Chu Wan’s marriage to the Lu family was arranged when she was still in her mother’s womb.

It was said that when Old Master Lu was still a child, her great-grandfather had saved him and even raised him for a year or two. Later, her grandfather and Old Master Lu fought together against the Japanese, and they were as close as brothers. When they encountered the Japanese, her grandfather risked his life to save Old Master Lu, but was himself captured in the process and was dragged to death, split apart by five oxen.

Old Master Lu survived by chance, fought against the Japanese invaders and saved the country, and made a great career for himself, but he always remembered this incident from his early years, and even more so, he remembered his good brother who died without even a complete body for him to bury. He was determined to repay this kindness and to be filial in place of his good brother.

After Liberation, major events were settled. Old Master Lu was in a high position and had great power. However, the Chu family, a big antique dealer in Liulichang, had already been destroyed. Old Master Lu searched everywhere for the descendants of the Chu family, but found no news.

A few years later, by chance, he discovered that Great-grandfather had actually been living in seclusion in Yongling Village, and that the posthumous son of his late good brother was still alive.

He wanted to be a filial son on behalf of his good brother and take care of Great-grandfather, and to raise his good brother’s posthumous child as his own.

However, her great-grandfather said that he did not want to go back to the city, but only wanted to stay in this mountain village under an assumed name and live in peace and quiet.

As for any support or anything like that, he didn’t want it at all.

He only made one request, which was to arrange a marriage with the Lu family. As for what kind of marriage, he pointed to his half-grown grandson and said that if this grandson had a son in the future, he would ask for a daughter of the Lu family to marry him, and if he had a daughter, she would marry into the Lu family.

Old Master Lu was naturally willing and agreed with a stroke of his pen. The two parties even signed a marriage contract.

In 1965, Chu Wan was born, and the promised marriage finally came to fruition. Old Master Lu even came specially to see his future ‘granddaughter-in-law’ and told her great-grandfather that he would definitely raise his grandsons well and let Chu Wan choose the best one among them.

When Chu Wan was less than one year old, the suburbs of Changping suffered from a severe rainstorm and flood, which triggered a mudslide and caused countless deaths and injuries. Chu Wan’s mother was in trouble and was washed away by the water. Chu Wan’s father tried his best to save her but failed and was hit on the head by a falling rock.

For the first time in his life, her great-grandfather took the initiative to call Old Master Lu, and Chu Wan’s father was quickly taken to the Union Hospital for treatment. However, by then, the injury was already beyond hope, and Chu Wan’s father died in the Union Hospital.

Old Master Lu took Chu Wan to raise her. After one or two years¹, she was taken back to Yongling Village, and she stayed in Yongling Village with her great-grandfather from then on.

When Chu Wan was a little older, every year, she would be taken to the city to live with Old Master Lu for a while. She was calm and smart. Although she didn’t talk much, Old Master Lu loved her very much, even more than his own grandchildren.

Old Master Lu has five sons. At that time, his five sons responded to the call of the country and each gave birth to several children. Anyway, the Lu family has many grandsons, so she could pick the best one from among them.

But the problem was, if she married a man from the Lu family, what if she was unlucky enough and Lu Jianshi pestered her again for other reasons? Wouldn’t she be so angry that she would die?

She had no idea what to do. After all, she really didn’t know how to choose a man. She didn’t know if she could drag a man to her great-grandfather to let him check.

Fortunately, she could still delay this matter, so there is no need to be too anxious.

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

She looked around her home again. It was extremely poor, and there was nothing valuable.

There was no other way. Great-grandfather was old and couldn’t do anything. She had to take care of the land and the persimmon trees at home by herself, but she was not good at farm work. She could only do a little here and there, and she was lucky enough to be able to make a living.

Old Master Lu was a man of great loyalty and righteousness. He sent people over every two months to bring some rice, flour, grain and oil. With this help, the family could get by, barely.

However, after living a new life and seeing the prosperity of the world, Chu Wan was not content with poverty. She understood the power of money, and she needed to make a lot of money.

At least for Chu Wan, money was really omnipotent.

She sat down, thought carefully, and began to plan her future.

She had no other skills to make money, so she still had to go to the antique market to find bargains and make money by reselling things. She was familiar with this.

In addition to making money, she also wanted to follow Chen Lei’s path: find a way to get into college, study archaeology, and take the legitimate path.

Chen Lei had a lot of luck in her previous life. She may not have much real ability, but she had a good appearance and could easily fool people.

Chu Wan felt that she had to work hard and learn from Chen Lei, and succeed in getting into the Archaeology Department of a good university. In this way, she could also give herself a legitimate background.

When she thought about it, there were really a lot of things to do. She would pick up some textbooks in the next two days to see if she could understand the high school content. Then she would go to the antique market in the city in a few days to look for opportunities.

Chu Wan checked the house and found that there was not much left in the flour jar; it was almost empty. She poured the newly bought white flour into it and took out the piece of meat from the basket.

