"That's true, but you still need to be careful," Grandma Sun said earnestly. She had her reasons. Having lived her whole life and experienced all sorts of ups and downs, she knew that only marrying a good husband would be a rebirth for this girl.

In the Sun family, with Madam Jin holding the reins, even the most intelligent girl has no chance to rise above others. She doesn't complain about anything else, but she does complain that her eldest son's family has all inherited the weak nature of the couple, and none of them have the aura to control others. Only Miao'er has become a little more perceptive recently, but this is ultimately not a good solution.

Sun Miao'er nodded repeatedly, not wanting to hurt Grandma Sun's feelings. "Grandma, you go inside and rest. I'll go check on the pigsty."

She wasn't going to check on the pigsty; she was clearly looking for a place to settle the bear cub. She laid some dry grass outside the pigsty, surrounded it with a few planks, and made a makeshift hiding place for the bear cub. Old Mrs. Sun rarely came to the pigsty, and Mrs. Jin would beg her not to step into it, so it was relatively safe.

Xiaoman had noticed her sister's unusual behavior long ago, and hurriedly followed her to the pigsty, patting Sun Miao'er on the shoulder from behind, "What good stuff are you hiding, sister!"

"Shh!" Sun Miao'er was startled by him, patted her chest, and closed the pigpen door. "Little bear cub, look, he's still alive!"

Xiaoman stared, speechless, pointing at the fluffy ball in the hay, "What? Sister, you're saying this is a man-eating black bear?!"

He had only heard that black bears could devour people completely, leaving no bones behind, and were extremely ferocious. If any family in the village had a child who didn't want to sleep, the elders would scare the child with the words "A black bear is coming," and it always worked. He never expected to see a living creature like this, and he found it hard to believe.

"Yes, but it's not fully grown yet. I found it in the mountains. It was about to die, so I rescued it." Sun Miao'er stroked the bear cub's back, smoothing its fur, and was once again melted by the soft touch.

Xiaoman sheepishly poked at it a couple of times, then quickly withdrew her hand. "Sister, aren't you afraid it will grow up and eat us all?"

“My silly little brother, it will be a long time before it grows into a big black bear. When it gets a little bigger, I will send it back to the mountains. Look how small and pitiful it is. If you hold it in your arms, will you save it?”

Sun Miao'er poured out some more goat milk from the chamois bottle. The little guy drank the milk silently, and his paws were much stronger than before as he tugged at Sun Miao'er's sleeve.

Xiaoman scratched her head, pondering her sister's words, her gaze fixed on the bear cub. "It's not that scary. It's so small, like a puppy. If it were me, I would definitely save it!"

“That’s my good little brother! You have to keep this secret for your sister, and you can’t even tell Grandma!” Sun Miao’er knew that if the villagers found out that she had brought the black bear back to the village, the consequences would be unimaginable. Those villagers would never allow the bear cub to return to the mountains alive.

After taking care of the bear cubs, Sun Miao'er went to her family's medicinal herb field. The corn that had been growing well was already budding and would soon bear fruit. Thanks to Aunt Ge's good seeds, each plant had produced several ears of corn, so it looked like they had enough food for the winter and might even be able to sell some to save some money.

As she looked down, a torn corner of her clothes flew into Sun Miao'er's eyes. She stared at it, noticing that it had been scratched by a branch on the way up the mountain. Thinking of her master's teasing words in the cave, she felt a pang of sadness. She could see her face was beautiful when she looked in the water vat, but as the saying goes, "clothes make the man, and gold makes the Buddha." Even the most beautiful face looks shabby without decent clothes.

The sleeves were already half a length too short last time, and if they were patched up again, it would be really unacceptable. Before, she was only responsible for working in the fields at home, but now that she has a master, she has to travel around the village from time to time. Sun Miao'er looked at her outfit, sighed, and after making up her mind, she took out three copper coins from under her pillow to buy herself a new set of clothes.

When she finally mustered up her courage and arrived at the peddler's stall, she found herself surrounded by village women eager to buy household goods. After a long wait, Sun Miao'er finally managed to get everyone to leave, and there was only a batch of white fabric left. You see, white fabric wasn't something people wore; it was only used to make mourning clothes when an elderly person passed away.

"Are there any other colors of cloth available tomorrow?" Sun Miao'er refused to be discouraged and did not want to easily give in to the batch of white cloth.

The peddler, with a blade of grass dangling from his mouth, swung his arms and said, "If you hurry, you might be able to snag some. After the Great Heat comes the Autumnal Equinox, and many families have already started preparing their autumn and winter clothes. My goods are in high demand!"

"How much does it cost?" Sun Miao'er inquired.

The peddler held up five fingers in front of Sun Miao'er's eyes, dissuading her from her desire. She hadn't expected that the price of nicer fabrics had doubled. Last time she asked, it only cost three coins. No matter how unwilling she was, she had no choice but to give up in the face of her empty pockets. "Sell me the white cloth."

The white cloth had been sitting unsold for a month and was almost covered in dust. When the peddler saw that someone wanted it, and it was a young girl who had already lost a close relative, he only charged her one copper coin.

If asked what her predecessor had learned, she couldn't recall it at the moment, but when she needed to use it, those memories flooded her mind. For example, when she visited the raw material factory, the manufacturer mentioned plant dyeing. At the time, she thought it was nonsense. Plant dyeing was expensive and didn't fix the color, so she even laughed at it in her heart. She never expected that she would have to rely on this skill now.

Sun Miao'er held the fabric and carefully went through the dyeing steps. She could only remember a few important ones. As long as it was dyed to be wearable, she didn't care about the rest.

"The first step is to tie the fabric with thin rope, and then soak it in alum water to fix the color..." she muttered to herself, thinking about what else she needed to prepare. This second step, alum, was giving her trouble.

Since the cloth had already been bought and couldn't be returned, Sun Miao'er didn't want to rashly take the white cloth home, fearing that Old Lady Sun might overthink it if she saw it. So she had no choice but to go to the medicine shop first.

When they arrived at the medicine hut, Fu Yuchi almost misunderstood when he saw Sun Miao'er carrying a white cloth. Seeing her unpredictable expression, he didn't ask any further questions. "Master, may I leave this cloth with you for now?"

Fu Yuchi was about to tell her that Grandma Sun's health had shown signs of improvement and that there was no need to prepare these things, but after thinking about it, she couldn't bring herself to say it and swallowed the words back. "Put these medicinal herbs in the cabinet according to their names. Remember to arrange them neatly, with the thicker end facing north and the thinner end facing south."

"Okay." Sun Miao'er replied, carrying the dried herbs into the inner room. That row of medicine cabinets was really tall; she needed a chair to reach the top shelf. However, for Fu Yuchi, it was just a matter of raising his hand and looking up.