An orphan girl from the countryside
Hearing his sister call her an orphan girl from the countryside made Xubai uncomfortable, but he had to admit that it was true.
He retorted unhappily, "But I like her. I want to take her as my princess consort."
"Let's see whether there's anything you like in that shop." Yongqin took his arm and led him toward the shop, only for her younger brother to remove her hand. She froze. "What's wrong?"
"Men and women shouldn't touch. Please be mindful of that, Sister."
Yongqin had never expected to hear those words from him. Her younger brother had always defied discipline, growing up pampered and doted upon. The only hardship he had probably ever suffered was the exhausting journey here to lie low.
He could summon the wind and rain with a word. To anger the ministers who impeached him, he had even declared that he wanted their daughters as his female favorites. Someone who had uttered such outrageous words was now concerned about propriety between himself and his own sister.
Inwardly aghast, she followed him into the shop.
Xubai immediately took a liking to the most conspicuous gold bracelet in the shop. He picked it up, held it against his wrist, and told the shopkeeper, "Make another one of these."
"What size would you like?"
"Four chi and four cun."
Yongqin smiled as she glanced at the bracelet. "It is lovely, but isn't four chi and four cun a little small?"
"No. Her wrists are slender."
Her smile froze. "This isn't for me?" she asked incredulously.
"Then make another."
Hardly a big deal.
Yongqin's face fell. "You used to think of me first whenever there was anything nice. How did I drop to second place after just one trip away?"
"It's not as though you lack these things, Sister." Unconcerned, Xubai picked up some other jewelry and asked the shopkeeper, "How many sets do you have in this design?"
"Only this one," the shopkeeper replied.
"Make another set in this design."
The shopkeeper looked troubled. "There can't be a second set of this jewelry. The artisan isn't taking any more commissions, and no one else can make it."
Seeing Xubai looking at her, Yongqin was puzzled. "Why are you looking at me?"
"This jewelry is too plain and understated to suit you, Sister."
She had been so caught up in her little sulk over her brother no longer taking her side that she had barely looked at it. She stepped forward and picked up the jewelry in the box.
The set contained a hair stick, a hairpin, a necklace, a pair of earrings, and a bracelet. The designs were simple and quite pretty.
What fine things hadn't she seen? She could take or leave this set, and she had guessed his little scheme, but she still said, "I like it very much. Everything you choose is to my taste, Xubai."
He wavered, unwilling to give up, and tried again. "The workmanship is crude. It isn't good enough for you, Sister."
"That's all right. If it's from you, I'll wear it."
"All right." He convinced himself that the longer he looked, the cruder it really did seem. It wasn't a good match for her. He turned to look at other pieces.
Yongqin relaxed.
Just as I thought. How could an orphan girl from the countryside rank above his own sister in his heart?
Xubai chose several pieces, and she happily paid for them. "Once we're back in the capital, you can choose anything you like from the Crowned Gold Pavilion."
He gave a perfunctory reply, but inwardly, he cared nothing for any Crowned Gold Pavilion or Crowned Silver Pavilion. Right now, he only wanted to see his Yuhe.
After just two days apart, he had already learned what it meant for one day without seeing someone to feel like three autumns.
Little did Xubai know that in less than three days, the person who occupied his every thought had already put him out of her mind and was making plans to spend her life with someone else.
Su Yuhe got up early that day, but Li Yun had risen even earlier. By the time she got up, he had already been busy in the kitchen for quite a while.
She yawned and fetched hot water to wash her face and brush her teeth. When she came back in, the pork-and-cabbage dumplings were already on the table.
What was happiness?
Happiness was getting up and having a hot meal without having to heat water, light a fire, wash vegetables, or cook. She didn't even have to wash the dishes or scrub the pots. Li Yun did most of it himself.
He wiped his hands and shouldered the carrying basket sitting in the courtyard. "I'm leaving."
Su Yuhe called him back and dug a packet of malt sugar out of a jar in the corner of the kitchen. "Take this."
Li Yun accepted it without protest, put it in his basket, and strode away.
After watching him leave, Su Yuhe hurried straight back to the study to continue her great undertaking of copying books.
Lu Mingyi began preparing that day's midday-evening meal. The cabbage dumplings counted as brunch. Given their household circumstances and the standard of their meals, eating three meals a day was too extravagant. Two were about right.
There was plenty to do in the kitchen, so Lu Mingxi helped him. She really couldn't feel at ease with those two in the kitchen and went over to check on them now and then.
When she appeared in the kitchen for the fifth time, Lu Mingyi was concentrating on cutting sweet potatoes to practice his knife skills and didn't spare her so much as a sideways glance.
Su Yuhe inspected the kitchen, making sure nothing was amiss, then moved beside him. "Watch your fingers. Li Yun sharpened this knife this morning. It's very sharp."
The moment she finished speaking, she covered her mouth.
What she feared had come to pass. No sooner had she said it than he cut his hand.
She took his hand and examined it. The cut was quite deep, and blood welled steadily from the flesh.
Chopped vegetables and sweet potatoes sat on the stove counter. Fortunately, he hadn't been cutting meat, or it would have been troublesome.
"Does it hurt?"
Su Yuhe looked up at him and met Lu Mingyi's gaze, calm as still water. He shook his head. "No."
"Let's have someone in town look at it. I'll give it a simple bandage first."
She had never treated a wound here. In modern times, all she needed were iodine swabs and an adhesive bandage: one to disinfect it and kill germs, the other to keep the wound sealed off from the outside.
She searched but couldn't find anything sterile to dress the wound with. In the end, Lu Mingyi untied his own hair ribbon and wrapped it around his hand.
Not being able to see the wound didn't mean it had stopped bleeding.
Su Yuhe went back to her room for her money pouch. She had just told Lu Mingyi to wait for her by the entrance, but when she went outside, he wasn't there. She came back to look and found him still in the kitchen.
"Let's go."
Lu Mingyi shook his head. "Going to town just because I cut my hand is making a mountain out of a molehill."
She hesitated. A visit to the physician would cost at least half a tael of silver, and it wasn't as though there were no remedies at home.
Plant ash. Su Yuhe dredged it up from a distant memory. As a child, when she had raced and clambered about at her grandmother's house, they had used plant ash whenever she got hurt or scraped her skin.
"It's nothing serious, wife. Don't worry."
Su Yuhe took the cleaver from his hand, then drew his hand up before her eyes, examining and feeling it over and over.
His hand was bone-chillingly cold, the back of it mottled red and purple-blue, and his fingers were all swollen.
His chilblains had worsened again.
Now they really had no choice but to go to the clinic.
She enclosed Lu Mingyi's hand in hers. "Listen to me. We're going to the clinic."
Lu Mingyi lowered his head toward the source of the warmth. The places enclosed by her palms tingled.
Su Yuhe felt a little dead inside. Half a tael of silver for one pot of chilblain ointment. It really was expensive.
"Wife, let's go home. It'll heal on its own."
The physician glanced at Lu Mingyi and said to her, "How about this? I'll treat your young husband's wound for a consultation fee of ten wen. As for the medicinal ointment, scar ointment, and chilblain ointment, you can decide which to buy."