This piece of meat was top-quality pork belly, weighing a full catty. It was probably exchanged for eggs.

Her grandfather was a vegetarian and didn’t eat meat. This has been his habit for many years. She, of course, ate meat, but this one pound of meat was probably not for herself alone. She was probably intending to cook it to share with Su Yanjing.

Chu Wan felt that she had been so stupid before. How could such a good thing be given away to that stinky man?

She recalled the situation in the village. There were two teachers in the village primary school now: one was Su Yanjing, and the other was Teacher Ning, who was in his forties. It was said that Teacher Ning used to teach in the city and taught in a high school. However, he was declared a traitor a few years ago and was driven out of the city and ended up in their village. Although he was rehabilitated in recent years, his wife was a villager and he didn’t want to go back, so he simply taught students in the village.

It was difficult for Chu Wan to get high school textbooks by herself, so she needed to ask him to help her take a look and also give her some advice.

She immediately rummaged through her boxes and drawers and took out her high school textbooks. The textbooks were still there, and there were no missing pages. After opening them, she had a vague impression of most of them, but she has basically forgotten the details.

Especially math. She had not been good at math in high school, and it was even more of a headache for her now.

She couldn’t help but sigh for a moment—it was so difficult to get into university.

She put her textbooks there, took out a handful of chestnuts from the sack and peeled them. Then she went into the kitchen, cut the pork belly, and made braised pork with chestnuts.

This kitchen was different from the ones in the future. Not only did she hardly cook anymore, but even if she did, it would be on a gas stove, not over a fire.

But now there was no other way, she could only cook by herself using what was in this kitchen. Fortunately, she still remembered how to light the stove and pull the bellows.

After a lot of effort, even blackening her nostrils, she finally finished cooking and was very satisfied. The chestnuts were golden yellow and the braised pork was a shiny brown and red, looking like it was about to be burnt.

She took a bite of the chestnut. The chestnut had absorbed the fat from the braised pork and was sweet, fragrant, soft, and glutinous. It was indeed delicious.

She was naturally satisfied at the moment. She kept some for himself to eat and put the rest into an old porcelain jar, covered it with a lid, put it in a basket, and carried it to the north of the village.

The north side of the village used to be the brigade office, which was simple and remote. The village had always wanted to build a new primary school but had to give up because of the lack of foundation.

Teacher Ning’s family and Su Yanjing all lived in the adobe house behind the school. Teacher Ning’s family occupied two rooms, and Su Yanjing had one room to himself.

When Chu Wan went over with the basket, she happened to see Su Yanjing talking to someone at the gate of the primary school. The person talking to him was the village chief’s daughter, named Sanxi.

Sanxi was the only daughter of the village chief. She has been spoiled since she was a child. The village chief’s family was rich, so she had no shortage of food. Her pockets were always filled with peanuts or boiled eggs. Even though everyone else was starving, she had become a chubby and round girl.

She was a stutterer, and her family was unwilling to let her settle down, so she never found a suitable partner.

Chu Wan watched from a distance and saw Sanxi also carrying a bamboo basket, wanting to give the things inside to Su Yanjing.

Sanxi blushed and stammered, “Su- Teacher Su, tofu- tofu is delicious…”

As she said this, she lowered her head and wanted to give the tofu in the basket to Su Yanjing with a shy look.

When Chu Wan saw this, her heart moved.

Sanxi had a very strong personality. She was spoiled by her family, so she was simple-minded and arrogant.

In the previous life, Sanxi also liked Su Yanjing, but Su Yanjing didn’t think much of Sanxi. He disliked her for being fat and stupid. Later, Su Yanjing was admitted to the university. When the admission letter arrived in the village, his household registration needed to be transferred away and he needed the village chief to stamp it. The village chief had him by the neck and gave Su Yanjing a lot of trouble.

Su Yanjing was very worried and went to find Chu Wan, who went to talk to the village chief.

The village chief had received favors from her great-grandfather in the past, so after Chu Wan went to talk to him about it, the village chief had no choice but to let him go.

As for this life…

Chu Wan moved closer to the persimmon tree to hide her figure.

Who the hell cared about you?

Pearls and Jade Beside Me in the 80s translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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T/N: Braised Pork Belly with Chestnuts

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Chapter 5.1 — Thick Skin is a Must
Chapter 5.2 — Thick Skin is a Must
Chapter 6.1 — He Gave Her Pocket Money
Chapter 6.2 — He Gave Her Pocket Money
Chapter 6.3 — He Gave Her Pocket Money
Chapter 7.1 — There Must be Compatibility Between Husband and Wife
Chapter 7.2 — There Must be Compatibility Between Husband and Wife
Chapter 8 — The Beauty of Line Carving
Chapter 9 — In My Eyes, This Is 200 Yuan

FOOTNOTE:

1. ‘A year or two’ isn’t literal. Chu Wan was 5 when she was taken back by her great-grandfather. So Old Master Lu was probably raised by Chu Wan’s great-grandfather for more than just ‘a year or two’. ↩︎