The next morning, before dawn had fully broken, a neighbor’s rooster began to crow.
Zhao Jinyuan jolted awake and sat up abruptly.
If she had still been at home, the moment she heard the rooster crow, she would have gotten up immediately to help her mother prepare breakfast and look after her younger siblings.
After eating, she would still have had to wash clothes and even go out to gather wild vegetables.
There was always work waiting for her.
But now, she was a little confused.
Then she remembered.
She had already been sold to Sir.
At the thought of it, sadness once again filled her heart.
However, she quickly recovered.
She turned her head and saw that Big Sister Jinyi was already sitting up and putting on her clothes, while the others were still asleep.
So she asked quietly,
“Big Sister Jinyi, what work do I have to do?”
“We don’t have much to do. Sir gets up rather late, so we also prepare breakfast later.”
Jinyi finished getting dressed and continued,
“I’m used to waking up early and couldn’t fall back asleep, so I got up. You should sleep a little longer. You can get up together with Jinxiu and Jinwen later.”
“Oh, all right.”
Jinyuan obediently lay back down.
But she couldn’t even remember the last time she had been able to sleep late.
So she couldn’t fall asleep again.
When Jinyi left the room, she also got dressed and got out of bed.
She opened the door and stepped into the courtyard.
Jinyi was just about to leave with a small bucket in her hand.
Seeing her, she smiled.
“Can’t sleep? Looks like you and I aren’t as lucky as Jinxiu and Jinwen. Those two found out on their second day here that they didn’t have to get up early, and they immediately went right back to sleep. Hehe.”
Jinyi looked around the courtyard.
“I just checked everything. The only thing we need to do is fill the water tank a little. Since you’re already up, come with me to fetch some water.”
“All right.”
Having something to do made Jinyuan feel more at ease, so she quickly went back to the room to get a wooden bucket.
“Take the smaller one. It’s hardly any work. Once we’re done, we won’t have anything else to do and we’ll have no choice but to laze around.”
Jinyuan knew that Jinyi was looking after her, so she replied with a smile.
Even so, she obediently took the smaller bucket.
When they reached the well, quite a few people were already lined up to draw water.
Each of them filled only about half a bucket before calmly returning home.
After repeating the process several times, the water tank was full.
“Are you hungry? If you are, I can prepare breakfast now.”
“Has Sir still not gotten up?”
“It doesn’t matter. Sir is a good person, and he doesn’t care about things like that. He actually seems happier when he sees us well-fed and properly dressed.”
Jinyi paused before continuing,
“Sir has never treated us like servants. He really takes care of us as though we were his younger sisters.”
Her expression then became serious.
“But no matter how good Sir is, we must remember our place.”
It was a warning.
Jinyi was worried that as time passed, Jinyuan might forget the difference between them and Zhao Baihui and begin taking too many liberties.
After Zhao Baihui got up, the five of them had breakfast together.
Afterward, he left the house alone with a sack on his back containing twenty jin of rice.
The explanation he gave everyone was that his family dealt in grain and had some food reserves stored away to cover their daily needs.
He had reached an agreement with one of the village’s grain shop owners.
The market price of rice was twenty-two copper coins per jin, but he sold it for only twenty.
The merchant saved himself the time and effort of acquiring the goods while earning a clean profit of two copper coins per jin.
They had been doing business this way for more than half a month, so the supply channel was already stable.
A while later, Zhao Baihui returned.
He called the four girls who were sewing clothes.
“It’s payday! It’s payday! Come here, all of you!”
As he spoke, he took out four small cloth pouches, each about the size of a fist, and placed them on the table.
Jinyi asked,
“Sir, what’s this ‘payday’?”
“Ah, it’s your monthly pay.”
“Sir, what’s monthly pay?”
Zhao Baihui burst out laughing.
“My goodness, what ignorant little girls! Don’t you know that servants in wealthy households receive monthly wages?”
Jinxiu asked in surprise,
“Even after signing a sale contract, they still receive money?”
“Of course. That’s how things work in wealthy households.”
Zhao Baihui pointed at the pouches.
“You aren’t servants, so just think of this as spending money for yourselves. In the end, it’s basically the same thing.”
“For now, each of you will receive one hundred copper coins a month. It’ll increase later.”
The girls froze.
“What are you waiting for? There’s one for each of you. Come and take yours.”
The four girls looked at one another.
But none of them moved.
It wasn’t that they didn’t want the money.
It was that they had never imagined that they would have the right to possess money of their own.
“I’m giving you money and you don’t even want it? Have you all gone stupid?”
Zhao Baihui had no choice but to pick up the little pouches and place them into their hands one by one.
Jinyi held hers as though it were burning her.
