Chapter 214: The Most Fun Thing
Xu Shaoyin sprang up in a flash. “Nurse, no! What I’m saying is all true!”
She had been frightened, yes, but she wasn’t speaking nonsense!
Deeply grieved, the wet nurse kept her brow knitted, yet she still forced a smile to coax her. “Nurse knows. What Yinyin says is true. It’s okay, it’s okay. Be a good girl, Yinyin. As long as you’ve come back safe and sound, nothing else matters…”
While offering incense to the Master and Mistress, the wet nurse silently reported in her heart.
Master, Mistress, do you see this? My poor child is still not in her right mind.
A soul-calling ritual was absolutely necessary.
After all, how could anyone in this world travel thousands of miles all at once, suddenly going from a stone bridge to the mountains, and then in the blink of an eye, from the mountains back to a bustling marketplace?
And then there was that “transmitting voices across thousands of miles” business. She claimed the Manor Owner and a servant boy at the manor could speak to each other from far away, and that standing right there, she could hear the boy’s voice coming from miles away!
As for the miracle elixirs, Tong Yinjun didn’t know about that. She had only had time to confirm that Shaoyin hadn’t suffered any worse violations and that the wounds on her body had been treated.
When it came to medicine, the Dayong Dynasty wasn’t devoid of remedies for burns and scalds, nor did it lack salves and powders that could stop bleeding the moment they were applied.
That was a far cry from a miracle elixir.
As for that manor supposedly managed entirely by women…
Sigh… The wet nurse sighed in her heart.
She wished with all her heart that such a place truly existed in this world—a place run by women, providing refuge for women, where no one had to worry about the wolves and tigers outside, and no one had to do their duties in constant terror every single day.
Regrettably, no such place existed in the Dayong Dynasty.
When the Master and Mistress passed away years ago, it had been no easy feat for the young miss to keep the family’s estate.
Now, the house was split into three sections, and the front two courtyards were rented out.
Rice was expensive in Jiangnan, and even firewood had to be bought with coin. Holding onto the rental income, they could only barely scrape by in the city.
The wet nurse silently poured her heart out to the deceased Master and Mistress.
Watching from the side, Shaoyin felt anxious, exasperated, a bit aggrieved, and yet… a little amused.
She had only just escaped a great ordeal at Feiyue Pavilion, so by all accounts, she shouldn’t be laughing.
But when she thought about how much her nurse was misunderstanding her experience at the manor, she couldn’t help but want to see the old woman’s utter astonishment in a moment.
Once they finished offering incense to her parents, Xu Shaoyin pulled the wet nurse into her room, untied the bundle, pulled out a small trinket from inside, and stuffed it into her nurse’s hands.
“Nurse, take a look at this. Is this something I could just conjure up by talking nonsense?”
The wet nurse looked skeptical, but the moment she looked down, she was instantly stunned.
The object in her hand was ice-cold, yet right now it felt like a hot potato, making it hard for her to even hold onto.
“Heavens! My child! Is this… a glazed glass cup?”
Before coming to the Xu family, the wet nurse had served in other households and had seen her share of wealth. Moreover, since the Xu family had been quite well-off in the past, she had entertained guests and visited relatives alongside them, so she recognized a glazed glass cup when she saw one.
But…
The wet nurse could barely catch her breath. “My child! In all my life, I have never seen a glazed glass cup so clear and pure!”
The Mistress used to have a glazed glass cup herself. Its color had been a translucent yellow-brown and it looked a bit cloudy, but it was already considered a top-grade item.
An ordinary piece of glazed glass was considered decent if it let through thirty percent of light.
The Mistress’s cup had let through about fifty percent.
Yet this tiny glass cup the young miss had brought back was a full hundred percent clear!
Just then, a beam of sunlight streamed through the window and struck the glass cup, making it appear even more pristine and dazzling.
The wet nurse hurriedly and gently set the glass cup down on the table.
Xu Shaoyin looked at her expectately. “Nurse, well? I didn’t lie, did I?”
Instead of being pleased, the wet nurse’s face turned solemn. Pressing Xu Shaoyin down onto a stool, her heart ached for the girl’s injuries, but her voice was stern. “Yinyin, Nurse knows things are difficult at home right now, and life hasn’t been easy for you outside.”
