Did the third place winner regret it today?

Chapter 27

"That's it."
"Wait a minute, some things should be communicated first."
"Cousin, please tell me."

Yin Shi cleared his throat and said, "First of all, I still suggest that you have children early. It's just a suggestion. It's up to you whether to adopt it or not."
"Then we have to talk about my treatment. I will do everything a wife should do, at least to be decent so that outsiders don't get suspicious. We must treat each other with respect on the surface, and I can't let you have the reputation of favoring a concubine over your wife."

"But I have fulfilled my obligations and responsibilities according to the agreement, and you have to treat me accordingly. I don't care whether you hand over your personal property to me or not, and I don't care even if you give it all to her. But we must agree on a support amount for me. This amount does not have to be determined immediately, we can discuss it later, but this amount must be enough for me to live a decent life that matches my status. It would be best if I could have a certain surplus to save for my retirement."

"In addition, if you give her your personal property, you must be able to ensure that the money actually reaches me every month without being deducted. After all, I don't know this girl. She has feelings for you, but not for me. You must be able to restrain her."

"Don't think I'm being vulgar. People don't live on drinking fairy spirits. They live on firewood, rice, oil and salt. Money is not vulgar. The scholars who can talk about money are the ones who really understand books. Otherwise, at most, they are just nerds."

Yin Shi actually wanted to decide whether they were a real couple or a fake one. In simple terms, it was about whether they should consummate the marriage.
If she was in her original time and space and was in a marriage agreement with someone, she would definitely ask about all these things directly. But in this era, it is more troublesome - there are more restrictions on women, and if she, an unmarried girl, rashly talked about sex with a man, she was worried that he would question her.
For example, how can a virgin like you know anything about sex? Are you not a decent person?

If he had any doubts about her because of this and decided to give up the deal, she would suffer a great loss.
After nearly ten years, the biggest problem that had been bothering her, "marriage", finally had a nearly perfect solution: a wealthy and stable environment, a decent life, and a negotiated long-term meal ticket.
Let's put all these aside for now. She just held the meal ticket in her hand and would talk about other things later.

Shen Ti listened to every one of them carefully.
He didn't dislike her vulgarity. On the contrary, the more specific and down-to-earth her requests were, the more he believed that she had a clear intention for this marriage.
As long as people have an agenda, it is easy to control. This matter can be controlled.

Negotiating the deal in this clear and logical way, with what you can give and what I can pay, creates a feeling of equal exchange for everyone. This is much better than the feeling of being helpless under the authority of your parents.
Makes your heart feel clear
"Don't worry, cousin." Shen Ti promised solemnly, "Since you are the legal wife, you must behave like a legal wife. My family has a clean and upright tradition, and no one dares to bully the superior."

Use the inferior to bully the superior.
Yin Shi chewed on this word.
"Cousin?" Shen Ti called her.
"Oh! It's okay." Yin Shi came back to his senses, "Go ahead."

Shen Ti put her hands behind her back and said, "I can guarantee all these details. It's just that it's inconvenient to discuss now. We will discuss it carefully after the matter is settled, and I will give my cousin a satisfactory answer."
Yin Shi nodded and smiled: "Then let's not do anything now and wait for news from my aunt.
Shen Ti also nodded: "Okay."

Shen Ti actually had a big question in her mind - should he and she consummate their marriage after marriage? Should she negotiate the conditions and calmly accommodate the concubine? Or were they just a fake couple, just to fool their elders?
But he and she were both young and unmarried, especially she was a virgin, so he couldn't discuss this issue with her right now.

Even if the marriage is really going through, now is not the time to talk about this.
If it doesn't work out, that would be even worse. We would have talked about this topic but failed to become husband and wife, so how would we have the face to meet each other in the future?
It's so embarrassing.

Moreover, girls usually have their mothers or nannies to teach them about human affairs until the night before their wedding. Before that, they know nothing. Even if he tells her about it, she may not understand it and may not understand what he means.
Shen Ti decided to shut up and talk about this matter later.

