Fu Yunzhu froze for a moment, then asked, “Hello, may I ask if Aunt Jiang is at home?”
She knew her mother worked as a live-in nanny for a military officer’s family.
“May I ask who’s calling?”
“I’m her daughter, Fu Yunzhu.”
The other party fell silent for a moment before replying, “Please wait.”
About a minute later, the voice on the line sounded again. “Is it really Yunzhu?”
The voice was gentle. Though she tried hard to suppress her emotions, her excitement was still unmistakable. Fu Yunzhu replied softly, “It’s me.”
“Yunzhu, you’re finally willing to call Mom?”
Hearing the trembling voice on the phone, Fu Yunzhu felt her nose sting. “I’m sorry, Mom.”
She had grown up without her mother. This was the first time she had ever called someone “Mom.” Her chest felt both sore and warm at the same time. So this was what it felt like to say “Mom.”
“The fact that you called me makes me happier than anything. Why are you apologizing? When Young Master Jingchuan told me just now, I almost thought he’d misheard.”
So the person who had answered the phone earlier was Xiao Jingchuan? Her mother’s stepson the man described in the original novel as both civil and military, eventually rising to the pinnacle of power?
In the original story, her mother Jiang Youqing eventually married that senior officer.
Seeing her daughter fall silent, Jiang Youqing asked again, “What’s wrong, Yunzhu? Are you unhappy?”
“No, Mom. I want to come to Kyoto to find you. Could you help me rent a place near where you work?”
The moment Jiang Youqing heard this, she became excited. “You… you really mean that?”
She could hardly believe it.
“Yes, it’s true. I’ve really had enough of staying at home all these years.” She wanted to go to Kyoto to take the college entrance exam and pursue her ambitions.
Jiang Youqing understood immediately her daughter had suffered a lot over the years. “Alright. If you don’t want to live under someone else’s roof, Mom will rent a place for you. When will you set off?”
“In the next few days. Once I get a train ticket, I’ll call you again.” Fu Yunzhu planned to leave before the weekend. Otherwise, when Fu Yufen came back and found out she hadn’t delivered the money to school, she’d surely get another scolding.
“Okay.”
“Mom, there’s nothing else. I’ll hang up now.”
“Alright. Mom will wait for you.” Jiang Youqing couldn’t have been happier.
She had raised her daughter alone from infancy until the age of eleven. She believed that one day her daughter would wake up and understand her. In this world, her daughter was her only family.
She knew Heaven wouldn’t be so cruel as to let her spend her entire life taking care of others, only to grow old alone.
Fu Yunzhu hung up the phone, paid three yuan in phone fees, then went to the department store and bought two packs of Daqianmen cigarettes, a bottle of liquor, and a jin of brown sugar.
According to the book, traveling far by train in this era required a letter of introduction from village officials. If you weren’t married, you also needed family consent.
The Fu family would certainly never agree. If she left, not only would the monthly twenty yuan of support be gone, but there would also be no one left to do the household labor.
So she had to secretly bring these things to smooth the way.
This time, Fu Yunzhu didn’t linger. After finishing her errands, she went straight back.
After returning to the village, she took a deserted path and circled around to the back door of the village head’s house. Afraid there might be outsiders there, she first hid the items in a clump of grass, then stepped forward and knocked.
The back door opened. It was the village head’s son. When Fu Yunzhu entered, she saw several young men sitting around a table in the main room, cracking sunflower seeds and chatting.
“Yunzhu’s here?” someone said.
She replied politely and asked, “Is the village head at home?”
His son, Huang Hui, smiled. “My dad won’t be back until dinnertime. If you have something, you can tell me first and I’ll pass it on.”
Fu Yunzhu didn’t want to deal with this group. “It’s nothing important. Since the village head isn’t here, I’ll come back another time.”
“Yunzhu, did Gu Yu bully you? Did you come to ask the village head to stand up for you?” one young man asked with a mischievous grin.
Most of the villagers still didn’t know about the marriage swap.
