Chapter 60 Reunion with Lu Chunfang

Chapter 60: Reunion with Lu Chunfang

Meng Wan wasn't one to hold grudges; he smiled and said, "My family is indeed hiring. I wonder if you'd like to work out front selling fried dough and collecting money, or in the back wiping tables and washing dishes."

Miss Li snorted, "Of course I'll be out front collecting money."

Meng Wan sighed lightly. "It's not that I don't want you to work out front, young lady, but you are still unmarried. If some riffraff covet your looks and make teasing remarks, what would that do to your reputation?"

Miss Li smoothed her long, glossy hair and softened a little. "That's true."

"How about you wash dishes in the back? The work is lighter, though the pay is a bit less."

"So what's the pay for washing dishes?"

Meng Wan was surprised to see Miss Li actually looking conflicted and considering it.

A family of modest means in the prefectural city, the Li family didn't seem hard up. Miss Li wore fine cotton, silver hairpins, and silver bracelets—she must be a pampered daughter at home. And yet she actually wanted to wash dishes in his shop?

"For washing dishes, it's monthly pay—600 wen." Meng Wan wasn't lying to her. Washing dishes was much easier than selling fried dough out front, so the pay was naturally two or three hundred wen less.

"Six hundred wen?"

Miss Li gritted her teeth. "I'll do it."

The next morning, before dawn, Song Tingzhou was in the courtyard grinding soybeans. He was the earliest riser in the family. After grinding the beans and feeding the horse hay, he studied in the yard.

Then Chang Jinhua got up, lit the stove to heat the soy milk, and made tofu pudding. Meng Wan was the latest to rise. After washing up, the three of them ate breakfast first—usually tofu pudding or soy milk with fried dough sticks.

After their meal, Chang Jinhua carried the bucket of tofu pudding to the front shop and opened for business, Meng Wan fried dough sticks in the side room, and Song Tingzhou prepared to go to the prefectural school.

"Ah!"

Miss Li crept in through the doorway quietly, but unexpectedly came face to face with Song Tingzhou, who was about to leave.

She was startled, but then the handsome man leading his horse quickly stepped back.

"Wan'er, we have a visitor." Meng Wan hurried over and instinctively took Song Tingzhou's hand. "I forgot to tell you—this is Miss Li from next door."

He then explained to Miss Li, "Miss Li, please come in. This is my husband. I hope he didn't startle you?"

Miss Li smoothed her hair and stepped inside without saying much, but she became noticeably more reserved in Song Tingzhou's presence.

Song Tingzhou mounted his horse and met Aunt Zhou, who was going out to buy groceries. Her eyes shifted from his yard, and she smiled in greeting. "Mr. Song, off to school again?"

Living in the same alley, Song Tingzhou left early and returned late every day, often encountering other men who worked outside. Even if he wasn't trying to show off, there was no point in hiding it.

If his modest reputation could save his family a bit of trouble, why not use it?

Meng Wan had originally thought Miss Li wouldn't last a few days, but she gritted her teeth and persevered. She just purposely arrived a little later each day, so the timing didn't overlap with Song Tingzhou's departure for school.

As they got to know each other, Meng Wan learned that the girl's name was Li Yaqin, the late-born child of the Li family, spoiled by her parents and brothers since childhood. But ever since her eldest brother moved his business to a distant county, leaving the prefectural house to her second brother, she and her parents had to live with her second brother's family. At first it was tolerable, but over time, conflicts with her second sister-in-law began to surface.

An unmarried older daughter at home was bound to have a hard time, and she wasn't the easiest to get along with, the neighbors gossiped.

Her parents were old and couldn't work much, so the whole family depended on her second brother. Her second sister-in-law regarded her as a thorn in her side and tightly controlled the household money.

Forced to find work, she had chosen the best option available—the Song family's job. She didn't have to show her face in public, the work wasn't heavy, only busy in the mornings, and she could go home in the afternoon to do needlework.

Miss Li gradually became skilled at the work, and Meng Wan and Chang Jinhua had a lighter load.

Then one noon, Chang Jinhua took a break to buy groceries and came back, eagerly pulling Meng Wan along. "Wan Geer, look who I found!"

Meng Wan came out and was pleasantly surprised to see who she had brought. "Sister Chunfang? Where have you been? We've been searching for you everywhere!"

Lu Chunfang's face was dark—not from gloom, but from real sun-darkening.

"Ah! Don't even mention it. I was working at the dock outside the west gate, and the foreman cheated me on my wages. That damned bastard, cheating even a woman out of money—may he be struck by lightning!" Her loud, familiar voice boomed with curses. Meng Wan found it both familiar and funny. He himself had a complicated, somewhat petty nature, so he had a special fondness for open, simple-hearted people like her.

