Early the next morning, after Gu Qingqing and Lin Heng finished breakfast and cleaned up, they fed the horse until it was full. They loaded the dried medicinal herbs, the wild rabbit, and the pheasants onto the cart. Qingqing then hurried back into the house to fetch the embroidered handkerchiefs and sachets she’d wrapped in cloth and added those to the cart as well.
After locking the courtyard gate behind them, they set off together for Datong Town.
Qingqing sat on one side of the driver’s bench, directing Lin Heng as he handled the reins and pointing out the road into town.
The gentle breeze of early May carried the faint fragrance of blossoms mixed with the scent of fresh grass.
As the scenery sped by on either side of the road and they passed fellow travelers, Qingqing couldn’t help looking ahead with anticipation.
“I like this kind of life—simple and happy. I really love the way we’re living now. What about you?”
She turned to look at the man driving beside her.
Lin Heng didn’t answer immediately.
Only after a long pause did he give a slight nod.
Nothing escaped Qingqing’s notice.
His response only made her happier.
“Let’s have lunch at one of the restaurants in town today. My treat.”
Watching the woman speak with such grand confidence, Lin Heng smiled faintly.
Once I start earning money, he thought, I’ll take you to every restaurant in town.
And so the two of them continued toward town at an unhurried pace.
Having a horse-drawn cart really was convenient.
Unlike the other villagers, they didn’t have to walk all the way.
There were also ox carts that transported passengers along the road. The fare was cheap—just a coin or two—but many people still couldn’t bear to spend even that little and preferred to walk instead.
Their first stop was the apothecary.
They asked the physician to examine Lin Heng’s pulse and inspect his throat.
“Another ten days of medicine should do it. About seventy or eighty percent of the poison has already been eliminated. His throat is fine as well. In roughly another half month, he should be able to speak again.”
“Thank you, Doctor. Should we keep using the same prescription?”
“I’ll write you a new one. The previous prescription was a stronger dosage, so this one can be reduced.”
He finished writing and handed the prescription to Qingqing.
“Doctor, would you mind taking a look at the herbs I brought?”
As she spoke, Qingqing took the basket from Lin Heng’s back and laid out the medicinal herbs inside.
“Astragalus… Angelica dahurica… honeysuckle… plantain herb… There are quite a lot of them, and they’ve all been cleaned and properly dried. Excellent, excellent. May I ask where these herbs came from, young lady?”
“My husband and I are from Peach Blossom Village. There are many medicinal herbs in the mountains behind the village, and I happen to recognize quite a few of them. So I gathered and dried them before bringing them here. I wanted to ask whether you’d be interested in buying them.”
“Of course we would! Why wouldn’t we? This saves us a great deal of work! Herbs of this quality—bring us as many as you can find. We’ll buy every last one of them! Hahaha…”
“Thank you very much, Doctor.”
“Come over here, young lady. Let’s weigh the herbs and settle the payment.”
“I’ll give you fifty wen per jin for the astragalus. Honeysuckle, Angelica dahurica, isatis root, and dandelion will be thirty wen per jin. That comes to four hundred wen for the astragalus and six hundred fifty wen for the rest, making a total of one tael of silver. The remaining fifty wen covers today’s consultation and the medicine.”
The physician set his abacus aside and looked at the two of them.
“Thank you, Doctor.”
Qingqing accepted the silver, then took Lin Heng with her to collect the medicine from the pharmacy assistant.
After leaving the apothecary, they led the horse and cart toward Yunlai Restaurant, the most famous restaurant in Datong Town.
“It looks like gathering herbs earns more money than embroidering handkerchiefs and sachets. You have no idea—the owner of the cloth shop clearly loved my embroidery, but he still refused to offer a decent price. Ten handkerchiefs and six sachets only sold for fourteen hundred wen.”
Lin Heng glanced at Qingqing’s hands.
Over the past few days, he’d secretly noticed her pricking her fingers more than once whenever she embroidered absentmindedly.
“I won’t embroider anymore. It’s bad for my eyes, my neck, and my back. I don’t want to end up old with blurry vision and an aching waist.”
