Although Su Nuo was still only six years old, he was actually quite smart. After Su Tang had walked him through decorating his room once before, he now had his own clear ideas about what he wanted in his room and why.
"En, sounds good." Su Tang nodded along and then looked around at the empty courtyard. After a moment of thought, she called Baohe over and said, "Go to Carpenter Wang's place and ask him to come over if he's free."
Originally Su Tang had planned to go find Carpenter Wang herself, after all, since he had made the boxes for her last time she knew that his craftsmanship was pretty good and that he was also reliable, so she was confident in working with him again.
However, after personally looking around the courtyard and seeing just how much needed to be done, she felt it would be more prudent to ask Carpenter Wang to make the trip over himself so that he could directly take all the necessary measurements while he was here and save them both some trouble.
Baohe hurriedly agreed and headed out to Carpenter Wang's shop. When Carpenter Wang and his wife heard the little girl asking them to come over and take a look at a house that needed some customized furniture made, seemingly wanting to order more than just one or two pieces, they immediately dropped what they were doing and followed Baohe out without another word.
When they arrived, Su Tang pushed Su Nuo forward to let him explain what he needed himself, and the little guy smoothly told it all to Carpenter Wang.
"Young master, what did that bookshelf look like exactly? And can the desk be made like this? Also, young master, if you want to put a table here then I'm afraid the table can't be too big, after all, the area occupied by the kang bed isn't small. However, if you're staying in this room alone young master, then why not build the wardrobe into the kang bed? That way you would save a bit of space and things wouldn't be so tight."
Once Carpenter Wang discovered that Su Nuo was the one who was ordering the furniture, he directly began to seriously treat Su Nuo as an important customer without minding his age at all.
For Su Nuo, who was only six years old, this was the first time he had been treated this way by an adult, as if he were the one completely in charge of the situation. He found the situation very novel, but he also didn't forget to seriously communicate his wishes to Carpenter Wang.
Su Tang just watched from the side without adding anything. At first, she had intended to give the little guy some gentle reminders if he forgot anything, but she didn't ever get the chance because Carpenter Wang always took away that job and gave Su Nuo a reminder if the little guy ever overlooked anything.
"Then it's decided! I will prepare one bookshelf, one desk and chair set, a small table with four small stools, and build a wardrobe into the kang bed. Don't worry, I've properly recorded all the measurements and I pledge to make the young master's room bright and comfortable."
Carpenter Wang carefully wrote everything down and spoke up to confirm everything with Su Nuo. Su Nuo had been completely carried away by the excitement of their conversation so when he heard everything that was being ordered, it came as a bit of a shock. He froze and asked hesitantly: "How much will all of this cost?"
When Carpenter Wang heard that question, he looked over at Su Tang uncertainly, but Su Tang just gave him a smile and a nod. Since he had the blessing of the 'adult' in the room, he said, "Building drawers into the kang bed will save materiels, so it will only cost two hundred copper coins, but the desk and chair are slightly pricey and will cost four hundred and fifty copper coins together. Then the bookshelf will be one hundred and fifty copper coins, and the table and stools will be three hundred copper coins."
At first, Su Nuo tried to count along on his fingers, but he quickly got confused and lost track of the numbers. In the end, Carpenter Wang quoted the final price: "The total will be 1100 copper coins, or one silver tael and one hundred copper coins."
Not even mentioning Su Nuo, even Zhang Cuilan and Baohe were astonished to hear this number. For furnishing one room to cost more than a silver tael, wasn't it really just too big a price?
And this was without Su Tang requesting any particularly good wood or anything. In fact, if he had wanted to use good materials to make furniture, like the mahogany from the nearby mountains or certain tribute materials, a single piece of furniture could easily cost anywhere from hundreds of copper coins to thousands of taels of silver.
Su Nuo put on a struggling expression and asked softly, "So much?"
It seemed the little guy was still very frugal.
"Well, just write it down for the time being and come take a look at main room over here." Su Tang didn't feel there was anything wrong with the price. She didn't want to live extravagantly or arrogantly, but she wanted to live well, so she knew that, naturally, her consumption would increase.
This was just the natural result of wanting to live better, it wasn't anything surprising.
. Back in the modern era, didn't some people feel that five thousand yuan wasn't enough while others felt that fifty-thousand wasn't enough? It was because the level of consumption between the two parties was different, and each party probably felt that their feelings were very reasonable.
Plus, Su Tang wasn't worried about making money. Not even mentioning the soap, she would also soon have the chili and tomato sauces, and even a dessert shop. Could she fail to make money? With fresh and delicious food to sell, would she ever lack a market?
And besides, what was the point of working so hard to make money in the first place? Wasn't it for just this sort of thing? For enjoying life and making life better? Once she had enough money, why wouldn't she use nothing but mahogany and tribute wood for her furniture? By that point, even her washbasins would use those materials!
What was the ultimate pleasure of making money? It was the pleasure of living the life of a tycoon!
When Carpenter Wang heard Su Tang's affirmation, he nodded along and head on to the main room. As they walked, Su Tang pulled Su Nuo to the side and whispered, "Don't worry about any of this. Sister here will work hard for now so you just need to study seriously, then in the future…"
"I'll become a high-ranking official!" Su Nuo clenched his fist and vowed without even waiting for Su Tang to finish. Then he looked up at her and said, "Sister, I will definitely grow up and make a lot of money, and when that time comes I will give it all to you!"
Su Tang smiled and pinched his face. "Alright, but you can't become an official just to make money, you know?"
