The next day, Ji Taoyu felt the room bright and glaringly lit. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he woke, the space beside him was, unsurprisingly, already empty.
He tentatively called out, but no one answered.
Ji Taoyu's legs felt a bit sore and weak as he tried to get up, thinking that on the first day of the new year, he shouldn’t laze in bed.
As usual, he crawled to the edge of the bed, intending to grab his clothes and pull them over to dress. Stretching his legs, a section of bare skin was exposed. When he caught sight of his smooth, uncovered calf, his eyes widened in sudden realization of last night’s events, and he hastily tucked his leg back under the covers.
Fortunately, he found his undergarments at the foot of the bed and quickly snatched them up to put on, no longer caring about the cold.
No wonder the blankets had felt unusually soft against his skin last night, with a slight chill—he must have been sleeping naked!
Blushing, he got up and was about to search for his outer clothes when, stepping out from behind the bed curtains, his eyes immediately landed on something placed conspicuously on the bedside table.
The jade rod from last night was just sitting there in plain sight!
Forgetting about his clothes, Ji Taoyu’s face burned as he scrambled to stash the jade rod back into its box.
Huo Shu, this man was utterly careless! Normally, he could overlook the mess of clothes strewn everywhere, but to treat everything with the same disregard?
If someone had walked in and seen that, it would have been disastrous! He wondered if he had no sense of shame at all.
Huang Manjing was just about to call Ji Taoyu to eat dumplings when she saw him storming out of the room in a huff.
"What’s got you so worked up first thing in the morning?"
"Where’s Huo Shu?!"
Ji Taoyu demanded fiercely. Today, he was determined to give him a piece of his mind.
"We have guests. He’s with your father discussing something."
Huang Manjing added, "Remember how your father mentioned to a few families before the new year about recruiting people for a trading trip?"
Ji Taoyu’s anger instantly faded as he asked urgently, "They came to give their answer on the first day of the new year?"
He couldn’t tell whether the villagers were willing to join Huo Shu on this risky venture. Leaving home for dangerous, faraway trade was no small matter—men with wives, children, and elderly parents to care for wouldn’t easily abandon their families unless they had no other choice.
"I’ll eat in a bit."
With that, Ji Taoyu slipped over to the study where his father received guests.
Hiding by the window, he saw five men inside—some in their twenties, the oldest likely around thirty.
"We came to pay our New Year’s respects to Uncle Ji."
The eldest of the group carried a basket of eggs. Though not related by blood, he addressed Ji Taoyu’s father warmly. The other four also presented their gifts of fruit and treats.
Though nothing extravagant, it was customary not to visit empty-handed during the New Year.
"You didn’t have to bring anything. Just coming by is enough."
Ji Yangzong said this, but he didn’t refuse outright. Turning away New Year gifts would only create distance, making it seem like he looked down on them.
"Have some tea and snacks. Make yourself comfortable, no need to stand on ceremony."
"On the first day of the year, most are visiting relatives or paying respects at ancestral graves. We’re sorry to disturb you like this."
The eldest man continued, "But the matter Uncle Ji mentioned to us before the new year has been weighing on our minds. Since it’s a big decision for the coming year, we wanted to settle it early for peace of mind."
"We wanted to confirm whether what you said about Brother Huo leading a trading expedition was true."
"I wouldn’t joke about something so serious."
Ji Yangzong glanced at Huo Shu, who sat beside him. "My son-in-law wants to venture out for a couple of years, and having more hands on deck would be a great help. With the way things are now, life’s getting harder for everyone. If this continues, even those few acres of land might not be enough to sustain us."
"You’re all hardworking, honest men, I’ve seen it over the years. If you’re willing to take this chance, I’d trust you completely. But life outside won’t be as stable as home, so the decision is entirely yours."
His words struck a chord. The ever-increasing taxes had been suffocating ordinary folks like them.
No matter how diligently they toiled in the fields, their lives never seemed to improve.
Land was limited, and so was the harvest. In earlier years, when taxes were lighter, they could still scrape by. But now, the government’s demands grew heavier every year, with new taxes appearing constantly. However, complaints were futile, they could only grit their teeth and pay.
Year after year, their once-modest but comfortable existence had deteriorated into tightening belts, where even putting food on the table sometimes required going into debt.
[勒紧裤腰带 (lēi jǐn kù yāo dài): lit. To tighten one's trouser belt; fig. To endure hardship by cutting expenses; live frugally during tough times]
How could they not be anxious?
Men in their twenties still couldn’t afford betrothal gifts to marry. Farmers’ daughters and gers either became servants for the wealthy or were married off as concubines.
It was a vicious cycle.
In the past, farming families would never lightly send their children away to serve others, family dignity was at stake. But these days, such arrangements had become distressingly common. These days, the worry wasn’t about dignity but whether their children could even be sold.
Human life grew cheaper by the day. Families sold off their fields in droves, leaving countless to toil as tenant farmers while the rich swallowed up land easily.
Thank you for the chapter!
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