Chapter 29: Just Smile Without a Word

Before long, both the brown and white rice had been weighed. The shopkeeper packed them into cloth bags and prepared to place them in Wen Lan’s backpack. Fearing that the wontons might get crushed, Wen Lan quickly took them out and tucked them into Wen Yu’er’s basket. Wen Ye’s backpack was already filled with the silk threads and expensive fabrics needed for her embroidery work, so she couldn't put anything else in it for fear of staining them.

Wen Lan felt a pang of heartache as she handed over a tael of silver. The shopkeeper took it and returned with 400 wen in change. After collecting the money, Wen Lan squatted down to shoulder the grain. Wen Ye said, "Split half of it with me; it’s 40 catties!"

"I can handle it!" Wen Lan was stubborn. She stood up, leaning slightly backward under the weight, but the thought of the basket being packed full of grain filled her with such overwhelming happiness that she wished it were even heavier.

"Let me carry one bag, at least!"

"No need." Wen Lan leaned close to Wen Ye’s ear and whispered, "Keep the 40 taels of silver in your pocket safe. If we run into thieves or robbers, you must run away immediately!"

Recalling that farm girls were typically strong enough to lift and carry heavy loads, Wen Ye stopped arguing and nodded. "Alright! By the way, Yu’er, didn't you want to buy some fabric?"

Wen Yu’er smiled. "I’ll have my mother buy it tomorrow. Why don't we buy some meat instead?"

"Yes, let's buy meat." Wen Ye agreed. She was craving meat to the point of desperation.

The group happily made their way to the meat stall. Seeing the various cuts of meat on the table, Wen Lan’s eyes shone. "Let's buy some fat pork. We can eat it and also render it into lard."

Wen Ye pondered this. "Rendering lard requires buying dozens of catties, and we don’t have room for that right now. Let's buy something to eat first... how about some pork belly?"

"Pork belly is good, and it's cheaper too. Shopkeeper, how much is this a catty?"

The butcher smiled and said, "The fat pork is twenty-five wen a catty, the pork belly is twenty, and the lean meat and ribs are only fifteen."

Wen Ye said, "Two catties of pork belly, and two racks of ribs."

Wen Yu’er added, "I want two catties of pork belly as well."

The butcher smiled as he cut the meat and collected the payment. Wen Lan’s backpack was already full, so everything was placed into Wen Yu’er’s basket. Along the way, Wen Ye watched Wen Lan, who was leaning precariously backward under the weight, and felt an itch of frustration because she couldn't use her spatial storage.

...

When the three arrived at the spot where the ox cart was parked, the other villagers who had come to town were already gathered.

"Everyone has been waiting for you," Luo Shi said, curling her lip in dissatisfaction. Her basket was already empty, clearly indicating that her eggs had all been sold.

Wen Ye couldn't be bothered with her and said to Old Fu, "I’m sorry, Grandpa Fu, we’re late."

"Not late, not late at all." Old Fu glanced at the shadow of the long bamboo pole nearby. "Just in time. Any later, and I would have had to leave."

The three of them climbed onto the cart, and it began to move forward slowly.

"What is this?" Luo Shi suddenly stared at the backpack beside Wen Lan and flipped open the cover. "Is this white rice? You bunch of poor wretches, how do you have money to buy white rice?"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone on the cart looked over. Everyone knew that Third Uncle Wen had only just divided the family assets; he had no fields, no land, and no money, and even their living quarters were borrowed. The family was dirt poor, and they had nearly stripped the mountains bare of wild vegetables. Just this morning, Third Uncle Wen had risked his life to carry heavy cargo. Yet now, the Wen sisters had returned with a basket of white rice!

"Did you steal money?" Luo Shi’s eyes widened.

"Eldest Aunt, what nonsense are you spouting?" Wen Lan’s face flushed with a mix of shame and anger. "We didn't steal anything."

"If you didn't steal it, where did you get the money?"