Su Tang didn't want to raise a corrupt official. Hearing his sister's joking warning, Su Nuo shook his head and said firmly, "A gentleman loves money but always takes the right path. Don't worry, the things you've taught me, I remember them all."
Su Tang nodded with satisfaction. "En, that's right. Keep up the good work."
Thus, the two siblings entered the main room with smiles on their faces. The main room was a little bigger than any of the other rooms. The entrance was a door that connected it to the main hall, and on one side of the room, there was a small study that was currently empty, while on the other side was the living space which included a kang bed.
Since the room had been used by Mr. Lin himself, it obviously wasn't small. However, Mr. Lin's family had really taken away almost everything so, currently, there was only a single lonely kang bed left in the room.
As soon as Carpenter Wang saw the situation in the main hall and the main room, he could smell a big job coming his way. And, sure enough, Su Tang immediately said, "I'd like you to make six chairs and a large table for the main hall. They don't have to be anything special, just make it like any ordinary person's dining room."
"Then build a door here to properly separate the bedroom from the main hall, and make some sort of simple divider to partition off the study from the bedroom. I don't need any bookshelves, but make me a chair and desk for the study."
"Then, in the bedroom, I want an oversized wardrobe and a round table with some stools to go with it. I'll show you what I mean later, but the waredrobe needs to be able to hold clothes hangers, which I would also like to ask you to make."
Su Tang had always had a lot of ideas about personalizing her living space, and since she was finally doing it she meant to do it all the way. But she also didn't want to request anything particularly modern or anything, because she had a certain fondness for these kinds of antiques made by the ancients that Carpenter Wang's craftmanship seemed very reminiscent of. Thus, she decided to just let him make everything according to his instincts as a craftsman.
However, the one exception was the clothes hangers. She had specially asked Carpenter Wang to make her some clothes hangers because they were just too convenient to do without, and also asked him to build the wardrobe oversized and with a horizontal bar inside of it so she would have somewhere to hang her clothes with the hangers.
When Carpenter Wang heard Su Tang's descriptions he finally understood why she requested the wardrobe to be oversized. However, he only felt that this idea seemed a bit novel and didn't think any further than that because he had never seen the finished product. In the end, he just wrote everything down and didn't make any comments.
Once the things needed for Su Tang and her brother's rooms were decided, the other rooms were a bit more simple. After all, the west room would be the 'servants quarters' so the furniture would have to be more subdued. But Su Tang did order a certain kind of wardrobe that she remembered from her days in her college dorms that had space for multiple people to store their things but which also gave each person their own individual space and privacy inside. But other than the custom wardrobe she just ordered some ordinary tables and chairs.
After all, in this era, there was a strict difference between masters and servants. Su Tang herself was obviously a more modern and forward-thinking person, but 'When in Rome', as they say. Thus, there needed to be a separate set of tables and chairs here for the servants to eat at because it wasn't considered appropriate for them to share a table with their masters.
. As for the final room that was behind her brother's room, Su Tang didn't have any big plans. She just wanted to add a few shelves and cabinets for now, and later she would bring over all the tools for soap production.
Carpenter Wang wrote all of the orders for the living space down and then followed Su Tang into the shop area. Su Tang told him, "I need a counter here and then another one at the door, and then a few sets of tables and chairs that look like this." As she spoke, Su Tang pulled out a piece of paper with some of the designs she had drawn beforehand and showed it to Carpenter Wang. Then she continued, "Also, I hope that you can make a special table like the one in this drawing against the wall here."
Su Tang handed over the piece of paper so Carpenter Wang could take a closer look. "Carpenter Wang, do you think you can do it? If you can then obviously I'll leave the whole job to you, but if you think this more precise work is too much then I can find someone else."
Carpenter Wang accepted the paper and inspected it seriously. After a moment, he replied, "I've built a similar counter setup before, so that will be no problem. However, these tables and chairs will be a little troublesome because these patterns will all need to be carved in by hand. Also, this table you've drawn, does it need to be fixed to the wall? That's doable."
Since Su Tang said so much, Carpenter Wang was thinking about the matter very seriously and envisioning solutions to any potential problems. After all, if he could secure a big job like this it would mean a great year for his family this year.
"I see. Then can you handle the carving?" Su Tang hesitated a bit when she heard him say that the carving might be troublesome.
After all, in the era she was familiar with these kinds of things were all produced from ready-made molds, so there would never be this sort of issue in the first place, but since the issue existed she needed to make sure it could be solved. After all, when it came to the living space, she didn't actually care all that much. She rested inside her space anyway, so the things outside were basically just for show, and the little guy was also very easy to satisfy.
But the floor of the shop was a different story. The desserts she was planning to sell were all made from milk or cheese, and even in modern times they weren't considered cheap goods. Thus, since her shop wasn't destined to sell anything easily affordable, she couldn't skimp on the small details now. That was why she had specially created a floor plan and a design.
If Carpenter Wang said that he couldn't do it, then she obviously couldn't give him the job. Of course, Carpenter Wang naturally saw through Su Tang's thoughts and he quickly reassured her: "Miss Su, you can rest assured. Although it's true that I have no skills for this kind of delicate carving work, I actually have a brother who can carve quite skillfully. I'm sure that I can get this job done for you."
Su Tang looked up at him with a serious expression. "Since you've said so much, naturally I believe you. However, if, when the time comes, the final product doesn't meet my requirements. I won't be able to give you any money."
For a situation like this, she could only harden her heart and play the villain. Although she already knew that Carpenter Wang was an honest worker and that he had done a good job with her previous job regarding the specialized boxes, she still wouldn't pay him if he tried to pass her something subpar at the end of this job.
