“Fine, I’ll take one! My daughter’s recovering from childbirth and needs to nourish her body. Pick the biggest piece for me!” Before the old woman could say a word, another woman stepped forward, pulled out eight coins, and bought a slice.
Bai Qianqian’s slices were all roughly the same size, but since this was her first customer, she carefully selected a few pieces, only wrapping the cake and handing it over once the woman was satisfied.
The vegetable seller, thinking of her grandson at home, gritted her teeth and bought one too. She kept a close eye on Bai Qianqian, making sure she chose a larger piece.
After selling those first two, the other vendors didn’t follow suit. Eight coins was simply too expensive for them, so they could only watch with envy.
Bai Qianqian wasn’t discouraged. She uncovered the brown sugar jujube cake in her basket and arranged it neatly. Whenever a customer came to buy vegetables, she’d start pitching her cakes.
“brown sugar jujube cake for sale! A treat for the young and old alike! Eight coins each! First come, first picked!”
Since it was her first time setting up a stall, many people stopped to look because she was a new face. She managed to sell a few more pieces this way.
Still, more than half the basket remained unsold. Bai Qianqian prepared herself for a long day. She took a few sips of water to soothe her throat and began calling out again.
“Your jujube cake is excellent, but the price is too high,” the old vegetable vendor said as she began packing up her stall. “The people selling vegetables here are all looking for a bargain; they can’t afford this. You’d be better off selling your wares somewhere else.”
Bai Qianqian, who had shared a sample with the old woman earlier, nodded. “Alright, thank you for the advice, Granny.”
She had been so eager to sell where the crowds were that she’d completely ignored the low purchasing power of the other vendors. Now, she finally understood the problem.
After repacking her goods, she found a busier spot and began weaving through the crowds. When she spotted children on the street, she started calling out more energetically. “brown sugar jujube cake! Sweet, soft brown sugar jujube cake!”
The scent drifting from her basket immediately caught the attention of a child being led by the hand, who planted his feet and refused to budge.
“I want cake! Mama, I want cake!”
“What cake? You can’t eat that!” His mother, clearly from a poorer family, dragged him away.
However, a woman with a few spare coins in her hand pulled her own child toward Bai Qianqian.
“Eight coins a piece,” Bai Qianqian said, offering her a small sample. “You can try a bit. We use plenty of brown sugar and eggs in these—they’re very nourishing.”
The woman immediately popped a piece of cake into her child’s mouth, her affection for the little one clear.
“It’s delicious! Mama, I want more!”
“Alright, alright,” the woman said, her willingness to spend obvious. “I’ll take two pieces.”
Bai Qianqian quickly wrapped the cakes and handed them over before moving on to her next spot on the street. When she grew tired, she rested by the roadside. By the end of the morning, the back of her tunic was soaked with sweat.
Sigh.
Bai Qianqian sat by the curb, watching the crowd thin out. She still had a few pieces of brown sugar jujube cake left in her basket. After a brief rest, she stood up to try selling again.
“Wait! I finally found you!” a woman called out, jogging over to her. “You keep moving around—you’re so hard to find!”
“How many pieces do you have left? I’ll buy them all.”
This was the same woman who had earlier decided to buy some cakes to nourish her daughter. Unexpectedly, her daughter’s mother-in-law had also fallen in love with them.
The cakes had truly won them over. Her son-in-law, a thoughtful man, had even given her extra money to buy more.
“Five pieces left,” Bai Qianqian said. She hadn’t expected to meet a big customer. The woman was dressed plainly, yet she was so willing to spend so much.
“I’ll take them,” the woman said without a moment’s hesitation. She counted out the copper coins and handed them to Bai Qianqian.
“Alright! Thank you for the business,” Bai Qianqian replied with a smile as she wrapped the cakes.
“It’s not easy for you. You should head home early,” the woman said.
Having bought the cakes from her earlier in the morning, she knew Bai Qianqian had been on the street all day and understood how hard she worked.
Bai Qianqian, delighted by the day’s sales, chatted with her for a moment before leaving.
After a full day of selling cakes, she’d earned 320 wen. After subtracting the cost of ingredients, she was left with about 200 wen—a promising start.
“Zhao Anyao, you little brat, where are you?” Bai Qianqian looked around the house and the yard after returning to the village, but the sun was already setting and she still couldn’t see him.
With no sign of him, she put her earnings away and started preparing dinner.
“Hurry up! The pigs are howling. What are you still dawdling about?” Zhao Chengshuang’s impatient voice drifted in from outside.
Bai Qianqian went out to see what the commotion was about. She’d only been gone a day, yet Zhao Anyao already looked exactly as he did the day she’d arrived in this world—face covered in grime and dust, a heavy basket of pig fodder slung over his back.
He had spent the entire day cutting pig fodder, and the basket was still heavily laden. Hearing Zhao Chengshuang’s voice, he didn’t even make a sound.
Before he could reach the pigsty, the weight on his back suddenly vanished.
“Didn’t I say you don’t have to cut pig fodder anymore?” Bai Qianqian snatched the basket from his back and tossed it aside before turning to Zhao Chengshuang.
“Madam Bai! What’s that supposed to mean?” Chengshuang shrieked. “Zhao Anyao is my second brother’s son, not yours! Why should he have to listen to you?”
Zhao Chengshuang had looked down her nose at Bai Qianqian since the day she married into the Zhao family. Though her brother had been married before, Chengshuang still found Bai Qianqian’s plump figure utterly unsuitable for him.
She considered her an unworthy addition to the family and spent her days constantly looking for reasons to complain.
“Because he’s eating the food I cook!” Bai Qianqian retorted. “Didn’t your mother tell you? If you want him to keep cutting fodder for you, we get our share of the pork at the end of the year. Otherwise, don’t even think about sending him to help you.”
Without waiting for Chengshuang to respond, Bai Qianqian pulled Anyao away.
“You fat bitch!” Chengshuang screamed, her voice echoing through the courtyard like a street-fighting shrew. “He’s a member of the Zhao family! How dare you interfere? And you want our pork…!”
Bai Qianqian ignored the torrent of abuse, turning her attention to the boy. She set a bowl of somewhat mushy noodles before him.
“Did you eat the cakes I left for you this morning? And the sweet potato in the pot—that was for you too,” Bai Qianqian said, her brow furrowing as she watched him devour the noodles with ferocious hunger.
“Auntie… Auntie snatched my cakes…”
Zhao Anyao didn’t know why he felt so wronged. He hadn’t cried when Chengshuang took the cakes away, but now that Bai Qianqian asked, he was on the verge of tears.
Her expression darkened as she gently wiped his face.
I should have beaten that woman up first, she thought bitterly. I went too easy on her.
“Don’t cry,” Bai Qianqian said, her voice softening. “Tomorrow, you’re coming out with me. If you stay here, you’ll just keep getting bullied. From now on, if anyone messes with you, just run back and tell me. I’ll fight them for you, okay?” Seeing the boy act like such a doormat—and remembering how other village kids had picked on him—she couldn’t help but add those words of reassurance.
“Okay,” Anyao replied. He looked at her, a spark of joy lighting up his face.
Xiaohu, the bully who always teased him in the village, didn’t have a mother nearly as tall as his stepmother. She definitely couldn’t fight as well as she could. With this thought, he happily slurped down another mouthful of noodles.
What a little fool, laughing and crying at the same time, Bai Qianqian thought, unable to grasp the boy’s logic. Still, as long as he was smiling, that was all that mattered. At least tonight, he’d sleep well.