To Be the Male Lead's Deceased First Wife in a Historical Chinese Exam-focused Novel - Chapter 24.2

Chapter 24.2: “The First Pot of Gold”

Just by touching it, the fabric of the money bag was already very smooth. It was embroidered with a beautiful lotus pattern. Although Yan An didn’t know much about embroidery, she could still tell the quality.

“This is the money bag that person threw at me,” Yan An explained. She opened the money bag, and with just one glance, Yan An’s expression froze.

“What’s wrong?” Wen Ying didn’t look at the money bag. Seeing Yan An’s reaction, she just pursed her lips and asked calmly.

Yan An looked at her, then, not knowing how to explain, she directly dumped the contents of the money bag onto the table.

With a series of clicks and clacks, a few gold leaves, a pile of silver fragments, and a silver note were completely revealed.

Wen Ying looked at the pile of things, her brows furrowed and her lips pursed. Her eyes were clouded, and she didn’t look happy at all.

It was hard for Yan An to be happy, too. She had thought there would be at most a few liang of silver inside. Who knew there would not only be seven or eight liang of silver fragments, but also gold!

She reached for the silver note and unfolded it. It said one hundred liang.

Yan An: “…”

The total value of this money bag was probably over one hundred and thirty liang.

“Is the county magistrate’s family that rich?” Yan An couldn’t help but ask. Did the county magistrate’s daughter just carry such a huge sum of money when she went out?

However, Wen Ying didn’t answer her. She just lowered her eyes and stared at the table, not knowing what she was thinking.

“Should we… should we really accept this?” Yan An felt a little uneasy. If it were just a few liang, she would have accepted it without hesitation. After all, that person had said it was a reward. But over a hundred liang felt like more money than she and Wen Ying combined were worth.

“It’s up to you,” Wen Ying said flatly.

Hearing her voice, Yan An looked at her strangely. “What’s wrong? You’re acting a little weird.”

Wen Ying: “…”

“If you want to accept it, then accept it. They don’t need this little bit of money from you anyway,” she said, and then got up and walked out.

Yan An looked at her back, feeling confused. She had no idea what Wen Ying was doing. But after a second thought, she instantly understood.

“She’s the female lead after all, and a female lead with such a tenacious spirit. She’s naturally poor but not without ambition. When faced with such a sudden fortune, she probably feels that it’s something that will affect her character.”

Yan An stared at the money on the table for a long time. She then remembered the idea she had when she and Wen Ying were eating noodles. At that time, she thought it would be hard to put into practice without enough money, but now the money problem was solved. It was up to her to choose what to do.

She took a deep breath, put the things on the table back into the money bag, and put it under her pillow. Only then did she go out to find Wen Ying. The first thing she said was:

“Wen Ying, I want to keep the money.”

Hearing her words, Wen Ying, who was feeding the chickens, turned to look at her.

Yan An pulled her over and began to tell her her thoughts.

“I want to open my own restaurant. What do you think?”

Wen Ying listened to Yan An’s idea and pursed her lips. She gradually became serious. Although she thought Yan An’s idea was very good, she still had to tell Yan An the truth.

“Right now, this over hundred liang might seem like a lot, but if you want to open a restaurant, you need to invest a lot in the beginning. I’m afraid there won’t be enough money to support it in the future.”

The rent for a shop in the city was expensive. A good location could cost a dozen or twenty guan a month. The minimum rent was three months in advance. The renovation would also be a huge expense. There would be no income for at least the first month. After that, the rent, labor, and purchasing costs would make over a hundred liang a bit tight.

Yan An listened to Wen Ying’s analysis. “…”

“Is the rent really that expensive?!” Yan An’s eyes widened. She hadn’t expected the rent to be several times the monthly income of people working in the city.

Wen Ying nodded helplessly. “If you want to buy, it’s impossible without three to five hundred liang.”

Yan An: “…”

“If you can, setting up a stall, like the noodle stall we ate at today, is the most cost-effective,” Wen Ying said.

But this would create another problem. While setting up a stall was feasible, they would have to move to the city. Otherwise, it would be too time-consuming to go back and forth.

But if they moved to the city, they would have to rent a house, and the rent would also be a huge expense. What’s more, everything they used in the city would have to be bought with money. They simply couldn’t afford it.

Yan An: “…”

“It’s so hard to get ahead in this world. No wonder so many people studied so hard.”

