Second Marriage

Translator: tarararawr

Editor: Larkspur

Chapter 22 Part 1

After breakfast, Xiao Youning left for the yamen.

Two officials sent by the magistrate led the way, and Second Master Xiao was determined to follow in order to salvage his reputation.

Since something had happened to her father and brother, if she did not rely on him, her Second Uncle, then who could she still rely on? This time he did not make a move on the dowry and the magistrate was there to bear witness to it, so the previous rumors had been quashed.

When they left home, Xiao Anning pouted with unhappiness when she heard the news.

Her father didn’t even take his daughters out to the streets, but he took a leave of absence for that annoying person from the Main Branch.

Xiao Anning felt upset. She rolled her eyes and came up with a bad idea.

Didn’t Xiao Youning take the dowry? Now that she was in a state of despair and didn’t know how much money she had to return, she could only live on that bit of money in the future. In that case, Xiao Youning must be very worried about money.

“Lu Chang!” she shouted to the outside. The servant girl working on embroidery hurried to run in and asked, “Young Miss, what instructions do you have?”

“My Third Younger Sister can keep the clouds open to see the moon1, and it’s a good thing for her to take back her dowry today. You can tell everyone around the residence to remember to say nice things when they see her coming back.”

Lu Chang hesitated and didn’t move. “Young Miss, don’t you dislike Third Young Miss? How can you ask the servants to congratulate her?”

“If I ask you to do it, then go.”

As soon as Xiao Anning glared at her, Lu Chang ran out in fright.

After her servant left, Xiao Anning leaned into the chair calmly and slowly raised the bracelet given by her mother yesterday to her lips.

She was not so kind as to make Xiao Youning happy. When Xiao Youning returned, the servants would congratulate her and if she didn’t take out the money to reward them, then they would naturally say that she was stingy.

Even if she lived with the Second Branch, everyone would look down on her.

After all, she came from a fallen family.

When Xiao Youning went to the back hall of the yamen, she saw Master Li was already there.

Master Li smiled and called her by name with a familiar tone as if nothing had happened before.

She did not hit the smiling face in front of outsiders2. Xiao Youning knew the limits to creating difficulties. She indifferently bowed and did not let others pick out any mistakes nor did she show any arrogance that she had shown the Li Family before.

Master Li was in a complicated mood when he saw that she was very calm.

How could he not see that this was a superficial display for everyone to watch?

After she had gone through so many things and had this kind of temperament, there would be no problems when she managed the inner house, and would even be a dependable first wife.

What a pity, what a pity!

Master Li secretly sighed that there was no fate for their families to be together.

Second Master Xiao greeted the magistrate and Master Li and sat aside like he was a stage backdrop. The magistrate had already begun the proceedings in a businesslike manner and brought out the dowry list first.

Yuan Guo began to compare with the list she had kept one by one, and nodded to Xiao Youning when there were no problems.

Xiao Youning returned the dowry list, and the magistrate asked people to lift the chests up. Second Master Xiao was drinking tea when he casually took a glance, and almost choked on the tea.

Isn’t it only 64 lifts? This…does this look like 128 lifts?!3

Second Master Xiao was surprised, but Xiao Youning’s expression did not change.

This was her dowry.

It looked like 64 lifts, because her father had told her not to be too conspicuous. A batch of dowries were sent to the warehouse first and locked up, but 128 lifts were marked on the dowry list.

The magistrate made them open the chests, and Yuan Guo began to count one thing at a time.

Second Master Xiao looked at the gold and silver jewelry and his vision suddenly blurred.

However, what he didn’t expect was that when the box in the back was opened, there was a whole box of silver!

Second Master Xiao stood up in shock. Why does the Main Branch have so much money?!

It appears to be all silver and they gave it to her as her dowry? This amount must have emptied out the entire Marquis Residence.

The magistrate smiled to himself when he saw Second Master Xiao’s expression.

At first he was frightened at the sight of the silver in the back, and for a time he felt that Marquis Ningyuan was corrupt. But he heard Master Li say that these were rewards given by the Emperor over the years, and that Marquis Ningyuan had left it to his daughter.

He picked up the silver and looked at it, and there was indeed a mark of the Ministry of Revenue on the back. The silver was counted and it was about the amount of the silver rewarded by the emperor, so he did not say that there was corruption.

Now that someone was thinking in the same way as him, he felt comfortable for no reason.

Yuan Guo came back soon and pointed at the same dowry list to her Young Miss and said, “Young Miss, some things are not right. All the jewelry has been accounted for, and everything else is equal to the correct amount of money. Besides this, there are ten chests that are not in the dowry list.”

Xiao Youning looked at Master Li when she heard these words.

Master Li smiled and said, “Youning, these things are supposed to be given to you. It is my regard as an elder to grant them together to you.”

In other words, it was compensation.

“There is no need.” As soon as Xiao Youning changed from her gentle attitude just now, her eyes turned slightly unyielding. “I thank Lord Li, but I don’t agree with this if I don’t have the right to it. Taking it will mean I am too pitiful. But unfortunately, I should thank you for keeping me from joining the Li Family for the rest of my life, so I should save myself and step away from the Li Family. But if I don’t take it, it would look like I don’t know what is good or bad. Lord Li has created a difficult problem for me and should not be blamed for it.”

The Young Miss from the Main Branch was very charming, but her words were always thorny. Master Li was stabbed so much that he had to come down from the stage, he wore an embarrassed expression for a while.

At the same time, Master Li was annoyed.

This was because Ye-shi had ran back to her maternal home to hide because she was angry. If it wasn’t difficult for him to go over there to drag her out, he would have definitely made her apologize to Xiao Youning in front of the magistrate and let him justify delivering these things.

But it just so happened that the hag was a thief, and didn’t care about his reputation regardless of his fate and let him be embarrassed here alone.

Master Li was silent for a moment, but Xiao Youning smiled slightly at this, and the intimidating momentum just now disappeared.

“How about we do it like this? It is impossible for me to take it, but Lord Li wishes for me to take it back, so he might as well give it to the magistrate to deal with it and use it to help the poor. If Lord Li has done a good deed, then the people will certainly be grateful. I will also thank Lord Li for the people.”

If the Li Family took it back, then it was letting them off lightly, so it might as well be given out and make it into a good deed.

 

Footnotes

守得云开见月明 (shǒu dé yún kāi jiàn yuè míng) – it means persevering to the end and never giving up伸手不打笑脸人(shēnshǒu bù dǎ xiàoliǎn rén) – means you get more from someone with flattery than aggression.Lifts meaning like how many people needed to carry the dowry