Chapter 2

Chapter 2

And so, through a strange twist of fate, the year I turned thirteen, I became the maid in charge of tending the fires and cooking at the Wei Family estate in Shangjing City.

It was fortunate, in a way, that the Wei Family had fallen on hard times.

Otherwise, with ingredients too precious and rare, never mind cooking and eating them-coming from the countryside as I did, I would not even have seen them before.

I was responsible for three meals a day. Breakfast was easier: nothing more than steaming some buns and cooking a pot of thin porridge.

The troublesome part was the other two meals.

Madam was frail and had been vegetarian for many years. She did not eat meat or fish, and now that she had fallen ill from anger, she had to take a bowl of bird’s nest every day. I had no idea how to prepare that. Thankfully, Sister Zhu’er came to do it herself. As for the Eldest Young Master, he was injured and at the very time he needed nourishment. Even without the steward’s instructions, I knew to stew him some chicken soup and pork ribs.

After making the masters’ meals, I also had to cook for us servants. Naturally, there had to be some distinction in the dishes.

Every day I rose very early. First, I put the Eldest Young Master’s soup on to simmer, then I started making porridge. Cooking for such a large household, I was either washing bowls or picking through vegetables, so busy my feet barely touched the ground.

Perhaps it was because both Madam and the Eldest Young Master were unwell and had poor appetites, but after I had cooked for several days, no one said my food was bad. If the masters did not speak, the steward naturally did not either. After three or five days, seeing that Steward Uncle Wu still had not come to find me and showed no intention of going out to buy another maid, I finally began to relax.

Cui Jiu was kind. When he had free time, he would come help me chop firewood and draw water.

He was now responsible for sweeping and sprinkling water around the courtyards, so he could go everywhere. Unlike me, who was confined to one little kitchen.

He had been with the Wei Family for two years already and knew far more than I did.

He told me that back when the Wei Family was still glorious, it was truly something else. Every day, important people dressed in gold and silver came and went. Many people begged for an audience with the Eldest Young Master. Sometimes, just by showing those people the way, he could receive a handful of gold melon seeds tossed out as a casual reward.

The masters of the Wei Family were good people. They never lightly beat or scolded servants, and the monthly wages they gave were considered generous. Anyone who had worked in the Wei Family for a few years, so long as they put some thought into it, could more or less save up a bit like Nanny Zhou. With silver in hand, they could go back and rely on relatives, or return to their hometown and open a little shop. Either option was better than being a servant.

Hearing this, I asked Cui Jiu, “Then why haven’t you left?”

Cui Jiu faltered, then said vaguely, “Master showed me kindness. Naturally, I can’t leave without repaying it.”

As for what kind of kindness it was, Cui Jiu did not say.

He changed the subject and continued telling me about the glorious days of the Wei Family.

When speaking of the Wei Family’s glory, one naturally could not avoid the Eldest Young Master. The Eldest Young Master, Wei Zhao, was handsome and talented, with boundless prospects ahead of him. He had originally had a marriage arrangement, set with the legitimate daughter of Earl Yongchang’s family.

She was a prospective bride whose family background and appearance were flawless in every way.

But now, the Eldest Young Master had met with disaster, and his future was ruined. His wounds had not healed, and he had not gotten out of bed to walk. No one knew whether his legs would ever work properly again. With the risk that he might be crippled, after all, things were no longer what they used to be.

Cui Jiu looked around twice, then lowered his voice and said, “I think this marriage might fall through. Earl Yongchang probably won’t be willing to marry his legitimate young lady over anymore.”

Talking about the Eldest Young Master behind his back made me nervous. I could not help lowering my voice along with him, like a thief, and asked, “Can they really break off the engagement?”

If the engagement were broken, then she truly would not have to marry the Eldest Young Master.

But in that case, how ugly would Earl Yongchang Manor’s reputation become? Their precious legitimate young lady would have broken an engagement, and in the future she would inevitably be gossiped about.

Cui Jiu seemed to understand the methods of those great noble families very well. In a mysterious tone, he said, “Unless they have absolutely no choice, they won’t break the engagement. People’s tongues are frightening, you know. Think about it. They may only have one or two legitimate daughters, but Earl Yongchang Manor has plenty of concubine-born daughters. Sending one to the Eldest Young Master wouldn’t be a problem.”

I sucked in a cold breath. “A substitute bride?”

Cui Jiu did not answer. He raised his index finger and cautiously shushed me.

