The roads are difficult to travel after winter sets in, so Zhao Yong delivers chicken, duck and goose meat every five days. The meat is easy to preserve in winter and won't spoil if left outside for three or four days. This time, he brought half a bamboo basket of cabbage. "These are grown at home, in the corner of the kitchen wall. They're growing quite well because of the heat from the kitchen."

The cabbage was tender and looked very appetizing. Qin Xiaozhou happily accepted it and also packed some desserts for her cousin, saying, "For the children."

Zhao Yong did not refuse and delivered goods to the Lu family for half a year, earning one tael of silver per month. This winter, they had plenty of food and cotton-padded clothes, and the family lived a harmonious and happy life. "My cousin said he wanted to buy pumpkins, radishes and yams. I inquired in the village and found that several families were willing to sell to him."

Lu Yunfeng and he agreed on a time to go to the countryside to buy vegetables.

On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the weather was unusually clear. The winter snow melted, and the ground was wet. The county town welcomed its last market day before the New Year.

The market in the east is full of things brought by villagers, including yam, konjac, lotus root, arrowhead, radish, fresh winter bamboo shoots and mountain products, as well as birds and wild rabbits hunted in the snow...

Qin Xiaozhou looked at each item one by one and actually saw Ye Su at a street stall. He had a wolf skin in front of him, but he didn't have a stall or call out to sell it. He was just sitting on a small rock with a blank face.

He nodded slightly to Qin Xiaozhou as a greeting. He had a powerful and somewhat fierce aura. It was hard to believe that such a timid woman as Li Zhen could get along with him.

Someone reached the stall before Qin Xiaozhou, examined the wolf skin, and said, "Not bad, eight taels of silver, I'll take it."

Ye Su: "Twelve taels."

The man looked at the wolf pelt again, feeling it carefully. "Ten taels."

Ye Su raised his eyelids and glanced at the man, who gritted his teeth and said, "Fine, twelve taels it is."

He took out some silver and handed it over, then rolled up the wolf skin and left.

Qin Xiaozhou was dumbfounded.

Ye Su put away the silver, got up and walked towards the vendor selling candied hawthorns, expressionlessly bought a skewer and disappeared into the crowd. Qin Xiaozhou tugged at Lu Yunfeng's hand, "That man is really sparing with his words. Do you think he and his wife don't talk much? Li Zhen isn't a talkative person either. It must be so hard for them to keep it all bottled up inside."

Lu Yunfeng sighed helplessly, "Stop gossiping. It's their marriage, why are you asking so many questions?"

Alright, alright. But judging from Li Zhen's current complexion, at least she's doing well. As long as she's doing well, nothing else matters.

After selling eight koi and a water tank at the East Market, Qin Xiaozhou thought for a moment and asked for a section of lotus root seed, saying, "Water brings wealth, so I'll put it under the pomegranate tree in the backyard."

The two arrived at the trading market. Merchants in the distance had already closed their doors and gone home for the New Year. Only a few shops near Linxing were still open. Qin Xiaozhou looked around and touched the umbrellas in front of an oil-paper umbrella shop. Finally, she chose two umbrellas, one with red plum blossoms in the snow and the other with willow branches in the breeze. They were very beautiful.

After selling the umbrella and turning the corner, there was a jewelry shop with all kinds of hairbands, hairpins, earrings, and bracelets. Lu Yunfeng casually asked, "I remember you're from Jinling. Aren't you going back home for the New Year?"

The steward smiled and said, "The head of the household has already gone back. I'm all alone, so it doesn't matter where I spend the New Year. Young Master Lu, please feel free to look around, and I'll give you a discount."

Qin Xiaozhou's fingers fell on several small silver bells. "These are nice, suitable for children around ten years old. Give me eight of them, and a pair of these bracelets, and a pair of these pearl earrings as well."

After all the calculations, it cost fifteen taels of silver.

Lu Yunfeng carried the things, and the two left the trading market. "Tomorrow we should go home for the holidays. Let's buy some pork and go to Guojiataizi in a couple of days to buy a lamb for stew."

"Buy more pork belly, and some wine too, sake, plum wine, rice wine, all of them."

The two didn't return home until noon. Fortunately, the merchants delivered their large orders to their door. In the afternoon, Qin Xiaozhou gave each person in the shop a tael of silver as a New Year's bonus. "Close the shop early today. You can go home or buy things, it's up to you. We'll reopen the shop on the tenth day of the new year. Don't forget that. If you don't want to go back during the New Year, you can stay here and watch the house."

The Lu family bought a lot of things; if you count them on your fingers, there were fourteen in total. They couldn't take them all back to Wangjia Village, so they had to leave them in the shop.

Ma Dage received his New Year's bonus and held it in his hand. "Boss," he said, "I want to keep the shop open during the New Year."

Lu Yunfeng said, "You only get a few days off a year, so take a good rest during the New Year."

Ma Dage said, "The shopkeeper is a great benefactor to our family. People in the county also need to eat during the Spring Festival. The three of us are just sitting around doing nothing, so it's good to open a shop and earn more money."

"There's no one to supply chickens, ducks, and vegetables during the New Year." Qin Xiaozhou counted his copper coins and gave Lu Yan and Qin Jinxiu 800 coins each. He still had to go to the embroidery shop to distribute year-end bonuses later. Lu Yan and Qin Jinxiu took their 800 coins each and rushed out of the courtyard like a gust of wind. "It's almost the New Year, so it's not good to ask my cousin to deliver the goods."

Ma Da Ge said anxiously, "I'll come, I'll come to the shopkeeper's house to get it."

Qin Xiaozhou couldn't persuade him otherwise, so she let him go.

The New Year's bonus for the employees in the embroidery building is calculated based on their length of service. They receive 200 yuan after one month of service and 400 yuan after two months. Even though it's not much, it's still a considerable sum for those women. The embroidery building was filled with laughter and joy all afternoon.

Tian Xiaohua looked on with bright eyes. She had only been there a few days, but she had already found out that each woman in the embroidery building earned no less than one tael of silver per month, and the upper limit was determined by her individual ability.

After learning all this, Tian Xiaohua was so excited that she couldn't sleep all night. She never dared to imagine that there was such a place in the world where women could support themselves with their own hands.

The gates of the Zhu residence were tightly shut. Zhu Xian had been gone for so long and had not yet returned. She had asked Lu Yunxing, who only said that the Crown Prince's concubine's surname was Cui and that she was from the same clan as Madam Zhu. As for Zhu Xian, she had been left in the capital by the Crown Prince's concubine and it was unknown when she would be able to return to Fenggu County.

Perhaps, it will never come back.

Qin Xiaozhou supervised the servants of the Zhu family to clean the mansion. Regardless of whether Zhu Xian would return in the future, she had at least promised to take care of the mansion.

On the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, Qin Xiaozhou was tidying up in the backyard when the backyard door was knocked open. The person who came in was Sun Xunqiao, whom she hadn't seen for several months. She was wearing a cloak and a hat and sneaked in furtively. Qin Xiaozhou asked in confusion, "Miss Sun, what are you doing here?"

Sun Xunqiao pulled her to the corner and whispered in her ear, "Xiao Zhou, please take me to see the female physician in the embroidery shop, please."

Qin Xiaozhou was stunned for a moment, still not understanding. Sun Xunqiao was disappointed in her and could only say, "I've been married for almost three months, and I want to see if I'm pregnant. If not, I need to start treatment as soon as possible."

She was very distressed, "Every time I see my mother, she mentions it again, and I'm just anxious about it."