The System Wanted Me to Be a Landlady (GL) - Chapter 41: Protecting Her

Chapter 41: Protecting Her

When going out to play, whether adults or children, no one wants to go home while they’re out having fun. But once they reach the familiar alley entrance, they get eager to return home. This is especially true for children. Even if they know there’s no one at home and the door isn’t open, they always run toward the house full of excitement.

Ye’er knew he didn’t have the key to the courtyard door, but he still ran ahead. Bing’er saw her brother running so fast, and her heart itched with the urge to join him, so she followed without hesitation. But she was soon caught up by Tang Ye. “Bing’er, slow down!”

“Sister Ye, you’ve caught up to me.” Bing’er was out of breath from running, but she couldn’t stop laughing no matter what.

The three children laughed and played as they headed home. But the one in front, Ye’er, spotted a young man wandering in front of their house with his sharp eyes. A vigilant look showed on his young face.

At first, Ye’er wasn’t sure if the man’s target was the Song family. But as he got closer to his own home, the man stopped in his tracks and kept staring at him.

Ye’er hadn’t recognized the man yet when the young man smiled and came forward. “Hey, I’ve been waiting all day, and you’re finally back. Song Ye’er, where’s your big brother?”

His speech was slick and without any manners, so Ye’er knew at a glance that he was one of the local ruffians who used to hang around with Song Yuyan back then.

Ye’er didn’t want to pay attention to this person. The young man saw he was being ignored and felt a bit annoyed inside. He stepped forward, grabbed Ye’er’s wrist, and demanded, “You kid, do you know manners? I’m talking to you. Are you mute?”

Ye’er was like a cat with its fur standing on end. He struggled hard to break free from the hold and shouted, “Let me go!”

“Hey, you’ve got some strength!” The young man sneered coldly and refused to let go even more.

Song Yuyan hurried over upon hearing the noise. Seeing Ye’er being held by someone, she felt very angry too and shouted, “Let him go!”

Her scolding finally had an effect. The young man subconsciously released Ye’er. But in a moment, he came back to his senses and walked toward her with a grinning face. “Hey, Song Dalang, you’re finally back.”

Song Yuyan searched her mind for memories related to this person. Soon, she recalled him. “Li Yao, what are you doing here?”

The young man named Li Yao heard the distance in her tone, but he didn’t mind. Instead, he smiled and clapped his hands. “Looks like you haven’t forgotten me, Song Dalang. I thought you’d gotten rich and forgotten your brother who used to wander around outside with you!”

What he called wandering was really just doing odd jobs together outside. Or it was him taking the original host to collect protection money, or doing some petty theft like stealing chickens. In the original host’s memories, the original host trusted Li Yao quite a bit, after all, he always treated the original host like a “good brother.”

But in Song Yuyan’s eyes as an outsider, the original host was just naively foolish. In modern terms, this Li Yao was a small leader in a gang. He specialized in finding young boys who were easy to fool as his underlings. He called them good brothers, but really, he was dragging them into doing bad things.

Before losing her mother, the original host was at least just a mischievous monkey. But after losing her mother, she became a little thug that everyone despised, mostly because of Li Yao’s instigation. Because the original host had lost her father young and was excluded by the village kids, she craved affection inside. When Li Yao said he treated her like a good brother, of course she fell for it!

But luckily, though the original host hung around with him most of the time, she rarely did bad things with him. For one, she had studied and still had some底线 in her heart. Several times Li Yao sent her to steal money from passersby. She tried once and failed, got beaten, and then didn’t want to do it anymore. Over time, Li Yao didn’t like taking her along to “play” much.

Later, when the original host’s uncle died and her aunt remarried, she interacted even less with Li Yao. So if Song Yuyan hadn’t met Li Yao in person, she wouldn’t have dug up this person from the original host’s memories at all.

