Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Seeing her daughter's confusion, Mother Mi explained, "This is the daily household contribution, twenty wen every day, at the designated time in the afternoon. The Ye family doesn't keep anyone idle."

Father grinned foolishly as he pulled out a pouch from his chest. "All earnings are for my wife to keep."

"We earned ninety wen selling small dishes today, and here's twenty wen." Jade Sister grabbed the coin purse and poured its contents onto the table with a 'clink.' "Too lazy to count, Mother, you can check."

Yin Ge easily lifted the two cloth bags by the door. "Today, the neighbors gave us two bags of golden silk jujubes for helping with the fire, worth about fifty wen. Here, it all goes to the family."

The youngest sister methodically counted out twenty wen from the coin purse at her waist. "When the master took me to see a doctor, someone gave me a length of fabric. I sold it, and the master gave me some money for running errands."

Jin Ge struggled to pull out a bunch of coins from his chest. "This is twenty wen."

Mother Mi stretched out her hand. "And the rest?"

Jin Ge reluctantly pulled out a few more handfuls, revealing a pained expression, and handed over a dozen copper coins.

"And the rest?" Mother Mi remained expressionless.

With no other choice, Jin Ge reluctantly took off his shoe and took out a few copper coins from inside.

Mother Mi's outstretched hand didn't even withdraw.

Jin Ge finally pulled out the last few coins hidden in his hair, wailing, "Mother! I'm grown up now, I need to save some private money for socializing! Why don't the other siblings pay more money?"

"What are you saving for?!"

Mother Mi gave her son a hard slap on the head.

"Don't learn from Zhao Xiaoqi next door who hides coins in his butt crack!"

Ye Zhan: ...

Zhao Xiaoqi, I'm sorry to meet you under these circumstances.

"Don't defy your mother," Ye Dafu scolded his son.

"Each person must pay twenty wen for food and rent, that's true, but your extra money goes to your good-for-nothing friends. It's better for your mother to save it for you."

He squeezed his son's sleeve, pulling out a few more coins with practiced hands.

"There's nothing left. Really, nothing." Jin Ge covered his head and fled. "If I'm lying, may I turn into seventy-two female dogs fighting over poop at our doorstep!"

The fifth sister muttered, "Why fight over human poop? Shouldn't it be with other dogs?"

Mother Mi swiftly tucked the money securely under her breast. "Zhan Zhan is new here, so she doesn't need to contribute for now."

The brothers and sisters had no objections to this.

Ye Zhan thought for a moment and untied the silk cord from her waist. "This weaving imitates the style of the imperial palace and can be sold for dozens of wen. Consider it my day's wages."

She quickly understood why the family was so careful with money.

In Bianjing, everything required money: buying firewood for cooking, purchasing water to drink, and even paying to dispose of the chamber pot!

The rented house was probably the cheapest in the city, but it still cost three strings of cash a month.

Living in the capital is no easy task; we need to find a way to make a living fast.

Ye Zhan also brought money. She placed the bundle she had carried onto the table. "This is my belongings, Mother. Please keep them," she said.

The maids in Lotus's household were all sold by their families and thus did not trust their families. They advised her to observe her family's character before revealing any wealth.

However, Ye Zhan saw that the Ye family had spent all their wealth in order to find their daughter. They were not the kind of people who were selfless and not greedy, so she chose to trust her family.

The bundle made a crisp metallic sound as it hit the table. When opened, it revealed a dazzling array of jewels.

Mi Fengniang quickly covered it with her sewing basket.

Ye Dafu got up and jumped to the door to look around.

Ye Yin went outside, crossing his arms like a bear and pacing by the door.

Even the youngest, Ye Li, knew to give a small warning to Ye Zhan: "Shh—"

Jade explained to her sister, "Tan Chang Alley can be dangerous. What if someone steals everything from you?"

Ye Zhan was surprised but then deeply agreed.

Although the security in Bianjing was good, every era had its thieves.

She had time-traveled into a large family as a maid and had forgotten the dangers outside.

So she packed everything away and explained the origin of the valuables to her family:

Ye Zhan's elder sister Lotus was a good person. She found an opportunity to tell the old lady of the house about Ye Zhan's background to amuse her.

The old lady liked this kind of happy reunion story and sighed before giving some rewards.

The ladies and madams below also sent some things to join in the fun.

As a result, Ye Zhan received two bolts of fine cloth, a gold stirrup ring with silver plating, and a silver ring set with red agate, along with two sets of the ladies' old clothes.

A few familiar senior maids also gave Ye Zhan some things: several exquisitely embroidered handkerchiefs and two silk flowers.

The rest were Ye Zhan's clothes and her savings from years of being a maid: two taels of silver.

The two taels of silver were accumulated over more than ten years from her wages, bonuses, and festival gifts.

It was kept by Lotus, who not only did not embezzle it but also added some small pieces of silver to make it a whole number.

