In the following days, Fan Changyu put all her effort into slaughtering pigs, making braised meats, and selling pork.
The braised offal in her shop was delicious in every aspect – appearance, aroma, and taste. She had been giving it away as a free addition, and no other business on the entire street could compare to hers.
Some people who couldn’t buy meat from her shop on a given day would rather wait until the next day to make their purchase. For several days, Fan Changyu’s shop could sell out two whole pigs completely clean.
Such a thriving business naturally made all the meat sellers on the street envious. Butcher Guo, seeing all the customers flocking to Fan Changyu’s shop, became disgruntled again. He shamelessly complained that giving away free additions was adding unnecessary burden to the meat shops, and suggested that everyone should stop doing it.
Although others looked down on Butcher Guo’s behavior, it was a fact that Fan Changyu had attracted most of the customers with her free additions. While they didn’t explicitly agree, they almost tacitly approved of Butcher Guo’s proposal.
Fan Changyu good-naturedly agreed that everyone would stop giving away free additions.
It wasn’t that she was easy to manipulate, but rather that Fan’s Braised Meat had already established its reputation. She no longer needed to use the tactic of giving away free additions to attract customers. The offal that she had painstakingly cleaned was worth twenty wen per jin when braised – who would give that away for free?
It was better to sell these people a favor, after all, they were all doing business on the same street and would see each other often.
Everyone on the street with a meat shop eagerly waited for business to return to how it was before. However, they didn’t expect that even after stopping the free additions, although Fan Changyu’s business wasn’t as hot as before, it was still the best on the entire street.
Because the reputation of braised meat had spread, people from town stopped going to the street that sold cooked food for braised meat and came specifically to Fan Changyu’s shop to buy it.
There were so many people buying braised meat that Fan Changyu’s shop often couldn’t meet the demand. She simply set up a large pot in front of the meat shop, selling the meat braised the night before on the chopping board while braising and cooking more in the large pot.
This unintentional move took her braised meat business to another level.
The aroma was truly enticing. The braising liquid bubbled in the pot, and the cleaned pig’s head meat and offal were braised to a beautiful soy sauce brown color. The spices like star anise, bay leaves, and fruit peels could be seen.
People passing by the market couldn’t resist being drawn in by this aroma to inquire about the price.
Seeing the pot full of genuine ingredients for the freshly braised and sold meat, buyers didn’t even haggle as much as they did when buying pre-cooked meat before.
After selling out the pig heads she had slaughtered herself, Fan Changyu, not wanting to waste the pot of braising liquid, often bought a few pig heads from the neighboring meat shop, cleaned them thoroughly, and braised them on the spot.
On the best business days, her shop could sell seven or eight braised pig heads.
In the market, a fresh pig head costs twenty wen per jin. After being made into braised meat, the pig head and ears together were priced at about fifty wen per jin. A pig head weighed about six or seven jin, so calculating it out, she could make a net profit of at least one hundred and eighty men from one braised pig head.
Selling seven or eight meant a profit of around one guan five hundred wen. Adding the profit from fresh pork, which could net another guan, her daily income was stable at around two guan.
As her purse grew heavier, Fan Changyu, feeling flush with money, decided to have new clothes made for everyone in her family.
She first went to the pawnshop to redeem the hairpin she had pawned, but when the shopkeeper saw her, he smiled awkwardly and said, “That hairpin has already been sold…”
Fan Changyu immediately became anxious: “Didn’t I ask you to keep it for me?”
The shopkeeper helplessly replied, “Well… everyone who pawns something here says the same thing. How can I keep things for all of them? I have to make a living too!”
Fan Changyu pressed her lips together and apologized, then asked, “Do you remember who you sold the hairpin to?”
The shopkeeper thought for a moment and said, “It was bought by a young lady on the day you pawned it. She was dressed very elegantly! Looked like she was from the county town.”
Fan Changyu’s heart sank to the bottom.
Qingping County was neither too big nor too small, but finding a stranger would be no easy task. It seemed hopeless to redeem the hairpin.
The shopkeeper glanced at her expression and started promoting other jewelry in his cabinet: “How about this hairpin? It’s also made of silver, and the style is even prettier than yours!”
Fan Changyu left the pawnshop without a word. Outside, the wind and snow were heavy. She sat on the steps at the entrance for a while, still unable to suppress the discomfort in her heart.
Although she had mentally prepared for the possibility of never finding it again when she decided to pawn the silver hairpin, when it became a reality, she still couldn’t help feeling sad.
The coming-of-age hairpin her parents had bought for her was gone.
Fan Changyu wiped her eyes awkwardly and walked home dejectedly-
The alley in the west of the city was bustling at this moment, but not for any ordinary reason. The Song family was moving.
In the entire Qingping County, Song Yan was the only one who had passed the provincial examination this year. Even the county magistrate had personally invited him to dine at his home. Those local gentry and wealthy merchants were even more eager to curry favor with him.
The county magistrate had assigned a residence in the county town to Song Yan, claiming it was to provide him with better conditions for studying and to bring glory to the entire Qingping County by passing the imperial examination.
The residence was presumably ready, so Song Yan and Madam Song chose today to move there.
A scholar had emerged from this alley, and regardless of how the Fan and Song families were at odds, others were still unwilling to fall out with the Song family. Today, everyone came out to see them off.
When Fan Changyu reached the entrance of the alley, she saw two rather grand blue-canopied horse carriages parked by the street. Walking further in, she saw the Song mother and son standing at their doorway, bidding farewell to a crowd of neighbors.
Song Yan was wearing an indigo robe, tall and handsome. As he bowed and said goodbye to the neighbors, his gentle brows and eyes were full of scholarly air.