Since Song Yuyan crossed over, for friends like Meng Shuituan who hadn’t done any bad things in daily life, she helped if she could. And for those little thugs who cut ties with her when they couldn’t heed her advice, she distanced herself as much as possible. So in the over a year since crossing over, she really hadn’t worried much about these relationships.

Li Yao’s visit clearly wasn’t with good intentions. Song Yuyan heard that he came because he knew her life had improved, so he was thinking of getting some silver from her to spend.

After shooing Ye’er and Bing’er home, Song Yuyan didn’t keep her cold face like before. Instead, she smiled slightly and said, “How could I forget Brother Li? You’re right, if we’re getting rich, then everyone together!”

Li Yao was secretly delighted inside upon hearing this: This kid is still as easy to fool as before!

He was just about to wait for Song Yuyan to obediently hand over the money to honor him when he heard Song Yuyan say, “I’ll pass on the skill of weaving baskets to Brother Li, and then Brother Li can go find bamboo himself to weave bamboo baskets.”

Li Yao’s expression stiffened. He asked uncertainly, “What did you say?”

Song Yuyan repeated her words. Only then did Li Yao’s face turn cold. “Are you messing with me?!”

“Messing with Brother Li? No! I’m just a craftsman who lives by weaving mats and baskets. These skills are the tools for getting rich. Now I’m teaching these skills to Brother Li so he can get rich together with me. How can Brother Li say I’m messing with you?”

Li Yao couldn’t tell if she was playing dumb or really dumb. But with his petty mind, he thought she was doing it on purpose. His lungs nearly exploded with anger, and he immediately tore off the mask. “Who wants to learn that crap! Have you forgotten how well I treated you before? Now that you’ve made money, you’ve forgotten my kindness?”

Song Yuyan was slightly stunned, then fell silent. She hadn’t expected this person’s thinking to be so bizarre—he actually thought the things he did to the original host were a kindness to her?

She laughed ha-ha again and soothed, “Brother Li, don’t be angry.”

“Of course I remember Brother Li’s kindness. Take the thing from five years ago. That time, Brother Li told me to steal a passerby’s money pouch, but I hadn’t done that kind of thing before and was scared inside, so I got caught before succeeding and got beaten badly. If Brother Li hadn’t come out in time to speak for me, I might have been beaten to death.”

Li Yao: “…”

Though what Song Yuyan said was the truth, and she even looked very grateful, why did he feel there was something in her words?

The neighbors who had overheard everything whispered secretly to their husbands over their own walls. “Clearly he instigated Song Dalang to steal things, and after getting caught, he hypocritically came out to speak for Song Dalang. This is treating Song Dalang like a fool!”

Song Yuyan recalled again, “And four years ago, Brother Li told me that my uncle treated me badly, and you were angry about it. To get revenge for me on my uncle, you had me steal a chicken, then we went outside the city to roast it.

After the chicken was roasted, Brother Li gave me a chicken head and said that a real man is ‘better to eat the chicken head than the chicken leg.’ This was a treatment no one else got! Brother Li treated me so well, how could I forget?”

The neighbor aunt cursed angrily, “A whole chicken, and it was their own chicken, but only giving a chicken head. Only someone as foolish as Song Dalang would take that false affection as real. Bah!”

She had thought before that Song Dalang really did all those chicken-stealing and dog-touching things. Turns out she had been tricked.

The neighbor aunt’s spit wasn’t quiet at all. Li Yao heard it and naturally understood that Song Yuyan was outwardly recalling his “kindness,” but actually digging up his old dirt and exposing his shady deeds.

His face turned pig-liver colored with anger. “Shut up, don’t say anymore!”

Song Yuyan still had that calm and amiable look. “What’s wrong with Brother Li? Could it be that I said too much about Brother Li’s kindness to me, and you feel embarrassed? Brother Li doesn’t need to feel embarrassed. Since it’s things you’ve done yourself, even if everyone knows, there’s nothing to be ashamed of!”

Li Yao was provoked and wanted to hit someone. Suddenly, a shoulder pole blocked in front of him. He turned his head and saw a little girl cursing fiercely, “What’s that? Want to hit someone?”