“We definitely can’t move to the city in the short term. After winter, Wen Ying will start learning characters with Yi Shuhua. How can she learn if we move to the city?”

“Then I’ll think of other ways,” Yan An said dejectedly.

“Mmm, I believe in you,” Wen Ying’s voice was soft, and she looked at Yan An gently.

Yan An sighed. “Believe in what? I don’t even believe in myself. It’s so hard to live a good life!”

But before that, she felt she should do something to give Wen Ying some confidence in her cooking.

“Next time you go to town, see if you can buy some pig stomachs and some other things,” Yan An said, listing a string of other seasonings.

Yan An had discovered long ago that after she told Wen Ying about some things, she could remember them quickly with few omissions. For example, when Yi Shuhua pointed at the characters and taught them, Yan An had forgotten many of them, but Wen Ying remembered them firmly. She could even write them on the ground with a stick from time to time.

Seeing this, Yan An felt that letting Wen Ying study for the imperial exams was such a correct choice. She herself had to see the characters to remember how to read them and it was hard to write them, but Wen Ying could write them perfectly, stroke by stroke.

Wen Ying rarely refused Yan An’s requests, but this time, after hearing her words, she frowned slightly. “Why buy pig stomachs?”

People rarely ate these pork offal, let alone scholars. They felt it had a strange smell.

“You’ll know when you buy them. I’m not telling you yet,” Yan An said, giving her a mysterious smile. She grinned happily.

She wanted to see if her cooking skills could win over the people of this world!

“Remember to buy a lot,” she added. “I’ll also invite Auntie Li’s family over, and if Yi Shuhua is willing, she can come too.”

Wen Ying was silent but finally nodded in agreement.

…

Yan An had her own plan. Although the restaurant couldn’t be opened yet, she didn’t plan to return the money bag. Instead, she planned to use the money to make more money and then return the money with interest.

“But now that we have so much money, shouldn’t we pay back some of the money we owe to the village head and the others?” Thinking of this, Yan An asked hesitantly.

Wen Ying had also thought of this. On the ox cart, she had heard the aunties chatting about someone being thrown a money bag by a young lady from a wealthy family at the city gate. It probably wouldn’t be long before the villagers found out that the person who got the money was Yan An.

Then everyone would know that she had money.

They didn’t not want to pay back the money, but according to Yan An’s idea of doing some work, she would need capital. If they used all the money to pay off the debt, their capital would be greatly reduced.

“We can pay off what we owe to Doctor Zhou first, and then give a part to the village head and the clan, telling them that it will take some time to pay it all off.”

If they had money and didn’t pay anything back, people would think they were of bad character and not worth associating with. But if they paid everything off at once, Yan An’s ideas would be limited. So they had to show people their attitude and make them feel at ease enough to give them more time.

Yan An agreed with her. But then she suddenly asked, “Is our family’s relationship with the clan not very good?”

Yan An thought back on everything that had happened recently. Aside from the clan members coming to see her when she first woke up, no one had come to visit since, except when they ran into them while working in the village.

“It might have been good before, but now…” She looked at Yan An. “It’s hard to say.”

If the Yan family’s relationship with the clan was not good, the two elders would have had a hard time borrowing twelve liang from the clan. And later, they even chipped in to bury the two elders.

But it was undeniable that the clan made this choice because Yan An was the only person in the entire Yan family who had achieved something in her studies. And because she was still young, she had many opportunities. Everyone was betting that she would pass the provincial exam and even participate in the spring imperial exam next year.

Unfortunately, all these hopes ended when Yan An fell into the water and woke up with a complete loss of memory. In the beginning, when Wen Ying ran into members of the Yan clan, they would still ask about Yan An’s memory. But now that they saw that Yan An had no intention of recovering, they gradually stopped asking.

In the eyes of the Yan clan, Yan An was probably a useless person.

Yan An fell silent, listening to Wen Ying’s words. No wonder the family’s life had been so difficult, and no one from the clan had helped them. Although she could understand their actions, she still felt a little bitter.

“So now they look down on me, is that it?” Yan An muttered, unhappy.

In the eyes of the clan, she could have relied on the imperial exams to get ahead and bring them with her. But now that she had lost her memory and didn’t remember her studies, she couldn’t do anything else. She couldn’t lift anything or carry anything, and had become a burden.

