Candied Hawthorns

Shopkeeper Liu took out four taels of silver and handed them to her. Su Yuhe tucked the silver into her little purse, picked up the stationery boxes, and replied with a woeful look, "I have to earn money to prepare for the bitter cold, don't I?"

"True enough. Best to prepare ahead of time."

One trip had doubled her fortune. With her entire wealth now totaling over twenty taels, it was time to buy some new clothes.

After chatting idly with Shopkeeper Liu for a while, she headed out carrying the four stationery boxes. Lu Mingxi took them from her without being asked. With his long arms and legs, he looked particularly at ease carrying all four together.

Su Yuhe took him to the cloth shop. There were no customers inside at the moment, but judging by the shopkeeper's expression, business had been quite profitable.

"It's been a while, Lady Su. What would you like to buy this time?"

She browsed the shop, stopping before a bolt of moon-white cloth. "This color is rather nice."

The shopkeeper introduced it with a smile. "This color just came in. There are only two bolts, eight mace apiece. If you like it, you'd best hurry."

With her wages freshly in hand, she waved grandly, pointing to the bolt of moon-white cloth and a black one beside it. "These two, then."

"Certainly! One tael of silver altogether."

Lu Mingxi was a little surprised. "What's the difference between these two bolts? Why is there such a big difference in price?"

The shopkeeper accepted the money Su Yuhe handed over and explained with a beaming smile, "Black cloth is generally cloth that went wrong when being dyed another color and was dyed black instead, so it's a little cheaper than the other colors. But the quality is the same. Feel the fabric-it's soft and comfortable."

"Is that so?"

Su Yuhe's eyes were fixed on a bolt of lotus-root-white fabric. The shopkeeper followed her gaze. "That color suits spring and summer. With your fair skin, my lady, it would certainly look lovely on you."

Back when she was single, whether it looked good on her or not, she would buy any color that caught her fancy.

Productivity in ancient times fell short of the modern era, especially when it came to fabric colors. A single vat could only dye so much, and what she saw this time would differ somewhat from what she saw the next.

She shook her head and said to Lu Mingxi, "Let's go. We'll have brunch here before heading back."

Lu Mingxi had seen that bolt of cloth too. Instinctively, he wanted to tell her to buy it if she liked it, but just as the words reached his lips, he suddenly realized he had no money at all. Living off his wife, how could he urge her to spend more?

He lowered his head dejectedly and followed beside his wife, carrying their things.

As they passed the town's only restaurant, Su Yuhe sighed. "It's been so long since I ate here. I really miss their roast chicken."

At her words, Lu Mingxi looked up and unexpectedly met a pair of beautiful eyes. Their owner was watching him expressionlessly, undisguised loathing in his eyes.

He tilted his head, not understanding why the person upstairs would look at him that way.

Su Yuhe felt the purse inside her robe. A roast chicken cost fifty-eight copper coins, which wasn't exactly expensive. In the past, whenever she came to town to exchange a copied book for money, she would visit the restaurant and reward herself with a roast chicken or roast duck.

Her feet shifted. Just as she was about to step inside and order a roast chicken to satisfy her craving, she remembered that four roast chickens would buy a bolt of cloth.

A bolt of cloth could make four or five outfits. Once those four roast chickens went into her stomach, if she ate them at noon, she would see them in the privy that evening.

She silently changed direction and chose the little stall beside the restaurant.

Su Yuhe pulled Lu Mingxi over to a table and sat down, calling to the owner, "Two bowls of wontons, with two lion's head meatballs. How much?"

"Coming right up! Twenty-four copper coins altogether."

She took out the copper coins and placed them on the table. While waiting for the wontons, she noticed Lu Mingxi staring at a candied hawthorn vendor. She took another ten copper coins from her purse. "Go buy a skewer."

Lu Mingxi shook his head vehemently. "No."

"Then wait here for me." She stood and headed toward the candied hawthorn vendor.

He hurried after her. "I won't eat it. Please don't buy it, wife."

The candied hawthorn seller was first to pull a skewer from the straw holder and hand it to Su Yuhe. "My lady, you truly are a good wife."

Those words sounded so familiar. She accepted the candied hawthorns with a wooden expression and headed back. Lu Mingxi hung his head, clutching the hem of her clothes with both hands, his voice downcast. "I shouldn't have kept looking."

Su Yuhe smiled and stroked his head, then pinched his soft, tender cheek. "Our Mingxi does so much work every day. What's wrong with rewarding him with a skewer of candied hawthorns?"

"But it costs ten copper coins."

"Ten copper coins isn't that much."

"It could buy several heads of cabbage."

The young gentleman who had once had no concept of money had been brought up in poverty. Every day, he rose before dawn to work, yet he felt unworthy of even a ten-coin skewer of candied hawthorns. For a moment, she did not know what to say.

Su Yuhe pulled him down to sit just as the wontons arrived, and urged him softly, "Hurry and eat while they're hot."

Lu Mingxi silently picked up the lion's head meatball in his bowl and placed it in hers. Before she could speak, he said quickly, "I already have candied hawthorns."

She put it back. "I ordered this extra for you. You need to eat more meat to grow taller."

Afraid he would put it back in her bowl, she explained solemnly, "You're not allowed to give it to me again. I can't eat two lion's head meatballs by myself."

In the end, that lion's head meatball finally stayed out of her bowl. He had been so happy when he begged her to bring him along, and he had been happy just moments ago too. She had not expected a single skewer of candied hawthorns to affect his mood.