Chapter 4

Chapter 4

IOU?

Gu Ran was startled and looked up at Granny Dou in disbelief.

"What IOU?"

"Didn't you just say that if I send a letter for you, your natal family will reward me handsomely? Words are not enough. Write me an IOU. When you divorce, whether you send me a reward or I come to claim it, with this IOU as proof, we'll be relieved."

Granny Dou looked at Gu Ran and sneered inwardly.

Heh, although she hadn't seen much of the world, she had endured more hardships than Qin Fourth Madam.

Listening to her flowery words, who knows if she's just making it up?

Thinking of deceiving her? Too early.

Asking for a handwritten IOU, and then coming to ask for silver, would she dare to deny it?

Gu Ran's lips twitched.

Unexpectedly, Granny Dou was quite shrewd. It seemed she couldn't afford to deal with her casually in the future.

Alright, an empty promise? She'd write it.

"Well, how much silver does Granny Dou think I should reward you?"

"I'm not greedy, and I don't want much," said Granny Dou, "Give Lord Liu ten taels of silver, and give me twenty taels."

Heh, not greedy.

Gu Ran remained expressionless and smiled faintly, then dutifully wrote the IOU for Granny Dou.

As she wrote, Granny Dou told her her household registration, name, and kindly reminded, "Write it well. Although I can't read, I'll have to let Clerk Tao check it when I return the writing tools, and he can be a witness and stamp it with the Qingyi post station's official seal."

Gu Ran's hand paused.

This was a warning not to mess around, not to think that just because Granny Dou couldn't read, she could be fooled.

"Of course, of course."

Gu Ran forced a smile and dutifully wrote an IOU stating that she owed Granny Dou twenty taels as a reward, and just as she was about to put it aside, Granny Dou shouted again, "Hey, did you put your name on it?"

"Yes, Granny Dou, it's here!"

"Put a mark next to it," Granny Dou pointed on the IOU and said.

"Huh?" Gu Ran was stunned.

"Just press your finger here, then on there. Our Clerk Tao said this is an irrefutable proof."

Tsk, who would have thought Granny Dou was so knowledgeable about this? She must have learned it from the post station!

For her immediate personal safety and to dispel Granny Dou's thoughts of harming her, Gu Ran obediently dipped her index finger in ink and pressed her fingerprint on the IOU.

"Is it okay now, Granny Dou?"

"Usually, there are two copies of the IOU. Write another one, and I'll take them back for Clerk Tao to notarize and stamp." Granny Dou was very familiar with this process.

Alright!

With two IOUs in hand, Granny Dou left satisfied.

Gu Ran looked a bit dazed.

On the first day of her arrival, not only did she become a convict but also incurred such a huge debt. What kind of unlucky start was this?

But fortunately, the power of the huge debt managed to dispel Granny Dou's thoughts of killing her, and there were some gains.

First, Granny Dou's attitude improved.

She took the initiative to find merchants leaving the post station to go to town to find a doctor for her—unfortunately, the post station was too far from the nearest Su County, and it was said that due to heavy snow blocking the mountains, the official roads were obstructed, and even merchants' journeys were delayed. So Gu Ran had to settle for asking Granny Dou to bring more hot water, hoping to get through it with her body's self-healing ability.

Second, a thin quilt.

Seeing that Gu Ran had no bedding, Granny Dou even moved a thin quilt from the opposite empty cell for her to use.

Third, a cotton padded coat.

A cotton padded coat with the character "prisoner" was given to her for warmth.

The coat was probably the smallest size for men, but it was still loose on Gu Ran.

Fourth, a brazier.

With the freezing snow outside, the prison was equally dry and cold.

Gu Ran, remembering her frostbitten hands and feet, asked Granny Dou for a brazier and some charcoal, explaining that she needed it to keep warm at night since the heat patches only lasted eight hours.

While Granny Dou went to get the brazier, Gu Ran lay on the straw bed and began writing the so-called family letter.

Fortunately, in her previous life, living in the same city as mortals in a cultivation family, she had learned to write in the school within the estate. Now, imitating the original owner's handwriting wasn't difficult.

In the letter, she cried about the hardships of the journey since her exile and cursed Qin Fourth Son for his heartlessness, detesting how the Qin family abandoned her at the post station. She described herself as pitiful, begging her parents to take pity and help her divorce Qin Fourth Son. At the end, she mentioned that she had survived the ordeal and expressed gratitude for Granny Dou's care at the post station.

