Chapter Twenty-Two: The Pretty Boy

“Here is your gift money.” Tian Yachun’s face was expressionless as she tossed a dozen silver notes onto the ground.

“Thank you. If you want to eat, just ask the kitchen to prepare something. If you don’t want to eat, you can sleep in the backyard.”

Those dozen notes should amount to over ten thousand taels of silver. Zhang Chen smiled as he picked them up, but his voice suddenly grew heavy:

“A husband and wife don’t necessarily have no grudges overnight. What if last night I had been killed by bandits? What if they had chopped off one of my arms or legs? What if they had grievously injured me in a way that made me a eunuch?”

“At the Ma Family Clinic, you said that once the young lady moves to Zhang Village, the past would be forgotten.”

Dong Mei cursed Zhang Chen silently: “Heaven help us, son-in-law, you better be fine moving to Zhang Village. The young lady already gave you over thirty thousand taels of her private savings. What more do you want?”

“Zhang Chen, husband, I was wrong. I apologize. Please forgive me,” Tian Yachun bit her lip, wanting to bite Zhang Chen to death herself. “It won’t happen again. Please spare your humble wife this once!”

Zhang Chen was already exasperated by the Tian family. As he walked out, he said, “If apologies were effective, why would we need the police? If apologies worked, why would we need constables? I’m a decent man, going to consummate the marriage. You can do as you please—go back to the county town if you want. If we don’t divorce, we’ll only hurt each other. Xiaotian, it’s best we separate.”

“If I don’t consummate the marriage with you, then I’m not a decent woman!” Tian Yachun’s anger surged as she rushed over, biting Zhang Chen’s left cheek hard enough to leave a row of teeth marks and draw blood.

“Men and women should be intimate; how can you bite like that?” Zhang Chen gasped in pain, breaking free from her embrace and heading to the backyard.

Back in the bridal chamber, Zhang Chen, though lightly injured, did not back down. He and Xia Hua spent an hour fulfilling their marital duties before falling asleep in each other’s arms.

The next day at dawn, Zhang Chen got up to practice martial arts. Learning that Tian Yachun had not left the previous night, he shook his head—this troublesome woman had truly set her sights on him!

After Xia Hua woke up, despite Zhang Chen’s protests, she insisted on serving tea to Zhang Chen’s lawful wife, Tian Yachun.

“Husband, Miss Tian is your rightful wife. I am your concubine. Not serving her tea is disrespectful and would make people mock our family.”

Tian Yachun warmly welcomed Xia Hua and gifted her an exquisite set of hair ornaments as a token of introduction.

“The lady of the house, the young madam—your silver, well, the family’s silver should be managed by the mistress,” Dong Mei said sarcastically. “The young madam is a woman of propriety.”

Tian Yachun, as Zhang Chen’s lawful wife, naturally managed the household finances.

But Tian Yachun and Zhang Chen were not of one mind. Xia Hua ignored Dong Mei and poured tea for Tian Yachun.

“Madam, I follow the master and your instructions.”

Xia Hua meant that it was Zhang Chen who instructed her to manage the family’s silver, in accordance with the customs of prominent families.

Dong Mei snorted. Tian Yachun chatted quietly with Xia Hua, cursing Zhang Chen inwardly:

“In this big estate, from the chief steward Zheng Shizhen down to Old Wang who cleans the latrines, everyone acknowledges me as Zhang Chen’s lawful wife. Today, that vixen Xu Zihan will likely bring her elder brother Xu Zize to Zhang Village for medicine. As the mistress of the Zhang family, I will receive her and make her think twice about coming here!”

After breakfast, Zhang Chen received three pieces of good news—three invitations.

The blacksmith Yang Wenlin and firecracker craftsman Bian Lashen, leaders of the Reckless Firecracker Research Group, had developed a new kind of reckless firecracker.

Of course, whether their reckless firecracker was usable would only be known after testing.

So Yang Wenlin invited Zhang Chen to test firecrackers.

Gunpowder craftsman Bao Wulin told Zhang Chen that their improved black powder was 50% more powerful than ordinary black powder and invited him to test its power.

The previous afternoon, before heading to the county town, Zhang Chen had Fat Niu recruit two vagrant laborers skilled in making tooth powder at the entrance of Zhang Village. Using Zhang Chen’s rough proportions of water, quicklime, caustic soda, and vegetable or animal oils, they began experimenting with soap.

Zhang Village was a large settlement with nearly three thousand villagers and a small town with over ten shops on the main street. Markets were held on the third day of each month, attracting villagers from nearby areas.

Consequently, there were many vagrants around Zhang Village.

To keep vagrants out, villagers had built earthen walls about a meter high around Zhang Village years ago.

Though a meter-high earthen wall could not stop bandits or robbers, it was enough to block vagrants.

There were four gates in the wall, but no proper gates.

Villagers took turns guarding the gates to prevent vagrants from entering.

The previous afternoon, Fat Niu had hired a young man named Xi Yuming near the west gate of Zhang Village.

Xi Yuming claimed his family had a hereditary craft of making tooth powder.

Fat Niu had scouted around Zhang Village and found only Xi Yuming claiming to know how to make tooth powder, so he hired him.

Fat Niu and Xi Yuming worked until quarter past midnight and managed to produce soap.

After breakfast, Fat Niu invited Zhang Chen to see the soap they had made the previous night.

“Inzhi” was a traditional Chinese cleansing product made from pig pancreas and plant ash, a costly luxury in Ming Dynasty China.

Historically, modern soap was introduced into Ming China by the British in 1840.

The people of Ming had never heard of or seen soap before.

Fat Niu had managed to concoct soap in half a day, following Zhang Chen’s description. Zhang Chen was delighted and decided to inspect the soap first.

In fact, the Reckless Firecracker Research Lab, the Gunpowder Improvement Lab, and the Soap Research Lab were all located in the Zhang Village community school.

Zhang Chen rose to leave, but Fat Niu coughed and said, “Young master, please cover your face with a cloth.”

The previous night, Tian Yachun had bitten a row of teeth marks into Zhang Chen’s left cheek, leaving it bleeding.

“Covering it would make it look worse. It’s normal for a man to get scratched and bitten by a woman a few times,” Zhang Chen said as he stepped outside. “Back in the day, my wife often scratched my face till it bled.”

In the 21st century, Dr. Zhang Chen, a married man, would often chat with the nurse Tian Yachun half-naked on a hotel bed, frequently ending up with scratches on his face from her.

“Young master, wait for me! At first, Xi Yuming was ragged and filthy, reeking badly,” Fat Niu caught up to Zhang Chen.

“But after washing at the community school, changing into the new clothes we bought for the servants, and having a meal, he turned into a clean young man. And he’s quite capable—last night he insisted on not going to sleep until usable soap was made.”

A quarter of an hour later, Zhang Chen arrived at the Zhang Village community school, where he saw the soap and the clean-faced Xi Yuming Fat Niu spoke of.

“Not bad. The soap is well made. I’ll reward each of you five hundred taels of silver.” Zhang Chen tossed a three-inch square piece of soap and handed Xi Yuming a note worth five hundred taels, giving him a half-smile.

Zhang Chen had provided the proportions of water, quicklime, caustic soda, and oils. It was no surprise that Fat Niu and Xi Yuming could produce soap in half a day.