A young man approached with measured steps. He wore a light gauze outer robe, clothing of much higher quality than Wang Quan’s. His demeanor was rather aloof, not resembling a wealthy young master but more like a scholar studying hard in poverty.
Since ancient times, merchants were the lowest class, so Master Qi, like his peers, didn’t want his son to “inherit the family business” but strove to cultivate him in scholarly pursuits and imperial examinations. Even becoming a seventh-rank official would be better than sitting in a shop counting money.
Young Master Qi Ancheng followed the life path his father had set, dedicating himself entirely to reading the classics. Unfortunately, he wasn’t suited for scholarship either—at over twenty years old, he hadn’t even passed the county-level examination to become a xiucai.
Master Qi had no choice but to abandon his dream of “transitioning from commerce to officialdom” and began training his son as his successor.
Unfortunately, Young Master Qi hadn’t touched money since his first birthday ceremony and deeply detested the copper-stinking craft of commerce. Forget learning business—even asking him to practice using an abacus would make him act like he was dying. He would refuse to move forward when led and retreat when pushed, clamoring that if the master forced him further, he would jump into the Pearl River.
Poor Young Master Qi’s life path was rough, so he could only seek solace in sensual pleasures, frequenting brothels. Only when surrounded by perfumed sleeves and under flowers and moonlight could he find some feeling of being a “romantic talent.”
Now Young Master Qi held a book, nodding and shaking his head as he walked and read, stepping into a puddle of wet mud in a depression on the ground. He paid no attention. Two small-footed maidservants following behind him immediately crouched down, one on each side, using perfumed handkerchiefs to wipe the mud from his shoes clean.
Young Master Qi suddenly encountered Shopkeeper Wang and frowned directly.
“Wang Quan, how did you find your way to the residence! I said I had matters today—can’t I go to the tea shop tomorrow? Father wants me to learn business, but he didn’t say I had to go every day, did he?”
Wang Quan was also caught off guard and quickly bowed to the young master: “No no, Young Master, this humble person isn’t here to urge you. It’s… ah, Young Master, look who this is?”
Only then did Young Master Qi notice the dark little girl hiding in the corner and frowned: “Who is this person?”
Wang Quan lowered his voice: “Young Master has forgotten? This is the one you took a fancy to last month, saying she looked exactly like that Meixian girl from Yangzhou. Redeeming a prostitute is too expensive and Master would certainly be furious, but this maidservant only costs twenty taels of silver, and her horoscope is good—isn’t this quite a bargain! Her feet are just a bit large, but the maidservant is young, and with tight binding, they should barely be presentable. Young Master can rest assured, among the several servant girls in your room, pick one you don’t like and have her replace them—Master won’t discover it.”
Lin Yuchan thought helplessly: the substitute trope…
She understood now. The rich second generation’s financial power was controlled by his father. He didn’t dare spend huge sums to redeem a courtesan, so he settled for second best, quietly asking his family’s shopkeeper to buy a cheap substitute to satisfy his cravings.
After hearing Wang Quan’s explanation, Young Master Qi flew into a rage, kicking the two shoe-wiping maids aside.
“Master Wang, do you understand what ‘graceful bearing’ means, what ‘pitiful to behold’ means? My family isn’t poor—you use such inferior goods to fool people?” He put the book scroll back in his sleeve and glared at Wang Quan dissatisfiedly. “If your glasses are broken, go get new ones. This is a yellow and black monkey! How could Miss Meixian be so ugly? Where’s the resemblance? Hmm? Where’s the resemblance?”
Wang Quan said urgently: “Temperament, temperament! Young Master said last time the temperament was the same…”
Halfway through, he began to doubt himself. Miss Meixian was like a weak willow swaying in the wind, taking three steps with each movement. With just one glance upward, she seemed to have suffered all the world’s grievances, making people wish to scatter their entire fortune to redeem her from the pit of fire. As for this Miss Lin, when viewing her, she also had a pitiful face, shrinking behind her opium addict father, humble and obedient in every way, making him particularly pleased to pay the silver.
