Chapter 38: Postponing the Construction

Although this was Xie Wangniang’s first time in town, she could deduce from the names "Qin’s Cloth Shop," "Mistress Qin," and "Li Hong" that Li Hong was a matrilocal son-in-law. She held no prejudice against such arrangements; she was merely curious whether he was the type of shameless man who lived off his wife’s success.

After exchanging pleasantries with Li Hong alongside Jiang Yuan, Xie Wangniang paid for the fabric, inspected the goods provided by Mistress Qin, and wrote a receipt for her. As Mistress Qin saw them to the door, Xie Wangniang waved goodbye before boarding the carriage with Jiang Yuan.

The carriage was packed with supplies. Xie Wangniang squeezed herself in among the goods, while Jiang Yuan sat outside with Mistress Qin’s husband. Neither was a talkative person, so after an initial greeting, they both lapsed into silence. Inside the carriage, Xie Wangniang remained quiet as well, reflecting on the gossip she had gathered from the market and various shops.

Regrettably, none of the news concerned the Xie family or herself. However, her good-for-nothing biological father, due to his high status and grand entourage, had become a popular topic of conversation among the townspeople. According to what she heard, after giving up the search for her, he had immediately left Qingxu Mountain with his mother and wife. She was a living person who had simply vanished without a trace, yet he had made no effort to investigate the truth or seek justice for her.

The townspeople said that when they passed through Baihe Town, his second wife—the prime suspect in the plot against her—had even hosted several local gentry wives who had come to the post station to visit. He had claimed that Xie Wangniang was his only descendant and that he would treat her well in the future. And yet? Once she was harmed, the perpetrator continued on as if nothing had happened. Simply put, he figured that since she was gone and no longer of any value, she wasn't worth the trouble of digging for the truth and upsetting his household’s facade of harmony. Whether she had suffered an unjust fate mattered nothing to him or his mother.

Now, Xie Wangniang was only curious about one thing: what her biological mother, who had insisted she acknowledge her ancestry despite the strong opposition of her adoptive father, must be feeling now. She recalled her mother’s platitudes: "I’m doing this for your own good," "He is your father after all, blood is thicker than water," "You are the only heir to their family; surely they wouldn't mistreat you?"

Xie Wangniang could only think that her mother’s logic was truly "a palm strike that relies entirely on one's face to endure." If she didn't want to keep her survival a secret, she would have loved to confront her mother and ask: "Is this your idea of 'for my own good'—sending me into a den of wolves to live a life where I could die at any moment? You said he loved me; is this how he shows it? You said they wouldn't mistreat me; why did they act like nothing happened when I was harmed? That Princess Consort is flaunting herself everywhere to spite you; does that leave a bitter taste in your mouth?"

Having vented her frustrations against her foolish mother, Xie Wangniang felt much calmer. The work she had accepted from Qin’s Cloth Shop would take her half a year even if she only spent an hour a day on it. But since the pay was so generous, she didn't intend to drag it out until the deadline. That was two hundred taels of silver; if she didn't get it in her hands quickly, what if something changed?

Desperate for the money, she planned to devote more time to embroidery and bought a new oil lamp and plenty of lamp oil. With three lamps burning, the brightness should be decent. To earn the money, she decided to sacrifice her eyesight for a while. She would leave breakfast and dinner preparations to Jiang Yuan and the others, squeeze out half an hour for embroidery during the day, and burn the midnight oil for at least another hour every night. Since rainy summer days would prevent her from foraging for herbs in the mountains, she would have even more time to work. Optimistically, she could finish in two months. The only drawback was that she would have to postpone building her house.

However, that didn't matter. Once she received the two hundred taels, she would not only be able to buy land and build a house but also purchase some fields near Mingfu Village to rent out to villagers who had little land of their own. After living in this resource-scarce ancient society for so long, she realized that in a world with low productivity where many went hungry, the most important things were not gold or jewelry, but grain, cloth, and salt. As the old saying went, "Food and clothing are the two pillars of life." After solving her housing problem, her next priority was to ensure she was well-fed and warm.

Upon returning to the village in the cloth shop's carriage and arriving at Jiang Yuan’s house at the edge of the village under the curious gazes of the neighborhood children, Xie Wangniang carefully climbed down. Once she was out, Jiang Yuan and Mistress Qin’s husband helped move the items into the kitchen, the main room, and Xie Wangniang’s bedroom.

While they worked, Xie Wangniang efficiently prepared brown sugar eggs for their guests—and for herself, Jiang Yuan, Hao Yu, and Xiao Yang as well. After Li Hong left the yard to head back to town alone, she divided the eggs into four portions. She also reheated twenty chive and pork buns she had bought, made a large bowl of minced meat with tofu, and stewed a pot of chili and eggplant.

The four of them sat around the table and enjoyed a delicious, hearty meal. After lunch, Hao Yu took charge of cleaning up, while Jiang Yuan went to deliver gifts before heading into the mountains to hunt. As for Xie Wangniang, she salted the ribs and the remaining pork belly, rendered the lard into a jar, and set aside the pork cracklings—some for Xiao Yang, and the rest to be used for dumplings or buns the next day.