“I’m going to be needing a lot more of your help around here,” Bai Qianqian said. “And you know how few people in this village are willing to lend a hand. Please, just take it. Otherwise, I’ll feel terrible always bothering you.”
She played the reluctant card, highlighting her precarious position in the village. Her plea finally convinced Auntie Liu, who accepted the twenty copper coins and left, her face alight with pleasure.
Bai Qianqian carried the winter melons into the corner of the room. Surveying the stockpile of supplies, she felt a wave of relief wash over her.
That afternoon, she and Zhao Anyao stayed indoors to keep warm by the fire.
Bai Qianqian spent the time peeling the winter melons, preparing to make a large batch of candied winter melon. She planned to bake the brown sugar jujube cake in a few days, as they wouldn’t keep for long.
Three days later, the carriage arrived on schedule to collect the sweets. Bai Qianqian brought out the packaged candied melon and helped load it into the carriage. Then she went to the steamer, lifting the lid to reveal the freshly steamed cakes.
The rich aroma of brown sugar and jujubes immediately filled the kitchen.
The curious villagers, who had been wondering why a carriage had appeared, finally understood. It wasn’t that Madam Bai had hired a driver—the carriage had come specifically to buy her cakes.
“The smell is incredible! When did Madam Bai learn to bake like this?”
“She can even make candy! Look at all those baskets. How much money must she be making?”
“Judging by the Zhao family’s faces, they’re just finding out now too!”
Soon, the villagers fell silent. They watched as the driver counted the goods and handed a pouch of silver to Bai Qianqian. Each of them wished they were the ones receiving the money.
“Lady Bai, the goods are all set. We’ll be back in three days!” The driver quickly drove the carriage away.
“Back in three days? That means she’ll earn even more! Just how many skills does Madam Bai have?”
“You can say that again. She’s been hiding her talents well. The Zhao family are fools—if they hadn’t made things so tense with her, even the crumbs from her table would be enough to feed them!”
The disgust in their eyes had vanished, replaced by envy and burning curiosity.
Zhao Chengshuang saw Bai Qianqian tuck the pouch of silver into her pocket, and greed nearly overflowed from her eyes.
“Madam Bai! Don’t you have anything to explain to us?” she demanded, speaking up just as Bai Qianqian was about to go back inside.
“Explain what?”
“Stop pretending! Where did you get the recipes for those cakes? You’re married into the Zhao family now—how can you justify keeping secrets like this?” Zhao Chengshuang’s voice rang with newfound confidence after Old Madam Zhao gave her a nod of approval.
“So now I’m suddenly a member of your Zhao family?” Bai Qianqian scoffed. “We agreed to live separate lives, yet here you are, already trying to claim the recipes I brought as part of my dowry. Have you no shame?”
Bai Qianqian had known the Zhaos were insatiable from the start, but she wasn’t one to be bullied.
“Nonsense!” Zhao Chengshuang retorted. “If those recipes were part of your dowry, why are you only making these cakes now? Stop trying to deceive us!”
“I can say for certain her dowry never had any recipes,” Old Madam Zhao interjected. “If it did, she would have produced them a year ago!” She had personally rummaged through Bai Qianqian’s dowry when they had seized it, finding nothing of the sort.
“Hmph! Did you really think you could find the recipes just by stealing my dowry?” Bai Qianqian’s eyes flashed.
“Truth is, I’ve memorized them all. My mother knew you’d try to bully me, which is why she never wrote them down. She was protecting me from people exactly like you!”
Her lie was smooth, leaving no room for doubt.
“Impossible,” Old Madam Zhao spat, her eyes burning with greed. “If the Bai family had such recipes, they wouldn’t still be scraping by on hunting. They’d have used the money to buy land long ago!” She refused to be swindled.
The pouch of silver the driver had just handed Bai Qianqian made her heart ache with a desperate, covetous longing.
“If you don’t believe me, go ask my parents,” Bai Qianqian sneered. “You have the nerve to openly admit you stole my dowry, so I’m sure you’re bold enough to go to the Bai family and demand the recipes.”
She watched with cold amusement as Old Madam Zhao and her daughter fumed before her. Her gaze then shifted to Old Master Zhao, who stood by silently, permitting the chaos.
What a perfectly matched family, she thought bitterly.
Old Madam Zhao’s retort died in her throat. She had only dared to seize Bai Qianqian’s dowry when the girl was too sick to resist. She didn’t have the gall to face the Bai family and demand an explanation.
Bai Qianqian knew Old Master Zhao would never endure such a public humiliation. That was why she had shifted the blame to her parents—as long as she insisted the recipes came from her maiden home, the Zhaos had no ground to seize them.
Mentioning her parents, however, made Bai Qianqian feel a twinge of guilt. She wasn’t the original owner of this body, and she feared the Bai family would sense something was wrong if she returned. But their memories showed they had been kind to her.
She couldn’t avoid them forever.
I’ll deal with that after the New Year, she decided.
Ignoring the crowd still gawking outside, Bai Qianqian retreated into her room and slammed the door shut.
Wrapped in a cotton jacket, Zhao Anyao used a firestick to scrawl on the ground. He could now recite numbers up to fifty without a hitch, and Bai Qianqian decided to teach him some basic arithmetic.
She didn’t plan to teach him too much, fearing he would get confused. It would still be best to send him to a proper school for his early education. Besides, she could barely read the characters of this world herself, and her writing was an absolute mess.
She’d just have to learn along with him when he started his schooling.
*
“Mother, Bai Qianqian’s been trying to keep us out since the day she entered this house! She only revealed the recipes once we’d fallen out, so she could start earning her own money. It must have been planned all along!”
Zhao Chengshuang’s heart ached at the thought of the money Bai Qianqian had made from the pastry recipes. How could the Bai family have been generous enough to give her the recipes? Why was she the one with such bad luck?
“With her attitude now, it’s unlikely she’ll hand over the recipes,” Madam Lin said, her mind just as fixated on the formulas as Old Madam Zhao’s. “If we had them, we’d never have to worry about the money for Anyang’s schooling again!”
“What’s the rush?” Old Master Zhao said. “As long as she’s a member of the Zhao family, those recipes will eventually be ours. With our second son away, Madam Bai has been difficult to control, so we must be patient. We’ll wait for the third son to return and see what he can do. In the meantime, treat her with respect. Especially you, Chengshuang—stop provoking her. And you, eldest daughter-in-law, if you have time, you should visit her more often.”
The family obeyed without question. Even Zhao Chengshuang fell silent, her resentment quelled by the thought of the fortune those recipes could bring.
*
The next day, Bai Qianqian felt as if she’d swallowed a fly when she saw Madam Lin delivering firewood.
“Sister-in-law,” Madam Lin said, “you’ll need plenty of wood to make those pastries. I took the liberty of bringing some over myself. Are you busy? Do you need any help?”
As she spoke, Madam Lin stacked the wood in a neat pile, her eyes darting repeatedly toward the kitchen in a failed attempt to be subtle.
Bai Qianqian saw right through her. She had already moved all her ingredients inside, so she didn’t even give Madam Lin a glance. She simply walked back into the house and slammed the door shut.
The blatant rudeness nearly drove Madam Lin to a fury, and she almost started shouting right there on the doorstep. Only the thought of the recipes kept her calm.