Chapter 18: 017 Grandma Yushen (1/3)

Wang Yushen was 157 this year. Still, she was left with a couple of good decades in her natural lifespan. She had spent the early period of her life in the relentless pursuit of the martial way.

She came from an unattractive village nobody knew, travelled all over Tianhui, and joined a prestigious sect, which was literally impossible for someone like her. In her prime, everything went well after the initial struggle. She advanced to Silver over a hundred years ago, got married and had kids.

However, tragedy struck her out of nowhere. A devastating war broke out in the three kingdoms of Tianhui, Shah'anak, and Fa Omar. In the end, Tianhui came victorious, gaining an alliance with Fa Omar, the neighbouring kingdom in the west.

The war took away what Wang Yushen worked so hard for. Her husband and firstborn died in the war, leaving only an infant girl.

Still with a child, Yushen had something to hold on to. Eventually, she married again after a few years. Her second husband wasn’t a soldier, but a physician, which seemed a good fit for her as she didn't want to lose anyone again.

With him, she came back to the village she had journeyed from. The unnamed village is now known as Wayshire town.

They established the house together, where Wang Yushen helped young boys and girls in the martial way and her husband helped the sick. They had spent about sixty years together and watched the place grow from a little village to a town of some renown.

Eventually, her second husband died too, not out of tragedy. His life span had been running out and to amend that, he tried a last attempt to advance to silver.

He failed.

Over the last hundred years, Wang Yushen lost other children and even grandchildren. But she eventually made peace with it. Even when some of her children got standing in a better place, she turned them down and remained in this town.

She still helped whoever needed in the martial way, though the demand was decreasing each year. The town was growing fast, or perhaps it was because she was old.

“Greetings, Elder Wang.”

Wang Yushen lifted her head to look at the youth. A foreign face; not the first time she was seeing it, but it still felt odd seeing him here. What was even odder was the youth’s beast. Throughout her years of adventure, she had seen plenty of intelligent beasts, some had even morphed into human skin, but never something like this.

There’s something about the dog. It's like standing under a great bodhi tree or being under the grace of a benignant being. The kid possessed such an aura as well, though fainter than the beast.

That was the only reason why she hadn’t stopped her great-grandchild when he played with the beast. Spirit beasts might be intelligent, but in the end, they were beasts. They were ferocious by nature, but the dog appeared only to be a big furry pack of happiness.

“You can call me Grandma like everyone else,” Yushen told the boy, who waited for her response. “Sit down. We have much to talk about.”

Gale abided, sitting face to face with her, a few paces away. Yushen didn’t speak for a moment, as if trying to gauze his patience. Xiaolin prepared him a cup of tea, which he drank after thanking her for it.

“I have seen no boy capable of deep meditation in this town in decades,” Yushen added nonchalantly.

“Boy?” the foreigner perked an eyebrow. He seemed a bit offended, completely overlooking the subtle compliment.

“To my age, you’re a boy,” she said.

“Then Xiaolin is probably a child to you,” Gale retorted.

Wang Yushen gave the nervous girl a look. “True,” she said calmly. “Her father was a boy when I taught him. He left to earn glory and eventually came back with a toddler, lacking a wife.”

“It seems people tend to come here after chasing some glory,” Gale said idly.

Yushen stared at him. “You’re aware of the situation Xiaolin is in?” she asked, eventually.

Gale nodded.

“And you still want to buy the land?”

“Sure.”

“Are you buying the land to gain something out of her?”

Gale was momentarily lost. “Like what?”

Wang Yushen raised an eyebrow. “You know what I mean.”

Gale chuckled and shook his head. “Xiaolin’s only a child, as you said,” he said.

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“Half of the boys attend the morning meditation session only to see this child.”

The teenage girl, who wasn’t aware of what the two of them were talking about finally understood and blushed, turning her head, looking for something to do. To her demerit, she found nothing.

“I won’t hold it against you if you’re one of those fools who fancied Xiaolin. There is no other fairer girl in this town than her,” Wang Yushen paused to check his expression. Gale hadn’t shown any sign of embarrassment, much to her doubt. “If that’s not the case, then you’re dumber than those fools.”

Gale kept his silence as there was nothing to say. Anything to refute that would be her point. Gale had lost enough of those to his master and sister-in-law.

“Why do you want to go out of your way and get into trouble if not for wooing this lass?”

Gale sighed. “The land met my requirements.” He paused to add at last: “And I don’t like when everyone tries to oppress the weak.”

"So, it has nothing to do with how pretty Xiaolin is?"

Gale kept a neutral look, but eventually broke into a sigh. "I have been told I have quite the knack of playing the hero. "

A silence descended on the veranda as Grandma Yushen considered. Xiaolin tried to get out of there without notice as the topic was rather embarrassing for her to listen to. She barely moved a few muscles when Grandma Wang’s eyes drifted to her.

“Sit down, girl. I have taught you enough to not embarrass yourself.”

“Yes, grandma,” Xiaolin said, her shoulder slumped as she sat back rigidly.

“Mr Gale--”

“You can call me by my name, Grandma.”

“Alright,” Yushen nodded, “Gale. I believe what you said. I simply wanted to see the reason behind your decision.”

“Are you satisfied that I didn’t come with some profound reason and whatnot?”

“I am,” Wang Yushen agreed. “I have the papers ready. With a little more work, we can proceed for the verification. Also, don’t worry about any problems, all will be taken care of.”

Xiaolin seemed genuinely relieved hearing her out. So Gale nodded.

“12 acres of land,” Yushen continued. “An acre of farming land is usually priced at around eight thousand iron marks, however, considering the complication and the location of the station, Xiaolin can recompense a couple of thousand iron chips. So six thousand per acre, seventy-two thousand iron marks in total. Is that agreeable?”

“What?” Gale frowned, gaining a nervous gasp from Xiaolin. But his next words relieved every worry of her. “Isn’t that too cheap?”

“If you consider it cheap, you can buy the land for full price,” Grandma Yushen said with a smile. “But yes, the land is rather cheap. Anybody can get their money back farming within five-six years, I reckon.

"Or you can court this lass and gain all forty-odd acres of it for free.”

“Grandma . . .” Xiaolin called, looking down nervously. Her face was red with all the embarrassment and blushing.

Gale smiled fondly. “My father had a philosophy about marriage. It had to be one of love, political gain or wealth to marry someone.”

“He seemed like a practical man.”

“True,” Gale agreed. “He married my mother for the latter two. Eventually, they went their separate ways. I’m not like him very much.”

“That I can see.”

____________

The kingdom's names weren't very Chinese, or xianxia-ish. Two of them may even seem like countries with a lot of oil (Also, you Americans, keep it inside your pants, don't need to rile up hearing about fictional oil).

Jokes aside, just know that it's intentional.  The world is not entirely based on wuxia/xianxia themes.

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