Madam Song was also dressed very elegantly, with her hair oiled and adorned with gold hairpins. Listening to a string of flattering words, she even managed to squeeze out a few tears, pretending to be reluctant to leave this place.
Fan Changyu was in a bad mood today and pretended not to see the mother and son. She was about to walk around the crowd towards her own home when a man’s refined voice came from behind: “Miss Fan, please wait.”
Seeing him call out to Fan Changyu, the crowd’s expressions varied.
After the Fan and Song families had broken off the engagement, they had almost completely cut ties. Fan Changyu had even taken in a husband, and Song Yan seemed to be close to becoming the county magistrate’s son-in-law. What could he possibly have to do with Fan Changyu?
The crowd’s thoughts were varied – some were curious, some were looking for entertainment, and some wanted to hear some gossip.
Hearing the voice, Fan Changyu turned around to see Song Yan walking towards her from the crowd, holding a brocade box. He stopped three steps away from her.
He had a very refined appearance, with a scholarly air in his every move. “Song Yan and his mother have lived here for many years, receiving much care from your honorable father. The kindness of providing a coffin back then, Song Yan has always remembered. Today, as we move, please consider this as a token of my appreciation.”
The brocade box was square and exquisitely made, looking quite substantial. It was unclear what was inside.
Fan Changyu almost laughed from anger. Since the Song family had broken off the engagement, they had distanced themselves from every issue the Fan family encountered. Today, on the day of their move, they brought out this brocade box in front of all the neighbors – wasn’t this just for show?
She showed a mocking expression: “What is this?”
Song Yan replied: “A small token from myself and my mother.”
Fan Changyu swung her hand back, and the brocade box fell to the ground. Silver ingots rolled out, causing the onlookers to gasp.
The people living in this alley were not wealthy families, and they might never have seen what a silver ingot looked like in their entire lives. Now, seeing these shiny silver pieces, they were truly eye-opened.
Madam Song immediately shrieked: “What are you doing?”
She had been trying hard to maintain the appearance of an official’s wife and had endured enough flattery recently. Suddenly being embarrassed by Fan Changyu like this, her face was beyond just unpleasant to look at.
Although she had changed into brocade clothes, years of hard work had left her thin and small. Her face had little flesh, and not only could she not fill out the clothes, but her high cheekbones, caused by her thinness, actually accentuated her bitter appearance.
Fan Changyu sneered: “Young Master Song, this gift is too precious, I dare not accept it. You came to me with a fortune-teller’s note to break off the engagement, and I didn’t take a single coin from your Song family. On the contrary, it was my father who bought the coffin for old Mr. Song back then, and it was my father who paid for your tuition fees later. Some people who twist black and white and gossip can even say that my father used small favors to force Young Master Song to marry me, a butcher’s daughter.”
She let out a cold laugh, “My parents’ bones are not yet cold, and they can’t withstand such slander.”
Madam Song immediately retorted with a fierce look but a trembling voice: “What others say has nothing to do with us, mother and son!”
Fan Changyu lowered her eyes to look at the silver ingots on the ground, her lips curling: “I didn’t say you instructed those people to say such things, why are you so anxious?”
Madam Song couldn’t withstand Fan Changyu’s provocation, and being watched by so many neighbors, her face alternated between red and green. She shouted: “What exactly do you mean?”
Fan Changyu said: “To avoid being slandered by those black-hearted people again, I ask all the neighbors here today to be witnesses. I dare not accept these silver ingots from Young Master Song. But with my parents deceased, my younger sister weak, and my husband injured and ill, our family is indeed in urgent need of money. Today, let’s settle an account with Young Master Song. It shouldn’t be difficult to repay me in full for the money my father spent on your family’s coffin and the tuition fees he paid for you for those few years, right?”
She smiled, not without sarcasm: “It will also save Young Master Song and Madam Song from hearing some rumors and always feeling that my Fan family wants to use these favors for personal gain. Like last time when Fan Da brought people from the gambling house to smash my home, and the neighbor’s wife cried at Young Master Song’s door for help, but couldn’t even cry open the Song family’s gate.”
Others didn’t mention these things, just giving the Song family a fig leaf to cover their shame. Now that Fan Changyu had directly torn it off, Madam Song’s face could no longer be described as just unpleasant. She looked around at the neighbors’ secretly contemptuous expressions, feeling her face burning hot and irritated. Fan Changyu’s words were just short of pointing at her nose and accusing the Song family of being ungrateful.
Her son was aiming for the top scholar position, if he was slandered by this crude butcher girl and it affected his future, it would be the death of her!
Madam Song was trembling and about to speak when she heard her son, who had been silent all along, say to that butcher girl: “If you come to me, I won’t remain indifferent.”
“Yan’er!” Madam Song’s eyes rolled back, and she almost fainted.
Fan Changyu also frowned, thinking to herself that Song Yan must be out of his mind to say such things in public.
However, before she could say anything, a soft voice came from outside the crowd: “Brother-in-law, there are so many people!”
A man’s voice responded coldly: “Don’t wander off.”
Fan Changyu turned her head to see her younger sister standing on tiptoes at their doorway, trying to look this way. The man had probably followed her out, fearing she might get lost if she came to watch the commotion alone. His handsome brows were furrowed as if he found the child troublesome.
He was wearing the same dark red clothes from their wedding day, his long hair simply tied up. The wide sleeves of his robe hung down, hiding most of his crutch. His eyebrows and eyes were cold, his complexion as white as snow.
Half-leaning against the doorframe, his posture was casual. It was unclear how long he had been out there, or how much of her conversation with the Song mother and son he had heard.
Fan Changyu’s eyes met his, and his face showed no emotion, only the corner of his mouth seemed to be slightly raised, though not quite in a smile.