Chapter 1391 - Back Door
After seeing off Gou Chengxuan, Hao Yuan was just tidying the items on the table when the straw curtain lifted. The girl from next door came in againâbringing today's dinner.
Living alone, Hao Yuan naturally did not cook for himself. Fortunately, the girl's family next door ran a snack business and had ready access to fire and water, so he had contracted his meals to them. Three meals a dayâconsidered a small luxury.
The girl smiled. "Uncle Hao doing big business again. Eat first."
She set the tray on the table. Inside were two bowls of dishes plus a small rice bucket, all steaming hot.
The dishes consisted of a bowl of vegetables and some salt-water shrimpâlikely caught from the Qiantang River.
Though Hao Yuan was diligent and thrifty, he was never stingy about eating. One dish of rice and one of vegetables per meal, with occasional aquatic supplements. By Nanxiawa standards, this was quite good fare.
"Where do I have any big business?" Hao Yuan smiled.
"Don't try to fool me. Do you really take me for a child?" The girl's scalp still showed short stubble from the shaving treatment for ringworm; only in a few patches did the hair grow both short and sparse.
"I've never looked at you as a child." Hao Yuan smiled and sat down. The girl opened the rice bucket and helped him to a heaping bowl.
"Uncle Hao, my mother saysâwhat if we measure less rice each day going forward? There's always half left over after every meal."
"It's not wasted anyway."
"Precisely because it's not wasted that my mother says we should measure less. You're boarding with my family and already paid money. Taking advantage of leftover rice on top of thatâwhere's the fairness in it?"
"Isn't taking such advantages a boarder's natural right?" Hao Yuan ate without looking up.
"Taking advantage of you makes my whole family uneasy," the girl said. "Everyone in Nanxiawa benefits from your kindness. If my family takes advantage of you on top of that, we'll be struck by lightning."
"Such heavy words." Hao Yuan smiled, picked up a shrimp, and put it in his mouth. "Your mother really has a gift for cooking fish and shrimp!"
"Just homely skill." The little girl rested her cheek in her hand, watching Hao Yuan wolf down his meal. "Uncle Hao, you really don't look like a rich family's young master..."
"When did Uncle Hao ever claim to be a rich family's young master?"
"Never mind that. You said you'd give me a new name."
Like all poor-family girls of that era, she had no formal name. Her family surnamed Jia; she ranked third and was simply called Sanniang. Hao Yuan had recently been giving school names to all the children studying with him.
"You shall be called Jia Le." Hao Yuan said. "'Changle' is your Jia family's chorus name. You take the character 'Le'âjoyous and happy." He dipped his finger in tea from the cup and wrote the two characters "ćäč" on the table's surface.
"Wonderful! Thank you, Uncle Hao!" Jia Le clapped happily. She tilted her head to study the two characters on the table again. "These characters look so unfamiliar..."
"Practice them ten times daily. After a month, they won't be unfamiliar."
"Very well! I'll definitely learn to write my name properly!"
"The matter I mentioned to you the other dayâhave your parents agreed?"
"I was just about to tell you: they have no objection. Our whole family's lives were saved by Uncle Hao. Now you're dispatching me to do such a small thingâI will definitely do my utmost. Besides, going in there means eating white rice for free, getting money on top of it. I hear the Villa pays generous money and grain."
"Heh, true enough." Hao Yuan set down his bowl and chopsticks. "But the Villa is not a benevolent place. After you enter, besides risking danger, daily life will feel like sitting in prison. You'll be scolded frequently, and beatings and punishments are inevitable."
"I fear none of thatâI'm not that delicate. Scolding and beatings don't bother me either. We don't live in comfort out here anyway. Besides, this is for you, Uncle Hao."
Hao Yuan laughed. Jia Le probably realized her words were inappropriate; her face instantly flushed crimson. Bashfully, she said, "I know, I knowâUncle Hao told me this isn't for any one person. It's for everyone."
"That's right." Hao Yuan said. "I know you and your parents are only willing to go because you remember my kindness. But do you remember what I told you?"
"I remember." Jia Le thought for a moment. "Not to talk of personal debts of gratitude. We must work for the poor people. We must avenge the poor people."
"Since you're going to the Villa, I might as well tell you plainly. Working for Uncle Hao this time means avenging the common people of Hangzhouâavenging everyone in Nanxiawa." His expression turned serious. "Do you remember what Uncle Hao told you about why the Zeng Aqing family, living behind us, committed suicide?"
"I remember." Jia Le's expression grew solemn, her eyes faintly red. She had run out to see the commotion after the incident. When she saw the little boy from the Zeng familyâthe one who always chased her around calling her "Big Sister"âcarried out, she had run home and cried her heart out. "Because the silk price fellâall because of Master Zhao's scheming."
"For his own profit, Master Zhao did not hesitate to harm millions of common people. Nanxiawa has only one Zeng Aqing, but beyond Nanxiawa, who knows how many families have been broken, how many people have died." Hao Yuan spoke gravely. "We must seek justice for them."
