Chapter 15: Marriage Arrangement

“Scholar Li, the books and silver have been placed on the table.” A maidservant brought more than twenty books and placed them on the table. Beside them was 500 taels of silver.

“Mm.” Li Si responded, then seemed to think of something and asked, “Are these all the books in the residence?”

“Yes, Scholar Li,” the maidservant answered.

“Oh.” Hearing this, Li Si nodded and waved his hand. “Then you may withdraw. I want to read properly.”

After the maidservant withdrew, Li Si sank into thought, and the room fell silent for a while.

Li Si was thinking about how there could be forty to fifty books in his own home. This Zhang Residence was so wealthy, yet it only had a little over twenty books. In the original owner’s memories, his parents had only been ordinary people, so why did they have a large house in the city?

Suddenly, Li Si’s head erupted with intense pain. The pain made him clutch his head with both hands, his fingers digging fiercely into his hair and pinching his scalp.

“Ah!” A suppressed cry of pain rang out in the room.

Suddenly, one male voice and one female voice sounded in his mind.

“Si’er, Father has arranged a marriage for you. Are you happy?”

“Mother brought you books. From now on, you can study.”

“You must never blame Father and Mother. Father and Mother are doing this for your own good.”

“Once we form a marriage alliance with the Nie family, our family will not have to live so bitterly anymore. Father and Mother have wronged you.”

“When you pass the provincial examination and become a recommended man, you will marry her, my poor child.”

“Run, hurry and run!!!”

The suppressed screams in the room slowly weakened. Li Si lowered his hands from his head, and only then did he discover that his entire body had already been soaked with sweat.

He remembered. When the original owner was young, his family had been extremely poor. His father was a rotten gambler, and his mother was only an ordinary village woman. It would not be an exaggeration to say their home had been bare of everything. All of this changed when he was five. After his father told him that he had found him a marriage arrangement, his family could afford to buy a house, and he also began to have books to read.

He also suddenly remembered the cause of the original owner’s parents’ deaths. His parents had gone to find the Nie family to dissolve the engagement and had been away for a full seven days. By the time they returned, they were already dead. The original owner had also suddenly forgotten this matter.

“So it was because I had a marriage contract that I could study properly like this, and that there was a large house at home.” The corners of Li Si’s mouth curved into a faint smile, only this smile was somewhat forced and bitter. The original owner had clearly been sold by his parents, and it definitely could not have been to any good place. Perhaps they had even arranged a ghost marriage for him.

But now, this had nothing to do with the original owner. It was his own matter now. This marriage arrangement was now his.

“But it is not as if there is no way.” A flash of insight passed through Li Si’s mind. He suddenly remembered that in the conversation he had just recalled, one sentence mentioned that he could marry her after he passed the provincial examination and became a recommended man.

Then as long as he did not take the imperial examination, or as long as he failed to pass, it would be fine. Moreover, the provincial examination was in August. It was only May now, so there were still three months. There was no need to be so anxious now, nor any need to panic. After all, in three months, perhaps he would already be able to break out of this situation easily.

Li Si breathed out. Once his thoughts cleared, he felt much more comfortable. What he needed to think about now was how to get out of this Zhang Residence alive.

Knock, knock... Suddenly, a series of knocks sounded, startling Li Si.

“Scholar Li, are you all right?” the maidservant’s voice came from outside the door.

“I am fine. I just fell down,” Li Si called to the maidservant outside.

“All right. If Scholar Li needs anything, you may call me at any time. My name is Xiaolan.” After she finished speaking, the footsteps outside the room grew farther and farther away.

When he could no longer hear any sound, Li Si began flipping through the books placed on the table. He discovered that most of these books were books like the Four Books and Five Classics.

Li Si also felt that there was nothing to do now, so he took a book and began reading. Speaking of which, it was strange. Once he started reading, he actually became absorbed. He only felt that the meanings of the classics in this book were indeed extremely subtle and profound. After carefully pondering them, he felt they were even more marvellous beyond words. They actually made him calm down at once and begin studying seriously.

All of this was because he had the original owner’s memories. Otherwise, reading this would only make him feel that it was obscure and difficult to understand.

Dong, dong!

Dong, dong!

Dong, dong!

“The weather is dry, mind your fires and candles!” Suddenly, the sound of the night watch came from outside, startling Li Si awake from his absorption in reading.

“The Xu hour.” Li Si froze. This stretch of reading had actually lasted five or six hours, and he had not felt time passing at all.

Knock, knock... A burst of knocking came from outside the door, and a woman’s voice sounded at the same time: “Scholar Li, I am Xiaolan. Master and Madam have gone out on business, so I have brought your meal.”

“Mm, all right. Bring it in.” Li Si answered, and a pretty woman came in from outside carrying a tray. This woman was the one who had shaken Li Si awake earlier.

“Place the food on the table.” Li Si moved the books on the table aside, leaving a large blank space just enough to set down the tray.

When Xiaolan placed the tray down, Li Si frowned slightly. On the tray were two dishes, one soup, and a bowl of rice. Yet the two dishes and one soup were vegetarian, without the slightest trace of meat. This was completely different from lunch. At lunch, more than ten dishes had all been meat, while now they were all vegetarian.

“Something is strange.” Li Si’s heart jumped. Then, while Xiaolan was arranging the dishes, he quietly took out the Eight Trigrams Mirror and glanced at her. But Xiaolan in the Eight Trigrams Mirror still looked like an ordinary person.

“Not a ghost.” Li Si breathed out inwardly, then asked Xiaolan, “Do you know that the Zhang Residence is haunted?”

When Xiaolan heard Li Si suddenly bring up the Zhang family haunting, her hand, which was arranging the dishes, suddenly trembled, and some soup spilled out.

“I naturally know.” Xiaolan’s face turned somewhat pale, and a trace of fear appeared in her eyes.

“Then why do you still dare stay in the Zhang Residence?” This question was something Li Si had just thought of. If the Zhang Residence was haunted, why did the people of the Zhang Residence still dare stay here? Were they not afraid of being killed by the ghost?

“Scholar Li, you are worrying too much.” Xiaolan smiled somewhat reluctantly, then said, “The haunting in the Zhang Residence is mainly in the Blue Flower Courtyard. As long as you do not go to the Blue Flower Courtyard, nothing will happen.”

A look of understanding immediately appeared in Li Si’s eyes. He smiled and said, “Then there is nothing else. You may go out.”

“All right, Scholar Li. I will come later to take the bowls and chopsticks.” Xiaolan answered and withdrew.

Li Si picked up his chopsticks and began eating. At first, he had been so absorbed in reading that he had not felt hungry, but now he felt ravenous.

Just as Li Si was enjoying his food, he suddenly felt somewhat chilled to the bone, as if something were staring at him from behind.

Li Si secretly glanced toward the window from the corner of his eye. He saw that at some unknown time, a hole had appeared in the paper pasted over the window. In that hole, a bloodshot eye met his gaze directly.