The snow fell even heavier in the afternoon. Qin Xiaozhou was doing calculations by the window. "Winter is coming. We need to change the working hours in the embroidery building. Let's move the morning hours back by half an hour and the afternoon hours forward by an hour. We can't let them ruin their eyes. We also need to have charcoal in the embroidery building. It's too cold to handle needles and thread."
"Yes, I'll talk to Granny Qian this afternoon." Lu Yunfeng was calculating how many charcoal braziers and charcoal he needed to buy. "Let's also close the Yifanfengshun shop an hour earlier."
It's already dark by the time the sun sets in winter, so there's no need to stay up that long.
The heavy snow lasted for three days, leaving the shop empty and even the streets deserted. Qin Xiaozhou, holding a hot water bottle, said, "Let's close the shop."
The shop was closed, and several women were doing needlework and chatting around a brazier in the kitchen. Jingyue talked about people and things she had met before, which Lu Yan found fascinating, but Qin Jinxiu was very nervous. "Can people be bought and then resold?"
“Why not?” Jingyue recalled, “Winter in the North is so cold. The snow can be up to waist height. Every year, many people freeze to death. In a good harvest year, it’s fine, but if the harvest is bad, those parents rush to sell their children before winter arrives. Firstly, the child might have a chance to survive if they are sold, and secondly, the money they get can buy an extra winter coat, increasing the family’s chances of survival. If the rich people buy children and they make mistakes or don’t like using them, they will resell them.”
Lu Yan said, "I also hated winter the most a couple of years ago. It was cold and there were no wild vegetables to eat. It was cold and hungry, and it was unbearable." Her eyes darted around, and she grasped Qin Jinxiu's hand. "Don't worry, you and Shitou are both your sister-in-law's own sisters. She won't sell you."
Qin Jinxiu lowered her head and muttered softly, "I'm not..."
Lu Yan said firmly, "You are."
When Qin Jinxiu was eight years old, she followed her mother to remarry Qin Fu. When she was ten, her mother ran away, and Qin Fu abandoned her to Qin Xiaozhou. Although she had been doing well for the past few months, she still felt uneasy.
Qin Xiaozhou was taken aback. She thought that as long as the child had enough to eat and wear, she could raise her herself. But it was only now that she realized the child lacked a sense of security. She pinched the little girl's cheek and said, "You are my sister. Unless you get married in the future, no one will ever let you leave this family."
The little girl's eyes reddened, and in the end she couldn't hold back anymore. She rushed over and burst into tears, "Big sister, you're the best person in the world to me. I'll follow you and learn how to make money so I can take care of you in your old age."
Lu Yan disagreed, "I've been good to you too, and my sister-in-law has me and my brother to take care of her in her old age and see her off when she dies."
Qin Jinxiu wiped away her tears haphazardly, then buried herself in Qin Xiaozhou's arms and retorted loudly, "My sister and I are two people too, we can both take care of our elder sister in her old age."
Neither of them would give in, and they started arguing. For the first time, Qin Jinxiu showed her temper and was no longer the timid and submissive woman she used to be.
Everyone around was amused. Jingyue pulled the child over, wiped away his tears and snot, and poured two bowls of hot sweet rice balls. "Warm your bellies quickly. It's not your turn to take care of the shopkeeper in her old age. When she and Young Master Lu have children, the children will naturally take care of her in her old age."
Lu Yan was still unconvinced and insisted on arguing to determine who was right and who was wrong. Everyone just took it as a joke until Qin Xiaozhou persuaded the two of them to make up reluctantly.
They thought the matter was over, but that night, Lu Yunfeng insisted on having a child, declaring, "Why should someone else take care of my wife in her old age?"
Qin Xiaozhou rolled her eyes, speechless.
As the weather changed, the female doctor prescribed some preventative medicine and cooked two large pots of herbal soup for the people in the boudoir to drink. Unexpectedly, the cold still came, and it came on strong, with half of the people in the boudoir starting to have a fever.
Fever and cough are natural disasters for farmers. Not many families will take medicine and see a doctor as soon as they get sick. Some people can pull through, but those who don't just say they were unlucky and their lives come to an end.
The residents of the building were filled with anxiety, as getting sick could be a life-threatening matter.
Qin Xiaozhou declared, "For all medicines purchased from this building, you only need to pay half the price; the other half will be covered by the Embroidery Pavilion."
Granny Qian was surprised, but she did not refute it. The people in the building quickly calmed down. After work, they went to the female doctor in groups of three or five to have their pulses taken. Li Zhen had been coughing with a dry throat for the past few days. She originally did not want to go. In previous years, she would just endure a fever and it would pass. She had become accustomed to enduring illness.
She left the embroidered building and headed towards her residence in the backyard. Since her marriage, she had been shuttling between her new home and the embroidered building, but with the snow these past two days, she and Ye Su decided to stay in the building.
Ye Su still picks him up and drops him off every morning and evening, riding the same tall horse he used for his wedding.
On her wedding day, Li Zhen thought the horse was rented and didn't ask about it. But when she went to work later, she saw the horse grazing at the gate of the yard. She asked curiously, "Why did you rent a horse again? Are you going on a long trip?"
Ye Su patted the horse's head, mounted it, and hooked his arm around Li Zhen's waist, pulling her up with him. In the brief moment when Li Zhen was terrified, Ye Su whispered in her ear, "Mine."
Li Zhen was stunned. There were only a handful of families in the county town that owned horses, and she never expected that Ye Su would have a horse. But she had never seen a stable before. Where were the horses kept?
However, she soon learned that the horse was very intelligent. It would graze and drink water on its own outside Ye Su's yard. When it was free, it would run wild in a deserted place to the east. When it got tired, it would come back on its own. The horse was very fierce. If anyone got close, it would kick them. No one in the village dared to get close.
Li Zhen was increasingly amazed. Several days later, Ye Su finally explained, "This horse is a wild horse from the northern grasslands. I tamed it, and it followed me willingly. It is seven years old this year."
Thinking about all this, Li Zhen couldn't help but smile and lower her head. Granny Qian came out from the other side and bumped into her. "Getting married really makes a difference. Look at you, you're glowing with happiness."
Li Zhen laughed off her teasing, feeling her face involuntarily flush, but a sweet feeling welled up in her heart. A month into their marriage, she and Ye Su were getting along more and more harmoniously, and she felt as if she had returned to the heart of a teenage girl in love. She was really getting more and more like that as she got older.
It got dark quickly in the winter. She went to the bathhouse, got some hot water to wash herself, and then went to sleep. She was in a daze in her dream, and it seemed like many people were talking, but she couldn't hear them clearly. Then something was poured into her mouth, which was bitter and sour. She couldn't help but vomit it out, and then she was completely awake.
Granny Qian patted her back gently, "It's good that you're awake, it's good that you're awake. Drinking your medicine will make you feel better."
Li Zhen felt nauseous at the smell of medicine, but medicine was expensive and she couldn't afford to drink it when she was sick before. So she picked up the bowl, endured the discomfort, and gulped it down, covering her mouth tightly to prevent the medicine from coming out.
After she swallowed the medicine, Qin Xiaozhou gave her some candied fruit and a bowl of millet porridge. "You're sick. This morning, Granny Qian couldn't wake you up no matter how much she called. It scared us quite a bit. I sent someone to call your husband. He should be downstairs by now. Eat something and then go home with your husband to rest. Don't worry about things at the embroidery tower."
Li Zhen then noticed that the female doctor was still standing at the other end of the room. The female doctor was always quiet and easy to overlook.
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