Chapter 65: Wang Ling's Marriage (Part 1)

  Actually, this winter, Wang Kuang was still busy with something, that is, Wang Ling's marriage. Wang Ling was already old and not small, 22 years old and still unmarried, in later generations it was still a young age, but in this era it was an old leftover man.

  Since Wang Ling returned, there have been matchmakers with keen senses finding their way to his door, but they were all driven away by him. After Wang Ling became the head of the prefecture government office, more matchmakers came knocking on his door, almost all of whom were from families that considered themselves to be a good match for him. However, it was strange that Wang Ling gave them all the cold shoulder.

  After several times, Wang Kuang began to suspect that Wang Ling had his own favorite woman. To know that at this time, filial piety was very important, and whether one is filial or not often determines a person's promotion or demotion, even in the case of committing a crime, it can determine a person's life and death. As the eldest of the three remaining people in Wang Village, his marriage and having children became the only standard to measure his filial piety. With Wang Ling's temperament, he would absolutely not ignore this.

  So since last year, Wang Kuang not only let Zhu Si help find a suitable woman, but also specially asked Sun Er, the most clever one in the inn, to pay attention to Wang Ling's movements at all times, mainly to see which family he often visited and if he saw any women. It is said that it was for Wang Ling's marriage, so Sun Er naturally took it seriously, and whenever he had time, he would take a food box and run to the prefecture government office, saying that he was worried that Master Wang would be hungry when he was on official business. As a result, the yamen in the prefecture government office are now very close to Sun Er, and as soon as they see him, they call out "Brother Sun" one after another.

  It has to be said that Wang Ling, who had been trained in the army for more than two years, still had very high "anti-reconnaissance" skills. After several months, Sun Er only knew that Wang Ling would go to a certain place on the 15th of every month, and nothing else was gained, because Wang Ling walked quickly, and Sun Er, who was slow, lost him. When Wang Kuang found out, he kicked Sun Er's butt several times, laughing at him for being called "Clever Ghost" but losing someone so easily: "You're stupid! Since you know the direction he goes in, why not wait at the place where you lost him the first time? If you lose him again, then wait at the second place where you lost him. Keep doing this and you'll find him!"

  Hard work pays off for those who are diligent. Just yesterday, Wang Kuang finally managed to track down the place with Sun Er's help - a house by the river outside the city. Wang Kuang was overjoyed when he heard the news and took advantage of Wang Ling being on duty today to hurry along with Sun Er to take a look.

  This is a low and dilapidated thatched hut made of bamboo, located not far from the riverbank. The wall was woven with bamboo strips, and there was a small chimney on top of the smaller room, which should be used as a kitchen. I didn't see the kitchen door, so I guess you have to enter through the larger room next to it, saving one door's worth of wood in the process. There are many such thatched huts along the riverbank, usually built by families with little labor power who want to save energy on carrying water and irrigation. While they do save labor, these riverside houses can't withstand the floods during spring and summer, so any family with sufficient labor power would choose to build their house in a higher location instead.

  In front of the thatched cottage, there were two small plots of land surrounded by thorny bushes, with a muddy road in between. Now in winter, the vegetable fields were bare and the thorns were not very dense. Two hens led a group of chicks to peck at food on the left side of the field, clucking away. The mother hen would occasionally dig up an earthworm or other insects from the ground, and the little chicks following behind would rush up with a loud chirp, flapping their wings to grab them. Two little chicks were fighting over an earthworm, each holding one end in their beaks, when another chick spotted an opportunity and snatched it away with a quick peck, then ran off, leaving the other two chicks chirping angrily as they chased after.

  The door of the house was ajar, as if no one was inside. In fact, the door was already very dilapidated and it didn't matter whether it was closed or not. It probably only needed one kick to knock it off its hinges. Now it was almost time for dinner, and smoke had started rising from some of the other thatched huts. Every now and then, a dog barked, mixed with scolding voices coming from several nearby thatched huts, probably because they had seen Wang Kuang and Sun Er, two strangers, from afar.

  Wang Juan walked up and knocked on the door: "Is anyone there?"

  "Who's there?" A hoarse voice of an old woman sounded weakly, accompanied by a few coughs.

  Wang Juan didn't know how to respond. Judging from the sound, the old woman should be bedridden or weak and lying in bed. After some thought, considering the appearance of this house, he shouldn't be suspected as a bad person if he just went in like this, so he pushed the door open. He used a bit too much force, causing the door to creak and shake as it reluctantly opened with a groan.

  As he entered the house, he realized that it was a drafty place where there was almost no difference between inside and outside. The wind seeped in through the gaps between the bamboo strips on the wall, making him feel colder than when he was outside. Even wearing his fur-lined coat, Wang couldn't help but shiver. It was only then that Wang remembered he hadn't exercised since he started wearing it: too lazy! He should exercise more. Fortunately, now he had enough to eat and wear warm clothes; if it were still like the past few years at the Taoist temple, he wondered if he could even survive the winter.

  Because of the transparency everywhere, the house doesn't look dark: a broken wooden table, several bamboo chairs, on the wall facing the river there is a window, and next to the window there is also a wooden table with a copper mirror the size of a palm, probably the most valuable thing in the whole house is this copper mirror.

