“Huh?” Ying Sisi snapped back to her senses and looked up. “The blooming peony designs are one yuan and fifty cents per pair.”
“I’ll take two pairs.”
“Alright.”
Ying Sisi handed over the paper-cuttings, collected the money, and then met Qin Yanci’s gaze. She quickly looked away again.
“You should leave now. If someone we know sees you here, it’ll be a disaster.”
Her voice was so soft it was almost inaudible, cautious and timid, like a child who had done something wrong.
Qin Yanci’s heart ached for her.
“You haven’t sold everything yet. Where would I go?”
The window paper-cuttings she made came in all kinds of patterns, each one exquisitely crafted.
Even he wanted to buy a couple.
She really was skillful.
Ying Sisi stared at him in surprise.
“You… want to sell them with me?”
“What else?”
Ying Sisi was speechless.
Qin Yanci stood beside her, and whenever customers came, he helped hand them the paper-cuttings.
After collecting herself, Ying Sisi gently pulled his scarf up over the bridge of his nose.
“Like this. No one will recognize you.”
“And yet you recognized me, didn’t you?”
Ying Sisi fell silent.
They were too busy selling to chat, and it wasn’t until everything had been sold that she finally had a chance to ask him,
“What brought you here?”
“I came to look for study materials. I also bought you two books.”
“You bought books… for me?”
Ying Sisi was overwhelmed with surprise.
It was the first time anyone had ever bought books for her.
“But… I don’t know many words. I won’t be able to understand them.”
“You can ask me.” Qin Yanci paused before adding, “Shall we go home? Our new home.”
After hesitating for a moment, Ying Sisi nodded.
Once they left the market, Qin Yanci asked in confusion,
“Didn’t you just receive those red envelopes? Why did you come here to set up a stall?”
She really was capable.
In a place she wasn’t familiar with, she had actually managed to find the black market.
Even as a local, he had only found it through personal connections.
After a long silence, Ying Sisi spoke softly,
“The red envelope belongs to both of us. I can’t spend it however I want. As for the black market… I found it by asking around everywhere. Now that you know I’m a street vendor, what do you think?”
The Qin family was respectable.
Surely they couldn’t accept a daughter-in-law who made money through black-market trading.
She had already prepared herself for the worst.
No matter what happened, she wouldn’t blame anyone.
“I’ll sell with you.”
One simple sentence made Qin Yanci’s position clear.
Ying Sisi was both shocked and delighted.
She was shocked that he could accept her running a street stall.
She was delighted that she had met a man who respected her.
She smiled, revealing bright white teeth and rosy lips.
Her old, bulky cotton-padded jacket concealed her beauty, yet it couldn’t hide the warmth of her smile.
“Mhm.”
Qin Yanci was captivated.
When Ying Sisi looked at him, he quickly regained his composure and lowered his eyes.
He absolutely couldn’t let his wife discover that he had been staring at her like a lovestruck fool.
When they returned to the residential compound, Ying Sisi took out the loose change she had earned and carefully counted it.
After deducting the costs, she had made a net profit of one yuan and eighty cents.
She recorded the figures neatly in her notebook.
Only then did Qin Yanci realize from her records that she had already started setting up her stall yesterday.
On the very day they received their marriage certificate, she had gone out to sell her paper-cuttings, then returned to cook for his entire family.
She hadn’t had a single moment to rest all day.
His heart felt heavy.
“Do you really have to keep running this stall?”
Ying Sisi looked up and answered without hesitation,
“Of course. You can’t go back on your word.”
“I won’t,” Qin Yanci replied. “But you can’t do it every day.”
What if she exhausted herself?
Ying Sisi agreed.
Silence settled between them once more.
After a long while, Qin Yanci stepped closer and gently took her hand, slowly rubbing it between his fingers.
It was cold.
And rough.
Her hands shouldn’t have been like this.
Once the wedding banquet was over and they were living together, he would make sure to take good care of these hands.
Ying Sisi’s heart began pounding wildly.
She couldn’t understand why he kept holding her hand.
If she pulled it away, would he be upset?
Sigh.
If he liked holding it, then he could.
It wasn’t as if she’d lose a piece of flesh from it.