The winter passes with no great changes for the village. I and my brother finish the shaker and it works perfectly doing a job which otherwise would take a lot of hard work and many man-hours. And after having educated more women able to do massages I now only handle the really difficult cases. My pupils manage the villages general well being and soreness as well as recuperation and follow up on my patients. This means that since almost every single family in town has someone capable of doing massages constraints to pay me have lessened. I only handle cases when something is really bad, or more often when someone comes because they want to and I am inclined to help.

Since my sister Ha is the second best masseuse in the village this means little for the family at large. We have soared maybe even above the village chief in renown and respect, even he respects me and my family now. And before the village chief, Tatum was both the most learned and richest in the village. He studied at school in Mao when he was younger. Personally, there is a really big change, I got my first boner. I would like to report that I put it too good use at once, but sadly that is not the case. I am a cheap charlie, a penny pinching sad sack and just would not pay the price for hounding around the village even if I could. Kids and wives do not fit in my plan of travelling the world at the moment.

All the while during the winter the mill had work grinding bark for the Lord. The contract sucked until the foreman saw the shaker and knew it was not part of the contract. The negotiations nearly made me think of not transferring the mill to my brother, but then I thought of having to run the enterprise and fled it. The deals and arrangements are good fun, but running the mill from day to day is boring. I am not cut out for the long haul, not when I have a family more than willing to do it for me and I get a cut. The money the mill takes in is more than I bring into the village, but it is also distributed wider. New workers and families have come to town and my brother lord over them. He might be a bit power hungry, but nothing like my sister Ha who is preening at being my number one disciple at the moment. I think she is the first woman in the village that charges money for her work. It is still in my name, but she charges and only pay me a cut.

Spring came with the chirping of birds, the leaving of foresters and the arrival of my brother's bride to be. Brothers future wife was also named Su, which caused some confusion in the start, but it passed quickly. “This is Su, my future bride.” My brother introduced the young lady to the family. This constipated my mother to no end since she had first say on account of being his mother. I saw that Su’s father and mother were no more pleased with this. “Nice to meet you.” My sister said I think she was more excited than my brother to meet Su. She had spent all winter talking about how the would get over splendidly. It all boiled down to the gossip that Su had once beaten one of the boys senseless.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The parents went off to their part of the hall to talk and we stayed. “It is really true you beat up a boy?” My sister comes straight out and asks. Su seems perturbed at the question and a bit sad. “Is that thing still haunting me?” She asks and turns to my brother, he gives her a pat on the back. “Nooo, not at all, just for my sister.” He tells her and smiles. My brilliant detective senses tingle and tells me Su would rather not have to defend her actions too much. “Is it true or not?” My sister tries to hammer on the subject. “No, I hit him, like once and he fell down and began crying,” Su tells her and my sister smiles. “Just like boys, can’t take any pain.” I think my sister's whole worldview has been validated.

When my parents come back it seems they have reached an agreement with Su’s parents. There is a small feast, Su’s family stays over for the night and leaves with Su the next morning. I slept in my other bedroom and during the night all my siblings came over as well. My brother and Su seemed to do some catching up. All fine now that they are married, but not too comfortable to listen to.

Preparations for the wedding were many, but this time I had my own. I needed to see to the orderly transfer of the deed to the mill. Breaking the contract with the lord because as the contract stated I no longer owned the mill. I found out why this clause was in there when working on this. Since there are mainly three ways to legally loose ownership of the property after the law. I could have ended up owing taxes and having to give the deed as part of the tax. If I loaned money and could not pay any contracted loans could have been reimbursed with the contract. This included failure to deliver after the contract with the merchant. Any of these options would give either the Lord or the merchant control of the mill, just good business.

The last option, but not least, I could transfer it through one of two legal property transfers for free. Either through dowry or inheritance is legal, but only one would void the contract. In the case of inheritance, all contracts would also be part of the inheritance, and I would need to die. As a dowry, however, the contract would be void since it was a new start. My brother's wife would get half of the mill, but she could not divorce him. Divorce is considered a male privilege. I sent notice to the merchant and the Lord of the arrangement, registered the transfer in Banks and a host of other small niceties. But afterwards, the contract was considered void.

My brother's wedding was much more fun than any of my other sibling's weddings. Partly because it was a bigger deal, the transfer of the mill the biggest talking point. I saw no resentment from my oldest brother because of this, maybe because I had told him I would help him expand his farm. The reason it was more fun was that I had become older. The difference between ten and twelve is large. There were dancing, drinking and even a bit of fooling around later in the evening. I got to kiss a girl and feel her up behind the temple. The most exciting part of it was that we were behind the temple and it was the priest's granddaughter. I was not scared of the priest, but rather her father whom will the priest later on. Then and there settling down and having a couple of kids did not seem too bad. But that too did pass, when I got a hangover the next morning.