After Just Transmigrating to the Great Tang Empire, I Was Assigned Wives - Chapter 3:

Chapter 3: To Forge Iron, One Must Be Strong Oneself

It had to be said that for Cao Xianhui’s marriage, the Cao family had truly gone all out in preparation.

After bathing and changing clothes, Zhang Mu put on the groom’s attire that the Cao family had prepared long ago and eagerly rushed into Cao Xianhui’s room.

At this moment, Cao Xianhui was also dressed as a bride, wearing a phoenix crown and red ceremonial robes, sitting on the edge of the bed with a red veil covering her head. The only thing that ruined the mood was that Cao Yunxi was also present.

Zhang Mu fell silent.

What was the meaning of this?

Was his mother-in-law planning to give guidance?!

This was his wedding night, what was there to wait for? Zhang Mu didn’t stand on ceremony and directly stepped forward, starting to undo the buttons at Cao Xianhui’s chest.

“Xiao Mu, how can you be so impatient?! Although my Cao family is not a grand aristocratic household, we are not to be bullied at your whim. The rites are not yet complete, do not act recklessly. You must first use the jade scepter on the table to lift Hui’er’s red veil, and then drink the wedding wine…”

Under Cao Yunxi’s firm intervention, Zhang Mu reluctantly followed his mother-in-law’s instructions step by step. First, he lifted Cao Xianhui’s red veil, then they drank the ceremonial wine together…

After completing the entire set of tedious rituals, Zhang Mu saw that his mother-in-law still had no intention of leaving and asked quietly, “Mother-in-law, don’t you think you’re a bit unnecessary here at this moment?”

“Well… Xiao Mu, you and Hui’er are still young and don’t understand matters between husband and wife. My Cao family has no maid to explain these things to you beforehand, and your household has no parents to guide you. I’m worried you don’t understand, so…”

Zhang Mu fell silent.

Damn, so that was what she was worried about.

In his previous life, although he had been single, he had watched plenty of action films. What technique didn’t he know?!

Although no one wanted an audience for such matters, if that audience happened to be a mature and charming mother-in-law, or perhaps an alluring older sister-in-law, or even a soft and delicate younger sister-in-law, then it felt different.

Thinking of this, Zhang Mu ignored whether his mother-in-law was present and directly pushed down the bashful Cao Xianhui.

“Husband, I’m afraid.”

“Wife, don’t worry. I’ll be gentle.”

Watching Zhang Mu hurriedly strip off her daughter’s undergarments and toss them aside, Cao Yunxi felt overjoyed.

That’s right, the more eager you are, the better. The sooner a child is born, the sooner the Cao family will have descendants.

“Xiao Mu, let me tell you, the first time must not be forced. First, you need to find the right place. Try to figure it out yourself. If not, I’ll guide you…”

Before Cao Yunxi could finish, Cao Xianhui’s heart-wrenching cries rang out.

Cao Yunxi fell silent.

Truly, heroes emerge from the young. This son-in-law was impressive, far better than that useless man.

As her daughter’s cries grew louder, more intense, and eventually carried a faint trace of anticipation, Cao Yunxi finally felt reassured and stepped out.

After leaving the room, she didn’t go far and continued listening at the door. A quarter of an hour passed, and Zhang Mu still hadn’t stopped.

Cao Yunxi couldn’t help but sigh.

Sigh, they share the same surname Zhang, yet the difference is so great.

Peeking through the crack in the door and seeing Zhang Mu repeating his actions in various ways, Cao Yunxi finally left with peace of mind.

However, her walking posture was somewhat different from usual, noticeably swaying.

While Zhang Mu was fully immersed in his wedding night, in a deep residence elsewhere in Wannian County, a man in black was reporting in detail to his master about the arranged marriages conducted by the yamen runners that day.

“Did you investigate that boy’s background?”

“An orphan from Wuxia Town, with no background whatsoever. His mind isn’t very sharp either. He’s one of the four fools of Wuxia Town, even worse than the four fools of Chang’an City.”

After saying this, the man in black turned and left, leaping into the darkness and disappearing into the night without even offering a farewell.

After he left, another person stepped out from the inner hall.

Looking in the direction where the black-clad man had vanished, he said meaningfully, “Shopkeeper Wang, if we could gain the assistance of such a person, our efforts would be twice as effective.”

“Mr. Zhao, what are you thinking? That person belongs to the main branch. However, everything depends on human effort. We need to plan this matter carefully.”

“Shopkeeper Wang, how is the situation? Has anything changed? The plan regarding the Cao family…”

“It’s nothing. They just found a useless, foolish son-in-law. Proceed according to the original plan. This time, we must take down the Cao family.”

