"Was... was all of this bestowed by that lord?"
The Su family all stared wide-eyed at the eight bolts of cloth laid out on the kang.
Su Qiao nodded. "Mm. He said it was payment for cooking."
The old man sighed. "Ahem. It was only right to cook a meal for the lord. How could we still accept payment from him?"
"Grandpa, maybe that's a custom over in the capital. Besides, these aren't any precious fabrics. Since he bestowed them on us, we might as well keep them!"
If they had been the gorgeous clothes from before, Su Qiao definitely wouldn't have accepted them, even at the risk of offending someone.
These fabrics were only slightly better than ordinary cloth, so she felt no great pressure accepting them.
She had roasted an entire huge wild boar today. Although Yuan Wu, Yuan Liu, and the others had helped, it had still been exhausting, all right?
The old man took two puffs of his pipe. "They've already been brought back, so we can only accept them."
It wasn't as if they could send the things back, right?
That would only offend the lord instead.
Nearby, Zhou Lihua was beside herself with joy, unable to hide the excitement in her eyes. She carefully touched one of the bolts of rose-red fabric.
Oh my, this fabric and these little flowers were simply gorgeous. They suited her perfectly.
The old woman slapped her hand away. "What are you touching? Are your hands clean?"
"Mother, I washed them when I washed my face this morning. They're clean."
The back of her hand had been slapped red, but Zhou Lihua wasn't angry. Her eyes and heart were filled with nothing but the cloth.
Her eyes darted around before she looked at the old man. "Ahem, Father, the