Early the next morning, Fan Changyu took fresh pork and braised meat to her family’s pork shop.
The early market was already bustling with vendors calling out their wares, and aunties and grandmothers wrapped in thick coats and carrying baskets were picking and bargaining at various stalls.
After arranging her goods on the counter, Fan Changyu greeted several butchers who had been friendly with her father as usual, but their responses seemed somewhat forced.
Fan Changyu was puzzled, when a shopping auntie, presumably seeing the still-steaming braised pig’s head meat on her stall and enticed by its aroma, asked, “Is this braised pig’s head meat also a freebie?”
Fan Changyu thought this auntie had heard about her giving away braised offal before and was embarrassed: “Auntie, this pig’s head meat isn’t cheap, and the braising ingredients are expensive. How could I give it away?”
The auntie pursed her lips and glanced at the braised offal nearby: “Is this braised offal free then?”
She replied, “I gave it away for one day when I reopened the shop for good luck, but not anymore. If you want to buy it, it’s two wen for one liang.”
The auntie’s expression changed instantly, “Other meat shops all give it away, but you’re charging for it?”
Fan Changyu became even more puzzled: “Are you saying that all the pork shops on this street give away braised offal with meat purchases?”
The auntie said, “Why would I lie to you? Just look for yourself!”
“Here you go, take care!”
Just then, Butcher Guo across the street completed a sale, and the shout drew Fan Changyu’s attention. She saw the woman who bought meat not only carrying pork but also holding a package of braised offals wrapped in oiled paper.
Butcher Guo noticed Fan Changyu looking at him and turned away, continuing to arrange the pork in his stall.
In the corner of his counter was a large basin, its contents not visible from afar, but now it was clear it must be braised offal.
Fan Changyu’s eyes widened. This shameless old man had almost flipped her stall when she gave away freebies before, repeatedly warning her not to do it again, but now he was using this method to attract customers himself.
Looking at the neighboring shops, they all had basins of braised meat on their meat counters. No wonder their expressions were odd when she greeted them earlier.
The auntie asked, “Are you giving it away or not? If not, I’ll buy from another shop!”
Fan Changyu immediately said, “I’ll give it away!”
After all, pig offal wasn’t worth much, and the braising ingredients weren’t just for offal but also for pig’s head meat. She might as well continue using offal as a freebie to promote her braised meat!
When everyone was selling pork, some shoppers couldn’t tell the difference in quality, but using braised offal as a freebie was different. The color and aroma couldn’t deceive people!
This would be more beneficial for her business!
The auntie had been eyeing the braised meat in Fan Changyu’s shop. Other places’ braising was dull and lacked aroma, but hers was bright red and looked like good quality.
Hearing that Fan Changyu was also giving away freebies, her face immediately lit up: “Give me five jin of rump meat!”
Fan Changyu skillfully cut five jin of pork rump, weighed it, and gave it to the auntie, then cut five liang of braised offal for her.
The auntie took the braised offal and sniffed it, exclaiming how fragrant it was. Before leaving, she didn’t forget to say, “Your freebie is good. I’ll tell my neighbors to buy meat from you!”
Fan Changyu smiled and agreed, saying she’d give the auntie more freebies next time. The auntie left happily with her meat.
Seeing that auntie buy fresh meat and get a package of braised offal from Fan Changyu’s shop, and noticing how good the color of her braised offal looked, others couldn’t help but come forward to ask about prices. In the end, everyone bought meat from Fan Changyu’s shop without exception.
Those coming to buy meat and vegetables saw the crowd at Fan Changyu’s shop and instinctively felt her goods must be better, so they also squeezed over to look.
Before the early market was half over, the fresh meat and braised offal in Fan Changyu’s shop were sold out, with only half a braised pig’s head left unsold.
In contrast, the other meat shops only made a few sales when Fan Changyu’s meat was sold out, and customers reluctantly turned to them as a second choice.
Seeing that his shop finally had a customer, Butcher Guo vigorously promoted the pork on his counter: “Look, top-quality pork belly, and I’m giving away braised offal too!”
The shopper peeked at the dull-looking braised offal in his basin and immediately frowned and shook their head: “The freebie at Fan’s Meat Shop, that braised offal was shiny and red. Is yours just boiled in water with some salt?”
“I’ll come earlier tomorrow and buy from Fan’s!” The shopper put down the piece of pork they had been examining and left directly.
Butcher Guo’s face was extremely unpleasant. He looked at the pork in his shop, then at the basin of braised meat, and angrily kicked over a nearby stool, muttering some vulgar curses under his breath.
This commotion was naturally seen by people in the nearby shops.
Fan Changyu’s meat shop was directly opposite Butcher Guo’s, and she also witnessed this scene.
A neighboring butcher’s wife whispered to her, “Actually, none of us want to do this thankless job of giving away freebies.”
After all, when one shop gave freebies, business was good, but when all the meat shops on the street started giving freebies, and the taste wasn’t particularly outstanding, business was no different from when they just sold pork, yet they had to give away a portion of braised offal.
The butcher’s wife continued, “But that Guo fellow has more tricks than a beehive has holes. A few days ago, he strictly forbade you from giving freebies, but the next day he started doing it himself, not even ashamed. When we confronted him about being unreasonable, he just lay on the ground and tried to extort us. He also has an uncle who works as an advisor to the county magistrate, so we couldn’t do anything about him. We couldn’t just watch him steal all the business with freebies, so we all started giving away braised offal too.”
Fan Changyu knew this auntie was explaining so much to avoid any misunderstanding, so she said, “I understand, Auntie.”
Seeing that Butcher Guo had suffered a setback today, the butcher’s wife was secretly pleased. She glanced in Butcher Guo’s direction and couldn’t help but gloat, “It’s good that you’re back, Changyu. Let’s see how long he can keep giving away that salt water boiled offal.”
