Second Marriage

Translator: tarararawr

Chapter 3 Part 1

Summer nights always emerged later in the evening. They were not paying attention to the time, so when Xiao Youning came out of the hidden alley from the other direction, she found that the sky was already dark.

“Young Miss, where are we going?”

Yuan Guo held her arm, and her round eyes were lost and confused when she looked around the area.

They had just heard that the Marquis Residence was sealed, and the Li Family had lost their morals. There was really no place to go at the moment.

Xiao Youning stood under the wall with a part of her body in the dark. She was also in a confused trance.

There were lanterns hanging under the store roofs of the busy street. In the crowd, there were some people quickly walking around, while some other people calmly entered various stores as the store attendants greeted them. But no matter who they were, they all had a goal on this street.

Xiao Youning was standing there, but she was the only one without a goal or a home to return to. She was so out of place.

Yuan Guo did not receive a response. She lowered her head, wrinkled her eyebrows, and didn’t know what to think. After a long time, she looked up and cautiously asked, “Young Miss, perhaps we can go look for Second Master…”

Xiao Youning didn’t answer the question.

The Xiao Family’s Second Master was her step-uncle. He was born from her paternal grandfather and the second wife1 after her paternal grandmother passed away. When her paternal grandfather married her step-grandmother, Xiao Youning’s father was a young child that had just begun his education. According to her father, her step-grandmother treated him very coldly since he was a child. After her father became an adult and made meritorious contributions to the country, her paternal grandfather passed away. Her father inherited the Marquis title and completely separated2 from the Second Branch of the family.

She had the impression that the Main Branch and the Second Branch were as different as the waters of the Jing River and the Wei River3 even if they were under the same roof and sat together on New Year’s Day. So Madam Li was not wrong to say that she was an orphan after her father and brother’s accident.

She had no one to rely on now but herself.

Xiao Youning began to rummage through her pockets and sleeves, but didn’t find anything. Then, she finally remembered something. She reached up to her hair bun, and her eyes lit up when she touched the golden hairpin.

She pulled out the hairpin and said, “This hairpin is solid gold and has precious gems on it. We should be able to exchange it for money. Let’s find a pawnshop, and then we’ll find an inn to stay at for a while.”

“Stay at an inn?”

Yuan Guo felt that an inn was not safe. What if the poisonous woman from the Li Family was able to find them?

The maid’s thoughts were written all over her face. Xiao Youning tightly held the gold hairpin and calmed her mind. She said, “No one’s going to trouble us at this time, except for the one in the palace. The inn will be very safe.”

There had just been a fight in front of the Li Family’s gates and her dowry had not been returned to her. If the head of the Li Family still had a brain, then it would be impossible for anyone in the Li Family to trouble her at this time.

Fame was worth tens of thousands of gold in the eyes of those hypocritical people. It was not worth destroying the Great Wall4 for her, an orphan girl, who does not know what will come tomorrow.

Xiao Youning made a decision and prepared to sell the hairpin first.

Her main priority was to find a way to inquire about the circumstances of her father and eldest brother after she found a place to stay. Just as she took a step, she was stopped by Yuan Guo.

She looked back with questioning eyes.

Yuan Guo patted her chest, lowered his voice, and mysteriously said, “Young Miss, you don’t have to sell the golden hairpin! I sewed some silver banknotes in my dress.”

With that, she held up two fingers.

“Each note is 1,000 taels!”

Xiao Youning opened her mouth and stared blankly for a moment. Then, she clicked her tongue and asked, “How did you sew the silver banknotes to your body?”

It was still 2,000 taels and that was not a small amount. Where did it come from?

Yuan Guo laughed mischievously. “I heard an old momo5 say that when a woman enters her husband’s family, she should conceal her private savings and should not expose her properties to others. This way, she does not have to worry about when she wants to spend money. For these 2,000 taels, I wrote to Master a long time ago that the accountant should send it to me directly, and I was thinking about telling the Young Miss after today.”

Xiao Youning stared at the Yuan Guo. She opened her mouth and then closed it. She suddenly smiled. “Our family’s Yuan Guo is the most clever.”

2,000 taels was like receiving charcoal6 when it snowed. Moreover, it was like a ray of light that dispersed the dark fog around her.

When Yuan Guo saw the smile on her Young Miss’s face, she raised her eyebrows and smiled brightly.

But unexpectedly, she heard Xiao Youning say, “We should still sell the gold hairpin.”

“Huh?”

“Money should not be revealed inadvertently. Exchanging 1,000 tael banknotes would attract too much attention. But also, money should be used where it’s needed the most.”

In the capital, everything she did would require money. Not to mention that she wanted to inquire about her father and brother.

Footnotes

填房 (tiánfang) – term that refers to when a man remarries after his wife has died and the woman he marries serves as a “replacement” for the wife that died. Although the second wife will be considered the official wife, she is still subordinate to the first official wife. 分家 (fēnjiā) – Family separation means that the family has decided to divide their resources and financially separate into new families. 泾渭分明 (Jīng​ Wèi​fēn​míng) – idiom that means to be entirely different自毁长城 (zìhuǐchángchéng) – idiom that means destroying their own career嬷嬷 (mó​mo) – elder woman or or wet nurse雪中送炭 (xuě​zhōng​sòng​tàn) – idiom for helping someone in their time of need.