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 clothing 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, young master and miss? Give me the bowls and chopsticks. I will wash them outside."
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 from 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 take a walk outside. I haven't left this courtyard for a few days."
After all, Aunt Liu is just an illiterate servant woman. The information that Yu Shu can get from her is limited. So far, she doesn't even know which dynasty she is in. When she asks Aunt Liu, she only knows that the current dynasty is called "Daan". This is Yiyang City, and the Ji family is a big family. She doesn't know anything else. If Yu Shu wants to know more, she has to go out. It will be better if she can get Yu Xiaoxiu with her.
Yu Xiaoxiu raised his head and looked at her with an expression that said, "I knew you wouldn't be able to stay quiet for long." He wiped the table a few times and said in a muffled voice,
"Don't go out and cause trouble again."
This sentence was exactly what Yu Shu wanted. She took advantage of the situation and said, "Then you can stay with me. That way, you can watch over me, right?"
Yu Xiaoxiu hesitated for a while and then nodded reluctantly.
Yu Shu got her goal and was secretly happy. She happily took a comb, a hair tie, and a copper box with a headdress under the pillow. She went 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 found Aunt Liu by the well. Aunt Liu had already washed a pile of bowls and chopsticks. After hearing Yu Shu's purpose, Aunt Liu rubbed her rough palms on her apron and took the comb. She moved the small bamboo stool under her to the sun and let Yu Shu sit on it. Then she began to comb her hair.
Spring had just arrived, and the small courtyard without any pavilions was just right for the sun to shine. Sitting in the courtyard for a while, she felt warm all over. Yu Shu used to hate sunny days and had to wear sunglasses when going out. But since she put down the knot in her heart before the car accident, she fell in love with such sunny and clean weather in just a few days.
"Miss, your hair is growing really well. If you hadn't secretly cut it to exchange for money last year, it would have grown to the roots of your thighs now." Aunt Liu liked to nag when she was working.
People in ancient times had their hair and skin from their parents and regarded it as their life. Few people would voluntarily cut their hair because they were too poor. Yu Shu was thinking about the touching scene of the little girl secretly exchanging her hair for money to support her family. Then, Aunt Liu poured 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 to eat or wear. Alas."
Yu Shu was speechless and looked down at the copper box on her lap. There were a lot of hair ornaments and hairpins in it. They looked good, but people with a little insight could see that they were not high-class things.
Because of her work, Yu Shu was very sensitive to the value of money. She roughly knew the value of three hundred copper coins here. Aunt Liu's monthly salary here was fifty copper coins. After half a year without spending a cent, she could save three hundred copper coins, which could be considered a small fortune.
When she thought of the terrible environment the siblings lived in, the younger brother was malnourished, sallow and emaciated, and the girl exchanging her hair for so much money and buying fake beads and copper coins, she couldn't help but want to curse.
"It's done." Aunt Liu put down the comb and turned to Yu Shu. She searched in her copper box and picked out two water pink hair bands. She tied them on the two corners of Yu Shu's face and made a knot. She looked at Yu Shu with a straight face and said 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 thanked Aunt Liu and returned to the house with the heavy copper box in her arms. Yu Xiaoxiu had already cleaned the house and changed the wrinkled shirt.
"Hurry up and clean up. I'll wait for you outside." Yu Xiaoxiu said and was about to go out.
Yu Shu quickly put the things back on the bed and felt under the mattress for the few copper coins that Aunt Cui had thrown to her the day before. She stuffed them into the seam of her belt and followed.
Yu Xiaoxiu turned his head and saw that she came out wearing an old coat and a cotton skirt. He was very surprised, "You don't want to change your clothes?"
"Change what clothes?" Yu Shu looked down at the clothes she was wearing. They were a bit old, but she had changed into clean clothes this morning. Couldn't she go out like this?
"It's that lace dress you're wearing. Didn't you say that you wouldn't go out without it?"
Yu Xiaoxiu looked at Yu Shu in confusion. He felt that she had been acting a bit strange since she came back from the ancestral hall a few days ago, but he couldn't tell what was 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 found an excuse. Seeing that Yu Xiaoxiu had a sudden realization, she pushed him out and turned to close the door. There was nothing valuable in the house, not even a lock.