Song Yuyan only then noticed that this little girl had run home at some point and brought out a shoulder pole. Her heart warmed a bit. At times like this, only a righteous little girl would stand up to protect her.

_____

From the conversation between Li Yao and Song Yuyan, Tang Zhi figured it out. It turned out this troublemaker had instigated Song Dalang to do those bad things. Though she didn’t know if Song Dalang really did them, associating with such a person would naturally make others see Song Dalang as the same kind.

That was why she had heard rumors that Song Dalang stole passersby’s money pouches. So every time she saw her wandering the streets before, she thought she was planning to pickpocket again…

As for whether Song Dalang really did those things? Tang Zhi didn’t know, and she didn’t want to chase after past matters anymore. She only knew that the current Song Yuyan hadn’t done those things, and that was enough.

Moreover, Song Yuyan had finally worked hard to change the neighbors’ impression of her. Tang Zhi absolutely wouldn’t let a bastard like Li Yao jump out again and drag Song Yuyan back into the abyss!

So she quickly ran home to get a weapon to drive him away. She wanted to take a knife at first, but she wasn’t that bold, so she just grabbed the handy shoulder pole.

“Hey, where did this stinky girl come from? I’m talking to Song Yuyan, what’s it got to do with you?” Li Yao glared at Tang Zhi.

“Li Yao, who are you calling a stinky girl? You can use me as a pawn to manipulate, but don’t think about bullying my family and friends in front of me.” Song Yuyan’s smile faded, and her eyes stared coldly at Li Yao as she warned.

A shoulder pole, Li Yao wouldn’t take it seriously. And he really didn’t believe that if he moved against Song Yuyan, this person would come after him for it!

Just as he grabbed Tang Zhi’s shoulder pole, planning to push her away, he was caught by Clerk Tang who was returning from his shift. “What are you doing? Who are you?”

Li Yao saw the clothes on him and shivered at once. He withdrew his hand and said, “Nothing, I came to catch up with an old friend.”

Clerk Tang strode forward, glanced at Tang Zhi and Song Yuyan—neither spoke. Then he turned to Li Yao. “Catching up by laying hands on my sister? Want to go to the yamen and talk it over?”

Li Yao jumped in fright. He felt lingering fear too—if he had just moved against this stinky girl, he probably would have been in real trouble. He quickly shook his head. “No need, it’s getting late, so I’ll take my leave first.”

After saying that, he slipped away in a hurry. Before leaving, he gave Song Yuyan a sinister look, as if he wouldn’t rest until he stripped her bones.

After he left, Clerk Tang frowned and asked Tang Zhi, “A-Zhi, are you okay?”

“I’m fine, he didn’t dare to do anything.” Tang Zhi shook her head.

Only then did Clerk Tang ask Song Yuyan, “What happened? Weren’t you going to the flower market? How did you run into this kind of person?”

Tang Zhi cut in first. “We didn’t provoke anyone. He came looking for us. And from the looks of it, he’d been waiting in front of the Song house for half a day!”

Tang Zhi had figured it out. This Li Yao hadn’t shown his face for a year before, and now he appeared, clearly because Song Yuyan’s life was getting better and better. He heard the rumors, so he came with the idea of shaking her down. If he wasn’t here to shake her down, he wouldn’t have waited outside so long knowing the Song house was empty.

Tang Haogen also remembered that only right after Song Yuyan quit the thug life, some ruffians came to the Song house. But when they saw the Song house was dirt poor and she didn’t want to associate with them anymore, they never showed up at the Song house again.

It had been almost a year, and Li Yao suddenly appeared. If no one had mentioned Song Yuyan in front of him, how could he still remember this little person he hadn’t dealt with in two or three years!

Song Yuyan thought for a bit. Normally, she only earned about 1,600 to 1,700 cash a month. Though it was a bit higher than an ordinary worker, it wasn’t particularly rich, not enough to make her Li Yao’s target. Unless during that time she made a small sum that made people jealous, so someone told Li Yao.