But temperament was something invisible and intangible—who knew when it might change, like now.
Young Master Qi wrinkled his nose and ordered Lin Yuchan, “You come here. Let me have a look.”
Wang Quan took the opportunity to say: “I heard this girl had a serious illness and just recovered. Being dark and thin is normal. Women, you know, three parts depend on the face, seven parts on dressing up. This humble person was planning to change her clothes and dress herself up before bringing her over. However… ah, no matter what, this is someone Young Master personally took a fancy to. Didn’t Young Master say that as long as this humble person could cure your lovesickness, Young Master would come to the tea shop to learn business? A noble person’s word is worth a thousand gold—you can’t go back on it.”
As he spoke, he desperately winked at Lin Yuchan.
Why don’t you hurry up and show yourself off!
But this girl wasn’t clever at all, standing there stupidly like a piece of wood, even with her back to the light, making her face appear even darker.
“Stupid goose!” Wang Quan cursed under his breath. “Smile! Smile! Pat your clothes flat! Stick out your chest! Bow to the young master! Tuck your feet back!”
Things went contrary to his wishes. This foolish girl stood there dumbly, her two big feet immovable as mountains, not understanding how to be coquettish at all, like she was mentally disabled.
Not only that, she hoarsely and weakly said: “Young Master, I don’t know if my illness is completely cured—don’t let it spread to you…”
After speaking, ignoring Wang Quan’s frantic gesturing across from her, she deliberately coughed heavily twice.
Young Master Qi retreated three feet and flew into a rage.
“I don’t want her! Return her!” The young master snatched the fan from Wang Quan’s waist and harshly knocked his forehead. “I want Meixian, not someone else! Where you bought her, return her there! Where are her parents?”
Wang Quan covered his head grimacing, remembering Lin Guangfu clutching the silver like it was his father’s memorial tablet, and wailed: “How can we return her? The silver given was probably already exchanged for opium by her old man long ago—not even a copper coin can be recovered!”
“Then let her do rough work! Sell her or throw her away!” Young Master Qi looked at Lin Yuchan with disgust. “Don’t let her dangle in front of my eyes!”
Wang Quan had “failed in his duties” and received a scolding from the young master. His blood pressure spiked with anger as he stomped his feet in frustration at her failure to live up to expectations.
“You, oh you, stupid beyond belief! Do you know that following the young master would mean never worrying about food and clothing again?—Hmph, truly poor people have no insight. Even when opportunities arise, they don’t know how to seize them. This is the fate of the poor!”
Wang Quan was furious. Such a shrewd businessman as himself, just because he wanted to coax the young master to be more ambitious, had foolishly been taken advantage of. These fifteen taels of silver had simply been thrown into the water.
It was all this little girl’s fault for getting sick for no good reason. If she had been healthy and eight parts similar to Meixian, the young master would have accepted her with pleasure long ago.
Just as he was anxious and angry, Lin Yuchan calmly spoke beside him.
“Shopkeeper, I’ll just stay in the residence as a maidservant. I’m very good at working.”
Wang Quan angrily said: “Who spends fifteen taels of silver to buy a maidservant? Do you think you’re a princess?”
Although he said this, there was no other solution. Wang Quan was a businessman—having spent money, he would rather die than admit to a loss. He had no choice but to have someone find the residence’s supervisor and ask with a forced smile: “Has the residence had any plans to add people recently?”
But the supervisor wouldn’t buy it, shaking his head as he looked at Lin Yuchan: “Shopkeeper, although you are Master’s right-hand man, you work for Master after all. The internal affairs of the residence don’t need your concern. Master said that this year’s situation is ordinary; the rent from the ancestral fields in Foshan probably can’t be collected in full. When the time comes, there’s no shortage of tenants offering their family’s daughters to offset rent—he’s already worried about too many mouths to feed in the residence.”
