By evening, Zhou Shi finally finished rushing out a set of clothes for Yu Li.
Since it was made quickly, the clothes didn’t have any embroidery patterns. However, the stitching was dense, and the style was much more refined than what the young girls in the village usually wore. On Yu Li, it made her look very spirited.
Just a bit too thin.
Zhou Shi thought to herself as she adjusted the collar and sleeves for her.
She really needed to be well taken care of and nourished further.
Yu Li stretched her arms and noticed that the clothes were a bit loose. However, that made them more convenient for working. To her, they were a perfect fit.
“Mother, they’re perfect. No need for any adjustments,” she said to Zhou Shi. “Thank you, Mother. You’ve worked hard.”
For her to rush out an entire set of clothes in just one day showed that Zhou Shi must have spent almost all her time working on it, aside from cooking.
Zhou Shi smiled and said, “Now that you’re going to the county town to work, of course you need to dress more presentably.”
As the saying goes, “First respect the clothes, then the person.” A place like the county town isn’t like the village. You can’t dress too poorly, or some people with no sense will look down on you and might even deliberately trip you up.
Zhou Shi had been through this herself and was well aware of such matters.
While Yu Li was trying on the clothes, Fu Yanhui and Fu Yansheng, the brother and sister pair, were sitting nearby watching, munching on a few sun-dried peanuts as snacks.
Hearing Zhou Shi’s words, Fu Yansheng said in her childish voice, “Big Brother, Auntie looks so pretty in her new clothes!”
Fu Yanhui nodded, agreeing with his younger sister.
Even children could tell that new clothes looked good.
Zhou Shi couldn’t help but laugh and teased them, “How pretty is Auntie?”
“Very pretty!” Fu Yansheng replied seriously. “Auntie is the prettiest, just as pretty as Uncle.”
Fu Yanhui continued to echo his sister. Whatever she said, he agreed with.
Hearing this, even Yu Li couldn’t help but glance over, doubting the children’s perception.
Although she didn’t particularly care about human standards of beauty, she knew that someone like Fu Wenxiao, with his strikingly refined and handsome features, was exceptionally rare. His eyebrows and eyes were like a painting, exuding elegance and beauty. Few men could be as good-looking as him, so much so that one could even call him beautiful.
As for herself, being this thin, anyone with eyes wouldn’t find her good-looking.
Seeing that they seemed to doubt her words, Fu Yansheng pouted and said in her soft, childish voice, “Auntie is the best, the prettiest.”
“Right!” Fu Yanhui, ever the echo, said again, “Auntie is the best!”
Alright then. Zhou Shi finally understood their logic.
Apparently, since Yu Li had married into the Fu family, she not only fetched water, chopped wood, and split firewood but also managed to wake Fu Wenxiao up and bring back delicious sweets and meat from the county town. In the minds of the children, that was indeed quite impressive.
Impressive people were naturally the best and as good-looking as Fu Wenxiao.
Ah, fair enough.
Zhou Shi patted the children on their heads and didn’t correct them.
She said to Yu Li, “I’ll make you two more sets of clothes for changing and washing. Tomorrow, I’ll make another piece, and the rest can be of different styles, with some embroidery. What kind of patterns do you like?”
Yu Li felt that as long as clothes were wearable, it didn’t matter whether they had patterns or not. Somehow, she suddenly thought of the bamboo design on Fu Wenxiao’s clothes. When he wore them, there was an indescribable charm, a unique elegance.
“Then let’s embroider some bamboo. Bamboo looks nice.”
Zhou Shi smiled at her words. “Alright, bamboo it is. I’m good at embroidering bamboo and will make it look beautiful for you.”
After Zhou Shi went to the kitchen to prepare dinner, Yu Li returned to her room in her new clothes.
Fu Wenxiao was sitting by the window reading. When he heard her footsteps, he looked up and naturally noticed her wearing her new outfit.
In the past, she had always worn dull, coarse linen clothes, which gave her a drab, dusty appearance. She had blended into the background, hardly drawing any attention.
Now, she had changed into a new outfit. The clothes were primarily green. Although she was still the same person, there was something different about her.
Seeing him look her way, Yu Li said, “This is the new outfit Mother made for me. Does it look good?”
Although she could make do with anything other than food, having new clothes still pleased her. This fabric was much softer and more breathable than coarse linen, making it far more comfortable to wear.
Fu Wenxiao smiled faintly and said, “Yes, it looks very good.”
The green suited her well.
It didn’t necessarily complement her physical appearance, but rather a certain quality within her—an exuberant vitality, a thriving energy that made one subconsciously want to be closer to her.
Yu Li pursed her lips, a hint of joy rising in her heart.
Hmm, as expected, wearing new clothes could really brighten one’s mood.
In the memories of the original host, all the clothes she had worn growing up were hand-me-downs from adults. When the adults’ clothes were worn out and tattered, they would be resized, patched up, and handed down to her.
But now, she had new clothes!
—
The next day, Yu Li still woke up early.
Since there wasn’t much urgency today, she got up half an hour later than usual. By the time she got out of bed, Zhou Shi was already awake and in the kitchen making egg pancakes for her.