But what those people thought was not wrong. The original owner really didn’t know how to do anything other than study.

Wen Ying looked at her, feeling that her sulking expression was inexplicably a little endearing. She said softly, “Maybe they don’t look down on you. Maybe they just haven’t discovered how good you are yet.”

“Haha, you’re just comforting me,” Yan An said, giving her a speechless look. “Can’t I tell if they’re looking down on me?”

Wen Ying pursed her lips, and a gentle smile appeared in her eyes as she looked at Yan An.

Yan An immediately averted her gaze. After Wen Ying had eaten well and rested, her complexion looked better every day. But her face still felt a little thin. It might be because their diet was too bland, and there wasn’t much fat or protein.

“Hmm, I’ll have to find a way to earn more money and eat better in the future.”

Wen Ying’s eyes darkened a little as she watched Yan An avert her gaze. In the end, she forced herself to cheer up and said, “We bought a lot of flour today. How about we eat pancakes tonight?”

Wen Ying had realized that even though she had soaked the coarse rice beforehand and the texture had improved, Yan An still preferred noodles. So this time, when she was stocking up, she bought a lot of flour.

She also bought some white rice, which she could cook for Yan An separately in the future.

“Okay, okay!” Yan An quickly nodded. “I want to eat the kind of pancakes Auntie Li made!”

It was no wonder she loved eating noodles here. The completely natural flour was so fragrant, and Wen Ying could knead the dough until it was very chewy, which was exactly the texture Yan An liked.

“Okay.”

This time, Wen Ying used a lot of flour. She planned to make a few extra to give to Auntie Li’s family and return the white rice she had borrowed, to thank Auntie Li for taking care of her all this time.

Although Yan An’s cooking skills were good, it was mostly with dishes. She wasn’t as good as Wen Ying at making pancakes. So this time, Wen Ying was in charge.

Yan An sat on a small stool in the kitchen watching the fire. The aroma of the fried pancakes made her mouth water. The bowl of noodles she had for lunch seemed to have been digested so quickly. She wanted to eat something again!

Wen Ying saw her staring at the pan with a longing look, so she put the first fried pancake into a bowl and handed it to her.

“Be careful, it’s hot.”

“Ouch!”

As soon as she said that, Yan An was breathing out with her mouth open, and her eyes were so watery she looked like she was about to cry.

Wen Ying was in a panic. She quickly came over and bent down to check on her.

“Stick out your tongue and let me see.”

“Ouch, it hurts…” Yan An said indistinctly, sticking out the tip of her tongue.

Wen Ying checked the tip of her tongue and gently touched it with her fingertip. It was a little red, but thankfully, there were no blisters. She then turned around and brought Yan An a bowl of cold water, telling her to hold it in her mouth and not swallow or spit it out.

Yan An held the water in her mouth, but her expression was already a little dazed.

At the moment Wen Ying’s fingertip touched the tip of her tongue, Yan An was suddenly aware of how intimate their action was.

Her tongue had been touched by Wen Ying’s fingertip!

She slowly came back to her senses and looked up at Wen Ying, only to see that Wen Ying was already busy frying pancakes again.

Yan An: “…”

“Okay, so I’m the only impure one thinking too much, right? What a heartless person!”

Yan An looked down at the steaming pancake in her bowl and felt that her previous eagerness to eat it had been so foolish, as if she were a hungry ghost reborn.

“Are you feeling better?” Wen Ying asked, after frying another pancake.

Yan An went outside and spit out the water in her mouth. Although she could still feel a strange sensation on her tongue, it wasn’t serious. After all, she had only touched it for a moment and quickly pulled back.

She came back to the kitchen and shook her head. “Much better. It’s not serious.”

But Wen Ying was still worried. She told her to stick out her tongue so she could check again.

Yan An: “…”

Looking at Wen Ying’s slightly furrowed brow and serious expression, Yan An felt that she was being so pretentious. “She’s worried about me, and I’m here thinking about this and that.”

She closed her eyes and gave up. She stuck her tongue out again.

Wen Ying carefully checked it. Her expression relaxed a lot, and she said with relief, “Mmm, it looks like there won’t be any blisters.”

The redness from the burn had also faded a lot.

Yan An retracted her tongue and went back to her seat with a poker face. She didn’t touch the pancake she had been so eager to eat and instead put a piece of firewood into the hearth.

