The System Wanted Me to Be a Landlady (GL) - Chapter 47: The Fine Horse Arrives

Chapter 47: The Fine Horse Arrives

Liu Chuo truly had not expected that his momentary impulse would draw speculation from all sides. Even the Mingzhou circuit vice prefect could not help but feel curious and came to ask him about it. He immediately felt a mix of amusement and exasperation as he took out those three pieces of inlaid green bamboo carving and explained the whole story behind the matter.

The vice prefect also felt speechless. However, after seeing those three items, he finally understood why someone impersonating “Lu Fang” had sent inlaid green carvings that Liu Chuo could recognize at a glance—even he himself could spot them right away. Those three pieces differed from ordinary inlaid green carvings as if they were two entirely different kinds of artwork.

The vice prefect did not care about his reputation as much as Liu Chuo did. With curiosity in his heart, he went straight to find Magistrate Pang. Magistrate Pang then summoned Tang Haogen. After all these twists and turns, Liu Chuo finally learned that the craftsman was just a young man of only sixteen years old.

Originally, he had thought that the person who could carve such works must be an adult with outstanding literary talent, knowledge of painting and calligraphy, and unique insights into literature and art. But then someone suddenly told him that this was a carving done by a young man whose both parents had passed away and who usually made a living only by weaving bamboo. At that point, he developed a great interest in this young man.

He sent someone to find Song Yuyan. However, the person who returned only brought back four armrests and said, “That young man is waiting outside the door. He says it would be better to let the official first look over these four armrests before deciding whether to see him.”

Liu Chuo did not get angry at Song Yuyan’s lack of tact. Instead, he eagerly began examining those four armrests.

The first armrest bore a carved picture titled “Feng Zhaotai Captures the Traitor and Subdues the Rebel.”

Everyone else looked at it in confusion, but Liu Chuo, as a proper official who had passed the jinshi examination, had read quite a few books in preparation for the imperial exams, especially familiar with the classics. So he quickly figured out what this picture meant.

Feng Zhaotai was a Tang dynasty governor known for rectifying local officialdom. Whenever he took up a post as governor in a prefecture, he would surely punish the corrupt practices of those cunning clerks to prevent the common people from suffering their oppression.

Although his aim was to benefit the people, he still offended the clerks as a result. Out of his ten transfers, five times he faced false accusations from his subordinates and suffered demotion by the court.

Liu Chuo’s brows furrowed. The Zhou dynasty had witnessed the excessive power of clerks in the Tang dynasty leading to corruption, so it repeatedly lowered the status of clerks. Thus, in these times, it was relatively hard for clerk corruption or framing of governors to occur. So perhaps this picture did not refer to clerks.

He then looked at the second armrest. It depicted an event from the early Zhou dynasty, telling of a powerful figure named Ma Ximeng in Linzi, Qingzhou. He was a major landlord owning hundreds of qing of fields and was extremely arrogant and domineering. He specialized in finding leverage over local officials and then used that leverage to force the government to cooperate with him.

The third and fourth armrests also bore similar stories.

Even if Liu Chuo were the dullest person, he could see what these stories on the armrests meant. He thought that if the other party was not deliberately satirizing him, then it must be to remind him of something.

But remind him of what?

One moment it was about clerks, the next about landlord tyrants. He soon realized as well that his recent policies had precisely offended the interests of those powerful and wealthy families.

Yet he had always believed that he was the prefect sent by the court to govern this one prefecture. If he moved against the landlords and tyrants to curb their land annexation, what could those landlords do to him?

At this thought, he felt somewhat unhappy, and his fondness for this young man called Lu Fang also faded a bit. So he gave some money and had the young man sent away.

____

Song Yuyan was not surprised that she had made a wasted trip. If this new prefect were easy to persuade, he would not have been so hasty in gathering common laborers to dredge the river channels. She believed there must be plenty of eyes and ears from the landlord tyrants in this yamen. Those people surely had advised him as well, but he still insisted on his own way.

However, he was also a good parent official, with his own ideas on major matters. Perhaps one day he would change his mind.

Not long after Song Yuyan returned home, Manager Lou came to visit again. This time, as soon as he entered the door, he wore a beaming smile. “Song Dalang, you have really made it hard for me to find you this time!”

