TWWDS - Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Chao Qingxiu nodded and smiled. "Thank you, Deputy Magistrate Han, for being understanding."

In this world, copper coins were the main currency, but the presence of the martial world meant that gold and silver were not uncommon either. Every major city in each prefecture had banks that dealt in silver.

The constable brought the money over and offered, "I went all around the neighborhood yesterday, so let me go over and settle the account today as well. It's more convenient this way."

The suggestion could ease her daily burden, so Chao Qingxiu agreed without much hesitation. "Then I shall trouble you."

Chao Qingxiu had intended to give the constable some money in reward for the errand, but the offer was refused. The constable waved both hands repeatedly and laughed. "I already accepted your favor yesterday. If I took anything more today, the Deputy Magistrate would say we did not know how to conduct ourselves." With that, the constable wrapped a handful of copper coins in a bundle and accompanied Chao Qingxiu to the shop to settle yesterday's debt in full.

The constable helped Chao Qingxiu settle the debt, exchanged a few words of small talk, and returned to the county magistrate's office without lingering. Her box now held ten strings in copper coins and twenty-three taels of silver. She put the silver into her game space, then set the box, with the copper coins in it, beneath the bed to use for daily expenses.

Prices in Gaofang Prefecture were not high. If she lived frugally, ten strings would easily last her two or three months.

After putting her money in order, Chao Qingxiu took the scroll Medical Arts and sat beneath the eaves again, as usual. She read with complete concentration for a long time, yet got through only a little less than half of it. As she read, she sensed the changes in her inner breath, and at last gained a vague understanding of the route her vital energy followed through her body.

While turning the pages, she sometimes encountered passages that were truly difficult to understand. She would have to equip the Medical Arts in her equipment slot and focus on the meaning of the text.

Chao Qingxiu also tried taking her own pulse.

Normally, she could sense only the speed and strength of her pulse. But with a medical book equipped, an auxiliary plug-in seemed to appear in her mind, showing her how to move her fingers when taking a pulse. After sensing the state of her pulse, she saw an annotation appear: "Neither floating nor sunken; essence and energy abundant."

For Chao Qingxiu, understanding such knowledge was harder than mastering the route through which inner breath circulated.

She carefully memorized the hand movements for taking a pulse. After practicing for a while, she could finally perform them accurately without having any skill equipped.

While reading, time slipped past unnoticed. Chao Qingxiu looked up at the sky and found that noon was approaching. She returned the Medical Arts to her system space, straightened her robe, and prepared to go out.

Since she had only just arrived, Chao Qingxiu needed to learn about local conditions as soon as possible. She also had two things to resolve: finding somewhere to obtain her daily meals, and hiring a helper to do odd jobs around the house.

Mingsi Hall stood near the outskirts of the city. One way led to the great river beyond the walls; the other, less than a mile away, led to a small channel that cut through the city. Because lotus leaves grew in the channel, the locals called it the Lianhe River. Many shops had been built along both banks. The estate agent had been right: although the house stood in a remote spot, the streets would quickly fill with people after only a couple of steps farther on.

Chao Qingxiu wandered along the street and found that local snacks were genuinely cheap. The most ordinary malt candy cost one copper coin for two pieces, and a small bowl of cold noodles cost only five copper coins. Unfortunately, it was early spring, and many fruits had not yet come into season. She walked half a street, finally buying only three copper coins' worth of dried jujubes.

The vendor rolled a broad leaf into a funnel and poured the dried jujubes into it so customers could hold them in their hands.

Gaofang Prefecture was indeed a rich and flourishing place, yet Chao Qingxiu did not see a single beggar by the road all the way along her walk.

Along the street were vendors of snacks, straw baskets and sandals, kites, fresh flowers, cloth woven at home, and pots, bowls, ladles, basins, and other everyday vessels. Prices were lower than in the large shops, which made the stalls a good place for people with empty pockets to come and take their chances.

The courtyard was still wild and neglected, with weeds carpeting the ground and silt piled up. Since rain had been coming at intervals lately, Chao Qingxiu bought a pair of wooden clogs and a conical hat. She had considered buying an umbrella, but they were a little expensive, and anything decent cost a hundred copper coins. A common conical hat would have to do. Though it offered less protection from rain than an umbrella, she could still train hard to build her inner strength and resistance...

Chao Qingxiu remembered the constable's casual remarks. The agency that introduced household workers was not in the same part of town as the food vendors, but lay on the other side of the Lianhe River.

The Lianhe River was more than fifty feet across at its widest and still thirty feet wide in its narrower stretches. Much silt had built up in it, so river crews had to be sent down to dredge it every year. The stone bridge was already very old and was said to have been built in the former dynasty. It had no railings on either side.

As Chao Qingxiu stepped onto the stone bridge, a local farmwoman in middle age who was selling mountain bamboo shoots called out to her.

"Please watch your step, ma'am," the woman warned. "It rained yesterday, so the stones are slick. Walk a couple of steps toward the middle."

Chao Qingxiu turned, made a small salute with clasped hands, and thanked her.

Another farmer selling hawthorn slices at the bridgehead also sighed. "Every two years or so, someone loses their footing and falls off. The mud below is so thick that rescue is difficult. Ah, sand and gravel have already been spread over the bridge, and people still lose their footing."

