The shop had been open for nearly three months now, and business had always been good. Every day, the copper coins that came in could fill nearly half a money basket. Su Chi always counted them carefully before closing up for the night.
He had a rough idea of how many buns, flatbreads, five-spice eggs, bowls of wontons, and congee were sold each day. Daily sales were steady, and the longer the shop ran, the more at ease Su Chi felt.
He threaded the copper coins into strings and arranged them neatly in a wooden box. The box was growing heavier by the day.
Now, Su Chi divided the shop’s earnings into two parts.
One part went toward daily ingredient purchases—a fixed, non-negotiable expense. The other part went into the money box for their household, covering everyday expenses like buying fabric for clothes, meat, and vegetables.
Fortunately, the Xie household had only two people. Everything was convenient between them, and daily expenses weren’t large. Buying fabric and making clothes was the biggest expense; meat and vegetables didn’t cost much.
Besides the fresh meat Xie Yushu loved—which Su Chi never skimped on—there were plenty of dried goods and preserved foods his father had sent. With his cooking skills and endless variety of dishes, Su Chi could transform any odd assortment of ingredients into meals Xie Yushu would love. So cooking at home hardly cost any copper coins at all.
He remembered back when they first moved here—everything had to be bought new, nothing could be spared, and those expenses had pained him deeply. Now, looking at the box in their room, it was satisfyingly heavy.
The household lacked nothing now, and their little savings box grew day by day, with money coming in steadily.
Su Chi could support the household comfortably just from the shop’s earnings, let alone Xie Yushu’s business, which was far more lucrative than his own hard-earned income.
Ever since Xie Yushu’s base orders had stabilized, she gave Su Chi a sum of money every ten days or half-month—for household expenses, or for him to buy whatever he liked.
Su Chi had never been a spendthrift. Even with more money, he budgeted carefully. With both of them earning well and spending little, they’d managed to save up quite a fortune—several dozen strings of cash.
He’d toyed with the idea of exchanging some for a fifty-tael silver note at the exchange house, keeping some loose silver and copper for daily use. But then he thought better of it—he still needed to set aside a portion of his own money to buy land for his father.
Buying land had to be prioritized. Spring plowing would come right after winter, and Su Chi couldn’t let his father miss the most important season for farming folk.
He’d also need to hire a few experienced hands to help his father. With more land, his father definitely wouldn’t be able to manage it all alone.
When Ye Youchun next came to the Xie household, Su Chi quietly pulled her aside to talk.
He asked her to keep an eye out in the village over the next few days, to see if any households were looking to sell land. Ideally, he’d like to buy back the land the Su family had previously sold.
If the owners weren’t willing to sell, he wouldn’t insist—she just needed to find plots with good soil fertility, preferably not too far from his father’s home.
Ye Youchun took Su Chi’s request seriously and naturally reported it to Xie Yushu.
Two days later, in the boss’s office at the Qingshi Base, Ye Youchun had just arrived from Qingluo Village. Xie Yushu poured her a cup of warm water and handed it over: “Did you find anything?”
Ye Youchun tilted her head back and downed it in one go, wiped her mouth with her sleeve, and said lightly: “Found them—it’s the same plots the Su family sold off before.”
She continued: “The family that bought them came looking for me when they heard I’d been asking around. They said they’re willing to sell.”
The family that had bought the Su family’s land was a relatively well-off household in the village. They’d had several daughters, and as the girls grew up, the family’s fortunes improved. A few years ago, when their third daughter married a fulang and the household gained another member, they’d conveniently bought up those plots—figuring with more people, their future would only get brighter.
Unexpectedly, this year the eldest and second daughters wanted to split off and establish their own households. Half the household’s labor was gone, leaving only the third daughter’s family and the elderly parents to manage things. How could they possibly farm all that land? After some discussion, they decided to sell the land off and at least get some cash out of it.
Xie Yushu listened with a gratified smile. She knew Su Chi had always wanted to buy back those plots his mother had left him and his father—this was the best outcome she could have hoped for.
She reached under the desk and pulled out a box—the one she used for the base’s public accounts, covering procurement, operating costs, wages, and so on. The extra profits she mostly handed over to Su Chi for household management.
She took out a portion and gave it to Ye Youchun: “Take this to buy the land. Don’t touch fulang’s private savings. Come spring, hire a couple of experienced hands to help Father—I’ll cover those wages too.”
Xie Yushu knew Su Chi well. He would never touch the household savings to buy land for his father—he’d only use the hard-earned money he’d saved. Of course she couldn’t bear to let him do that.
