Chapter 44: Lin Sanniang
When Jian Xingxia had gone over the steps, she specified the exact amounts of sugar and salt down to the gram and explained precisely how long to simmer everything.
As a hired maidservant back in the Daliang Dynasty, Lin Sanniang had never experienced this level of respect and trust.
With no other way to repay her, she braved the risk of causing offense and plucked up the courage to warn Jian Xingxia, “Miss, recipes like this are highly valuable. If they aren’t kept strictly within trusted family members, there is a high risk they could be leaked.”
Jian Xingxia was completely caught off guard. She never expected Lin Sanniang to be worried about this.
Looking at Lin Sanniang’s anxious expression, she could tell the woman knew full well that speaking up like this carried a high probability of being scolded rather than thanked.
Yet, she had spoken up anyway.
Jian Xingxia thanked her for her goodwill. “A recipe like this isn’t considered anything valuable to me. It’s incredibly easy to come by, so there’s no real need to keep it a secret.”
Hearing this, Lin Sanniang breathed a sigh of relief.
Since the nobility possessed such confidence, they surely had their own calculations. Having offered her warning with a clear conscience, she settled down to focus entirely on her work.
Lin Sanniang was indeed incredibly efficient. Without needing Jian Xingxia to say a word, she tied up her hair and rolled up her sleeves before touching the chestnuts. After washing her hands thoroughly, she put on a clean piece of old clothing to serve as an apron.
While the chestnuts in the pot simmered, Lin Sanniang stirred them twice and then naturally took charge of controlling the fire. Instead of just standing idly by the stove, she meticulously sorted through the remaining chestnuts.
The chestnuts from the mountains hadn’t been treated with pesticides, so bugs were inevitable.
Jian Xingxia had already picked through them when gathering them, checked them again while drying them, and looked them over carefully when scoring them one by one.
Even so, Lin Sanniang’s sharp eyes managed to pick out two chestnuts that bore well-hidden wormholes.
Seeing this, Jian Xingxia decisively handed the task of scoring the chestnuts over to Lin Sanniang as well.
The moment Lin Sanniang got her hands on the chestnut-scoring tool, her eyes widened into perfect circles. “Good heavens! To think such a convenient tool exists in this world!”
She scored five chestnuts in a row, taking less than a breath’s time.
Jian Xingxia said very modestly, “This one isn’t even the best version. I just learned how to make it from someone else’s tutorial. The inventor’s original version is much easier to use.”
Lin Sanniang was filled with envy. Poor servant women like her were constantly hired to do this kind of backbreaking labor. Confronted with a massive basket of chestnuts, they would have to spend the entire day hunched over with their heads down, hacking away with a heavy kitchen knife. Not only did it cause agonizing backaches and neck pain, but it was also incredibly easy to slice open their hands.
Employers wouldn’t be kind enough to pay for their medical treatment. They were lucky if they were given their wages and sent on their way.
If the employer was cruel, they wouldn’t pay a single copper coin and would even demand compensation for the ruined chestnuts.
If… if they had possessed such a light, labor-saving tool back then, who knows how much suffering they could have been spared. Her eldest sister wouldn’t have ruined one of her hands at such a young age, leaving her unable to even do laundry for a living now.
Lin Sanniang silently shed a tear.
Jian Xingxia carried out the chestnuts that needed to be packaged from the small parlor. Seeing this sight, she softened her footsteps.
She used the electronic scale she had brought back yesterday to portion the chestnuts. Waiting until Lin Sanniang had quietly wiped away her tears, she finally spoke:
“By the way, how are things at home? Is Taoya doing well?”
At the mention of Taoya, a wave of tenderness appeared on Lin Sanniang’s face. “Thank you for asking, Miss. She is doing much better than before…”
Four days ago, in the Daliang Dynasty.
Clutching the “wages” Jian Xingxia had paid her, Taoya happily made her way through the cave tunnel and returned to the world she knew.
