"I can cook. They often ask me to cook, and whenever there's a wedding celebration in town, they call me," Li Cuihua said, nodding.
"She's a well-known cook in our town," someone said.
"A cook-that means you're good at it. I still need a cook.
You're hired. I'll buy you for twenty taels, with a monthly allowance of one tael to start. If your cooking is good, I can add another tael, or even two.
By the way, how old is the elderly woman? Can she work? And the children?" Tang Wen asked.
"My mother-in-law is forty. She's ill. If Master Tang will cover her treatment, and the two children, who are only eight or nine, can go to school, I can take a smaller monthly allowance," Li Cuihua said.
"Good. Yiwu, bring out our Deeds of Sale and pay her on the spot. What illness does your mother-in-law have? Bring her for me to examine when you come to work this afternoon," Tang Wen said.
"Don't listen to him! He's a fraud! If he's a master, how could he know medicine?" someone began shouting and stirring up trouble again.
"Exactly! An official isn't a doctor. How could he treat anyone?"
"So we mustn't let him fool us!"
"If anyone has an injured family member, bring them here at once. I shall treat their injuries on the spot," Tang Wen said with a wave.
"I've got a leg injury myself. A while back, I went fishing at sea, and a fishhook got its barb stuck inside. I still haven't been able to get it out." A burly man limped forward with a belligerent expression and sneered. "Go on, treat it. Let me see what you can do."
"What's your name?" Tang Wen asked.
"Why all the questions? Hurry up