"Aunt Liu, we're going out to play." Yu Shu greeted Aunt Liu, who was cleaning the dishes by the well.
"Go, go. Come back early. Don't miss dinner."
Aunt Liu shouted and watched the siblings go away. She turned around and went back to the house with the wooden basin for washing. She whispered,
"I hope Miss really understands this time. Yiniang is not favored. If the two of them don't depend on each other, how will they live in the future?"
***
Yu Shu didn't intend to stroll around the Ji family's mansion. She instinctively had a sense of "detour" around this family. She was tortured to death after breaking a jade pendant. Who knew if she would be unlucky and break another one today.
"Let's walk on the street." Yu Shu suggested. She didn't know the way, so she could only think of a way to let Yu Xiu take her out.
"Okay." Yu Xiaoxiu didn't object. In order to show that he wasn't close to her, he walked ahead of her. Just as Yu Shu wanted, she obediently stayed behind him.
Their residence was very close to the back door. Through two rows of servants' rooms, along a narrow path, it was the back door for servants.
Yu Xiaoxiu opened the door bolt with familiarity and motioned Yu Shu to go out first.
As soon as they stepped out of the door, they saw a clean street. The road was smooth. There were several families on the opposite street. They all had small doors and small courtyards. There were lanterns hanging on the door. The stone walls and grey tiles were stone. There were a few trees planted on the side of the road to provide shade. There were few pedestrians, but they were all dressed in long skirts and gowns.
Yu Shu's mood was inexplicably a little excited. She had been in the ancient times for a few days and got along with several authentic ancient people. But when she really stood on the street, she felt the reality of being in the ancient society.
"Let's go." Yu Xiaoxiu closed the door and took the lead to the left. Yu Shu looked up at the bright sun above her head. She could tell that it was the west and secretly knew 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 were shops on the street and hawkers guarding the stalls on the side of the road. Looking sideways, their eyes were full of signs and banners. People were coming and going. They were well-dressed, which was enough to show that this was a prosperous area.
Yu Shu saw a tall memorial arch on the east street in the distance. It seemed to be a small town she had traveled to. There seemed to be words on the memorial arch. She guessed that it was the name of the place. She pointed there and said to Yu Xiaoxiu,
"Let's have a look over there."
Yu Xiaoxiu did not say anything. Yu Shu took a few steps forward. Seeing that he had followed her, she boldly walked to the memorial arch and wanted to see what was written on it.
However, when she got closer and looked up at the bluestone memorial arch, Yu Shu found a serious problem — she could not read.
Strictly speaking, she could not read many traditional characters. There were three big characters on the plaque and a small line of inscription. She could only read the word "Chang".
This discovery made Yu Shu, who was slow to realize it, shocked and broke into a cold sweat. She could not read traditional characters, let alone write. She also said that she would go to school with Yu Xiu tomorrow. What should she do now?
Now that she thought about it, they hadn't even seen pen and paper in their small room, let alone books. Every day when Yu Xiu came back from school, he never did any homework. If he wasn't sitting on the doorstep and staring blankly at the sky, he would pick up an old chopstick and scratch on the ground.
Yu Shu was not in good health two days ago, so she did not pay much attention to this. She occasionally heard Aunt Liu mention that the school in the city was built by the Ji family and several other prominent families in the city. There was an iron rule that all the children of these families, regardless of whether they were male or female, had to go to school. Yu Shu and Yu Xiaoxiu's accounts were under the Ji family, so they benefited from this.
The more Yu Shu thought about it, the more troublesome she felt. She was not in the mood to go shopping. She pulled Yu Xiaoxiu back home and rummaged through the drawers and cabinets as soon as they entered the door.
"What are you looking for?"
"… Textbooks." Yu Shu was not sure if this was what they called it here, but how could a child who went to school not have textbooks? However, she did not find such things when she tidied up the room this morning.
Yu Xiaoxiu sneered, walked to his bed and sat down. "Don't look for them. There are only two books. You have already sold them."
Yu Shu loosened her hand and the suitcase fell and almost hit her hand.
What? Even the textbooks?
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