She carefully protected the basket on her back, hugging the base of the walls as she walked, trying her best not to draw attention.
Even so, a few idle loafers still locked their eyes onto her. A scrawny, tiny young girl carrying such a heavily loaded basket was simply too easy a target.
A few local thugs crowded around her, spouting crude words as they reached out and yanked away the ragged cloth covering her basket.
After rummaging through it, they tossed the wild vegetables all over the ground. The thugs sneered in disgust, “Acting so secretive, we thought it was some kind of treasure! Turns out it’s just a pile of wild weeds! Scram, scram, scram!”
Taoya didn’t dare argue with them. She merely bent down meekly, gathering the scattered wild vegetables from the ground.
These vegetables had been specially stuffed into her basket by the Proprietress. The Proprietress had tested it multiple times, saying that it wasn’t until the third day that the system deemed this pile of “wilted wild vegetables” worthless for sale, making it the perfect gift for her.
Taoya picked up the vegetables, covered them with the ragged cloth again, and hurried home.
She had just entered the alley and hadn’t even reached the front door when the courtyard gate creaked open.
Little Brother Shu pushed the door bolt aside while standing on his tiptoes. “Big Sister!”
Taoya quickly ran inside. Little Sister Xing and Brother Shu joined forces to shut the gate, locking the bolt tight.
“Sister, did you work at the Fairy Employer’s place again today?” The two younger ones looked at her with shining eyes.
Unlike Lin Sanniang, they hadn’t experienced deep despair and didn’t find it hard to believe that a kind-hearted immortal would come to their rescue.
At their age, Xing and Shu were at the perfect stage to believe in storybooks, and they held absolute faith in the “Fairy Sister” Taoya spoke of.
Their sister had told them that as long as she worked for the Fairy Sister, the Fairy Sister would give her wages—which meant lots and lots of food, and medicine!
Taoya set the bamboo basket down, then carefully detached its two shoulder straps.
Lin Sanniang had specially sewn these straps for her out of fear that someone might rob her if they realized she was carrying food.
After entering the cave earlier, Taoya had found a spot with a bit of light to carefully divide and pack the four catties of rice and two catties of flour Jian Xingxia had given her.
One catty of rice was poured into each of the two shoulder straps. The straps, sewn from strips of cloth, were long and thin, making it completely impossible to tell they were actually sacks of rice.
She then untied her two leg wraps—which Lin Sanniang had also stayed up all night to make for her using double-layered cloth with narrow openings in the middle, allowing rice and flour to be carefully funneled inside.
Sitting where the light filtered into the cave, Taoya had used a leaf rolled into a funnel to patiently pour two catties of rice and two catties of flour into the cloth pockets. She then flattened them out with her hands and tied them securely around her calves.
The trouser legs in the Daliang Dynasty were loose and baggy, designed specifically so a single pair of pants could be worn for several years and passed down through multiple children.
She was incredibly thin, so even with an extra layer of leg wraps, she didn’t look bulky at all beneath her loose trousers.
As Taoya took out the hidden rice and flour piece by piece, the two younger ones gasped in awe, their eyes filled with absolute admiration and envy.
When Taoya reached into the two buns of her hairstyle and pulled out two whole eggs, Xing and Shu’s adoration reached an absolute peak.
“That’s not all!”
Taoya rummaged through the pile of wild vegetables and finally pulled out several “vegetable parcels.” They were smaller than the palm of her hand, wrapped carefully in resilient vegetable leaves, making them completely inconspicuous amidst the large pile of greens.
Wrapped inside the leaves was Lin Sanniang’s medicine.
There was also precious salt.
The two younger children crowded around Taoya as they entered the room to show Lin Sanniang the medicine and salt.
Lin Sanniang felt a mixture of gratitude and anxiety. “I have never seen such fine salt even in the estates of government officials. To think that Fairy Proprietress would just give it to you like this?”