Of course, these were just formalities.

To prevent Granny Dou from suspecting anything when she sent the letter (as prisoners' letters usually had to be inspected by officials), and as for what the Ningyuan Marquis family in the capital would do after receiving the letter, that was no longer her concern.

By then, she had probably already left Qingyi and wouldn’t have to deal with Granny Dou and the others anymore.

As for the promissory note, since she had already left, who knows what would happen in the future?

Gu Ran held the sealed promissory note but didn’t pay much attention to it.

After finishing the letter, Gu Ran placed it into the double carp—also known as the letter envelope—and on the front wrote “To be opened by the Ningyuan Marquis” and signed it as Gu Erniang. After paying the postage, she handed the double carp back to Granny Dou.

Granny Dou accepted the letter with a smile and collected the remaining paper and writing supplies. These weren’t bought by her but borrowed from the station’s clerk, for which she only paid 100 wen, pocketing the remaining 900 wen herself.

After Granny Dou left, Gu Ran noticed a small fire basket she had brought in earlier. It was already lit with charcoal, and some extra pieces of charcoal were provided, though not much, probably only enough to last two or three days.

Gu Ran picked up the fire basket and lay back in her corner, then immediately entered the workspace.

After placing the fire basket on the desk, Gu Ran rummaged through the drawers and searched the storage cabinet for the small bowl and pestle usually used to grind cinnabar powder, then picked up the dried orange peel lying nearby.

During her first lifetime, Gu Ran often got frostbite in winter due to inadequate protection against the cold, so she learned a folk remedy to quickly treat frostbite, mainly using readily available orange peels in the south.

Holding the peeled orange skin, she squeezed it over the small bowl. There was some juice, but not much. After squeezing out every last drop, she opened the fire basket lid, picked up a piece of unburnt charcoal from the side, and revealed the brightest circle of red charcoal inside. She then placed the outer layer of the orange peel over it to roast.

The sweet scent of oranges quickly filled the workspace.

When the peel began to ooze oil, Gu Ran changed hands several times, making sure not to waste the oil by smearing it on the exposed skin. The orange oil could moisturize and protect the skin, so none of it went to waste.

When the peel stopped releasing oil and became hard and charred, Gu Ran tore it into pieces, placed them into the small bowl, and slowly ground them with the pestle.

After grinding it into a powder, she would normally add some castor oil or olive oil, but since she didn’t have any now, she made do by picking a few orange leaves and mashing them into a paste, which could be applied in a pinch.

Looking at her hands and feeling the itchy pain on her feet, Gu Ran decided without hesitation to apply the remedy to her feet first.

The cotton shoes she was wearing now were the only pair packed away by the original owner at the beginning of autumn.

Although the people of the Ningyuan Marquis residence were untrustworthy, there was one person who had treated the original owner sincerely—Gu Sanniang.

Gu Sanniang was the original owner’s younger half-sister—no, it wasn’t right to call her a half-sister. The original owner wasn’t even considered a legitimate daughter of the Ningyuan Marquis residence. Gu Sanniang, being of legitimate blood, had a good relationship with the original owner when she was still considered the legitimate daughter before the true and false daughter incident. After the original owner lost her mother, she had protected Gu Sanniang for a time.

Perhaps out of gratitude, when everyone else in the Ningyuan Marquis residence avoided the original owner, even on the day of her banishment, no one had prepared her belongings. Only Gu Sanniang, though unable to appear in person, had secretly asked her mother’s family to pack a bundle for her.

The bundle contained a few sets of simple clothes, sewing supplies, and medicine, but when the Qin family abandoned her, they took everything from the bundle. Now, she had nothing but the clothes on her back.

Fortunately, in the prison, there was no need to remove shoes to sleep, or these cotton shoes would have been taken away as well.

Taking off her cotton shoes and socks, she saw a pair of feet that had developed thick calluses from walking long distances. The toes on each foot were red and swollen, hard to the touch, and some areas had been scratched raw by the original owner due to unbearable itching.

With no other choice, Gu Ran took the mashed orange peel and carefully applied it to each toe. Sometimes, it stung where the skin was broken, causing her to tear up from the pain.

