Chapter 31.1 - Bad Neighbour (1/2)

Translator: Superbulat

Arc 3: Butcher Song – Havoc in the neighborhood (Chapter 31-40)

On the east side of Seven Bridge Town lived a family of scholars, the Mei family.

Scholar Mei’s father was the town’s only qualified graduate in several decades, passing the triennial provincial exam at the tender age of twenty-five. He had a promising future and was highly valued by the nearby squires. Father Mei was pretty clever, earning enough money for his family to relocate from the village to the town in no time, and he also opened a restaurant on the main street. After deducting staff wages and other expenses, he could earn at least five or six taels of silver per month.

After owning a house and amassing a considerable amount of fortune, Father Mei looked at his wife next to him, who was an illiterate village girl, and planned to take on a pretty and dainty concubine.

Then. There was no more ‘then’.

When Father Mei went out, he stumbled and fell. The unlucky man had no wound on his head, but he could no longer wake up.

His wife was a headstrong woman. After burying her husband, she raised her newborn son on her own, even raising him into becoming a student member. 1

Scholar Mei had a good-looking face with delicate facial features, but unfortunately, he had a frail body and tend to fall sick twice a year. In comparison to scholarly honor, his mother believed that it was more important for her son to pass on the bloodline, thus she began to search for a potential wife for him. But she hadn’t anticipated Scholar Mei being so picky about women. He didn’t like girls who were too tall, fat, short, muscular, or ugly. After becoming annoyed by his mother’s pestering, he went back to live in their old house in the village to hide from her, and then, he was mesmerized by a beautiful village girl named Shui Xian.

Shui Xian grew up as an orphan. Since she was a child, she had lived in her aunt’s house. She had an elder cousin sister and two younger cousin brothers, as well as two younger cousin sisters. Even her cousin sisters had to work in the fields, so Shui Xian had been working even harder than a maid, in order to ‘take the initiative’ to repay her uncle and aunt for raising her. The year she met Scholar Mei, she was fifteen years old. She didn’t wear any makeup or pretty dresses, but she had a slim figure, a bright and beautiful appearance, and was naturally alluring and charming, stealing Scholar Mei’s soul with just a single glance.

In the eyes of the villagers, Scholar Mei was undoubtedly the ideal husband for young women. Her cousin sisters were tempted, and so was Shui Xian.

Relying on her natural good looks and mind that was cultivated from residing under someone else’s roof since she was a child, after several chance encounters with Scholar Mei, she soon gained his love and pity, causing him to disregard the repeated slanders of Shui Xian’s aunt and the objection of his own mother, and married Shui Xian after going through all the marriage rituals.

On their wedding night, it didn’t take much wine for them to become inebriated in the bridal chamber.

Shui Xian lay shyly on the bright red sheets, her pretty face flushed. Scholar Mei took off her clothes one by one as if he was peeling a rice dumpling, revealing her pale and tender womanly body on the inside. With alluring snow-like skin in front of his eyes and the fragrance on the tip of his nose, Scholar Mei’s blood was all stirred up. How could he remain civilized? He pounced on the charming lady, groping and nibbling all over her body. As for Shui Xian, she knew how to make men like her more, so she wasn’t as shy as other girls and just lay quietly allowing their husbands to do whatever they wanted, but instead boldly pandered to him, causing Scholar Mei to shoot his load before he even entered her ‘gate’.

Scholar Mei had a weak body, and he could barely hold on after ejaculating once, but he was the bridegroom, and this was their wedding night. Climaxing before they even started was embarrassing enough; if he didn’t take his wife’s virginity, would he still be considered a man? As a result, he persisted in continuing. This time, it was a little better, but after only entering half a finger deep, he spurted again. He was sweating profusely and panting heavily as his essence leaked continuously below. His eyes rolled, and then, he went after his father.

Her son had died on top of his wife’s body. Scholar Mei’s mother was overwhelmed with sorrow. She called Shui Xian a vixen who specialized in taking men’s lives and wanted to repudiate her.

Shui Xian was not a weak or easily bullied person.

