Chapter 223: I, Too, Thank You
Seeing that the girls were not the type to take an inch when given a mile, and that they didn’t look down on these old, yellowed bed quilts despite having witnessed plenty of wealth and luxury at Feiyue Pavilion, the wet nurse let out a sigh of relief.
Ah, the young miss had a stubborn streak. Neither she nor Old Chen could talk her out of it, so they could only comply.
However, seeing that the people turning to their young miss for shelter were all decent souls, she felt a profound sense of relief, alongside a deep, aching pity for them.
Butler Chen was even more filled with emotion, sighing repeatedly, “Back then, the young miss refused to sell the residence no matter what. Looking back now, she was absolutely right.”
Had she sold it and followed either him or the wet nurse back to their respective homes, their families might have put on a welcoming face for a year or two out of respect for the kindness the Master and Mistress had shown them in the past.
But as time dragged on and neither he nor the wet nurse earned wages anymore, it would have been hard for them to have any say in front of their families.
When difficulties arose, the young miss would inevitably have been among those driven out.
The two of them—one like a grandfather to Shaoyin, the other like a mother—could not bear to see the child suffer.
Seeing so many girls from Feiyue Pavilion left homeless now, they felt a lingering wave of post-traumatic fear.
Sure enough, in this world, relying on anyone was never as reliable as relying on oneself.
When the young miss had thrown caution to the wind to become a dancing girl, it had looked as though she were discarding her dignity, yet she had ultimately preserved her strength, her capabilities, and her proud character.
Now that the ancestral home was still theirs and the young miss could even shelter others in need, she had proven herself to be truly resilient.
The people she had taken in seemed decent, and they worked nimbly; they didn’t look like troublemakers.
Still, the wet nurse and the butler couldn’t help but worry: “In the past, although the rental income was meager, we could always collect a bit to pay off the interest, allowing us to stave off the debts for a while.”
“Now, even the rent is gone, and we have a few more mouths to feed in the residence. I’m afraid our expenses will be tight. If we don’t pay the interest on time, the creditors will likely come back to cause trouble before long.”
The six households of tenants had paid a total of three months’ rent as a penalty, amounting to four thousand five hundred copper coins.
Calculated out, it was only four and a half taels of silver—not much at all.
Yet the interest Xu Shaoyin had to repay on her debts each month came to one tael and two mace.
This money wouldn’t last more than a few months; it could not be touched.
Old Chen fell into deep thought for a moment. “I’ll arrange for someone to take a message back to my son, asking him to send another two hundred catties of unhusked rice. That might pull us through for a while.”
In the cities of Jiangnan, the price of husked rice was eight coppers and unhusked rice was six coppers, which was far from cheap.
Hauling unhusked rice from the countryside cost about two hundred coppers a trip, which was still cheaper than buying it raw in the city.
The wet nurse sighed. “It’s not right to keep having your family subsidize us like this.”
Old Chen said frankly, “Without the Grand Master, I wouldn’t exist, and my children wouldn’t have been able to marry, establish their households, buy land, and build up property. Now, it is only right for them to support me, just as it is only right for me to look after the young miss.”
Old Chen had three sons and a daughter. Every year, his three sons gave him six hundred catties of unhusked rice each, while his daughter gave him one hundred catties of wheat.
Old Chen was advanced in years and had a small appetite, so he couldn’t consume that much himself; more than half of it was used to supplement the residence.
The wet nurse thought about it and said, “I have wet-nursed five children in my time. Two of them have turned out quite successful and filial, and they send me things every year. I will also ask someone to pass word along to see if they can send a portion of this year’s gifts ahead of schedule.”
In previous years, the wet nurse’s two foster sons would send a New Year’s gift right before the holidays. Since it was currently only September, the wet nurse could only brace herself and ask someone to carry the message.
At the very least, they had to scrape by and pay off the debts first.
When Xu Shaoyin returned and stepped through the door, she caught the butler and wet nurse “whispering” loudly to each other, and tears instantly spilled from her eyes.
“Nurse! Butler Chen! I’m back!”
The wet nurse and Old Chen hurriedly looked toward the entrance, only to see Shaoyin cradling a small coin pouch in her palms. A radiant smile graced her face, which was fresh from wiping away tears, and the tiny crimson mole between her brows looked exceptionally playful and animated.
“Nurse, Butler Chen, you don’t need to write letters home anymore. I’ve managed to exchange things for money!”
Shaoyin had gone to find the proprietress of a cosmetics shop whom she had befriended during her time as a dancing girl at Feiyue Pavilion, and she had sold the small scented soap pods she had melted down from a single bar of soap.
The proprietress of the cosmetics shop had taken one, inspected it closely, and tested it with a bit of water before buying them up immediately.
“Ordinary bath pods go for ten coppers apiece; they are the size of a pigeon’s egg, plain and unscented.”
“The bath pods in our shop that are infused with milk and fragrant powders sell for twenty to thirty coppers apiece.”
“Yours are roughly the same size, but the fragrance and the moisturizing glide are vastly superior, leaving the skin supple and radiant after use. They are clearly of premium quality.”
Looking at the dish of soap pods, the proprietress offered a straightforward price: “Fifty coppers apiece, and I’ll take them all. What do you say?”
Xu Shaoyin knew full well that while this dish of soap pods could indeed retail for fifty coppers apiece, a cosmetics shop needed to make a profit and shouldn’t be purchasing them wholesale at that price.
The proprietress must have a deeper intention behind this.
Sure enough, the proprietress offered a gentle smile and nodded to Xu Shaoyin. “Miss Xu, I heard a bit about what happened in court yesterday. In today’s world, life is exceptionally difficult for women. I deeply admire your courage to stand up and strike down the filthy dealings of Feiyue Pavilion.”
“My cosmetics shop also supports many women, and I cannot leave them without a thought. I don’t have a massive fortune to give, but I am happy to yield the profit from this dish of soap pods to you.”
It wasn’t a large sum of money—the profit concession was perhaps worth only a hundred coppers, barely enough to buy a dozen catties of rice.
Yet Xu Shaoyin felt this hundred coppers was worth a thousand pieces of gold.
Because someone out there was doing the exact same thing as her, just in a different way.
On this path, she was not alone.
Her actions would not merely become a laughingstock; they would also become a source of courage for others.
Xu Shaoyin stood up and curtsied to the cosmetics shop proprietress. “Thank you, Proprietress!”
The proprietress smiled. “I, too, thank you.”
Thank you to those in the world who hold up an umbrella for other women.