Song Yuyan pretended not to know and asked, “Doesn’t Manager Lou already know where I live? How could it be hard to find?”

Manager Lou did not realize she was feigning ignorance, so he said, “Ahem, I mean you hid the fact that you are ‘Lu Fang’ so deeply.”

Manager Lou laughed it off. “Manager Lou is joking. Lu Fang is my courtesy name, and since I have not yet come of age, I basically do not use this courtesy name. So how could there be any hiding from Manager Lou?”

Manager Lou was left speechless. However, the purpose of his visit was not really to blame Song Yuyan. Rather, the commotion in the prefectural yamen had not only reached the ears of the craftsmen in the bamboo carving trade but also spread to the landlord tyrants and wealthy households in Mingzhou.

Although these people feared no one when they acted boldly, they did not want to provoke the new prefect right from the start. So they schemed to “first befriend him” and prepared to seek out bamboo carvings by “Lu Fang” as gifts for the new prefect.

Originally, this matter had little to do with the Lou family. After all, the Lou family had not encroached on Guangde Lake or East Qian Lake to reclaim fields, nor were they within the scope of the new prefect’s current rectification. However, Lou Gao’s father, Lou Hao, worked as a recorder in the yamen, and the matter of seeking Lu Fang had involved him somewhat. Unable to find the person himself, he could only have his son inquire.

Lou Gao had inquired for a long time before finally learning of Tang Haogen through Magistrate Pang, and then of Song Yuyan through Tang Haogen.

Lou Gao felt the name sounded familiar. After racking his brains, he suddenly recalled that this was the person who had previously produced exquisite bamboo weaving and stirred up a small new trend in the food industry!

So he had Manager Lou come over again.

However, this time Song Yuyan had no intention of cooperating with anyone. After hearing Manager Lou’s purpose, she said, “Manager Lou, these bamboo carvings were just something I carved for fun in my spare time. I never planned to put them in the shop to sell, so I am afraid I have made you come here in vain.”

Manager Lou could naturally tell that she spoke from the heart and was not putting on airs. He grew anxious as well. Did this kid even know that this was a great opportunity to make a name for himself and then rake in a fortune?!

But no matter how he tried to persuade her or how much saliva he spent, Song Yuyan’s attitude remained unchanged. Manager Lou could only turn around and try to buy inlaid green bamboo carvings from her.

Song Yuyan said, “The previous inlaid green carvings are all in Prefect Liu’s hands. Right now, I spend most of my time on bamboo weaving, so I really do not have any new inlaid green carvings to offer.”

Manager Lou’s little scheme had also fallen through. He could only leave in regret.

However, he felt that Song Yuyan had rejected his extended olive branches time and again, which was very disrespectful to him. So after returning, he planned to follow the trend set by Song Yuyan and have the craftsmen under him carve similar inlaid green pieces.

Yet he also knew clearly that since he had failed to buy bamboo carvings from Song Yuyan, unless he could obtain the inlaid green bamboo carvings from Prefect Liu’s hands to study, the craftsmen below could not possibly imitate Song Yuyan’s level and style of carving.

So he went to urge Lou Hao again, asking Lou Hao to borrow Prefect Liu’s bamboo carvings for a close look.

After Lou Gao learned of his little maneuvers, he became very angry and called him over for a scolding. “We are in the business of buying and selling. If the other side is unwilling to sell, you try all sorts of ways to force them to yield. Is this not strong-buying and strong-selling, no different from bandits? And do you even know what kind of person this Song Yuyan is? If you truly push him to desperation, the Song family will surely stand against our Lou family!”

Manager Lou felt somewhat wronged and unconvinced in his heart. “Isn’t he just a collateral branch of the Song clan…”

Lou Gao slammed the table heavily. The writing implements on the desk all trembled, and even Manager Lou’s body shook a little.

“He is indeed a collateral branch of the Song clan and was once an orphan without parents or protection, a street ruffian with no one to shelter him. However, have you not inquired about how many people he associates with after his turnaround as a prodigal son! Leaving aside the Song family, consider the county registrar of Cixi County, the scholars of Mingzhou, and Du Yan, who placed fourth in this year’s jinshi exams and now serves as an official in Yangzhou. Which of these can be slighted lightly?”