Carpenter Wang just gave her a simple and honest smile, "My family has been working in this town for several generations, and now that we've agreed to take a job for the young miss I will guarantee that we will do a good job for you."
Since he was willing to say so much, Su Tang naturally didn't press the point any further. Thus, in the end, three and a half taels of silver were used to pay for all the furniture she ordered for the living area, and then another four taels of silver had to be paid for the shop itself, since her requirements for the shop were a little more complicated.
Su Tang immediately paid half of the money upfront as a deposit, and the two of them agreed that she would pay the other half once the job was done. Carpenter Wang happily wrote everything down before leaving the shop with a spring in his step.
By the time all of this was finished it was already nearly noon, so Su Tang and her group all returned to their rented courtyard. When they got back, Zhang Cuilan and Baohe disappeared to begin cooking while Su Tang went to help Su Nuo study for a while. Then a little later, before she left, she told him to continue self-studying after he ate his meal.
After that, she headed out to the Song residence in order to cook for Song Yi. Once her master's meal was done, Su Tang spent the afternoon studying the Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance with Song Yi. Although it was called 'studying', in reality, it was more like both of them reading a bit of the text and then having a discussion and exchange of ideas about what they had read. Even though Song Yi was an ancient man who had been raised in a feudal society, he had a lot of life experience and had seen the ins and outs of the Imperial Court, so he had interesting and unexpected perspectives.
And while Su Tang hadn't lived nearly as long as Song Yi even across both of her lives, she had been raised in the so-called information explosion era, so she also had many ideas of her own. Because of that, the two of them had many collisions and disputes during their conversations, but they both felt that the conversations were worthwhile to have.
At least that was Su Tang's feeling. In her mind, the discussions and disputes with Song Yi had certainly been the most educational part of her time under his tutelage.
As evening fell, Su Tang left the Song residence and headed home. Then, the next morning, she left the house alone again and headed toward North Street to look for another craftsman.
"Is this Uncle Chen's house?" Su Tang knocked on a door, and then asked in an uncertain tone when the one who opened the door was a small girl.
When the little girl heard Su Tang's question, she blinked and replied: "That's my father, are you looking for him?"
Then she opened the door a little wider and invited Su Tang in while she went to fetch her father. A moment later Chen Shuisheng came out from deeper inside the house and when he saw Su Tang his eyes widened a bit with surprise, "Little girl, you're looking for me?"
"Well, I've heard that Uncle Chen is good at building stoves so I wanted to invite you to come to my house and build a stove for me." Su Tang directly stated the purpose of her visit.
In this era, people skilled at building stoves did not get work often or consistently so they wouldn't bother opening shops like a carpenter would. After all, there wasn't always a fresh supply of people building new houses who needed stoves, and besides, in many smaller places like Sujia Village, the villagers would just build their own stoves without ever seeking help from outside of their own little villages.
However, what Su Tang needed this time wasn't just an ordinary stove that could be made by piling up a few rocks. Since she was planning to enter the dessert business, she knew she would need an oven. Even if all of the relevant production machines could be unlocked in the Space's processing plant in the future, she would still at least need an oven to show on the outside.
But as it turned out, it wasn't that easy to get an oven in this ancient era, so Su Tang had specially asked the orange cat to investigate and find a source for her. In the end, the orange cat found Chen Shuisheng, who was regarded as the best person for making stoves in town and who had made stoves for many of the town's residents. Thus, she came to his door.
The stove-building business was always sporadic at best, but Chen Shuisheng did do it occasionally to make some money on the side, so when he heard Su Tang's intentions, he invited her to have a seat inside, "What kind of stove are you planning to build?"
"I just need it built it according to the way I drew it here. Uncle Chen, please take a look and see if you can do it." Su Tang took out the diagram she had prepared beforehand and passed it to Chen Shuisheng.
Chen Shuisheng took the picture and looked at it. He quickly saw that it was a very strange stove, both relatively larger than most stoves and also strangely divided into an upper and lower section. He had never built anything like this before and he couldn't help but furrow his brows and look up at Su Tang, "Girl, do you really want to build such a stove? Actually, I don't think this thing can even be called a stove."
In his heart, he wanted to just directly say that it was nonsense. After all, this 'stove' didn't even have a place to put the pot, so what could even be done with it once it was built?
"Naturally, I have a use for it, I just wonder if Uncle Chen can make it according to my picture?" Su Tang asked seriously. Even though she had drawn up a diagram beforehand and was "only" making an oven, in reality, it was necessary for her to get some input from a skilled craftsman on the project. After all, obviously, she had never made an oven before even in her previous life, and her diagram was only produced from her memories of pictures of early European ovens she had seen before.
Thus, she needed to find a skilled craftsman to build it for her and hopefully help her avoid any mistakes that she as a layman might have overlooked.
Chen Shuisheng looked at Su Tang's childish figure and couldn't help but wonder if this little girl was fooling around behind her family's back.
Su Tang could clearly see his doubts and felt very helpless in her heart. There was nothing she could do about how she looked, ah, who let her transmigrate into a small loli? It was all the fault of a certain four-legged Divine Beast.
A certain four-legged Divine Beast: Meow! How is this my fault?
"Uncle Chen, please rest assured that you will be well compensated for your work." Sensing his doubts, Su Tang directly tossed out a firm promise of remuneration. After all, who would bother to quibble about details when there was money to be made?
And sure enough, when Chen Shuisheng heard that he didn't raise any further objections. Anyway, as long as he was being paid, it didn't matter to him what the little girl planned to do with her strange 'stove' and it wouldn't be his problem if whatever plan she had failed.