Relying on his relative who worked as an advisor in the county office, Butcher Guo had always been arrogant. The merchants doing business on this street had long been disgusted by his attitude.
In the past, only Fan Changyu’s father wasn’t afraid of trouble and dared to keep Butcher Guo in check. After Fan Changyu’s parents passed away, Guo started acting like the local tyrant of the street, bossing people around daily.
Fan Changyu didn’t give much attention to Butcher Guo across the street. After selling the last half of the pig’s head, she started counting the copper coins in her drawer.
The pig she slaughtered today was only about 80 jin. The fresh and braised meat together sold for two guan three hundred men. After deducting the cost of one guan for buying the pig, she had netted one guan three hundred men!
Fan Changyu strung the copper coins together with a thin rope, feeling their weight, and her mood lightened.
The property would soon be transferred, and the business at the meat shop was gradually getting on track. Her and her sister’s lives would only get better from now on!
When she saved enough money, she would take her sister to the capital to seek medical treatment! She had heard that the best things in the world were in the capital, including the best doctors-
After tidying up the shop, Fan Changyu took the money to the market. She bought medicine for the two “medicine pots” at home, big and small, then bought some spices needed for making braising soup. After setting aside one guan for buying pigs, she only had a few hundred men left.
Fan Changyu sighed softly, realizing how expensive daily necessities truly were once you started managing a household.
She carefully selected some New Year goods and headed home. Before entering the alley, she saw a snow-white gyrfalcon flying from the direction of her house towards the sky, seemingly the same one she had seen before.
Fan Changyu was puzzled, wondering if that gyrfalcon often came to this area to find food.
If it came often… maybe there was a chance to catch it.
The gyrfalcon disappeared in an instant, but Fan Changyu was already calculating how much money she could get if she caught it and sold it at the market.
When she got home and pushed open the courtyard gate, she immediately saw that the window in the man’s room was half open. He was sitting at the desk wearing an old black robe, his long hair loose around him, his expression calm. His thin fingers, covered in scabs, held a brush as he focused on writing something.
Outside the window was a red plum tree, planted by her father for her mother long ago.
Perhaps this year, even the plum tree knew its old friends were gone. Since winter began, it had only produced one small bud.
Amidst the frost and snow on the branches, that single touch of color still couldn’t compare to even a tenth of the beauty of the man inside.
Fine snow was blown in through the window, some even landing in the man’s hair. The eyebrows and eyes beneath the black hair were truly cold and exquisite.
Fan Changyu’s breath caught slightly. When the man looked up at her, she didn’t hurry to avert her gaze but continued to look at him openly and asked, “Aren’t you cold with the window open?”
Xie Zheng met her gaze and noticed she was still staring at him without any intention of looking away. His brows furrowed almost imperceptibly as he avoided her gaze and said, “The room was dark. Opening the window improves the light.”
His voice was as cold and clear as ever.
Fan Changyu made an “oh” sound. After putting down the things she was carrying in the main room and checking on her napping sister, she brought him a charcoal basin.
Probably because the window had been open for a while, Fan Changyu felt it was as cold inside as it was outside when she entered the room.
She glanced at the desk, which was already covered with papers full of ink, and couldn’t help but ask, “What are you writing?”
Having written so much, surely he must have been freezing all morning. Wasn’t he cold?
Xie Zheng finished writing the last character and put down his brush. Without a brush rest, he had to temporarily place the ink-stained brush on the chipped edge of the inkstone.
He said softly, “Essays.”
Fan Changyu knew what essays were. Song Yan used to often scrimp and save to buy them, with each scroll costing three hundred men.
She exclaimed in surprise, “You can write essays too?”
Xie Zheng continued to use the same explanation he had given Carpenter Zhao to brush her off: “Just some experiences from traveling north and south. In small towns, the quality of books sold in bookstores varies greatly. Writing something that can fool people is enough for the bookstores to accept it.”
Fan Changyu choked a bit when she heard this, thinking how unlucky those students buying essays must be.
Thinking that the essays Song Yan had scrimped and saved to buy in the past might have been like this, she suddenly felt a bit of secret pleasure.
She coughed lightly, then remembered his injuries: “The roads are slippery when it snows. Even if the snow is swept away, there might still be thin ice on the ground. Your wounds only reopened yesterday, it’s too dangerous to go out with a crutch…”
She rattled off all this, was it just out of concern for him?
Xie Zheng’s expression showed a slight surprise, and then he lowered his eyes and said, “I asked the old man next door to bring it back for me.”
Fan Changyu’s expression improved slightly, but thinking about his reason for writing essays, she still pursed her lips and said, “Since you’ve already agreed to a fake marriage with me, I will fulfill my promise to let you recover properly. We’re only tight on money now because the property hasn’t been transferred yet. You… don’t need to do this.”
Letting a seriously injured person struggle through illness and brave the cold wind to rack their brains writing essays to earn money for the household made Fan Changyu feel guilty.
The cold wind blew into the room, stirring Xie Zheng’s unbound long hair. He looked at the woman frowning before him, and his cold expression became somewhat ambiguous.
Not wanting the woman before him to misunderstand, he said, “I’m just writing essays to pass the time when I have nothing to do. It’s not what you think.”
The more he said this, the more convinced Fan Changyu became of her guess.
After all, who would write essays in the cold, braving the winter wind to pass the time? Her feelings were particularly complex at that moment.
She pressed her lips together and said, “Don’t worry about me being poor. I can support you!”
She left the room after saying this, leaving Xie Zheng alone sitting at the desk. His thin fingers pressed against his brow, his eyes deep and complex, as if pondering something that gave him quite a headache.