Chapter 3 Braised Pork with Cabbage "Could it be that you're tired?" "...
"Are you perhaps exhausted?"
"Or is it an upset stomach, or are you feeling unwell?"
Holding her pale-faced daughter, Jiang Zhenniang was terrified and at a loss for what to do, tears welling up in her eyes. She composed herself, helped Su Zhihan lean against the bedding, and, clutching the money box, prepared to go find the physician in the manor.
But as soon as she stood up, Su Zhihan reached out and grabbed her sleeve: "Mother, I'm fine."
"Your face is so pale, how come you're alright?"
"I was just a little frightened." Su Zhihan kept the matter to herself and quickly composed herself. She lowered her head, nuzzling Jiang Zhenniang's hand. "My mother clearly told me that after entering the Marquis's mansion, I must be careful and thoughtful in everything I do, but I can't even remember my master's name or my future son-in-law..."
As Su Zhihan continued speaking, her expression became increasingly serious, and a cold sweat broke out on her back without her realizing it.
In her mind, entering the Marquis's mansion was like entering a company in modern times. It was normal for a low-level employee not to know the names or appearances of their superiors or even the boss.
Looking back now, it's all the same thing. In later generations, if you joined a company and didn't like the work, you could just quit and run away. But now, a servant's life and fortune are in the hands of her master, and not recognizing him is considered a mistake.
What would happen to a servant who makes a mistake? They could be beaten or sold off at will.
Su Zhihan felt increasingly frightened as she thought about it. She was actually glad that she had been entangled with that old woman Zhao and hadn't had time to think about going into the Second Miss's courtyard. Otherwise, she wouldn't have known what trouble she would have caused.
Once Su Zhihan understood everything, her initial anxiety vanished, and she calmed down to carefully consider what to do next.
Unexpectedly, her words startled Jiang Zhenniang. She tightened her grip on her daughter's hand slightly, but quickly let go after hearing her daughter's cry of pain.
She gently tightened her grip on her daughter's cheeks, and then heard her daughter cry out in pain.
"Mother?" Su Zhihan asked, feeling wronged.
"..." Jiang Zhenniang quickly let go of her hand, rubbed her daughter's flushed cheeks with her palm, and carefully examined her daughter's expression: "Han'er, are you blaming your mother? Blaming your mother for not discussing with you before selling yourself into the mansion with you?"
"No, Mother, you're overthinking it."
"Really?" Jiang Zhenniang scrutinized her daughter's face, her heart filled with unease.
"Really, I'm not stupid." Su Zhihan was indeed unwilling to sell herself into slavery, but she also knew that the situation was urgent at the time.
None of the brothers and elders in the Su family were good people. During Su's father's funeral, they kept staring at her and her mother, whispering to each other. Their eyes weren't looking at people, but rather at two pieces of pork, their mouths watering, as if they were just about to ask how much they could be sold for.
It wasn't until the mother and daughter entered the Marquis of Zhongyong's residence that the Su family, who had arrived a step too late, finally gave up. What shocked Su Zhihan the most was that the Su family then sent someone to deliver a letter expressing their willingness to help find their missing elder brother, implying that she and her mother should hand over their monthly earnings to them.
We are women, not idiots :)
Su Zhihan thought of those people's faces and wanted to complain. Seeing that Jiang Zhenniang still looked doubtful, she added, "I know, Mother was worried that Uncle would sell us, so she took the initiative to sell herself into the Marquis's mansion."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Zhenniang finally breathed a sigh of relief. She held her daughter's hand tightly, her eyes reddening, and said what was on her mind: "Mother knows you are capable, and I have thought about what it would be like if our family were doing well... However, this world is difficult, and it is even more difficult for us women."
“When your father was still alive, the clansmen knew he was a scoundrel and were worried that he would ask them for money, so they didn’t like to talk to our family and just treated us as a joke.”
Listening to Jiang Zhenniang recount the past, Su Zhihan felt as if it were yesterday. When she first transmigrated, she was making plans to start a business as a commoner using her skills, but saving money proved incredibly difficult.
Su's father was once a scholar, said to be gentle and refined, with an outstanding appearance. The wealthy families in town all wanted to take him as their son-in-law.