So I did not dare speak either.

I only thought silently to myself: everyone said the Eldest Young Master was brilliantly talented and made his name at a young age. Now that he had fallen into misfortune overnight, if Earl Yongchang Manor truly meant to switch in a concubine-born daughter, then for the Eldest Young Master, it would likely be an even greater humiliation than breaking the engagement outright.

Perhaps it was because I had spent too much time idly chatting with Cui Jiu about marriage between men and women during the day, but that night, half-asleep and half-awake, I dreamed of Brother Qiusheng.

Eighty li from the capital was a place called Qingshi Town.

Within Qingshi Town was Baiyun Village.

My family was just one small household in Baiyun Village.

My father farmed, and my mother set up a little stall at the village entrance selling hand-torn noodle soup.

From the time I was old enough to understand things, I helped my mother at the stall.

At first, life was still bearable-until my mother died.

Father remarried very quickly. My stepmother then gave birth to two younger brothers and a younger sister. With only my father, two mu of dry fields, and so many mouths to feed, from then on, he had no time to spare for me.

Originally, they planned to marry me off as early as possible. Best of all would be if I could become a concubine in Squire Wang’s household after he returned to the village to live out his old age.

Squire Wang was old, and he liked young girls best. His estate was full of concubines, all only thirteen or fourteen.

Father and my stepmother had already calculated that once my first monthly bleeding came, they would find a way to have me show my face before Squire Wang. If Squire Wang took a liking to me, all the better. If not, they would think of something else.

As for me, I did not like that old man Squire Wang.

He was even older than my father.

If I absolutely had to marry, I wanted to marry Brother Qiusheng, who had grown up with me.

Brother Qiusheng’s mother sold cooling tea. Her stall stood beside my mother’s. His father had died early, and his mother had raised him all on her own. Brother Qiusheng had asthma, so he was not as rowdy as my younger brothers, nor as coarse as the other young men his age. He was an extremely quiet person.

My stepmother had always looked down on him, privately despising him as timid.

In front of her, I did not dare argue, but in private, I always felt that if there were bold people in this world, then there had to be timid people too. So what if he was timid? He sat there quietly; if you told him to eat, he ate, and if you told him to drink water, he drank water. In the future, surely he would not be like the men in the village who beat their wives the moment they drank wine. Marrying him would be very reassuring.

Brother Qiusheng did not sell cooling tea himself. He learned a craft from the old men in the village and planned to become a carpenter. I had seen the tables and chairs he made-flat and even, without the slightest splinter.

Back then, when I dreamed at night, I dreamed of Brother Qiusheng too.

I dreamed that he became the most famous carpenter for a hundred li around, carrying two wild geese as betrothal gifts as he came to my house in grand style to ask for my hand.

In the dream, I prayed that Father and my stepmother, seeing that Brother Qiusheng had made something of himself, would marry me to him and not send me to Squire Wang’s house to become some wretched concubine.

Thinking back on it now, I truly imagined too much back then.

Whether it was Squire Wang or Brother Qiusheng, both would have been good paths. How could I have had any room to pick and choose?

What I encountered was a third path-a path no woman in this world would ever want to encounter.

My youngest brother ate something bad and came down with dysentery.

The illness struck fiercely, and in just a few days, my baby brother had wasted away.

At that very time, Father went out at night to fetch a physician. The mountain road was wet and slippery, and Father broke his leg in a fall.

In that household, my baby brother had to be saved, and we could not do without Father either.

Saving lives urgently required money.

Where would the money come from?

On the day I left in tears with the human broker, I ran into Brother Qiusheng. He was sitting in front of his house, whittling a length of bamboo.

He lifted his head and met my eyes for a moment, then flusteredly looked away.

That was the last time I ever saw him.

Tonight, in this dream, I dreamed of him again after so long.

He was still whittling bamboo, not daring to look at me even once.

In the vast sea of people, after parting, who knew when we would meet again? At the very last glance, he did not dare look at me.

What would have happened if he had looked at me? I would not have begged him to spend every coin he had to buy me. I only wanted to say goodbye to him properly.

My stepmother was right. He was timid.

Far too timid.

When I woke from the dream, I reached beneath my pillow and pulled out a hard steamed bun I had not been able to bear eating.

This was the Wei Family residence in Shangjing City.

I had signed a deed selling myself. I was now a servant of the Wei Family.

I thought that Qiusheng of Baiyun Village and I were probably fated to have nothing to do with each other in this lifetime.