Mi Fengniang quickly distributed the valuables: "The family will take only one tael of silver. The rest of the rings, silk cloth, handkerchiefs, and embroidered pouches will be considered your private property."

One tael of silver meant nothing to a rich family, but to a poor family, it was enough for several days of expenses.

One person spent 20 wen a day on food and drink. A thousand wen would be enough for the family to spend seven or eight days.

If it were outside Bianjing, it could last even longer.

"How Ye Zhan spends her private property is her own business. No one else should cause trouble. Do you all agree?"

The family naturally agreed.

After stowing the money in a corner pot, Mi Fengniang then instructed the children to take action to welcome Ye Zhan.

Ye Dafu sent Jade to buy one qian of pork from the alley. He fished out a dried pickle from the large jar at the door.

"Do you like pork stewed with pickles?" Mi Fengniang wanted to make a good meal to welcome her daughter. "We’ll also steam a dried fish and buy some fresh crucian carp as a side dish."

"Mom, please don’t ruin the food. Ask Aunt Zhao from next door to help us cook," Jin Ge quickly stopped her, still holding his aching head. "The carp you made for Dragon Boat Festival was too fishy and had way too many scales; I couldn't even pick up my chopsticks after not eating meat for half a year!"

"How am I wasting it?" Mi Fengniang snapped, hands on her hips as she glared at her defiant son. "Besides, if we ask someone for help, wouldn't that waste their wages?"

"I’ll take care of it," Ye Zhan quickly volunteered. "I used to work in the main kitchen of the mansion and know my way around the stove."

The family looked at her suspiciously, but Ye Zhan didn’t explain further and simply washed her hands to begin preparing.

She sliced the pork she had bought. This piece of pork belly had both lean and fat parts, including a large chunk of pure fat.

Nowadays, people wouldn’t want that much fat, but back then, when fat was hard to come by, we’d be thankful to the butcher.

Ye Zhan carefully trimmed off the white lard and sliced the meat into strips.

Knowing how rarely the family got to eat meat, not a scrap could go to waste.

After cutting the meat, she soaked the dried mushrooms she had brought back. Before leaving, Lotus had asked the Third Miss for a favor and brought her a small bag of various dried goods from the main kitchen.

She dropped the fatty meat into the wok and let it simmer over low heat.

The white lard slowly melted into a light yellow liquid, and the wok began to sizzle.

Tiny oil droplets sizzled and popped.

The rich aroma of the oil filled the air.

"Wow, that smells amazing!" Ye Li exclaimed, practically drooling. "Fatty pork!"

Ye Zhan grabbed a golden-brown piece of crackling with her chopsticks and handed it to her.

Ye Li's eyes lit up!

She took the crackling and carefully put it in her mouth.

The crispy meat crackled as the fat melted in her mouth,

causing Ye Li to sigh in satisfaction.

But she forced herself to stop. It was too good to gobble down all at once.

She simply let it sit in her mouth, allowing the fragrant flavors to slowly melt away.

Meanwhile, she closed her eyes, savoring the rich flavor of the oil.

With such a small amount of pork, they could only get a little bit of oil.

Ye Zhan scooped out a small bowl of lard.

The family was poor, so the few pieces of pork cracklings would be eaten over two meals, and the lard would be saved for later use.

There were four or five yellowish cracklings floating on the surface of the oil; half were saved for the next meal, and the other half were finely chopped into crumbs.

Watching her daughter’s expert cooking, Mi Fengniang felt both proud and heartbroken—how could her daughter, trained as a pastry chef, have suffered so much?

"It's really not that the Du family was harsh on the servants. I just have a liking for cooking and learned some skills while working in the main kitchen," Ye Zhan quickly reassured her family.

She decided to attribute the reason for cooking to her experience at the Du family, saving herself a lot of explanation.

The chopped oil residue bits were used to stir-fry the chopped napa cabbage leaves.

The tender napa cabbage leaves were picked off and softened quickly after being blanched in the pot.

Then the oil residue bits were added for an extra savory flavor.

This counted as a meat dish.

The sliced lean meat was stewed with dried fish and soaked dried mushrooms.

The dried fish was wind-dried carp, having become shriveled from exposure, but it regained its plumpness after being stewed in the pot.

There was only some broad bean paste at home, and Ye Zhan scooped a dollop into the pot.

Mi Fengniang wanted to add more, saying, "You rarely come home; the welcoming feast should be a bit more special."

Ye Zhan smiled and explained to her mother, "This paste is made from good quality soybeans. We shouldn’t waste such good paste."

Seeing how little had been used, she understood her family had been sparing with it, so she would eat less herself.

By this time, Yu Jier had already prepared a basin of dough and was sticking buckwheat cakes on the edge of the pot. "This firewood costs money; we might as well make some buckwheat cakes while we’re at it."

Ye Zhan nodded. In Bianjing, firewood had to be bought with money, so it was best to save where they could.

She also added vermicelli and the remaining napa cabbage stalks to the pot to soak up the flavors of the fish and pork belly.