Back when Xu Huaqian was a civil servant, he had handled many of these old and trivial matters. He might not be able to help Chen Liejiu with major issues, but he could certainly assist with smaller ones.
Chen Liejiu, seeing him constantly worrying, smiled: "Your main focus now is to recover your health and heal your eyes. Once your eyes are better, what help couldn't you provide?"
"Health needs recovery, but help must also be given!" Xu Huaqian insisted. How could he let his husband shoulder all the burdens alone?
"Don't you want your face anymore?" Seeing that persuasion wasn't working, Chen Liejiu went straight for what Xu Huaqian cared about most. "If you don't recover properly, your face will age rapidly, becoming dry and ugly. How will you then go to the Golden Luan Hall and become the Tanhua, the handsome third-ranked scholar ?"
"Is it that serious?" Xu Huaqian touched his face. He didn't know if it was his imagination, but his skin felt smoother than before he lost his sight.
Also, he hadn't been coughing up blood much lately. Apart from needing to wear more layers than others due to his sensitivity to cold, he actually felt lighter and better than before.
"Mm." Chen Liejiu nodded, trying to scare him. Then, looking at Xu Huaqian's eyes, always bandaged, he frowned. "Do you really want to be the Tanhua that much?"
"Of course!" The Tanhua was officially recognized as the most handsome. During the parade, it wasn't the Zhuangyuan, top candidate that the ladies and men watched—it was the Tanhua.
He might not be able to give A-Jiu the healthiest husband, but he could give A-Jiu the most handsome husband.
The two would balance out. Seeing how good-looking he was, people wouldn't look down on A-Jiu for having a sickly live-in husband.
Instead, they'd think: such a handsome sickly man—I'd be willing too!
Chen Liejiu didn't know Xu Huaqian's thoughts. Seeing him so determined to become the Tanhua, he frowned slightly. Wanting to be the Tanhua meant he still had to take more exams.
Actually, after this incident, Chen Liejiu didn't want Xu Huaqian to continue with the exams anymore. He felt having the Xiucai title was enough.
Now, the villagers already respected him a lot more as the husband of a Xiucai. But if Xu Huaqian wanted to advance further, it meant more exams: provincial, metropolitan, and palace levels.
Just the academy exam for Xiucai had cost him his eyesight. Chen Liejiu didn't dare imagine—if he went for the provincial exam, would he even come out alive?
But just as Xu Huaqian supported him, since this was the path Xu Huaqian chose, he wouldn't refuse either.
All he could do was support him, smooth the path ahead, and help him walk it more smoothly.
After speaking, Xu Huaqian noticed Chen Liejiu had been silent for a long time. He spoke up: "A-Jiu?"
Chen Liejiu snapped back to attention: "Hmm?"
Xu Huaqian was a bit unhappy: "What were you thinking about? Why didn't you respond to me for so long?"
"I was thinking—" Chen Liejiu had initially wanted to share his thoughts but suddenly asked instead: "Who is Liang Jingru? Why could she give you courage?"
Xu Huaqian turned his head: "Huh???"
No way! He had just said it offhandedly, and his husband remembered it?!
Xu Huaqian recalled that he had casually mentioned making charcoal and bricks before, and Chen Liejiu had remembered, leading him to build such a large family enterprise in Xinghua Village.
Oh heavens, had he said any other shocking things that he might have heard?
"No one, nobody," Xu Huaqian swallowed nervously , trying to gloss over it. "Just nonsense I made up!"
"Really?" Chen Liejiu was skeptical . Then what were mobile phones , TV , air conditioning , and airplanes ?
But he didn't ask. He knew this husband he had snatched seemed to have many secrets he wouldn't share . It was fine if he wasn't willing to tell him now; he could wait until the day he was ready.
Xu Huaqian was unaware that many of his little secrets had already been exposed to his husband. No matter how careful a person is, habits formed over more than twenty years of modern life can't be hidden overnight.
His small, usually unnoticed complaints , the unintentional reveals when speaking with others, the unconscious murmurs in his sleep—these could be glossed over in front of others, but how could they escape the person who shares his pillow sleeping beside him every day?
It wasn't that Xu Huaqian didn't want to tell him; he just didn't know how. Could he directly tell Chen Liejiu he was a time traveler? Would it scare him?
Ancient people's attitude towards gods and spirits was always respectful but keeping a distance . He didn't want his husband to keep him at a distance because he was a time traveler.
He still wanted to be clingy and affectionate with his husband forever.
Because they needed to repair roads, fire bricks, and Xu Huaqian's eyes weren't healed yet, Chen Liejiu postponed Xu Huaqian's Xiucai celebration banquet.
