If you aren’t reading on lazysakuratranslations.com then these translations were stolen!
The houses in the village were relatively far away from each other. There was a distance between each house. They walked across a small bridge made of wooden plants. When Lin Lixuan and Ger Yan arrived at the Ji residence, they were seen by the small dumpling, who was playing with rocks on the ground, before they could even knock on the door. “Ge, you’re back!!” The boy happily shouted as he ran toward Ji Yan.
“Xiao1-Yu.”
The little boy looked at Lin Lixuan and Ji Yan with sparkling eyes. His mother hadn’t lied to him. His brother did come back today.
Lin Lixuan looked at the little boy who was caught by Ji Yan. He was thin and small, and the hair on the top of his head wasn’t tied up properly. There were strands of hair all over his eyebrows and sideburns. The boy wore shabby clothes that were patched up. There were holes in his simple cloth shoes. His pants were a bit short, revealing his thin ankles. The little boy looked very similar to Ger Yan. There was also a small red mole between his eyebrows. He looked like a miniature version of Ji Yan.
“Xiao-Yu, where’s Mother and Father?”
Ji Yu turned around and shouted, “Mother, Father, Grandma, Ger Yan is back.” After he finished shouting, his face was flushed with excitement.
Li Yue’e’s hand trembled as she held the wicker basket. She heard her little Shuang’er’s voice say that Ger Yan was back?
The little Ji Yu smiled at Ji Yan, then turned his gaze to Lin Lixuan. Was this…his brother-in-law?
“Hello, brother-in-law.”
Lin Lixuan was stunned. Brother in law? What a weird way of calling him. However, it was true. He was now Ger Yan’s nominal husband, and Ger Yan was this little kid’s brother. He was his brother-in-law.
“Ger Yan, did you come back by yourself—Oh? Xiucai Lin?” Li Yue’e turned before she could finish speaking and saw Lin Lixuan standing beside Ger Yan.
Ji Yan was a bit embarrassed. “Mother, Lin-dage and I…”
Lin Lixuan noticed this woman who seemed to be thirty or forty years old. She should be Ger Yan’s mother. Although the woman in front of him was haggard and thin, one could tell that she was very beautiful when she was young.
Lin Lixuan also called out, “Mother, I came back with Ger Yan to greet you guys.”
Li Yue’e widened her eyes when he greeted her. Her face was full of surprise. Wasn’t Xiucai Lin a fool? The handsome and classy looking man in front of her looked like Xiucai Lin, but other than that, he didn’t resemble the Xiucai Li Yue’e saw a few days ago for the wedding.
It had already been three days. How could he change so much?
“Mother, let’s talk inside.”
Li Yue’e came back to her senses. She took the basket of gifts in Ji Yan’s hands and hurriedly said, “Yes, yes, yes. I’m getting all confused. Why are we blocking the door? Come inside the house. Ger Yu, quickly pour some water for your brother and your brother-in-law.”
The Ji residence was much larger than the Lin residence. After all, the Lin family only had three people while the Ji family had more than a dozen. However, the Ji residence wasn’t very beautiful. There were several houses, some old, some new. Some were made of mud, and some used wooden boards to separate them. However, the furnishings in the house were similar to those of the Lin residence. They were all poor families in the countryside. Only those few square tables and wooden stools were worth some money.
“Xiucai Lin, are you better now?”
“Mn, I’m better.” Lin Lixuan explained to Li Yue’e what he’d told Grandpa Cheng earlier.
Li Yue’e was stunned for a bit, and then couldn’t help but sigh in her heart: “Our Ger Yan has good luck… I thought he was going to marry a fool, but I didn’t expect the fool to suddenly be cured. Xiucai Lin really is… right, Xiucai Lin. And their Ger Yan…genuinely married a Xiucai.
Such good luck shocked Li Yue’e and stunned her.
At this time, Ji Yu entered with the kettled, followed by Eldest Ji, who was carrying the pole. Li Yue’e saw Eldest Ji, and hurriedly called her husband over and said, “Eldest Ji, come here. Our Ger Yan came back with Xiucai Lin for a visit.”
Seeing Lin Lixuan, who had returned to normal and wasn’t a fool anymore,” Eldest Ji was also shocked by the news.
The husband and wife were stunned at first, then they became happy. They were happy for their Ger Yan. Li Yue’e called Ji Yan aside and asked him how he was doing at the Lin residence these days. Lin Lixuan sat on the wooden stool, chatting with Eldest Ji as he teased Ger Yu, who was surrounding him with a curious expression.
“What’s your name?”
“Ji Yu. Ger Yu.”
Old Lady Ji also knew that Lin Lixuan and Ji Yan were coming, but she didn’t care about this grandson-in-law. She merely took a look before returning to her room.
Li Yue’e took the hollow bamboo pipe and blew some air through it. Once the fire was started, she placed the pot on the rack over it and asked Ger Yan, “How are you doing at the Lin residence? Does Xiucai Lin treat you well?”
“He treats me very well.” Ji Yan smiled at his mother as he picked vegetables.
Li Yue’e sighed. “Don’t blame your mother and father. We were forced… Fortunately god blessed our family… You’re already married now. You can live a good life with him. Oh, right. How is Xiucai Lin’s temper? What about your mother-in-law?”
“Mother, don’t worry. They’re all very good to me.”
