Zhou Ning'e

Zhou Ning'e

Jiang Family Courtyard, subterranean farmland.

Jiang Tu squatted by the ridge, suddenly recalling a matter.

Calculated by the months, Qin Niangzi's child should have been born long ago; the pregnancy was nearing thirteen months... Normally a ten-month pregnancy, even with discrepancies, should have delivered by now, yet the Golden Tome still had not displayed any events.

Had an accident occurred?

Jiang Tu furrowed his brows slightly. Eighth Rank in the Womb was a first since ancient times—could it be that the fetus's cultivation was too high for a pregnant woman to endure? Or was an Eighth Rank cultivator's pregnancy simply different from ordinary people's?

Had she gone and conceived a Nezha? A demonic pearl descending into the world?

Unexplainably, Jiang Tu felt a bit nervous, but the Golden Tome showed no death event, indicating that both mother and child were still alive, at least proving that the settlement Wang Congyun found was sufficiently safe... He could only temporarily set his mind at ease and wait patiently. He had a premonition that when the child was successfully born, it should contribute a decent wave of karmic value and cultivation improvement to him, which made him quite expectant.

The next day, early in the morning.

Just as dawn broke, Jiang Tu busied himself among the farm ridges. Early spring tasks were especially numerous; plowing, fertilizing, and sowing could not be neglected in the slightest.

As he busied himself, he suddenly heard a commotion. Raising his head, he saw Big Household Zhou leading a mighty group of farmers over. He hoisted a jar of wine, followed by a cart of grain and more than half a side of pork, while the other farmers carried hoes and shovels.

"Brother Tu! Keeping busy?"

Big Household Zhou laughed heartily as he set the wine and meat down on the field path, greeting the men behind him: "Don't just stand around! Go plow the land for Brother Tu!"

The farmers answered the call and headed down into the fields, moving with brisk efficiency.

Jiang Tu froze for a brief moment, just about to say something when Big Household Zhou pulled him away: "Come, come, come, let's go inside and talk, let them work."

Without allowing any argument, he dragged Jiang Tu into the back hall with a mix of pulling and tugging.

Jiang Tu was completely baffled.

This wasn't a festival or a major holiday; Big Household Zhou's unearned favor clearly signaled he had matters to discuss. Ever since the incident in Dajiang County, Big Household Zhou had been completely listless—how had he managed to perk up again today?

Inside the back hall, wine and dishes were served shortly.

Big Household Zhou personally poured wine for Jiang Tu, then filled his own cup.

"Brother Tu, I heard you are preparing to make a trip outside recently? Do you have some path to getting rich? Where are you planning to go make a fortune?"

Jiang Tu had indeed let word out, claiming he was going to Welcoming Wind City to purchase seeds and fertilizer, preemptively building momentum for the "Fake Wife Plan."

Welcoming Wind City was a famous, large city in Jiangnan, second to none across the entire Jiang Prefecture. Commercial trade among travelers flourished there, and they even held night markets; with a massive population flow, bringing a wife back from such a place was entirely reasonable.

"Yes," Jiang Tu casually replied. "After the incident in Dajiang County, premium-quality seeds are practically extinct and command astronomical prices. I figured I'd go try my luck in Welcoming Wind City. I heard that after the disaster, many premium-quality seeds flowed into the black markets over there."

Big Household Zhou waved his hand: "Don't listen to outsiders talking nonsense, there's no such thing! True superior seeds were long ago carved up and divided cleanly by surrounding large cities, great households, and Daoist priests."

He set down his wine cup, speaking with a serious expression: "If you're going for that, you might as well not go. I still have a batch of superior seeds in my hands that I transported from Dajiang County and hoarded back then. Though there aren't many... I can give them to you to plant."

Jiang Tu's heart stirred.

Big Household Zhou had indeed hoarded quite a few superior quality seeds in his hands, and even possessed a batch of premium-quality medicinal seeds, lacking no shortage of fine goods that surpassed the Wind-Listening Lotus. If he could get his hands on this batch of goods, the scale of his subterranean farmland would at least double twice over!

