Chapter 371: Chapter 372: Getting Married

Those other villages had even banded together, wanting the Gu family to take in more of their students and train a few scholars for them free of charge.

But there was no justification for such a request. Before, they had allowed those children to enroll alongside their own village’s kids for just a symbolic tuition fee. They never expected those people to get so greedy, demanding the exact same treatment as their own children.

Although the Old Clan Leader was a bit soft-hearted, he refused to indulge them. He immediately raised the tuition for the children from the other villages by a significant amount, which finally shut them up.

Wenheng was still concerned about the group that had gone to move the ancestral graves. "Has the party that went to Bainiao returned yet?"

"We haven’t received a reply. If they can’t find an auspicious date before the year’s end, they’ll have to wait until after the New Year to return." As he said this, Gu Yuanshui showed not a hint of worry; in fact, he seemed faintly excited.

He turned to his nephew. "Le Huan, go wait outside for a bit. I need to discuss something private with your uncle."

Gu Lehuan was curious, but under the watchful eyes of the two sharpest men in the Gu family, he silently stepped out onto the covered walkway.

Wenheng raised an eyebrow at him. ’Acting so mysterious... this can’t be good.’

"Remember that widow, He Guwu?"

A flash of disgust crossed Wenheng’s eyes. "Why bring her up?"

"She got married. Can you imagine how heartbroken Father will be when he comes back and finds out?"

Gu Yuanshui’s face was alight with schadenfreude. It wasn’t that he looked down on widows in general, just this particular woman. She didn’t know her place and treated everyone else like an idiot.

"That’s a good thing. The law encourages widows to remarry. Perhaps a better life awaits her." Wenheng had no intention of indulging Fourth by asking the questions he was clearly fishing for.

Gu Yuanshui was speechless. ’Would it kill you to play along?’

"Still, our families aren’t connected, so we won’t need to send a wedding gift, right?"

"Seventh, you’re doing this on purpose," Gu Yuanshui said, jabbing a finger at him. "Aren’t you even a little curious how Father will react when he returns?"

Wenheng shook his head. "I won’t be there to see it anyway, so why would I be curious?"

Gu Yuanshui was at a loss for words again. ’Damn it, he has a point. Does that make me look stupid?’

"Forget it." Unwilling to admit he was being foolish, Gu Yuanshui pressed on with his story. "Ever since Father went back home to move the graves, that pair of mother and daughter came to our village to cause trouble a few times. But your sisters-in-law chased them away every time.

They were too clever for their own good, thinking that if they had Father under their thumb, they could control our entire family.

She should have asked around. The Gu Family doesn’t go looking for trouble, but we’re not afraid of it either.

Only she would think her petty little tricks were impressive.

It only took a few rumors. Combined with the trouble she’d already caused in our village, everyone in the area knew what she was like. The rumors quickly spread and took on a life of their own."

At this point, Gu Yuanshui glanced at Wenheng’s still-expressionless face, leaned in, and lowered his voice. "Somehow, those rumors attracted a few local ruffians. They started showing up in her village every night, just loitering around. It made everyone there quite nervous for a while."

"These rumors had nothing to do with you, did they?"

"How could they?" Gu Yuanshui answered instantly. Seeing Seventh’s suspicious look, he pursed his lips and added, "We just complained a bit while we were out drinking, that’s all. Mentioned how all the silver we brothers gave Father for his expenses had been completely spent by him.

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Maybe those people just have dirty minds and read too much into it. A misunderstanding."

Wenheng was silent. ’If you hadn’t said anything, would they have even thought of it?’

With so many people showing up in Shengdong Village every day to gawk, He Guwu and her daughter weren’t the only ones who couldn’t take it. The entire village started to complain.

After all, with so many riffraff coming and going, it became inconvenient for the women and children to even leave their homes.

The unspoken pressure from the entire village forced He Guwu to make a choice.

"But the woman is clever, I’ll give her that. She put out the word she was looking for a husband for her daughter and set the bar incredibly high. She made everyone think her confidence came from our father, and some people actually went to propose marriage.

It worked out great for her daughter, really. She managed to marry a minor landlord. With a generous dowry, she became the young mistress of the house the moment she married in.

He Guwu herself wasn’t so lucky, though. On the very night her daughter got married, a drunkard supposedly snuck into her house. The next morning, they were discovered in bed together.

At that point, the people of He Village would no longer tolerate her. That very day, they forced her to choose: leave the village, or get married immediately, either by marrying out or taking on a husband.

I heard the woman was still running her mouth, threatening that the Gu family wouldn’t let them get away with it and claiming our father had already promised to marry her.

Speaking of which, I really have to thank you for those clan rules you established.

To help our village’s young men find good wives, the matchmakers have been promoting our clan rules nonstop. Naturally, the people of Shengdong Village knew about them too. They used those very rules to shut He Guwu up completely.

It’s a shame we had so much going on at home then, otherwise I would have definitely gone over to watch the show.

With things escalating to that point, the drunkard insisted that the widow had invited him over and that it wasn’t the first time they’d had a secret affair.

No matter how much He Guwu might have hated it, she had no choice but to admit to it.

When we heard the good news, our families all got together and had a big celebratory meal. It was just a shame you weren’t there."

Wenheng paused. "...As long as you’re all happy.

Fourth Brother, you didn’t come all this way just to bring Mother here, did you?"

Gu Yuanshui gave him an admiring thumbs-up, then rubbed his hands together. "I wanted to come and have a look around. If possible, I’d like to start a new venture here."

Wenheng asked, "But what about in Fu County? Aren’t you always struggling to keep up with the orders from passing merchants?"

"That’s mostly just for dried tofu skin. Now that a few families have gotten the hang of making it, we’re not struggling to keep up anymore. In fact, we even have a surplus.

I was thinking, if I could set up a workshop here, we could make more than just dried goods."

’There are so many kinds of soy products, and the population of Shangjing is huge. If I could get a business going here, it would be just as good as, if not better than, the one in Fu County.’

Over the past two years, many people had wanted to invest in their tofu workshop. Some even offered a high price for their secret recipe, but the brothers refused them all.

While some had tried to figure it out on their own, the brothers kept the truly crucial steps of the process a closely guarded secret.

Wenheng considered it. "You can give it a try if you want. As long as you don’t engage in any shady dealings, I can protect you here in Shangjing."

’Wenheng knew his brothers’ personalities better than anyone. Gu Yuanshui was likely the most ambitious and restless of them all. Since he was bound to take a step like this eventually, it was better to have him here, under his watch.’

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