Because Yu Li liked egg pancakes, Zhou Shi decided to make them again for her today.
When Yu Li was ready to leave, Zhou Shi wrapped all the egg pancakes in oiled paper and handed them to her to eat on the way.
At the entrance of the village, Tuo Laoda was already waiting, holding a torch for light.
Yu Li shared some of the egg pancakes Zhou Shi had made with him, but Tuo Laoda only ate a small piece out of courtesy. Seeing how reluctant she seemed to part with the food, he didn’t have the heart to take more. After all, they’d have food once they reached the county town.
On the way, Tuo Laoda taught Yu Li how to make torches.
Since they were traveling in the dark, carrying a torch was more convenient and cheaper than using lanterns. Of course, they also needed to be careful not to let the fire catch on anything. During dry seasons, even a small mistake could cause a fire.
“…When you walk at night in the future, you can light a torch like this to see the road,” Tuo Laoda said.
Suddenly, he thought of something and asked, “By the way, can your eyes see clearly at night?”
Yu Li shook her head. “No, I can’t see well.”
Tuo Laoda nodded in understanding. “Then you should eat more eggs and animal livers and such. In the future, when we’ve butchered a pig, take some of the offal home to cook and eat.”
This was something he had learned from a military doctor back when he served under Old General Xuan.
Tuo Laoda himself had experienced it before. In dimly lit places, his eyes couldn’t see well, and it wasn’t just him—many of the soldiers in the camp had the same problem.
Most of those soldiers came from poor families and suffered from such eye conditions, but later, their condition improved significantly.
Yu Li naturally understood this. In the past, she hadn’t had the means to address it. But now, since she had started butchering pigs, getting some pig liver or other offal wouldn’t be hard.
In these times, pig offal was called “offcuts” and was rarely eaten by people. The main reason was that it had a strong smell, was difficult to clean, and few knew how to make it taste good, so most people didn’t like it.
Would Mother-in-law know how to cook it?
Yu Li pondered this seriously. There were so many delicious things in the world, and she hoped pig offal could be made into something tasty too. If it could, she would definitely eat more of it.
—
At the county town’s butcher shop, Zhang Fu and the others had already arrived and were sitting there eating noodles.
This morning’s breakfast was shredded pork noodles. A large pot of noodles was placed there, and anyone who wanted to eat could serve themselves.
Zhang Yaoping complained, “It’s always like this, making one big pot. We can’t even finish it all, and by noon, it’s turned into a sticky mess, completely ruining such good white flour noodles…”
He didn’t dislike the noodles made from white flour, but it just didn’t make sense to cook such a massive pot at once.
“Seventh Uncle, why don’t we hire someone to cook for us? That way, we wouldn’t have to keep bothering the old lady at the steamed bun shop. For convenience, she always cooks a big pot, and whatever we don’t finish ends up being reheated for the next meal. It’s just not tasty anymore.”
Usually, Zhang Fu might have considered his suggestion, but today…
He calmly replied, “It’s fine; we’ll finish it.”
Zhang Yaoping: “…”
Very soon, Zhang Yaoping understood what he meant.
After the few grown men had their fill, Yu Li finished off the rest of the shredded pork noodles in the pot.
Uncle Luo and Zhang Yaoping stared at her in shock.
They had arrived late the day before and hadn’t witnessed Yu Li devouring several large meat buns on her own, so they had no idea how terrifying her appetite was.
A few grown men combined couldn’t compete with her.
“How can you eat so much? Aren’t you full?” Zhang Yaoping asked incredulously, glancing at her slight frame. How could someone so thin eat so much? Where did it all go?
Yu Li replied, “No, I’m strong.”
Zhang Yaoping was instantly rendered speechless.
Alright then. If she was strong, it made sense. Strong people ate more—it wasn’t unusual.
Still curious, he asked, “You eat so much, so why are you still so thin?”
“Hunger made me thin,” Yu Li replied with a straight face. “Back at my maiden home, my grandfather and grandmother thought we girls didn’t work and didn’t need to eat much.”
Hearing this, everyone present frowned, especially Zhang Fu and Tuo Laoda, who looked visibly angry.
What kind of cruel grandparents would think girls didn’t need to eat much because they didn’t work, starving them into such a bony state?
And judging by how skilled and efficient Yu Li was at work, there was no way she hadn’t been working hard. Her hands alone told the story—rough fingers and thick calluses were proof of frequent labor.
Zhang Yaoping said indignantly, “Your grandparents are way out of line.”
There was no way she hadn’t worked at her maiden home. Most likely, her elders had mistreated her and deliberately withheld her food rations.
These past years had been blessed with good weather and reasonable taxes, so most households had surplus grain at the end of the year. There was no need to treat their daughters so poorly.
Yu Li silently agreed and nodded in her heart. It was indeed too much.
However, she knew that filial piety was highly valued in these times, and one couldn’t criticize their elders in front of others. So, she said, “I don’t blame them. Our family had to support my two older cousins from my uncle’s family to study. Everyone had to tighten their belts and make sacrifices.”