The two of them have been talking here long enough.
"Sister, please go back quickly." Shen Ti said.
"You walk fast, so go ahead. I'll walk slowly behind you." Yin Shi said, "Otherwise, you'll have to slow down if you're behind."
Shen Ti said: "Okay."
The two of them bowed to each other, and Shen Ti turned and left.

Seeing him leave, Kui Er came down and asked curiously, "What did you talk about? Why did you talk for so long?"
“He asked me a lot about Buddhist scriptures.”
"Why is the girl still high-fiving the young master?"
"Let's make a bet to see who knows more Buddhist scriptures."

"How dare you, young lady, bet on this with your cousin? He is the god of literature. No matter what sutra or text, he can recite it by heart after just one look."
"Pfft~"
"Don't laugh, it's true! Everyone says that!"
"Okay, okay, I won't gamble."

Yin Shi walked back slowly with Kui'er.
Thinking back on what had just happened, before Shen Ti came, she really thought that Madam Shen came to Donglin Temple to worship Buddha, make a wish, and fulfill a wish. But now she has guessed that Madam Shen is most likely here to verify her "made-up" fate.
Although the master tried to make up a statement that could achieve her goal without causing any taboos to anyone, people of this era were superstitious, so Mrs. Shen would definitely have to verify it in person from her master.

No wonder Master’s attitude was weird today. It was unlike the previous two times when she had a frown on her face and had “regret” written on her forehead.
Everything is explained.
Since she had her master around, Yin Shi was not worried at all. Her master was afraid that he would delay her marriage, and he had been worried for the past two years. And he had to act like a "master" in front of outsiders every day, which made him even more worried.
Now that he has found the antidote, he must sell it to others.
This finishing touch makes it a sure thing.

Yin Shi raised his eyes and could still see Shen Ti's back in the distance.
The boy was thin and tall. He was taller than her, but he would probably continue to grow taller. There is an old saying that goes, "A man can still grow taller at the age of 23."
When he grows up completely, he will become stronger and have the body of an adult man.
The reason why it is so difficult for adult men to maintain their youthful appearance is because their body shapes are completely different, and the entire impression they give to others is completely different.

He actually walked much faster than Yin Shi, but he didn't seem hurried at all.
He walked with a standard square step, his shoulders didn't shake, his waist didn't sway, and even when he walked fast he gave people a sense of ease.
This is cultivated from childhood. This kind of demeanor is a hundred times better than some of the traffic-rich young actors in Yin Shi's original time and space.
It is really pleasing to the eye. [The inferior is superior to the superior.]
Yin Shi couldn't help chewing on these four words.
Shen Ti said it so naturally.
Yin Shi thought to himself, he is indeed that kind of person.
Because of his affection for the girl, her cousin wanted to take her as a concubine. In order to protect her, he even tried not to marry a wife.

why?
It is precisely because he agrees with the concept of hierarchy and nobility from the bottom of his heart.
He knew that he couldn't favor his concubine over his wife, so after he and Yin Shi had made a deal, he promised without hesitation that he would give Yin Shi the dignity of his legal wife.
But it was precisely these things that he respected that conflicted with his original intention of protecting the girl. He could not resolve this contradiction because he could not be logically consistent.
So he wanted to remove the problem at the root and not marry.

Yin Shi looked at the young man's back disappearing in front of him and smiled.
If she met a man with such feudal ideas in her time and space, she would ignore him because it was against the times.
But she was in this era now, and his compliance with rules became what she needed.

If a person abides by the rules, then the rules are the best way to restrain him. Yin Shi is actually very relieved about Shen Ti, because she has many etiquette, filial piety, and the responsibilities of a scholar to control him.
What is really troublesome and scary are those who don't follow the rules.

For example, the kind of male protagonist in a romance novel from another time and space who is "bad to the whole world but good to me".
Wake up, he is bad to the whole world, not because everyone in the world is worse than you, but because he is a bad person.
When he no longer loves you, he will be as bad to you as he is to the world, or even worse. Because such people often assume that you are his property or appendage, so his badness to you will be multiplied several times because of this appendage.