Gaofang Prefecture always had several showers in spring, and even now the moisture had not dispersed from the air. Looking at the stone bridge, Chao Qingxiu saw that most travelers, like herself, were making their way carefully along its center. Only a girl of fifteen or sixteen knelt at the edge, with food and pastries set out before her. Facing the river below, she burned incense and bowed in worship.

The earlier farmwoman sighed and said, "That is the girl from the Cai family. Her mother fell into the river and died, so she comes here once every year on the anniversary to bow."

Chao Qingxiu withdrew her gaze and slowly crossed the stone bridge.

Gaofang Prefecture was a large city, and an official academy stood within it. Perhaps because it was the students' day off, many young people in white academy robes were out in small groups, making the streets livelier than usual.

When the constable had taken her to the rental house, the constable had mentioned various facts about Gaofang Prefecture: where to buy clothes, where to buy accessories, where to buy furniture, which agency treated workers fairly, and which restaurant served the best food and wine. This time, Chao Qingxiu had a clear destination. After crossing the bridge, she headed straight for Old Dong Brokerage.

Brokerages in Great Xia were like modern agencies, handling introductions to every sort of trade. The Dong Agency's commission was certainly not low, but it had a good reputation, and even customers with exacting requirements were willing to do business there.

The agency's current owner was Sister Dong, Dong Youlan.

When Chao Qingxiu arrived, Sister Dong herself was not in the shop. Only Shop Steward Zhang and several clerks were minding the store.

Once Shop Steward Zhang understood Chao Qingxiu's requirements, he considered for a moment and said, "There have been a great many refugees in and around the city lately, so finding a worker should not be difficult. But we know nothing about the newcomers' temperaments, and introducing someone rashly would ruin our reputation. Let this old man add one thing: your living quarters are modest, and your household is small. You need not spend thirty or forty strings merely to hire a maid to keep house. It would be better to have someone come by each day, clean the place, and cook a meal. That would cost only thirty copper coins a day."

These days, servants were usually hired on annual contracts. Hiring a young laborer to serve a household for five years cost thirty strings and up, which was beyond Chao Qingxiu's means. There were also workers like hourly help. They signed short contracts, were free to come and go, and charged much less for each cleaning, starting at fifteen copper coins. These workers usually did not spend a full day at one household but had to visit several homes each day.

What Shop Steward Zhang had just described was the latter sort.

Shop Steward Zhang smiled. "Although our shop does not handle this kind of business, there is no shortage of people doing it at our door. Do come back and look around. Within three to five days, you will be sure to find someone."

Chao Qingxiu found the advice reasonable. Nodding as she listened, she said, "Thank you for the guidance, Shop Steward." After saying goodbye, she turned and walked out of the shop.

The Dong Agency understood that if it wanted to eat the meat, it had to leave others some soup, so it did not take every worker placement for itself. Many people looking for work, or hoping to introduce workers, often sat outside its door, waiting for their own chance to come their way.

Chao Qingxiu did not approach anyone to negotiate directly. Instead, she chose a small eatery nearby, ordered a plate of pan-fried quail and a bowl of shrimp and mushroom soup, and watched the local people and customs around her with curiosity.

The server briskly brought over the food, then noticed how neat and clean Chao Qingxiu's clothes were and that she looked somewhat like a scholar. "The students have the day off today, and Wang's Restaurant is holding a literary gathering and treating its guests. After you have eaten, you might go and take a look."

Chao Qingxiu thought of the white-clad students on the road and asked casually, "Where is Wang's, please?"

"Wang's is a new establishment, right next to Cai's old shop," the server said. "Just follow the road east and you will see it. A group of students passed that way only a moment ago."

Chao Qingxiu nodded slightly and said nothing more.

Since Gaofang Prefecture was prosperous, there was certainly no shortage of people in its streets. No one was allowed to ride a horse in the city without good cause. Farmers came and went carrying shoulder poles or leading mule carts, while children of eleven or twelve walked nearby with bamboo baskets slung from their shoulders, hawking their family's dried fruit.

Chao Qingxiu kept watching the area outside the agency across the street. Those idlers did not dare to poach business from the established Dong Agency. Once customers left, they singled out people with worried faces and plain clothes and approached them, in fact landing several deals.

She could faintly hear the conversations across the street. Great Xia's labor market was already highly developed. An employer could take a worker home for a trial and then decide whether to sign a formal contract. During the trial period, the employer only had to pay half the worker's wages.

Chao Qingxiu spooned up a steaming spoonful of shrimp and mushroom soup. The restaurant's cooking was indeed good. The river shrimp in the soup had a fresh, sweet flavor, while the pan-fried quail came with the restaurant's own sauce and made a rich accompaniment to rice.

Halfway through her meal, a young academy student carrying a mesh bag full of clams and river shrimp hurried to a stop outside the shop. He looked around, and his face suddenly drained of color. He pulled a shop worker over and urgently asked, "Excuse me, where has my younger sister gone?"

The young man was standing beside a table in the middle of the shop. Two plates of steamed buns had been set on it, but now the plates were completely clean, with only a few crumbs left.

Chao Qingxiu had entered less than a cup of tea ago. As a newcomer to this world, she instinctively watched her surroundings wherever she went. She was therefore certain that the seat had been empty when she walked in.

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