Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Zhong Yizhu had found it suspicious when this gentleman came to buy fragrance pellets in the morning, but he was distracted by Miss Liang at the time and later got too busy to dwell on it.

Now that the other party had reappeared, Zhong Yizhu felt a sense of inevitability.

He looked at Xu Lan, the soft expression he had shown Pei Mu now completely gone, and said calmly, "What conditions?"

Xu Lan glanced at the beautifully arranged stall. Each type of fragrance pellet showed clever blending and creativity, completely different from what the old masters produced. It was no wonder that after only two market days, people were already drawn here by word of mouth.

He said, his tone serious, "The head of my household is the manager of Liu's Fragrance Shop. I've already spoken to him about hiring you as a perfumer. If you agree to this condition, I'll take all these fragrance pellets off your hands."

He tilted his head toward another stall not far away: "Setting up a stall is ultimately unstable and prone to interference from troublemakers. Liu's Fragrance Shop is the largest fragrance shop in Songyun County. Working as a perfumer there is a steady income, and you won't have to worry about production or sales. What do you think of this sincerity?"

Zhong Yizhu was surprised. Although Xu Lan's expression was stern and far from friendly, his words were indeed sincere. But...

He turned and exchanged a glance with Pei Mu, who nodded slightly.

Zhong Yizhu looked back at Xu Lan: "Thank you for your kindness, sir. But my home is far away, and I have no plans to work in a fragrance shop for now."

Xu Lan frowned: "Do you know how much a perfumer at Liu's Fragrance Shop earns? Even the most junior perfumer gets two and a half taels of silver a month. You're just a young man, young and inexperienced, but I've managed to negotiate two taels for you. This is a golden opportunity that many would envy."

Zhong Yizhu was surprised. He knew the wages for perfumers in the prefectural city, and compared to that, Liu's Fragrance Shop—though only in the county—offered generous pay. From the gentleman's tone, it seemed the shopkeeper was reluctant to hire a young man like him, and this had likely been pushed through by the gentleman himself.

Two taels a month was very respectable even in Songyun County, let alone in the village—it was almost a frugal farming family's yearly expenses.

But Zhong Yizhu's ambitions did not stop there.

Xu Lan clearly hadn't expected such a firm refusal. His brow furrowed deeply as he stared at Zhong Yizhu for a long moment.

"Think carefully. The fragrance business in Songyun County isn't easy. This opportunity won't come again."

Zhong Yizhu nodded respectfully: "Thank you for your high regard, sir."

Xu Lan left the stall empty-handed.

Zhong Yizhu watched until the figure disappeared into the crowd, then felt a gentle push on his back. He turned around to find Pei Mu urging him: "Go for a stroll. You promised to buy me some pastries."

The stall still had a pile of unsold fragrance pellets, and he had just turned down the chance to clear all his inventory and a well-paying job.

Yet Pei Mu acted as if none of this mattered, as if no matter how difficult the road ahead, as long as he was there, Zhong Yizhu didn't need to fear and could do whatever he wanted.

Zhong Yizhu walked into the bustling market, listening to the varied cries of vendors, slowly wandering among the stalls. Gradually, new ideas began to form in his mind.

Back at their stall, Pei Mu was packaging pellets for returning customers who recognized their faces while observing the customers at the nearby stalls. His memory for faces wasn't as good as Zhong Yizhu's, but he could remember those with distinctive features.

Zhong Yizhu returned after nearly half an hour, looking much more lively than before. Pei Mu ate the pastries he bought while listening to him greet customers with fresh energy.

They didn't close up until nearly sunset. They had about fifty pellets left unsold. Zhong Yizhu discussed with Gong Laosi and decided to leave the remaining pellets with him to sell on commission, giving him three copper coins for each one sold.

This was hardly any trouble for Gong Laosi, and with their bond from fighting a common enemy, he naturally agreed. He felt that because he hadn't secured them a good spot, he thought he should help sell the rest, intending not to take any commission. But Zhong Yizhu and Pei Mu both insisted, so they settled as Zhong Yizhu proposed.

After settling that, they prepared to head home. Last time, after selling out for the Qixi Festival, Zhong Yizhu had bought a large batch of spices. What remained should be enough for two more batches. If he played it safe and made fewer next time, it might even stretch to three batches.

But he had no intention of playing it safe.

Pei Mu accompanied Zhong Yizhu to Spice Street, where they bought many more supplies, exiting the city gate as the sun set.

