Chapter 14: Too Hasty

Fang Yuan did not know anything about the need for communication between husband and wife. What she did know was that if something displeased her, she had to say it and could not keep it bottled up.

She called out, “Are you outside stepping on ants? Why aren’t you coming in to tidy up the room? And another thing, don’t wait until tomorrow. Go over there right now and bring the grain and the hens back.”

Lu Er twitched the corners of his mouth. She really was someone who acted with lightning speed. Through the wall, he muttered, “We’ve been busy all day. Let’s do it tomorrow.”

Fang Yuan glared at him, extremely dissatisfied. “Are you stupid? Can tomorrow be counted as certain?” What if several hens got hidden away?

Lu Er thought to himself, You spoke so nicely to my mother just now. Turns out you never trusted her at all. “Don’t worry. My mother wouldn’t dare. You’re so formidable.”

Fang Yuan failed to hear the sarcasm in his words. “I mainly don’t trust that unclean woman, and that immoral one.”

The words sounded rather harsh to Lu Er’s ears, but she was not wrong. “Don’t worry. My mother guards against other people even more.”

Fang Yuan paused and looked at Lu Er with a solemn expression. “Then should I trust your mother or not trust your mother?”

Lu Er did not bother correcting the way Fang Yuan referred to her as “your mother.” If she could use that form of address forever, proving he had no relationship with this woman, that would be wonderful.

Although this girl seemed to have decent character, Lu Er truly did not think the two of them could get along with her headlong, reckless temperament.

Still, he entered the room. Speaking through a wall was inconvenient.

Fang Yuan hated things that required too much thinking. She immediately began lecturing Lu Er. “In the future, speak clearly. Don’t keep circling around and around like that. My brain doesn’t work very well. If I misunderstand something, don’t blame me for not doing things properly. It’ll all be because you didn’t explain yourself clearly.”

Great. From now on, every bit of blame would be his to carry.

Lu Er was left feeling thoroughly aggrieved. Fang Yuan’s notorious unruliness truly lived up to its reputation.

Patiently, Lu Er explained, “There isn’t even a chicken coop here yet. Tomorrow morning I’ll build one first, then we’ll go bring the hens back.”

Fang Yuan nodded. That did make sense. This man did have some sense after all.

She no longer rushed to bring the hens back from the bridal room. “If you’d explained it like that from the start, wouldn’t I have understood? Why talk in circles about trust and distrust?”

Lu Er remained silent and did not argue with her. He had already figured it out. This was someone with whom reason could not be debated.

Fang Yuan walked around the room inspecting things while Lu Er was ordered about in circles by her. After a round of commotion, the room finally became somewhat presentable.

Lu Er worked until sweat covered his forehead and frustration clogged his chest, yet when he looked at the arranged room, he found it carried a bit of warmth and a bit of festivity. He stood there blankly, unable to say a word.

Fang Yuan surveyed the surroundings and felt somewhat dissatisfied, but she did not continue fussing. “This looks acceptable. When my parents, eldest brother, and sisters-in-law come over, at least they won’t feel sorry for me.”

Hearing that, Lu Er felt somewhat guilty. A young woman getting married should have had a joyful occasion, but because of the mess his family had created, another girl would probably have cried and made a scene. Yet Fang Yuan was still thinking about her natal family at a time like this. He truly felt he had wronged her.

Thinking about Fang Yuan’s family made his headache even worse. He considered them far more formidable than Lu Feng. The problem was that the man Fang Yuan had been matched with and was supposed to marry had been Lu Feng. Now it had suddenly changed to him. Even though he was the one who had suffered a loss, he still could not give the Fang family a satisfactory explanation.

His parents had thought about this matter far too simply.

No one in that family was good at using their brains. Lu Er truly had to put in extra effort.

The Fang family was famous throughout the countryside. Her several brothers were known as the Five Tiger Generals, notorious for being difficult to provoke. Otherwise, why would their daughter have had such trouble getting married?

Although Fang Yuan was a bit unruly, she was capable. It was not that she was unmarriageable. The main reason she had trouble finding a husband was that her parents were too formidable, and she had five or six brothers backing her up, each one more troublesome than the last. That was the true reason Fang Yuan had difficulty marrying.

When Lu Feng had become engaged to the Fang family, the Lu family had known all of this.

At the time, Lu Er had thought that a person like his elder brother needed exactly such a powerful in-law family to keep him in line. So what if he suffered a little?

At least he had gotten a wife.

Now things were different. He was the one who would have to suffer. Lu Er regretted how hastily he had agreed to Lu Feng’s engagement back then.

Fang Yuan could not stand men who lacked awareness. Why was he always standing there in a daze? “There’s hot water in the pot. Hurry up and wash. All my things are new. Don’t go making everything filthy.”

Lu Er looked around the room. Everything was new.

Probably only he was old, making him seem completely out of place.

Fang Yuan carried her dowry washbasin decorated with the Double Happiness symbol and went out openly to wash up.

Lu Er carried the old basin from the house, the one with holes in it, and found an inconspicuous place to wash. No matter how he looked at it, he seemed like the one who had married into someone else’s family.

And on top of that, he seemed to be the one getting pushed around.

This was clearly the Lu family home, yet he felt like a live-in son-in-law. He wanted to act tough, but lacked the ability. His presence was weaker than that of a young woman. His fists were weaker than hers. And another thing, the hard currency in his hands was not as impressive as hers either.

Thinking about having to face the Fang family as well, Lu Er felt he needed to coax Fang Yuan properly. At the very least, she needed to become easier to talk to.

No matter how he thought about it, he should be the one suffering here.

He could not even tell whether he felt more wronged, or whether Fang Yuan did.

Lu Er smacked his lips.

How was he supposed to live this kind of life in the future?

Furthermore, it had been Lu Er who spread out Fang Yuan’s bedding. A maidservant who waited on people would not do much more than that.

After washing up, Fang Yuan climbed onto the kang and went to sleep without the slightest hesitation.

Meanwhile, Lu Er continued pacing around the main room.

What occupied his thoughts was not whether he should enter the newly tidied room.

What he was thinking was whether she would beat him if he did not go in.

When a scholar meets a soldier, reason cannot prevail. Besides, he was not in the right on this matter.

He himself was the compensation the family had given to Fang Yuan.

Lu Er’s heart had never suffered like this before, not even when he had lacked money for school because the family had spent everything to marry a wife for Lu Feng.

Inside the room, Fang Yuan frowned and shouted toward Lu Er in the outer room, “I won’t call you useless anymore, but you can’t be this useless either. Why do you drag your feet over everything? What can you actually do?”

That was even worse than calling him useless.

Lu Er’s expression became impossible to look at. How could a young unmarried woman have so little sense of shame?

And she was shouting about it so loudly.

What if the neighbors heard?

That would be mortifying.

Fang Yuan simply disliked how Lu Er never did anything decisively. “I told you to wash up, and you’ve taken forever. In the future, if I tell you to irrigate the fields or carry water, are you going to dawdle all day long too?”

This marriage really was unreliable.

Fang Yuan was somewhat dissatisfied with this man.

Lu Er immediately lifted his leg and entered the room. He truly dared not let this woman continue talking. The village was only so large. If she kept shouting in the middle of the night, all the neighbors would hear.

Feeling somewhat awkward, Lu Er realized he should never have been subtle or conflicted with Fang Yuan. He should simply say things directly.

Striding quickly into the room, he asked one question.

“Where am I sleeping?”

He said it very decisively.

Of course, that was only if one ignored the expression of someone closing his eyes and waiting for a verdict after speaking.