“Sis, we’re back!”
Yu Chun poked her head out and saw Yu Xiao pulling Cao Rong along, shouting from ten meters away—clearly eager to stand up for her.
Her eyes stung a little. Seeing her father tending the fire, her mother eating with a cheerful smile, Cao Rong holding two candied hawthorn skewers, and little Cao Fang sucking her fingers, Yu Chun suddenly felt that things weren’t so bad.
“Alright, let’s eat.”
“I wanted to ask yesterday—what happened to your face and neck?”
“Just a bit of hardship. I can handle it. If you’ve got time, come help me thread the needle—I have something to tell you.”
Yu Chun led Yu Xiao into the main hall.
“If there’s something to say, why not say it here? Lighting a lamp wastes money!”
Yu Chun—
Inhale. Exhale.
Inhale. Exhale.
Inhale. Exhale.
“Why weren’t you so loud this afternoon?” Yu Xiao slammed the table and turned to argue.
“Sit down!” Yu Chun stopped him, then turned to her father. “One finished garment earns twenty coins. If I can’t keep up in a few days, this job will be gone.”
“Can your mother do it?”
“She can—but if she does it poorly, each piece costs three hundred coins in compensation. Go ahead and have her try.”
“I was just reminding you. Hurry and get it done.”
Watching her father tap his pipe while feeding Cao Fang soft roasted sweet potato, Yu Chun felt more certain.
“How was your job search today?”
“This place is completely different from Luoyang,” Yu Xiao admitted.
“If you had to live without your brother-in-law, would the family have enough food? How were the jobs you found?”
As she spoke, Yu Chun threaded a needle with about sixty centimeters of thread. The thread came pre-measured—fine cotton thread. Did the Tang dynasty even have cotton thread?
The needle was high-quality steel, with a thimble—provided by the workshop supervisor who had scolded her earlier.
A pack of twenty steel needles cost ten coins. The supervisor had given her three packs—sixty needles—plus two thimbles and several bundles of thread, all counted as materials. Clearly, she had been given extra.
She didn’t dwell on it. Following Xiangyun’s suggestion, she rolled scraps of cloth into three small bundles while talking and threading needles.
“No,” Yu Xiao replied, used to discussing matters directly with her. It was clear the two of them made the decisions in their family.
“We went to the labor market. As soon as Cao Jie arrived, he gave a pouch of tobacco to a fellow townsman who manages the place. No need to queue—he got Father a porter’s job. Fifty coins a day.”
“There’s still goods coming in?”
“Yes. The north is sealed off, but the south is full of goods. Wealthy families are fleeing south—traffic is constant. I got a waiter job at a restaurant east of our district—one hundred coins a day. Mother works at a mutton shop—twenty coins a day. That’s one hundred seventy coins daily, over five thousand a month. Double what we earned in Luoyang—we moved to the right place.”
Yu Xiao’s eyes shone.
A tree grown in poor soil always had resilience.
“Do you think this city can hold?”
“Like you wrote in your letter—people like us are always gambling, no matter where we are. The city is orderly now—it may not fall. Chang’an is the strongest city in the world. As for our relatives in Luoyang… aside from Third Brother’s family, who knows? Luoyang was massacred…”
Yu Xiao was still young, thinking this was just the beginning of struggle, not realizing it meant permanent separation from loved ones.
Massacre—not defeat, but massacre.
In textbooks, it was just a few lines. For ordinary people, it was countless mountains pressing down.
“Chun: What should we prepare? I’m thinking food, basic medicines, wound medicine, seeds.”
“…”
After a moment of silence, the system responded.
“Baochai: For food, besides wheat, sweet potatoes are essential—they can be eaten and planted. Stock them. Also dried vegetables, sweet potato noodles, beans, soybeans—these should still be available. Seeds for cabbage, radish, wheat, potatoes, soybeans—they should be cheap. As for medicine, you don’t have antibiotics. Forget expensive pills. Write down basic prescriptions—prepare ten doses each. Buy gypsum, bupleurum, coptis, honeysuckle, forsythia. Dry ginger slices, plant scallions, make pear paste and loquat paste. All together, about five strings of cash. In emergencies, grain can be traded for medicine. Most importantly—fuel. Firewood and coal. With people fleeing, these should be cheap. Also cotton clothes, quilts, trousers, and ideally fur coats—especially important for the child.”
“Daiyu: All of this depends on your husband. You’re outsiders—you understand, don’t you?”
“Wang Xifeng: Swallow your pride and endure. This isn’t a story—no one will save you. Not even us. You can only rely on yourself.”
“Chun: Thank you. I understand.”
“I have a list of supplies and medicines. Tomorrow I’ll go buy them with Father and my brother-in-law. How long can you keep your job?”
Yu Chun didn’t waste time. Cao Jie could return at any moment.
Even she understood now—there was no need for full honesty between husband and wife, especially in her situation.
“The manager said the same—wages are now paid every ten days. I got this job partly because of Brother-in-law, partly because I’m capable. The only worry is forced labor. If that happens, the family will depend on you.”
Yu Xiao looked dejected—that was why he hadn’t asked much about her injuries yesterday.
“It’s fine. I have Rong and Fang. As for forced labor, there’s been no notice yet. You’re the only male in the family—can we pay to avoid it?”
“We’ll have to ask Brother-in-law. I heard something today—the Prince of Yangxia isn’t conscripting labor. The Emperor has abdicated, becoming Retired Emperor, and passed the throne to the Crown Prince. The Empress and Crown Prince have gone south to Suzhou. The Prince of Yangxia is now Regent, stationed in Chang’an, calling in western troops. The city might hold. The biggest danger is internal betrayal—that’s what people are saying.”
No conscription—that truly put the people first. Yu Chun finally felt some relief.
“As for money, don’t worry—I have a way,” Yu Xiao said with a sly smile.