Shopkeeper Wang Quan had been very busy lately.

Defeng Trading House mainly dealt in tea business. Most of the time they acted as middlemen, connecting foreign merchants and purchasing tea from inland areas. Recently another batch of orders had arrived. He had people collect a batch of raw tea from Fujian and personally supervised the weighing.

He sat in a branch shop behind the Qi residence, the entire courtyard filled with the aroma of tea. Several copper-rod scales stood on the ground with large scales suspended from them. Five or six laborers were weighing the bamboo baskets one by one.

A young man in patched clothing rubbed his hands together, staring intently at the numbers on the scale.

This was a tea farmer from the countryside, doing business with a major trading house for the first time, so nervous he didn’t know where to put his feet. He had all the characteristics of the poor in this era: ragged clothes, disheveled appearance, black dirt behind his ears, hair unwashed for years, his braid tip stiff and sticking up, emanating the stench of hair oil and sweat mixed and fermented.

Shopkeeper Wang Quan stood guard beside them arrogantly, casually scooping up handfuls of tea from the bamboo baskets and throwing them into a cloth bag at his feet.

The large scale swayed twice, and the weight on the scale beam moved.

The tea farmer cried out: “That’s wrong, two jin short!”

“Don’t you understand the rules?” Wang Quan pointed to the cloth bag on the ground. “This is called sample tea! Otherwise, if problems arise with our goods later, how would we know which batch it was?”

The tea farmer mumbled: “But you don’t need to take samples from every basket…”

But he was alone and outnumbered. Wang Quan and the surrounding clerks all had an “this has always been the way” expression, so he didn’t dare raise any more objections.

His entire family’s second half of the year depended on selling this tea to fill their stomachs.

Taking samples wasn’t enough. After each bamboo basket was weighed, Wang Quan instructed the clerks to round down the weight.

“Your basket is too heavy, you need to subtract the tare weight.” Wang Quan explained impatiently. “Look, these baskets have been repaired, they’re double-layered—eh, subtract another two jin from each basket!”

The tea farmer swallowed his anger and calculated silently to himself, then asked quietly: “So, Shopkeeper, how much will you give me in total?”

Wang Quan took out a small abacus, calculated with rapid clicking, and laughed: “Young fellow, this is your first time doing business with our firm, right? Let’s be friends, I’ll give you a discount price—fifty-eight taels of silver, take it and don’t thank me…”

The tea farmer immediately became anxious, stammering: “Ei… eight hundred jin of tea, painstakingly grown by several of our families, is only… only worth fifty-eight taels?”

Wang Quan’s face darkened: “Our firm has always conducted fair business with clear pricing. Your batch claims to be eight hundred jin, but after taking samples, subtracting tare weight, and deducting impurities, I reckon only five hundred jin can be put on shelves. At the market price of seventeen taels per hundred jin, that’s eighty-five taels total. The Guangzhou tea trade common rule is to round down, so eighty taels. Our tea house handles buying and selling for customers; we must charge commission, right? The trade rule is ninety-five percent settlement, we’re not overcharging you, leaving seventy-six taels. Plus, there are interpreter fees, crate-breaking fees, travel expenses, and export customs duties—our firm paid these for you. After deducting taxes and fees, fifty-nine taels remain. Nine is unlucky, so for good fortune, I’ll give you fifty-eight. Go home and get rich, young fellow!…”

The tea farmer couldn’t calculate it at all, staring with his mouth agape.

This exploitation rhetoric was not being used for the first time. Wang Quan knew how to pressure the final payment to the lowest—if the order of each discount was slightly changed, for instance “deducting taxes” before “ninety-five percent settlement,” the resulting amount would be slightly higher.

The completely illiterate tea farmer certainly couldn’t discern the tricks involved, and could only anxiously turn red-faced, futilely haggling: “No good, no good! My father said this tea could sell for at least one hundred taels!”

“Foreign merchants don’t like paying in silver, this money will have to wait until year-end to collect!” Wang Quan waved his hand, ordering the laborers: “Take the tea away, to the warehouse!”

The tea farmer panicked, throwing himself in front of the bamboo baskets: “Paying at year-end—this is forcing my whole family to starve to death!”

He seemed about to make threats, but when two burly clerks beside Wang Quan stepped forward, the tea farmer lost courage and said weakly: “Shopkeeper, you can’t bully people. I need the money paid now!”

“Then that would be borrowing from our firm,” Wang Quan smiled, his eyes behind the glasses narrowing even smaller. “Interest at discount rate, I can give you fifty taels.”

He untied the money pouch from his waist, deliberately shaking the silver inside with a clinking sound, then counted out the money one silver yuan at a time.

The tea farmer’s eyes filled with murky tears as he gradually gave ground: “Se… seventy taels. Please have mercy, Shopkeeper, my family still owes money, those tea trees are all rented…”

Wang Quan was extremely impatient: “These are the trade rules. If you think it’s too little money, go find a foreign firm to sell to yourself! See which foreign master will pay attention to you!”

