The moment Mo Zi left the room, Bai He and Lu Ju, who had been anxiously waiting outside, immediately rushed up to her.
“Miss won’t really make you pay the silver, will she?” Lu Ju asked first. Without waiting for Mo Zi’s answer, she blamed her, “Mo Zi, can’t you just not talk back to Miss?”
“Look who’s talking about not talking back?” Mo Zi smiled, her white teeth like pearls. “None of us can compare to you, Lu Ju.”
“What I do isn’t talking back—it’s making Miss happy. Every time I rush to say nice things.” Lu Ju was deft with her hands and sweet with her mouth, so Mo Zi startling her like this caught her off guard. “Not like you, daring to say to Miss ‘we’ll talk when you’re able to marry.’ Even our Miss is lenient—try that with another young lady and see what happens? If they don’t flay your skin, they’ll make you kneel on stone slabs. Then they’d report to Madam, and you’d definitely be beaten to death.”
Thinking back, Mo Zi admitted those words had indeed been rather harsh. Having been slapped by Zhang Shi and then having her nerves jangled by three hundred taels, she hadn’t filtered it through her brain first. Moreover, after six months of walking on eggshells in the Qiu Mansion, always having to think and rethink before speaking, she was probably fed up with it.
Bai He spoke with the steady maturity befitting a senior maid. “Mo Zi, don’t ever say such muddled things again. Even if Miss demanded our lives, we’d have to give them, let alone just silver. Not only would we plead with Miss on your behalf, Lu Ju and I have discussed it—we can pool together one hundred and fifty taels. You don’t need to worry too much.”
“There’s also Xiao Yi. She’s traveled out with Miss and Master the most, so her tips must be substantial too.” Lu Ju wanted to pull the absent Xiao Yi into the fundraising as well.
“You’re both right. I won’t talk back to Miss again in the future. The silver matter isn’t urgent yet. I’ll think about it after Miss’s match with Prince Jing’s Mansion’s Third Young Master is settled. If there’s really no other way, I’ll borrow from you then.” After all, Qiu Sanniang hadn’t said she couldn’t borrow silver.
“She’s really making you produce three hundred taels?” Though Lu Ju had just heard Qiu Sanniang say it herself, she hadn’t taken it seriously.
“Just as Sister Bai He said, even if Miss demanded our lives, we’d have to give them, let alone just silver.” Mo Zi’s mindset adjusted very quickly.
“Should I go beg Miss?” Clearly Bai He shared Lu Ju’s thinking, assuming Qiu Sanniang was just talking. “There’s no precedent for this either.”
“Let it start with me then. You should all be more careful in the future—who knows when Miss might make you donate hundreds or thousands.” Mo Zi walked into the room where they lodged.
“Thousands of taels?!” Lu Ju pouted her lips, following Mo Zi inside. “You might as well kill me—that would be quicker. Besides, if I had that much silver, why would I work as anyone’s maid? I’d marry someone, set up a business for my husband, and become a proprietress myself.”
Bai He burst out laughing. “Shameless girl. You’re the youngest among us, yet your thoughts aren’t small at all—already thinking about marriage and becoming a proprietress.” Finishing, she saw Mo Zi take out a set of blue-gray clothes from her trunk, knowing she was going to change. She pulled Lu Ju to the outer room.
Lu Ju also noticed and muttered about how they’d just arrived and now she was going out again. Then, walking outside, she picked up Bai He’s thread of conversation. “What else then? Can I really follow Miss for my whole life? I’m not like you all—every one of you so clever, with Miss entrusting you with all sorts of matters. If I were to manage household affairs, I couldn’t control others. Send me to the estate, and I don’t understand farming. Put me in charge of a shop, and I can’t read or keep accounts.”
“Why not have Miss match you with someone early, have children early, then become a wet nurse for the young miss or young master?” Mo Zi suggested from behind the curtain while changing clothes.
Through the rice-paper window, they could hear Bai He laughing irrepressibly. “That’s good! Lu Ju, you’re skillful at embroidery—you could make diapers for the young miss or young master while you’re at it. In the future, when they grow up, they’ll have to address you as Wet Nurse and support you in your old age. Then you could follow Miss for your whole life.”
Mo Zi heard two pairs of feet stomping quickly in the outer room and knew Lu Ju was chasing Bai He to hit her.
Sure enough, Lu Ju protested, “Drop dead! Who’s the shameless one, saying such vulgar old woman talk?”
“How was it me who said it?” Bai He panted huffily, thoroughly amused. “It was clearly Mo Zi who said it. I even praised you.”
“You’re both ganging up on me because you’re older. I’m going to report to Miss.”
When Mo Zi emerged, she saw Lu Ju’s face completely flushed—embarrassed yet annoyed, angry yet laughing.
“If you report these jokes we made to Miss, we’ll report to Miss about you wanting to marry and become a proprietress. Let’s see whose side Miss takes.” Bai He hid behind Mo Zi, avoiding Lu Ju’s “fierce” claws.
Seeing Lu Ju about to grab her blue robe, Mo Zi blocked her hand, saying unhurriedly, “Careful—this is my only one, and I still need to go out and inquire for Miss. If Miss marries poorly, being a wet nurse would be the better option. If she ends up with a son-in-law like Fifth Master who takes you into his household and elevates you as a concubine—who would you cry to then?”
Qiu Sanniang’s maids each had their own skills and personalities, but they shared one thing in common—they’d rather be the head of an ox than the tail of a phoenix. Mo Zi had never educated them with twenty-first century ideology. Qiu Sanniang also didn’t seem to discuss such things with her maids, but she herself very much disapproved of men having three wives and four concubines. All three had followed her outside to broaden their horizons, and upon returning to see the messy affairs in the mansion, they probably became particularly resistant to being concubines. Except for Xiao Yi, who always said she’d never marry, both Lu Ju and Bai He hoped to find honest, upright men—being poor didn’t matter.
A perfectly ordinary blue robe became critically important in Mo Zi’s telling, and she mentioned the words they least wanted to hear. Lu Ju reluctantly withdrew her hand. “It’s all faded anyway. I’ll make you a new one so people outside won’t look down on you and think you’re some beggar.”
“It’s better not to stand out.” Mo Zi grasped her sleeve cuff with her right hand. “The stitching is loose though—that does need mending.”
“If you like old things, why not have Lu Ju make another set from old cloth, so you’ll have something to change into?” After the horseplay ended, Bai He was still the most meticulous senior maid.
“This style is fine.” Mo Zi turned her arm, both hands gathering the two narrow sleeves and pulling them behind her back.
Looking at Mo Zi again—dressed in a blue cloth double-breasted gray long robe, gray rock-colored riding pants, and a pair of black old cloth shoes on her feet—she looked exactly like a young manservant.
Lu Ju came over and undid Mo Zi’s maid’s bun, quickly gathering all her hair up high in a bundle and wrapping it tightly with a dull gray square cloth. She applied a layer of dark powder to her face, then took an eyebrow pencil and helped her draw her fine brows thicker, the brow peaks like mountains. She used powder to dull her cherry-colored lips, removing their luster. Bai He also helped, dyeing two copper-coin-sized spots on the left side of her cheek below with a mixture of balsam juice and ink—mottled red, neither deep nor shallow, like a birthmark. Working together, Mo Zi quickly looked like an ordinary manservant from head to toe.
Call him very handsome? The two copper-coin spots somewhat ruined that. Call him refined? People would shake their heads and sigh. The final conclusion was mediocre—passable looks.
Bai He and Lu Ju exchanged glances, simultaneously smiling as they curtsied slightly to Mo Zi. “Young Master Mo, our respects.”