Although Lou Gao had no great scholarly talent, he knew clearly that the future potential of a scholar was immeasurable. Even if one failed to achieve fame in the exams, that brush could write the living into the dead or the dead into the living!

Moreover, if the Lou family wanted a good reputation, how could it do without these literati promoting it for them? So offending Song Yuyan—even if Song Yuyan lacked the power to challenge the Lou family—would absolutely not be a good thing for the Lou family.

As for Manager Lou, he was after all one of the Lou family. Although he had been manager for a long time and had grown arrogant, Lou Gao did not want to give up easily either.

After deep consideration, Lou Gao decided to transfer Manager Lou away from Cixi County and have him return to Fenghua County, keeping him under his own watchful eye. As for himself, he went personally to the Song household to meet this young man in person.

_____

After the arrival of summer, heavy rains occurred frequently in Mingzhou. Song Yuyan worried that the frequent typhoon weather would tear off the roof of her home, so she took out some money. First, she had the roof of the house repaired once over. Then she planned to rebuild a room on the site of the collapsed west wing room.

However, rebuilding a room would cost quite a bit of money. For a cheap thatched house, she worried it would not withstand the test of typhoons. For an expensive tiled house, she worried her own purse would not withstand the test.

Just as she pondered whether she should seek out another path to make money, Lou Gao appeared in this alley of Xingxian Ward.

He arrived driving a carriage, and although Xingxian Ward had quite a few wealthy families, households owning carriages were rare. So his high-profile arrival immediately drew the attention of the neighbors and passersby.

Some children who had been playing with bamboo hobby horses lost interest in them upon seeing a real horse and all ran over to the carriage, looking at that black steed and letting out envious cries.

“Hey, Ye’er, look! That’s a carriage!”

Ye’er was returning from school with children around ten years old from the same alley when he saw the carriage stopped at the alley mouth. So that child pulled at him and called out.

Ye’er’s steps paused, and he glanced at the carriage too. A bit of envy stirred in his heart. A fine horse—that was a man’s romance. These were Song Yuyan’s words. At the time, she had taken him to register at Qi Ru’s private school and then saw the carriages of those rich second-generation students at the county school gate. So she had sighed, “No matter what era it is, a fine horse is a man’s romance! Of course, it is also a woman’s romance.”

Although he did not understand what those words meant, it did not stop Ye’er from committing them to memory. Now, seeing these neighbors, passersby, and children all casting envious gazes, he seemed to understand the meaning of those words in an instant.

“We always see them at the county school, so what’s so strange about that?” Ye’er withdrew his gaze, feeling somewhat impatient to get home. He wanted to go home and earn money, then grow up and buy a horse. He wanted to own a fine horse too!

“But for one to appear here in our alley is quite strange.” As the child said this, he ran forward to join the excitement.

The carriage driver seemed to be inquiring about something. The child heard a familiar name and excitedly waved at Ye’er. “Ye’er, it sounds like they are looking for your family!”

The curtain beside the carriage lifted, and a man stuck out his head, looking toward the child and asking, “Do you know where the Song family is?”

“Ye’er is from the Song family. He can take you there!” The child, upon seeing him, was no longer as bold as before. Instead, he shrank back a little before saying this in a small voice.

The man nodded and got down from the carriage. He came before Ye’er, sized him up, and asked, “Are you the younger brother of Song Dalang?”

Ye’er looked at him warily and said, “I am.”

“I am looking for your elder brother. Why don’t you show me the way? You can ride in the carriage with me, and we can go in together.”

Ye’er ran off at once. “Big Brother says I cannot go off with strangers casually. If you want to find Big Brother, follow me. I am not getting in your carriage!”

The middle-aged man—that is, Lou Gao—saw Ye’er’s clever and vigilant manner and felt stunned. While all the other children crowded around the carriage, only he still stood on the periphery. And when he invited him to ride in the carriage, he refused. If it had been another child, they certainly would not have thought about “not going off with strangers.”

Because of this, he grew even more interested in the “big brother” that Ye’er mentioned. So he had the driver wait outside and followed Ye’er to the Song home himself, bringing along one servant.

Ye’er ran very fast. As soon as he crossed the threshold, he called out, “Big Brother, the fine horse has come.”

Song Yuyan: “?”