"Well, I estimate it will take two days to build the stove, plus three more days to properly fire it." Chen Shuisheng seriously studied the diagram before finally giving an estimate.
"I won't bother Uncle Chen to fire the stove, I just need you to make it." Su Tang said quickly. After all, she was not going to tell anyone exactly how it was used.
. "Alright. Normally when I build a stove for someone the pot alone will cost a hundred copper coins. Of course, it seems that you don't need a pot, but building the stove is still a lot of work, so I charge three hundred copper coins for the labor. Also, if you want me to find the materials to build the stove, that will cost another hundred copper coins, for a total of four hundred copper coins." Chen Shuisheng directly stated his price.
Su Tang simply said, "Understood, we'll use that price then. When do you think you can start work?"
The price wasn't cheap, but Su Tang knew that this was something she would have to have built no matter what, so she didn't plan to quibble about the price and just directly agreed.
"At the earliest, I can start tomorrow. I'll need to spend today gathering all the materials and bringing them over." Chen Shuisheng had built many stoves before so he was familiar with the whole process and knew he would need to rent a cart to go to the nearby mountain in order to gather the needed stone.
Su Tang gave him a deposit of two hundred copper coins, told him the address of her shop, and asked him to go straight to work as soon as he could tomorrow. Then she gave a brief farewell and left Chen Shuisheng's house.
Su Tang was very simple and direct and easily handed over the money so, even until she was saying her farewells and leaving, Chen Shuisheng was feeling a little lost. Even with the money firmly in his hands, that feeling of unreality persisted, and all he could think was that he had really taken up a strange job this time.
However, no matter how strange or unreal it felt, Chen Shuisheng had been paid so he had no intentions to delay. All else aside, he was very happy to have landed such a big job during the winter months. Thanks to that, it seemed he would be able to earn a bit more and add a few more big meat dishes to his family's table during the Spring Festival, so he was in a good mood. Thus, as soon as Su Tang left, Chen Shuisheng immediately headed out as well to gather the necessary materials.
Meanwhile, after leaving Chen Shuisheng's place, Su Tang headed over to the next stop on her list of errands, Mrs. Li's place.
Mrs. Li heard a knock and was surprised to see Su Tang there when she opened the door. But she quickly put on a smile and invited her in. "Oh, it's Miss Su. It's such a cold day, please come in and warm yourself a bit."
After that, she graciously poured Su Tang some hot water before sitting down and probing, "I wonder what brings the young miss here this time?"
"I came to see Mrs. Li so, of course, it's to buy people. I want to buy two more people, preferably women… well, you should know my requirements."
Su Tang didn't bother beating around the bush and directly stated her purpose.
In fact, Mrs. Li could remember Su Tang from the last time she had visited. Back then she had also been fairly well-dressed, but now she was looking even more neat and tidy than before. Although her clothes were a little simple due to being mourning clothes, she looked very good, just like one of those little rich girls from the big families.
Of course, when she discovered Su Tang was looking for her Mrs. Li had guessed that maybe the girl wanted to buy some more people, but she could hardly believe it, which was why she had asked. After all, it was only a little more than two months since Su Tang had bought the mother and daughter pair from her, so how could she not have enough servants already?
Mrs. Li was a bit curious about what Su Tang needed so many people for, but she had been in this business for a long time so she didn't say anything about it. She knew it was okay to be curious, but it was not okay to ask. Anyway, since Su Tang said she wanted to buy more people, Mrs. Li, of course, wouldn't turn her business away.
"It seems that Miss Su's business is booming… however, I'm afraid that I don't have many people here these days, only four women in total I think. And last time you took a look at that Miss Bai but didn't take a fancy to her, so leaving her out there's only three. Other than her, there's a mother and daughter and a young widow, I'll bring them all out and you can take a look."
Mrs. Li started out by congratulating Su Tang on her business in order to probe a little bit. When the little girl didn't refute her, she felt a bit shocked in her heart, but then quickly pressed on.
When Su Tang heard that the Bai girl still hadn't been sold yet, she raised a curious eyebrow. But other than that she didn't do anything and just agreed to Mrs. Li's arrangements, "En."
Mrs. Li secretly sighed when she saw Su Tang's reaction. If the Bai girl didn't sell soon then she would have no choice but to sell her far away. Because of that, she had decided to take a chance and feel Su Tang out a bit to see if maybe her opinion had changed, but the little girl obviously still didn't like her. Of course, she didn't want to upset Su Tang, so when she saw it was hopeless she tucked away her small thoughts and went to bring out the other three women.
Among them, there was a new mother and daughter pair, and the daughter was about the same size as Su Tang. When she was brought out, she trembled faintly and looked very small and weak.
. When this new mother and daughter pair saw Su Tang standing there, they both lowered their heads while silently trembling and not daring to make a sound. Meanwhile, this new window seemed more to Su Tang's tastes, at least compared to the last one that had walked with such an exaggerated sway in her hips that Su Tang had felt that it must hurt her legs to walk like that. However, unfortunately, this new widow seemed to be have been injured somehow because her face was all black and blue with bruises.
"Miss Su, Ms. Zhou and her daughter here were originally part of Tong Sheng's family, but Tong Sheng fell sick so they were sold to pay for his treatment. In the end, the two of them cost eighteen taels of silver together."
"On the other hand, this is Ms. Yu and she was the one who took the initiative to sell herself here. Originally she came from a faraway village and got married to a man from the nearby Wangjia Village, but unexpectedly the man she married was a cruel wife-beater. Eventually, she divorced the man, and then, with no other place to go, she came here and sold herself."
