Chapter 16: Do You Think I Lack Wifely Virtue?

Ringed about by pointing fingers, even Butcher Li’s hide had its limits. Cradling his shoulder, he apologized to Liu Huaixu and Yu An over and over, and offered half a jin of meat to buy forgiveness—but before Liu Huaixu could answer, the crowd boiled over.

“Pah! Half a jin? He’s getting off easy! A full jin!”

“Right—a full jin!”

Half a jin already gouged him somewhere vital; with the crowd now howling for double, he had no move left. Mourning-faced, he said, “Madam Liu… I’ll make it a full jin.”

Liu Huaixu didn’t answer him. She looked out at the crowd instead—the loudest voices were mostly Omega, faces one and all indignant. She didn’t know them well; a few, perhaps, by name.

She called out to those few, and smiled. “Thank you—all of you—for the kindness. But Butcher Li was only two taels short. I won’t profit from that.”

Butcher Li, who had been mid-wince, exhaled in relief—then tensed right back toward the crowd.

And sure enough: every eye that found him dripped contempt.

His face turned worse than before. Had he agreed to the jin at the first word, it might have washed off. Now nothing under heaven would rinse him clean.

He turned his back, hung his head, and didn’t dare look at anyone.

“Butcher Li. Please cut me two taels.” Her voice was cool and clean, without one grain of feeling, and it chafed him raw. He stammered, “I—I’ll just make it the jin, then…”

Liu Huaixu shook her head, firm. “No. You owed us two taels.”

After that he dared not haggle. He cut the meat, handed it over, and packed his stall at a speed that would have impressed a man escaping a fire.

When the crowd had thinned and Liu Huaixu turned to walk the meat over, she found Yu An watching her—eyes lit up like festival lanterns. Being beamed at like that irritated her; her brows dipped.

She put the parcel in Yu An’s hands. “Let’s go.”

And without waiting to see whether it landed, walked off.

Yu An followed. Trailing behind Liu Huaixu, she wanted to explain—she’d honestly never learned pork prices, that was the whole seed of this disaster—but Liu Huaixu left no gap in her stride, walking faster and faster.

The whole road home, Liu Huaixu felt wrong. Yu An followed her the entire way and, though she touched nothing and said nothing, she was simply… too near.

So annoying.

Liu Huaixu’s brow creased. Her pace picked up.

And Yu An’s pace picked up to match.

Yu An followed behind, doing nothing more than match her rhythm step for step, while her mind wandered back into the original story’s plot. She knew how the original owner had behaved—knew it in detail—and understood none of it.

Set aside the coldness: Liu Huaixu’s face and figure were flawless from every angle, the very picture of icy, untouchable elegance. And this was how she’d been treated?

Truly blind.

The gate was nearly on them. Yu An, head down, deep in her laments, never saw Liu Huaixu turn—and walked full into her, nose-first, into that exact softness her mind had been circling…

Yu An stood a good deal taller than Liu Huaixu—but Liu Huaixu was on the rising ground of the slope, and Yu An’s eyes had been down. When Liu Huaixu stopped short, there was no world in which Yu An could stop too.

Her nose throbbed. Her cheeks burned. She rubbed her nose—and caught it. That same cold, fragrant mint from before, close enough to drown in. Panic landed like a dropped stone.

Certain Liu Huaixu would think she’d done it on purpose, she stepped back—and then back again, until a full, respectful meter of air stood between them. She looked up at the grim face above her. “You—you stopped so suddenly just now, that’s why I—”

But she had, in fact, just nosedived into a place not mentioned in polite company. She gritted her teeth. “…I’m sorry.”

Liu Huaixu’s cold face tilted; her hand rose, primed for a scolding—then hung there, finding nothing to grip. The apology had come too fast and too humbly. The hand fell. Without one more glance, she turned and walked into the courtyard.

Only when she’d gone in did Yu An’s breath come back, and she followed her in.

