Chapter 17: Lady Zhang's Former In-laws

"Your second sister was willing to bring out the rabbit pelts?" Gu Lianshan looked utterly astonished.

Ever since the rabbit pelts were brought back, his daughter had probably hidden them away! No one had seen them, and no one knew where she'd stashed them.

"Guess it's because it's too cold today. From the looks of it, she's sewing a robe."

"Then I have to go take a look! Those rabbit pelts were all traded by your second sister catching rabbits herself. If they're not sewn well and get ruined, your second sister will be sulking again!"

Gu Lianshan untied the apron from his waist, told his son to watch the porridge in the pot and make absolutely sure it didn't boil over, then hurried out of the kitchen.

Inside the room, Gu Tang had threaded her needle and was preparing for one last attempt at sewing. If it didn't work this time, she'd have to spend money to hire someone to do it.

She'd only made a few stitches when Gu Lianshan knocked on the door.

The door wasn't latched. Gu Lianshan was strong; after two knocks, the door swung open a crack, letting in a draft of cold wind.

Gu Tang was already irritable at the moment, and the cold wind only fueled her anger. She snapped impatiently, "Come in!"

The moment Gu Lianshan heard that tone, he knew—her impatient temper was acting up again. The slightest hitch and she'd start fuming.

He pushed the door open and entered. Seeing Gu Tang still struggling with the fur, he shut the door behind him, walked over, and took the work from her hands.

"Since you were little, you never liked sewing and mending. You can't even sew clothes properly, and now you want to sew a fur coat?"

He examined the stitching—crooked and uneven, the density inconsistent.

He'd intended to bite the thread with his teeth to snip it, but his gaze caught a pair of scissors placed beside Gu Tang. He instinctively reached for them, *snip snip*, and quickly unpicked the whole thing clean.

Setting down the scissors, Gu Lianshan belatedly realized something was off: "Where did the scissors come from?"

The entire Gu family had only one pair of scissors, always kept by his mother. She treasured them dearly and never lent them out ordinarily.

His daughter had complained more than once about not having scissors; for mending clothes or anything else, she always used her teeth to bite the thread.

Gu Lianshan picked up the scissors again to examine them closely, and the more he looked, the graver his expression became.

The silver scissors were small and sharp, about the size of an adult's palm, etched with fine golden vines. They looked precious and eye-catching.

One glance told him this was no lowly item—it was something the Gu family could never afford.

"Yesterday when I went to deliver the rabbits, I ran into a caravan of foreign merchants. They were peddling all sorts of goods from their country.

I followed the crowd to take a look, and at first glance I took a liking to these scissors. I traded the rabbits for them. How are they? Nice, right?"

Gu Lianshan looked skeptical: "This thing... can it really be traded for rabbits?"

Gu Tang calmly snatched the scissors back and put them away, her tone unruffled: "They're just scissors. We think they're rare, but maybe in their country, these things aren't worth as much as rabbits."

Gu Lianshan paused. Thinking it over, that made sense. Foreign goods seemed rare to people here, but to the foreigners themselves, they might be commonplace.

"I'll sew the fur coat for you. The hot water in the kitchen should be ready by now. Hurry up and wash up; I've already cooked the porridge."

He carefully gathered the cut fur pieces and urged her to get moving.

Gu Tang was clearing the scraps off the bed. Hearing this, her hands stopped: "How come you're the one cooking porridge today? Aren't you afraid Grandma will see and scold Mom?"

"Didn't Sanlang tell you yesterday? Your mom isn't home. She went to the Lin family."

"How come she went to the Lin family again?" Gu Tang frowned.

The Lin family was Zhang Shi's former in-laws. Years ago, the family had produced a Xiucai scholar—Zhang Shi's late first husband, Lin Chengcai.

Lin Chengcai was far more accomplished than the Gu family's eldest son. He passed the Xiucai exam in his twenties, though his health later failed and he stopped taking the imperial examinations.

But his Xiucai title was genuinely earned through his own studies, unlike a certain someone whose Tongsheng title was so watered down it could raise fish.

Early on, the Lin family was still well-off. They spent money to buy Lin Xiucai a position as a "Zhubo" (chief clerk) in a government office, and the whole family moved to Beian City.

Later, Lin Xiucai died of illness. The Lin elders brought their grandson, granddaughter, and daughter-in-law Zhang Shi back to Lin Village.

Not long after, the Lin patriarch also passed away. The remaining meager assets were all used up, leaving only a destitute old house and a household of women, children, and the elderly.

To survive, Zhang Shi had no choice but to remarry.

But her sole condition for remarriage was that she must bring Mother Zhang and her two children along.

This "bringing along" didn't mean the whole family had to move into the husband's home.

It meant Mother Zhang would stay in Lin Village with Zhang Shi's two children, while Zhang Shi married alone.

But after marriage, the husband's family had to provide grain to support the three of them.

Although Zhang Shi was a remarried woman with children, she was still highly sought after in the village.

The reason: she had been the wife of a Xiucai scholar, and crucially, that Xiucai had held "office"!

Among villagers, they couldn't distinguish between high and low officials; they only knew that anyone working for the yamen was an official.

To marry an "official's wife" back as a daughter-in-law was a joy for the whole family.

But once Zhang Shi's conditions were known, the originally eager suitors all scattered.

No other reason—in this era, every family could barely manage half-full bellies. Who had surplus grain to support outsiders?

Anyway, in the end, who knows what happened, but her father Gu Lianshan, this poor sucker, took the burden.

As far back as Gu Tang could remember, Zhang Shi went back to the Lin family once a month to deliver grain. Most trips were same-day returns; she rarely stayed overnight.

But in the past month, Zhang Shi had already gone back ten times.

Every time the same excuse: the Lin matriarch was failing, about to breathe her last, wanting Zhang Shi to see her one last time and send her off.

She went again yesterday. It couldn't be the same excuse again, could it?

"Is it the Lin matriarch 'failing' again?" Gu Tang couldn't help asking.

"Right! Saying she's failing again." Gu Lianshan was exasperated too. This was the eleventh time—every single time, the person was 'failing'!

"Is she really failing? Or just stirring up trouble again?" Gu Tang thoroughly disliked that Lin matriarch.

In the original owner's memories, she'd met the Lin matriarch a few times.

She was no kindly grandmother. Her gaze was even more piercing than Feng Shi's. Every time she saw the original owner, she treated her like a little servant girl.

The slightest displeasure, and the old woman would complain to Zhang Shi.

Zhang Shi's heart was always with the Lin family. One word of complaint from the matriarch, and she'd immediately punish the original owner without a second thought.

Zhang Shi's methods were vicious. She didn't hit the original owner; she pinched the flesh on her body.

The places she pinched were all areas that couldn't be shown to others. Even if the original owner told someone, there was no evidence.

Over the years, the original owner had endured who knew how many pinches in secret. Every plea for mercy only brought worse.

Zhang Shi might be the original owner's biological mother, but whether toward Gu Mei and Gu Lai'an, or Gu Tang and Gu Ping'an, she treated them all with the same indifference and harshness.

Yet she was an extremely face-conscious person. She wouldn't dare withhold things from Gu Mei and her brother, so she ruthlessly exploited Gu Tang and Gu Ping'an instead.

From childhood on, anything decent Gu Tang and Gu Ping'an had would vanish by the next day.

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(End of Chapter)