Poisonous Peasant 'Concubine' Ch 23 - Hyacinth in Bloom

Chapter 23 — Financial Power • Poor Ling Jingxuan

The remaining wild grapes were cooked down into just enough to fill three jars of jam. Ling Jingxuan kept one jar for the children and, after the other two had cooled, sealed them with white cloth and set them soaking in the water of Crescent Spring, planning to take them to the market to sell the next day. That evening, after bathing the two Xiao Baozis and watering the wild grapevine and pear branches planted in the front yard, Ling Jingxuan finally returned to the house.

“What are you doing? Counting it every day—don’t you ever get sick of it?”

The two buns were sitting cross-legged on the bed facing each other, with strings of copper coins threaded on hemp twine laid out between them. By the moonlight, they were counting the coins over and over again. Ling Jingxuan shook his head helplessly, utterly speechless at their ritual of nightly counting.

“How could we get sick of it? This isn’t even that much. If I could, I’d count money every moment of the day.”

Only at times like this did Da Baozi become unusually naïve—so naïve that all he could see was money.

“…I think you should just crawl straight into a coin hole.”

The corner of Ling Jingxuan’s mouth twitched. He rubbed his forehead weakly. He’d seen people who loved money before, but who loved it like this?

“I’d love to.”

Completely oblivious to his father’s exasperation, Da Baozi hugged the coins and looked at him excitedly. “Daddy, guess how many copper coins we’ve saved?”

“How many?”

Ling Jingxuan lazily lifted his eyelids and poured himself a bowl of cold tea. Could he admit that now, whenever Xiao Baozi mentioned money, his whole body started trembling?

“Almost nine da qian! It’s all Daddy’s fault for buying so much stuff today. Otherwise, we’d definitely have a whole tael of silver.”

By the end of his sentence, Da Baozi shot him a glare full of resentment. Even now, he still felt heartache over the money spent on jars. Who knew whether that so-called grape wine Dad was making would even sell? If it didn’t, several hundred coins would be wasted for nothing.

“Cough—cough…”

Ling Jingxuan choked on his tea at that. He nearly coughed himself to death. Seeing this, the two buns quickly jumped off the bed and patted his back from either side.

“Daddy, are you okay?”

Xiao Baozi was fine—patting his back while looking at him worriedly with bright, sparkling eyes. Da Baozi, on the other hand…

“Daddy, you’re not that young anymore. How can you choke just drinking water?”

If it weren’t for you, would I have choked?

Hearing him lecture like a little adult, Ling Jingxuan rolled his eyes and felt like finding a noodle to hang himself with. What a miserable excuse for a father he was!

“Cough… I’m fine.”

After finally catching his breath, Ling Jingxuan tried hard to brush away the “psychological trauma” inflicted by Da Baozi. He wiped his mouth and then looked at him.

“Xiao Wen, I’m planning to go to the county market tomorrow. Your second uncle’s prescription is still missing a few medicinal ingredients, and we need to buy some household items too. I also want to get a few sets of clothes. We—”

“Daddy, what are you doing? Why are you thinking about spending money all day long? Do you know how hard it is for us to save this little bit? How many times have I told you—this money is for emergencies! Why won’t you listen? Who lives like this? Even if our family had mountains of gold and silver, we couldn’t afford for you to spend like this! Dad, just settle down already, we—”

Before he could finish, Da Baozi cut him off sharply. His thin little face flushed the color of pig liver, round eyes glaring fiercely, his mouth rattling off a long string of words like chanting scriptures. It was as if Ling Jingxuan had committed some unforgivable crime.

Ling Jingxuan was completely stunned.

Couldn’t he… at least be allowed to finish speaking?

What the father and sons didn’t know was that every word of their exchange drifted clearly into the ears of the man recuperating from injuries next door. The man’s lips curved upward, a smile—and a hint of yearning he himself didn’t notice—spreading across his face. In his heart, he even began to think that having a wife and children like this didn’t seem so bad after all.

“…Daddy, listen to me. This isn’t how you live day to day. We have to know how to be frugal. I don’t object to buying medicine for Second Uncle, but the rest isn’t necessary. It’s not like we don’t have things to use at home, and the clothes we’re wearing are still perfectly fine…”

“Stop! Xiao Wen—how about this? I promise I won’t touch your copper coins, okay?”

Da Baozi’s lectures showed no sign of stopping. Ling Jingxuan raked a hand through his hair irritably and finally snapped. Damn it, he was taking back financial authority—he absolutely was.

“Uh… well… I guess that could be considered.”

The two buns froze. Sensing his anger, Da Baozi flushed red and awkwardly looked away, while Xiao Baozi clutched his hand and peeked at Ling Jingxuan timidly. Since Daddy had recovered and returned to normal, this was the first time he’d ever yelled at them. To them, it felt unfamiliar—and a little scary.

“Cough… um, sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

Seeing this, Ling Jingxuan cursed under his breath and pulled them closer, apologizing gently. The two buns kept their heads lowered, silent, their small hands twisted tightly together—clearly not soothed yet.

Helplessly, Ling Jingxuan continued, “Daddy really didn’t mean it. Xiao Wen, I know our family is poor, and saving money is the right thing to do. But the way you’re trying to save—cutting back on everything—that’s not right. People always say, you won’t become poor just by eating or dressing, but if you don’t know how to plan, you’ll be poor your whole life. Don’t we earn money so we can live better? Being unwilling to eat well and unwilling to dress properly—aren’t we putting the cart before the horse?”

He’d wanted to say this a few days ago, but Xiao Wen was only five and had been scared of poverty for so long that Ling Jingxuan hadn’t had the heart to bring it up. Now it seemed he had to—otherwise, Da Baozi’s temperament might go to extremes.

“I know… I know some money should be spent, but… but…”

Da Baozi lifted his head, tears pooling in his eyes as he looked at him. “But every time I see money leaving my hands, my heart hurts like someone’s cutting flesh off me.”

As the last word fell, the tears he’d been holding back spilled over. The bitterness inside him couldn’t be described with words. Ling Jingxuan’s heart ached as he pulled him into his arms.

“Alright, alright. Daddy won’t say anything anymore. From now on, save however you want. Daddy won’t nag again.”

In the end, he lost to his own son.

“Waaah… Daddy…”

Buried in his arms, Da Baozi cried uncontrollably. Seeing this, Xiao Baozi rushed over too, joining the chaos. Holding two wailing children, Ling Jingxuan felt both heartbroken and utterly worn out—his head felt like it was about to split open. In this lifetime, he was completely done for at their hands.

“Daddy… how about this—when you spend money in the future, I’ll try not to look.”

Later, lying in bed with his back to him, Da Baozi suddenly spoke. Ling Jingxuan’s chest tightened even more.

“No need. Right now, we don’t have much money, and there isn’t much to spend anyway. You can keep managing it. When we earn more in the future, Daddy will set aside some for daily expenses, and the rest I’ll give to you to save, just in case.”

In the end, he couldn’t bear to take away Ling Wen’s one and only hobby.

“Mm.”

In the darkness, Ling Wen nodded hard, a smile finally blooming on his small face. By the moonlight, Ling Jingxuan looked at him, said nothing, and simply reached out to rub his head before slowly drifting off to sleep.

As for money, they’d finally reached a small agreement… but was it really that simple?

Heh. Ling Jingxuan would find out very soon.

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Translator: LazyHermitGal