But once a person becomes addicted to gambling, they are ruined.
In this world, there are very few paths to climb up, but countless hands are pulling you down from below, trying to drag you into the mud.
As Jiang Zhenniang stroked her daughter's frizzy, yellowish hair, she felt a lump in her throat as she recalled the Su family's true colors: "Once your father died, those people changed their tune completely."
Women who have given birth are in high demand.
Many wealthy families who couldn't have children or poor families who couldn't afford to marry would buy or rent women who had given birth through brokers, and then return or resell them after they gave birth.
Younger girls are also in high demand.
Everywhere there are women who love this age, and they sell them as slaves or concubines, or offer higher prices and cheaper places.
After Su's father died, Jiang Zhenniang became worried. Her parents were dead, and she had no family left. The Su family members were not easy to get along with, and it was hard to guarantee that someone would have other ideas.
As she feared, things turned out exactly as she had planned. Had she not been prepared and fled with her daughter overnight, the two of them would likely have been separated and sold off somewhere unknown.
“Han’er, your brother has been missing for so many years, I’m afraid…” Jiang Zhenniang’s eyes reddened again as she thought of her eldest son, who had been conscripted by the yamen runners and had not been heard from for three years. “Our family is just the two of us, mother and daughter, we have to be well.”
"Don't blame your mother for being heartless."
“It was tough when we first came in, but look at this.” Jiang Zhenniang cheered up, first patting the money box, then getting up to fetch the bamboo basket from the corner of the kang: “Not to mention that the elders of the Su family dare not come looking for us again, the mansion has also provided us with houses and monthly allowances, so life is much easier than outside.”
“Look, look.” Jiang Zhenniang opened the chest and took out two new jackets, one large and one small: “The weather has just gotten a little cool, and the manor has already given us new jackets.”
She carefully unfolded one of the jackets and showed it to her daughter. The jacket was made of fine cloth, and was light blue overall, with lotus root pink cuffs and hem. It was also embroidered with small flowers. It was exactly the size of Su Zhihan's jacket: "Look, isn't it pretty?"
“…It looks really good.” Su Zhihan was surprised. Her mother had measured her height before, and she thought her mother was going to buy two pieces of cloth to make two clothes. She didn’t expect that it was a winter coat that the mansion was making for all of them.
Su Zhihan looked at the coat and then pinched its thickness, secretly marveling at how new it looked. She estimated that if someone outside wanted to buy a brand new coat, it would cost at least two strings of cash.
She's still just a lowly servant!
Seeing her daughter clutching her coat with such joy, Jiang Zhenniang couldn't help but pick up her own coat, gently touch it, and hug it tightly.
Just holding it in her arms, she could feel the warmth of the coat; one could imagine how cozy it would be to wear it when winter came.
Jiang Zhenniang sighed, "I remember last year, the winter before last, you said you wanted a new coat, but I haven't been able to save up enough money to make one for you... I never thought we'd receive such nice clothes so soon after we entered the mansion."
As she said this, she clicked her tongue and lowered her voice to say to her daughter, "Once you enter the Second Miss's courtyard, those clothes will have to be made again."
"When my mother went to the sewing room to get her padded jacket, she saw that the maids who served the ladies wore clothes made of fine silk, and the padded jacket was also made of fine silk with grape patterns embroidered on it. It was truly indescribably beautiful."
"That outfit, if you were to buy it from a shop, it would probably cost several tens of strings of cash, right?" Jiang Zhenniang thought about the future, her eyes full of anticipation. She took her daughter's hand and told her about the gossip she had heard: "I heard that Mama Xu and the others have bought properties outside, bought male and female servants, and even their wives and husbands are being replaced at home."
"Once we've saved up some money, Mother, how about we buy a courtyard for our Han'er and hire two servants?"
“Okay.” Su Zhihan sat beside Jiang Zhenniang, occasionally responding with a word of agreement, but in her heart she was troubled about how to choose the right time to tell her mother that she did not intend to enter the Second Miss’s courtyard.
