The next day, while writing at home, Su Juan accidentally overheard some excited chatter outside.
Listening carefully, she immediately set down her brush neatly, put away the rice paper, and then gathered a few things.
Seeing this, Su Ying asked her what she was going to do.
Su Juan responded, “I heard Bai Lan is back. I’m going to see her!”
Upon hearing this, Su Ying hurriedly grabbed a few sachets and followed, “Then take me with you!”
Su Juan nodded, turned back to instruct Su Mo to watch the house, and then went out with Su Ying.
Su Ying knew this Bai Lan was one of her elder sister’s close friends who lived at the village entrance.
Bai Lan was the same age as her elder sister. At nine years old, she had been sold by her family to a wealthy household as a maidservant. Fortunately, it was a short-term contract of ten years, and now that the term was up, it was indeed time for her to return.
Over the years, although Bai Lan hadn’t sent back much news, she would send some items home every two or three years, most of which were quite valuable.
The Bai family at the village entrance originally lived in a thatched cottage. Now, because Bai Lan had earned some silver as a maidservant, they built a large courtyard at the village entrance and would joyfully tell everyone about it whenever they had the chance.
Her elder sister’s initial idea of becoming a maidservant had come from Bai Lan.
Now that she knew Bai Lan was back, she surely wanted to learn from her experience.
The two quickly arrived at the Bai residence. There were many people there, but the Bai family adults were entertaining them, and no one even glanced at the two unmarried girls.
Fortunately, Bai Lan came out and saw them, immediately pulling them back to her room.
Su Juan was very excited to see Bai Lan. The two hugged for a while before asking each other in unison, “How have you been all these years?”
They both paused, feeling somewhat bittersweet.
Su Juan sighed and recounted some of her misfortunes over the years piece by piece.
“…When my parents passed away, many people came to collect debts. I couldn’t handle it, so my second and third uncles dealt with it. Then those shops and properties naturally ended up under their management.
When I went to ask for food or money, they always said business was tight lately and funds were tied up, only giving me a little before sending me away. I had no choice but to consider selling myself as a maidservant!”
While Su Juan was saying this, Su Ying silently cursed the Su family. Back when her original self’s parents were alive, their business was doing very well with no debts at all. The Su family members had deliberately made things difficult for them by saying otherwise. If not for her previous life’s experiences, she would never have believed the Su family could be so malicious!
Hearing Su Juan’s words, Bai Lan hurriedly kindly stopped her, “You should abandon that thought. No matter what, don’t ever consider such an idea. It’s very dangerous. I even regret being a maidservant for a wealthy family.
You have no idea – while being a maidservant in a wealthy household might seem more dignified and comfortable than our life in the village, the internal suffering is beyond description.
If you happen to get a good master, that’s your good fortune. But if you encounter someone with ill intentions, you’re truly throwing yourself into a pit of fire.
And how many among the rich and noble in this world are truly kind-hearted? You don’t know how much I suffered there…”
At this point, Bai Lan turned around, leaned on the table, and began to sob.
Su Juan was startled and quickly comforted her, asking what was so bad about wealthy households.
Truth be told, she still had this idea in mind. If she could avoid the pitfalls, she would find a way to do it; if not, she would abandon the thought.
Bai Lan rubbed her reddened eyes and recounted her experiences over the past few years.
It turned out she had initially served as a maid for a young lady in a wealthy household in the county. The masters, seeing her honest and dependable nature, brought her along with the young lady to the capital.
The wealthy family had a relative who held an official position in the capital. After they settled there, the young lady’s cousin began visiting frequently.
This cousin appeared handsome and refined but was actually a womanizer. Not only did he make improper advances toward the young lady in her presence, but he also secretly summoned Bai Lan alone to harass her.
The masters were aware of this but said nothing, tacitly allowing it. Eventually, the cousin began summoning Bai Lan to his home every few days. Less than a year later, the cousin became engaged to the daughter of a high-ranking official, a young lady with a somewhat difficult temperament who occasionally visited him.
After the engagement, the cousin restrained himself somewhat but still occasionally made secret advances toward Bai Lan. Unexpectedly, the fiancée discovered this and, under a trivial pretext, had Bai Lan severely beaten.
Bai Lan revealed the scars on her body—various whip marks, burn scars, and other injuries—all shocking to behold.
“Now that I’ve lost my innocence and bear so many visible scars, I can no longer hope to marry into a good family. What use is earning so much money now?”
“Don’t think my fate is uniquely unfortunate, falling into the hands of a wicked master. Some maids suffer even more than I do. If they encounter a master with a worse temper, they might be beaten to death outright. In the capital, there’s a mass burial ground where corpses pile up like mountains. To those wealthy people, the lives of us lower-class individuals are no more significant than ants.”
“Once the contract is signed, even if we die, the masters simply compensate our families with a sum of money to settle the matter. How could they ever care about our feelings?”
Su Juan listened, horrified, and immediately abandoned any thought of becoming a maid for a wealthy family. She held Bai Lan gently, comforting her in soft tones.
Hearing Bai Lan’s ordeal, Su Ying also sighed with sorrow.
Having studied Dream of the Red Chamber, she knew that the maids in that story lived relatively well. Without the memories of her previous life stored in her mind, she might have believed ancient people were generally generous and courteous—even if somewhat scheming, never so dark-hearted. But with those memories, Su Ying felt that the people here were truly vicious, one worse than the other.
The Su family elders were like this, and the wealthy nobles outside were even more so.
At the same time, Su Ying reached a conclusion: cherish life, stay away from ancient people.
After chatting a while longer with Su Juan, Bai Lan brought out the things she had brought back.
“Look, these were all gifts from those people—bracelets, hairpins, silk flowers, earrings, and plenty of clothes, all new. I’ve worn most of them only once or twice. See if there’s anything you like; I’ll give them to you!”
Su Juan, startled by her generosity, waved her hands repeatedly in refusal. The fabric was truly exquisite—one piece probably cost several taels of silver. It was far too valuable, and the jewelry was essentially silver.
“Come on, no need to be polite with me! If you refuse, it means you look down on me!” Bai Lan rubbed her reddened eyes, gazing at Su Juan and Su Ying.
Su Juan felt somewhat awkward, but Su Ying’s eyes sparkled as she held an orange-red dress.
It wasn’t that she particularly liked the garment, but a new idea had begun to form in her mind.
Seeing that Su Ying liked it, Bai Lan generously gave her the skirt right away. “Here, take it. Come visit my place often from now on. If you need anything, just come find me. I don’t have any other requests—just keep me company!”
Su Ying was surprised. She looked up and smiled, “Thank you, Sister Bai Lan. I really do like this dress, so I’ll accept it. Another day, I’ll make something nice for you—I definitely won’t let you lose out!”
“No need to worry about that. Just come over often with your sister!”
After the two had chatted for a while, Su Ying tidied up the clothes and tucked them close against her chest.
The dress was very thin, so it was completely unnoticeable when hidden inside her clothes. Su Ying was quite pleased.
After saying goodbye to Bai Lan, Su Juan and Su Ying left the Bai residence.