Fang Zichen asked: "How much do you charge?"
The woman he asked suppressed her excitement and replied: "That depends on you, young master!"
Fang Zichen: "......Huh?"
How does it depend on me??
The woman said: "Three hundred coppers per shichen. This humble one sees that you, young master, are strong and vigorous. To fully enjoy yourself, one shichen probably isn't enough. If you want me for the whole night, it will cost more."
"Huh?" He understood each word separately, but put together, what did they mean? Fang Zichen started to feel something was off.
These women appeared delicate and frail, seemingly incapable of hard labor. However, since he was already present and urgently needed assistance, he saw no alternative but to hire one of them.
"What kind of work can you do?"
The woman covered her mouth with a handkerchief, giggling coquettishly: "I can do all kinds of work."
This reassurance put Fang Zichen at ease: "Alright, you're hired. Come with me."
The woman breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly responded: "Yes, yes, yes!" She was overjoyed. The others had been watching, eyeing him covetously, and she had been afraid that if her answer wasn't good enough, one of them would snatch this business away.
Zhou Ger had been hiding to the side. He had originally come to buy vegetable seeds. Buying in quantity, he had shopped at several general stores, which took longer than expected. He didn't expect to witness this scene when he arrived at South Street.
Hearing Fang Zichen's voice at first, he couldn't believe it. It wasn't until Fang Zichen turned around that he was sure he hadn't mistaken the person.
He saw Fang Zichen lead the woman away. Hesitating for a moment, he thought it over, then ran back to find Zhao Ger.
By this time, Zhao Ger had already returned from selling chili sauce and was about to take the clothes out to wash when Zhou Ger came running over in a frantic, breathless rush.
"Zhao Ger..."
"What's wrong?" Zhao Ger went up to him. "Why are you so flustered? Did something happen at home?"
Zhou Ger looked at him: "Fang... Fang Zichen, he... he hired someone."
Zhao Ger: "What?"
Hearing might be false, but seeing is believing. Although Zhou Ger had seen it with his own eyes, he still didn't dare to be completely sure.
If he spoke up and it was a misunderstanding, that would be one thing. But if it were true, what could be done?
Moreover, that Anping Alley was full of underground prostitutes, and the woman from earlier certainly didn't look respectable.
The town had only one proper brothel. Those going there for pleasure, accompanied by women, eating, drinking, singing, and dancing, found the drinks terribly expensive—it always cost a large amount of silver. The women there weren't cheap either, without several hundred coppers or even a tael or two of silver, they couldn't sleep with them.
The women in Anping Alley were cheaper, catering mostly to poor men, those who couldn't get a wife, or those who already had a wife but were fickle and loved to play around.
The villagers had always envied those who lived in town.
Yet they failed to realize that making a living in town was no easy matter. Those with specialized skills or the ability to run small businesses managed reasonably well, but life proved difficult for those without any particular skills.
No matter how poor villagers might be, they still possessed a few acres of thin farmland. Their food and drink required little silver—as long as no droughts or floods occurred, diligent work usually guaranteed something to eat. When harvests failed, they could still forage for wild vegetables in the mountains to survive.
Town life differed completely. Although town families appeared respectable, every necessity of life—from food and drink to other essentials—demanded silver. Without silver, one faced starvation. Jobs were scarce, competition intense, and even diligence offered no guarantee of success.
Consequently, some men resorted to forcing their wives into prostitution. While brothels offered higher prices, once a woman entered, they must sell their bodies, and not all the earned silver reached their own pockets. This harsh reality gave rise to underground prostitution.
After much thought, Zhou Ger still told Zhao Ger what he had seen.
Zhao Ger stood frozen for a long time, his expression tense. He set down the washbasin, thanked Zhou Ger, hoisted Guaizai onto his back, and set off for town.
His mind was in turmoil the entire way.
Recalling past moments—how kind and considerative Fang Zichen had been—he couldn't believe Fang Zichen would use his hard-earned money for pleasure. But just yesterday, Fang Zichen had asked him for silver.
More than six taels of silver was a huge sum in Zhao Ger's eyes. When he handed over the money, he had asked what it was for.
Fang Zichen had offered no explanation.
And now, this discovery seemed to provide the terrible answer he had feared.
Fu'an Town was neither particularly large nor especially small. Clinging to a faint hope, Zhao Ger went first to Zuixiao Restaurant. When he didn't see Fang Zichen at the entrance, he called over Wang Xiaohu to inquire. Upon learning that Fang Zichen had gone out and was not currently at the shop, his heart sank considerably.
He didn't find anyone in Ping'an Alley either, so Zhao Ger could only search aimlessly. Guaizai didn't know what was happening, but he was skilled at reading moods. He softly called out "Daddy" once. When Zhao Ger didn't respond, he didn't dare call again. It wasn't until they reached West Street that Guaizai suddenly said, "Daddy, is that Father?"
At that moment, Fang Zichen stood in the doorway holding a broom while the woman worked inside, sleeves rolled up as she mopped the floor.
He had already paid her on the way, buying one shichen of her time. Initially, her modest appearance—unlike the heavily made-up others—had suggested she might be an efficient worker. But upon reaching the shop, her demeanor shifted completely. She became sluggish and incompetent, constantly complaining about the dirt and her fatigue while simultaneously batting her eyes at him in a coquettish manner.
She really lacked self-respect.
If he hadn't already paid, Fang Zichen would have liked to sweep her out immediately.
"Stop dawdling!" He frowned, very displeased. "Time's almost up soon, hurry up and work!"
The woman: "......"
Fang Zichen was unhappy, but the woman was even more unhappy than him.
How utterly ridiculous.
After selling her body for almost six years, this was the first time she had encountered such a handsome young man, and also the first time she had met such an idiot.
"Husband?" Zhao Ger called out.
Fang Zichen turned his head and saw him. Zhao Ger's lips were pale and colorless, his forehead hair soaked with sweat and plastered to his delicate eyebrows. The panic and alarm hadn't yet faded from his face, the rims of his eyes were slightly red, and he stared at Fang Zichen with a tense, aggrieved expression.
Fang Zichen was startled by his expression. In a few quick steps, he was outside, his heart pounding in his throat. "Why are you here? Did something happen?"
Zhao Ger looked past him and saw the woman mopping the floor. He was completely stunned, unable to process it.
Fang Zichen took Guaizai from him, then reached for Zhao Ger's hand—his palm was ice-cold.
It took Zhao Ger a long time to recover. He wanted to say it was nothing, but his lips moved and instead he pointed, asking, "...Who is she?"
"I don't know either," Fang Zichen said. "I just hired her to do some work."
Speaking of which, it made him angry. But since they weren't far from the shop, and talking about someone behind their back wasn't very decent, he leaned closer, lowered his voice, and whispered as if tattling: "This woman is no good at working. She's so slow and dawdles. I haggled for ages and paid thirty coppers for one shichen of work. Look at her—after all this time, she hasn't even finished mopping a patch of floor the size of a palm. I've lost out big time."
An ordinary laborer breaking his back all day only earned a little over twenty coppers. This shop wasn't big, the work was light, and he was working alongside her too. Fang Zichen genuinely felt he had gotten a terrible deal.
Zhao Ger: "......"
All the heartache and distraction he had felt along the way had been completely wasted.
No comments:
Post a Comment