Taking on work

Someone caught her wrist. Su Yuhe lowered her gaze to find the boy looking at her with doe-like eyes, his face flushed. "Wife, it's cold. Come in too."

She pulled her lips into a smile. "What's your name?"

"Lu Mingxi. Ming as in bright, and xi as in stream."

Su Yuhe pinched his cheek. He looked quite young, with baby fat still clinging to his face. It felt wonderful to the touch.

She asked, "How old are you?"

"I'll be old enough to bind my hair next year."

Boys bound their hair at fifteen. He really was quite young, five years younger than her.

She found her inner garments in the wardrobe. "Wear these for now. You'll share my quilt tonight."

The door was suddenly shoved open with great force, startling both her and Lu Mingxi. Lu Mingyi stepped forward and caught her hand, his handsome brows and eyes lowered as he pleaded softly, "My younger brother is still young. Please let this slave serve you tonight instead."

"Brother, I can do it." Lu Mingxi propped himself up to protest and tugged at Su Yuhe's sleeve. "Wife, I can."

A vein bulged at Su Yuhe's temple. She closed her eyes briefly, suppressing the urge to hit someone.

"I'm already very tired. Let's sleep."

Meng Zhixian came in and closed the door, pulled Lu Mingyi up, and advised him quietly, "As long as Wife likes him. Fourteen isn't that young anymore."

Hearing this, she nearly ground her back teeth to pieces. What she had meant just now was that she was already tired and didn't want any nighttime activities, yet what they heard had become an order not to question her choice.

She couldn't get the explanation out either. Su Yuhe lay down on the innermost side. "It's late. Let's rest."

Meng Zhixian answered and prodded Lu Mingyi. "Get in and sleep."

He went to blow out the candle. Seeing Lu Mingyi still standing there blankly, he simply climbed onto the kang first. It had been a long time since he had slept lying on a bed, and he fell asleep as soon as he touched it.

Lu Mingxi nestled in her arms and called softly, "Wife."

Whenever she thought of his age, hearing him call her Wife felt terribly sinful.

She covered his mouth with her palm. "Sleep!"

Lu Mingxi obediently closed his mouth. At first, his heart hung in suspense, but even after a long while, Wife hadn't done anything to him.

The room was utterly quiet, with only the sound of breathing. Once Lu Mingxi quieted down, he grew drowsy and soon went off to meet the Duke of Zhou.

Lu Mingyi remained beside the bed for quite some time without hearing any other sounds. Before long, steady breathing sounded. He let out a breath of relief, took off his cloak in the darkness, and spread it over Wife and his younger brother.

Their luck wasn't too bad. Although they had been sent to a remote area and Wife wasn't wealthy, she was a good person, gentle and even-tempered, and she had no principal husband yet. With some effort, their lives wouldn't be too bad.

It was better than being sent to a wealthy household. He himself had come from a great aristocratic clan and knew that government slaves in the inner household mostly came to bad ends.

If they won their wife's favor and the principal husband was virtuous, life would be somewhat easier. If the principal husband was jealous and neglected his duties, they were very likely not to live past twenty-five.

Without their wife's favor, they were no different from the household servants. All the dirty, exhausting work fell to the government slaves, yet their title as half a master also left them ostracized by the other concubines and bullied by the servants.

Lu Mingyi slipped under the quilt. Before sleep overtook him, he reviewed the day's chores in his mind: how to start a fire, how to stir-fry, and how to rinse and steam rice.

These were things he would have to do in the future. If he needed teaching every time, even someone with the best temper would get angry.

Since Su Yuhe often had to climb over the wall in the middle of the night to keep Xubai company, her sleep schedule was irregular. She slept until the sun was high before getting up.

When she rose, she found that not only were the three newcomers already up, they had prepared a whole table of dishes.

She made a circuit of the kitchen. All three were extremely nervous, and she immediately sensed something was wrong.

Sure enough, when she lifted the pot lid, the rice on top was fine, but the bottom layer was completely burnt.

Su Yuhe set down the lid and sat at the dining table, inwardly lamenting it over and over. Her face showed no trace of blame, and her tone was mild. "You've only been in the kitchen twice, and you can already cook rice through and stir-fry dishes. That's impressive."