Coincidentally, in two months it would be Xu Huaqian's coming-of-age birthday . He planned to combine the Xiucai banquet, birthday banquet, and wedding banquet all on that day. The timing was tight, and he was incredibly busy every day.
Hearing that he would be both celebrating his birthday and getting married, Xu Huaqian was quite startled. Was Chen Liejiu planning to arrange all the most wonderful moments of his life for him at once?
Chen Liejiu directly denied it: "It's to save money!" Due to the road repair, they didn't have much money left. "Doing them all together means people don't have to attend three separate banquets!"
In rural families, everyone was poor. Don't expect much in gift money ; it's hard to even cover costs. Hosting multiple times just means money gets eaten by others—not cost-effective.
But how often in life does one get to be truly happy ? Having a lively celebration wasn't a bad thing. Might as well have one big event—saving money while being happy was great!
"Alright." Xu Huaqian was persuaded by Chen Liejiu. He also felt it would be painful to have money spent on others eating for free multiple times. Once was enough.
However, he wasn't just idly staying at home, counting down the days until the birthday banquet.
After all, this was his first marriage in two lifetimes. Even if it wasn't grand, it should be warm and romantic .
He might be blind, but he wasn't disabled. If he couldn't do other things, he could still do what was within his ability.
For example, making knots.
This time, he wasn't making those pretty, decorative knots. He was making double-happiness knots.
Red silk threads, woven one by one into beautiful, vibrant red double-happiness symbols, looking festive and joyous , making Wang Wanwan and Chen Xiaomei quite envious.
Especially after they learned that Xu Huaqian had earned two hundred taels by making knots, they admired him even more.
How was their Second Brother so capable? It seemed like nothing in the world could stump him!
"Don't space out, keep reading!" Xu Huaqian, making knots while listening to Wang Wanwan and Chen Xiaomei read to him, noticed they had stopped and tapped the table to remind them.
"Oh—" The two snapped out of their fascination with his fingers. "Heaven and earth dark and yellow, Universe vast and chaotic, Sun and moon full and waning, Stars and constellations spread out—... Words that assist speech: Yan, Zai, Hu, Ye!"
"Finished!" Chen Xiaomei read the last character of the Thousand Character Classic, put down the book, hurriedly poured herself a cup of water, drank it, and let out a big sigh of relief, indicating she was done.
She had been bored to death !
Hearing her series of actions, Xu Huaqian smiled: "Don't forget, later you still have to teach Chen Wu and Chen Qiang how to read."
"Got it! Got it!" Chen Xiaomei waved her hand. She hadn't forgotten; she was just temporarily forgetting.
Hearing she wasn't slacking , Xu Huaqian felt relieved and concentrated on the red knots in his hands. The task is heavy and the road is long . He had only made two or three large red double-happiness symbols; he still had a long way to go before he could hang them all over the Chen family courtyard.
"I'm going to check on my chicks first. It's getting cold, and they're harder to care for." Chen Xiaomei watched Xu Huaqian make knots for a while. Seeing his slender fingers moving back and forth, forming characters quickly, it was nice to look at but also quite boring. She yawned and decided to go tend to her chicks.
Entering winter, her chicks were becoming harder to hatch, with more and more bad eggs.
Xu Huaqian told her it was because fertilized eggs in winter weren't as good as those in spring and summer. She could choose to pause the hatching workshop and resume in spring and summer.
Chen Xiaomei didn't agree at all: "But many people have already ordered chicks from me! And isn't business always about gains and losses? I can't just stop the business because it's less profitable, can I?"
From May until now, the first batch of chicks had all grown up and started laying eggs. The villagers, seeing that chicks hatched in kang beds really worked, came in succession to Chen Xiaomei to place more orders.
They bought for their own families and also for outsiders.
Due to distance and travel time, the people under Chen Liejiu who carried chicks out to sell couldn't sell them for just three coins each. They usually sold three for ten coins, earning a bit for travel and water. Only villagers could buy them cheaply. Many, seeing the business opportunity, ordered chicks from Chen Xiaomei to sell in farther places.
Chen Xiaomei had already promised the villagers there would be chicks every month. If she stopped now, people might think she wasn't hatching anymore and wouldn't come to her in the future. What then?
Hearing this and seeing she had her own calculations, Xu Huaqian immediately said nothing more.
He had tutored people before but never raised a child. He didn't know how to teach children, but he thought Chen Xiaomei was fine as she was— lively and cheerful with her own plans. As long as she didn't do anything bad, if what she said was right, he wouldn't contradict her.
Chen Xiaomei ran off to the rear kang room to check on her chicks. Wang Wanwan reviewed her book and characters for a while, watching Xu Huaqian's well-cared-for hands shuttle through the silk threads. She stared blankly for a moment, then hesitantly called out: "Sec-Second Brother?"