Without that collision, Yu An might have sidled right up alongside her. Now she didn’t dare. She set the meat by the stove and said, subdued: “I’ll leave it here.”

“Mm.”

“Then… I’ll go chop firewood?”

No answer this time—Liu Huaixu was already buried in the cooking. All that milling about, and nightfall was practically on them.

Yu An waited a moment where she stood; once Liu Huaixu was fully absorbed, she slipped out to the woodlot.

The cart still hadn’t gone back to Wu Da. Yu An decided she’d haul one more load of firewood, return the cart, and throw in the extra wood as thanks for two days’ loan.

The woodlot wasn’t far—just up the slope near home. With her new stamina, the cart filled fast. One load dumped at home, a second loaded and rolled off toward the Wu house.

The two homes stood close; before long she was at their gate.

Pitch dark. Yu An assumed they simply hadn’t lit their lamps in the half-light, and hollered, “Big Brother Wu? You home?”

Nothing.

“Anyone home?”

Nothing.

Well. She’d deliver it tomorrow, then. She’d just turned the cart for home when she walked square into Wu Da and company coming up the path.

Wu Qiuqiu was her usual sunny self, though she flinched a little at the sight of Yu An and managed a timid “Sister Yu An.” Wu Da wore a face like a wet flag and said nothing. But the woman leading them was all beaming brightness.

Yu An knew her: Wu Da and Wu Qiuqiu’s mother, Wu Rong—who had always treated the original owner decently enough, at least on the surface.

“Aunt Wu! Big Brother Wu, Qiuqiu—where have you all been?”

“Taking your Big Brother Wu to meet a prospective match—a Omega family’s daughter.” The meeting had evidently gone well; Wu Rong was glowing. She jabbed a thumb at Wu Da’s storm-colored face: “Look at this oaf of mine. Goes to a matchmaking wearing that. Is he trying to do me in?”

Yu An glanced at Wu Da and found the look he wore distinctly odd—pointed straight at her, and not friendly. But Wu Rong was already tugging her along, bubbling: “That Omega young lady actually called our Wu Da steady! She’s taken with him! Hahaha!”

Wu Da was about Liu Huaixu’s age, maybe a year or two older, and if the match had taken, Wu Rong’s joy was the most natural thing in the world. Yu An laughed along, warm as anything.

A little more chatter, and Wu Rong asked—had she been out chopping wood?

Yu An pointed at the cart. “Auntie, I borrowed the handcart from Big Brother Wu two days back. We ran out of firewood today, so while I was cutting, I took an extra load—came to return the cart to him.”

Wu Rong blinked, then sighed with something like emotion—so the girl had finally grown sensible. “No need for such ceremony, Yu An. Auntie watched you grow up. A borrowed cart—what is there to repay?”

Yu An laughed with her. “It’s only right. Let me bring it round.”

“No, no—Wu Da! Come take the cart.” Wu Rong beckoned her son over. At his mother’s word, expression unchanging, long face intact, Wu Da took the cart out of Yu An’s hands.

And as they passed each other, Yu An felt it, distinct as a slap: the hostility rolling off him. She looked at him, startled—but he was already pushing the cart away.

Wu Rong and Wu Qiuqiu lingered a moment for a few more pleasantries, then went on their way.

By the time Yu An reached home, Liu Huaixu had dinner ready.

Meat-starved for days, Yu An went practically cross-eyed at the sight of braised pork—Wu Da’s strange look annihilated from memory on contact.

Halfway through the meal, it resurfaced. “You know, Big Brother Wu was looking at me so strangely today. Like I was his love rival or something.”

The words were barely out when Liu Huaixu set down her bowl and chopsticks, and stared at her without a single word.

The stare made Yu An’s scalp prickle. “What?”

“Saying that. Do you think I lack wifely virtue?”

“No! No no! Absolutely not! I was babbling, my mouth runs away with me—please don’t be angry, and please don’t stop feeding me!”