"Uncle Hao, I understand!" Jia Le nodded solemnly. "Whatever you want me to do, I'll do it. Though I'm just a girl, in a critical moment I absolutely won't falter."
"For now, I don't need you to do anything. Just work your way into Phoenix Mountain Villa first. Later, I'll send someone to tell you what to do." He stood, walked to the door, listened to the sounds outside, then returned to the table and lowered his voice. "Listen carefully..."
Since her beating, Xihua could barely move and could only rest in bed. The next day, several people came to visit in successionâsome who had always had good relations with her, others like Yanhe who came out of classmate friendship. Xihua followed Zhao Yingong's instructions, maintaining a wooden expression and saying little to anyone, feigning heartbreak. Those who visited knew her pride and took no offense.
Huang Xiang came to see her only at dusk the following dayâher humble status meant she dared not vie for precedence. Seeing Xihua lying in bed, she could not help but shed tears, setting the basket she had brought on the table.
"Miss Xihua, you've suffered." She spoke one sentence, and it must have touched her own feelings, for tears gushed forth uncontrollably and she could not continue.
"Sister-in-law Huang. Please sit." Xihua had seen acquaintances all day, yet not one had revealed anything useful. She was secretly growing anxious. Seeing at last someone with whom she had only an average relationship, she could not help but perk up. Though she conducted herself meticulouslyâthe medicine applied the previous day had already eased her pain considerablyâshe now put on an act of unbearable suffering.
"Yesterday was all my fault for implicating you. You were docked a month's wages because of me..."
"You must not say that." Huang Xiang wiped her tears as she spoke. "The suffering we endure in the filature counts as among the worst in the Villa. Except for Miss Xihua, not a second person with standing has spoken on our behalf. Just for thatânever mind losing a month's wagesâI would willingly take sixty boards for you."
She wiped the corner of her eye with her sleeve and took several items from the basket. "The female workers at our factory pooled money to buy these. They're nothing specialâwe can't produce anything special."
"I know you peopleâevery one of you has heavy family burdens, and went there only because the filature wages are high. How can I accept your things? Absolutely not."
"If you don't accept, we'll feel even more uneasy inside." Huang Xiang said. "Yesterday, Steward Cai already announced the factory is switching to three shifts, each two shichen shorter. Everyone says Miss Xihua risked her life to win this for us. You are our benefactor..."
She rambled on with words of gratitude. Xihua's mood was complex: she had spoken up for the filature workers only out of momentary indignation, never expecting such tearful gratitude in return.
Despite repeated refusals, she could not overcome Huang Xiang's persistence and finally accepted the gifts.
Only then did Huang Xiang raise her actual purpose. She had a distant relative locally whose life was difficult; the family planned to send their daughter into the Villa to serve. Because the child was young and the family was unwilling to sell her outright, she would be classified as a hired worker under Villa rulesâwhich meant she could only do miscellaneous labor or run errands in Cihui Hall. Huang Xiang hoped to ask Xihua a favor: finding the girl a position where she could actually learn something.
Xihua's heart clenched. Could this Huang Xiang be the spy?
Her complexion shifted slightly. Huang Xiang had already noticed. She forced a smile. "I know this is difficult to ask..."
"It's not difficult." Xihua had already reasoned it out. Right now, anyone could be a spy; only by following nature could she draw out the fox's tail. She gave a bitter smile. "Sister-in-law Huang, I myself am still a body awaiting punishment, not knowing how Master will dispose of me once I recover. If I'm still assigned my original duties, I'll transfer that girl to my side as a school assistant. With me, at least she can learn a few characters and pick up some needlework skills."
Huang Xiang happily performed a blessing. "Master will treat you well, there's nothing to worry about! Once you're recovered, everything will be as before."
Xihua asked, "What is the girl's name?"
"Replying to Miss: her surname is Jia, and she ranks third. You may call her Little Sanniang."
Huang Xiang returned to the dormitory quarters. Being married, she had been allocated a separate room in the Villa. Inside, a woman was waiting for herâa servant woman in the Villa named Wang Rong'er.
"Sister-in-law Huang, how did it go?" Seeing Huang Xiang enter, she asked eagerly.
"All settled." Huang Xiang picked up the teapot on the table, poured a full bowl of coarse tea, and drained it in gulps. "Miss Xihua agreed to transfer your niece to her school."
"Then I really must thank you!" Wang Rong'er's brows rose with joy. She performed several blessings in succession, then produced several Circulation Notes from her waist and pressed them into Huang Xiang's hand. "Sister-in-law Huang is truly capable."
"It's all thanks to Miss Xihua's kindness!" Huang Xiang accepted the notes with a smile, thinking to herself that although she had lost a month's wages this time, at least the Master had reduced the filature's working hours and Miss Xihua now looked upon her with new regard. Fortune out of misfortune, as they say.
(End of this chapter)