Transmigrated Farmgirl's Scheme to Get Rich - Chapter 167
The carriage took Mo Yan all the way to her home’s courtyard, and Lu Junming only left after ensuring she had entered the building.
The rain only stopped in the middle of the night. When Mo Yan left the house in the morning, the ground was slightly wet, but not to the point where it had turned into mud.
It would take until mid-morning for the carriage carrying the dowry furniture to arrive, so she wanted to go to the fields to see how the medicinal herbs were growing before then.
After being accustomed to riding a horse, she thought walking was too slow, so went to Lu Junming’s house to ride the red bay horse.
From a distance, Mo Yan could already see the field was filled with green, but couldn’t tell if they were weeds or medicinal herbs. She dismounted the horse to carefully traverse the wetter gutters before arriving in front of the field.
Rows of chinese foxgloves swayed gently in the wind, some already producing small purple bellflowers. However, there were a lot of weeds growing in-between the medicinal herbs. The dandelions and carrageenans could stay, however, many of the other weeds couldn’t.
The soil had been softened by the rain, and couldn’t be walked on, so Mo Yan only took a look from the outskirts before heading back home. This time, she took the red bay horse with her.
When she entered the courtyard, Mo Feng had just gotten out of his room. He took one look at the red bay horse, and instantly grabbed its reins and stroked its fur, repeatedly praising, “It’s a good horse, such a good horse.”
Around mid-morning, they heard the sound of a carriage nearing the courtyard. Then, a man asked, “Madam, excuse me, but is this the Mo family?”
Their neighbour, Mrs. Liu replied, “Yes, it’s there, and you are…?”
“We’re here to deliver furniture.”
Mrs. Liu hollered towards the Mo family, “Ms. Liang! Mo Ling’s dowry just arrived!”
She hadn’t even finished speaking before Ms. Liang had rushed out to collect the furniture.
In front of their courtyard were three carriages, all covered by oil tarps to prevent any damage from occurring.
One of the deliverymen nodded towards Mo Yan and Mo Ling, “It was those two who chose the furniture, I think there was another gentleman with them?”
Lu Junming walked up to them at this very moment, “That’s me.”
“Yes, that’s right. Madam, you’re very lucky to have such attractive children.” [1]
After exchanging pleasantries, they began to move the furniture. The three deliverymen started moving the wardrobe on the first carriage, but it was too large and too heavy, so they were struggling. Lu Junming went to help them, but Mo Feng ducked to one side.
Mrs. Liu shouted towards her own courtyard, “Ergan, Sangan, come over and help!”
The soil was too wet after the rain, and they couldn’t work, so they stayed at home.
The two young men, one around sixteen, the other around fourteen, ran out. Mrs. Liu waved towards them, and the two had to help out as well to move the wardrobe inside.
They didn’t have a dedicated space to hold all of this furniture, so just put some wherever there was room. The bed was left unassembled to reduce the amount of space necessary.
After all of the furniture had been moved, Mrs. Liu ran into the house to look at the specifics of the dowry, while the deliverymen asked for the remainder of the bill.
Mo Yan asked, “We gave five silver taels upfront, so we just need to pay fifteen silver taels more, right?”
“That’s right, here’s the receipt!”
A deliveryman handed it over to Mo Yan, who half-jokingly turned towards her mother and said, “Mother, keep the receipt! You can discuss repayment with sis later.”
Mrs. Liu left the house and sauntered over to take a look at the receipt. Although she was illiterate, she still knew her numbers.
“Twenty silver taels?! That’s the largest dowry in our entire village! Ms. Liang, quick, give them their money, don’t let them come all the way here for nothing!”
Mo Yan had never been more grateful for Mrs. Liu’s existence than this very moment. Ms. Liang wouldn’t back out of paying in front of an outsider, especially one she had been feuding for and that was their neighbour.
Ms. Liang took out the silver taels, and the deliverymen left. Once Mrs. Liu had gone back home, she said to Mo Yan with a darkened face, “Did you run out of money?”
Mo Yan replied happily, “Mother, how can we interfere with you gaining reputation in the eyes of our fellow villagers?”
Ms. Liang didn’t need to have it spelled out for her to understand. If Mo Yan had paid for her sister’s dowry, it’d seem like there were no competent adults in their household, causing them to be ridiculed.
But at the end of the day, the breadwinners of the family were Mo Ling and Mo Yan, so Ms. Liang was unwilling to antagonise them too much.
Tomorrow was the sixteenth of April, and Mo Ling’s dowry was going to be sent that day. Mo Yan had already gone to the carriage dealership, and ensured the landau she wanted had already been finished. Even the manager of the dealership said that this landau was the best one he had ever made in his entire life.
After fitting the red bay horse with accessories specifically made for it, she hitched the landau to the horse and went back home.
The landau stopped in front of the courtyard, and Mo Yan called her sister over to unhitch it. When Mo Feng heard they had taken the landau home, he instantly rushed over to take a look.
The handsome red bay horse looked even more glamorous with the landau and the accessories. Mo Feng couldn’t keep his eyes off it.
He unhitched the landau and stroked the horse, then gazed at the landau. He had fallen in love with both of them. [2]
Ms. Liang came out of the courtyard. When she took a look at the landau, the first thing she asked was how much it cost, and Mo Yan replied, “Do you want to repay me for it?”
As Ms. Liang was as miserly as before, once she heard that, she immediately turned around and went back inside.
Mo Yan’s second grandma had also come out, and repeatedly praised the landau and the horse once she saw them. She had wanted to touch them both several times, but shrank her hand back every time.
Mo Yan smiled and said, “Second grandma, touch it! You won’t damage it that easily.”
She laughed and waved her hand, “There’s no need, I just need to watch. You need to be careful with such a precious carriage, how about you keep it in the back courtyard?”
The back courtyard wall was crumbling, but there was enough space to park a landau there.
Mo Yan looked at Mo Ling, and the two decided to go with their second grandma’s suggestion. The two worked together to move the landau, with their second grandma opening the back gate for them.
The back courtyard was very empty, so they parked it directly opposite their second grandma’s cottage, so she could look at it from the window at any time.
The next day, Mo Yan’s uncle’s family arrived early, and everyone in the village who had connections to the Mo family also arrived.
In the contemporary era, they didn’t hold banquets if a daughter was to be married. In addition, only the members of the natal family sending their daughter to marriage could participate in the wedding, so her family and friends could only wish her well when they sent the dowry away. The gifts and money they gave were called ‘dowry additions’ and ‘carriage presents’, and were intended to send the soon-to-be bride off.
Ms. Liang absolutely refused to lose face at this critical juncture, so had placed miscellaneous dried fruits and snacks on a table beforehand.
The people who helped Mo Ling send her dowry were all young and strong men from the village. Amongst them was Dagan, who had skipped going to the workshop today for this. Daqiang was also there; after all, how could he miss out on a job like this, where he didn’t have to do any heavy labour and can get both good food and some money?
The red bay horse was driven by Daqiang as well, while Mo Feng stayed in the landau to symbolically keep an eye on the dowry.
Behind them, there was a row of five carriages, which filled the entire street between them and Mrs. Liu’s house. Inside the carriages were furniture, home decor, clothing, jewellery and more. To acquiesce with the villagers’ requests, they showed all of it to them.
Post-translation notes: I was worried that the old woman living in the back courtyard alongside Mo Yan’s second grandma would damage the carriage in some way. Thankfully, my worries were unfounded, and as always, thank you for reading!
[1] Is this foreshadowing that Lu Junming will marry Mo Yan? Maybe, maybe not…
[2] Mo Feng: what would happen if an impoverished playboy ever existed.