Lu Mingxi let out a relieved breath and volunteered his contribution. "I tended the fire!"

Lu Mingyi tugged at his younger brother to signal him to be quiet. Meng Zhixian placed a chopstickful of food in her bowl. "Try it, Wife."

It was very salty, but faced with the boy's expectant gaze, she shoveled down a few mouthfuls of rice before saying, "You added too much salt. Add a little at a time, and taste it yourself before taking it out of the wok."

There was neither the praise he had awaited nor a scolding, but Meng Zhixian still flushed scarlet. "I'm sorry, I, I..."

"It's fine. You'll improve." She quickly finished a bowl of rice. "Once you've eaten, I'll take you into town to get some clothes made."

Sitting in her rocking chair, Su Yuhe felt her legs go weak. They ate far too much. When she ate alone, a vat of rice lasted ages. Since they had arrived, the remaining half-vat was already nearing the bottom.

One shi of rice cost half a tael of silver. One shi was 94 kilograms, or 188 jin.

Her two daily meals added up to less than one jin. Half a tael of silver could feed her for over half a year.

Judging by their appetites, a conservative estimate was one jin a day each. Four people meant four jin of rice, so one shi would only last a month and a half.

No, no. I need to keep the Engel coefficient under control.

Reed Flower Village wasn't far from town: half an hour on foot, or a little over ten minutes by ox cart.

Su Yuhe gave Lu Mingyi one tael of silver and had him take the other two to try on clothes, while she went to the bookshop to pick up work.

At 165 centimeters, she wasn't exactly short, but compared with the women here, who were generally over 170 centimeters, she was much more petite.

She didn't like exercise either and didn't want to do physical labor. After latching onto Xubai, she had used his paper, ink, brushes, and inkstone to practice until she developed fine handwriting, and usually copied books to supplement her household expenses.

Copying ten thousand characters earned less than one tael of silver, but it was somewhat easier than other ways of making money.

The moment she stepped into the bookshop, its owner looked over with a beaming smile. "Miss Su, you haven't taken any work in ages. You've arrived just in time for a good job."

Interested, she walked up to the counter. "What good job? Let me hear it."

Li Wenxiu, sitting to one side in a wooden wheelchair, had been completely ignored. She gritted her teeth and interrupted, "Shopkeeper Liu, I was here first!"

Only then did Shopkeeper Liu remember her. "Miss Li, it's not that I won't give you work. The requirements for this copying job are high. You're not suitable."

"How am I not suitable?"

Seeing Li Wenxiu determined to dig down to the roots, Shopkeeper Liu rubbed their nose and muttered, "Your handwriting's gone all over the place. You're lucky I didn't make you copy it again."

Li Wenxiu's face flushed scarlet. "Utter nonsense!"

"I'm not making things up. Look at what you copied yourself. What even is this writing?" Shopkeeper Liu grew indignant too, opening a book and thrusting it in front of Li Wenxiu. "I'm embarrassed to sell this to customers."

With that, Shopkeeper Liu stopped arguing with her and turned to Su Yuhe with a pleasant expression. "It's the same customer as last time. They specifically asked for you to copy it. Three taels upon completion, with a one-tael deposit already paid. Your brush, ink, paper, and inkstone are all ready."

"All right." She accepted the stationery box the shopkeeper handed over. "I'd like to take another job too."

Su Yuhe took a sheet of paper from inside her robe and handed it to Shopkeeper Liu. "Someone literate has joined my household. I'm picking up some work for him to help with expenses."

Shopkeeper Liu took it and glanced at it. "The handwriting certainly is good, but the only work I have left is at the lowest rate: half a tael for twelve thousand characters."

The rate really was low. Apart from her very first jobs, Su Yuhe's work had paid around eight qian (= 800 copper coins = 0.8 taels) per ten thousand characters. Occasionally, a big-spending client paid three taels for a book, with each book running around twenty thousand characters.

"That's fine. Whatever he can earn is something."

"All right." Shopkeeper Liu handed her a blank booklet. "This job doesn't include the four treasures of the study."

She had forgotten. Most low-paying orders came from impoverished scholars, who provided only paper. Everything else was at the copyist's own expense; the money was earned through sheer toil.

Having already accepted it, she could only steel herself and go through with it.