“No.”
“Oh? Our Yunzhu cares about her pride now? That’s fine since Gu Yu treats you badly, I can have my mom come propose marriage for me.”
Gu Yu had been extremely arrogant this past year. Ever since he made his fortune, not only had he refused to bring them along, he had even taught them a few harsh lessons.
They didn’t dare get close to him anymore but teasing his woman was still fair game.
Fu Yunzhu shot the man a sharp look, her tone heavy. “This is the village head’s house. Shouldn’t you watch what you say?”
The man frowned unhappily, about to speak again, but Huang Hui stopped him. “Eat your sunflower seeds. Yunzhu, you go back first. Come again after dinner.”
As he spoke, his gaze swept over her body with ill intent. She really was beautiful.
Fu Yunzhu didn’t notice his expression. After thanking Huang Hui, she left through the back. Only when she saw no one following did she retrieve her things and leave.
Looking at what she was carrying, she felt troubled. Even though they were wrapped in a black cloth bag, once she returned to the Fu household, they wouldn’t let these items go.
She glanced around, and suddenly an idea struck her.
She remembered that when the original Fu Yunzhu got hold of something valuable, she would hide it in a cave on the back mountain she wanted to save it for Gu Yu but was afraid of the Fu family discovering it. She would wait until he returned, then secretly give it to him.
Following that memory, she went straight to the back mountain. Sure enough, she easily found the cave. It was well hidden and surprisingly tidy.
She put the items down. When she came back out, she saw a wild boar impaled on a sharp tree stump, blood pouring out, unable to move.
Seeing no one around, she sprinted down the mountain and headed straight for her good friend He Yanyan’s house.
He Yanyan was delighted to see her. “Yunzhu! I haven’t seen you for days. I went to your house twice but couldn’t find you.”
“I’ve been busy lately. But I’ve got good news to tell you.” She leaned over and whispered in her ear.
After hearing it, He Yanyan’s eyes widened in shock. “Yunzhu, your luck is incredible! Wait here I’ll go get my cousin right now.”
“Okay. I’ll stay and watch it so no one else finds it and takes it.” After saying that, Fu Yunzhu waved and hurried off.
When she returned to the spot, the wild boar was already on its last legs.
She waited for quite a while before finally seeing three figures approaching. Besides He Yanyan and her cousin He Yong, Gu Yu was there too. He Yong was holding a long wooden plank.
While she was still confused, He Yanyan spotted her and waved. “Yunzhu!”
The three of them walked closer. Gu Yu circled the wild boar once without saying a word.
He Yong spoke excitedly, “Wow, this wild boar must weigh over three hundred jin. Brother Gu Yu, estimate it how much is it worth?”
Gu Yu didn’t even raise his head. “Sixty.”
Fu Yunzhu immediately grew anxious and stepped in front of him. “That’s not right the market price for pork is eighty cents per jin!”
Individual businesses had already been fully opened up, and private and self-employed economies were booming. Prices had risen significantly.
“You said it yourself that’s market pork. Finished product.
“We’re buying it on-site. Labor, time, and sales channels are all costs. If you handled everything yourself and alerted your family, the money that ended up in your pocket might not even be six yuan.
“We won’t tell anyone about this. We’ll keep today’s matter completely secret. Doesn’t that count as helping you avoid risk?”
When Gu Yu said this, his eyes were calm and unruffled.
Fu Yunzhu had seen him at the negotiating table cool, composed, airtight, always holding absolute control. But those were billion- or ten-billion-yuan deals. She never expected him to bargain over a single pig with the same seriousness.
She was about to speak again when she met Gu Yu’s gaze. She hesitated. If she kept arguing, it wouldn’t really fit “Fu Yunzhu,” and besides, she had no better option. “Alright then.”
Just then, a huge rat darted past her feet. She screamed, instinctively squeezed her eyes shut, jumped and clung to Gu Yu.
Silence fell around them.
Until a cold, deep voice drifted down from above her head:
“Have you taken enough advantage yet?”