Chu Lian nodded. Of course she was going to treat her mother-in-law well. Although she had only met Madam Liu a few times, Chu Lian could tell that her mother-in-law was a person of integrity, someone kind and gentle.
If she wasn't, Matriarch He wouldn't have doted on her so much — at least, not to the point of personally visiting Madam Liu's courtyard. The fact that she did said a lot.
By the time the two of them finished their stroll and returned to Qingxi Hall, it was nearing lunch.
When Senior Servant Liu saw that the two young madams had arrived, she called for the maidservants to begin serving the meal.
Madam Zou's two daughters had already been brought to the parlour by their nursemaids and were seated. With the support of her maidservants, Matriarch He also settled down into her seat.
The round table was quickly filled with dishes. However, despite the happy sight that the feast made, Matriarch He sighed. "All the ladies in our family are here, except for your mother. If only she were well enough to sit here with us!"
After Matriarch He's words, everyone at the table sunk into silence. Senior Servant Liu noticed that the atmosphere had turned bad and quickly tried to change the topic. Madam, look here: "there's hasma today!"
Hasma was one of the most valuable food ingredients. It was good for beauty and keeping the lungs healthy. In the modern era, it was famous for its expensive price tag. Although Chu Lian was a foodie, due to her economical constraints, she hadn't actually seen any dishes made with hasma before.
After hearing Senior Servant Liu point out the hasma, Chu Lian shifted her gaze over and saw a small enamel bowl with a green turtle pattern. It was half-filled with something black.
Chu Lian: ......
This was hasma? Chu Lian couldn't suppress the corners of her mouth from twitching. She really should've known better. Considering the events that had transpired over the past few days, she should've just dropped any and all expectations she had for the cuisine here. There was no hope for this damned Great Wu Dynasty's food! She was better off expecting nothing. That way, at least she wouldn't be disappointed all the time.
She wouldn't have minded if it were any other ingredient, but this was hasma! Even if you had the money, you wouldn't necessarily be able to buy it. They actually placed it in a wok and just boiled it? Just like that? And they even made it into something this black and unappetising, like it was some poisonous, dark arts cuisine! Who would even dare to eat this?
Chu Lian's interest had been piqued at first, but upon looking at a hasma dish like this, she just couldn't gather up the desire to eat it at all.
Chu Lian shrunk back into her seat. Someone else could have that 'delicacy' instead.
After Senior Servant Liu reminded her of the highlight of the meal, Matriarch He immediately recovered from her sadness and smiled at her two granddaughters-in-law. "The Empress Dowager was the one who sent over this hasma; it's a very rare delicacy. It's good for women, so why don't the two of you share it later on?"
Madam Zou had eaten hasma before it and knew of its benefits. Some of her anticipation shone through in her eyes, but Chu Lian really didn't have the courage to eat that black dish.
She courteously said, "Since there's so little hasma, why don't you have it, Grandmother? My body is perfectly healthy; there's no need for me to eat it!"
Since Chu Lian had said so, it wouldn't be seemly for Madam Zou to take all of the hasma for herself, so she said something along the same lines.
They weren't able to change Matriarch He's mind, so Senior Servant Liu split the bowl of black hasma into three portions. It wasn't suitable for children to eat, so they didn't give any to the two young children present.
Senior Servant Liu was smiling as she passed a white bowl containing the hasma to Chu Lian. "Third Young Madam, you're quite lucky, aren't you? Even the Empress Dowager might only get to eat hasma once or twice a year. You've managed to come at just the right time to have some."
Chu Lian felt awkward and wanted to cry. She didn't want to be here right now, okay? Not if it meant she had to eat that!
Finally, she had no other choice. Chu Lian forced that small bowl of black hasma into her mouth and down her throat. Honestly speaking, it tasted terrible. The hasma had been fried and boiled so much, that it was now too salty to even taste. The only thing her tongue could discern when she put it in her mouth was salt; all of the original flavour had been completely lost.
