Needed connections

Lu Mingyi tugged at Su Yuhe's hem. "Wife, you don't need to buy ointment for me. It can heal on its own."

The physician bent down to pick up her medicine chest and teased with a smile, "Your husband is a virtuous one, so considerate of you."

"How much is the healing ointment?"

"Three mace."

"And the scar-removing one?"

"Six mace. It's made with fine medicinal ingredients. After a few uses, the scars will be gone."

The three ointments came to one tael and four mace. She could grit her teeth and afford it.

"I'll take all three. Could you make it a little cheaper?"

The physician smiled. "The prices have always been the same. But since you're such a devoted woman, I can waive the consultation fee."

Su Yuhe thanked her repeatedly and took Lu Mingyi's hand off her hem. "Get your wounds treated first. I'll go have a look at the bookshop."

Since she was already here, she might as well see whether she could pick up another job to take home. The ox cart cost ten copper coins per person, and that didn't even cover the return trip.

The round trip for the two of them cost forty copper coins. A live chicken only cost thirty, and the remaining ten could buy five scallion pancakes.

Damn it, she was stretching her sleeves only to expose her elbows with this life. She wanted to hug a golden thigh again.

Without Xubai, who else would let her eat her fill and take things home too?

The bookshop's shopkeeper was sorting books and looked a little surprised to see her. "Miss Su, have you finished copying already?"

She browsed around the shop and spoke with seeming casualness. "My young husband has nothing to do at home and wants to copy books. I brought him into town today, so I stopped by to ask."

Realization dawned on the shopkeeper. "I heard the government slaves who arrived at the government office a few days ago were all sent to a household in Reed Flower Village. Could that have been yours, Miss Su?"

"Haha, yes, mine."

"What good fortune you have! Bring him along sometime so I can see what a young master from a great family looks like. He must be different from our coarse village men."

Su Yuhe laughed a few times, unsure what to say to praise that put others down. After thinking for two seconds, she replied, "How different could he be? They all have two eyes, one nose, and one mouth."

Having finished sorting the books, the shopkeeper went behind the counter. "Look at me, forgetting the important business."

"This is from that same regular customer. They specifically asked for you to copy it, and even said that the faster you copy, the bigger the bonus."

The shopkeeper took one stationery box after another out from below. "These are all yours. Don't let your young husband copy them for you. They asked for you by name."

To Su Yuhe, those towering stationery boxes looked no different from a little mountain of gold.

Her eyes shone. "Looks like I really have met a benefactor."

"Indeed you have. The benefactor said that if you finish four books in a month, you'll get an extra three taels."

Three taels per book meant twelve taels for four books in a month. Add the three-tael bonus, and that made fifteen.

What a profit.

The shopkeeper took several more stationery boxes out from below. "See how many you want to take home. They're all for you anyway."

"I'll take two boxes home for now."

The shopkeeper handed her two taels of silver from her money pouch. "All right. Here's the deposit."

Heh, she had money to keep things going again.

"Are there any other jobs?"

"There are, but the pay is low and there are a lot of characters to copy." The shopkeeper put the stationery boxes back below. "You have a knack for making money, and your husbands are young masters from great families fallen on hard times. They've all studied and can read. Why not try writing family letters for people?"

"Writing letters for people?"

"Yes, writing family letters and then taking them to the courier station."

Su Yuhe was a little puzzled. The bookshop's shopkeeper could easily do something this good herself. She ran a bookshop, had studied, could read, and had some learning.

"Writing the letters is simple enough, but you need connections at the courier station."

So it took connections.

She was an outsider with no contacts here.

The only important person she had met was Xubai, but as a man, he had little say here. All he could do was give her some gold and silver.

"See if you can ask that regular customer for help."

The idea Su Yuhe had just abandoned sprang to life again. "How so?"

With a mysterious air, the shopkeeper took out a silver ingot. "Do you know what this is?"

"Silver."

"Hahahaha, you certainly know how to joke." The shopkeeper turned the ingot over, revealing the red stamp underneath. "This is the government's seal. It can't be faked."

Official silver. This was her first time seeing it. No wonder she had noticed a certain distinctive air about that ingot.

"Shopkeeper Liu, the new books are here! Come help carry them!"

Shopkeeper Liu called back and hurried outside, not forgetting to ask Su Yuhe, "Are you taking any more work?"

"No, go ahead with your work."

"All right. Just bring them over when you finish copying."

Su Yuhe picked up the two stationery boxes and headed outside. The bookshop wasn't far from the clinic; it stood in the middle of this long street, while the clinic was at one end.

Lu Mingyi's wounds had already been bandaged, and he was waiting for her at the entrance.

"It's cold outside. Why didn't you wait inside?"

He took the stationery boxes from Su Yuhe's arms. "It was stuffy in there."

"Let's go. We'll buy some more meat at the market."

Lu Mingyi walked beside her. His handsome face and conspicuously extraordinary bearing drew repeated glances from quite a few passersby. He lowered his head, using the stationery boxes to hide almost half his face.

After much hesitation, he freed one hand and tugged at Su Yuhe's hem. "Wife, why don't we wait a few days to buy it? It'll be cheaper then."

"Pork might come down in price, but chicken costs about the same all year."

He withdrew his hand and followed silently beside her. Su Yuhe went to a chicken stall and looked them over.

The stallholder took the initiative to lift a woven bamboo cage and bring it closer. "Live chickens are thirty copper coins each, and chicken meat is twenty a catty. Would you like a live chicken or one that's already been slaughtered?"

Although a whole live chicken cost only thirty copper coins, they were all scrawny, and she would have to prepare it herself. Among the cages, she found the plumpest one by comparison. "This one."

"All right, I'll catch it for you."

In less than two minutes, the stallholder deftly pulled the chicken from its cage, bound its feet with a straw cord, and handed it to her. "Here you go!"

Carrying the scrawny chicken, Su Yuhe took him around the market twice more and bought some cabbage and sweet potatoes that would keep well. It took two trips to carry everything to the ox cart.

Second Sister Li helped her arrange the vegetables. "Wait a moment. I have one more passenger, and they'll be here soon."

Only two of them had come out this time, so she hadn't chartered the cart. She could only wait patiently.

She sat on the cart for a while before remembering something important.

"Did you get the ointments?"

Lu Mingyi said nothing. Su Yuhe guessed he hadn't, but unwilling to give up, she asked again, "I already paid for them. You didn't leave without them, did you?"

"I returned them."

Su Yuhe jumped off the ox cart and said to Second Sister Li, "I'll be right back."

"Hey, where are you going?"

"The clinic. I'll be right back."

Lu Mingyi jumped off the ox cart after her. "Wife, don't spend money on me."

She didn't like flaws in her possessions. Since spending a little money could remedy them, there was no need to stand by and watch scars form on his hands, leaving them covered in chilblains.

Besides, these ointments wouldn't be used up in one application. The healing ointment could also be used on Li Yun. With chilblains, there was only the first time and countless times after that, so she could keep the chilblain ointment for Lu Mingyi to use again in winter.

"Stay here. I'll be right back."