Mrs. Li introduced the people she brought over and explained their various backgrounds. As she spoke, her voice was flat and unwavering. After all, Mrs. Li had been in this line of work for a long time and she had already seen every kind of pitiful person you could imagine. If they weren't pitiful people, would they have to sell themselves as slaves?
Su Tang carefully looked at the mother and daughter pair, but after a moment she shook her head. These two didn't look like the types that could work hard, so she wasn't interested at all. As for the widow, she seemed a bit more promising. When Su Tang looked at her she met Su Tang's eyes with a clear and bright gaze.
For a woman who ended up married to a scummy domestic abuser to be able to divorce and get away from him meant that, if nothing else, she definitely had some toughness in her bones. However, Su Tang felt that there was probably some unspoken hidden reason as to why she had decided to sell herself beyond what Mrs. Li had explained.
Eventually, Su Tang said, "Well, let's keep this Ms. Yu aside for now."
Mrs. Li could immediately tell that Su Tang wasn't interested in the mother and daughter pair this time, so she wasn't surprised. After all, even though Su Tang had bought Zhang Cuilan and Baohe together last time, it had been because it had been obvious that both mother and daughter could work hard. Compare them with today's mother and daughter, who just stood there trembling like two leaves that might blow away in the wind, looking as weak as can be, and there was no comparison at all. These two really didn't give the impression of people who could do work at all.
And Su Tang was here to buy workers, not to run a charity service, so she certainly wouldn't buy two people that acted like that. However, she also didn't dare to easily nod her head and buy the widow just yet either because first she needed to confirm some things.
"When you left your husband did you properly divorce?" Su Tang asked Ms. Yu.
Hearing the question, Ms. Yu nodded and said, "Yes!"
"You left just because he hit you?" Su Tang asked faintly. At the same time, she picked up the bowl of warm water Mrs. Li had poured for her and warmed her palms against it.
Yu Caihe looked up uncertainly when she heard this question. After a moment of hesitation, she murmured, "That's not the only reason."
Probably contrary to Ms. Yu's expectations, this answer actually caused Su Tang to secretly breathe a sigh of relief. After all, from the moment she had seen this woman she had felt that things weren't so simple. It wasn't that she suspected that Ms. Yu had some sort of special identity, it was just that the circumstances that caused her to sell herself were a bit too strange.
Of course, an average little girl her age would have never sensed anything off, but Su Tang had been studying under Song Yi for quite a while now and she knew a lot more than an average girl.
There was a law in the Qihuang Kingdom that stipulated that it was possible for a woman to initiate a divorce, but this kind of divorce was not the same thing as a modern divorce. While it was easy for a man to divorce his wife, if a woman wanted to divorce a man and completely separate from him, it was not such a simple thing, even with the so-called "three protections" that women received under Qihuang law.
Basically, the scum men of this era had no desire for women to be able to divorce from them, and they would much rather be the ones to divorce their wives. After all, the way the brains of scum men functioned was strange and you couldn't expect them to act like a normal person with a conscience.
Thus, as soon as Su Tang heard that Yu Caihe had managed to divorce her husband, she felt that things couldn't be so simple. And another point that made her more confident in her deduction was that Yu Caihe was very beautiful.
Of course, she wasn't some sort of great beauty that would cause the ruin of a nation, or even at the level of Luo Xingchen, who made an overwhelming impression of 'this is a beautiful person' the first time Su Tang had seen her, but Yu Caihe could definitely be the flower of a small village.
They said that it was a 'face-seeking' society in modern times, but the truth was that it was the same even in the ancient era. No matter what era, being good-looking was always an advantage.
But now she had in front of her a beautiful woman who had the means to get away from her scum husband, but who didn't have the ability to survive on her own? Someone so cornered that she had no choice but to sell herself? Su Tang felt there was no way things were so simple.
Yu Caihe hadn't expected to meet such a shrewd little girl that would suddenly ask about the key point. Originally, she wanted to hide her past and hope for the best, but Mrs. Li had given a brief introduction about Su Tang when she had been bringing the girls over, so Yu Caihe didn't want to let this chance slip no matter what.
According to Mrs. Li, there was only Su Tang and her brother in the family and there was nothing messy to worry about. If she were to be bought by Su Tang, she would only need to work hard and that would be all. Yu Caihe was a smart woman, and she knew that her appearance could stir evil thoughts in men, so she felt that going to Su Tang's side would probably be the safest option for her. Who knew what she would end up facing if she had to go somewhere else.
All that flashed through her mind in an instant, and then she directly knelt down and said, "You're right, I didn't divorce him only because he beat me. Back then, he said a lot of sweet words to me before we got married, but then after we got married he completely changed and he would often get drunk and beat me."
"But even then I was still willing to be his wife and try to live a good life with him. However, after that, he actually got addicted to gambling and going to brothels."
Yu Caihe spilled everything out. "He ended up falling for one of those brothel girls and, after a while, that girl actually got pregnant and her belly started getting bigger. My husband was eager to put a green hat on himself and told me that he wanted to marry that girl who was carrying who-know-whose child, so I told him I would fulfill his wish. Using that excuse, I managed to coax him into signing the divorce papers."
"But after I managed to divorce him, my situation wasn't very good. My maternal family are all far away in a distant village, and besides, my parents are both gone. Even if I went back, the people back home would only despise me and try to quickly marry me off again. I didn't want to have to go through that, so I decided to sell myself instead. I decided that I would work hard and bear whatever hardships I have to because at least as a maidservant I can still live an upright life."
