Feng Qingsui sensed something unusual and asked with a smile, “Granny, why do you look like that? Have you seen me before?”
The woman immediately lowered her head. “No, I haven’t.”
“I heard you were sold off by your own young lady because you were caught stealing.”
As she spoke, Feng Qingsui carefully observed the woman’s expression.
The woman’s jaw tightened slightly, and her hands unconsciously clenched the hem of her skirt. After a moment of silence, she did not defend herself but instead lowered her head even further.
There must be more to the story, Feng Qingsui thought.
She continued, “Do you know how to keep accounts and manage people?”
The woman replied, “Yes, I used to be a supervisor in a shop.”
Feng Qingsui then turned to the broker. “How much?”
Only then did the broker realize she wanted to buy this woman. He shook his head and said, “Miss Ning specifically said she should be sold far away, not allowed to stay in the capital.”
Feng Qingsui smiled. “I’m from Wucheng. Isn’t Wucheng far enough?”
The broker was surprised. “You’re from Wucheng?”
“Yes,” Feng Qingsui nodded slightly. “I came to the capital for some business and will return to Wucheng once it’s done. Selling her to me wouldn’t violate the rules, would it?”
After a moment of hesitation, the broker nodded. “It really doesn’t.”
He thought to himself that this woman had been here for over half a month without meeting any out-of-town buyers. Since this young lady was from Wucheng, selling her to her would meet the requirements, even if she might not leave the capital immediately.
“Then I’ll sell her to you.”
The broker agreed to the deal.
“However, we don’t have any women skilled in weaving at the moment. Do you want to buy or hire?”
“Hire.”
“Then please leave an address so I can contact you once I find someone.”
Feng Qingsui told him to find her at one of the residences she had just rented.
The broker agreed. As Feng Qingsui was leaving with the woman, he added, “While you’re in the capital, it’s best not to let her show her face. If someone from the Duke’s residence happens to see her, we won’t be able to explain…”
Feng Qingsui agreed.
“Don’t worry, I won’t make things difficult for you.”
She took the woman to the newly rented residence and, after asking for her surname, smiled and said, “Granny Xu, from now on, this place will be under your management. I plan to open a wool workshop here. The residence diagonally across is also rented by me, and I intend to set up a down workshop there, which will also be under your care. Do you have any trustworthy people you can call to help? Wages won’t be an issue.”
Granny Xu said, “There are two or three I can rely on.”
Feng Qingsui took out three hundred taels in banknotes from her purse and handed them to her.
“Buy whatever is needed as you see fit.
I don’t plan to make many wool sweaters and down jackets, about two hundred of each. Twenty people per workshop should be enough. We’ll provide breakfast and lunch, so we’ll need to hire two cooks and arrange for a purchaser.
In the next few days, have people buy wool and duck or goose down from various places in the city. Once the broker finds people, arrange for cleaning and drying.
The tools needed for production will be made by craftsmen I hire and delivered here later.
…”
After listening to her instructions, Granny Xu repeated them to confirm everything was correct. Clutching the banknotes, she said, “Madam, giving me so much money all at once… aren’t you afraid…”
“Do you know which household I belong to?”
Feng Qingsui asked with a smile.
Granny Xu shook her head.
“I am the elder sister-in-law of Prime Minister Ji.”
Feng Qingsui invoked Ji Changqing’s name.
“With the Ningguo Gongfu in front and the Prime Minister’s residence behind, would you dare to run away?”
Granny Xu: “!!!”
“Then you’re not from the capital? Why did you say you’re from Wucheng?”
“My ancestral home is Wucheng.”
“…”
Granny Xu wanted to ask more, but looking at Feng Qingsui’s radiant face, she swallowed her words.
After returning to the residence, Feng Qingsui began sketching designs.
Spinning yarn, knitting sweaters, making down jackets—these were all skills her master had taught her in his spare time.
The first winter she wore a sweater and down jacket, she almost felt uncomfortable because it was too warm.
When she and her elder sister were at the Charity Orphanage, their winter coats were padded with willow catkins and reed flowers. They worked fine in the early cold but were utterly useless in deep winter, as if they weren’t wearing anything at all.
The orphanage supervisor said they had it good enough—poor families slept wrapped in straw, their houses drafty everywhere, and lacking firewood and charcoal, they couldn’t even drink hot water, only cold.
These words offered her no comfort. Every winter felt endlessly long to her.
Her hands and feet would always crack from the cold, and when the wind blew, it felt as if countless knives were slicing her skin.
Her face, too, would split into countless fine cracks, always flushed red.
Sometimes it would even bleed.
At night, her elder sister would hold her while sleeping, shielding her from the biting wind that forced its way through the window cracks. Her sister’s hands and feet never warmed, leaving her with lasting ailments. After she began menstruating, each period felt like surviving a calamity.
After Feng Qingsui became a disciple, she asked her master to examine her sister and prescribe a tonic, only then feeling at ease to leave with her master.
When she sent sweaters and down jackets to her sister, she wrote in her letter: “If only we had met Master earlier, we wouldn’t have had to endure the cold.”
Her sister replied: “From now on, we won’t have to endure the cold anymore. We can also make sure other children don’t have to endure it either.”
Her sister wished to do good deeds, but she was an orphan raised in the Charity Orphanage. Her brother-in-law came from a poor family, having lost his father in childhood and raised by his widowed mother through embroidery work. When he first became an official, finances were tight—he never attended colleagues’ social gatherings.
It wasn’t until Xiao Yu was born and he was promoted to Director in the Ministry of Rites, with a salary increase, that the family’s situation eased somewhat.
They could afford new clothes for New Year and meat in their daily meals.
Her sister no longer needed to sell embroidery to supplement the household income.
Yet she continued embroidering, saving the silver from her sales to donate cotton-padded clothes to the children at the Charity Orphanage.
Her brother-in-law fully supported her, saving from his own salary to donate together.
Since Xiao Yu happened to be born on the first day of winter, they chose a charity orphanage each year to make their donation on Xiao Yu’s birthday.
“To accumulate blessings for Xiao Yu.”
So her sister wrote in her letter.
But Xiao Yu only lived four years.
Her sister and brother-in-law met no good end.
Feng Qingsui set down her brush and looked at the wintersweet on the desk.
Most blossoms had already withered and fallen, with only a few scattered flowers clinging to the branches, faintly emitting a delicate fragrance.
What use was accumulating blessings and doing good deeds? Heaven never promised that good deeds would be rewarded.
If people want something, they can only rely on themselves.
She would use her own hands to claim the justice she sought.
Three days later, Granny Xu sent word that the employment agency had identified forty to fifty people and requested Feng Qingsui to come take a look.
Feng Qingsui went with her to the agency to select workers.
These people had experience spinning cotton and linen thread, so picking up wool knitting wasn’t difficult. After Feng Qingsui taught them twice, they all learned.
Granny Xu had already prepared all necessities: raw materials, washing and drying tools, beds, tables, chairs, pots, bowls, ladles, basins, and stoves. A cook had also been hired—everything was ready to start work as soon as the people arrived.
Feng Qingsui praised: “Granny truly lives up to being from the Duke’s residence—handling affairs so thoroughly.”
Granny Xu had evidently adjusted her mindset, speaking of the Duke’s residence without lowering her head this time, but calmly saying, “You flatter me, Madam.”
Feng Qingsui arranged the follow-up matters, to be overseen by Granny Xu.
She herself continued to accompany the Rongchang Hou Shizi’s wife in her weight loss efforts daily.
From Madam Wei’s side, she obtained another piece of new information.