Soon, she got a clue. “Probably because I sold a lot of lanterns during the Lantern Festival, and many street ruffians know me, so they thought I made a good amount. As the rumors spread, it reached Li Yao’s ears!”

But Tang Zhi felt it wasn’t that simple. Li Yao hadn’t appeared much in the last two years, clearly not active around Cixi County. The local ruffians only roamed nearby—how could the news spread so fast to Li Yao’s side!

What’s more, the local ruffians all knew Song Yuyan associated with the clerk and had a business partnership with Lin Yongming. Though Lin Yongming was just a middleman, in his line of trade, if he didn’t know many people, it would be hard to do business. So with Lin Yongming’s connection, which ruffian would mess with Song Yuyan?

Knowing Song Yuyan was different from before and not easy to touch, but still inciting Li Yao to come—this wasn’t hoping for Li Yao to return defeated? The local ruffians probably didn’t have the guts for that.

So Tang Zhi conspiratorially thought that someone must be deliberately targeting Song Yuyan, using Li Yao, who didn’t know the Song family’s situation, to cause her trouble.

On this, Song Yuyan just laughed ha-ha and said, “I’ll be careful. And I’ll ask Uncle Lin to help inquire about the news, to see what exactly is going on with this Li Yao. So Lady Tang doesn’t need to worry about me.”

Tang Zhi rolled her eyes at her. Was this person so optimistic that she was a bit simple-minded?!

_____

Though Li Yao’s appearance ruined the good mood from going out to play, Song Yuyan’s mood wasn’t affected. Tang Zhi was too lazy to care about this person’s matters anymore and went home wordlessly with the shoulder pole.

Seeing his sister go home, Tang Haogen pulled Song Yuyan aside and muttered, “How was the flower market today?”

“Hmm, the flower market was very lively. I saw Lady Tang seemed pretty happy too.” Song Yuyan said.

Tang Haogen let out a breath of relief. “As long as you had fun…”

Suddenly, he came back to his senses. The purpose of having Song Yuyan invite his sister to the flower market wasn’t that at all!

Song Yuyan had just “betrayed” Tang Haogen to Lady Tang today, so she was especially afraid of him prying now. She quickly changed the subject. “Why did Clerk Tang come back so early today?”

Tang Haogen said somewhat helplessly, “The county magistrate heard the prefect was going out for a spring outing, so he changed out of his official robes to accompany him. Since we weren’t needed, I finished the official business at the yamen and came back early.”

The implication was that the county magistrate was busy flattering the newly arrived prefect, so Tang Haogen was “lucky” to get off work early.

Song Yuyan didn’t have much feeling about this Cixi county magistrate. After all, during his term, he hadn’t done anything to harm the country or the people. But that was it—a magistrate with no outstanding achievements but no faults could only be called mediocre.

From the original host’s memories, this county magistrate was just grinding out seniority here. After all, his predecessor had been county magistrate for only two years before promotion, while he would stay the full three years before transfer.

But compared to this mediocre county magistrate, Song Yuyan felt the world’s evaluation of the new prefect seemed even more mixed. Because last year’s court-set alcohol tax quota made many small wine sellers who relied on brewing unable to continue and had to seek livelihood in the city.

With more people in the city, naturally there were more thefts from homes, leading to worse public security. People were afraid of being robbed on the streets at night.

But despite that, it didn’t catch the new prefect’s attention. After all, catching thieves was the duty of the patrol inspectors, and he was eager to make achievements. Soon after taking office, he gathered civilian laborers to dredge the river channels.

Dredging the river channels to provide irrigation convenience for farmland was originally a beneficial act for the people. But the problem was he didn’t issue the order during the slack farming season, but forced conscription during the busy season, which caused dissatisfaction among many commoners.

Plus, after entering autumn, typhoon weather was more frequent than in previous years, with rain every day, causing river waters to overflow and Mingzhou to suffer severe disaster.

