Volume 1, Chapter 5: Death Clears All Debts; Shall We Go Burn Paper at the Grave?

“No!” Mrs. Zhao interrupted Shen Yuan urgently. “You can’t go to Ziyun Academy. My son is a scholar, and scholars care deeply about their reputation! How can you damage my son’s honor?”

Reputation?

It’s always those shameless people who care most about reputation!

Shen Yuan sneered, “If you want reputation, then pay back the money.”

“My brother doesn’t owe you a single cent!” Chunhua suddenly burst out from the corner, trying to snatch the IOU note from Shen Yuan’s hand. But Shen Yuan was faster; she snapped the lid shut, stepped aside to avoid Chunhua’s reach, and casually extended her leg.

Chunhua tripped and fell flat on the ground, landing awkwardly on Mrs. Zhao, who also tumbled down hard.

“Ouch!” Mrs. Zhao cried out in pain.

“Juxiang, are you alright?” The local official instinctively helped Mrs. Zhao up.

Leaning on the official’s strength, Mrs. Zhao staggered to her feet and shot Shen Yuan a venomous glare. “You wild girl, what madness possessed you today? When my son returns, I’ll tell him how you injured Chunhua and Qiuyue—and I’ll make sure he…”

Her words caught in her throat.

Shen Yuan laughed aloud, “Make him what? Break off our engagement?”

The words “break off the engagement” burned her tongue; Mrs. Zhao couldn’t bring herself to say them. Her previously fierce anger was instantly snuffed out.

But Shen Yuan pressed on, taunting, “Do you dare have your precious son break off our engagement? Without me, who will pay his tuition? Without my silver to support him, can he even pass the exams? Your entire Chu family leeches off me; do you dare to break off the engagement?”

“What’s there to be afraid of!” Having torn off all pretenses, Mrs. Zhao arrogantly lifted her chin. “My son is gifted; countless wealthy young ladies and noble heirs in the city admire him! Without you, he will have plenty to support him!”

“But you, a wild girl hiding in the deep mountains and forests, no man in the village would want you without my son! It’s just a broken engagement? Fine, break it now! I never wanted you anyway!”

Mrs. Zhao stormed inside, tore up the marriage contract the Chu family held alongside Shen Yuan’s, and threw the pieces on the floor. “Break it, break it, break it! It’s the Chu family who is breaking the engagement because you are not worthy of my son!”

She stomped on the shredded contract with her hands on her hips.

Breaking off the engagement was acceptable! But paying back the money was impossible!

Only after the official handed the written notice of broken engagement to Shen Yuan did she finally curl her lips into a smile. Without the bond of engagement this time, she had swiftly shaken off the burden of Chu Yuning.

Seeing Shen Yuan still smiling, Mrs. Zhao said angrily, “When my son becomes the top scholar, you’ll regret this!”

“Three days. If you don’t gather one hundred taels and return it to me, then it won’t be the official here settling this, but the magistrate in the city!” Shen Yuan said without wasting words, then turned and left the Chu household.

Chunhua clutched her scraped knee and cried incessantly, while Mrs. Zhao irritably sent her inside.

Once the courtyard was empty except for Mrs. Zhao and the official, Mrs. Zhao buried her head in his arms.

“She has the IOU written in Yu’er’s own hand. What if she takes this evidence to the magistrate? Am I really going to have to cough up the silver I swallowed over these ten years? I’m just a woman, lost my husband early—where would I get so much silver? One hundred taels! Our family’s annual harvest barely earns five!”

The official comforted her, “Don’t worry, I’ll think of a way to help you.”

Mrs. Zhao wiped her tears. “What way?”

Lowering his voice, the official whispered, “She goes into the mountains every month for ten to fifteen days at a time. The best herbs grow deep in the forest. What’s most abundant in the deep mountains?”

“Wolves, tigers, and leopards?” Mrs. Zhao’s eyes lit up. “That wild girl might get eaten by wolves one day!”

If she dies, the debt dies with her. Then where’s the money?

Should I burn paper money at her grave?

Shen Yuan returned home and told Nurse Liu about breaking off the engagement with Chu Yuning.

Nurse Liu was surprised. “But didn’t you like that Chu family boy very much?”

“That was before. I don’t like him anymore.”

Sitting in the courtyard, Shen Yuan looked up at the rolling mountains in the distance and murmured, “Besides, I’ve realized these past two days that liking someone is the most unreliable thing in the world. It’s like the mist in these mountains—illusory, fleeting. Grandma, isn’t that so?”

Nurse Liu didn’t answer yes or no. She simply patted Shen Yuan’s back gently.

“It was that Chu boy who was no good and who let you down! It’s all his fault!”

Shen Yuan breathed a light sigh of relief. She had expected Nurse Liu to ask about the reasons, to probe why she ended the engagement, but Nurse Liu asked nothing.

She said nothing, needing no words from Shen Yuan, and simply stood behind her, declaring it was Chu Yuning’s fault.

That must be the unconditional support of family.

There are things far more precious than love in this world. She had been blinded in her past life, only seeing Chu Yuning.

Suddenly, the garden gate was pushed open from outside. Shen Yuan turned and frowned upon seeing old hunter Zhao Dayong from the village.

Zhao Dayong was rough-looking and impulsive. He carried a bloodied rabbit leg as he entered the courtyard. “Miss Yuan, I hunted a wild rabbit today. Here, try some of the meat!”

“Thank you!” A rabbit leg didn’t have much meat, but for villagers like them, it was a rare delicacy. Shen Yuan smiled and thanked him.

Zhao Dayong continued, “Guess what I saw in the mountains? A ginseng plant—huge, probably over a hundred years old! Look, here’s a leaf from it!”

He handed Shen Yuan the leaf. She glanced at it and knew he was telling the truth.

“I didn’t dare dig it up, afraid of breaking it and losing the chance to sell it. You go dig it up and bring it back. I’ll give you two strings of cash as a finder’s fee.”

Because Shen Yuan often went into the mountains to gather herbs, she had grown acquainted with Zhao Dayong, who frequently hunted there.

Sometimes, Zhao Dayong would tell Shen Yuan where good herbs grew since he didn’t know much about picking them—like which needed to be dug up by the root and which only required picking leaves. He earned some money by selling her information.

Shen Yuan was generous; when she gathered plenty of herbs, she sometimes gave Zhao Dayong some medicine for stopping bleeding, detoxifying, and warding off cold for free.

Stroking the leaf, Shen Yuan asked for the ginseng’s approximate location and learned that from the back of the village, she would have to cross three mountain peaks. But it was already dusk, and if she went now, she might not make it past even one peak before darkness fell.

Seeing her hesitation, Zhao Dayong urged, “Go quickly! The place is easy to find. If someone from another village finds and digs it up first, we’ll lose the silver!”

Shen Yuan said nothing.

No matter how valuable the ginseng was, life was more precious.

She wasn’t about to risk her life for a bit of money.