  In a corner of the house was a bamboo bed, on which lay an old woman, covered with a quilt made of hemp cloth that had already been torn, and through the holes in the quilt some withered yellow grasses were sticking out. The only intact wall in the whole room was the two sides against which the bed was leaning, pasted densely with grass paper. One leg of the bamboo bed was missing, propped up by a tree branch instead.

  The old woman asked again, "Is it Dalang?" However, she didn't get up, but only turned her head from facing the wall. It was then that Wang Kuang discovered that the old woman's eyes were lifeless, and estimated that she had lost her sight.

  Wang Kuang did not make a sound, and looked at Sun Er with inquiring eyes.

  "Big wife, he is Big husband's younger brother Wang Erlang." Sun Er hurriedly replied.

  "Big Brother never mentioned he had a younger brother, please sit down quickly. The old woman is blind and can't see, her legs are also not good, she can't get up to entertain you."

  Wang Kuang found a bamboo horse and sat down, his eyes hinting at Sun Er, who understood and turned to leave.

  After another silence, Wang Juan didn't know how to start a conversation. Looking around, the house was similar to what Sun Er had said yesterday, with only two women living here, but he didn't know where the old woman's daughter had gone.

  "It's Erlang, the old lady's house is really unbearable, and I don't know if her daughter has boiled water yet, delaying our guests." The old woman on the bed struggled to lift her head, propping herself up with her hands, wanting to get up. Wang Kuang saw this and quickly stood up, hastily stepping forward to support her: "Don't get up, madam, just lie down."

  "Alas, thanks to Dalang, every month he sends us rice and oil. Otherwise, my daughter and I wouldn't know how to get through this winter. Dalang is a good man." The old woman couldn't hold on any longer, her body couldn't take it, and she was already panting slightly after just propping herself up like that.

  "Who are you? What are you doing?" A clear shout came from behind, Wang Kuang turned his head to look back, and saw a woman wearing a small flower-patterned jacket with patches all over it, holding a wooden basin at her waist with several wet clothes inside, and grasping a washing mallet in one hand, staring at Wang Kuang.

  The little girl has a good figure, this is Wang Kuang's first impression; the little girl is very fierce, this is the second impression (can't you be fierce when you see strangers appearing in your own home?); The little girl is very good at protecting herself, this is the third impression, because Wang Kuang clearly saw that the little girl's face was smeared with soot, and couldn't see what she looked like, but looking at the outline of her face, she should still be a bit pretty. Hehe, can't tell, usually dull and stupid Wang Ling, his eyes are still not bad. Of course, this is from Wang Kuang's later perspective, if you look at it from the perspective of that time, this little girl is too thin.

  Wang Kuang looked at himself with a scrutinizing gaze, and the young girl's face turned red (Wang Kuang guessed it, because at this time the young girl's eyes dodged for a moment, and then stared round again), grasping the clothes mallet tightly.

  "Girl, don't be rude. This is the second son, he's the younger brother of the eldest son." The old woman on the bed coughed and called out after hearing the young woman's questioning tone.

  "Oh dear!" The young woman, upon hearing this, immediately became flustered and at a loss for what to do. She held the washing mallet in her hand, but couldn't decide whether to put it down or hold on to it, picking it up and putting it down again repeatedly.

  "Second Brother has seen Sister-in-law." Wang Kuang saw the young lady's appearance, and suddenly a mischievous thought arose, so he gave the young lady a proper bow. Anyway, Wang Ling had rejected so many matchmakers in the past two years, it was likely that he had already taken a liking to this young lady, but for some reason, he didn't mention her at all in front of Sun Ming and himself, if not for Wang Kuang's suspicion letting Er Ni follow him, till now she might still be kept in the dark. In any case, this sister-in-law is going to be settled.

  "Ah! What nonsense are you talking about, who is your sister-in-law?" The young woman became even more flustered, the wooden basin that was originally held at her waist suddenly couldn't be held anymore, and with a loud crash it fell to the ground, hitting a bluestone and breaking into pieces.

  "Girl, you think about it, my brother has rejected so many matchmakers for you over the past two years. Isn't that all for your sake?!" Wang Ke's face turned serious as he began to count on his fingers: "Let me count them for you... Two years ago, he rejected Li Matchmaker's proposal for a marriage with the Liu family in the north of the city. Last year, he rejected one, two, three, four... at least ten or more matchmakers. And this month alone, he has already rejected at least three. Ah, my fingers aren't enough to count them all!"

  Wang Kuang was counting on his fingers, the young girl suddenly laughed out loud and dropped the washing mallet in her hand, which bounced back up and landed on Wang Kuang's foot with the head of the mallet facing down.

  "Ah!" Wang Kuang was counting, and a sharp pain shot through the back of his foot. He was wearing only a single layer of soft leather boots, without the thick fur-lined insoles that others wore, and the heavy iron mallet had just been soaked in water, making it even more painful when it came crashing down. Wang Kuang immediately clutched at his foot and started hopping around on one leg.

  Division -

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