One thing after another, what started as a small disruptive force slowly became a civil unrest that gave the yamen endless headaches. And the new prefect was indecisive on this matter, delaying a firm decision to suppress the unrest. So with this delay, the matter reached the court’s ears.

In his second year in office, he was transferred away by the court, and a new prefect was sent to suppress the civil unrest.

Song Yuyan didn’t need to recall what came next, after all, the original host was part of what was suppressed.

Though in the original host’s memories, Tang Haogen wasn’t implicated by the superior’s change, Song Yuyan still wanted to give him a subtle heads-up in advance.

After the two finished talking, Tang Haogen completely forgot to chase after Song Yuyan and his sister’s progress. The Tang family had already prepared dinner, and Tang Zhi called him from the door to come home and eat. Only then did he hurry home.

But at the door, he turned back again, quite embarrassed, and asked Song Yuyan, “That… Song Dalang, have you been carving bamboo lately?”

Song Yuyan said, “I have been, but there aren’t many finished products.”

In the past half year, Song Yuyan had to weave mats and bamboo baskets every day, teach two little radish heads to read and recognize characters, and grasp Tang Ye’s basics in calligraphy and painting, so her efficiency in practicing bamboo carving was halved.

The pieces she carved as practice were all taken away as treasures by the scholars during the elegant gatherings. And lately, she was carving a poetry tube, but it wasn’t finished yet.

A poetry tube was actually similar to a brush holder, both carved and polished from bamboo tubes. But the poetry tube’s main use was to store poems written by literati, and it could be sealed, then given to a courier for delivery.

Originally, Song Yuyan hadn’t thought of carving a poetry tube. But last year, after Du Yan arrived in Kaifeng, he wrote to report he was safe, and stuffed the letter into a bamboo tube, saying this bamboo tube was carefully selected by him.

Though he didn’t say it outright, Song Yuyan still read a different meaning in the letter—this bamboo tube is selected to the standard for engraving yang relief carving. Look at how smooth its skin is. Don’t you want to do something to it?

Song Yuyan: “…”

So she carved a piece on that poetry tube, but not a famous painting, rather a landscape map she drew herself.

After she used this poetry tube to pack the letter replying to Du Yan, it became their tool for passing messages.

And during the first month, after Du Yan finished the provincial exam and was waiting for the results, he wrote her another letter, saying her poetry tube was very popular among the candidates taking the exam in Kaifeng, so this was a good money-making opportunity. If convenient, she could mail a few poetry tubes up…

Song Yuyan understood after a bit of thought. In the Tang dynasty, the poetry tube was a tool for poets to pass their poems to each other, and also a symbol of purity, so poets valued poetry tubes highly.

Though the Tang dynasty had long sunk into the river of history, its cultural customs still survived and were passed down, so the poetry tube hadn’t gone out of style.

Song Yuyan understood that Du Yan naturally wouldn’t really sell the poetry tubes she carved. He was probably buying them with his own money to give to friends.

But Song Yuyan didn’t expose him. She thought, since Du Yan wrote to mention this, and she could make money anyway, why not give it a try?

Tang Haogen didn’t know these ins and outs. He only heard Song Yuyan say she was still carving, and his face lit up with joy. He said, “Then… can you help me carve one? Whether arm rest, brush holder, brush rack, paperweight, anything is fine.”

Song Yuyan felt something was off and asked, “I can, but what do you plan to use it for?”

Only then did Tang Haogen show a trace of worry. “To be honest, your bamboo carvings are so novel. I took one to the yamen every day because I liked it so much. Unfortunately, the county magistrate saw it. He was worrying about having no good gift for the new Prefect Liu after he takes office, so he took my brush holder…”

Song Yuyan was slightly stunned. “Giving a brush holder to a superior?”