Before the tea farmer could speak, an angry female voice cut in from the side.

“Shopkeeper, having money doesn’t mean you can bully people excessively. This is called draining the pond to catch fish—when all the tea farmers go bankrupt and change trades, where will you go to collect tea? If you treat him fairly, he’ll come back to do business with you next year!”

Wang Quan jumped in fright. This courtyard was full of men—where did a woman come from?

And she opened her mouth to scold people!

Turning around, “You?”

Lin Yuchan had been waiting here for a long time, witnessing the entire process of capitalists exploiting laborers. She knew that living under someone else’s roof, she should cower like a ball. Unfortunately, after holding back and holding back, her socialist consciousness finally overcame her self-preservation instincts, and she burst out angrily denouncing the capitalist.

Seeing someone speaking up for him, the tea farmer was moved to tears, bowing to Wang Quan: “Right, right! Shopkeeper, if I can’t get money today, I’ll have no choice but to starve to death!”

Wang Quan felt this Miss Lin was like a lingering ghost, waving his hand to scold: “Why aren’t you staying in the residence? What are you doing running here? Go back immediately!”

Lin Yuchan spread her hands: “Shopkeeper, I… I came to work.”

“Work?” Wang Quan sneered. “What work do I have for you to do?”

Lin Yuchan: “I heard you need laborers here.”

Xiao Feng had told her this. Xiao Feng used this to disgust her, meaning that big-footed girls like her were only fit for the physical labor that men did.

But Lin Yuchan had taken note and even thought it was a good idea.

Wang Quan was confused, thinking he had misheard: “What?”

“Does your shop hire laborers?”

Wang Quan leaned forward in his chair, pushed his glasses, and looked at Lin Yuchan like she was a monster.

“I’m busy, go back to the residence immediately!”

“The Qi residence doesn’t want me.” Lin Yuchan said. “The dormitory only gives me three days. After three days, I heard them discussing that they want to… want to pair me with a farm hand.”

“Isn’t that quite good? Maidservants all get paired off when they reach age.” Wang Quan said casually. Then he noticed Lin Yuchan’s expression—she didn’t seem very happy, even somewhat disgusted.

He understood and gave a cold laugh: “I knew it, you still want to be with the young master! Hmph, too late! The young master won’t even acknowledge me lately!”

Lin Yuchan pointed to the laborers loading and unloading tea in the courtyard, stubbornly saying, “I can work as a laborer for your shop. I haven’t bound my feet, I can walk.”

Wang Quan was torn between laughter and tears. She was fantasizing—where were these women doing manual labor?

“As if you could lift a few jin…”

Lin Yuchan boldly said, “Actually, I also know some accounting and such…”

Wang Quan wasn’t listening at all. In his worldview, there had never been an option for “women doing business.”

He suddenly had an idea, reached out to push his glasses, and the eyes behind the lenses returned to a smiling expression.

“Hey, young fellow,” he called to the tea farmer, “you’re not married yet, right?”

The tea farmer nodded dumbly.

“I have a maidservant here, originally bought for thirty taels of silver, now needs to be married off. I see you’re honest, how about I give her to you—fifty taels of silver plus a woman who can bear children, are you satisfied now? This is the last time for bargaining—if you keep haggling, you won’t even get fifty taels!”

The tea farmer was stunned: “This… really?”

“Would I lie to you? I have her indenture contract right here, a girl from a respectable family. If you want her, you can consummate tonight!”

Lin Yuchan was dazed for a moment before understanding, immediately turning blue with anger.

“Hey, Shopkeeper, you can’t…”

However, after the tea farmer had calculated for a while, his eyes gradually brightened. The big trading house was bullying him with low prices—his arm couldn’t twist their thigh, and he couldn’t reason with them. But the shopkeeper finally showed some conscience, proposing to use the maidservant to offset the tea money—in their countryside, marrying a well-mannered maidservant from a wealthy household would cost dozens of taels in bride price!

He had originally planned to sell this year’s tea and go home to find a wife anyway—he’d have to spend money either way.

Human thinking has limitations. For instance, in haggling, when the original price doesn’t meet psychological expectations, suddenly mentioning a “bonus gift” immediately makes one feel they’re getting a bargain.

He immediately switched to a master’s demeanor, straightened his back, and boldly looked at the maidservant’s appearance, secretly delighted.

However, he still had to bargain: “Feet too big, not worth much! Shopkeeper, you can’t bully honest people—you need to add ten taels for me!”

Wang Quan: “Fifty-five!”

The tea farmer beamed with joy and quickly signed the settlement. He bowed: “Thank you, Shopkeeper!”

Lin Yuchan jumped three feet away: “Don’t touch me!”

She was so angry her teeth itched. She had pitied this young man and just risked herself to stand up for him; who knew he wouldn’t share her righteous indignation but wanted to buy her to bear his children!