·

After returning to the village, Zhong Yizhu didn't leave the house for several days.

Pei Mu went up the mountain. Zhong Yizhu was busy creating new fragrance products and preparing for the next market day. While they were both occupied, drama was playing out at the Pei family compound at the other end of the village.

A few days earlier, Pei Jin had gotten what he wanted. The Pei family sent a matchmaker to propose to a girl from Caishi Village. Wanting to hold the wedding before winter, they pressed the matchmaker to hurry the process along—quick betrothal, quick date selection.

In theory, both families had agreed. It should have been a done deal. Pei Jin was overjoyed and eagerly anticipating, and Tian Shi had already started preparing for the nuptials. But neither side anticipated a hitch at the step of matching the eight characters.

The matchmaker, pressed for time, after obtaining the couple's eight-character birth charts, found a fortune-teller from Caishi Village. This step was usually a mere formality. But the fortune-teller squinted at the birth charts and shook his head, saying that if the girl married into that family, she would face a blood disaster.

The girl's family was alarmed and asked why.

The fortune-teller counted on his fingers and frowned at Pei Jin's birth chart, saying the groom's family home had a strong malevolent aura. A young woman had likely died there before, and if this girl married in, she would meet the same fate.

The girl was the second daughter of the Li family, sixteen years old.

Erniang was frightened and said she wouldn't marry. But her family was reluctant to give up the ten-tael betrothal payment.

As everyone in Caishi Village knew, the Li family had deliberately set the betrothal price high. Even though Erniang was pretty, how many village families would spend ten taels just to marry a daughter-in-law? And that wasn't counting the betrothal gifts and banquet costs—altogether, half a wedding would cost nearly fifteen taels.

After the exorbitant betrothal sum became known, no village men bothered to propose to Erniang. Her parents were proud and used her looks to look down on local men and search for matches in town. But they didn't find a good match; instead, they were duped by a matchmaker and a homeless man, nearly losing everything. So they finally settled on finding a village family.

After that debacle, the Li family became a laughingstock. Erniang's parents discussed lowering the betrothal price before she got too old to marry. Just then, Pei Jin sent a marriage proposal.

The Li family made inquiries, learned that the Pei family was well-off, and saw Pei Jin's eagerness. They stubbornly insisted on ten taels, and indeed, the deal was made. The Li family was inwardly delighted.

Now, hearing the fortune-teller's ominous prediction, Erniang's parents were reluctant to let go. They sent someone to inquire in Liushan Village while hastily slipping a few copper coins to ask the fortune-teller if there was a way to avert the disaster.

The fortune-teller accepted the coins, counted on his fingers again, and finally said that if the couple separated from the elders and lived separately, the curse could be lifted.

Hearing this, Erniang's parents were speechless. Asking the groom to separate from his family before marriage would invite criticism from everyone. And even if the Pei family agreed, everyone knew that the Pei family's wealth was tied to the father. If they divided the family property and lived separately, who knew how much Pei Jin would get.

Pei Song could take Pei Jin along to earn money, but Pei Jin had no marketable skills to go it alone.

The Li family began to have second thoughts.

They sent the matchmaker to break off the engagement. Upon hearing this, the matchmaker realized the match was doomed. Inauspicious predictions were bad enough, and the solution was something no ordinary family would accept. Flustered, she hurried to the Pei family to explain.

The matchmaker was from Liushan Village—the same one Zhang Guihua had hired to propose to the Zhong family. She knew about Pei Mu's mother's early death, and the fortune-teller's words made her uneasy.

The prediction was downright chilling. If something happened, it would bring bad luck and ruin her reputation as a matchmaker.

By now, she wanted to withdraw from this match. She urged the Pei family to agree to call it off.

But Pei Jin had made such a fuss, begged and pleaded, and finally gotten his father's consent. He was overjoyed at the prospect of a beautiful wife. He had no intention of letting go. He blurted that he would split the household. Pei Song, furious, slapped him across the face: "You ungrateful brat! I'm still alive!"

Pei Song was not yet forty, not particularly burly, but he had strong hands from years of carpentry. The slap made Pei Jin's lip bleed instantly.

The matchmaker, who hadn't left yet, gasped. Villagers said the Pei family lived well without farming, Carpenter Pei earned good money, and Tian Shi doted on her three children. But now, this didn't seem like a good life at all. What kind of father hits his son so hard?

Tian Shi quickly urged Pei Song back into the house, insisting that the fortune-teller was talking nonsense and there was no need for separation. Pei Jin was just being childish and impatient, she said, and told Pei Song not to be angry with his son.