And love itself is something that is real but ever-changing.
When he confesses to you with stars in his eyes, he really loves you. When you just agree, someone else passes by him in the next second, and he falls in love with someone else in an instant, he also really loves someone else.
Those fleeting loves are real.
But like sand and water, no one can hold them in their hands forever.

So - Yin Shi was in a very good mood and walked back leisurely, so the meal ticket was still the most important.
I never thought that a meal ticket would fall from the sky.
What kind of luck is this? Who would believe it if I told them?
However, Yin Shi always had a confusion in his heart.
This cousin has clear thinking, quick decision-making, and is able to accept criticism and correct his mistakes.
How could such a person be so love-brained?
Yin Shi shook his head.

When she returned to the courtyard, the third lady was still wondering why she had been gone for so long. She also secretly asked her, "Did you ask your master what your aunt wanted?"
Because Mrs. Shen had talked alone with the head monk in the meditation room during the day. Although the window was open, the third wife could clearly see what was going on in the meditation room from the courtyard, but she could not hear it.
But she was so anxious that she scratched her head.

Yin Shi had a headache: "I didn't ask. Even if I asked my master, he wouldn't tell me. They eat this... No, they are the ones who serve the Buddha, how could they possibly speak nonsense? If it gets out and people know about it, which lady or noble family would be willing to believe them?"
If a minister does not keep his word, he will lose his life; if a king does not keep his word, he will lose his country.
If a monk doesn't keep his mouth shut, he will lose business.
The third wife was very disappointed.

The next day, Mrs. Shen went to the monk again and talked to him alone.
The third lady and Yin Shi were still standing in the corridor, looking into the distance.
"What are you talking about? You've been talking for so long." The Third Lady said, "Your master has never talked to me for so long."
Yin Shi thought, every time you ask for money or a grandson, my master can deal with you with just two words, how easy it is.

She squinted and looked over.
Her master acted like a master at this moment, and it was hard to tell how eager he was in his heart.
In fact, Yin Shi knew that the monk was more anxious than anyone else. They were Buddhists who believed in cause and effect. The monk helped her out of weakness, and thus became part of her cause and effect. Since he had become her cause, he would have to bear her consequences in the future.
How could he not be anxious?

But Yin Shi was not in a hurry.
Her master's eloquence and temperament are vague and confusing, seeming to say something but not saying it, seeming to reveal something but not revealing it. If he didn't have this kind of professionalism, how could he have defeated other bald men and taken this position.
She has faith in her master.

Master Yin San and Shen Ti were some distance away from them, also looking over there. Master Yin San and Shen Ti said something, but their voices were not loud, so Yin Shi did not hear it clearly.
She doesn't care either.
From beginning to end today, apart from the polite calls of "cousin" and "cousin" to each other when they first met, she and Shen Ti had not spoken a word to each other, nor had they made eye contact.

Yin Shi thought that although Shen Ti was young, he was actually quite calm.
Shen Ti thought that her cousin's ability to cultivate her qi was better than that of many scholars, no wonder her mother took a liking to her.

Mrs. Shen finally came out.
With a smile on her face, she glanced at Yin Shi and then at Shen Ti.
As soon as Yin Shi saw her expression, he knew that the matter was settled.

The chief monk escorted Mrs. Shen to the door.
Madam Shen said, "Master, please stay."
"Amitabha." The head monk put his hands together with a solemn expression, "Madam, your wish is sincere, and I will grant it."
Mrs. Shen's smile deepened.

Master Yin San asked, "Have you returned home?"
Madam Shen said, "Go back."
We are preparing to go home.
Everyone said goodbye to the head monk. Yin Shi also went over and bowed to her master politely: "Master, I'm going home now."

The chief monk looked at her, then at the third place winner, what a perfect match.
The abbot had many things he wanted to tell this big-hearted and stubborn disciple, but he also had to maintain his image as a master, so he could only say one simple sentence: "... cherish your blessings."
Yin Shi grinned: "Don't worry, Master."

(End of this chapter)