For Wang Quan, this living person was a failed investment, costing money to maintain, and he couldn’t wait to get rid of her and cut his losses.

For the tea farmer, this was the most ordinary “bartering.” He hadn’t received enough silver, and he felt wronged, too.

Lin Yuchan felt there were pitfalls everywhere in front of her. Glancing at the tea farmer, she thought quickly and said: “I… I’m weak and sickly, can’t work—buying me is useless! I believe in foreign religion and recite foreign scriptures, I have to pray to God five times a day…”

“As long as you can bear children,” the tea farmer suddenly lost his earlier pitiful appearance, his eyes flashing with a vicious light. “A few beatings will cure everything else.”

As he spoke, he opened his rough hands, using fingernails embedded with black dirt to grab Lin Yuchan’s shoulder.

Slap!

Lin Yuchan used all her strength to slap him across the face. Five finger marks immediately appeared on the young man’s face.

If she hadn’t been in a semi-starved state these past few days, she felt she could have thrown a few more punches.

She wanted to slap Wang Quan too. But this courtyard was full of tea house people—if she dared cause trouble, she probably wouldn’t live to see tomorrow.

She could only bully the weak first. She glared at the tea farmer, took a rough breath, and said: “Who beats whom is still uncertain.”

The tea farmer covered his face, at a loss. He didn’t understand—although he wasn’t rich, he was at least a law-abiding citizen. How dare a lowly household maidservant strike him?

He looked to Wang Quan for help: “Shopkeeper…”

Wang Quan was also startled, then put on a stern face and said matter-of-factly: “Ay, it’s already money and goods settled—how you take her away depends on your ability.”

The tea farmer didn’t dare move. Lin Yuchan took the opportunity to rush to a young laborer and pointed to the bamboo basket in his hands.

“Big brother, for carrying this crate, how much wages can you get?”

The laborer jumped in fright, glanced at Wang Quan, and said dumbly: “Three qian of silver per month, food and lodging included… hey, what are you doing?”

Lin Yuchan snatched the bamboo basket from his hands and slung it onto her back—

Her features contorted for a moment. So heavy! Her waist was about to break.

Her body, just recovered from malaria, was still very weak. Stars danced before her eyes as she forcefully regulated her breathing, telling herself:

Don’t fall… stand straight!

She slightly bent her knees, shouldered the bamboo basket on her back, swayed twice, and stood firm.

The other laborers all stopped working, staring at her slack-jawed.

The laborers weren’t exactly broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, but they were at least young men in their prime, with big hands and feet, and even they showed bulging neck veins when carrying bamboo baskets.

And now, a three-foot-tall bamboo basket was pressed on the back of a thin little girl, swaying unsteadily, like a watermelon growing on a cherry tree.

Lin Yuchan endured waves of blackness before her eyes, moved step by step to the pushcart, learning from the laborers’ method—turning her back, slowly squatting down, unloading the bamboo basket onto the pushcart, arranging it neatly alongside the other baskets.

Her scalp tightened as she wiped sweat, tasting blood under her tongue.

“You see, I can also sell my strength.” She stared at Wang Quan, trying hard to suppress her disgust toward him. “I don’t want the monthly wage of three qian of silver. Isn’t it just fifteen taels of silver? Use me for five years and you’ll break even. Use me for six years and it’s more profitable than selling me.”

The tea farmer and Wang Quan looked at each other.

Wang Quan was half astonished, half amused: “Use you? Use a girl for labor? You’re fantasizing!—Hey, slow down! Don’t shake around carelessly!”

A laborer carrying a bamboo basket staggered down the stone steps. To save energy, the laborer deliberately bent his knees when going down steps, using inertia to create a bouncing rhythm.

The bamboo basket’s carrying strap, worn from years of use, suddenly snapped with a crash, and a basketful of tea leaves spilled out with the lid.

Lin Yuchan had been watching that laborer. She darted forward in one stride, caught the bottom of the bamboo basket, and intercepted most of the tea leaves.

“Let’s go,” she efficiently grabbed the tea leaves that had fallen on the ground and put them back in the basket, saying to the laborer, “I’ll support the basket. Don’t delay the cargo transport.”

The laborer had probably long developed the instinct to “follow orders.” Without asking where this Lin Yuchan had come from, he mechanically nodded and obediently continued walking with the bamboo basket on his back.

Wang Quan hadn’t expected her to take such an unexpected approach. For a moment, he stared at her blankly, as if waiting for her to finish making trouble and come back to apologize, or as if waiting for her to overestimate her abilities and snap her waist with a crack.

So to others, this blank stare was equivalent to tacit approval. Lin Yuchan followed the laborer team and walked out of the main gate.

Only then did Wang Quan react and hurry to chase: “Hey, come back!”

At the same time, the tea farmer suddenly became clever, grabbed the money pouch Wang Quan had left on the ground, and ran.

Wang Quan caught a glimpse from the corner of his eye and nearly did a split on the spot: “Rotten boy, where are you running! Chase him!”