"None of your business!" Wen Ye gave her a cold glare and then said to the curious villagers around them, "We sold some embroidery today, which is why we had the money to buy grain."

The villagers nodded. "So that’s it. Duo Cai’s wife really has a sharp tongue, accusing people of stealing the moment she opens her mouth."

Luo Shi remained unconvinced. "Hmph, how much can a few pieces of embroidery fetch? At most, one or two hundred wen. This white rice is at least 20 catties; it must have cost four or five hundred wen! Do you even have that much?"

Wen Ye laughed. "Whether I have it or not is my business. In any case, I bought the white rice. If you’re so eager to meddle, get off the cart right now and go report me to the magistrate!"

Hearing the word "magistrate," Luo Shi shuddered and fell silent with a dark expression.

"Ye, did you really sell your embroidery for 500 wen?" a woman asked; it was Er Gou’s mother.

"Yes." Wen Ye admitted it freely. Since they were all in the same village, it was impossible to hide whether they had money or not; it was better to be open about it.

"Oh my, you really sold it for 500 wen? How many handkerchiefs did you sell? What did you embroider?" Er Gou’s mother asked, and the other villagers on the cart all looked over.

Wen Ye didn't answer how much money she had made in total, only saying, "We sold 60 of them! They were embroidered with little rabbits and cats. The owner of the embroidery shop thought they were beautiful, so he paid a bit more."

The villagers were amazed, and Er Gou’s mother remarked, "Oh my, that’s eleven or twelve wen each, that’s really good. Most embroidery is just flowers and grass; rarely do people embroider animals. You young girls are truly clever."

The villagers began to chatter among themselves. "60 handkerchiefs, you could finish those in about a month, right? You can make 500 wen just by embroidering like that?"

"My husband works as a day laborer outside and only makes 400 wen a month."

"Carrying heavy cargo only pays 600 wen!"

"People work day and night for only a few hundred wen, and you just embroider some handkerchiefs and get that much?"

The tone of the crowd was a mix of envy, sourness, and a touch of skepticism and disbelief. Wen Ye faced these various comments with just a smile, saying nothing. Wen Lan and Wen Yu’er wiped the cold sweat from their foreheads. They thought the villagers were shocked by the 500 wen; if they knew they had actually sold them for over a dozen taels, their jaws would have hit the ground!

...

Around 1:00 PM, the ox cart entered the village. Everyone disembarked one after another.

Old Fu said, "I'm going to visit relatives starting tomorrow and will be away for a few days. If you happen to see anyone, let them know I won't be driving the cart for a while."

The villagers agreed and left with smiles. Luo Shi, her face dark, stomped her way back to the old Wen family residence. Mother Wen was feeding the chickens and straightened up when she saw her enter. "Where is the money?"

Luo Shi hurriedly took out the coin purse. The eggs were 3 wen each, so 30 of them came to 90 wen. Mother Wen stepped out of the chicken coop, took the purse, pulled up a small stool, and sat down to count the money. After verifying the amount, she happily strung the coins together.

"Mother, that little jinx Ye bought dozens of catties of white rice, claiming she earned 500 wen selling embroidery." Luo Shi was itching to snatch that white rice away.

Mother Wen’s face grew long. Even if the third branch earned a single copper, she felt uncomfortable. That bunch of jinxes deserved to starve to death.

"Just them? They could earn 500 wen?"

As Mother Wen spoke, she walked out of the small courtyard and began a tirade in the direction of Wen Ye’s home:

"Don't I know what they embroider? A handkerchief is only worth 3 wen; at most, they could earn one or two hundred wen a month. Now they’re suddenly claiming to earn 500 wen and buying white rice—who knows what kind of dirty business they did to get it!"

The neighbors heard her shouting and looked at each other. They all felt that Mother Wen made sense; after all, there were several girls in the village who were skilled at embroidery, and none of them could earn 500 wen selling handkerchiefs. In the minds of Mother Wen and the villagers, the shopkeeper must have been blind to pay so much per piece.