn’t harbor any suspicions about where the plump auntie had gotten the items. After all, just like her late mother, the plump auntie occasionally went out to assist as a cook for other households, always bringing something back in return.
Today, the plump auntie had said she was going to the neighboring village to visit their daughter, but she had been gone for several double-hours. Xue Old Third assumed she must have gone to help out in someone’s kitchen.
However, he didn’t dare pry into the plump auntie’s business out of fear she would thrash him. Holding the shoes, he negotiated with her hesitantly, “It’s fine if I stay hungry, but you mustn’t go hungry, and neither can the chickens or the ox. Ah-Chang, let’s trade them for grain instead…”
The plump auntie scoffed, “Wear them or don’t, they’re yours to do with as you please!”
Xue Old Third slunk out of the room holding the shoes, only to return a short while later, just as submissively, carrying half a sack of grain.
The plump auntie thought for a moment, then asked Xue Old Third, “Do you have any money left on you? When I went to see Dahong today, I left all my money with her. My hands are empty right now.”
Xue Old Third answered honestly, “Under the manure vat in our family’s fields… uh, no, my parents’ fields, I hid a clay jar. I reckon there are about two to three hundred copper coins inside.”
Before the family split, the two old fixtures of the Xue family had demanded that their sons hand over all the money they earned to the communal pot, to be distributed by the elders.
However, the eldest brother’s sons were studying, which was a constant drain on resources. Not only did they fail to contribute any money, but they also required supplements from the household.
The second brother’s family spent the entire year traveling outside, claiming that their business was booming and that the second brother had even become a shop manager. The second brother’s sons all worked outside as peddlers, waiters, or accountants. Yet every time the elders asked, they claimed the business had lost money, or that the proprietor hadn’t paid them and had even levied fines.
Consequently, from the beginning to the end of the year, only Xue Old Third and his wife actually handed over money.
Furthermore, they only had one daughter, Dahong, so they spent far less than the children of the eldest and second brothers.
Leaving aside Xue Old Third’s labor in the fields, whenever the plump auntie went out to help as a cook, the elderly couple would completely strip away any tips the hosts gave her. Even if it was a bundle of leftovers, simply because it contained meat, the old couple would insist on waiting until the eldest and second sons returned before preparing it to eat.
Regrettably, the old Xue couple’s favored sons didn’t return often, and many times the meat would spoil completely before they finally offered it to the third son’s family.
The plump auntie had been infuriated by this. Later on, when she helped out as a cook, she stopped accepting cash tips altogether, asking for clean leftovers instead. She wouldn’t even bring them home, splitting them with Xue Old Third and Dahong right outside.
The family of three ate until they were thick-waisted and rosy-cheeked, which counted as winning a round against the old couple.
On the rare occasions when a host still insisted on giving a cash tip, the plump auntie wouldn’t bring it home either, having Xue Old Third hide it outside well in advance. This prevented those two disrespectful old fixtures from prying open their bedroom lock and plundering it away.
The plump auntie frowned. “Only two to three hundred copper coins left?”
Her culinary skills were excellent; every time she went out to help cook, she would earn at least ten to twenty copper coins. How had they managed to save so little money over all these years?
Xue Old Third submissively pulled two land deeds from his chest pocket. “One is for the dilapidated hut. I quietly approached the clan elder to buy it… If a house isn’t our own, it’s impossible to live in peace.”
“The other is a deed for land. I didn’t buy much, just two mu of land outside the village. It isn’t far from Dahong’s marital home either—just a half-hour walk.”
The plump auntie’s heart felt completely set at ease now. She cast a half-reproachful, half-affectionate glance at the submissive Xue Old Third. “I didn’t misjudge you back then.”
With that, the plump auntie told Xue Old Third to fetch the last of the hidden cash. “Anyway, those fields don’t belong to us anymore, so it’s better to dig it up early. Give me a few coins; tomorrow I need to buy some incense, candles, and joss paper to burn for my mother.”
Xue Old Third knew he was in the wrong, so he didn’t ask further. After all, with the family split happening just today, the plump auntie had suffered a lot of grievances, so she undoubtedly wanted to have a chat with her late mother.
He had absolutely no idea that this sudden display of filial piety from the plump auntie was entirely a ploy to probe her mother further, to see if she could visit that manor just one more time.
The next day, the joss paper and supplies were purchased, and the plump auntie headed straight to her mother’s grave holding them.
She burned them for half the day, weeping just as long, before finally staring fixedly at the tombstone. “Mother, give me a definitive sign. If your daughter isn’t destined to stumble upon that windfall of wealth again, I’m going out to look for cooking gigs right now.”
Her mother remained silent, offering nothing but stillness.
The plump auntie sat before the grave for the better part of the day until past noon. Seeing that there was no hope, she could only rise to her feet in dejection.
If she had known, she would have performed much better yesterday and been far more calculating when selecting her “wages.”
Mm… and when it came to the meal, she should have eaten another two large bowls of rice.
Just as the plump auntie prepared to leave, the paper money that had already burned to ash before the grave was suddenly caught up by a gust of wind. The black cinders swirled in the air, drifting off toward a single direction.
The plump auntie’s eyes widened. “Mother?!”
She scrambled up instantly and crashed straight into a willow grove, following the direction the ashes were drifting.
In the next second, the plump auntie materialized inside the mountain cave.
“Money’s coming!”
The plump auntie quickly moved her short, plump, yet powerful legs, charging toward the end of the cave with a rapid thud-thud-thud.
She had finally returned to this manor of wealth!
