By the time the first batch of pastries came out of the oven, Yu Zhuo had come back.
Seeing her second brother looking like he had something to say but was holding back, Yu Fuling quickly picked up a warm plum blossom cake and walked over to him. “Second Brother, try the plum blossom cake I made.”
“You know how to make pastries too? Smells pretty good.”
Yu Zhuo saw their mother bent over counting the plum blossom cakes and immediately pulled Yu Fuling aside to speak quietly. “I found out for sure, there really is another path into the forbidden grove, but you have to go up through the mountain. The vegetation up there is waist-high and thick, and there’s no telling what’s hidden in it. If we really take that route, there’ll be unknown dangers.”
“We can still sell the regular pickled vegetables anyway, and there’s the kimchi too. If the risk is too great, there’s no need for us to gamble on it.” Yu Fuling wasn’t trying to back out, it’s just that her second brother hadn’t even started his business yet, and she couldn’t let him fall into danger just because he was fixated on matsutake.
“Ugh, if only Third Brother were here.”
Yu Zhuo took a big bite of the plum blossom cake, chewing as he spoke. “The person I just found is one of Third Brother’s three best friends in the village. His family’s been hunters for generations, he knows the mountain very well, if Third Brother put in a word, he’d surely help us.”
“Going into the forbidden grove already goes against the village head’s orders. We can take that risk ourselves, but we can’t drag someone else into it for no reason…” Yu Fuling looked up at her second brother, who let out a soft sigh. “If Second Brother’s determined to go, why not have me go up with you tonight, and I’ll clear the path.”
“You?”
Yu Zhuo’s eyes went wide at once, and seeing their mother wasn’t looking over, he lowered his voice again. “Didn’t you grow up at the Marquis’ estate? How do you know how to do rough work like clearing a path?”
“I grew up at the Marquis’ estate, but I wasn’t imprisoned there. I often slipped out to go hunting for game in the mountains. Although I’m no match for a professional hunter, I always came back with a full haul. It’s just that the Marquis’ household wanted a clever, sensible, obedient young lady, not someone who ran wild with nature like a country bumpkin.”
“You’re not any kind of country bumpkin! You’re a daughter of our Yu family, Father and Mother’s fourth girl, my fourth younger sister!” Yu Zhuo said this without a second thought. “That bunch at the Marquis’ estate are truly detestable. When Xie Leyi was staying with us, Father and Mother treated her so well, keeping every good thing for her, and she said she didn’t know how to repay them, well, it’s been several days since she went back, and there’s still no sign of her sending Father and Mother anything to eat or use.”
“Second Brother, your feelings are perfectly natural, but let me say a fair word for Xie Leyi, with her weak health, once back at the Marquis’ estate, her first priority would surely be recovering her body, and then she’d have to start learning to read and write. Five days from now is also the Marquis’ wife’s birthday, I’d guess she’s probably clutching a guest register right now, desperately trying to memorize the names of all the relatives and friends coming that day. Where would she find the time to think of Father and Mother?”
“Huh?”
Yu Zhuo exclaimed in disbelief. “I know a noble household must have plenty of relatives and friends, but does she really need to memorize every single person’s name?”
“That’s just how things work among the powerful and privileged. She’s seventeen this year, next year the Marquis’ wife will start bringing her along to all sorts of banquets, to get her face known among the nobility as quickly as possible. If she can’t meet the standard in other areas for now, at least recognizing everyone and calling out their names precisely is its own kind of skill, isn’t it?”
Yu Fuling wasn’t saying this because she’d grown up at the Marquis’ estate and had some natural advantage, it was simply that she had a good memory, and anyone she’d met even once, she could always remember.
“Too complicated, my head hurts just listening to it.” Yu Zhuo shook his head. “Let’s get back to our own business. Fuling, if you’re sure you can clear the path, I’ll go prepare the tools for going up the mountain, we’ll set out tonight?”
“Good!”
Yu Fuling nodded, and looked at her sister, who was happily nibbling on a plum blossom cake. “Bring Lehuan along too, she picks matsutake even faster than I do, she’d be a great helper.”
Yu Zhuo followed Yu Fuling’s gaze to his youngest sister, and thought about how, despite spending so many years with Lehuan, he had never noticed her good qualities the way Yu Fuling had, even though she’d only just come back. “Fuling…”
“Hm?”
Yu Fuling looked up, puzzled, at her second brother. “What else does Second Brother want to say?”
“I think I haven’t been a very good brother to you all. Once I’ve made money, I’ll be good to you.” Yu Zhuo still wanted to leave home and start his own household, but that was a separate matter entirely from wanting to be good to his sisters and family, the two didn’t conflict.
“I believe Second Brother has what it takes to be good to us.” Yu Fuling’s eyes crinkled into a smile. “Have another plum blossom cake, Second Brother.”
By the time everything needed for the third-day ceremony was ready, Yu Qingshan, who had gone to the market, came home.
Everything he’d bought the day before had been taken away by Village Head Liu under the guise of “borrowing,” so today he pulled back a cart piled full of things.
“Village Head Liu’s family isn’t poor, and what we buy isn’t worth much either, so why does he still have to borrow it?”
Yu Lehuan, helping carry things, had eaten too much the night before and, unable to sleep, had overheard her parents talking quietly.
“As long as it’s not something he paid for himself, even half a lump of coal makes him feel like he’s gotten a great bargain.” Yu Fuling, carrying things along, answered her sister’s question. “But next time Liu Meimei tries to give you trouble again, just run, or shout loudly, whatever you do, don’t just do whatever she says.”
Having met Village Head Liu once, Yu Fuling understood clearly how much he cared about his standing in the village.
Although it was common knowledge that Liu Meimei was domineering, letting everyone witness her bullying someone in public would still cost Village Head Liu face.
“I understand.”
Yu Lehuan nodded, and carried a bag of flour into the kitchen.
“Father, Mother told me you bought a longevity lock for Jiaojiao?”
Their eldest brother Yu Heng really did move like a ghost, hiding out in his room while everyone else was busy, only to appear precisely when there was something to be had.
“Yes!”
Yu Qingshan nodded, and took out a piece of red cloth from inside his robe, unwrapping it layer by layer until finally revealing an exquisite little silver lock, engraved with Jiaojiao’s formal name.
“Why a silver lock? I thought it’d be a gold one!”
There wasn’t a trace of joy in Yu Heng’s eyes, only disappointment. “Gold and silver, gold comes first, it means more, and it’s worth more too.”
“If you want a gold lock, go earn the money and buy it yourself! Father and Mother never stopped you.” Yu Zhuo, standing in the doorway, gave a cold snort and rolled his eyes. “Lucky to have anything at all, and still so picky.”
“Was I talking to you?”
Yu Heng turned and glared at his second brother. “With a temper like yours, even if you had all the money in the world, no woman would marry you, she’d suffer nothing but grief following you around all day.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Yu Zhuo flared up at once, and Yu Fuling, standing nearby, seeing her second brother about to step forward, quickly grabbed him and looked at her eldest brother with a smile. “As the saying goes, money can make even the devil turn a millstone, if Big Brother really did get rich, Eldest Sister-in-law might have something to worry about.”
“Yu Fuling, you really do have a knack for it, you’ve only been back a few days, and you’ve already got the whole family wrapped around your finger!”
Yu Heng was now utterly convinced, he simply didn’t like this scheming, opportunistic Yu Fuling.