"Young miss, please buy me. I don't want anything else, I just want to live an upright life."
Looking at Su Tang's apparent young age, Yu Caihe had slightly sugarcoated the matter and didn't say things too straightforwardly. But she was well aware that another large source of her troubles was this face of hers. Back when she had still been married to that man, there had often been wild men from the village trying to flirt with her, and her husband would often beat her for 'failing to abide by womanly virtues'.
Of course, she had never done anything wrong. Obviously, it was those unknown men who were chasing her, but she had always dodged away and did everything she could to make them stop. Despite that though, her husband would always accuse her of being a flirtatious woman.
In hindsight, Yu Caihe almost felt it was funny that she had decided to endure beatings to stay with a man like that. In the end, he even turned around and told her that he wanted to marry exactly the kind of woman he had always accused her of being! He even wanted to raise another man's child with that woman, it was ridiculous.
That was why her only wish these days was to live an upright life and avoid any troubles that might appear because of this face of hers. Since she knew that Su Tang's household was very simple, with only the brother and sister pair and no disgusting men at all, she wanted nothing more than for Su Tang to buy her.
She had no problem with working hard if it meant escaping the kind of life she had before.
When Su Tang heard all this, she suddenly had an epiphany and asked, "Was your husband surnamed Hu?"
Yu Caihe flinched unconsciously, but eventually, she nodded and replied, "Yes!"
When Mrs. Li heard the turn the conversation had taken, she wanted to say something, but before she could Su Tang stopped her and said, "Huh, I didn't know it was the infamous Mrs. Hu."
Needless to say, Su Tang's sudden epiphany was because she had really heard of this Mrs. Hu before. Mrs. Hu was said to be the most famous slut in Wangjia Village and all of the surrounding areas, she was basically the ultimate negative example that mothers in this area held up for their daughters as a warning of how not to behave.
Of course, no one had mentioned anything to her, an eight-year-old girl, but she had heard the rumors nevertheless thanks to the orange cat's investigations. It was said that this Madam Hu would always go out trying to fascinate and hook up with men by relying on her good looks.
In short, she was rumored to be a scourge against public decency. Back when Su Tang had first heard about it, she had just taken it as one more interesting rumor and didn't think any further, but who would have thought she would stumble across this 'celebrity' at Mrs. Li's shop.
Of course, Yu Caihe knew that she had a bad reputation, but the truth was that all of those rumors were just the product of her scum husband making things up to smear her. Also, those random men who would try to take advantage of her would often get angry and spread rumors when they failed, and then wives behind those men would get angry because their husbands were looking at another woman, so they would spread rumors as well. These people all talked about her everywhere for their own various reasons until, in the end, her reputation was in the gutters.
Even Mrs. Li had heard the rumors, and when Yu Caihe had first found Mrs. Li to sell herself, Mrs. Li hadn't really believed that she only wanted to quietly find work as a maidservant because of all the rumors. However, Mrs. Li hadn't turned her down despite not believing her because, after all, this Yu Caihe was very good-looking and would no doubt be easy to sell.
But after getting to know her a bit, Mrs. Li realized that Yu Caihe was nothing like the woman in the rumors. Every day she would honestly do her work and she would never even poke her head out of the door, so Mrs. Li could personally verify that those rumors were all nonsense. That being the case, Mrs. Li had begun to seriously look around and try to help Yu Caihe find a suitable master.
Thus, when Su Tang suddenly dropped by today, Mrs. Li couldn't help but feel that it would be Yu Caihe's blessing if the girl took a fancy to her and decided to buy her. After all, Su Tang's household couldn't be more simple and, while Su Tang seemed to have a bit of a temper, she also seemed to be fairly reasonable and easy to serve.
But she hadn't expected that Su Tang would be so perceptive. Even Mrs. Li herself hadn't been clear about the exact circumstances surrounding Yu Caihe's divorce and, perhaps because she had been a little blinded by such a great product delivering herself to her shop, it hadn't even occurred to her to ask. After all, Yu Caihe was so beautiful that there would even be some bigger families that would be willing to buy her back as a concubine.
Mrs. Li had principles, and she never sold anyone to those lowly brothels, but that didn't stop her from dabbling in the business of occasionally selling beautiful girls as concubines to the larger households. In fact, she had thought that was the reason Yu Caihe had come to her in the beginning, and it was only later that she realized that she was wrong.
However, being brutally honest, with Yu Caihe's face, it wouldn't be easy to find her a buyer who could give her the simple maidservant work that she desired. After all, which family's wife wouldn't worry about it if she were around, ah? She was so good-looking and also had such a reputation…
But Su Tang only secretly breathed a small sigh of relief when she heard Yu Caihe's explanation. She had been worried that maybe the situation was very complicated or that there was perhaps some bigshot involved, but it turned out that she had just been thinking too much.
It seemed that, although Yu Caihe was beautiful, she was still only a little peasant girl in the end. She managed to stand out a little in her village, but she hadn't provoked any real trouble from the big shots.
"Are you willing to work?" Su Tang asked.
In her mind, Su Tang was already 90% decided and the question was actually more of a formality. After all, she could honestly say she had seen a lot of scum men across her two lives, and she had a degree of appreciation and respect for a woman who had the spirit to resist those sorts of scum.