After she finished eating it, she quickly washed it down with a bowl of tasteless soup.
This meal she had at Qingxi Hall was one of the most painful she had ever had.
Chu Lian had swallowed down the hasma like it was bitter medicine. However, she saw that Matriarch He and Madam Zou were slowly savouring it. They would alternate between taking a single bite of hasma and drinking a mouthful of soup, as if they were eating some rare delicacy. If she hadn't personally seen that charred hasma being split between the three bowls, Chu Lian might even have thought that they had been served different dishes.
All the tea served here was sencha. Chu Lian didn't dare to deviate too much from common sense in front of Matriarch He; essentially, she was stuck. She couldn't ask for another drink, but she couldn't stomach drinking the sencha, either.
After the meal, Matriarch He and Madam Zou were given wet handkerchiefs by the maidservants. They then elegantly dabbed at their lips and rinsed their mouths.
Matriarch He wanted to take a nap in the late afternoon, so Chu Lian took the chance to escape back to her own Songtao Court.
She really didn't dare to stay any longer, lest Matriarch He force her to eat something else equally weird.
He Sanlang still hadn't returned in the afternoon. When Chu Lian got back to her courtyard, the first thing she did was gulp down three cups of plain water before gargling with some fine salt. Only then did she manage to get rid of that strange taste in her mouth.
After being tormented for half the day, Chu Lian was finally able to rest. She leaned against the sofa by the window, relaxing as she enjoyed the cool summer breeze. It was gentle as it blew in from the outside, perfectly comfortable to take a nap in.
Xiyan and the other maidservants noticed how drowsy she looked. They brought over a thin blanket to drape over her before they quietly retreated, leaving her in peace.
When Chu Lian finally woke up, almost two hours had passed. The moment she raised her arm, she caught sight of the red jade bangle on her wrist and thought of what her sister-in-law, Madam Zou, had told her that morning.
She wrinkled her brows for a moment before calling out, "Xiyan!"
Xiyan hurriedly walked in. "Third Young Madam, do you have any orders for this servant?"
Chu Lian got up from the sofa. Her right hand toyed with the lustrous bangle on her left wrist as she said, "Let's go. I want to look at my dowry in the storeroom."
"Ah? You want to look at your dowry?" Xiyan clearly hadn't expected that Chu Lian would abruptly ask for something like that. The dowry had been selected before the wedding, and Chu Lian had overseen the addition of every item on the list. She was probably the one who knew best how much everything was worth. Why did she still want to look at the dowry?
"Yes, what's wrong? Am I not allowed to look at my own dowry?"
Xiyan quickly shook her head. "Please wait for a moment; this servant will go and retrieve the key to the storeroom now."
Chu Lian was a little excited as she waved Xiyan away with a smile. "Go, go."
At the very least, she was a legitimate daughter of House Ying. Although she wasn't a favoured one, the House of Duke Ying had to have given her a decent dowry. She had been married out to the House of Count Jingan, after all.
In her previous life, she had to earn every single cent of her money. However, after coming to the Great Wu Dynasty, she had gotten a fortune that was all hers without having to do anything at all. Just thinking about it made her quite happy.
In the Great Wu Dynasty, all daughters who married out of their houses had their dowries recorded with the local authorities. Their dowries were their personal assets. Even if they divorced their husbands later on, the women could take every single bit of their dowries away with them, no questions asked. This was one of the laws of marriage in the Great Wu Dynasty. Thus, the more dowry the new brides brought with them, the more respected they would be in their new households. In this thriving capital, the amount of dowry was a measure of how favoured the daughter was in her maiden family. With a thicker dowry, they would be able to hold their heads high, even in gatherings with all the other noble wives later on.
The novel had not described Chu Lian's dowry, and since Chu Lian had entered this Great Wu Dynasty right at the time of her wedding, she hadn't had any time to take a look for herself. Thus, she was still in the dark about the size of her personal wealth.
