Ming Shu’s mind buzzed as if Lu Chang had detonated it. She could never have imagined that someone like him would bring her to buy a young woman’s intimate clothing. For a moment, she stared at him blankly, even forgetting to feel embarrassed.
“Originally, I wanted Mother to bring you, but she fell ill. The rash on your back is from the fabric chafing. Let the shopkeeper help you choose something better to change into, otherwise you’ll keep suffering.” Lu Chang’s handsome face suddenly burned hot as he explained involuntarily. Worried she might fret about money, he added, “I’ll wait outside. Don’t worry about the cost—I’ll pay once you’ve chosen.”
After speaking, her bright eyes made him so uncomfortable that he turned and fled through the shop door. He didn’t go far, just leaning against the wall outside, pulling out a book from his breast pocket and burying himself in it.
The shopwoman couldn’t help covering her mouth with a laugh, “Young lady, you’re blessed to have such a caring husband. It makes one quite envious.” Men who would buy undergarments for women were rare these days, especially such a young and handsome gentleman.
That single comment completely brought Ming Shu back to her senses, her face turning completely red as she shook her head like a rattling drum, “No, he’s not my husband, he’s my elder brother.”
The woman found this even more interesting, “I truly couldn’t tell you two were siblings.” As she spoke, she led Ming Shu to the back hall to try on clothes.
Lu Chang stood outside reading for a while until his emotions settled. Calculating the time, he figured Ming Shu should have finished choosing, so he went back inside just as she emerged from the back hall with the woman still chattering endlessly behind her.
“Have you chosen?” Lu Chang asked.
Before Ming Shu could speak, the woman said, “She’s made her choice, but the young lady is quite clever, insisting I reduce the price. This is a small business—how can I cut the price in half just because she asks?”
Lu Chang looked at the stack of women’s clothes in the woman’s arms, not knowing which set Ming Shu had chosen, and asked, “Which one did she choose? How much is it?”
The woman picked out two items and pushed them toward Lu Chang, saying, “This set of sky-blue silk undergarments. Young sir, feel how smooth the fabric is. Isn’t it comfortable?” She then pulled out an undergarment from below, trying to put it in Lu Chang’s hands.
Though merchants didn’t care about gender when doing business, these clothes would be worn next to Ming Shu’s skin, and the last piece was a woman’s breast band. Lu Chang’s hands retreated behind his back as if burned, let alone following the shopkeeper’s suggestion to feel the smoothness of the fabric.
“Our shop is honest with young and old alike—you get what you pay for. These two pieces normally sell for two taels of silver. Seeing how pretty the young lady is, I’ll only ask one tael and five maces. How can I reduce it further?” The woman turned to promoting Lu Chang instead.
Lu Chang just wanted to finish buying and leave to escape the awkward situation. He took out his money pouch from his sleeve, but just as he was about to take out the money, someone snatched the pouch away.
“You step aside!” Ming Shu had already become anxious seeing him about to pay without a word. She grabbed the money pouch and hid it behind her back, then pushed Lu Chang aside. Raising an eyebrow at the woman, she said, “Stop trying to fool him—he’s a man, he doesn’t understand these things. You say this is sky-blue silk? Fine, let’s say it is plain silk. The market price for plain silk is thirty wens per chi. One set of clothes needs about five chi of fabric, that’s one hundred and fifty wen. Adding labor costs, shop rent and so on, the cost of these clothes is less than three hundred wen. Market price should be within six hundred wen. Even if prices here are twenty percent higher being near Bianjing, it shouldn’t reach one tael of silver, yet you ask for two taels?”
She rattled off like falling beans, urgent and crisp. Even the shrewd shopwoman couldn’t get a word in. When Ming Shu finally finished, the woman gathered herself and argued, “Young lady, what you’re talking about is ordinary silk. But this is finely woven silk fabric, made from the best autumn silkworm threads, produced in Suzhou and Hangzhou…”
Before she could finish, Ming Shu’s laughter interrupted her. Ming Shu picked up the undergarment and stretched the fabric, saying, “Don’t say more about this fabric—if you do, it won’t even be worth six hundred wen. Pure silk should be made entirely of silk threads, but isn’t your fabric mixed with hemp or other cheap threads? You’re taking advantage of us as out-of-towners, and seeing our plain clothes, you assume we can’t tell quality, trying to sell inferior silk at fine silk prices? How dare you claim to be honest with young and old alike? Let me tell you, six hundred wen for these clothes—I won’t pay a single wen more.”