Su Tang had a simple view of things. Basically, she felt that women shouldn't try to make things difficult for other women, especially in an era like this. Of course, if the woman in question was really behaving ridiculously then it wasn't like she would just ignore that because they were a woman, but after talking to her Su Tang was sure Yu Caihe wasn't like that. This principle had guided the way she had interacted with Luo Xingxing last time, and now that she had confirmed that Yu Caihe didn't have any impossible troubles following her she was willing to give her the same kind of chance.
As for those rumors circulating around outside, they didn't affect Su Tang's judgment at all. In the modern information era, she had seen all sorts of waves created by those keyboard warriors so she was well aware that those 'well known rumors' were complete fabrications as often as not.
Or else why would she be saddled with the reputation for having an adverse fate? Su Tang was well aware of how these types of things could develop.
When Yu Caihe heard Su Tang's question, she hurriedly replied, "Yes! I can do basic housework and cooking, and I also know a bit about needlework. If there's anything I can't do, I can learn."
"But it seems you might need to learn the rules again." Su Tang said.
Mrs. Li hurriedly glared at Yu Caihe, and Yu Caihe quickly realized her mistake. After all, Yu Caihe had only recently been bought by Mrs. Li, so she momentarily forgot the etiquette she had been taught in her excitement. She corrected herself immediately: "My apologies young miss, this maidservant will definitely abide by the rules in the future." (tl note: She didn't use the proper honorifics in the previous line and corrects herself in this line)
"Well, Mrs. Li, I've decided to buy this person. How much are you asking for her?" Su Tang turned and asked Mrs. Li directly.
She really did need to hire some more people, and after talking to her and finding out about how she escaped her previous situation, Su Tang felt that this Yu Caihe was quite smart and clear-eyed. Although she had ultimately been reduced to this point and had very little knowledge or ability, she was still able to firmly say that she wanted to live an upright life, so Su Tang decided to buy her.
When Yu Caihe realized that Su Tang planned to buy her even after knowing about her circumstances and her reputation, she directly started to cry and then kneeled down to kowtowed while saying, "This maidservant thanks the young miss! Thanks the young miss!"
Ah, it seemed that there were pitiful women suffering under the claws of scum men no matter what era you were in. Seeing how moved the woman was, Su Tang sighed secretly in her heart.
. However, when she heard the price Mrs. Li named, Su Tang was shocked: "What do you mean, eleven taels of silver? Wasn't Zhang Cuilan only ten taels last time?!"
Why was Yu Caihe more expensive than Zhang Cuilan? Weren't they about the same age and about equivalent as labor force? Was this Mrs. Li inflating the price?
When Mrs. Li smiled wryly, "Compared to Zhang Cuilan, she has different qualities."
Of course, speaking purely from the perspective of their value as labor force there wasn't much difference between Zhang Cuilan and Yu Caihe, but considering Yu Caihe's other qualities, her only value wasn't just her value as a labor force so, naturally, she was a little more expensive.
As she spoke, Mrs. Li looked at Yu Caihe's face in a way that wasn't subtle at all. Seeing that, the corners of Su Tang's mouth twitched, and finally, she exclaimed: "But for my purposes, the qualities are the same."
Sure Yu Caihe had a pretty face, but with what Su Tang was hiring for she no different from Zhang Cuilan, okay? However, despite the fact that she probably couldn't work any harder or faster, she was more expensive than Zhang Cuilan? Although Su Tang had borrowed some money from Song Yi, she would need to pay back the money she borrowed in the end, so in a way, this was her own money being wasted! Just for a pretty face, she would need to swallow a higher price and lose money? Wasn't that just making a loss?
But Mrs. Li was firm, "Miss Su, with her qualities, perhaps she can also play a different role for you. I'm sure you will find her more useful somehow."
Mrs. Li was ruthless and didn't plan to make any exceptions for Yu Caihe at all. The price was the price, and that was that. She was running a slave shop, not a charity house.
Yu Caihe heard their conversation and looked mournfully at Su Tang. She didn't want this face either, ah. After all, just because of this face, she had suffered a lot of unnecessary hardships in life. But what could she do? It was the face she was born with.
Su Tang carefully looked at Yu Caihe's face one more time. Thinking about it, she was probably at least on the level of one of those small stars in the entertainment industry from the modern era, so maybe just having someone so pretty around really was worth an extra silver or two.
"Fine then. Where's her contract?" Su Tang finally relented and took out a silver spindle with ten taels before fishing around in her pouch and coming up with another few pieces of broken silver to make up the extra tael.
Mrs. Li immediately produced Yu Caihe's slave contract and passed it to Su Tang. "Miss Su, I assure you, you aren't making a loss this time."
'I'll just take it as having something to purify my eyes.' Su Tang silently comforted herself, completely uninterested in responding to Mrs. Li.
When Yu Caihe saw Su Tang had handed over the silver, she knew that she had finally been bought for real. She quickly stood up and swiftly packed her things before following Su Tang back to the courtyard that Luo Xingchen had rented.
"Ms. Lan, she will be living with you in the future, so please make the necessary arrangements." When they got back, Su Tang instructed Zhang Cuilan.
Zhang Cuilan was a bit surprised when she saw the two of them coming in the door. She had known that Su Tang had gone out to run errands earlier this morning, and she had heard from Su Tang that she planned to add one or two more people soon, but unexpectedly she moved so quickly and already brought another person back. And it was even such a beautiful young woman.
But when she heard Su Tang's words, she snapped out of her surprise and promised, "This servant understands. This servant will go and clean things up now."
"There's no need to hurry and do it right away. Also, from now on, Ms. He here will be working to make soap with you, and Baohe will come and stay by me." Su Tang told Zhang Cuilan about the new arrangements she had planned.
