章 3: Wake Up Call

"Jiejie, jiejie."

"Jiejie~, jiejie~, wake up!" Xiao Ting was currently in Lei Xing's room trying to get her to wake up and was getting no response.

"Jiejie, jiejie wake up...it's almost noon, let's go out to have fun, aren't you bored? You haven't gone anywhere in the past few weeks..." Xiao Ting was now shaking Lei Xing's arm, Lei Xing frowned.

{...Arrgh!...Since this is a new life, couldn't they have skipped out on the annoying younger sibling who disturbs my peace? -_-)'...}

"Fine, I'm awake! What do you want?" Lei Xing sat up and shrugged Xiao Ting's hands off and leaned back on the headboard, and looked at Xiao Ting with irritation.

"Ah...I just...I wanted to go out to have some fun with jiejie...since you'll be entering the palace tomorrow for the concubine selection...we won't get a chance to in the future...."

"Don't worry, there'll definitely be a chance in the future." Lei Xing said as she started to snuggle back into bed. Xiao Ting reached out and grabbed Lei Xing's arm to stop her.

"Jiejie you'll definitely be..."

"Definitely be sure to fail." Lei Xing cut her off and then sighed and continued patting Xiao Ting's head, "Now you go get some sleep okay? We'll go play tomorrow"...then she brushed off her hands and snuggled back into bed, covering herself with the blanket and smiling blissfully.

"But jiejie you are entering the palace tomorrow..." Xiao Ting said dejectedly.

"Then we'll go the day after..." Lei Xing said dismissively.

"...but...but you'll be living in the palace, I don't think you will be allowed to come out to play...."

"I told you I have an assured failure, so don't worry, I'll be back tomorrow..." Lei Xing groggily said.

"...but even then, the competition is a week-long, so you'll have to stay in the palace for at least a week..."

"What?!" Lei Xing said in a shocked voice as she sat up and looked at Xiao Ting with a confused expression, "Since when?"

"Ah, didn't I tell you?" Xiao Ting looked at Lei Xing mirroring her confused expression.

"No! You didn't... I'm sure I would have remembered...I'm not ready...I didn't prepare anything." Lei Xing said as she quickly got up from the bed and walked towards the door, stopped, then massaged her forehead with a hand. Then called out, "Ah Jin."

Ah Jin, Lei Xing's personal maid, a young girl with a cute two-bun hairstyle that made her look even younger, opened the doors and walked in, "Miss, you're awake."

"Oh, ready a bath please, we're going out."

"Okay, would you like to eat lunch first?"

"No, I don't think I can eat right now...just the bath, hurry please...." Ah Jin nodded and quickly left the room, Lei Xing walked over to the table, poured some water, and threw her head back to drink it, then poured another, and another, then she put her elbows on the table and used her hands to massage her forehead.

Xiao Ting was confused as she watched her sister behaving weirdly, she walked up to her and sat across from her.

"Jiejie, I thought we weren't interested in being a concubine. What do you have to prepare for?" Xiao Ting asked, confused.

"For survival." Lei Xing replied in a tired low voice.

"Survival? From what?" Xiao Ting looked at Lei Xing wide-eyed.

Lei Xing looked at Xiao Ting's innocent face, "The naive cannot understand."

Xiao Ting raised her eyebrows, she was even more confused, Lei Xing sighed, stretched her arms up as she yawned, and said, "Don't worry about it, either way, it'd be nice to go out and see what this world has to offer."

"You're going out?!" Xiao Ting asked with a big smile.

"Yes, to your obvious delight." Lei Xing said with a small smile.

"Great! I'll go get everything ready...Jiejie should just get dressed and come out."

"Oh."

Xiao Ting beamed another smile at Lei Xing and skipped out of the room.

Lei Xing leaned back in her seat, with one arm on the table with her fingers drumming lightly on it, she was deep in her thoughts, debating her incoming battle.

***

Right now, Xiao Ting was dragging Lei XIng through many boutique stalls and shops. They had taken a carriage from the residence to the shopping district and were currently roaming from stall to shop, with Ah Jin and Ah Cai, Xiao Ting's personal maid, and a couple of guards following behind.

"Is this your idea of fun?" Lei Xing said, tired of running around. Ahe was never someone who enjoyed shopping, especially pointless shopping like this, where you run into every store in sight with no purpose in mind other than "checking it out".

"Jieijie, you are not having fun? You used to enjoy this..."

"Let's just say I have achieved enlightenment, this is tiring, you go through every item in the store, and you don't even buy anything, where is the fun in that? Aren't you tired?"

"...but it's fun seeing the new things..." Xiao Ting said gloomily.

"Okay, whatever, to each their own." Lei Xing said, rolling her eyes

"Jiejie, you said you need to prepare something, don't you need to buy anything? Where do you want to go? I'll accompany you!" Xiao Ting said as she grabbed Lei Xing's hand and smiled brightly.

"Oh, a pharmacy."

"Pharmacy?"

"Yes, I haven't seen any so far...." Lei Xing said, looking around at the shops.

"What do you need to buy? Are you unwell?" Xiao Ting asked worriedly.

"No, I just need some stuff."

"Oh, there should be one around here. Ah Jin, Ah Cai, do you know where there's a pharmacy?"

"There's Doctor Luo's shop on the next street." Ah Jin replied, pointing towards the right street bend ahead. "Although, I'm not sure if he'll have what Miss is looking for..."