Pei Jin was plump and pale, taking after Tian Shi in looks. Tian Shi comforted her son for a while, then ordered the frightened Pei Shui and Pei Yan to take their father some water to calm him down.

She then retrieved the eight-character charts from the matchmaker and immediately hurried off to the neighboring Hebian Village.

In Hebian Village, there was a fortune-teller named Mr. Zhu, who was said to have been able to communicate with spirits since childhood and was extremely powerful. When he was young, he set up a stall in town to tell fortunes, and as he grew older, he stayed in the village to help villagers with their family affairs.

Tian Shi had visited Mr. Zhu before. Having tasted the sweetness of using money to "change fate," she first slipped him fifty large coins, thinking that this time, she would hear what she wanted to hear.

Who would have thought that after looking at the betrothal card she handed over, he not only said the same thing as the fortune teller from Caishi Village but even added an extra warning: if they insisted on the marriage, not only would the girl face a bloody disaster, but Pei Song might also be in danger.

Tian Shi gasped sharply. "What? How is my husband involved? Sir, please take another careful look—could you be mistaken?"

"Whether I am mistaken or not, Madam, don't you have any idea in your heart?" Mr. Zhu's eyes were clouded, his body even more withered and frail than a few years ago, his voice hoarse as if ground by sand. As he spoke, he stared straight at Tian Shi and couldn't help but cough.

At this, Tian Shi was truly panicked.

Her voice trembled, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. "If... if we don't marry that girl, will everything be fine?"

Mr. Zhu handed the card back, his hands looking like mere skin over bone, so thin that the veins were visible. "No... as long as your son marries at all, there will be a clash. This calamity comes from your family's side; it has nothing to do with that girl."

Tian Shi shook her head, unwilling to believe it. Suddenly remembering something, she quickly said, "Nothing happened when they got engaged – why? Could we find a girl or a young man with a compatible fate?"

Mr. Zhu shook his head, dragging out his final words, as if sealing an inescapable fate.

"People's destinies change. This calamity has been brewing for over twenty years. If it is not resolved, when your third son marries, the same will happen."

Tian Shi had set out confidently and returned in fear.

She had given him so much money; if the problem were minor, Mr. Zhu might have glossed over it. But he was willing to forgo payment and say unpleasant things to warn her. It was precisely for this reason that she almost completely believed him.

She thought and worried the entire way back, especially when she remembered the woman who died nineteen years ago and Old Man Pei. In broad daylight, every hair on her body stood on end, and cold sweat soaked through her undergarments.

Pei Jin, who had been pacing in the yard waiting for her to bring back good news, felt his heart sink at the sight of her expression. Tian Shi patted his arm comfortingly, but her own heart was also in turmoil.

She pushed open the door to the main room and entered, looking at Pei Song leaning on the bed. She nervously repeated what the fortune teller had said, lowering her voice: "What should we do, husband? This family… we might really need to split it up."

She was truly afraid someone would die. But to her surprise, Pei Song flew into a rage when he heard her.

"Don't even think about it! If he wants to split, he can roll up his things and get out, but don't expect a single copper coin from me!"

He violently threw the teacup to the floor. The broken shards cut Tian Shi's hand. She screamed, almost thinking he had gone mad.

Pei Song, however, was the one who knew best how Pei Mu had originally gained the reputation of being a jinx. So he didn't believe a word of these superstitious things. He even began to suspect that Tian Shi had colluded with the fortune teller, fabricating these rumors to scare him into giving his property to Pei Jin.

What a clever plan—if they split the household, Pei Jin wouldn't have to take care of him in his old age, and could just enjoy life with the money Pei Song had earned.

Tian Shi covered her hand, startled by Pei Song's sudden fury. She couldn't understand why he would be so angry when she was only thinking of both sides, and she couldn't help but scream: "So my son is supposed to be a bachelor for life?!"

Pei Song furrowed his brows tightly. Over the past few days, he had been nagged by his wife and son about the ten-tael betrothal gift for a wife, and now about splitting the family. On top of that, there was that ridiculous fortune teller. Annoyed beyond measure, he choked out, "If he doesn't marry, so be it. He can consider it an act of filial piety toward me. Doesn't he have even that much filial piety?"

Outside the door, Pei Jin, who had been eavesdropping, suddenly pushed the door open and shouted, "I won't!" Tian Shi also looked at him with disbelief.