Since she married Scholar Mei against her aunt’s wishes, she and her aunt’s family had already fallen out. If she was divorced and sent back to her aunt’s house, nothing good would await her back home. So, when she found out that her husband had suddenly died, she bit her wrist and dyed the white cloth red. 2 When her mother-in-law scolded her, she took the cloth out and cried that she had already become a member of the Mei family, and it was very likely that she had a Mei family descendant in her stomach, begging her mother-in-law not to divorce her.

She cried so pitifully that the neighbors near and far spoke up for her. Scholar Mei’s mother had no choice but to acknowledge her daughter-in-law in order to preserve her reputation among her neighbors and because of her son’s child. Two months had passed, and Shui Xian’s belly had not changed at all. Scholar Mei’s mother called a doctor over to their house to take Shui Xian’s pulse, and he diagnosed that she was not pregnant. The old woman once again proposed to divorce Shui Xian, but Shui Xian cried miserably, saying that she and her husband had been deeply in love, that she would live as a Mei family member and die as a Mei family ghost, and that she had initially wanted to take care of his widowed mother on his behalf, but since his mother didn’t want that, she might as well go down to the underworld to accompany her husband. She then made the motion of running into a wall.

How could she die? Not only had the servants and maids in the Mei house stepped forward to stop her, but so had the neighbors who had witnessed her doing so.

This show of demonstrating her sincerity by seeking death had won praises for Shui Xian. If Scholar Mei’s mother still insisted on divorcing Shui Xian, she would be labeled as an evil mother-in-law, so she had to give up.

The next three years were a long battle between Shui Xian and her mother-in-law. In front of others, she was filial to her mother-in-law in every possible way, but when no outsiders were present, she would outwardly obey but secretly ignore her mother-in-law’s orders, and she never let her mother-in-law bully and torture her. When Scholar Mei’s mother spoke ill of her to others in the morning, she would go out at noon and lament about all kinds of grievances as a daughter-in-law, occasionally revealing scars on her body by accident. Shui Xian was a great actress, and most of the townspeople believed her. Scholar Mei’s mother was so angry that she fell sick. Shui Xian took advantage of the opportunity to win the hearts of the staff and took over the restaurant. After Scholar Mei’s mother learned about it, she vomited blood and died.

Since then, Shui Xian had truly become the master of the Mei family. She dismissed the old servants and only bought two maids and a doorwoman. When she went out during the day, she always brought a maid with her. Because she was the owner of the house, and because there was no longer anyone who could take away the property in her hands, she did not have to be reserved as she used to. She could do whatever she wanted and live freely.

Slanders tend to cluster around a widow’s doorstep.

She was a beautiful little widow who often appeared in public. Her reputation deteriorated over time, and gossip about her increased.

Shui Xian didn’t care about the gossip at all.

If she sat in her restaurant, business would be twice as good as usual, so what if those stinky men stared at her? So long as she could make money, let alone have someone stare at her, even if they had the guts to sneakily touch her hand, she could even flirt with them with a smile. It was a crime to steal, but it was not a crime for a woman to converse with a man outside. There was nothing anyone could do about it! Those sallow-faced women who liked to criticize her behind her back, weren’t they all jealous of her wealth and beauty? Jealous that she didn’t have a husband but that so many men were vying to please her?

Not that it matters much in this novel, but here are the imperial examination degree types in ancient China and where Scholar Mei and Father Mei stands.Degree Ranks Exam Times held Child student ( Tongsheng ) County/Prefectural Annual (February/April) Student member ( Shengyuan/Xiucai ) Granary student (1st class)

Expanded student (2nd class)

Attached student (3rd class) College Triennial (twice) > Scholar Mei is at this rank (秀才 xiù cai) Recommended man ( Juren ) Top escorted examinee (1st rank) Provincial Triennial > Father Mei is at this rank (举人 jǔ rén) Tribute scholar ( Gongshi ) Top conference examinee (1st rank) Metropolitan Triennial Advanced scholar ( Jinshi ) Top thesis author (1st rank)

Eyes positioned alongside (2nd rank)

Flower snatcher (3rd rank) Palace Triennial

(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_examination#Degree_types ) White cloth is placed on the bed on wedding night in ancient China as a virginity test. ( https://www.bestchinanews.com/History/7272.html )