As for her plan to save money to redeem herself, she couldn't tell her mother about it for the time being. After all, for Jiang Zhenniang, who had just escaped her gambling husband and mean-spirited relatives, the current Marquis's mansion was like a paradise in her heart. She would definitely not agree to redeem herself and leave the mansion. On the contrary, it would make her mother wary and unwilling or unwilling to earn money to save herself.
Most importantly, money is needed to redeem oneself from bondage.
Not to mention that redeeming oneself requires the master's consent, and the redemption fee is often several times higher than the price of selling oneself.
Furthermore, most of the money she and her mother earned from selling themselves was used to pay off debts, leaving them with only three strings of cash to make ends meet. After deducting expenses for furniture purchases and gifts to the stewards upon entering the mansion, Su Zhihan estimated that she would have at most one string of cash left.
Su Zhihan lowered her eyes, calming herself down. Don't panic, don't rush, they still have three years—
Su Zhihan's thoughts suddenly stopped. She sniffed and exclaimed, "Mother, I think I smell something burning... Wait!"
Jiang Zhenniang immediately stopped talking.
The mother and daughter exchanged a glance, their expressions changing drastically. They jumped off the kang (heated brick bed) in unison: "Stewed pork with cabbage!!!"
Fortunately, the two were rescued in time. Apart from a few pieces of pork stuck to the bottom of the pot and charred, the rest of the pork stew was cooked very well.
Even so, Jiang Zhenniang was heartbroken. She rolled up her sleeves, took chopsticks in one hand and a bowl in the other, carefully picked up a piece of pork, smelled it to make sure it wasn't burnt, and then breathed a sigh of relief before happily serving it into the porcelain bowl.
Su Zhihan first took out the leftover steamed buns from the morning and put them on the clay stove to heat up along with the meat pies she had just brought back from the kitchen: "By the way, Mother."
"What's wrong?"
"Today, Aunt Cao from the kitchen taught me how to make flatbread, and I want to go over and thank her."
"Grandma Cao from the main kitchen?"
"Ah... actually, I didn't have a chance to tell you just now, but I received a reward from the Second Miss." Su Zhihan took out a money pouch from her bosom and stuffed it into Jiang Zhenniang's hand: "In addition, the Second Miss also asked me to work in the main kitchen, so Mother won't have to worry about me being bullied by Granny Zhao anymore!"
"Oh dear! Why didn't you say so sooner? This is truly a joyous occasion!" Upon hearing this, Jiang Zhenniang beamed with delight. She stood up and paced around in circles before calming down and continuing to ask, "The Cao Mama you mentioned, could it be the cook who prepares meals for the servants?"
"That's right."
"Could it be... your future master?"
"It shouldn't be."
"That's right. Our Han-jie is so smart, she should become Chef Xu's apprentice."
"Mother...it's not even close to happening yet."
"I know, I know, I was just thinking about it." Jiang Zhenniang replied cheerfully, while opening her money pouch to look inside. Then, her eyes widened in shock: "Ten taels!?"
Jiang Zhenniang immediately covered her mouth, afraid that outsiders would hear. She carefully held the money bag with both hands until she returned it to the inner room and put it in the chest at the foot of the bed before she felt at ease.
She turned around and went back to the outer room, took out a white porcelain bowl, and filled it with vegetables: "You just entered the kitchen, and Cao Mama was willing to lend a helping hand. This shows that she is kind-hearted. We should keep in touch with people like her."
“It’s just…” Jiang Zhenniang looked at the lonely white porcelain bowl and gave a wry smile: “A bowl of stewed cabbage and pork is too stingy. How about tomorrow, Mother goes to the back to buy some fruit and snacks, and then goes to thank you?”
The Marquis's mansion was wealthy, and so were its servants. They ate, used, and dressed better than ordinary wealthy families outside, so they looked down on their own bowl of cabbage stew with pork.
“We’re not giving a gift, just expressing our gratitude and showing our appreciation. Sending pastries and fruits the next day would be too formal and would seem less intimate.” Su Zhihan shook her head. However, she also felt that a bowl of stewed cabbage and pork was a bit too little. She was also struggling financially, and all they had in the house were these things. She couldn’t find anything else.
Su Zhihan's gaze swept around and quickly landed on the remaining half of a pork hanging under the beam.
Suddenly, her eyes lit up, and she immediately had an idea.
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