Chương 9: Chapter 9 Looking for Relatives
Ye Xinyan took off her outer clothing and said to Nanny Jin, "Nanny, you go ahead and mend the clothes first. I'll go out and buy some miscellaneous flour to make dry food for the road."
Seeing her simply wear her outer clothes over her tattered cotton-padded jacket, Nanny Jin quickly said, "Let me mend your cotton-padded jacket first before you go out."
As Ye Xinyan put on her outer clothes, she shook her head, "There's no time. We have to hit the road early tomorrow. You mend your own inner and outer garments first, and after I make the dry food, I'll mend mine in the evening."
Nanny Jin sighed. The journey had been tough for them, but at least they had hope in their hearts. They planned to find their relatives, settle down, and then sell those pieces of jewelry to purchase a small courtyard.
The young Miss was optimistic, saying they could buy a house with a shop in front and living quarters in the back. They could run a business and have a place to live, which would be enough to sustain them. But now, all the gold and jewelry had been stolen, how would they survive the days ahead? How could the Miss, spoiled since childhood, endure such hardships?
For dinner, the two could only eat the flatbread Ye Xinyan made and the salty pickles from the inn. Ye Xinyan suppressed the disappointment in her heart, and chewed the miscellaneous flour pancake bite by bite as usual, trying hard to swallow it down. Although it looked hard to swallow, she did not complain.
After dinner, Nanny Jin mended Ye Xinyan's clothes and softly comforted her, "I've calculated; we still have some silver. Although it's less than five taels, if we economize, it should be enough to last us to Miyi County. Once we find our relatives and have a place to stay, there will be plenty of opportunities to make money. I will never let you go hungry, Miss."
"Mhm, I know," Ye Xinyan absentmindedly agreed, wondering in her head, what life would be like without money.
Her original plan was quite good: find Nanny Jin's relatives to have a reliable guarantee. With the silver and jewelry they had carried, starting a small business and earning a living was not out of the question. Slowly laying down roots, even achieving some small wealth, was not impossible.
But now it was not going to be easy. In this unfamiliar era, where women could not expose their faces in public, starting from scratch was going to be difficult, especially for two women with no one to rely on.
The human heart is the most unpredictable. While Nanny Jin relied on Duke An's Mansion, had status, and wealth, it was easy to get along with relatives. Now that Nanny Jin and she were both in distress, and moreover, would have no strong support or backer in the future, whether they could rely on those relatives was something Ye Xinyan dared not conclude.
She could imagine the kind of work Nanny Jin mentioned they could find, which was nothing but odd jobs, helping others mend and launder clothes. Under normal circumstances, such work could sustain life, but it definitely wouldn't earn enough for a comfortable living. Besides, people who eat grains are bound to get sick sometimes, and should disaster or illness strike, with such income, they could only endure it. If they couldn't endure, then they were left with only death.
The next day was the time they had arranged to start their journey with the peddlers. Because they were shadowed by the fear of having been robbed, for safety's sake, Ye Xinyan and Nanny Jin took apart the scissors they were carrying, each hiding a half inside their clothing.
Money is expendable, and as long as they were safe, it's alright if it's stolen. Ye Xinyan was afraid of threats to their personal safety. Having a defensive tool was better than having nothing at all.
Fortunately, the peddlers were cautious. To avoid the secluded paths, they only traveled on crowded roads, taking a long detour and finally arriving at Miyi County in early November.
Miyi County was the destination for Nanny Jin and her.
Nanny Jin didn't have the exact address of her relatives, so it would take a lot of time to find someone. Ye Xinyan and Nanny Jin discussed it, and since they couldn't afford to stay in an inn or rent a courtyard house, they simply rented a small house in a slum and started to inquire about Nanny Jin's cousins.
The two inquired on every street in Miyi County based on the business and age of Nanny Jin's cousins, along with their names, as if sifting through a net. Half a month later, they finally got definite news: the family had moved away four years earlier. As for where they went, the neighbors did not know.
Ye Xinyan felt like crying but had no tears.
At that time, although the household registration checks weren't very strict, you still needed proof to settle down permanently. They came to seek refuge in Miyi County because they knew someone who could act as a guarantor. As long as they could settle down, over time, they would naturally become permanent residents. Without a guarantor, what could they do? They couldn't just roam from place to place.
Watching the small amount of silver they had left dwindling, Nanny Jin had no choice but to ask the neighbors for work, taking on laundry and mending clothes.
With less than a month before the New Year, they still didn't have a place to settle down. At the end of the year, the Lizheng in charge of the market would come to look into the population; what would they do then? Ye Xinyan was at her wits' end.
As Ye Xinyan was washing clothes, she discussed with Nanny Jin, "Grandma Tan in the front yard makes her living as a mediator. How about I go to her, cry and put on a pitiful act, and ask her to vouch for us as relatives?"
Nanny Jin was doing some more complicated mending work at the moment, and when she heard Ye Xinyan's question, she looked up. Ye Xinyan was now skilled at getting the clothes clean, but as she became more capable, Nanny Jin's heart ached even more. The young lady was truly of a noble birth, and now she was enduring such hardships.
Seeing Nanny Jin staring at her without speaking, Ye Xinyan asked again, "What do you think? If it's a good idea, I'll go see Grandma Tan tomorrow. Or, you can go if you think that's better."
Granny Tan had good connections. She lived by setting up deals for the neighbors, introducing work, and taking a cut as a fee. Strictly speaking, Granny Tan wasn't very close to them. But without a more familiar intermediary, they could only pay Granny Tan a fee to see if she would act as their guarantor.
If they were talking about someone familiar, Nanny Jin would be a better choice to do the talking. But Ye Xinyan considered that Nanny Jin was older than Granny Tan and had held a respectable position in the Duke's Mansion for many years; it might be demeaning for her to humble herself and plead with a poor person's old woman servant. For Ye Xinyan, it was different. She came from a poor rural area, was still young, and asking an old woman for help wasn't shameful. However, she had little contact with Granny Tan, and it was Nanny Jin who always negotiated with her for work. She thought Nanny Jin might be more familiar with her, which was why she had discussed it with Nanny Jin.
Nanny Jin sighed, "That old woman servant Tan is easy enough to talk to; after all, she earns the mediator's money, and if there's money to be made, she should agree. But her daughter-in-law is very gossipy, and I'm afraid that if we ask Granny Tan for help, it would be known to everyone, even to the Lizheng, through her daughter-in-law's incessant chatter."
Upon hearing this, Ye Xinyan immediately abandoned the idea. They planned to settle down permanently, and leaving such a risk wasn't wise.
"If that's the case, then let's forget it. If the Lizheng asks, we'll just say we lost our wayfinder and failed to meet our relatives. At worst, after the New Year, we'll rent another house. Who knows, we might come across an opportunity elsewhere."
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