Xiyan led the way and Senior Servant Gui followed by Chu Lian's side. However, both of them had their heads lowered with strange expressions on their faces. Their gazes drifted frequently to Chu Lian, who was clearly in a good mood with a smile on her lips.
Songtao Court was not far from the couple's storeroom. They were able to reach their destination in just five minutes.
Xiyan instructed the maidservant watching the door to leave. Then, she personally opened one of the rooms with a key. "Third Young Madam, most of your dowry was placed here."
Although the room wasn't very well-lit, it was still daytime, so the light streaming in from the window allowed Chu Lian to clearly see everything inside.
It was a large room with a few rows of antique shelves. The shelves were completely empty, as were the few quality open cabinets scattered around. Right at the back of the room, there were a few red painted wooden boxes placed in a corner. Thanks to the significant empty space, the red boxes were extremely eye-catching.
The moment she entered, Chu Lian couldn't keep up the slight upward tilt of her lips. She looked around the room with widened eyes before turning to look at Senior Servant Gui.
Senior Servant Gui shot Xiyan a look and Xiyan hurriedly stepped forward, holding onto Chu Lian's arm. "Third Young Madam, why don't you take a seat over there? This servant will bring over the boxes with momo to let Third Young Madam look over everything."
Chu Lian looked suspiciously at Xiyan, who avoided her gaze. She let herself be led to the table without a word.
Following that, Senior Servant Gui and Xiyan set down four or five boxes in front of her. Although they were wooden and about as tall as a persons waist, the two women alone could carry them. It was clear that there wasn't much in them.
Senior Servant Gui pulled out a list wrapped in red leather and passed it to Chu Lian. She carefully picked her words as she said, "Third Young Madam, this is the list of all the items in your dowry. Take a look and see if there's anything wrong."
When Chu Lian had instructed Xiyan to retrieve the key to the storeroom, Senior Servant Gui had been thinking over why Chu Lian wanted to see her dowry. In the end, she decided that it was most likely because Chu Lian was afraid that something was missing from it and wanted to go through every item once again.
Chu Lian was smiling as she took the list and opened it. Her almond-shaped eyes swept down the list once and mentally tallied them up. Upon seeing that there was a total of 99 items, she inwardly nodded, satisfied with the amount.
Thus, she started reading out the list with some excitement, beginning from the very first item. She even got Senior Servant Gui and Xiyan to bring over the item to let her see.
"Exquisite Four Season Screens," Chu Lian read.
Senior Servant Gui and Xiyan exchanged glances before pulling out a screen frame and several embroidered screens, placing them on the table in front of Chu Lian.
Xiyan spoke up timidly. "Third Young Madam, if we set up this screen and take it apart again, the embroidery might get damaged. If you don't need to use it right now, it would be better not to set it up."
Chu Lian was completely stunned. First, she looked at the description in the dowry again before looking up at the item before her eyes. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The elegantly named Exquisite Four Season Screens was clearly just a few embroidered screens with some pieces of wood painted over Although she wasn't an expert at appraising the value of things, she could still tell just by looking at it that these screens weren't worth much at all. They were probably barely worth ten taels or less.
After looking at a few more items, they were all about the same as the screens. They seemed extravagant, but weren't of any actual value at all. While a little pretty, they were nothing compared to real treasures.
Finally, Chu Lian got too lazy to look at the rest of them. She waved her hand and got Senior Servant Gui to close all the boxes and put them back. Then, she held the dowry list in her hands and blanked out.
She had looked through the list carefully. There were almost 100 items in her dowry, but none of them were really worth anything. Judging by Senior Servant Gui's attitude, the only thing of value was a small yellow jade seal. She had already taken it out and personally put it into the pouch she carried with her at all times.
Other than the hundred items here, there was nothing else. There were no shops, no holdings, or even any farmland. Not a single one!
Chu Lian laughed bitterly to herself in her heart. So she wasn't really all that lucky after all.
Compared to Madam Liu's dowry, her dowry was way too shabby.