Chapter 3

Today, the servants of the Ji family eat steamed buns for lunch. The kitchen is in front of the small bungalow where Yu Shu lives. Aunt Liu, who works in the kitchen, brings a basket of steamed buns, two bowls of vegetable soup, and a plate of pickled vegetables for the two siblings.

It was one of Auntie Liu's duties to keep an eye on the two siblings who were living under someone else's roof from starving to death.

The vegetarian steamed buns with radish filling are the size of a fist, with only a little filling inside. Yu Xiaoxiu still eats them with relish as usual. It seems that this child does not care about the taste of anything that can be eaten.

Yu Shu has been lying in bed to recuperate these days. After tasting dry pancakes, noodle soup, and really thin porridge, she can basically adapt to the simple food here.

Yu Shu is very sensible. If she doesn't have to work, she will eat for free. There is really nothing to be picky about. However, she, who is very particular about food and clothes in her previous life, is also calculating how to improve her life. She is a person who has suffered hardships, but she is not a person who likes hardships.

She calmly looked at Yu Xiaoxiu, who was burying his head in his food. When a child was growing, he didn't even have meat to eat, so it was no wonder that he was so skinny. Originally, he was a child with delicate features, but now his face had turned yellow due to malnutrition. It made people feel that he was gloomy.

"Have you finished eating? Give me the bowls and chopsticks. I'll go outside to wash them."

Aunt Liu, wearing an apron, comes in to clean the bowls and chopsticks. Yu Shu just wants to help, but Yu Xiaoxiu has neatly put the bowls and plates together and handed them to Aunt Liu. He picks up a rag stuffed on the side corner of the table and wipes it.

Seeing that he is working hard, Yu Shu can't intervene. She gets up and moves a place for him. She stands aside and talks to him,

"After dinner, I plan to go outside for a few days. I haven't been out of this yard for several days."

After all, Aunt Liu is just an illiterate servant. Yu Shu can only get limited information from her. So far, she doesn't even know which dynasty she is in. When she asks Aunt Liu, she only knows that the current name of the country is "Daan". This is Yiyang City, and the Ji family is a big family. She knows nothing else. If Yu Shu wants to know more, she must go outside. It will be better if she can bring Yu Xiaoxiu with her.

Yu Xiaoxiu looked up at her with an expression that said, "I knew you wouldn't be able to stay quiet for a few days." She wiped the table a few times and said in a muffled voice,

After wiping the table hard, he says in a muffled voice,

This sentence was exactly what Yu Shu wanted. She took the opportunity to suggest, "Then you can stay with me. That way, you can watch over me, right?"

This sentence is exactly what Yu Shu wants. She takes the opportunity and says, "Then you can go with me. You can also keep an eye on me this way, right?"

Her goal is achieved. Yu Shu is happy in her heart. She happily feels for a comb, a hair tie, and a copper box with a headdress under the pillow. She goes outside to find Aunt Liu to comb her hair.

She used to have short hair, but now she has thick long hair. She doesn't know how to take care of it at all. Fortunately, she has Aunt Liu.

Yu Shu finds Aunt Liu by the well. Aunt Liu has already washed a pile of bowls and chopsticks. After hearing the purpose of Yu Shu's visit, Aunt Liu rubs her rough palms on her apron, takes the comb, moves the small bamboo stool under her to the sun and lets Yu Shu sit on it. Then she combs her hair.

Spring has just arrived. The small courtyard with no front and back pavilions is just right for the sun to shine. Sitting in the courtyard for a while, she feels warm all over. Yu Shu used to hate sunny days. She has to wear sunglasses when she goes out. But since she put down the knot in her heart before the car accident, she likes such sunny and clean weather in just a few days.

"Miss, your hair grows really well. If you didn't secretly cut it to exchange for money last year, it would have grown to the roots of your thighs now." Aunt Liu likes to nag when she is working.

People in ancient times have their hair and skin from their parents. People rarely cut their hair voluntarily. It's nothing more than poverty. Yu Shu is thinking about the touching scene of the little girl secretly exchanging her hair for money to support her family. Then, Aunt Liu pours a bucket of cold water on her.

"That's three taels of silver. It's more than three hundred copper coins. You can eat meat for half a month. But you spent it all in two days and bought a lot of hair ornaments and beads. It's not enough for you to eat or wear. Alas."

Yu Shu is speechless. She looks down at the copper box on her lap. There are a lot of hair ornaments and hairpins in it. They look good, but people with a little insight can see that they are not high-class things.

Because of her work, Yu Shu is very sensitive to the value of money. She roughly knows the value of three hundred copper coins here. Aunt Liu's monthly salary here is fifty copper coins. After half a year without spending a cent, she can save three hundred copper coins, which is a small fortune.

Thinking of the terrible environment the siblings live in, the younger brother is malnourished, sallow and emaciated, and the girl exchanging her hair for so much money and buying fake beads and rotten copper, she can't help but want to scold someone.

"I'm done." Aunt Liu puts down the comb and turns to Yu Shu. She digs in her copper box and picks out two water pink hair bands. She ties them on the two corners of Yu Shu's face and makes a flower knot. She looks at Yu Shu with a straight face and says with a smile,

"Miss, if you sit and don't talk, you look really beautiful."

In other words, apart from her face, she had no other redeeming qualities.

Yu Shu thanks Aunt Liu and carries the heavy copper box back to the house. Yu Xiaoxiu has already cleaned the house and changed the wrinkled shirt.

