Chapter 84

Chapter 84: Distant Worries

By the time they returned to the village, the sky had begun to deepen toward dusk. The villagers who’d been digging the well were already home.

Li Tao Hua waited at the gate.

The moment she saw the ox cart, she hurried forward, opened the wattle fence, and waved them in as if she could pull them safely inside with her hands alone.

When the cart stopped, she reached for the rope tied to the ox. “Third Uncle, the food is still warm. Eat before you go back.”

Third Master Tang’s face split into a grin. “Sure. Your family’s food smells too good. I won’t stand on ceremony.”

Tang Da Fu and Tang Yi Chen had already eaten with the well-digging villagers to entertain them, but they hadn’t eaten much. They’d saved their stomachs, waiting for the family to be together.

Li Tao Hua, however, hadn’t eaten at all. She’d worried about her daughter the entire time. Even when Tang Da Fu urged her to eat a little first, she refused.

Now that Qin Hui Yin was back in front of her, Li Tao Hua finally set the food out. She sat beside her daughter and kept piling dishes into Qin Hui Yin’s bowl.

“Mom, I can’t eat that much.” Qin Hui Yin pushed some back, trying to laugh. “You had to cook for so many people today. Weren’t you exhausted?”

“Your uncle and Brother Chen helped pick and wash vegetables,” Li Tao Hua said, her eyes scanning Qin Hui Yin’s face as if checking for bruises. “I only did the stir-frying, so it wasn’t too hard.” Her voice softened, then sharpened with worry. “Unlike you. You’ve been working outside all day. Your little face looks thinner…”

Qin Hui Yin immediately began telling her about the day—small funny details, the way Tang Yi Xiao had counted wen like a miser, the dazzled look on Tang Lu Wu’s face in the clothing shop—anything to pull her mother’s attention away from her cheeks.

Today had been more tiring than usual, yes. But Qin Hui Yin wasn’t the only one who’d worked.

In Li Tao Hua’s eyes, whenever she wasn’t there, her daughter must have been suffering.

Tang Da Fu poured wine for Third Master Tang and lifted his cup. “Third Uncle, I truly don’t know how to thank you. From now on, you’re my real uncle, and these children are your real grandsons.”

Third Master Tang laughed, eyes crinkling. “That’s great. I’m the one getting the bargain. I didn’t do anything and I still gained a few capable grandsons and a capable granddaughter.”

He didn’t drink much. There was a market in town tomorrow, and he needed to rise early to take villagers to the fair.

After eating and drinking, Tang Yi Chen hitched the ox and drove Third Master Tang home.

When Tang Yi Chen left with him, Li Tao Hua stood in the yard staring at the bundles piled on the cart, dazed.

They hadn’t unloaded earlier. Li Tao Hua had only seen the cloth-wrapped shapes and assumed Qin Hui Yin had bought ingredients again.

Buying ingredients this early felt soon, but Qin Hui Yin always seemed to know what she was doing. She rarely made people worry.

Now the bundles were carried down and opened, and Li Tao Hua realized they weren’t ingredients at all.

Quilts. Clothes. New fabric that still smelled like the shop.

“Mom?” Qin Hui Yin’s voice gentled. “Are you okay?”

Li Tao Hua swallowed. “I just… didn’t expect you to think things through so carefully.” Her throat tightened. “My daughter has grown up. Lately it feels like you’ve been taking care of me, and I haven’t taken good care of you.”

She turned slightly away, embarrassed by her own emotion, and quickly wiped her eyes.

“Mom.” Qin Hui Yin moved closer at once, a hand on her mother’s arm. “Who says you haven’t taken care of me? Who made my shoes? Who altered my clothes? That’s all your care.”

Tang Yi Chen returned not long after, and Qin Hui Yin started handing things out.

Four sets of clothes for each person. One new quilt for each room.

Then she pulled out a small box and held it up with exaggerated mystery. “Mom, look what this is.”

Li Tao Hua blinked away the last of her tears and played along. “The box isn’t big. Did you buy a new handkerchief?”

“No.”

“Tooth powder?”

“Not that either.”

“Then I can’t guess.” Li Tao Hua’s voice cracked into a laugh despite herself.

Qin Hui Yin opened the box slowly and pushed it into her mother’s hands.