After applying the remedy, she dried her feet over the fire basket, put on her socks, and then her cotton shoes. Afterward, she continued to roast another orange peel to apply to her hands, which also had frostbite on her fingers and palms.

Based on her experience, the frostbite should heal in about four or five days.

Fortunately, she was currently the only sick female prisoner in Qingyi, confined to the cell and not required to work. Apart from Granny Dou bringing her meals and chatting twice a day, she spent the rest of her time lying down by the fire. During these days of recuperation, besides applying the orange peel remedy three times a day, she also pondered her spatial system.

To be honest, the spatial system felt a bit useless to Gu Ran at this point. Its main function was storage, which would have been great if she had known in advance that she would be struck by lightning and reincarnate again. She could have stockpiled enough money and supplies.

But without prior knowledge, she hadn’t stored many emergency items in the space. Additionally, as a prisoner, based on the original owner’s journey of exile, she had been under the supervision of an officer and had no personal freedom. Naturally, she couldn’t purchase supplies, rendering the spatial system useless.

Was it for storing valuable items?

It wasn’t like when the incident first occurred, and she could have hidden some gold and silver before the family was confiscated. The bundle prepared by Gu Sanniang contained no money, and even if it did, it would have been taken by the officer when he checked the luggage before departure. Now, she was penniless and had no means to stockpile supplies.

So, what good was a spatial system for a sickly prisoner like her?

It would have been more useful to have a medical or food system.

Gu Ran could only console herself that just because it was useless now didn’t mean it would be useless later. She also speculated that the reason she was given this spatial system might be related to the warmth-giving talisman she had taken out in violation of the rules.

After trying all the talismans in this world to no effect, Gu Ran had wanted to try another warmth-giving talisman, only to find that there wasn’t a second one in the workspace.

Then she remembered that as a cultivator, she didn’t need the warmth-giving talisman. She had originally drawn them for her parents and to sell to mortals for winter warmth. The one in the workspace was probably the last unsold one.

Although Gu Ran wasn’t particularly talented, she learned talisman drawing very quickly. In her first lifetime, her major was in painting, and her day job was as an assistant to a comic artist in a studio in Hong Kong City.

The studio was out of step with the new trend of computer-based drawing and still followed the traditional methods of island nation studios. The comic artist would design the story, characters, plot, and panels, while the assistant would clean up the drafts and ink the lines. Other assistants would handle background drawing, costume retouching, and applying screentones. If it was a colored comic, the final step would be coloring and finishing.

This detailed process took about a month to complete 20 to 30 pages for the monthly serialization. Unlike webcomics that could be completed more quickly and efficiently with computer-aided drawing, this traditional method was time-consuming but still favored by many comic artists and readers who appreciated the detailed storytelling.

Gu Ran was one of those assistants responsible for cleaning up drafts and inking lines. Her job was to find the key lines in the messy sketches, remove the unnecessary patterns and lines, and then draw the key lines clearly to form the final clean and sharp manuscript.

If the artist was talented but lazy, the assistant’s job would be more than just cleaning up drafts and inking. For example, a certain famous mangaka would submit sketches that were little more than stick figures with dialogue. Most of the time, the assistant would have to add panels and enrich the composition according to the artist’s fixed style to form the final line drawings, and the other assistants would continue working to reach the completed final draft.

In summary, the inking and outlining process is the most important task after the cartoonist drafts the initial sketches, and all subsequent work by the assistants is based on the finished line art she completes.

Therefore, the artist assistants responsible for inking and outlining are considered the cartoonist's right-hand persons, receiving the highest pay, and they are also the most likely to learn enough to start their own careers. Many up-and-coming comic artists accumulate experience this way before making their debut. For example, the cartoonist of "Hell X" was once an assistant to the master of "Chainsaw R" comics.

Because she has done so much inking and outlining work, she has naturally developed a strong sensitivity to lines. Not to mention, before officially taking on this job, she had already spent over a decade practicing drawing lines, which enables her to draw smooth and fluid lines no matter how or from what angle she starts, and no matter how complex the pattern is.

During tedious times, she could only encourage herself by thinking that even Da Vinci had to painstakingly practice drawing eggs for many years.

Of course, she didn't become a famous painter like Da Vinci in the end, but instead passed away in a car accident.