Yet Big Household Zhou had always hidden this batch of seeds away like an heirloom, not even letting anyone touch them—what was wrong with him today?

Jiang Tu looked at him suspiciously: "Grandpa Zhou, you've always hidden your seeds tightly away and given them to no one. How come you're suddenly so generous today? Could it be you have some other matter to find me for? I just knew you were someone who couldn't sit still; you've only been well-behaved for a few months and now you want to do what?"

"Spit it out, and I'll help you carefully strategize."

"No, no, no." Big Household Zhou waved his hands repeatedly, his tone rare in its solemnity: "My zeal vanished long ago; I don't even think about ways to get rich anymore. I just want to guard my Zhou Household's ancestral property and live a steady, down-to-earth life."

He poured another cup of wine, threw his head back, and drained it in one gulp.

"I won't hide it from you either. I really do have a plea when visiting today. If this matter succeeds, from now on we'll be family, and everything belonging to my Zhou Household will be your Jiang Household's."

Jiang Tu's back grew cold: "???"

"The more you talk, the more dangerous I feel. Should you just leave instead?"

"No! You have no idea how much resolve I gathered just to come find you!"

"In the end, what is this about?"

Big Household Zhou opened his mouth, holding back for so long that his face turned entirely red, and then... he abruptly picked up the wine jar and slammed it onto the table.

Bang!

"Drink! Just talking won't let me get it out! You wait until I get some alcohol in me!"

Jiang Tu didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but he could only drink along. After advancing to the Eighth Rank, his constitution had been continuously improving, and his alcohol tolerance rose accordingly. In any case, Big Household Zhou needn't think about getting him drunk.

Cup after cup, from the sun hanging high to the sun sloping westward.

Big Household Zhou's face grew redder and redder, his words more and more numerous, yet he consistently circled around and refused to speak of the main point. Jiang Tu didn't urge him either, simply drinking slowly as he waited.

Until evening, three rounds of wine had passed and the dishes were mostly eaten.

Big Household Zhou suddenly set down his wine cup, covered his face with both hands, and choked with sobs.

"Brother Tu... I won't hide it from you, my life is bitter! The bloodline of my Zhou Household all lives bitter lives. Our family has always been thinly populated, as you also know. No matter how many times I've conditioned this body of mine, I simply cannot father a son."

"When I went to Dajiang County back then, it truly wasn't to get rich! I went precisely for the sake of awakening my Awakened Wisdom... I thought that if I too could awaken, perhaps my body could get better? Perhaps I could live a few more years and stand a chance of fathering a baby boy to pass down the family incense?"

"And now? What the hell is there? Nothing is left!"

Jiang Tu helplessly pacified him... How did this start up again? Every time night fell he had to get emo, didn't he? How many times had it been?

Big Household Zhou waved a hand to signal him to keep listening.

"My life has been bitter, fine... but I didn't expect that Heaven truly wants to cut off my Zhou Household! My young daughter Ning'e... her life is even more bitter! Brother Tu, we are straightforward people, so let's not mince words! I came to your door today just to ask you, would you be willing to marry my Ning'e?"

The hand with which Jiang Tu held his wine cup abruptly froze: "???"

What did that mean?

We've been close friends for years, and you want to be my dad?!

Are you advancing your seniority here out of nowhere?

He had seen Big Household Zhou's daughter Zhou Ning'e once. The young girl was born bright and clever, learned whatever she was taught, and her appearance was top-notch. Forget about Xiaopei County, across the entire Jiang Prefecture you couldn't find a few like her... Since she was young, the people coming to propose marriage had broken down the threshold, yet Big Household Zhou hadn't fancied a single one and kept them all locked outside. Why on earth was he suddenly wanting to marry her off to him?

When things go against the norm, there is bound to be a demon!

Jiang Tu instinctively grew vigilant.

He was a man with fully functioning faculties, so of course he liked pretty girls, but he truly didn't have much interest in romantic attachments. Longevity was fundamental; no matter how good-looking mortal women were, they amounted to just a few decades—pink skeletons ending up as a patch of dirt...