Lin Heng nodded in agreement.
“From now on, I’ll just gather medicinal herbs every now and then. That’ll earn enough silver for us to live on.”
Soon they arrived outside Yunlai Restaurant.
After asking one of the waiters to take care of the horse and cart, they entered the dining hall, chose a table by the window, ordered several house specialties, and requested a pot of tea.
“Try this one. It’s really good.”
As she ate, Qingqing kept putting food into Lin Heng’s bowl.
By now, he had already grown accustomed to her behavior and no longer felt awkward.
The two of them ate heartily while occasionally gazing out the window at the bustling street outside.
After finishing their meal, they settled the bill.
“Waiter, is your manager here? We’ve brought some game for him to look at. We’d also like to discuss a bit of business.”
Seeing that the couple were neatly dressed and generous when paying the bill, the waiter respectfully led them into the rear courtyard.
“What business do you have with me?”
A middle-aged man in his thirties walked out.
“Hello, Manager. My husband caught some pheasants and rabbits in the mountains yesterday. I was wondering whether your restaurant buys wild game.”
As she spoke, she opened the bamboo basket, revealing a cleaned rabbit and two pheasants.
“We do. And the rabbit’s already been cleaned—that certainly saves us some work. I don’t believe I’ve seen either of you before. Where are you from?”
“My husband and I have only recently returned to our hometown. We live in Peach Blossom Village. If my husband brings back more game in the future, would it be all right if we sold it to you?”
“So you’re from Peach Blossom Village. Excellent. Bring us whatever good game you have. We offer the highest prices in town, so you can rest easy. Liu Dahai, the hunter from your village, always sold his game to us.”
He must be talking about the previous owner of our house, Qingqing thought.
“Wonderful. Thank you, Manager.”
“Pheasants are thirty wen per jin, rabbits thirty-five wen per jin. That comes to a total of eight hundred fifty wen.”
Lin Heng accepted the payment from the manager, counted it, then stuffed the money into Qingqing’s arms.
He stood, clasped his fists in salute, and bowed politely to the manager.
“Then we won’t trouble you any longer. We’ll be on our way.”
Before she had even finished speaking, a large hand took hold of her smaller one and led her out of the restaurant.
“Wow! We’re rich! We earned more than three taels today! Even after paying for lunch, we’ve still got two hundred wen left. Let’s go buy some rice.”
Lin Heng gently guided Qingqing onto the cart, climbed onto the driver’s seat himself, and headed toward the grain shop.
They bought rice, flour, and a variety of household necessities, spending a total of one hundred ninety wen.
It had truly been a profitable day.
Qingqing felt that life was becoming more and more hopeful.
“If only we had a child too…”
As she spoke, she gently rested a hand on her stomach.
More than twenty days had passed.
She wondered whether she might actually be pregnant.
The quiet murmur drifting from inside the carriage startled Lin Heng.
A child…
What child?
Could it be…
The more he thought about it, the more shocked he became.
Then shock slowly gave way to excitement.
And hope.
If she really was pregnant…
Then they would become…
A father and a mother.
He had been an orphan since childhood.
He had never known the love of either a father or a mother.
If he truly had a child someday…
Could he become a good father?
Qingqing was completely absorbed in her own thoughts and paid no attention to the man driving the cart.
Meanwhile, Lin Heng spent the entire journey home lost in the single word that echoed endlessly in his mind—
Child.
After they returned home, Lin Heng worked with unusual enthusiasm, carrying everything inside himself.
He even ushered Qingqing over to the stone table in the courtyard and practically made her sit down while he put everything away.
Qingqing stared at the unusually hardworking man as though she’d seen a ghost.
What’s gotten into him?
Did his conscience finally wake up?
Or did he take the wrong medicine?
Forget it. Whatever.
She took out the money pouch and happily counted the copper coins over and over again.
The more she counted, the broader her smile became.
Watching the woman grin from ear to ear while counting money, the corners of Lin Heng’s lips curved upward ever so slightly.
If you enjoy counting money that much…
Then I’ll earn enough for you to count to your heart’s content.