Taoya nodded. “Mhm! The Proprietress said this salt is a bit expensive. She said in a while, she’ll buy some cheaper salt, and my wages will buy even more of it!”
The salt Taoya brought back was bought by Jian Xingxia at the market for three yuan a catty. It wasn’t actually expensive, but given the low wages of temporary workers and the strict salt laws of the historical world, Jian Xingxia had decided she would switch to coarse salt for them in the future.
The small amount of salt Taoya received was worth about thirty cents, but it amounted to roughly an ounce.
It was enough to last them for quite some time.
Xing and Shu joyfully went to wash the wild vegetables, announcing that they would make wild vegetable dumplings tonight. They would use just a tiny bit of flour mixed with a huge amount of greens, which would fill their bellies easily without wasting much flour.
Only Lin Sanniang stared at the incredibly fine rice and white flour, the unease in her heart growing more severe.
“This rice doesn’t even have a single grain of sand or a speck of husk!”
If one were to invest an immense amount of labor, picking through it repeatedly—perhaps ten times over—it might be possible to clean rice to this extent. But flour was a different story.
This flour was blindingly white, radiating a glow as if not a single speck of wheat bran had been mixed into it.
But how could that be possible?
Even the “white flour buns” eaten by the nobility weren’t this white; they were always mixed with wheat bran, appearing grayish-white.
Because of this, people commonly referred to flour as “gray flour.”
Lin Sanniang had lived a bitter life for so long. Having never seen an immortal, she couldn’t dare to believe such a miracle would fall upon their family.
Yet, looking at this rice and flour before her eyes, Lin Sanniang had no choice but to believe.
But now that she believed in immortals, Lin Sanniang’s heart grew even more restless.
Taoya kept insisting that she had exchanged her labor for these items, but having worked as a hired hand herself, how could Lin Sanniang not know the standard wages for manual labor?
The meager tasks Taoya performed wouldn’t even cover the pile of wild vegetables, let alone the medicine and refined grains.
Lin Sanniang was terrified that Taoya had offered up something far more critical in exchange for the food and medicine—like her life, or her lifespan…
She struggled to sit up, refusing to take the medicine as she gripped Taoya’s hand tightly. “Taoya, it’s Mother who has failed you. Mother has ruined your life…”
It took a long bout of coaxing before Taoya finally understood Lin Sanniang’s fears. She hurriedly swore an oath, “Mother! It’s really not like that! The Fairy Sister is a good person. She didn’t take anything from me. I truly earned this through hard work!”
Seeing that Lin Sanniang still didn’t believe her, Taoya was on the verge of tears. Finally, a sudden idea struck her.
“Oh, right! I only received this opportunity after crying and begging before the shrine of the Mountain Goddess, which led me to meet the Fairy Sister. Back then, I said I was willing to do any kind of rough, heavy labor… The Fairy Sister said she just happened to be looking for someone to do small chores like pulling weeds, which is how she hired me.”
“It was the same for Old Man Xu who went the next day. He said he begged the fairy, saying he hoped his skills as a bricklayer could be traded for just a tiny bit of food his grandson could eat.”
“And, and! The dark monster on the third day… Brother Dahei was the same. He said he was talking to his master in a dream, saying he only wanted his master to take him away, and that he would work hard, farm, hunt, and carry cargo—he could do anything.”
Taoya carefully recalled the “sources of recruitment” that Jian Xingxia had deduced with her over the past few days, encouraging Lin Sanniang to try it out too.
“Mother, you know how to cook, wash clothes, mend garments, sweep, and serve. Why don’t you go to the Mountain Goddess shrine and try it too? Tell the Mountain Goddess that you can do all these things and want to find a job. Maybe the next time the Fairy Sister looks for someone, she’ll find you!”
Naturally, Lin Sanniang hadn’t believed it.
She actually went to the shrine every year to pray, but she only ever prayed for her family’s safety, never daring to hope for anything more.
Much less going to the Mountain Goddess shrine to look for a job as a hired hand.
That was truly…