With that, she threw the clothes back into the woman’s arms and pulled Lu Chang to leave.
The woman realized she had met someone who knew her goods. Her face alternated between red and white, but being an experienced merchant, she quickly changed her attitude when she saw Ming Shu about to leave, hurriedly grabbing them both, “Alright, alright, you’re quite sharp-tongued, young lady. I can’t argue with you. Six hundred wen it is, take them.”
Only then did Ming Shu turn back happily, opening the money pouch to count out the money.
Lu Chang couldn’t get a word in throughout, just watching from the side. She didn’t even try to hide the triumph in her eyebrows, and some of her old vivacity and boldness seemed to return, just because of saving this small amount of silver that she wouldn’t have even noticed before. She was still a familiar person, but this behavior made her seem strange to him.
Meanwhile, Ming Shu paid and took the wrapped clothes, naturally handing them to Lu Chang to carry. The woman wanted to sell two more sets, pulling at her and saying, “Young lady, what about that dress set you tried on? Sister will give you a good price on that too.”
“No need.”
“What dress?”
Ming Shu and Lu Chang spoke simultaneously.
“An apricot-colored jacket with a rouge-red pleated skirt. The young lady is so young and beautiful, she should wear such bright colors. Why wear these matronly colors that don’t even fit, spoiling your beauty?” Though the woman’s compliments were to make a sale, they were also true.
Hearing this, Lu Chang looked Ming Shu up and down—she was wearing Madam Zeng’s old clothes. As a widow, Madam Zeng’s clothes were mostly dull and dark colors, in the common coarse style of rural women. She was also more full-figured than Ming Shu, so even after alterations, the clothes hung loose and baggy on Ming Shu.
He had been negligent.
“Then let’s take—”
Before Lu Chang could finish, Ming Shu clutched the money pouch to her chest like a mother hen protecting her chicks, saying, “Not buying, let’s go.” She feared that if they delayed a moment longer, the shop’s enchantress would devour Lu Chang’s entire fortune.
After leaving the clothing shop, Lu Chang asked her, “Since you’ll need to buy clothes anyway, and that dress fits you, why not take it?”
After Jian Ming Shu’s injury, she followed them without any luggage. To avoid making her overthink, Lu Chang had only said her belongings were lost during the incident, and they needed to replace everything. Unfortunately, between fleeing and traveling, they hadn’t had the chance to shop and had forgotten until now.
Ming Shu gave him a look, saying, “You really are a scholar, only knowing books, not understanding the mundane matters of life like food and daily necessities.”
Lu Chang pointed at himself, unable to believe what came from her mouth, “You mean me?”
Though he was a scholar, he had grown up with Madam Zeng—what hadn’t he done? Because of Madam Zeng’s weak health, he had taken on the family’s livelihood by his early teens. He had seen the world’s fickleness and understood human nature. How could he not know about mundane matters? Even if he didn’t, he was still better than this little girl born to wealth and raised in seclusion, ignorant of life’s hardships. Yet today she was lecturing him?
He laughed in frustration, pointing at the money pouch she clutched to her chest, “Do you know who earned the silver you’re holding?”
“I know you earned it, and because I know how hard it was for you to earn, I don’t want you spending it carelessly. How much have we already spent on injuries and illnesses along this journey? If you had mountains of gold and silver, I wouldn’t stop you, but we only have this much money. In the capital, we need to rent a house and buy household items, plus rice, flour, and oil. You’re a candidate in this examination—meeting tutors, and building connections all require money…” As she spoke, she looked at him, and seeing his poor expression, added, “Fine, even if your great talent doesn’t need extra connections, you can’t avoid social interactions. Drinking with classmates, and hosting meals, all need money. The metropolitan examination is in spring, so you need to focus on studying. The household has no income, only expenses—how long can these savings last?”