“Got it.” Ye Youchun took the money, her expression calm, as if she’d long grown used to Xie Yushu saying things like this.
After working under Xie Yushu for a few months, she’d already figured out her boss’s temperament.
Her boss had a sharp mind—a natural-born businesswoman—and was generous with her people. She felt lucky to have such a good boss. But everything aside, the one thing that stood out was how much she doted on her fulang—from initial shock to now being totally numb to it.
Winter days got dark early. Every day, her boss left on the dot. Sometimes everyone else was still busy, and she’d already vanished—just to get home earlier for Su Fulang’s cooking and to rest with him.
In the office, her boss would go over accounts and orders with a straight face, but sometimes, when she was idle, she’d suddenly smile to herself.
Being a woman herself, Ye Youchun didn’t need to think twice about what her boss was thinking.
She was thinking about her fulang at home.
She and Su Chi were from the same village. She’d heard of him before—back then, she’d only thought of him as pitiful. But now things had turned out well. After marrying her boss, his life had become so good—his hardships were finally behind him.
Ye Youchun’s gaze lingered on Xie Yushu, as if looking at a golden Buddha radiating a faint, noble glow.
She always felt that her boss had a certain gift—a knack for making life better for the people around her.
Ye Youchun thought: as long as Xie Yushu didn’t fire her, she’d be willing to work under her for the rest of her life.
·
Within two days, word that Su Chi was buying land for Wang Wen had spread all through Qingluo Village. Everyone praised him for being filial—a truly good ge’er.
Ye Youchun hadn’t hidden her inquiries when asking around about land. She’d asked openly, and the moment she left, word spread like wildfire.
By now, everyone in the village knew she worked for the Zhai family’s daughter.
People marveled at how the Ye family’s fortunes had visibly improved.
Several households with ge’er began to stir. They used to look down on the Ye family, calling them one of the poorest in the village—some even thought it was bad luck to walk past their gate, for fear of catching poverty.
But now the situation had completely changed. Ye Youchun had good work, the Ye family had few mouths to feed—just a grandmother and a younger brother. If a ge’er married into their family, wouldn’t he be set for life?
One household after another grew anxious, sending Tian Fulang every few days to ask the Ye grandmother about Ye Youchun’s marriage prospects—but they were all turned away without exception.
The Ye grandmother drove off the matchmakers, saying they were scaring her Youzhi.
That Zhi ge’er wasn’t a baby—he was eight or nine years old—but he was extremely timid and easily frightened. The Ye family cherished him so much. The matchmakers grumbled, but they all understood—this was a good family.
The villagers also knew that the Zhai family’s daughter was running a big business, had bought a large courtyard in town, and opened a shop—those two were living the good life.
It wasn’t just about buying land for Wang Wen—when Wang Wen had returned from the Xie household recently, the ox cart had been piled high with things Su Chi and Xie Yushu had bought for him: clothes, food, everyday items—the whole cart packed to the brim. The villagers’ eyes had nearly popped out.
Wang Wen was also one to dote on his children. He praised them to everyone he met, grabbing anyone by the hand to tell them how filial these two were and how well they were doing in town.
Even after moving to town to live a better life, they still remembered their father back in the village. The listeners felt half envious, half sour.
When it came to filial piety, people inevitably thought of the couple who were the complete opposite of Wang Wen.
That is, Su Ping and Cai Zhi.
First, there was the matter of their land getting ruined—karma, folks said. Then there was the scandal of their Sheng ge’er becoming a wealthy man’s concubine in Bailian Town—that alone was enough fodder for years of gossip.
Everyone knew Su Chi was a filial ge’er. In contrast, the Sheng ge’er they’d once praised to the skies had vanished without a word after becoming a concubine—as if the Su family had never borne such a child.
Had he ever come back to visit the Su family? Even if he didn’t return, had he ever sent anyone with gifts? The only visits were Su Ping and Cai Zhi going to the Bai household to fuss over him.
If he had sent anything, those two would have made a grand show of it for the whole village to see. They certainly wouldn’t be keeping so quiet now, dodging any questions about their Sheng ge’er!
One was filial to a fault, the other had vanished like a ghost—this had become the favorite topic of gossip in Qingluo Village lately.
But people were careful to avoid the ears of Su Ping and Cai Zhi.
Those two were not to be trifled with. If they heard anyone speaking ill of their family, a shouting match was the least of it—sometimes they’d even lash out with their claws. No one could handle that unreasonable family.
