Chapter 62: Qiu Yurou Heard She Had Come…

Qiu Yurou, hearing that she had come to find her, asked directly, “What is it, Sister Dani?”

Su Dani’s hands were clenched tightly under her sleeves as she said, “I heard your whole family is moving to the county town, and that you bought a two-courtyard residence. With such a big compound, if you’re planning to hire someone to clean the yard and do rough chores, could you please consider me first?”

For her household in the county, Qiu Yurou indeed intended to hire help. But she didn’t want to employ anyone from Su Village.

However, while she couldn’t hire them for her household, the workshop was a different matter.

Just a few days earlier, Qiu Yurou had even heard that Old Uncle Su Mao was arranging marriage proposals for Su Dani. She didn’t ask why Su Dani wanted to go out to work, but simply told her
“Sister Dani, the chores in our new house can be handled by just anyone. What I really plan is to open a pastry workshop in the county. For that, I’ll need people I can trust. Since you want to work, how about coming to the workshop instead?”

Su Dani only wanted to leave her home and find a place to settle. As long as someone was willing to take her in, anywhere would do.

As soon as Qiu Yurou finished speaking, she hurriedly agreed.

The reason Su Dani wanted to go out to work was that she did not want to remarry.

Her father had already entrusted someone with finding her a new match. She didn’t want to marry again, but her father said, “If you don’t marry out, do you plan to freeload at home forever?”

Su Dani had never dared imagine spending her whole life at her parents’ house. The family property now belonged to her father. Once he passed away, it would go to her cousins. From beginning to end, it would have nothing to do with her.

But to remarry just for a place to live that was something Su Dani would never accept.

She had endured so many years in her ex-husband’s household, not because she couldn’t let go of the roof tiles sheltering her from the rain.

What she couldn’t let go of was her daughters.

If her daughters hadn’t begged her natal family for help after seeing her mother beaten half to death, Su Dani would never have considered asking them to intervene, even when she herself was nearly killed by the abuse.

Because she had never once hoped that her father would stand up for her.

Later, when her clan relatives insisted on bringing her back, if not for her children kneeling and begging her, she wouldn’t have left them behind either.

Even though she had divorced, nothing could change the fact that she was still their mother.

If she remarried, whether becoming a stepmother or bearing more children, it would be a betrayal of her daughters.

She told her father she wouldn’t marry again, that she could work to support herself instead.

But her father didn’t allow it, saying, “What proper work can a woman find outside?”

Su Dani herself couldn’t go out, so she couldn’t refute him.

These past days, after hearing of what Qiu Yurou had done for Ni Yafeng, she knew that Qiu Yurou was kindhearted.

Su Dani came today only with the thought of trying her luck. If Qiu Yurou was willing to take her in, then her father would have no grounds to say the work was improper.

Now that Qiu Yurou had so easily agreed, the heavy weight in her heart was finally lifted and replaced with boundless gratitude.

She tried to speak words of thanks, but they came out incoherently, leaving Qiu Yurou with a sour ache in her chest, unable to stop thinking of her own days when she could not escape from the Qiu family.

She pulled Su Dani into the shed and said, “Sister Dani, later I’ll go home with you and personally speak to Uncle Mao about asking you to help me. If there’s nothing urgent at home, you and Ping’an can go ahead to the county first. The workshop compound there is already rented, but it hasn’t been cleaned yet. When you go, you can tidy it up first.”

Hearing that Qiu Yurou would personally speak to her father on her behalf, Su Dani immediately understood that she recognized her difficulties.

She thought the same as she did; truly kindhearted!

The words of gratitude stuck in her throat, her eyes filled with tears, yet she could not get a single word out.

Only after she calmed down did Qiu Yurou speak to her about wages.

Qiu Yurou said, “At the workshop, you’ll be provided food and lodging. As for pay, let’s set it at three hundred copper coins a month for now. What do you think?”

Su Dani shook her head, “That’s too much. For someone like me, how could I possibly be worth three hundred a month? Especially with food and lodging included!”

Qiu Yurou felt this was a clear sign of extreme lack of self-confidence, the result of long-term psychological suppression.

At this moment, Aunt Shuncai spoke up, “Dani, whatever Yurou says she’ll give you, just accept it. For us rural women to find work in the county that includes food and lodging and pays three hundred coins a month are rare chances. Yurou is willing to take you in because she’s kind. All you need to do is fulfill the tasks she entrusts to you, and that will be your way of repaying her.”

Su Dani quickly said, “Don’t worry, Auntie. I know what’s right. If Yurou wanted to find someone reliable, she could call out in the village and have a dozen people within the hour. But she chose me directly, that’s her grace to me. I’m not someone who doesn’t know gratitude. From now on, no matter what tasks Yurou gives me, even if I have to risk my life, I will see them done!”

After Su Dani expressed her determination, Aunt Shuncai urged Qiu Yurou to accompany her back home.

When Su Dani had first said she wanted to work outside, Old Uncle Mao disagreed. But when Qiu Yurou explained that she wanted to employ Dani, Old Unlce Mao didn’t even ask what the work was and simply agreed outright.

Qiu Yurou: …

Even though he asked nothing, Qiu Yurou still carefully explained everything again.

And Old Unlce Mao still just agreed to whatever she said.

It was settled that once Su Yunting returned, Su Dani and Ping’an would go ahead first to tidy the rented workshop. With that, Qiu Yurou took her leave.