Wen Ying saw her action and said, “The fire doesn’t need to be too strong.”

Yan An said “oh” and pulled the firewood back with a poker face.

Wen Ying looked at her expression and couldn’t help but look at her again. She couldn’t figure out why she had suddenly changed her mood. But since she was still responding to her, she figured it wasn’t because of her. If it wasn’t because of her, then it could only be because she was unhappy that she couldn’t eat the pancake right now.

Thinking of this, she smiled faintly. Her eyes softened a little. She felt that Yan An was sometimes like a spoiled child who would act out and throw a tantrum over little things that didn’t go her way.

But… her little tantrums weren’t annoying. In fact, they were a little… cute.

Wen Ying bit her lip, closed her eyes, and calmed her thoughts, telling herself not to think about these useless things. Her movements became a little faster.

Excluding the pancakes for herself and Yan An, she made eight more. She then carried a bag of white rice and some eggs and went with Yan An to knock on Auntie Li’s courtyard door.

At this time, Auntie Li’s family was also making dinner. Hearing the knock on the door, she came to open it with an apron still tied around her waist.

“Girl Wen, you’re here. Have you eaten? If not, you can stay and eat with us. Auntie made braised pork tonight!” Seeing them, Auntie Li immediately smiled.

“No, thank you, Auntie Li. Yan An and I made some pancakes and wanted to bring some over for you to try,” Wen Ying quickly refused. She handed the things she was carrying to Auntie Li. “And I’m also returning the rice I borrowed from you.”

Auntie Li was happy at first, but when she heard the latter part, her face turned stern.

“Return what? Don’t say such things to Auntie Li,” she said. Her expression then softened. Her tone was heartfelt. “You two have a hard life. You need to be frugal, you know? I don’t want the pancakes either. We’ve already made dinner at home. You take them back and eat them yourselves.”

Hearing her words, Wen Ying’s eyes immediately felt sore. She knew very well that without Auntie Li’s occasional help, she and Yan An would have starved to death a long time ago.

“Auntie Li, please don’t refuse. This is Wen Ying’s little gesture. She was so happy thinking about making something for you. Don’t disappoint her,” Yan An quickly persuaded. She stood behind Wen Ying, putting her hands together in a pleading gesture to Auntie Li, as if Wen Ying would cry if she didn’t accept.

Auntie Li looked at Yan An’s pleading expression and Wen Ying’s longing eyes. She found them a little funny and finally gave in.

“Wait a moment,” she said, and quickly went inside to get a bowl. She put the pancakes in it. “Okay, I’ll take the pancakes. You take the rest back.”

Wen Ying was about to say something, but Auntie Li pushed them out the door. “Go on, go on! If you’re not staying for dinner, then go home and don’t block the door.”

The two of them, pushed out, looked at the door that was now closed. Auntie Li’s voice came from inside, shouting, “Don’t think about leaving anything at the door, or Auntie’s stick won’t recognize you.”

Wen Ying: “…”

Yan An: “…”

Yan An didn’t know, but Wen Ying had once seen with her own eyes Auntie Li beating her son with a stick, making him jump all over the house.

“Let’s go back. Auntie Li is good to you,” Yan An whispered. “When we have a better life in the future, Auntie Li won’t refuse our kindness anymore.”

The reason she was refusing now was because she knew their family’s situation wasn’t great and wanted them to keep it for themselves.

“Mmm,” Wen Ying hummed softly. Her heart was still a little sore. She followed Yan An back home.

Looking at the things that were supposed to be given to Auntie Li, Wen Ying, for the first time, began to talk about her own life with Yan An.

“Auntie Li is not my birth mother, but she treats me better than my own.”

When she said this, her voice was low and hoarse, but it also held a sense of calm, as if she had already accepted that her parents didn’t love her very much.

Hearing Wen Ying’s words, Yan An remembered Wen Ying’s family situation. It was a typical family that favored boys over girls. Her mother, bound by this ideology, had been influenced and oppressed by it for a long time. As a woman, she had become a member of the group that favored boys and oppressed women.

“Now you’ve left them. Everything will be fine in the future,” Yan An said, feeling a little helpless. These family issues were often hard to sort out and required all sorts of breaking away, but the trauma from her family might be hard to heal for a lifetime.

“Mmm,” Wen Ying hummed softly. She turned to look at Yan An, her voice gentle and serious.

“I have a home now.”