Chapter 1114: Unpredictable Weather
Back then, they were just hoping to bring some good fortune and change the direction of Zhu Yanqiu’s illness by shifting the bad luck onto someone else. So they came up with an idea of having a child bride.
It was right in the prime of the late Qing era, the Eight-Nation Alliance had already wiped out the Old Summer Palace and the military had set up an independent regime. There was social unrest and the citizens were struggling to survive. It was a terrible time. Zhu Suniang’s parents had only sold Zhu Suniang to the Zhu family because they had no other choice. The Zhu family compared Zhu Suniang’s birthdate characters to Zhu Yanqiu’s and found that they were a good match, so they gave Zhu Suniang’s parent’s half a chain of copper.
From then on, Zhu Suniang belong to the Zhu family. Country folk usually didn’t have much of a name. Zhu Suniang was the fourth in the family, so she was called Si Yatou (fourth girl). The Zhu family wasn’t satisfied with this name, so Zhu Yanqiu’s scholar dad gave the original host the name Suniang, and even allowed her to take on the Zhu family surname.
This way, she counted as part of the family and would be able to help share the burden of Zhu Yanqiu’s bad luck.
Child brides didn’t usually have much of a status in the family, and so Zhu Suniang’s status was pretty much like that of the maids who looked after Zhu Yanqiu. She was pretty much like a chamber maid.
At eight years old, Zhu Suniang had come to terms with her fate. At the very least, she could eat her fill at the Zhu family.
Perhaps they had managed to bring some fortune, because Zhu Yanqiu’s health gradually improved. Zhu Suniang then started looking after Zhu Yanqiu every day, helping him bath and feeding him, and she even had to play with him. It could be said that Zhu Suniang was both a wife and a mom.
Zhu Yanqiu inherited the good skin of the Zhu family. In his little Western-style suit and small leather shoes, every time he headed out, it was easy to tell that he was the young master of a wealthy family.
Peiping’s unrest didn’t really affect this Jiangnan countryside village. As the last emperor of late Qing abdicated, the feudal era finally ended and the currency in circulation changed from copper coins to Fatman coins and paper notes. Zhu Yanqiu and Zhu Suniang also gradually grew up.
When Zhu Yanqiu turned sixteen, he consummated marriage with Zhu Suniang.
However, the sky always held unpredictable weather. The Zhu family encountered a crisis and the businesses they owned directly closed down. Lord Zhu vomited blood, then fell ill. He was never able to get up again and, in the end, gave up and passed away.
All the valuables in the house were used to settle the debt. After burying Lord Zhu, they dismissed the household servants and the family of three moved out of the large residence to squeeze into a little house.
Zhu Yanqiu couldn’t get used to this enormous disparity and felt completely lost. Finally, his feelings stabilized and he told Mother Zhu he wanted to go to Shanghai to study.
This was a time of colliding ideas, as old ideas collided with new concepts. Women were now able to enter the classroom, wearing improved cheongsams that revealed their slender arms. The new students learned Western-style ideology. Zhu Yanqiu wanted to revive the Zhu family through attending college.
Mother Zhu gave Zhu Yanqiu most of the money that the family still had so that he could go to Shanghai to attend college.
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