"We can still try, I really just need to ask some questions. Thank you, let's head there." Lei Xing answered, and they all made their way towards that direction, as they turned the corner onto the street, they saw a crowd gathering ahead of them.

"What's going on?" Xiao Ting whispered as she raced forward, Lei Xing and the others also picked up their pace to catch up with her.

As Xiao Ting got to the crowded area, she saw that it was a burly man whipping a whimpering woman, shouting, "You Stupid Slave! You dare to bite me! Forget selling you, with you like this you will only bring me trouble, I will just send you to your grave today."

Xiao Ting wanted to race forward to stop him, when her arm was grabbed, she turned and saw her sister holding her back, "Jiejie..."

"You should not be so impulsive...what is your plan after rushing out?" The man kept whipping the girl, and she kept crying...

{...So slavery is a thing here...how annoying...}

"Isn't it best not to damage your own merchandise." Lei Xing said in a cool voice.

The man stopped whipping and scanned the crowd, roaring, "Who are you to teach me how to treat my own property?!"

"A prospective buyer." Lei Xing stepped forward, the crowd of onlookers and the man looked towards her, "It's not too good for me to spend money to buy, but still have to go home and spend more money again to heal them, right?" Lei Xing said with a small smile as she walked forward and stood in front of the crowd.

The man was still in shock that such a young girl dared to speak up in this situation and was processing how to respond. He could tell from her clothing and demeanor that she was clearly a noble, and it wouldn't do him any good to antagonize her. She also said she was a buyer, but interrupting his punishment in front of a crowd like this is...a bit off-putting.

Lei Xing could see his internal struggle and before he could come to a conclusion, she spoke up first, "You have a good stock...quite a variety too." She said as she scanned the people in the cart, there were about twenty of them, men and women of different ages crammed into a small cart.

Hearing her words, the man's face immediately lit up and he forgot the crying girl in the corner and began to boast, "Ah, you have good eyes! Even if I look like this, my eye for quality is very good, you will not be disappointed, they can work very hard for you." he said smiling towards Lei Xing.

"Hmm...but they are all so thin, how can they work when they are like this?" Lei Xing said as she put a hand on her chin and looked at the group.

"Ah, Miss they can work, they can work, I guarantee!" The man assured.

Lei Xing laughed, "How can I be assured with just your words? Which businessman would not say their own merchandise is the best."

The man was at a loss for words and frowned, "This..."

"How many do you have?"

"Twenty-seven."

The crowd seeing that the show was over and that the rest was just a normal transaction started to disperse.

"How much for one person?"

"Ah? Ah, it depends on which one you want..." Lei Xing raised an eyebrow at him and he quickly continued, "Ah, for example, if you want to take this one, it would be 100 copper coins." He said, pointing at the most sturdy man in the group.

"Okay, how about this one?" Lei Xing asked, pointing to the girl on the ground, who was about the smallest in the group.

The man scoffed, kicked the girl and said, "This one is a trouble maker, but if you'll take her, I can give her to you for 20 copper coins."

"Okay, how about this? I'll take all of them for 50 coins each since there are twenty-seven of them, how about I just give you 13 silver pieces then." Lei Xing said with a smile

The one thing, Lei Xing made sure to study on after arriving here was money, calculating money has always been one of her best past times, calculating her weekly pay, monthly pay, yearly pay was something she always enjoyed and did very often, even when she already knew the result, calculating it was always a fun process for her.

So after getting over the initial shock of transmigrating and accepting her new life, one of the first things she did was understanding money.

"This..." The man wanted to protest.

Lei Xing cut him off, "What are you thinking of? It is a profit for you! I am being extremely generous or are you not interested...?" Lei Xing raised her eyebrow at him, her smile was gone.

The man looked at her and opened his mouth, but before he could say anything Lei Xing cut him off.

"Fine then..." Lei Xing turned around and started to walk away.

"Wait, wait! I'll sell...thank you, Miss, for your business." The man smiled as Lei Xing stopped and turned around.

"Okay" Lei Xing motioned for her sister and the others to come forward. "Ah Jin, you take this gentleman along with one of the guards back to the manor and have them give him 13 taels. After they enter the manor, keep them together and get guards to watch them vigilantly until I return, none of them must be missing, okay?" Ah Jin nodded.

Lei Xing then added, "Also make sure they are given enough food and water and make sure to oversee everything..." Lei Xing smiled, she was confident in Ah Jin's ability, she had proven to be very responsible over the past couple of weeks.

Lei Xing faced the man, smiled and said, "Go with her to my manor to deliver them and collect your money."

The man bowed, "Thank you Miss for your business."

Lei Xing watched them depart, then grabbed Xiao Ting, who had been in a daze watching her sister the entire time, "Jiejie, you have changed..." She said as she looked at Lei Xing starry-eyed. In the past, Lei Xing would have called her bothersome and dragged her off. She would never interfere in what she called other people's business, they were bothersome.

"Haha...is that so?" Lei Xing said, laughing nervously.

"Yes, I love you." Xiao Ting said as she hugged Lei Xing, surprising her. Lei Xing tried to peel Xiao Ting's arms off as she blushed in embarrassment. She really wasn't used to people gluing to her like this, especially in public. The stragglers from the crowd before and passersby were smiling in their direction, making Lei Xing feel even more embarrassed.

"Okay, Xiao Ting, let go...that's enough."

"Okay..." Xiao Ting let go, but held onto to Lei Xing's hand and smiled at her. Lei Xing looked at their joined hands for a while, then sighed and started walking in the direction of the pharmacy with Xiao Ting holding onto her hand.