TTTQF Chapter 101

Enjoying It

"Miss, the prince and the young lady are coming over here," Grandma Gao tells Grandmother Pei the news she heard from a young maid.

Grandmother Pei nods, her fingers continuously rotating the prayer beads in her hand. She glances at the several bastards and their wives and children who are sitting impatiently below her. After she gives a soft cough, the room immediately falls silent.

Meanwhile, Pei Che and Jiang Miao are approaching, both sporting large dark circles under their eyes. Jiang Miao has applied medicine to his leg wound, and after a night's rest, it is almost healed. To be cautious, he applies another layer of ointment in the morning, and to avoid rubbing it off while walking, he moves very carefully.

Their odd posture, combined with the appearance of their faces, is seen by others as proof that they "fought fiercely all night" yesterday. Seeing this, everyone can’t help but sigh in admiration, thinking that the young master must truly favor his male husband!

"Che'er has brought Ah Miao to pay respects to Grandmother and offer tea," Pei Che says as he leads Jiang Miao inside. Grandma Gao has already placed two thick cushions on the ground so they can kneel to serve tea.

"Please have tea, Grandmother," Jiang Miao follows Pei Che's lead, taking the tea from the maid's tray, bowing his head, and respectfully offering it forward.

Grandmother Pei accepts Pei Che's tea, takes a sip, and then receives Jiang Miao's tea, lightly touching her lips to the cup. After placing it down, she wipes her lips with a handkerchief and says, "Now that the wedding has been held, you are officially husband and... husband. From now on, you must support each other and live in harmony. This is the right way."

"Che'er/Jiang Miao, we will follow Grandmother's teachings," they respond in unison.

"Good, stand up," Grandmother Pei says, glancing at Grandma Gao. Understanding the signal, Grandma Gao takes out two pouches from her robe and places them in Grandmother Pei's hands.

"This is a small token from your grandmother, accept it."

"Thank you, Grandmother!" Pei Che and Jiang Miao receive the pouches but find them very light. However, when it comes to gifts from elders, the lighter the better.Heavy gifts usually meant nothing more than gold or silver, but light ones, anything is possible.

After paying respects to Grandma Pei, the two still have to serve tea to Pei Che’s three uncles and aunts. Fortunately, there is no need to kneel before them, just a slight bow as they hand over the tea.

According to the order, they first serve tea to Pei Shiyuan and Li Yijia. After the tea is presented, the two reluctantly accept their cups and drink under Grandmother Pei’s watchful gaze. However, after they drink the tea, the atmosphere in the hall suddenly shifts. The reason lies in the meeting gift that Li Yijia gives to Jiang Miao.

She gifts a ruby hairpin set. In terms of craftsmanship and material, it is undoubtedly a rare treasure. However, such a fine item appearing at this moment carries a deeper meaning. Pei Che has married a male spouse, yet the hairpin set is something intended for a woman..

The hall falls silent, and everyone holds their breath, waiting to see how Jiang Miao will react. The whole household has already heard about how he verbally sparred with a group of scholars the previous day. This male husband is known for his sharp tongue. Now, being slighted by Li Yijia, will he let it go? Even Grandmother Pei is watching closely, curious about how Jiang Miao will handle the situation.

Unexpectedly, Jiang Miao doesn’t show any displeasure. Instead, he smiles warmly and thanks her. Seeing this, Grandmother Pei finally feels a sense of relief.

Being sharp is a good trait, but acting recklessly without considering the situation is improper. In a scenario as obvious as this one, if Jiang Miao had caused a scene on the very first day of the wedding, he would have fallen into their trap and lost face.

Jiang Miao and Pei Che then move on to greet Pei Che’s third uncle and aunt.

This household has no conflicts with Pei Che, so their gift is something suitable for a man to wear. Although it isn’t as valuable as the ruby hairpin set, it is still a thoughtful gesture. After Jiang Miao thanks them, Pei Che also smiles at the pair.

In the fourth household, there has been a previous conflict between Pei Qi and Pei Mu, which led to their punishment by Grandmother Pei. Though they don’t dare show open discontent, they harbor resentment toward everyone. Learning in advance about the gifts prepared by the second household, they decide to give something similar, both to upset Pei Che’s side and to curry favor with the second household.

Jiang Miao and Pei Che accept their meeting gifts without a change in expression, which only makes the fourth household even more uncomfortable.

After offering tea, it is their turn to present gifts to their elders and distribute meeting gifts to the younger generation. These gifts are all prepared by Pei Che. Aside from Grandmother Pei, the gifts for everyone else are modest but proper, leaving no room for criticism. Even so, they are still more dignified than the deliberate provocations from the second and fourth households.

Pei Shiyuan doesn’t expect Jiang Miao to be so composed. The information they gathered indicates that he is a strong-willed person who doesn’t tolerate being wronged. But Jiang Miao’s understanding of the bigger picture makes them feel awkward instead. In fact, they had prepared something else, intending to use it when Jiang Miao caused a fuss, so they could claim the maid had mistakenly brought the wrong item. They never expect him to accept everything without a word.

Actually, the information they gathered isn’t wrong, but they miss one detail: Jiang Miao treats all valuable items equally. As long as it’s worth something, why would he care about its appearance?

For the sake of these lovely valuable items, Jiang Miao is willing to make sacrifices. The reason both he and Pei Che have dark circles under their eyes is because they stayed up late into the night going through the gift list.