"Hurry up and tidy up. I'll wait for you outside." Yu Xiaoxiu throws these words and is about to go out.

Yu Shu quickly puts the things back on the bed and feels under the mattress for the few copper coins that Aunt Cui threw to her the day before yesterday. She puts them in the seam of her belt and follows.

Yu Xiaoxiu turns his head and sees that she comes out wearing an old coat and a cotton skirt. He is very surprised, "You don't want to change your clothes?"

"Change what clothes?" Yu Shu looks down at the clothes she is wearing. They are a bit old, but she changed into clean clothes this morning. Can't she wear like this when she goes out?

"It's that lace dress you're wearing. Didn't you say that you wouldn't go out without it?"

Yu Xiaoxiu looks at Yu Shu in confusion. He feels that she has been acting a bit strange since she came back from the ancestral hall a few days ago, but he can't tell what is wrong.

Yu Shu guessed that he was referring to the pink silk dress in the wardrobe. She was speechless. How many problems did the little girl in her previous life have? She was a troublemaker, brainless, immature, extravagant, vain … Couldn't she have a little bit of good in her?

"The sleeve is torn," Yu Shu casually finds an excuse. Seeing Yu Xiaoxiu suddenly understand, she pushes him out and turns back to close the door. There is nothing valuable in the house, not even a lock.

"Aunt Liu, we are going out to play." Yu Shu says to Aunt Liu, who is cleaning the dishes by the well.

"Go, go, come back early, don't miss dinner time."

Aunt Liu shouted and watched the siblings walk away. She turned around and went back to the house with the wooden basin for washing. She muttered softly,

"I hope Miss really understands this time. Yiniang is not favored, and it's just the two of them. If they don't rely on each other, how will they live in the future?"

***

Yu Shu does not intend to stroll around the Ji family's mansion. She instinctively has a sense of "detour" around this family. She was tortured to death after breaking a jade pendant. Who knows if she will be unlucky and break another one today.

"Let's walk on the street." Yu Shu suggests. She does not know the way, so she can only think of a way to let Yu Xiu take her out.

"Okay." Yu Xiaoxiu does not object. In order to show that he is not close to her, he walks ahead of her. Just as Yu Shu wants, she obediently lags behind him.

Their lodgings were very close to the back door. They had to walk along a narrow, winding path through two rows of servants' rooms to reach the back door for the servants.

Yu Xiaoxiu opens the door bolt with familiarity and signals Yu Shu to go out first.

As soon as they step out of the door, they see a clean street. The road is smooth and there are several families on the opposite street. They all have small doors and small courtyards. There are lanterns hanging on the door, stone walls and gray tiles. There are a few trees planted on the side of the road, leaving shade. There are few pedestrians, but they are all dressed in long skirts and gowns, with their hair tied up.

Yu Shu inexplicably feels a little excited. She has been in the ancient times for a few days and has been with several authentic ancient people. But when she really stands on the street, she has a real feeling of being in the ancient society.

"Let's go." Yu Xiaoxiu closes the door and takes the lead to the left. Yu Shu looks up at the bright sun above her head. She can tell that it is the west and secretly knows the way.

Yu Xiaoxiu led Yu Shudong through a series of turns and exited the back street. They passed through a few alleys and walked for about the time it takes to finish a meal before they arrived at a bustling street. Their field of vision immediately brightened.

There are shops on the street, and there are hawkers guarding the stalls on the side of the road. Looking sideways, their eyes are full of signs and banners. People are coming and going, all well-dressed, which is enough to show that this is a prosperous area.

Yu Shu sees a tall memorial arch on the east street from a distance. It seems to be a small town she once traveled to. There seems to be some words on the memorial arch. She guesses it is the name of the place, so she points there and says to Yu Xiaoxiu,

"Let's have a look over there."

Yu Xiaoxiu doesn't say anything. Yu Shu takes a few steps forward. Seeing that he has followed her, she boldly walks to the memorial arch, wanting to see what is written on it.

However, when she gets closer and looks up at the bluestone memorial arch, Yu Shu finds a serious problem — she can't read.

Strictly speaking, she can't read many traditional characters. There are three big characters on the plaque, plus a small line of inscription. She can only read the word "Chang".

This discovery makes Yu Shu, who is slow to realize it, break into a cold sweat. She can't read traditional characters, let alone write. She said that she will go to school with Yu Xiu tomorrow. What should she do now?

Now that she thinks about it, she has never seen pen and paper in their one-room house, let alone books. Every day when Yu Xiu comes back from school, he has never done his homework. He is either sitting on the stump of the door, staring at the sky in a daze, or scratching on the ground with an old chopstick.

Yu Shu is not in good health these days, so she doesn't pay much attention to this. She occasionally hears from Aunt Liu that the school in the city is built by the Ji family and several other prominent families in the city. There is such an iron rule that all the children of these families, regardless of whether they are male or female, must go to school. Anyway, Yu Shu and Yu Xiaoxiu's accounts are under the Ji family, so they benefit from this.

The more Yu Shu thinks about it, the more troublesome she feels. She doesn't want to go shopping anymore. She pulls Yu Xiaoxiu back home and rummages the house.

"What are you looking for?"

"… Textbooks." Yu Shu isn't sure if this is what they call it here, but how can a child who goes to school not have textbooks? However, she didn't find such things when she cleaned up the house this morning.

Yu Xiaoxiu sneers, walks to his bed and sits down. "Don't look for them. There are only two books. You have already sold them."

Yu Shu loosens her hand, and the suitcase falls and almost hits her hand.

What? Even textbooks?