Li Yun

Li Yun had worked the fields since childhood. He could hold his own in the reception hall and the kitchen alike, had a body packed with muscle, and made his living farming and hunting.

When he saw Lu Mingyi drying large chunks of bamboo shoots, he could not stand it. He took them back to the kitchen to redo them, cutting them into slices of even thickness.

"Honestly," he chided, "one look at these three young men tells you they've never done any chores. How could you feel comfortable letting them handle knives? Aren't you afraid they'll cut their hands?"

Su Yuhe grumbled inwardly. Weren't these three little men given to me for free to lighten my load around the house? What sense does it make for me to rush to wait on them?

Women whose families had money and a little standing never cooked. A gentlewoman kept her distance from the kitchen.

Now their wife not only had to cook but was being blamed for not teaching them to cook, too. Lu Mingyi immediately defended her. "It is Mingyi who is slow-witted. This has nothing to do with my wife."

Li Yun felt a little helpless. He smiled and explained, "I wasn't blaming her. It's just that you've never handled kitchen knives before, so you could easily hurt yourselves."

Lu Mingyi's tone was stiff. "Thank you for your concern."

Su Yuhe patted Li Yun on the shoulder. "Chef Li, tonight's meal is in your hands."

"Go take care of your work. I'm all that's needed here."

She returned to the study, reassured.

She and Li Yun were both well-known single people in Reed Flower Village.

Li Yun had already been famous before she arrived: a hunter who could neither embroider nor sew clothes, with wheat-colored skin and powerfully built limbs. One look told people he was no man for settling down and keeping house.

Besides, his family was sparse. Among his relatives within five degrees of kinship, only one aunt was still alive, but she had joined the army, and no one knew how she was doing now.

Li Yun was considered an unclean man who brought doom upon his relatives and friends. He was eighteen this year, yet no one wanted to get close to him, let alone marry him into their household.

Su Yuhe was much the same: an outsider of unknown origins with neither parent around, no job, and no land to farm. No one would marry her unless driven mad by poverty.

In her eyes, Li Yun was handsome and tall, his game fetched a good sum at the market, he could cook, and he had a good disposition and temper. He was the ideal choice for someone to share a life with.

They had agreed that if she still had not taken a husband by twenty, she would marry him. She would turn twenty next March, but with more mouths in the household, she did not know whether she would still have three taels of silver left for a betrothal gift by then.

In fact, she could marry him now. There had been two reasons for setting the deadline at twenty.

First, a woman who remained unmarried at twenty was fined two taels of silver every year, with no refund even after she married. Now that she had three male slaves in her household, she did not have to pay the fine.

Second, she had been making money by living off Xubai. How could she keep living off someone else after marrying and bringing along a whole family? She had planned to rake in some more money before marrying, then settle down properly with Li Yun. Unfortunately, plans could not keep pace with change.

Meng Zhixian switched his brush to his other hand and shook out his hand. Without lifting her head, Su Yuhe said with concern, "If you're tired, take a break. Go outside for a walk."

He put down his brush and came over to watch her write. She wrote extremely fast, and although her characters were not neat, they had a distinctive style.

As he watched, she turned another page.

"Doesn't your hand ache from writing so much, Wife?"

Su Yuhe set down her brush, leaned back, and rubbed her hand. "It does, but the household expenses are high. If I don't work harder, we won't have anything to eat."

She had appeared in this world out of nowhere and counted as a displaced person. With no land to farm, she did not have to pay land tax, but the head tax was half a tael of silver.

She could afford that half tael on her own, but with three more people, she had to pay two taels every year. Clothing, food, housing, and travel all cost money too. What could she do besides copy books?

She picked up her brush and continued copying. Keeping her handwriting passable, she could copy a little over four thousand characters at most from morning until dinner, while other hired copyists managed only a little over two thousand.

It was all thanks to practicing writing and brush control every day in the modern world. If she could use a modern brush-tip pen or hard-tipped pen instead, she could write even more in a day. Earning three taels in two days would be no problem.

Meng Zhixian dragged his chair back to his place and resumed copying. Since this was how they made their living, he needed to pick up his pace too.

"Time to eat." Li Yun knocked on the door, breaking the quiet in the room.

Su Yuhe put down her brush, suddenly realizing that the sky had already grown dim. She quickly tidied the desktop. "Let's go eat. We'll copy more tomorrow."

Meng Zhixian tidied up, then followed behind her, carrying the stool he had brought from the kitchen.

Mealtimes were the happiest, especially when she could eat without having to light the stove herself.

Heaven knew how long she had to coax herself before cooking each time. Lighting the fire, rinsing the rice, stir-frying the dishes, washing the bowls and scrubbing the wok-the whole process took quite a while.

Winter was all right, but summer was exhausting and hot.

Lu Mingxi was filling bowls with rice at the stove. She went over for a look and praised him. "Amazing! You managed to steam rice with every grain distinct so quickly. You're incredible."

Two blushes rose on Lu Mingxi's cheeks. "N-no, I didn't cook it. Brother Li did. I was only in charge of the fire."

Li Yun brought the dishes to the table and wiped his hands. "That's impressive too, keeping a strong fire going. When your lady first started tending fires, she could even put them out."

"So what?"

Meng Zhixian came in from outside and helped carry the filled rice bowls to the table. Lu Mingyi emerged from behind the stove and wiped his hands. "Let's eat."

Everyone was there. Su Yuhe took a handful of chopsticks and distributed the bowls and chopsticks, but no one started eating. She looked at Li Yun. "Eat."

The meal was lavish today: a plate of red-braised pork, two plates of vegetables, an egg soup, and several sweet potatoes.

Su Yuhe ladled a bowl of egg soup for each of the four men. Lu Mingxi was so touched that his eyes brimmed with tears, and he said repeatedly, "Thank you, Wife. Thank you, Wife. You should eat too."

Meng Zhixian rolled his eyes inwardly. She only served him some soup, and he's acting this excited. As if he's the only one who knows how to repay kindness.

Before he could think of something to say to express his gratitude, Li Yun placed a piece of meat in her bowl and gave her a chiding look, as though he had seen through her little scheme.

She did indeed have a little scheme: drink more soup and eat less rice.

She lowered her head and shoveled a mouthful of rice into her mouth, her eyes narrowing with happiness. "It's delicious!"

Li Yun smiled and gave her another piece. "Meat is expensive right now. Stock up once it gets cheaper in a while."

Although Lu Mingyi did not know why meat would become cheaper in a while, he still made a mental note to stock up on meat then.

Meng Zhixian's gaze darkened as he secretly studied the burly, wheat-skinned man opposite him. His features were sharply defined, as though carved by a divine axe and chisel, and the smile on his face softened them.

In the past, someone with looks like these would not even have qualified to stay by his side as an attendant. He would only have been fit to serve as a hidden guard who could never see the light of day.

Yet now he had to sit at the same table as such a man and watch him lavish attention on his wife.

After copying books all day, Su Yuhe ate a little more than usual and quickly finished a bowl of rice with the meat. Meng Zhixian wanted to take her bowl to refill it, but Li Yun rose a step ahead of him and served her another bowl.

She accepted it with both hands, thanked Li Yun, and bent her head over her food.

Li Yun picked up his chopsticks and took some vegetables. "What's the price of rice now?"

"Fifty wen a dou. It's so expensive."

"You wouldn't think so if you farmed."

That was true. If she farmed, she would wish she could sell it by the grain and charge a sky-high price.