…

Last night, Pei Che came back drunk. Jiang Miao is about to resign himself to taking care of him for the night when Pei Che suddenly sobers up. Since the people who escorted him back have already left the courtyard, it turns out that he has only been pretending to be drunk for show, to keep others from realizing he hadn’t actually been drinking.

Now fully awake, Pei Che takes the cloth that Jiang Miao has prepared to wipe his face. Pei Che feels a bit regretful—had he known, he would have kept up the act a little longer.

After wiping his face, Pei Che prepares to call in Chan Yi and Wen Jing to carry the sleeping Pei Mu back to his own room.

“Don’t. It might wake him. Just let him sleep here, the bed is big enough,” Jiang Miao says.

Pei Che immediately shakes his head. “That won’t do. I’ll have them move carefully. Today is our wedding night, and if people find out that Mu’er spent the night here, it would be like telling everyone that our marriage is a sham.”

"You’re right, I didn’t think of that. Go ahead and have them take him back," Jiang Miao agrees, realizing that Pei Che has a point. Having a third person in the room on their wedding night would indeed raise suspicions.

However, when Jiang Miao thinks about the phrase "wedding night," he can’t help but feel a little flushed. Whether in the modern era or ancient times, he is still a virgin. Though he knows their marriage is fake, the festive red decorations in the room, with wedding symbols plastered everywhere, create an atmosphere that is hard to ignore. Especially after Pei Mu is carried out, leaving just him and Pei Che in the room, Jiang Miao feels even more awkward.

So, he clears his throat and says, "Those two girls just gave me a key and told me to hold onto it. But I think it’s better if you keep it yourself."

He takes out the key, places it on the table, and pushes it toward Pei Che.

Pei Che frowns and says, "What girls? From now on, just call them Chan Yi and Wen Jing." It isn’t that Pei Che looks down on them; he just finds terms like "girls" or "miss" too ambiguous and intimate.

"Alright then, here, you take the key," Jiang Miao says.

"You hold onto the key for me," Pei Che replies. Seeing Jiang Miao frown, he quickly adds, "Right now, you’re my partner. If people find out that I don’t let you manage my private assets, they might get suspicious."

In reality, this is Pei Che taking advantage of Jiang Miao’s lack of experience. In the Daliang empire, noble families rarely hand over private assets to their wives after marriage. Likewise, husbands are not allowed to touch their wives' dowries. The household expenses are managed from communal funds.

"What if I lose track of something?" Jiang Miao asks.

"So what?" Pei Che replies.

That’s right, Jiang Miao thinks. This guy has so much money, he probably wouldn’t miss a little. Since Pei Che insists on letting him manage it, Jiang Miao might as well go along with it.

He goes over to the spot where Chan Yi and Wen Jing have just placed a chest and carries it back to the table. Honestly, he is curious about how much wealth Pei Che has, but he was too shy to inspect it in front of the two maids earlier.

Jiang Miao inserts the key into the lock, turns it, and removes the bronze lock. When he opens the chest, what greets him are rows of book-like items, far from the gold, silver, jewels, and land deeds he imagined.

His disappointment is too obvious, and Pei Che notices it right away.

"Ah Miao, you didn’t think my entire fortune was in just this one chest, did you?"

Jiang Miao snaps out of it and flips through the books in the chest, realizing they are account books from various shops and inventories from storage warehouses. He randomly opens one and sees that a single day’s revenue is equivalent to two months of his own income. Jiang Miao quickly closes the book, afraid he might get too overwhelmed. But his curiosity soon gets the better of him, and he keeps opening and closing the books repeatedly.

Pei Che watches him with interest. Suddenly, he remembers that the gift lists from the day have just been delivered. Without saying a word, he grabs Jiang Miao’s hand and leads him to an empty room.

"What’s this about?" Jiang Miao, still engrossed in the books, is a bit annoyed at being pulled away.

"On this table are the gift lists from the guests who attended today’s banquet. They’ll be moved to storage tomorrow, so you can take a look first. If there’s anything you like, we’ll set it aside." Pei Che pulls him to sit down and stuffs a book into his hand..

"Wasn’t this banquet hosted by the household? Shouldn’t the gifts go to the household, too?" Jiang Miao asks, flipping through the scroll. Many of the items listed are things he has never heard of or seen before.

"Of course not. When a man from the household marries, three thousand taels of silver are set aside for all arrangements. In my case, since I'm the heir, they added another two thousand taels, bringing the total to five thousand taels. This money doesn’t go through the official accounts, so the gifts naturally belong to us. Of course, any future social obligations and reciprocity will be our responsibility. Most of the bride price and dowry were prepared from Grandmother and my parents’ private assets, so in fact, not all of the five thousand taels were spent on the wedding. After everything is settled, the remaining money will be transferred to our accounts. In the future, whenever you need silver, you can go to the accounts room to withdraw it."

Jiang Miao is stunned and filled with admiration. The wealth of noble families is truly incredible. No wonder everyone wants to marry into one. For ordinary people, money is everything, but for families like this, it’s just numbers.

Suddenly, Jiang Miao finds himself admiring Pei Che. With all this wealth, he still studies so diligently. If Jiang Miao had achieved financial freedom, he would’ve already become a carefree wanderer, traveling all over the country without a care.

They spend most of the night looking over the gift lists. After barely getting any sleep, they are called up early to serve tea again. No wonder they are so tired. But when you're enjoying yourself, a little exhaustion is worth it.

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