Bai Can inside the house also heard this in confusion but understood that the Song family had guests coming again.

He thought to himself that befriending Song Yuyan back then had truly been the right choice. Had he not seen that every time he came to find Song Yuyan, he basically ran into other friends of Song Yuyan visiting?!

However, the reason for his visit this time was actually still about raising white lacquer insects.

Although earlier he had wanted to raise white lacquer insects but shelved the plan because the conditions were not met, Song Yuyan had also given him a pointer: besides the white lacquer tree, the privet was also suitable for raising white lacquer insects. Compared to the white lacquer tree, privet was more common in Mingzhou.

If he transplanted privet and white lacquer trees to make a plantation garden, it would not only increase costs but also take time, and they did not have so much time and money to waste. So it was better to scout a piece of mountain forest with more privet and then find a way to rent it.

There was another problem as well: white lacquer insects, when parasitizing on trees before laying eggs and before the larvae secrete white wax, were very hard to spot. So it was not easy for him to find white lacquer insects to raise.

Thus, over this nearly one year, he had been paying attention to which wooded areas had more privet or white lacquer trees growing. Additionally, he had planted a few privet trees in the open spaces around his home. Whenever he found white lacquer insects in the wild, he would carefully bring them back to parasitize on the privet trees at home.

His family members had also noticed his odd behavior, so he had no choice but to tell them helplessly that these white lacquer insects could make money. After much effort to reassure his family, he found that many white lacquer insects still died before secreting wax. So the people of the Bai family no longer quite believed that what he said was true.

Song Yuyan knew that starting an aquaculture business required a huge capital investment at the beginning and would not succeed one hundred percent. If she had sufficient funds, she could help Bai Can and figure out a systematic breeding method. Unfortunately, both the Song and Bai families were poor households.

When Ye’er returned, the two had only chatted halfway through.

Song Yuyan asked Ye’er, “Who is the fine horse?”

Ye’er naturally could not say. Meanwhile, Lou Gao’s servant stepped forward from outside and explained the purpose of the visit. Bai Can had heard of Lou Gao’s reputation and knew that he was probably seeking Song Yuyan for some important matter. Compared to that, his own affair was not worth mentioning, so he offered to take his leave.

Song Yuyan said, “All things follow the order of arrival. I was entertaining you first—how can I let you leave just because he has come?”

Bai Can said, “That is the second young master of the Lou family. I worry you will slight him and bring trouble on yourself.”

“If he is an arrogant person, then I would have offended him long ago. You sit for a short while first. I will go and return soon.”

Only then did Bai Can sit down uneasily. When Lou Gao entered the courtyard gate, he saw that the clothes on Lou Gao’s body were all made from materials from the famous Jinzan brocade shop. In his heart, he sighed that the Bai family did not know how many generations of struggle it would take to achieve such wealth.

After Lou Gao entered, he looked around to both sides and felt that this house was really very simple and crude. Compared to the Lou family’s pavilions and terraces, of course it could not catch the eye. But he felt no arrogance in his heart that would lead him to look down on Song Yuyan because of it.

Song Yuyan had explained to him that there was a guest at home, so he needed to wait a moment. He magnanimously expressed understanding. When he saw that the guest Song Yuyan mentioned was just an utterly ordinary commoner, he felt slightly surprised. Suddenly he recalled the stories that his wife Madam Zhu often told the children, such as how “Lord Mengchang recruited guests from various vassal states without regard to status, treating them all with courtesy,” or how Confucius accepted disciples, practicing “teaching without class distinctions”…

Although he could not voice any words of depth, he had just one thought—Song Yuyan’s character was very good.

At this thought, he could not help but feel curious. When she had been a local ruffian before, her character could be called despicable, a disgrace to scholars. Yet why had there been such a great change all of a sudden?

As he let his thoughts wander and indulged in fancies, some voices of conversation entered his ears. He only caught words like “white lacquer insects” and “white lacquer tree,” and he instantly snapped back to attention, focusing fully on “eavesdropping.”

Song Yuyan quietly glanced at him and saw that he had finally taken an interest in the matter. The corner of her mouth hooked up imperceptibly: an investor had been found.

System: “Earlier you even told Miss Tang that you had no head for business. Turns out you are a natural-born schemer.”