The System Wanted Me to Be a Landlady (GL) - Chapter 32: Sister's Husband Candidate

Chapter 32: Sister’s Husband Candidate

Tang Zhi did not know much about bamboo carving. She only knew that there were jade carvings and wood carvings in the world, so logically there should also be bamboo carvings. The first time she saw bamboo carving was from traveling merchants coming from the south and going to the north. It was said that many literati liked to have engravings on the utensils they used.

It was just that grass mats and smoking cages from Mingzhou and other bamboo, wood, and grass products were famous throughout the world, but bamboo carving was rarely heard of, let alone any famous bamboo carving masters.

As for the “liuqin” that Song Yuyan mentioned, it was the first time Tang Zhi had heard of it.

In fact, bamboo carving had appeared a long time ago, but the bamboo carvings of that period were only engraving characters on bamboo slips or engraving some patterns with lines. It was not until the Tang Dynasty that carvings of flowers, plants, trees, figures, and other images appeared, and it was also during that period that liuqin carving emerged.

“Liqin” was actually one of the engraving methods of bamboo carving, just like relief carving and openwork carving. “Qing” referred to the smooth green skin on the surface of the bamboo. During engraving, one only engraved on this layer of green skin and planed away the rest of the green skin, using the difference in shade between the green skin and the bamboo flesh to enrich the pattern.

Although the liuqin engraving method had appeared in the Tang Dynasty, due to limitations of conditions, the engraving techniques were not perfect and mature, and the forms expressed were relatively monotonous. In simple and easy-to-understand terms, the liuqin carvings of the Tang Dynasty were like paper figures, without obvious and strong layering.

Song Yuyan had not yet come into contact with the bamboo carving here and did not know to what extent it had developed, but from the history she knew, it was during the Song and Yuan periods, with the improvement of literati’s artistic aesthetics, that it drove the development of carving arts including bamboo carving.

In other words, the engraving techniques at this time, including the liuqin engraving method, were actually still in a relatively monotonous stage. Of course, she picked up bamboo carving again only because she did not want her skills to become rusty, and she had no ambition to drive the development of bamboo carving.

It was the first time Tang Zhi heard some unfamiliar terms and the market conditions of a special industry from Song Yuyan’s mouth. If she had not already had the awareness that “this Song Yuyan has an extraordinary and mysterious background,” she would probably start doubting her life again.

Moreover, Song Yuyan was quite restrained and did not pull her to talk about some too professional and profound knowledge points. The approach of stopping at the right point allowed her to seriously and quickly immerse herself while not producing emotions of boredom from receiving too much theoretical knowledge for a long time.

After going back, she took out her brother’s pen holder to study it. On it, only Tang Haogen’s big name and some poems and texts were engraved, and they were sunken yin script.

Originally, she thought her brother’s pen holder was still quite good, but after seeing Song Yuyan’s bamboo carving, she felt the gap was too big. Even though that was still an unfinished work, she could roughly see that once completed, it would surely leave her brother’s pen holder several streets behind.

Tang Haogen came back and saw her holding his pen holder with a look of disdain on her face. He was somewhat puzzled: “A’zhi, what are you doing with my pen holder?”

“Nothing.” Tang Zhi did not tell him about Song Yuyan’s bamboo carving. If she told him, he would probably become suspicious of Song Yuyan too.

Tang Haogen touched his head and suddenly remembered something. Tang Ye had told him that his eldest little sister seemed to have dreamed of Song Dalang before and even called out to the other in her dream…

As a teenager who had entered puberty a few years earlier and often had some amorous dreams, Tang Haogen naturally thought that his sister’s situation was similar to his own.

Although thinking of this made him feel a bit ashamed in his heart. However, with father and mother both passed away, the eldest brother acts as father, and the lifelong matters of his two sisters still needed him to handle, so he had to help his sister resolve her worries.

So he spoke earnestly to his sister: “A’zhi, although big brother is a man, you do not need to feel shy. You can tell me anything.”

Tang Zhi: “???”

“Big brother, I really just looked at your pen holder. There is nothing for you to handle.”

“I am not talking about this matter. You, have you recently dreamed of some person?” Tang Haogen’s face turned slightly red.

Tang Zhi widened her eyes in surprise: “How does big brother know?”

But she thought again—people always dream, and if one does not dream of people, could it be ghosts? So she said again, “Dreaming of people is very normal, right?”

Tang Haogen nodded repeatedly: “Exactly, this is very normal, so you do not need to feel shy or have psychological burden. Big brother has gone through the same.”

Tang Zhi: “…” She did not quite understand why her brother wanted to talk to her about dreams. Could it be that dreams foretell something?

She kept thinking there and did not realize that she and her brother were not on the same wavelength at all.

“I am not shy, and it is just a dream. I will not take it to heart.”