Old Unlce Mao personally escorted her to the main gate. He first told his daughter to go back and pack her things. Only after Su Dani went inside did Old Unlce Mao say to Qiu Yurou, “Yurou, Uncle knows that it’s only because you’re kindhearted that you’re willing to employ Dani. I had wanted her to remarry, so that in the future she’d at least have a place to be buried when she was old.

But she insists on going out to work, saying she can spend a few taels later to buy some hillside land and be buried there when the time comes! Her thinking isn’t wrong, but outside work isn’t so easy to do. That’s why I disagreed. Now that you’ve come and offered to take her in, Uncle knows this is you showing your kindness again. Uncle has nothing else to say. I trust you, and I just want to thank you.”

Qiu Yurou’s character, along with Su Yunting’s status as a scholar, was enough to put Old Unlce Mao at ease.

In her heart, Qiu Yurou sighed. No matter what class or status, parents all hoped the same: for their children to live well.

After saying a few words to reassure Old Su Mao, Qiu Yurou finally left his house.

When Su Yunting returned from the county, he really did bring back the plaque the magistrate had written for the town physician.

On the very afternoon the plaque was hung, someone came to invite the physician to attend to his wife, who was in labor.

And from then on, because of the county magistrate’s plaque, that physician slowly shifted from being an internal medicine physician into becoming an obstetrician.

……

When the weather was no longer so hot, many teahouses in Mingshun County launched new kinds of pastries. On every street, oil workshops also introduced two new sauces.

With new flavors, anyone curious would give them a try, and soon their taste buds were conquered.

At Qiu Yurou’s “Peace-of-Mind workshop,” just after work had begun one morning, Su Chao brought in two newly hired workers who had joined only the day before.

The two first had to change clothes at the gatehouse, wash their hands, put on simple caps that fully covered their heads, and wear masks hooked behind their ears to cover their mouths and noses.

Once dressed, they followed the boss’s second apprentice, crossed the courtyard, and entered the main room marked “Ingredients Room.”

Inside were three other women dressed the same way, pressing pastries with molds.

Su Chao only stood at the doorway and called out, “Sister Dani, these two have already been examined by the physician. They’re confirmed healthy. Master wants you to guide them for the first two days.”

Dani put down her mold and came over to look at the two newcomers.

They both looked to be in their thirties, of medium build. Their faces couldn’t be seen clearly under the masks and caps.

But Dani didn’t care about that. In this place, as long as one was clean and efficient, nothing else mattered so long as they weren’t sick.

After handing the new workers to Su Dani, Su Chao went to the preparation room next to the storeroom. In that preparation room, only Master and his apprentices were allowed. Not even Su Dani could go in casually.

Inside, Ping’an was mixing ingredients for a pastry. Once the mix was ready, they would carry it to the Ingredients Room, where it could be molded. After that, whether steaming or frying, there was nothing that needed to be kept secret anymore.

The two apprentices finished preparing the ingredients and carried them over to the Ingredients Room.

By then, Su Dani had already taught the newcomers how to use the molds.

Women of this era, even if they had never made such delicate foods at home, were still very skilled with kitchen work, so they picked it up quickly.

When Qiu Yurou arrived at the workshop, Ping’an and Su Chao had just finished frying a batch of pastries.

Qiu Yurou took one, broke off a piece, and tasted it carefully. Once she confirmed both the seasoning and the heat were just right, she praised the two apprentices.

Su Chao said, “It’s mainly thanks to Senior Brother’s skill. I was just helping out.”

Since the second apprentice had limited talent, Qiu Yurou used encouragement as her teaching method.

She first acknowledged his effort, and then urged him to keep improving.

After checking on the two apprentices, she went to inspect the Ingredients Room once more. Once she confirmed everything was in order, she returned to the stove shed to instruct her apprentices.

By around 9 a.m. when the business grew busier, people came one after another to collect goods.

Once most of the orders were picked up, Qiu Yurou didn’t linger in the workshop. Before leaving, she took one apprentice with her to the market to buy ingredients suitable for the day’s lesson in cooking at home.

That day she brought along the second apprentice, Su Chao, so the dishes they bought were relatively simple.

When they got home, Uncle Zhong at the gatehouse opened the door. Before they could enter the inner gate, Jingxuan came running out. She first looked at the ingredients in Su Chao’s hands. But when she saw it was only vegetables, her earlier excitement immediately faded.

Qiu Yurou could only feel helpless at her disappointed look.

Back when they hadn’t yet moved to the county, the children thought everything in the county would be wonderful.

And indeed, after moving, nine out of ten things were better: the house was nearly new, each person had their own room, and the furniture was chosen to their liking.

They didn’t even have to handle housework anymore. Qiu Yurou had hired a capable local woman in her forties to take care of laundry and cleaning, and she even bought each sister a maid.

After moving to the county, Jingxuan truly went from being a country girl to living like the young lady of a wealthy family.

But in this county life, the one thing she couldn’t bear was no meat!

It wasn’t that meat couldn’t be eaten in the county. Rather, ever since they moved, what had once been a lax observance of mourning restrictions in their village turned strict. In the county, the household followed mourning customs more carefully.

Qiu Yurou herself didn’t want to be so rigid. But Su Yunting had said: while it didn’t matter much in the countryside if they weren’t strict, but here in the county, teachers and classmates were all watching.

For a scholar, failing to observe mourning properly would leave a lifelong stain.

For the sake of their future, the couple decided that until the mourning period ended, the household would avoid meat.

Cultural Notes:

Pastry workshop: is a small-scale commercial workshop that produces pastries for distribution