Chapter 159 Weeds
Lin Yuesha had the pockmarked man follow her back to Hongliu's courtyard, where she retrieved a package from the house.
When you ask someone for help, you always have to give them something in return. Lin Yuesha gritted her teeth and stuffed a silver hairpin that she had gotten from Xuan Yao into the pockmarked face. "Brother Yun, I don't have much to offer, so I can only use this mundane thing."
A solid silver hairpin is more than enough as a delivery fee. As for whether the item can be delivered, that depends entirely on one's conscience.
“I am a man, so I don’t need this. Lin and I don’t need to stand on ceremony.”
Xiao Qi pondered, "That little girl is stingy. She has silver in her bundle, but she won't give it to him, instead testing him with a silver hairpin." He had mentioned that he was never married and had no intention of getting married, so he wouldn't accept the hairpin.
Xiao Qi misunderstood Lin Yuesha this time. She really wanted to give it to him, and her choice of a silver hairpin was a well-intentioned one.
With a pockmarked face like that, it would be difficult for him to find a wife. If he weren't generous enough to win a woman's heart, what hope did he have? It was for this reason that Lin Yuesha exchanged the silver coins she was thanking him for a silver hairpin.
After some polite refusals, Xiao Qi finally accepted the gift, saying, "It is fate that we met, and besides, we are rescuing people together. Although I am not at home, I have a close friend. If you encounter any difficulties, you can go to my friend. He will do his best to help you."
At this point, things have basically been out in the open.
"In that case, I'll have to trouble you, Brother Yun."
Lin Yuesha did not refuse the pockmarked man's help; on the contrary, she was very touched that he was still thinking of her even though he was about to leave.
“My friend Yun is a groom in the manor. Although his status is low, he can come and go freely.”
Xiao Qi instructed his men to protect his younger sister.
"Wait a minute, Brother Yun, the coachman you're talking about, he's not a bearded guy, is he?"
Lin Yuesha described it this way: in the North, there are many men with full beards, but very few who cover their faces.
"Exactly."
Xiao Qi wasn't surprised that the guy had flaunted himself in front of the younger sister to get attention.
“Since we’re on the same side, I won’t hide anything from you. Brother Yun, you still have to remind him to use good quality glue when sticking on the beard, otherwise the wind will blow the whole beard away.”
Lin Yuesha recalled that when the bearded man casually touched his hair, a patch of his beard fell off, and the scene of the car accident was a terrible sight.
Xiao Qi: "..."
The two didn't say much. Lin Yuesha watched the pockmarked man leave, then turned and went back into the house.
He Xing and Xuan Yao are dead, but she is not truly at ease. Instead, she feels lost about the unknown future and a touch of sadness at parting.
Inside the room, the oil lamp flickered dimly.
Hongtao had already changed her clothes and drunk a bowl of brown sugar ginger water, and her lower abdominal pain had stopped.
"Moonlight Sister, hurry up and eat your noodles, they'll get cold soon."
Hongtao handed Lin Yuesha a pair of chopsticks and urged her, "Are you talking to someone outside?"
"Yes, I have an acquaintance who I asked to deliver the silver home."
Lin Yuesha didn't hide the family's situation from Hongtao. She couldn't go out now and just wanted to send all the money to her mother to make her happy.
"Don't think too much about it. Once things calm down, Granny Xiao will let you out."
Hongtao adjusted her mindset and felt no jealousy towards Lin Yuesha. On the contrary, she thought of her well-being, believing that at least she could stay in the manor and learn needlework from Hongliu, as such a good teacher could not be found outside.
"It will be fine once you get out, but I..."
Hongtao sighed. Her final fate, like her mother's, was to be assigned to a servant in the mansion. The child she gave birth to was also a servant in the royal household, becoming a domesticated child who could never rise above her circumstances.
That's why Xuan Yao offered to remove her from the social status of a citizen, which made her so happy. But now that I think about it, it's all unrealistic.
"Sister Red Peach, you don't understand the situation outside."
Serving in the Prince's Palace meant having plenty of clothes and food all year round, and no worries about food shortages due to heavy snow blocking the mountains. But the common people had their own troubles.
Businesses are afraid of losing money, and farmers rely on the weather for their livelihood, hoping only for good fortune.
“Take my family for example. Half of the house in the village collapsed overnight. Luckily, we had relatives in the village who helped us and we were able to stay at my older brother’s husband’s house. Otherwise, we would have been homeless.”
In previous winters, many lonely elderly people in the surrounding villages froze to death, though each person's tragedy was different.
Hongtao nodded. "When poverty knocks at the door, everything is miserable for a couple. Compared to that, she's not as well off as she is in the Prince's mansion, where she has no worries about food or clothing."
After eating her fill, Lin Yuesha lay down on the kang (a heated brick bed) and fell asleep almost immediately.
The next day, Hongliu pulled off her blanket and woke her up with a chill.
"Sister Hongliu, what time is it?"
Lin Yuesha rubbed her eyes and then remembered that she had moved to a different courtyard and was now living with Hongliu.
"What time is it? The sun is high in the sky! What time are you talking about!"
Hongliu fetched a basin of warm water and urged Lin Yuesha to wash up. She couldn't be lazy even on the 29th of the twelfth lunar month; she still had to continue doing needlework.
"No way?"
Lin Yuesha immediately shouted, "We only get to celebrate the New Year once a year, and we're not even allowed to rest! It's absolutely inhumane!"
"Everyone in the household has work to do. Hongtao went to help in the main kitchen a long time ago. Are you still not satisfied with sleeping until noon?"
Hongliu muttered to herself that from today onwards, she would teach Lin Yuesha simple embroidery, starting with composition and thread matching.
Granny Xiao said that the little girl wouldn't stay long, so Lin Yuesha would definitely graduate within a month.
Lin Yuesha understood that Hong Liu meant well, so after her protests proved ineffective, she stopped struggling.
When she parted ways with Pockmarked Face yesterday, she promised him that she would give him a purse as a token of her gratitude in lieu of the silver hairpin.
After several days of grueling training, Lin Yuesha made rapid progress. At least her stitches were now fine and neat, and she no longer left large holes in her stitches as often as before.
"You want to make a purse?"
Hongliu took out a package from the cabinet, opened one of the packages, and found various loose pieces of fabric inside.
"Sister Hongliu, may I use this sky-blue fabric?"
Lin Yuesha rummaged around for a while and finally decided to give the pockmarked face the sky-blue one.
Hongliu was slightly surprised, assuming that Lin Yuesha had made it for her older brother, and didn't ask any further questions.
"The fabric is sky blue, and the embroidery pattern is bamboo and swallows. Since you are a beginner, you can start by embroidering a clump of bamboo."
Hong Liu patiently explained, and after half an hour, Lin Yuesha had mastered the basic techniques.
She didn't dare to handle such a fine piece of fabric directly, but instead practiced with scraps of cloth.
At noon, Granny Xiao came over to deliver some snacks. Seeing Lin Yuesha engrossed in her needlework, she casually praised her, saying, "Lin girl, you're quite good. Look at how well you've embroidered these wild grasses."
Lin Yuesha: "..."
"Granny Xiao, this is bamboo!"
Lin Yuesha pushed the fabric over and showed it to Granny Xiao carefully. It was clearly a tall bamboo, so how could it look like weeds?
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