“But no matter what, you cannot steal other people’s things! This glass cup is so exquisite and precious; it is definitely no ordinary object. If someone catches you with this, you won’t have a leg to stand on, no matter how much you try to explain it away!”
Tong Yinjun felt both heartbroken and miserable.
She blamed herself for being useless, forcing the young miss to show her face outside as a dancing girl at Feiyue Pavilion.
She also despaired that the child she had raised with her own hands could do such a thing.
Shaoyin: “…”
This was not how she had envisioned this going!
She tried to explain over and over again. “Nurse, what kind of person am I? Don’t you know? Even when times were at their hardest, when have I ever done something like this!”
Xu Shaoyin spoke with conviction, but as she looked at the heap of items inside the bundle, even her own confidence began to waver a bit.
If the roles were reversed and the wet nurse had brought back such a haul, she wouldn’t have believed it either!
Xu Shaoyin had stayed at the manor for six hours. Lin Sanniang had told her that the “one hour” the Manor Owner mentioned was a smaller unit of time, equal to exactly half of a traditional two-hour watch.
Though Xu Shaoyin had never heard of such a term, it wasn’t hard to grasp.
A “small watch” meant half of one.
The wage for half a traditional watch was twenty to thirty kuai. Neither the Manor Owner nor Lin Sanniang would let her dance, fearing she would agitate her wounds.
But Lin Sanniang had said they came to the manor to work. Even though she knew her contribution was negligible, Xu Shaoyin was unwilling to accept charity, so she had insisted on singing a few melodies for the Manor Owner.
After listening, the Manor Owner had praised her generously. Then, she had suddenly stared into thin air for a short while, before turning back to her with a look of pleasant surprise. “Ah, heaven truly helps those who help themselves! Just now, if you hadn’t performed, I could still have paid you your wages, but I would definitely have been hit with a penalty.”
“But now we’re good. You sang, which means you put in labor, so this time I can pay you your wages properly.”
The Manor Owner had stared happily into thin air for a good while, who knew what she was thinking. After a moment, she said, “But for today’s workload, we can only calculate it at an hourly rate of twenty. Six hours comes to a total of one hundred and twenty. Is that alright?”
How could Xu Shaoyin understand any of those words?
She had looked at Lin Sanniang blankly. Seeing Lin Sanniang nodding vigorously, she had followed suit and nodded. “I shall defer to the Manor Owner’s arrangements.”
Thereupon, the Manor Owner and Lin Sanniang began questioning her about what kind of plight she was facing and what kind of help she needed most.
From time to time, they also had her test various items to see if she could carry them away.
At first, Xu Shaoyin hadn’t understood. She felt both grateful and ashamed; she had only sung a few short melodies. Back at Feiyue Pavilion, an ordinary singing girl performing for an entire night would only earn a few dozen copper coins in tips.
The guests might tip generously, but the manager would skim off the lion’s share, leaving them with nothing but loose change.
If their throats were off or their bodies unwell on any given day, making them unable to sing or dance, they would be scolded and fined.
Today at the manor, she had consumed, used, and worn a whole basketful of things, not to mention using precious medicine. How could she have the face to carry anything back?
It was even less appropriate for her to dictate what could or couldn’t be taken back.
Xu Shaoyin had felt deeply uneasy, unable to fathom what the Manor Owner meant.
But her uneasiness had vanished the moment she picked up the items.
The Manor Owner had looked at her and told her to focus her mind: “Do you feel like you can carry this item away?”
Xu Shaoyin had been utterly bewildered, but she soon discovered that every time she picked up an object, the tea in front of her would exhibit a slight anomaly.
Somehow, the words had instinctively slipped out of her mouth: “This one can be carried! That one cannot!”
It was as if someone had suddenly told her the answer.
Xu Shaoyin had spent the entire day in a state of wonder, so dazed she hadn’t known what to say.
Yet the Manor Owner and Lin Sanniang hadn’t cared in the slightest. The two put their heads together, rummaging through boxes, shelves, tables, and the floor.
They were clearly gathering things for her, but for some reason, she felt the Manor Owner was even more thrilled and excited than she was.
It was as if this were the most fun and fascinating thing in the entire world.