After all, Baohe was only ten years old this year and, although it wasn't like she was a baby, she was still a child. She had been making soap with her mother up until now and, although the work was fairly simple, it took a lot of effort and wasn't easy for a child.
So now that Su Tang had brought another adult back, she felt it would be better to let the two adults handle making the soap and let Baohe just follow by her side to do simpler work like making desserts or serving tea. Although they weren't a real noble family or anything, it was tantamount to bringing her in as a personal servant girl, so it was definitely considered a promotion for Baohe.
As soon as Zhang Cuilan heard Su Tang's plan for her daughter, she gladly saluted Su Tang, "This servant thanks the young miss!"
And when Baohe heard that she would be following Su Tang, she also came forward to salute. "This servant will definitely do a good job in the future."
"En!" Su Tang nodded. Then she turned to Yu Caihe and said. "There aren't many people in this household. Your masters are just me and my brother, and as long as you work hard, you can always have peace of mind and eat and drink your fill. If you want to live a safe and stable life, you can definitely do so here."
"There's only one rule, and that rule is that you need to be careful with your mouth. Everything you see in this household and about my brother and I, keep it all to yourself. And remember, I mean everything. Don't say a single word to any outsiders."
. "It's best not to discuss anything you see here even with your own family members. Otherwise, if I find out that you've been talking at home and things have spread to other outsiders from there, I will definitely make you feel regret. Because while I can give you peace and stability, I can also make life very difficult for you."
Of course, Su Tang could have let Zhang Cuilan say these things to Yu Caihe, but she didn't. Instead, she decided to personally give them both a warning to emphasize just how important this rule was.
In her household, there weren't many rules, but the rules that were there were very strict. So long as they followed the rules they would have good days, but if they didn't…
In the end, Su Tang looked at Yu Caihe sternly and said, "Just because your husband never sold you to a brothel, that doesn't mean that you and the brothel don't have any fate together, do you understand what I mean?"
Yu Caihe had already realized that Su Tang was a very smart and sharp person. Otherwise, she wouldn't have immediately noticed something wrong from the first moment that Mrs. Li had introduced the two of them and asked all those incisive questions.
So when she heard Su Tang emphasizing the rules and looking at her fiercely, although she knew full well that she was only facing a little girl, she couldn't help but feel a chill rush up her spine. She hurriedly knelt down and vowed: "This servant will never say a word outside. If she does, may wild beasts come and tear this servant's intestines and…"
Without waiting for her to finish her vow, Su Tang waved her off, "You don't need to say so much. Anyway, just do a good job. Ms. Lan, I'll be heading to the Song residence now, so I'll leave the rest here to you."
After her busy morning, Su Tang found that it was time for her to find Song Yi to study, so she passed Yu Caihe off to Zhang Cuilan she quickly headed out.
When Yu Caihe saw that Su Tang had left, a sigh of relief escaped her mouth and her knees went a little weak. Zhang Cuilan saw at a glance that the new servant was about to fall over, so she held out a hand to steady the woman while saying: "The young miss is strict, but if you do things well and don't break the rules, there will be nothing to worry about. What's your name? My name is Zhang Cuilan and I'm 28 years old this year. What about you?"
Meanwhile, Su Nuo had just been studying inside and came out curiously when he heard the commotion. When he came out, he saw that there was a strange woman in the house, but his sister wasn't around. Frowning, he asked, "Ms. Lan, where's my sister?"
Baohe hurriedly saluted and said. "Young master, just now the young miss brought back this newly bought servant and then left again for the Song residence after saying a few words. It's about half an hour until lunch, do you have anything you would like to eat young master?"
Only then did Su Nuo understand that the strange woman was actually a new servant his sister brought back. He took a look at her and remarked, "She's pretty!"
Hearing the little boy compliment her, Yu Caihe just lowered her head and said nothing. At the same time, Su Nuo realized that his sister must have already made arrangements for this new servant, so he quickly lost interest in her. Instead, he wanted to quickly get back to studying and finish the homework his sister had assigned for him.
"I'd like some egg noodle soup with snow vegetables." Su Tang had pickled some snow vegetables earlier in the year and even added her special spices, so they were very sour and spicy and Su Nuo liked to eat them very much, so he gave that order before heading back to study again.
"Understood. This maidservant will begin preparing the noodles in a moment." Zhang Cuilan called after him. Then she brought Yu Caihe over to show her their room.
Yu Caihe was surprised to see how nice the room was and asked. "Is this the room for us servants to live in?"
"Yes, but it's just temporary. We'll all be moving to a new courtyard soon, but it still hasn't been finished yet. By the way, you still haven't told me your name?" Zhang Cuilan was actually very happy that there was now another adult in the family. She felt like there was finally someone she could talk to.
After all, Su Tang was very serious in her warnings about never saying anything about the family affairs to outsiders, so Zhang Cuilan was always deathly afraid of breaking the rules. In the end, her solution was to simply not go outside at all. She figured that if she just stayed inside all the time then there would naturally be no way she could make any mistakes.
Of course, this made her days a bit boring, but she could definitely put up with that much considering how otherwise perfect this job was. And now that another adult, Yu Caihe, had finally arrived, she felt that now there was even someone she could chat with.
"My name is Yu Caihe and I'm 23 years old. I'll call you Sister Lan." Yu Caihe introduced herself.
At first, Zhang Cuilan nodded along, but suddenly a thought seemed to occur to her and she asked, "Yu Caihe? The wife of the Hu family in Wangjia Village?"
Yu Caihe smiled awkwardly and confirmed, "Yes!"
Zhang Cuilan went silent…