The supervisor’s tone was respectful, but his face clearly showed a large “NO WAY.”
Wang Quan was so angry his face turned blue.
So Lin Yuchan became an unwanted ball, temporarily thrown into the shared sleeping quarters for rough-work maids in the side rooms.
But the supervisor said she could only stay for three days. Because one of the maidservants living here had a death in her family, the residence had mercifully granted three days of leave. When that maidservant returned from leave, “This girl must be dealt with.”
The word “dealt with” gave Lin Yuchan goosebumps all over. She boldly asked: “How will I be dealt with?”
The supervisor impatiently said: “Questions, questions, questions—it’s not your decision to make anyway.”
Lin Yuchan discovered that whether it was Lin Guangfu, Wang Quan, or the supervisor, they discussed buying and selling people as casually as buying and selling chickens and ducks, their tone as natural as could be, as if they completely didn’t know that the “goods” across from them was also a living person with flesh, blood, and emotions just like themselves.
However, this place at least provided food and lodging, much better than living with Lin Guangfu.
She tidied up the messy bedding and took a cold water bath, carefully rinsing her mouth—the servants weren’t allowed to waste firewood heating water. Fortunately, the weather was hot, so cold water was just right. At this time, maids of various heights and builds returned to the room listlessly one by one, pulling curtains and falling asleep immediately, with few people noticing her arrival.
When it got dark, no one called for dinner.
Lin Yuchan: What about the promised food and lodging?
“Gurgle”—the most basic physiological need was like a sharp awl, stabbing her shrunken stomach with waves of cramping pain.
So hungry. She hadn’t eaten all day. The last meal seemed to be the milk and cookies at the church, and it felt like several lifetimes had passed.
The maids in nearby beds were snoring, and someone was even burping contentedly.
With a mouth right under her nose, Lin Yuchan asked when she didn’t understand.
She patted the maid in the neighboring bed and asked softly, “Sister, where do you all eat?”
The neighboring bed half-opened her eyes to look at her and turned away with disgust: “Who are you?”
“I am…”
Lin Yuchan had just said two words when the neighboring maid coldly laughed.
“I never knew that feet this big could also be recruited to serve in our Qi residence.”
Lin Yuchan was startled, seeing a pair of palm-sized small pointed feet extending from under the neighboring bed’s quilt, wearing pink sleeping shoes with layers of white cloth inside.
Not as tiny as the concubines’, but not natural either—like the size of an eight or nine-year-old girl.
She thought: how could there be a hierarchy of contempt based on foot size?
She turned to the other neighboring bed. That maid didn’t wait for her to speak before muttering, “You’re new, right? New ones go hungry. Our dinner comes from the leftovers that the mistresses reward us with—ah, today’s food was too oily, still feeling uncomfortably full.”
As she spoke, she raised her small feet and burped while rubbing her stomach, not even glancing at Lin Yuchan.
Lin Yuchan said urgently: “You…”
This was bullying the newcomer. She wasn’t the type to submit meekly, but the hard bed and tattered clothes reminded her of her situation. She clenched her fists and silently repeated her small goal: survive.
She took several deep breaths, lay back on the bed, and used the pillow to press against her stomach.
She listened to the two neighboring maids snickering and whispering to each other.
“…If this were in my hometown, a girl like this couldn’t get married even at twenty. Better to hang herself with a rope early! She still has the nerve to chat us up, hehe!”
“Look, she knows her feet can’t be seen, hiding them under the quilt—see how the quilt bulges.”
Lin Yuchan was so angry her hair stood on end. She had seen photos of bound feet online. She thought: your feet are the ones that can’t be seen!
People who were equally exploited and oppressed—who was nobler than whom?
She kicked off the quilt, righteously stuck out both feet, and even wiggled her pale toes.
Although she didn’t retort, the two maids were still quite angry. The ancient principle was that women who didn’t bind their feet were equivalent to having bad character, naturally inferior to others, and should not fight back when beaten or talk back when scolded. Yet she dared to provoke them so blatantly! Look at that stupid appearance!