“Prefect Liu is upright and honest. He even refused the welcome banquet the subordinates proposed to hold for him. So the county magistrate thinks he won’t accept bribes. He inquired that Prefect Liu likes elegant things, and saw the carving on my brush holder was indeed exquisite and refined, fitting Prefect Liu’s tastes, so he took it.”

Tang Haogen added, “But he thinks just one brush holder is too meager and wants to gather more stationery items. Of course, he won’t take them for free; he’ll pay the money.”

Song Yuyan wasn’t happy that her work had caught an official’s eye. On the contrary, learning her work was being used to bribe a superior and flatter, she felt a bit unhappy inside. At the same time, there was a trace of uncertainty in her heart about what changes this would bring to her life.

But she had no better choice. Because if Tang Haogen couldn’t meet that county magistrate’s request, though the other wouldn’t make things hard for him, his days wouldn’t be better than before.

So she said, “If you want to make a set, I can help carve an arm rest and a paperweight. As for brush racks and brush rests, if you want more elegant shapes, they usually don’t use yang relief carving techniques, so putting them together wouldn’t match well.”

Tang Haogen happily said, “That’ll be enough!”

After taking this order, Song Yuyan had more pieces to carve, so she had to set aside the poetry tube carving first and carve the arm rest and paperweight for Tang Haogen. Luckily, Du Yan knew carving a fine piece took several months, so he didn’t urge her at all.

____

At the end of the month, Lin Yongming came to collect the goods. He noticed the bamboo woven products this month seemed a bit few, so he asked Song Yuyan if she had run into some difficulty.

Song Yuyan didn’t say it was because she needed to spend more time on yang relief carvings. And she still remembered the Li Yao incident, so she told Lin Yongming what happened that day and conveniently inquired about Li Yao’s whereabouts.

After hearing her words, Lin Yongming naturally thought Li Yao’s appearance had disrupted her rhythm, so she hadn’t put much thought into bamboo weaving lately. He patted his chest and guaranteed, “This person sounds a bit familiar. I’ll definitely help you ask clearly about his recent movements and why he’s tangled up with you.”

Handing this matter to Lin Yongming, Song Yuyan felt at ease. But she didn’t hide it from Song Bing and Aunt Fierce either. They treated the Song family’s three siblings like their own children, so if Song Yuyan didn’t tell them and they learned from Lin Yongming later, with Aunt Fierce’s personality, Song Yuyan felt she’d definitely get a scolding from her.

In the end, Song Yuyan miscalculated. Because even after she proactively told them, she still couldn’t avoid Aunt Fierce’s scolding…

“I told you before to stay away from those shady people. Those are all ruffians and rogues. If they were that easy to deal with, they wouldn’t be called rogues!” Aunt Fierce criticized Song Yuyan without holding back.

Song Yuyan could only put on a look of humbly accepting the lesson. With her acting this obedient, Song Bing couldn’t stand by and quickly pulled his wife away, lest she scold too harshly and hurt the child’s self-esteem.

But though Aunt Fierce scolded, afterward she still called someone to help the Song family build the courtyard wall a bit higher.

The Song family’s wall, including most houses in this alley, was enclosed with mud bricks made from very sticky clay, often only as high as a person’s neck. So neighbors could easily see into each other’s homes.

And making them so low was first because of cost, second to build good relations with neighbors. If the wall was built too high, neighbors would think the person was hiding things and not letting people know, so they naturally wouldn’t feel close.

Aunt Fierce didn’t care about that. She worried Li Yao might climb the wall at night to steal things from the Song house or harm the three Song siblings, so the wall had to be built higher. Plus, it only needed two more layers of mud bricks on the existing base, so the cost wasn’t much and within her means.

Song Yuyan was moved to tears welling up in her eyes. This was the first time she had teared up since crossing over. But before she could cry out, Aunt Fierce saw it and scolded her again. “A real man sheds no tears unless his head is broken. Put those tears back, don’t let people see and make a joke.”

Song Yuyan: “…”

Why did she feel Aunt Fierce’s scolding voice was actually quite pleasant? Did she have a tendency for masochism?