Li Tao Hua went still.

Inside lay the jewelry she’d pawned before.

When she’d pawned them, she’d never planned to redeem them. Seeing them again now was like seeing a piece of her past walk back through the door.

“Mom,” Qin Hui Yin said softly, “these are the things you pawned. Now they’re back where they belong.” She hesitated, then brightened. “And I also bought a few little things…”

She opened three smaller boxes. Each held a pair of earrings.

“One pair for you,” Qin Hui Yin said, “and one pair each for me and Sister Lu Wu. Our mother-and-daughter ornaments.” Her eyes flicked to the men with playful severity. “You three won’t get jealous, right? Even if I bought more, you couldn’t wear them. So I didn’t waste the money.” She lifted a bundle with a grin. “But I did buy each of you a pair of socks.”

Tang Yi Chen’s mouth curved. “Then thank you, Little Sister.” He glanced at Tang Lu Wu, whose hands hovered over her box as if she were afraid it might vanish. “Lu Wu has never had jewelry before. This is her first piece, so I’ll thank you for her too.”

Tang Lu Wu’s eyes shone, and she pressed her lips together hard to keep from crying.

After all the distributing and laughing, Qin Hui Yin gave her report like a steward. “Total income today was six taels and 35 wen. We spent four taels, and we have two taels and 35 wen left.”

Tang Yi Chen recorded it in the ledger and then began handing out everyone’s wages.

“We’ve got new clothes,” Tang Da Fu said uneasily. “We shouldn’t take wages, right?”

“Yeah.” Tang Yi Xiao nodded, suddenly serious. “We spent so much money. We shouldn’t take our little wages.”

Qin Hui Yin shook her head. “Wages are wages, and household expenses are household expenses. We’re one family. Things we buy each season count as household expenses, and we can’t dock wages for them.” She ticked off the list with a practical calm that made arguing feel foolish. “We still need shoes and socks, and we need to buy charcoal. When winter comes, we can’t stay in bed forever, can we?”

That settled it. Everyone accepted their wages.

For the Tang family, this kind of life was something they wouldn’t have dared imagine before.

After dinner, Li Tao Hua rushed to clean the house as if she needed her hands busy to keep her emotions from spilling over again.

Qin Hui Yin brought Tang Yi Xiao and Tang Lu Wu to study characters.

Compared to Tang Yi Chen’s strict, teacher-like instruction, Qin Hui Yin taught like a gentle breeze and soft rain—patient, steady, soaking in slowly until it stuck. Under her guidance, Tang Yi Xiao and Tang Lu Wu even relaxed enough to joke as they learned.

Tang Yi Chen stood at the window watching for a while. Seeing his younger siblings smiling over their lesson, he didn’t know whether to be annoyed or amused.

Later, Qin Hui Yin stepped out to pour water and found Tang Yi Chen seated at the table, staring blankly at the moon framed by the window.

She followed his gaze and said brightly, “The moon is pretty round tonight—like the flatbread we cooked this morning. Are you craving pancakes?”

Tang Yi Chen’s eyes flicked to her. Whatever trace of melancholy he’d been wearing slipped right off.

Qin Hui Yin smiled into her cup. “You’re only fourteen. Don’t act like you’re forty. The tragic hero act doesn’t suit you. Want some tea? I’ll brew some.”

He let out a short laugh. “You really are a strange one.”

Why hadn’t he noticed before that she was this interesting?

But back then, they hadn’t interacted. He spent his days at the private school and rarely came back to the village. Forget paying attention to an outsider—he barely even paid attention to his own younger siblings.

Qin Hui Yin set the cup down and leaned her elbow on the table, eyes bright in the moonlight. “Today I asked about house prices in the county city. Guess how much?”

Tang Yi Chen waited, patient.

“A house about the same size as ours costs 3,000 taels of silver,” Qin Hui Yin said. “And that’s with a bad location, on a far-out street.”

Tang Yi Chen’s brows rose. “You’re already thinking about buying a house in the county city?”

“No.” Qin Hui Yin’s smile turned wry. “I’m thinking that once you pass the exams and gain rank, we’ll definitely have to follow you to the Capital City to build a future. By then, housing prices in the Capital City will be even more terrifying.”