The owner of the ready-made clothing shop rolled his eyes at Bai Qianqian’s words, but he couldn’t bring himself to put the clothes back on the rack.
Few people bought ready-made clothes these days; most preferred to buy fabric and sew their own. These few garments had been hanging in his shop for a long time without selling. With the weather turning cold, he knew if he missed this chance, he might never sell them.
Bai Qianqian waited patiently for the owner to respond.
“If you buy two pieces, I’ll give them to you for sixty wen each!”
“I’ll take two for one hundred wen, or forget it,” Bai Qianqian countered.
She knew perfectly well that these clothes were unsellable. The owner had tried to play her for a fool from the start.
The shopkeeper had never encountered a customer who bargained so ruthlessly. What’s more, this was a stepmother who clearly didn’t want to buy clothes for her stepson—she’d be happy to walk away without spending a single coin. If she refused, he’d be left with nothing.
“Fine, I’ll sell them to you. I’m really taking a loss on this one,” he grumbled, his heart bleeding from the brutal price cut.
Only after Bai Qianqian added a pair of cloth shoes to her purchase did the owner finally smile as he sent the mother and son on their way.
“I knew it! Madam Bai must have taken that foolish boy Zhao Anyao to be sold! How else could he have vanished without a trace?” Zhao Chengshuang declared, confident in her attempt to pin the blame on Bai Qianqian.
“Nonsense!” Old Master Zhao retorted. “He’s a child; he probably just wandered off to play somewhere.”
His explanation rang hollow, and no one else spoke up for Bai Qianqian.
“Father!” Zhao Chengshuang exclaimed. “Yesterday, Madam Bai refused to let Zhao Anyao help cut pigweed for the family—she only wanted him to do her chores. She must have taken him! Why are you defending her? She already shamelessly squeezed ten silver taels out of us!”
Zhao Chengshuang had only just learned that the family had paid Bai Qianqian ten taels, and the thought had been keeping her awake with rage for the past two nights.
“Zhao Anyao is a child of the Zhao family,” another clan elder declared, his voice stern. “How dare Madam Bai think she can make decisions for him? If he’s not back by dark, we’ll go to the Bai residence and demand an explanation!”
The other influential elders nodded in agreement. Madam Bai had crossed a line. If a woman from another family had truly sold a Zhao child, it would be an unbearable insult to their clan’s honor.
“My, what a lively gathering!”
The voice came from the courtyard gate. Bai Qianqian had been listening to them for some time before finally leading Zhao Anyao inside. “Did you all come to see if us widows and orphans were finally suffering?”
“How dare you show your face here—” Zhao Chengshuang started, ready to unleash a torrent of abuse on Bai Qianqian while the clan elders were present. But her voice trailed off as she saw Zhao Anyao standing right beside the woman.
“What’s going on?” someone muttered. “Didn’t they say she’d taken the boy to sell him?”
“You’d believe Zhao Siya’s mouth?” another villager retorted. “She probably just wanted to spite Madam Bai, so she told a massive lie!”
The other villagers, who had joined in the condemnation of Madam Bai upon hearing the rumors, now understood. She hadn’t sold the child at all; it had all been Zhao Siya’s loose tongue.
“I only took Anyao to town for a trip!” Bai Qianqian cried, her voice trembling. “How did that turn into me being a money-grubbing stepmother who sells her own child? This is too much! We’re just a widow and an orphan—who have we ever offended? Why must you throw such filth on our names? You black-hearted people! Aren’t you afraid your tongues will rot for such lies?”
She turned to the Clan Elders, her expression desperate. “I’ve only been married into the Zhao family for a year. Zhao Chengwu went off to join the army, leaving me alone to raise our son. I thought I could just stay with the child and wait for his return, but the Zhao family clearly can’t tolerate me. First, they tried to sell me off for a ghost marriage while I was sick, and now they’re slandering me. If you don’t intervene, what other village would ever dare marry their daughters into this family?”
Bai Qianqian’s tearful protests made it impossible for the Clan Elders to simply dismiss the matter.
“Good heavens!” a villager exclaimed. “My son still needs a wife! The Zhao family will ruin our village’s reputation!”
“That’s right,” another added. “I have two daughters yet to be married. Zhao Siya, really! A young woman shouldn’t be so full of lies. Even if she dislikes Madam Bai, she’s still her second sister-in-law. How can a sister-in-law be so disrespectful to her elder?”
Zhao Chengshuang’s face turned ashen at the words, but she found herself unable to defend her actions.
“Chengshuang, apologize to your sister-in-law at once!” Old Madam Zhao intervened, her heart sinking. Her daughter was still waiting for the third son to pass the Xiucai exam so she could marry into a better family. She couldn’t afford to let her reputation be tarnished. “The child was simply too worried about her nephew. After all, Madam Bai did do many absurd things before…”
Bai Qianqian sneered inwardly at the old woman’s attempt to throw dirt on her name even now. She had no intention of letting them off easily.
“A concerned aunt?” Bai Qianqian challenged. “For so long now, she hasn’t given Anyao a single thing. When he went missing, she didn’t even look for him. Instead, she immediately accused me, his stepmother, of selling him. What kind of aunt does that?”
“You’re lying! Zhao Anyao is my nephew, I—” Zhao Chengshuang stammered, drawing a complete blank on anything she’d ever given the boy. In fact, she’d just snatched some of his pastries the day before.
Old Madam Zhao’s mind raced, desperately searching for a way to save face. She remembered her eldest daughter-in-law had recently been sewing a new pair of shoes for her own son. She shot a sharp, meaningful glance at Madam Lin.
“Chengshuang just hasn’t had the chance to deliver them yet!” Old Madam Zhao announced. “She saw how worn out Anyao’s shoes were these past few days and specially sewed him a new pair, didn’t she?”
Madam Lin stiffened, her face twisted with reluctance, but she managed a curt nod.
“Mother! Those are my shoes!” Zhao Anyang, the eldest grandson, burst into tears, refusing to part with his new footwear. “Why should he get them? That motherless—”
His mother clamped a hand over his mouth to stifle his outburst.
The onlookers exchanged disgusted glances. The rot clearly ran deep in the Zhao family—from the lying elders to the bratty child who dared to insult his own cousin in public.
“Enough,” one of the elders sighed. “Just give the boy the shoes and let’s call this a day. Next time, don’t come running to us with every little grudge. We’re too old for this kind of drama.”
The Zhao Clan Elders were mortified. They had never wanted to get involved in this family’s squabbles, but Zhao Chengshuang had forced their hand by insisting her nephew had been kidnapped and sold by Madam Bai. Now, it was obvious to anyone with a brain that Chengshuang had maliciously thrown mud at Madam Bai’s name, dragging the Elders into the filth with her.
Seeing their impatience, Old Madam Zhao marched into Madam Lin’s room, snatched the new cotton shoes, and thrust them at Bai Qianqian.
“What are you waiting for?” Bai Qianqian said, watching the constipation-like scowls on Madam Lin and Zhao Chengshuang’s faces with smug satisfaction. “Your dear aunt sewed these for you. Go on, thank her.”
“Thank you, Auntie,” Zhao Anyao said, his face flushing with excitement as he took the shoes. In just one day, he’d received new clothes, new cloth shoes, and now a pair of warm cotton ones. He hadn’t even dared to dream of such a windfall.
Madam Lin watched as the shoes she had painstakingly sewn for her own son were clutched in Zhao Anyao’s arms.
She was seething with rage. Why should her sister-in-law’s mess be paid for with her own hard work? When had her son ever suffered such an injustice?
She silently vowed to make Zhao Chengshuang pay for this.