Tang Haogen took a deep breath. It seemed his sister had profound cultivation. When he thought back, after dreaming of such scenes, his pants were even soiled, and the next day he was like a thief, not daring to look others in the eye. Where was he like his sister, with a face as calm as ever, and it was said that she had recently gone to the Song house occasionally too, without knowing any restraint or shyness.

Suddenly, he became worried again. If his sister really liked Song Dalang, what should he do?

He had tolerated Song Dalang before and released goodwill toward him, but he had never thought of letting his own sister marry the other. After all, he still hoped his sister could find someone of equal social status who could bring her stability and happiness in the future.

Although Song Dalang had turned over a new leaf now, he was still not his first choice for a sister’s husband candidate… And what if his sister really insisted on marrying no one but him? As her brother, what should he do?

He felt that for this matter, he was still young, but his head might go bald soon.

“By the way, big brother, scattering lime in the fields really works well. Not only have the bugs decreased a lot, but even the vegetables have grown much greener and tenderer.” Tang Zhi, unaware of her brother’s true purpose, changed the topic.

However, when Tang Zhi mentioned quicklime, Tang Haogen naturally associated “lime is useful” with “Song Dalang’s merit,” so had his sister already started accumulating favor for Song Dalang?

A grown girl cannot be kept at home!

Tang Haogen temporarily put away his worries and asked: “No vegetables have been stolen recently, right?”

“After Chen Erming was caught, who would still dare to steal vegetables from our family’s vegetable garden?”

Tang Haogen nodded and said again: “Recently, someone asked me where I bought the lime, saying that after seeing our family use it, the effect was really good, and they also wanted to try it.”

Tang Zhi rolled her eyes: “It is not that I am using a petty person’s heart to measure a gentleman’s intentions, but after the Chen Erming incident, who does not know that lime is bought from the lime kiln? Him asking like this naturally means he hopes big brother can bring some back for him the next time you go to buy lime. As for whether he can afford to buy lime… and big brother acting as the sucker, right?”

Tang Haogen paused, then smiled a bit proudly: “So I did not agree to bring it for him. I only told him that there is a lime kiln at Sun Lake, and the price of lime is not cheap.”

If not for his status as a minor official, with others taking the initiative to give him a discount, he would not bear to buy so much back!

With the Tang family’s economic ability, they could indeed afford this expense, but in the long run, it was not a solution. The Tang family’s income and expenditure had a slight surplus, but he also needed to start preparing dowry for his sister, so he had to save more.

He said: “I will go find Song Dalang again and ask him if there are any other good ways in the medical books he has seen to get rid of pests besides scattering lime!”

Tang Zhi hurriedly pulled him back: “Big brother, what use is finding her?”

Had her brother really taken Song Yuyan as an all-powerful divine person?

Tang Haogen actually did not go to find Song Yuyan just for this matter in the past. He mainly wanted to help examine Song Yuyan for his sister, observe for one or two years, and perhaps decide if this person could become a good match for his sister.

Tang Zhi, unaware of her brother’s true inner thoughts, could hold him back for a moment but could not stop him forever, so when he had time, he ran to the Song house.

Compared to Tang Ye, who often ran to play with the little radish head Song Yuzhuan, and Tang Zhi, who only visited when there was something, the number of times Tang Haogen stepped into the Song family courtyard could be counted on one hand. This day, when he entered the door and looked, he almost thought he had gone to the wrong place.

Song Yuyan greeted him warmly, and he even said with slight guilt: “In my previous impression, the Song house seemed a bit empty. Although I knew Song Dalang was weaving baskets and mats, I never noticed the changes in the courtyard even once. It was really rude!”

“This is enough to show that Clerk Tang is upright, open and aboveboard, does not look sideways on the road, and has the style of a gentleman. It is not rude at all.”

These words made Tang Haogen feel comfortable in his heart. He chatted idly with Song Yuyan for a moment, then mentioned the pest problem in the vegetable garden and wanted to know if there were other methods in the medical books Song Yuyan had seen.

In fact, asking for methods was false; he mainly wanted to know if Song Yuyan had read any books recently.

Ever since he learned that his sister might like Song Yuyan, he could not help but become picky about Song Yuyan, hoping he could strive forward actively. Although he also knew that this demand was a bit too hard on him—after all, where did Song Yuyan have the opportunity to read books? Not to mention books, the Song family probably did not even have a single brush.

But Song Yuyan had really read books recently, and the ones she read were agriculture-related books “Fan Sheng Zhi Shu” and “Qi Min Yao Shu.”

Because although she had recommended the method of scattering lime powder to Tang Zhi before, she had not considered the economic benefits at all.

Later, she slowly figured it out—nowadays, lime was not produced as easily as in later generations after industrialization, and the price was not at all affordable for the people. So, adhering to the principle of “considering costs and improving benefits,” she wanted to find other methods to replace this money-burning approach.