"You look worn out from traveling. Come in and rest first."

Lu Chunfang wiped her face and came away with a hand full of dust. She grinned sheepishly. "I'm all covered in dust. I'd better not go inside. Let me just sit in the yard."

Chang Jinhua sternly said, "You think our house is too small for someone as grand as you?"

Lu Chunfang quickly waved her hands. "No, no, Aunty, what are you talking about? Is there water I can use? Let me wash my face and then I'll come in, okay?"

After washing up, she went inside but refused to sit on the kang, choosing a chair instead to talk.

"You don't know—when I came to the prefectural city, I first wanted to find you folks. I asked my husband to inquire around, but no one knew, saying Mr. Song hadn't enrolled yet. So I thought I'd find a job that provided food and lodging. First I found a broker, gave her a few coppers to help me find work. She set me up with a few short gigs for a couple of days. Then she said she had a moneymaking opportunity and asked if I wanted in. So I went with her."

Meng Wan was amused. "She said it was a moneymaking opportunity, and you just went along without asking more?"

Lu Chunfang rubbed her nose. "The short-term jobs she found me before paid little, but she did pay me what she owed."

She smacked her thigh. "Hey! Who knew she'd lead me straight into a dark alley this time! That old bitch! When I saw something was wrong, I beat her up and ran!"

Lu Chunfang was still steaming. Chang Jinhua quickly cautioned her, "Don't talk about this carelessly. Keep your voice down."

Lu Chunfang dismissed it. "I'm only telling you and Wan Geer. I'm not going around shouting it."

Chang Jinhua and Meng Wan exchanged helpless glances.

Meng Wan warned her, "Does Mr. Feng know about this?"

Lu Chunfang said, "He lives in the school dormitory and gets one day off a month. I went to see him once, and he said he almost got scolded by the teacher. He told me not to come see him unless it was an emergency. I haven't seen him for days."

Meng Wan frowned. "He just left you, a woman alone, to fend for yourself in the prefectural city?"

"What can he do? He's useless with his hands. It's more important that he focuses on his studies," Lu Chunfang said nonchalantly.

"Then never let him know. Let this stay between the three of us." Meng Wan always tended to foresee bad outcomes. He didn't tell Lu Chunfang that if Feng Jinzhang ever made a name for himself and became an official, he might look down on her for going to that dark alley and divorce her over it.

Lu Chunfang didn't fully understand, but she knew Meng Wan meant well. "I understand. I won't mention it again."

Chang Jinhua asked, "So what were you doing that got you so dusty?"

"Ah, after those days of work, I couldn't afford the inn. I wandered to the west gate and saw a job carrying luggage for nobles, but they said I couldn't do it. They said with my build, I'd be better off hauling cargo at the dock—that pays more."

The job of carrying luggage for nobles was light and came with tips, but it was surely monopolized by the local gang at the west gate. They weren't about to let Lu Chunfang cut in.

The city had many rules, not like the simple, rough ways of the countryside. Even when his family opened their shop, using Song Tingzhou's reputation, they still got gouged heavily just to get a market license.

Because of the large flow of people at the west gate area, in addition to the daily patrols by the garrison troops, many local thugs worked hand in hand with them, both sides shaking down shops for protection money.

If you don't pay, the next day thugs will come to overturn your stall and smash your shop, to teach you a lesson about paying.

Meng Wan took a deep breath. "So you went to the dock to carry bags? How many days have you been doing that?" And why did they dock your pay?

Lu Chunfang then told him the rest. It turned out she had found the dock carrying job on her own.

This time she didn't come across any con artists, but the foreman, seeing she was a woman on her own, after eight days of work, he only paid her for four. He said women were weaker and didn't work as much as men. When Lu Chunfang tried to argue, he threatened not to pay her even for those four days since there was no contract and he wasn't afraid of her taking him to court.

With no one to turn to, Lu Chunfang had to accept the loss. The dock workers' wages were decent, and four days' pay could last her half a month. She planned to stay in an inn's shared room and slowly look for a steady job. If she really couldn't find one, she would have to return to the countryside.

Buying food outside was too expensive. She thought of going to the market to buy some homemade rough flour, which was a few cents cheaper than in grain shops, then borrow the inn's kitchen to make some flatbreads to save money. Who would have thought she would bump into Chang Jinhua, who had come to buy vegetables.

Chang Jinhua felt sorry for her and knew she was trustworthy from before. She promptly said, "In that case, why look for another job? Come work for Aunt Song here, eat and live with us, and I'll pay you nine hundred wen a month. What do you say?"

