"Two plain rings, at the very least, will take half a day's work." The old silversmith said, taking out a small balance scale and placing the two silver hairpins upon the pan, gesturing for Lin Wu to come closer. "Take a careful look, guest. These two hairpins weigh exactly six qian and seven fen."
Lin Wu stepped closer and examined them seriously before nodding. "I've checked them thoroughly. I'll trouble you, Uncle, for your efforts."
"There will inevitably be loss from the fire and filing during crafting," the old silversmith explained patiently. "The finished piece will be somewhat lighter than the raw silver. From your six qian and seven fen of material, after shaping the bracelets, roughly six qian will remain. This is the trade custom, and you should be aware of it."
"I understand." Lin Wu nodded again.
"How should I address you, guest?" The old silversmith took out a ledger book.
"My surname is Lin," she answered softly.
The old silversmith recited while writing: "Twenty-third day of the ninth month, Miss Lin, supplied with six qian and seven fen of pure silver, to craft one pair of plain children's rings, workmanship fee eighty wen, deposit paid today of twenty wen. Does that look correct to you, guest?"
"It's all in order. Thank you, Uncle." Lin Wu carefully counted out twenty copper coins and placed them neatly on the counter.
"If you have the time, you may pick them up after noon. Or come back tomorrow, that works as well." The old silversmith said, then took a wooden tally from the drawer and handed one half to Lin Wu. "Present this tally when you collect the goods. Be sure to keep it safe and don't lose it."
Lin Wu took the tally and tucked it carefully into the innermost layer of her cloth bundle. In her mind, she calculated: if she returned after noon, it would likely be dark by the time she made it back to the mountain. Not only was the mountain path dangerous at night, but she also couldn't bear to leave Lin Jing alone for too long.
"I'll come back tomorrow to pick it up," she replied.
After a slight hesitation, she fumbled in her bundle and pulled out two small pearls, holding them out in her palm, a little anxious. "Uncle, I also have these two little pearls. They were originally set on the hairpins, but the young miss picked them off to play with. Would you happen to accept such small items here?"
The old silversmith took the pearls and inspected them closely against the light. "Ordinary freshwater pearls, a bit small in size, but fortunately the shape is round and smooth. I can give you twenty wen each."
"Oh my!" The older woman beside them, who had been about to leave, heard this and came back over, examining the two pearls in the light. "Sister, I was just thinking of having a pair of earrings made, and these little pearls would fit perfectly. Why don't you just sell them to me directly? I'll give you thirty wen each, and spare Old He the trouble of a middle step."
She spoke frankly right in front of the old silversmith, clearly a regular customer.
"This..." Lin Wu looked helplessly at the old silversmith, then at the warm-hearted older woman, uncertain what to do.
"Just sell them to her," the old silversmith waved his hand dismissively. "After all, the workmanship fee for her earrings will still end up in my pocket."
"Then I thank you both for your kindness." Lin Wu gently placed the two pearls into the older woman's hand.
"Think nothing of it!" The older woman laughed heartily, deftly pulling out a small string of copper coins, adding ten loose ones, and handing them to Lin Wu. "Sister, this string is fifty wen, plus ten loose coins, sixty wen in total. Count them yourself."
Lin Wu took them, counted carefully, and put them away before sincerely thanking her: "Thank you for your kindness, Auntie."
The older woman noticed the small, worn cloth Lin Wu used to store her money, without a proper pouch, so she lowered her voice and said: "Take an old woman's advice—you've got a little girl with you, and it's fair to say you two depend on each other. You must keep your wits about you in all things. Let me ask you one thing, if you don't mind me being nosy: does your mother-in-law have any sons besides your husband?"
"There's also a younger brother-in-law, but they split up the family years ago. My mother-in-law lives with us," Lin Wu answered quietly.
"If that's the case, now that your husband is gone, the burden of supporting your mother-in-law shouldn't fall entirely on your shoulders alone." The older woman's tone was filled with concern.
"I understand... Thank you for the advice, Auntie." Lin Wu raised her sleeve and again wiped the corners of her slightly reddened eyes.
After leaving the silversmith's shop, Lin Wu returned to the main street.
She went this time to a secondhand clothing shop, which both bought and sold old garments. In these times, an ordinary bolt of ramie cloth cost as much as four hundred wen, and made-up clothing was even pricier. So for common families, buying new clothes was a major event, and when money was tight, pawning or selling decent garments was a common occurrence.
The shop was full of all kinds of old clothes, from half-new silk robes to washed-out, rough cotton tunics—everything imaginable—yet the prices were far cheaper than at proper clothing stores.
Items that were seventy to eighty percent new went for about half the price of new ones; those that were more worn but still decent often cost only three or four tenths of the new price, making them the best deals. Naturally, thick autumn and winter clothes, because they used more material and labor, were still somewhat pricier than summer garments even when used.
She rifled through the racks carefully, picking out a large and a small set of rough cloth shirt and trousers such as country folk wore, slightly worn but washed clean, and also chose two pairs of thick, sturdy new cloth shoes.