A round-faced maid rolled up from bed, fumbled under her bed for a belt section, and harshly whipped it toward Lin Yuchan’s foot sole.
Lin Yuchan was more surprised than angry: “What are you doing?”
“Aiyo, where did these two foreign steamships come from?” The round-faced maid sneered. “Our place is small—we can’t dock them.”
Lin Yuchan recited the character for “survive” three times and calmly asked: “What do you want me to do?”
The round-faced maid was startled. She only wanted to bully people. If someone asked, “How can I avoid being bullied?” she hadn’t considered that.
“You… you’re new here, speak more politely!” she said viciously. “From now on, empty all our chamber pots! Our feet are small, and walking to the latrine is inconvenient.”
Lin Yuchan asked blandly: “Anything else?”
“Also… right, the sisters’ foot-binding cloths all need washing tomorrow. Since you have nothing to wash anyway, you can’t be idle.”
Lin Yuchan: “Anything else?”
“Also…” The other party couldn’t help but laugh, not knowing if she had encountered a rare fool. She developed an intention to win her over. “You bow to us as elder sisters. From now on, whatever work we can’t finish, you have to help with. When rewards come down, you have to let us see first…”
Lin Yuchan said “oh” and covered herself with the quilt to continue lying down.
The round-faced maid was furious: “You… hey, can you understand human speech? Did you hear everything just now?”
The other narrow-faced maid couldn’t stand it anymore and said softly: “Enough, Xiao Feng, go to sleep after venting.”
Lin Yuchan adjusted her pillow and asked: “Your name is Xiao Feng?”
Xiao Feng was startled and nodded. “What about it?”
“What’s your name?” Lin Yuchan turned to ask the narrow-faced maid.
“She’s called Qiu Lan.” Xiao Feng answered with hostility. “We’re both old-timers in the residence. Don’t think of complaining to the head maid about us!”
Lin Yuchan gave a soft, cold laugh, turned over, and ignored her.
Just sixteen or seventeen-year-old girls, high school age, confined to a small world, breeding malicious precocity. Lin Yuchan wasn’t angry at such childishness at all.
Lin Yuchan got out of bed and walked to Qiu Lan’s bed, politely giving her name: “Sister Qiu Lan, I’m new here and still need you to teach me the rules. It’s late today, you should also advise Sister Xiao Feng to rest early—we all have to work tomorrow.”
Although Qiu Lan also looked down on big-footed girls, her nature was gentle, and she had been pretending to sleep and staying “neutral” in bed. Seeing Lin Yuchan come directly to talk to her, she felt embarrassed and softly comforted: “Xiao Feng has a fiery temperament, but she’s not bad…”
Hearing this, Xiao Feng got angry and shouted at Qiu Lan: “How is my temperament fiery? I just can’t stand people who have nothing but act arrogant as if everyone owes them something! Hey, big-footed girl, don’t try to drive a wedge between us two! What’s wrong with sleeping late? Qiu Lan doesn’t mind!”
Of course, Qiu Lan minded. She was trying to smooth things over, but got choked back by Xiao Feng’s words. Her face darkened a bit as she turned to face the wall.
Lin Yuchan asked again: “Sister Qiu Lan, do you know where in this residence they need people?”
She only had three days. Rather than hoping for others to kindly arrange work for her, better to take initiative.
Qiu Lan thought for a moment and shook her head.
“All places are fully staffed. Haven’t heard of any new hiring…” Consistent with what the supervisor said.
Xiao Feng jumped in: “What, when they bought you, didn’t they say which room you’d go to or what work you’d do? So, how did you come here?”
Probably sent by tenants to offset rent. Thinking this, Xiao Feng looked down on this big-footed girl even more.
“Right,” Xiao Feng suddenly sneered, “the tea shop warehouse seems to be hiring laborers… cough, what’s the use of saying this? You’re a girl—no matter how big your feet, you can’t do manual labor, hehe!”