Ye Youchun worked efficiently and soon reached an agreement with the land-selling household at a fair price. She then went to the Su household to inform Wang Wen.
Wang Wen was stunned for a moment, then smiled and nodded in agreement. He knew those two children must have the means now. Since they were being so filial, there was no reason for him to refuse—especially since it was the land Su Hui had left him.
They were all straightforward people. Once they’d agreed, they went to sign the land deed.
She, Wang Wen, and the head of the selling household went together to the village chief’s home to have her witness the transaction.
Village Chief Su Quan found an old land deed template and drafted a simple one based on it.
None of them were literate, but they trusted the village chief. Wang Wen and the others pressed their thumbprints one by one—the red ink stamp next to their names signified their agreement.
Ye Youchun handed over the silver to the selling household on the spot. They counted the money with delight, tucked it into their robes, and with that, the transaction was complete.
Leaving the village chief’s house, Ye Youchun walked Wang Wen home.
“Uncle Wang, when I get some time, I’ll go with you to check out the fields. When spring comes and you can’t manage alone, I’ll find a few experienced hands to help you out.”
Ye Youchun didn’t take the credit—she explained that these were all arrangements made by Xie Yushu and Su Chi. She also reminded him to remember that the money had come from Su Chi, not Xie Yushu.
How could Wang Wen not see through Xie Yushu’s intentions? He laughed with delight: “Yushu has really gone to so much trouble. I know—the money came from Xiao Chi.”
Su Chi hadn’t needed to lift a finger to buy back the Su family’s land for his father—and he’d been in a great mood these past few days.
His father was happy too, and in his joy had sent over plenty more things through Youchun.
Su Chi quickly sorted through the pile of ingredients on the floor, arranging everything properly. He washed and chopped the vegetables, setting them neatly aside, ready to start cooking.
Just as he was about to begin, he caught a glimpse of Xie Yushu entering through the courtyard gate, heading straight for the kitchen.
He greeted her happily: “Why are you back so early today?”
Xie Yushu pulled him into her arms and pressed a kiss to the top of his head: “I was hungry, so I wanted to come home sooner.”
“Then go rest a while—dinner will be ready soon.” Su Chi rose slightly on his toes and gave Xie Yushu a peck at the corner of her mouth.
Su Chi rarely initiated kisses. This one made him look like a cat that had stolen some fish, his brows curving beautifully with a sly, happy smile.
Xie Yushu was a bit surprised. Seeing the smile he couldn’t hide, she quickly guessed what it was about—but pretended not to know: “The land matter’s settled? You’re happy?”
“Settled! Youchun took care of everything. I’m so happy—and Father’s happy too. We finally bought back the land Mother left us.”
When Su Chi said this, his voice was brighter than usual, his whole face radiating joy, his cheeks flushed with a faint pink—he was truly over the moon.
His brows were lifted high, his eyes sparkling as if tiny stars were spilling out. His usually gentle, delicate features now carried a vivid liveliness that made anyone who saw him feel happy too. Xie Yushu was momentarily transfixed.
Coming back to her senses, Xie Yushu couldn’t help but cup his face in both hands and give it a gentle squeeze. Her cool fingertips brushed against his warm, tear-tinged eyes, her gaze full of tenderness: “Mm, you’re happy—and so am I.”
At those words, Su Chi looked up and was caught off guard by the undisguised love in her eyes. His earlobes burned—flushing red in an instant—and his heart pounded wildly.
He hurriedly dropped his gaze, pressing a hand to his chest and silently scolding himself for being so weak. They’d been married for so long, yet every time he saw Xie Yushu looking at him with such tender earnestness, his heart tightened as if they were newlyweds.
He didn’t dare look her in the face. With both hands, he pushed against Xie Yushu’s chest, trying to shove her out—his voice soft, his words a flustered rush: “Go rest in the room—dinner will be… will be ready soon.”
With that little strength, how could he possibly move her? Instead, it only pressed him closer into Xie Yushu’s embrace. She pulled him in again, amused by his flustered, shy expression. Her lips curved into a smile, and soon she was laughing quietly against his shoulder: “Alright, alright—I’ll go rest.”
Only after Xie Yushu really left did Su Chi’s cheeks gradually cool down.
That woman was so mean—teasing him on purpose again.
Soon, the sound of a spatula clanging against the wok drifted from the kitchen—steady and unhurried, a reassuring rhythm.
Then, from the chimney of the Xie household, wave after wave of mouthwatering aromas rose—meat, vegetables, chilies all blending into a powerful fragrance that spread through the lane in the evening hour, drifting far enough to make passersby drool.
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