Next, she went to a fabric shop and bought twelve chi of fine cloth to make underclothes. Then, thinking that she would be traveling and would inevitably need to wrap her head against dust and pack her belongings, she added seven chi of rough cloth. When settling the bill, because she had bought so much, she haggled with the shopkeeper and managed to get a small handful of leftover cloth scraps as a bonus, which could be used as hair ties.
Then she went to a general store and bought a fire striker and a needle-and-thread kit.
Before leaving the city, she stopped at a food stall and bought two meat-stuffed steamed buns to fill her stomach. After days of eating barely anything, the satisfaction in her belly was hard to describe—for the first time, she thought meat buns tasted this good.
She bought five more, wrapped them in dried broad leaves, and put them in her cloth bundle. Thinking about it, she added three flat baked cakes, enough for tomorrow's breakfast.
On the road back, Lin Wu tallied the day's accounts in her head.
From selling wild fruit, herbs, and the pearls, plus the original five taels of silver and sixty-two wen she'd had, she had a total of five and a half taels of broken silver and six hundred sixty-seven wen. But after today's shopping, she'd spent over nine hundred wen. The money she'd just earned today was almost entirely gone, leaving her with only five taels of silver and a little over two hundred wen in copper coins.
In the future, making a living would require money at every turn, and leaving the city with a merchant caravan would cost more still. She wasn't sure whether these silver and coins would be enough.
She shook her head, pushing those thoughts aside. Thinking of Lin Jing waiting alone in the mountain cave, she quickened her pace once more.
No matter how hurried she was, by the time she returned to the familiar mountain ridge, the sun had already sunk low in the west.
Inside the cave, little Lin Jing had curled himself into a ball, his chin resting on his knees, unmoving.
Suddenly, a faint rustling sound came from outside the cave. He jerked his head up, crept on tiptoe to the cave mouth, pressed his eye against a crack in the stone, and peered out nervously.
In the twilight, a familiar figure was pushing through the underbrush toward him. The moment he saw it was Lin Wu, the tight string in his chest suddenly loosened, his eyes stung, and tears rolled down his cheeks without warning, no matter how hard he tried to stop them.
"A Jing, I'm back." Lin Wu parted the branches at the cave's entrance.
She shoved the stone aside with effort, and at once saw the child's face streaked with tears. Her heart ached. Bending down, she gently drew the little boy into her arms, patting his back again and again. "It's okay, it's okay. See, didn't I come back safe and sound?"
She knew how cruel it was to leave a four-year-old child, who had just suffered such a devastating loss, alone in the mountain.
Once they were settled in the cave, Lin Wu handed the meat bun to Lin Jing, trying to keep her tone light. “That ugly lump of wood turned out to be a polygonum root! It sold for a whole string of coins—worth dozens of big bundles of wild mugwort! And you’re the one who found it in the woods, A Jing. I just got lucky tagging along with you.” This was the biggest surprise of the day, and she couldn’t wait to share it.
Though he had no idea what polygonum was, Lin Jing caught her excitement and took a small bite of the bun. “Then let’s go looking again tomorrow—maybe there’s more?”
“That’s right. With luck like ours, there’s bound to be more nearby.” Seeing his mood lift, Lin Wu felt a little lighter too.
She went on to praise him more. “And our wild mugwort—the medicine shop owner praised it highly, saying it was perfectly dried with not a single weed or speck of dirt, so he gave us a good price, nearly ten extra coins than the usual rate! That buys three more big buns! All thanks to you for carefully turning and drying it every day. See, the bun you’re eating now is earned by your own effort.”
Lin Jing’s little face flushed slightly. He scuffed his toes against the ground, and the corners of his mouth twitched upward, breaking into a small smile.
“And there’s more,” Lin Wu said as she tidied up the things she’d bought today, pulling out the little clothes she’d picked especially for him and holding them up in front of him. “Look, I got each of us a set of clothes. Once you change into these, you’ll look just like a young master from an ordinary family. Next time, we can go into town together.”
Lin Jing’s eyes sparkled at the plain, secondhand-looking clothes. He reached out to feel the fabric and nodded firmly.
“Next time we’ll also pick up the bracelet—I melted down that silver hairpin and had it recast. Even if the Heavenly Lord himself came down, he wouldn’t recognize it as a palace hairpin.” Lin Wu put the clothes away and continued, then took out the half tally token to show him.
“There’s a pattern here, and the other half is with the silversmith. They have to fit together to match, right?” Lin Jing found the token amusing and studied it closely, quickly figuring out how it worked.
“That’s right, A Jing is smart.”
“The silversmith is the smart one.” Lin Jing scratched his head shyly.
The next day, the two rose at dawn as usual.
“Today we have an extra task—to search for polygonum.” After breakfast of flatbreads with plain water, Lin Wu announced the day’s top priority.
“Aren’t we going to the silversmith’s shop to pick up the bracelet today?” Lin Jing looked up, a little puzzled.
Lin Wu shook her head. “No hurry. We’ll get it next time we go into town.”
Right now, saving up travel money and being fully prepared mattered far more than retrieving the small silver bracelet that had been completely changed in form.
Lin Jing nodded obediently and followed closely behind her as they stepped out of the cave.