“No matter how difficult, I won’t let you and Mother suffer. Don’t worry about these things! We must buy what needs to be bought. Won’t you need clothes when we reach the capital?” Lu Chang certainly knew money was tight. He had originally budgeted for just himself and Madam Zeng, which would have been manageable, but adding Jian Ming Shu had greatly increased expenses. But if money wasn’t enough, he would find a way—he didn’t want her to save even on a set of clothes.
“Urgent expenses should be spent, like my undergarments, or medicine for your mother’s illness—these can’t be saved on, and I won’t be falsely modest about refusing. But outer clothes aren’t urgent. Ready-made clothes include costs for shop rent, staff wages, tailoring fees, and transport—high costs mean high prices. Why not wait until we reach the capital and find an ordinary fabric shop? We can buy fabric and make them ourselves, or find a seamstress. The price of one ready-made outfit could make an entire set—isn’t that more economical?” Ming Shu calculated it all for him to hear, then looked at his clothes and said, “Your clothes need replacing too. They’re washed pale, and the threads are loose. You need a new set, plus a fan case, purse, and headscarf. Such a handsome face—wouldn’t it be a waste not to dress it properly?”
Lu Chang noticed her way of referring to Madam Zeng but said nothing. He remembered the two sets of clothes she had sent before the provincial examination results were announced—she just wanted to dress him up, didn’t she? What a strange habit.
But seeing her in these dull, loose clothes, he seemed to understand her attitude—now he too wanted to dress her up again, to restore her former radiance.
Seeing him staring at her silently, Ming Shu thought her words had upset him—men’s pride could be quite fragile sometimes—so she added, “Hey, I’m not looking down on you for earning little or being poor, just saying we should spend money where it counts. There’s a way to live with lots of money and a way to live with little money, right?”
If not for her unchanged appearance, Lu Chang would have thought she wasn’t Jian Ming Shu anymore. The girl who used to have requirements even for drinking water and eating rice, who lived with perfect refinement, was now following him and splitting every coin in two, even consoling him, speaking with such clarity—perhaps he had never truly understood her.
“Yet here you are, rambling on about buying a set of clothes. Anyway, not buying is your loss—just don’t worry about it later.” Lu Chang turned his head away and walked straight ahead.
Ming Shu knew he wasn’t angry and happily followed beside him, saying, “I won’t worry. Once you become the top scholar, good days will come. What’s that old saying? When one person attains the Way, even chickens and dogs ascend to heaven.”
Lu Chang suddenly stopped, “You can call yourself a chicken or dog, but don’t include Mother.” He’d never seen anyone compare themselves to chickens and dogs.
“Oh.” Ming Shu stuck out her tongue and urged, “Let’s go, hurry back.”
Lu Chang didn’t move, just looking down at something.
“What’s wrong?” Ming Shu followed his gaze and saw her hand hooked in his arm.
Neither knew when or how her hand had slipped into his arm—it seemed to have happened naturally.
Under his stern gaze, Ming Shu sheepishly withdrew her hand, saying only, “You walk too fast, I can’t keep up.”
Only after the hand unhooked from his arm did Lu Chang shake his sleeve and stride forward again. Sure enough, Ming Shu couldn’t keep up, running a few steps before stopping, exhausted. As the distance between them grew, Lu Chang stopped at an open-air vendor’s stall.
“If we’re not buying clothes, at least we can buy a bag of roasted chestnuts.” After paying and receiving a bag of freshly roasted chestnuts, Lu Chang turned and held them out to her.
Ming Shu immediately smiled brightly, “These are such a bother to peel.”
“My young lady, shall I peel them for you?” Lu Chang said somewhat helplessly.
Ming Shu’s ears perked up, “What did you call me?”
“Young lady, let’s go.” Lu Chang started walking again, this time with smaller steps.
Ming Shu made a sound of acknowledgment and quickly caught up, thinking to herself that this person cared for her even more than himself—he must be her brother. Having such a brother, she felt very good.
Lu Chang was thinking that when they reached the capital, he must buy two bolts of good fabric and dress her up properly, to make her radiant like before.
[Author’s Note: Those undergarments, can’t touch them, can’t touch them… Amitabha Buddha.]