Li Yue’e looked at her eldest Shuang’er and suddenly felt the need to teach Ji Yan some skills to get along with his husband. Their family’s Ger Yan was good looking and had been well-behaved since he was a child. The only bad thing was that he was the same as his father and didn’t know how to talk. Previously, she wanted him to marry an honest farmer, but who knew that now… Life really was unpredictable.
Lin Lixuan wasn’t a fool anymore and had returned to normal. He seemed polite and had an excellent temperament. As soon as she saw him, Li Yue’e felt that he was the same as the young master she’d seen before…
Now that he was cured, would he dislike their family’s Shuang’er?
At noon, Lin Lixuan had lunch with the Ji family. He also got to know the members of the Ji family.
Lin Lixuan held his bowl and took a sip of porridge. He then looked at Ger Yan and Ger Yu, who were drinking rice soup beside him. He even expected the food at the Ji residence to be even worse than at the Lin residence. No wonder this pair of Shuang’er brothers were so thin, they were almost skin and bones. But then he saw Third Ji’s son and daughter, Ji Xuan and Ji Ru. Their brand new clothes were completely different from Ji Yu’s worn-out ones. Their complexion said they’d never gone hungry before. They must usually get preferable treatment.
The Ji family had a big table and everyone ate together. There were many people but not a lot of dishes. There was only a plate of old salted vegetables and a pot of stir fried pork slices with cabbage. The salted vegetables were bitter, and they weren’t delicious even when mixed with porridge. The taste was too heavy, Lin Lixuan almost choked when he first ate it.
He once thought that Ger Yan ate a lot at the Lin residence and had a huge appetite. and wondered when he lived in the Ji residence, how he was as skinny as tinder despite eating so much. It turned out that when he was living in the Ji residence, he actually ate these kinds of things. He ate rice soup and salted vegetables everyday. It would be strange if he had gained weight.
True, how good could his family treat him if they were willing to marry him off to a fool?
Ger Yan was taking a sip of the rice soup when he noticed Lin Lixuan’s gaze. He lowered his head and dodged.
Lin Lixuan smiled, then picked up a piece of salted sliced pork and put it in Ji Yan’s bowl. Ji Yan was stunned, remembering that this was his own Ji residence, at it with a red face. He rarely ate meat here. Old Lady Ji didn’t like Shuang’ers. Even if the family was able to eat meat during the New Year, he and Ger Yu didn’t get a chance to eat it. If they were able to sneakily eat some meat, it would already be good.
Lin Lixuan also picked up a piece and gave it to Ji Yu, who had his head down drinking rice soup. Ji Yu raised his head. His dark eyes looked around for a while before finally ate it with ease. His teeth weren’t visible as he smiled. “Thank you, brother-in-law.2“
Old Lady Ji coldly watched Lin Lixuan’s behavior. If it were normal times, the Shuang’ers and the wives would be scolded by her if they dared to try to eat any meat. But after all, Lin Lixuan was just her grandson-in-law. He was a guest visiting their house. The salted meat was also brought by him, so she didn’t say anything. She didn’t have a good impression of Xiucai Lin. The people in the village compared him with Ji Xuan from time to time. In her eyes, nobody could compare to her precious grandson.
As soon as Ji Ru saw Lin Lixuan, she wanted to keep looking and didn’t want them to leave. She didn’t expect their village’s Xiucai Lin to have returned to normal and to be so handsome. He wasn’t any worse than Du Feibai from the county town…
Knowing that Ji Yan was going to marry the foolish Xiucai, Ji Ru gloated. When Ger Yan was going to marry Lin Lixuan, she and Liu Li had urged Li Yue’e, saying that Ji Yan might not have a bad time after marrying…
But she didn’t expect Ger Yan to be so lucky. The fool was cured, and it happened as soon as Ger Yan married him.
She was resentful as she glared at the delicate and beautiful Ji Yan. She thought of her flat nose, gritted her teeth, and wanted to scratch Ji Yan’s face. She used chopsticks to mash the vegetables leaves in her bowl, treating the leaves as if they were Ji Yan. Hmph. Even if Xiucai Lin wasn’t a fool anymore, that Xiucai Lin even sought death just for a woman from a neighboring village. Could he fall in love with a Shuang’er now? Scholars despised Shuang’ers the most. In her opinion, it wouldn’t be long before Ger Yan was hated and sent back.
Lin Lixuan accompanied Ji Yan back home this time,which caused a huge sensation in the Ji family as well as the village. Everyone in the village knew that Xiucai Lin, who had lost his memories and became a fool was cured. There were even rumors being passed around that Ji Yan had very good luck.
Among them, Zhao Liniang was the happiest. She was finally able to vent out all the pain and suffering she’d experienced. She could head into the village everyday and talk about her son and daughter-in-law. “My Xuan’Er, yes, he got better after getting together with Ger Yan… He’s very good. He reads at home everyday. Before now, he’ll study in the county town as well…”
A few days later, Lin Lixuan edited his novel and told Zhao Liniang he wanted to visit the county town. Zhao Liniang asked Ji Yan to go with him. It just so happened that the vegetables in the vegetable field at home, such as the green onions and radishes, had grown. They could be taken and sold in the county town.
- Xiao means little and adding in front of a name shows familiarity. BTW Yu here means rain. So he’s called little rain. ↩︎
- This is a bit hard to translate. He says “brother’s husband”. LLX is from the modern world and this word isn’t really used, so he thinks it sounds weird. ↩︎