Lu Chunfang looked at Meng Wan, her eyes wide, and asked, "Nine hundred wen? Would I be in the way if I stayed here? Maybe I could rent a separate place outside."

Chang Jinhua frowned. "You're a young married woman, renting a place on your own wouldn't be proper. Just stay in my room. This big kang is enough for the two of us, isn't it?"

Meng Wan also urged her, "No strangers are living in this yard now, sister-in-law. Just stay without worry."

Lu Chunfang wasn't normally sentimental, but at Chang Jinhua and Meng Wan's insistence, she couldn't help but wipe away her tears. "I'm so lucky to have met you folks."

They didn't rush to eat that afternoon. Meng Wan first heated up a pot of water. Now that the family was better off and Song Tingzhou had married, each room had its own bathtub.

Lu Chunfang bathed in Chang Jinhua's room, changed into one of her dresses, then quickly ran back to the inn where she had been staying to pick up her bundle. The bundle truly had nothing in it except two changes of underwear and some shorts—nothing else at all.

"Chunfang, you really..." Chang Jinhua sighed, not knowing what to say to her.

She quietly slipped out, bought a chicken, and came back to stew it.

"We haven't had a proper meat dish in days. This doubles as a welcome feast for Chunfang."

Later, when Song Tingzhou came back, the family had a hearty dinner. The tofu pudding brine they kept at home was always stocked with mushrooms, and the whole chicken was cut into pieces and stewed with mushrooms. There were also bean sprout stir-fried pork, chive stir-fried eggs, and a spinach soup.

"Why so much, Aunt Song? You're too kind," Lu Chunfang said sheepishly.

Chang Jinhua urged her to sit and eat. "We usually make two dishes anyway. Today you're a guest, and we've only added two more. Isn't that appropriate? Sit down and eat. Help yourself if it's not enough."

Lu Chunfang was much better than Meng Wan used to be. She didn't stand on ceremony; she was truly hungry and immediately started shoveling food into her mouth. Chang Jinhua occasionally put a piece of chicken in her bowl.

The next morning, she got up even earlier than Song Tingzhou. She had already ground a bucket of raw soy milk.

Song Tingzhou took over the work from her. "Sister-in-law Chunfang, go inside and help my mother tend the fire. From now on, just get up at the same time as her. You don't need to do this kind of heavy work."

Lu Chunfang stared at him blankly. "Aren't you going to the prefectural school? Why are you still doing chores at home this early?"

Song Tingzhou skillfully ground the soy milk, saying matter-of-factly, "My mother and Wan Geer work hard to fund my education. It's the least I can do."

"Ah?" Lu Chunfang was still puzzled.

Meng Wan came out with his hair down. Seeing this scene, he let out a light laugh. He walked over to Song Tingzhou and said sweetly, "Are you done grinding? My arms are so sore today. Help me put up my hair."

Song Tingzhou took the Xiangyun silver hairpin and skillfully used it to style Meng Wan's hair.

Meng Wan deliberately made a fussy little sound. "Oh dear~"

Song Tingzhou smiled, watching his act, and cooperatively asked, "What's wrong?"

"You've tied it too tight. Loosen it a bit and redo it."

"Alright."

Lu Chunfang had already scurried to the kitchen when the couple started talking. But the yard was small, and she could still hear them talking outside. An expression of longing spread across her face.

Wan Geer and Mr. Song are so wonderful together. If only I could...

She blushed and cut off the thought mid-way, trying to smother the little flame in her heart by tending to the fire.

Today they needed to make three pots of tofu pudding and three basins of fried dough sticks. Afraid Lu Chunfang couldn't handle the heat yet, they stuck with the usual amount. Once she learned, they would let her fry them all. Meng Wan helped Chang Jinhua sell the fried dough sticks out front.

When Li Yaqin came in and saw a young woman working in the yard, her heart sank. Was she displeased with her work and looking for someone to replace her?

Chang Jinhua disliked Li Yaqin. Meng Wan didn't care who did the work; he just hired laborers. He wasn't looking for a friend. As long as there were no major issues, he could make do.

Chang Jinhua, without a word, carried the tofu pudding to the front shop. Meng Wan stayed to introduce them. "This is Sister-in-law Chunfang from my hometown. She'll be frying the dough sticks in the shop from now on."

Then to Lu Chunfang, "Sister-in-law, this is Qin Niang from next door. She's also a laborer I hired, washing dishes in the yard."

Hearing that she was from Meng Wan's hometown and would be frying dough sticks, Li Yaqin realized it had nothing to do with her and relaxed.

But she looked down on country folk, thinking them crude and rude, so when Lu Chunfang tried to talk to her, she didn't bother to respond properly.