…

The next morning, Zhang Mu woke up refreshed and full of energy.

Before he could even push the door open, Cao Xianhui held up the bedsheet and said, “Husband, look.”

Seeing the bright red stain on the white sheet, Zhang Mu felt a strong sense of accomplishment.

“Wife, don’t worry. Your husband will never fail you.”

After getting dressed, Zhang Mu held Cao Xianhui’s hand and walked out.

At this time, Cao Yunxi and Zhang Anquan were sitting in the main hall having breakfast. Seeing her daughter’s awkward gait, Cao Yunxi immediately understood, her eyes filled with envy.

“Husband, let’s serve tea first.”

Hearing this, Zhang Mu picked up the prepared teacups and said, “Father, please have tea.”

“Mother, please have tea.”

The son-in-law offering tea made Zhang Anquan and Cao Yunxi extremely happy as they accepted the cups and drank them in one go.

“Xiao Mu, you worked hard last night. That’s physical labor. Come, drink this bowl of soup. I personally made it for you, red dates, goji berries, and bull whip soup. And eat more of this stir-fried chives with lamb whip. Tonight, continue. I’m waiting to hold my grandson.”

Zhang Mu fell silent.

Seeing the dark circles under Zhang Anquan’s eyes, Zhang Mu quickly responded tactfully, “Mother-in-law, your son-in-law is still young and doesn’t need this. Let Father-in-law have it instead. After all, he’s older.”

“You child, so filial. Don’t worry, there’s more.”

As she spoke, Cao Yunxi placed a large basin of the same soup in front of Zhang Anquan. Inside floated an entire bull whip along with a layer of chives.

Zhang Anquan fell silent.

This was life-threatening. Last night had nearly killed him, and now this again?!

Seeing Zhang Anquan hesitate, Cao Yunxi shouted, “Drink it quickly. You know it yourself. The court forbids killing cattle, so this is rare. These two were bought at a high price through connections from Shopkeeper Tong’s relatives across the street, from a wealthy family surnamed Cheng. Only their household has them in all of Chang’an. I heard their cattle often die from crashing into walls. Truly strange.”

Faced with Cao Yunxi’s domineering expression, Zhang Anquan could only pinch his nose and drink.

Seeing this, Zhang Mu couldn’t help but sigh.

Being a live-in son-in-law really wasn’t easy.

After breakfast, Zhang Mu and Cao Xianhui rode in a carriage driven by the Cao family’s only servant, Old Zhao, to the county office to collect their marriage certificate. The office also gave them a reward of 100 copper coins.

Cao Xianhui had no intention of taking the money and directly put it into Zhang Mu’s pocket.

As soon as they returned home, Cao Yunxi snatched the marriage certificate.

For this single piece of paper, she had worried for an entire year. Now that it was in her hands, the weight in her heart was finally lifted.

After handling the marriage certificate, Cao Xianhui went out again by carriage to manage business matters.

Zhang Mu also didn’t stay idle and went out for a walk.

He had made a bet. Before the child was born, he had to earn enough wealth, or the child would take the Cao surname.

Along the way, Zhang Mu kept thinking, what kind of business should he do?

He only had the 100 copper coins from the county office. In this era, where one coin could buy two steamed buns, it wasn’t much, but it wasn’t nothing either.

With just this, he couldn’t start a large business. He had to begin small. But what exactly should he do? 

As the saying goes, everything is difficult at the beginning, especially without capital.

Just as Zhang Mu was at a loss, he suddenly heard a street vendor shouting about selling stone honey. 

Zhang Mu knew that this “stone honey” was sugar.

Looking at the vendor holding up dark, crude sugar, Zhang Mu suddenly had an idea.

That’s right, white sugar didn’t exist yet. Why not make some himself? Rare things are valuable. As long as he had white sugar that others didn’t, how could he fail to make money?

Zhang Mu knew that in this land, people had always consumed brown sugar. It wasn’t until the Song Dynasty that white sugar appeared.

Even then, white sugar was extremely rare and was mostly offered as tribute to the emperor. It was not available on the market, and even with money, it was hard to obtain.

It wasn’t until the Ming Dynasty that white sugar became widespread.

There was even a legend about how brown sugar was decolorized into white sugar.

In Fujian, there was once a sugar workshop. During continuous spring rains, a yellow mud wall collapsed and pressed onto sugar trays. Over time, the muddy water seeped in, and the red sugar gradually turned white. This led people to discover the method of decolorization using yellow mud.

Of course, there was another method, using plant ash to remove the color.

Thinking of this, Zhang Mu confidently walked toward the sugar vendor.