Since that was agriculture-related, she naturally had to look to agricultural books to understand. And the agricultural books she could find now were only two: the Han Dynasty’s “Fan Sheng Zhi Shu” and the Northern Wei’s “Qi Min Yao Shu.” Among them, she also had to consider the differences between north and south, so she could only use them as references.

And these two books were actually borrowed by her from Du Yan:

The matter of her joining hands with the Tang family to set up a trap to catch the vegetable thief had also spread back to the Jinchuan township clan. Because Cixi was just this big, and the Tang family’s scheme using quicklime to catch the thief was designed very cleverly, enough to be recorded by the county official in the case files, so as it spread, it also let the Song clan leader know.

For this, the clan leader had Song Bing go call Song Yuyan back to the township. Song Yuyan happened to want to go back to see him anyway, and also to see if she could go to the county school to mooch some books to read, so she found a free day and went back.

When the Song clan leader saw her, he thought of her orphaned and bitter background again. He just wanted to follow custom and advise her a couple of sentences, hoping she would strive forward actively and be a good person. But then he learned that she had been exceptionally well-behaved recently, so his words of admonition got stuck in his throat. In the end, he turned his head and asked her if she had any difficulties.

Song Yuyan nodded: “Your grandnephew really does have difficulties.”

Clan leader Song Zhiming choked. He had just been thinking if Song Yuyan had changed her core, but now it seemed he had thought wrong. With such thick skin, it was still that familiar Song Dalang.

His words were already out, and it was not good to take them back. Upon learning that Song Yuyan just wanted to borrow two books to read, he felt ashamed for having just inwardly criticized her for thick skin. What an active, upward-striving, diligent, and studious good child this was!

And because of helping the Tang family catch the vegetable thief, he learned that she had originally “not” done any chicken-stealing or dog-touching things before, but had been wronged, and wronged for so many years. He found that words to lecture Song Yuyan could no longer come out.

So without another word, he called Song Zhu over and had him find two books from his collection to lend to Song Yuyan.

Song Zhu looked at Song Yuyan with suspicious eyes, while Song Yuyan looked back at him with a face full of sincerity, making him feel goosebumps all over his body. Then, gritting his teeth, he took her to his study and waved his hand grandly: “What book do you want to borrow? Pick any.”

Song Yuyan looked around and did not see any agriculture-related books, so she sighed: “Thirteenth Uncle, your study is so big. I think your bookshelves can hold even more books.”

The implication was that his collection was too small.

Song Zhu was originally most satisfied with the abundance of books in his study. Many of these books were sent by his brother who was an official in the court. Friends who came to see his collection were all very envious of him, but he would actually have a day when someone criticized his collection as small?!

His face darkened, and he asked: “What book do you want? How could I possibly not have it here?!”

“Agriculture-related books—does Thirteenth Uncle have those too?”

Song Zhu choked. He really did not.

But he could not say directly that he did not have them. How could the dignity of an elder be challenged by a junior? So he started teaching Song Yuyan how to be a person again, saying that agricultural books were not worth studying, and as a scholar, one should read the Four Books and Five Classics…

Song Yuyan said: “But the court has issued farming encouragement edicts several times, considering agriculture as the foundation of the country, right?”

Song Zhu was horrified to find that somehow he seemed more ignorant than the non-reading Song Yuyan?!

He ran to Du Yan to verify. Du Yan thought for a moment and said: “Indeed, there is such a thing. In the second year of Ming En, the emperor established farming encouragement envoys and issued multiple orders to encourage farming and sericulture. Actually, the Han and Tang dynasties already had farming encouragement envoys…”

Song Zhu felt his face hurt, beaten by his nephew’s “erudition.”

After Du Yan finished speaking, he then asked about the reason. How could he possibly tell Du Yan the truth? He only said that Song Yuyan wanted to find agricultural books. Du Yan then smiled and said: “Coincidentally, I have ‘Fan Sheng Zhi Shu’ and ‘Qi Min Yao Shu.’ If he wants them, I will lend them to him.”

Song Zhu said in surprise: “Does Shichang carry agricultural books with him?”

But then he thought, this friend of his loved reading so much that his scope was very broad. It was not surprising that he had these books. He inwardly sighed again— no wonder his own knowledge could not compare to the other. It was because he had not studied enough!

After Du Yan lent the books to Song Yuyan, Song Yuyan was very grateful. After all, there was no movable type printing in this era yet. The books circulating on the market were mostly hand-copied by manpower, few in number and expensive. Many scholars treated books like their lifeblood and cherished them. For someone to lend out books, it showed that the other was sincerely befriending her.

To express her thanks, Song Yuyan gave the other a just-completed engraved plum blossom arm rest.

When Du Yan saw that arm rest at the time, his eyes went straight: “Did you engrave this?”