Once he gained cultivation and lifespan that transcended the long river of time, what kind of confidantes couldn't he find?

Asking him to marry Zhou Ning'e made him think not of a good thing, but of the trouble he might invite.

"Master Zhou," he put down his wine cup, "you and I have associated for many years, and you know what kind of person I am. All my thoughts are pinned on this patch of land, and I'm just a down-to-earth, bare-footed peasant. Besides, I am already past thirty, while Ning'e is just in her graceful youth at sixteen, a delicate beauty. I've always looked at her like a younger junior and child."

"Furthermore, you only had a child late in life, and you've cherished her in the palm of your hand since she was little. Giving her to me is giving me too much credit."

"No, no, no!" Big Household Zhou grew anxious. "Brother Tu, let me finish listening!"

"Recently, I've already been selecting a match for Ning'e. I thought that with our Zhou Household's conditions—tens of thousands of acres of premium quality farmland and a century-old family estate—it wouldn't be out of the question to take in a matrilocal son-in-law to have children later and continue the family line."

"Yet, only after I had a female physician inspect Ning'e's body did I find out that Ning'e will never be able to bear children in this lifetime."

Jiang Tu was startled. There was even this kind of plot twist?

"Her body was already frail due to a difficult birth in childhood, and it took me many years of recuperation to get her better. In the end, though, the sequelae were left behind."

Big Household Zhou's voice grew lower and lower.

"Which decent person would be willing to enter a household as a matrilocal son-in-law, only to live their entire life without a single child? To take Ning'e as a legal primary wife, with one heart and one person for a lifetime—could you find such a person in this world? Impossible! In the future, her fate might just be to become someone's concubine. If that happens, neither our Zhou Household's estate nor this bloodline can be passed down."

"I've looked at everyone around me, and only you! Brother Tu! Only you are someone I can depend on!"

"You don't covet my family estate, nor do you care about romantic attachments. As long as you are willing to openly and ceremoniously marry Ning'e with the rites of a primary wife, and promise that even if you take concubines in the future to pass on the family line, you will still protect my Ning'e's status as the legal primary wife, all the property of the Zhou Household will be yours! From now on, I'll treat you as my own sworn brother!"

Jiang Tu was silent for quite a while. A primary wife who couldn't bear children? And it seemed he wouldn't even need to take concubines?

There was such a good thing?!

This seemed to perfectly solve his problem regarding a wife! He could easily shut the gossiping tongues of the public!

In the future, it might even help him solve an even bigger identity problem...

He didn't care too much about the Zhou Household's century-old estate; taking it for nothing would genuinely make people jealous. The crucial part was that batch of premium quality farmland seeds, which would rightfully belong to him.

After much deliberation, he made his decision.

"Master Zhou."

"Ah?"

"It's a deal! I, Jiang Tu, am willing to offer Zhou Ning'e the three letters and six rites, carry her in an eight-bearer sedan chair, and betroth her as my primary wife, one person for a lifetime."

Big Household Zhou was stunned, and immediately tears welled up and poured down!

"However, I have one more favor to ask," Jiang Tu said earnestly. "Once I agree to this marriage, Ning'e will be my wife. Might I ask you to keep it a secret externally... and not make the matter of her inability to bear children public? After all, this is a young woman's private matter, and I don't want to make a huge fuss all over town!"

"In addition, the continuation of the family line, which people of this world value so much, isn't actually very important to me. Since childhood, I have been orphaned and alone, growing up on meals from a hundred families, and even now at thirty, I have yet to marry. I've always taken a very broad view of this matter. Matters of progeny—if I obtain them, it is my fortune; if I lose them, it is my destiny. Should Ning'e fortunately be blessed by the heavens to bear offspring in the future, that will be my good fortune. If not, spending this life with just one person will be fine as well. I will not take concubines."

Big Household Zhou's pupils abruptly constricted.

The next moment, he couldn't help but burst into loud sobs, grabbed Jiang Tu in a tight embrace, and shouted incoherently.

"This... this... brother! Good brother! I truly didn't misjudge the person!!"