Hearing this, the people present understood.
No wonder. Supporting two scholars in the family was an enormous burden for a rural household.
Tuo Laoda’s impression of the Yu family took a sharp turn for the worse.
He wasn’t too familiar with the situation of the Yu family; all he knew was that the Yu family had three branches. Yu Laoda worked as a bookkeeper in the county town and should earn about three taels of silver per month. Even in the county town, three taels of monthly wages was a significant sum.
Even with two scholars in the family, there was no need to mistreat the girls in the household like this.
Knowing that Yu Li was so thin because of starvation, everyone felt a sense of pity for her.
Zhang Yaoping said, “You should eat more from now on.”
He himself was skinny, but that was mostly because he was growing and stretching out. Before he started working at the butcher shop, his family wasn’t wealthy either, but they never let his sisters go hungry. Whatever he had, his sisters had too. Only those cruel elders who didn’t treat the girls in their family as people would leave them hungry.
Yu Li liked hearing such words and naturally nodded in agreement.
When they started working, Zhang Yaoping remarked again, “At first, I thought you were just naturally built like that, and I wondered how a girl could be so thin, almost deformed—it looks ugly. I didn’t expect it was because you were starved thin. Once your body recovers, you shouldn’t look this bad anymore. You should really eat more…”
Yu Li gave him a calm glance. For the sake of his suggestion that she eat more, she decided not to hit him.
Otherwise, if anyone dared to call her or her sisters ugly to her face, she might not be able to resist slapping them.
She thought back to Chen Jicheng yesterday as an example.
—
That day, the butcher shop slaughtered two extra pigs, making it five in total.
The pigs were herded out of the pen in the backyard. When they encountered Yu Li, they lay flat on the ground, refusing to move. Even pulling on their tails couldn’t get them up. Only when Yu Li stepped aside did the pigs cautiously skirt around her.
Yu Li grabbed one pig by its four legs, pinned it down on the slaughter bench, and plunged her knife into its neck. Blood flowed into the bucket.
Then she scraped off the bristles, gutted the pig, and divided the meat.
Yu Li quickly finished processing one pig and moved on to the next.
By the time she started on the third pig, the men nearby had only just finished one.
Watching Yu Li work gave them the illusion that slaughtering pigs was incredibly easy, and they thought they could handle it too. Of course, once they tried, they quickly realized they couldn’t.
When Yu Li slaughtered a pig, the animal remained quiet as a chicken, not making a sound.
When they slaughtered pigs, the animals screamed and struggled so much that the noise woke up the neighbors.
Yu Li slaughtered three pigs.
By the time the slaughter was finished, the first light of dawn appeared on the horizon.
After taking a short break, everyone started delivering the meat.
Yu Li carried a large bamboo basket loaded with nearly two hundred catties of pork and easily hoisted it onto her back.
She said to the others in the house, “I’ll deliver this batch first.”
Zhang Fu and the others said goodbye to her and watched as she walked out effortlessly. Then they looked at the bamboo baskets in their hands. When they tried to lift theirs, they found it genuinely heavy. Uncle Luo nearly bent over from the weight.
“Oh, my old back!” Uncle Luo groaned, thumping his waist. “Watching Li Niang carry hers so effortlessly, I thought I could do it too. Turns out, I really can’t.”
Zhang Yaoping immediately chimed in, “Exactly! I tried scraping the pig bristles like Sister Yu and thought one stroke would clean it all up. Who knew I couldn’t even scrape it off properly? The knife almost flew out of my hand!”
The two exchanged a look, feeling that as grown men, it was truly embarrassing to be outdone by a young girl.
There was a faint sense of shame.
—
That day, Yu Li delivered goods to twenty households.
After slaughtering three pigs and collecting the delivery fees for twenty households, she earned a total of 250 wen.
When she received her wages, Yu Li was very happy and started pondering what to buy to bring home.
Zhang Fu handed her two portions of offal he had specifically set aside for her, wrapped in banana leaves, and placed them in her basket.
He said, “Brother Tuo told me about it. From now on, take this offal and eat it yourself. Build up your body and take care of your eyes.”
The pig slaughtering started early, and she had to get up in the middle of the night. Poor eyesight wouldn’t do.
“I’ll pay you for it…”
“What money?” Zhang Fu waved her off. “Offal isn’t worth anything; we usually just give it away as a freebie. If I don’t give it to you, I’ll just give it to someone else. Take it home and cook it.”
Yu Li didn’t press the issue further but made a mental note of the favor.
On her way back, Yu Li stopped in the county town to buy some daily necessities such as soy sauce, vinegar, and tooth powder. Then she turned to buy candy and candied fruits. Feeling generous, she stopped at a pastry shop and bought osmanthus cakes and white rice cakes. She also stopped by a braised meat shop to buy some braised meat and even a roasted chicken.
Now that she was earning money, she wanted to buy whatever she liked and eat whatever she wanted.
After finishing her shopping, Yu Li carried her fully loaded basket and walked back to the village under the scorching midday sun.