With reddened eyes, she asked,
“Sir… you’re not giving us this money so that you’ll drive us away afterward, are you?”
Zhao Baihui immediately understood what they were thinking.
To reassure them, he deliberately pretended to be angry.
“What are you talking about? I’ve already bought all of you. You’ll have to stay with me for the rest of your lives. Even when you die, you’re not allowed to be buried too far away from me.”
The girls burst into laughter through their tears.
Jinwen wiped her eyes and, gathering her courage, asked,
“Sir, is this money really ours? Is it our own money now? Can we buy whatever we want?”
“Yes. It’s completely yours. Spend it however you like. Even if you decide to throw it down the well, I don’t care.”
Jinwen stuck out her tongue.
“I’m not stupid! I’m not going to throw it down the well!”
Zhao Baihui burst out laughing and ruffled her hair.
“Of all of you, you’re definitely the mischievous one.”
“All right, I’ve handed out the money. I’m going back to take a nap. Do whatever you want.”
Zhao Baihui returned to his room.
The four girls remained behind, talking excitedly.
It was the first time in their lives that they had ever had money of their own.
And it wasn’t just a few coins.
It was a whole hundred!
They were so excited that they didn’t even know what to do.
After a long while, their excitement began to fade.
Jinyuan frowned slightly.
“My father is sick. I don’t know how he is now…”
She looked at her pouch.
“I want to take this money home so my father can get treatment. Do you think Sir will mind?”
Jinyi knew Zhao Baihui better than anyone.
“He shouldn’t. Sir said this is our money and that we’re completely free to decide what to do with it. You can use it however you want.”
Jinyuan made up her mind.
“Then I want to go home for a little while and give the money to my mother.”
“Yes. I want to go home too and take a look.”
As the eldest sister, Jinyi understood perfectly what they were thinking.
She nodded.
“Anyone who wants to go home can do so. But don’t stay too long. Come back as soon as you can.”
Then she looked at them seriously.
“And don’t even think about leaving for good. If any of you tries to run away, I’ll report it to the authorities and have them bring you back.”
Jinwen stuck out her tongue.
“Big Sister, I’m not stupid. Only an idiot would try to escape! If I went back home, I’d eat worse, sleep worse, and have to get up early every day to work until dark. I’d have to be crazy to run away!”
“Then each of you can go home.”
Jinyuan hesitated for a moment.
“Big Sister… your money. You could also…”
“No.”
Jinyi held out her own pouch.
“If your father is sick, who knows how much money your family will need? Use mine first.”
“No, Big Sister, I can’t… I won’t be able to pay you back…”
“Didn’t Sir say this is called monthly pay? We’ll receive money every month. You can pay me back next month.”
“But, Big Sister… aren’t you going home too?”
Jinxiu immediately covered Jinyuan’s mouth and began dragging her outside.
Jinwen ran after them.
But Jinyi suddenly remembered something.
She hurried outside and caught up with her sisters before they had gone too far.
She stopped them and said with a frown,
“You can take the money home, but don’t tell them you’ll be receiving this amount every month.”
She looked at them sternly.
“Just say that Sir was happy about something and gave you a reward.”
Her expression became even more serious.
“You aren’t little children anymore. Don’t cause trouble for Sir.”
Although the girls were young, they had matured far too early because of the environment they had grown up in.
All of them understood what Jinyi meant.
She was worried that if their families discovered they would receive money every month, they would start coming to them for money every month as well.
They might even come directly to Zhao Baihui.
And that wasn’t impossible.
In fact, it was quite likely.
The three sisters left.
Jinyi quietly returned to the room.
She sat down on the bed.
Suddenly, a tear rolled down her cheek.
Then another.
And another.
Until the tears began falling uncontrollably.
The door slowly opened.
Zhao Baihui walked in.
Jinyi hurriedly wiped away her tears.
She tried to force a smile.
But she couldn’t.
“Poor girl…”
Zhao Baihui sat down beside her and wrapped an arm around her thin shoulders.
“Jinyi, when I gave you the name Zhao Jinyi, I decided that from that moment on, I would treat you as my own younger sister.”
Zhao Baihui’s voice was calm.
“So you’re not alone anymore. You have an older brother now.”
“Your brother will take care of you, protect you, and prepare your dowry when the time comes. I’ll make sure you have a proper wedding and that your future family won’t dare look down on you.”
Zhao Baihui gently squeezed her shoulder.
“As long as I’m alive, I’ll protect you from wind and rain. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
He paused.
“Not even your own father.”
Jinyi’s eyes filled completely with tears.
She could no longer hold them back.
She threw her arms around Zhao Baihui and burst into tears.
“Big Brother…”