Chapter 3

Yang Lanrou flushed crimson with anger.
The maid at her side, seeing her mistress slighted, couldn't help but sneer, "You dare say you didn't admire Young Master Xu? You risked your life to save him, if you claim there was no affection, who would believe that?"
Li Qinghe raised an eyebrow. "Or perhaps you think I'm of noble character, always stepping in when injustice is seen, even getting hurt to save others. Your words wound me." She clutched her chest and put on an injured expression.
Then she looked at Xu Changjie. "Young Master Xu, you'd best pay the money."
Xu Changjie's face stiffened. "It's not due yet. I will repay you."
"What money?" Yang Lanrou frowned.
Li Qinghe spoke before Xu Changjie could. "The gratitude gift Young Master Xu promised me."
"How much?" Yang Lanrou's expression soured. "If you like, I'll pay it for him."
Li Qinghe snapped her fingers and smiled. "That's the decisiveness I like in Miss Yang." She held out her hand. "Ten taels of silver. Once I have the money, I will never see Young Master Xu again."
Yang Lanrou was surprised at the amount, but when she heard the last line she signaled her maid with her eyes.
The maid, no longer holding back, dug into her purse and said, "I don't see what you did to deserve ten taels of silver."
Li Qinghe spread her hands. "Young Master Xu promised. If you're so envious, you weren't even there."
Anyone paying attention could see from the maid's shining gaze at Xu Changjie that she too had feelings for him.
Hearing Li Qinghe's words, the maid slapped a silver ingot into her palm. "If I'd saved Young Master Xu, I certainly wouldn't ask for any reward."
Li Qinghe raised an eyebrow and said with meaning, "Actually, accepting a gift is how you cut ties. Miss, you have your little schemes!"
The maid's face reddened and she lowered her head in embarrassment, failing to notice the sudden chill in her mistress's eyes.
Thud
After they left, Li Qinghe took the silver ingot in high spirits. Sitting down with Zhou Chengkang, she smiled, "I'm in a good mood today, let me treat. Noodles, the meaty kind."
Zhou Chengkang looked puzzled and probed, "You didn't bring up marriage? You don't like…"
Li Qinghe retorted, "Like what?" She patted her purse. "Money is more reliable than men. Besides, he's already taken, if I butt in, all I'll get is heartache and bother, nothing good."
The last sentence carried a curious depth.
Zhou Chengkang looked thoughtful; for a while neither of them spoke. After finishing their noodles, they went to the cloth shop.
The Zhang family’s cloth shop was one of the busiest in town. Today happened to be market day, and the place was crowded, five or six clerks couldn’t keep up. Li Qinghe leaned on the counter and slipped straight into the backyard.
Inside she found Madam Xu sitting beneath the eaves, a six- or seven-year-old boy before her nodding as he read, utterly absorbed. Madam Xu listened with a smile, whether she understood was unclear. Spotting Li Qinghe, she rose with a smile. "What brings you here?" She appraised her up and down. "I heard you were hurt saving someone from the Xu family. How are you?"
With a sidelong glance she noticed Zhou Chengkang entering with Li Qinghe; she frowned, pulled her inside, shut the door, and lowered her voice. "Why are you walking with him? Didn't you like Young Master Xu... You could use this chance to propose a match. With me pulling some strings, the Xus probably won't refuse."
Li Qinghe was surprised. "What kind of scheme can you come up with?"
Madam Xu was a little pleased. "Haiya’s aunt married into the medicinal herb trade. The elder Xu goes to collect herbs every month. If I speak to that aunt, she’d do us this small favor, bump up the price a bit on the herbs..." Madam Xu chuckled, "I don't fear the Xus refusing."
Li Qinghe fell silent for a long moment. She suddenly understood why, in her previous life, Xu Changjie and Yang Lanrou, though already in love, still agreed to the arranged match.
"Aren't you worried the Xu family will mistreat me?" Li Qinghe couldn't help asking.
Madam Xu waved it off. "I'm here. I'll keep an eye on things for you."
But some things couldn't be fixed by pressure: Xu Changjie refusing to return to town, the Xu family's indifference and cold treatment, and worse, no consummation.
Even if Madam Xu were the mother-in-law, she couldn't control those matters.
Madam Xu continued, "Men settle down once they're married. And that girl Yang, do you think she'd go be a mistress?"
Li Qinghe twitched the corner of her mouth. For ordinary people Madam Xu's logic might hold, but you can't argue with deep love. Yang Lanrou, far from accepting the role of a mistress, was killed so someone else could take the position of wife.
Anyway, she was a conniving, ungrateful scoundrel who used favors to get her way. Dead is dead. Admittedly, when Li Qinghe read that novel she had thought Yang Lanrou was the villain who ruined someone’s love.
"Mother, I asked them for silver, I won't marry him," Li Qinghe said earnestly. "I won't take a man whose heart isn't with me."
Madam Xu was taken aback, then, realizing, praised her. "You really are my daughter." She glanced outside and lowered her voice. "When your father married me, his heart wasn't mine, so we didn't last. Look at me now, I'm doing well, and I don't prevent him from being with the one he loves."
She sighed again. "It's just that you've had to scrape by under your stepmother."
Li Qinghe was silent. "Aunt Qian hasn't mistreated me."
"Impossible," Madam Xu said firmly. "She puts on a gentle, virtuous face for your father; without him she'd show her true colors. Put yourself in my shoes, I couldn't treat someone else's child as my own. Besides, someone who can secretly cavort with another man's wife, what kind of good person is that?"
Li Qinghe hated to hear it, though some of it was true. Madam Qian hadn't been cruel, but she hadn't taken her in as her own, at best, she hadn't been neglectful.
Madam Xu was pleased to see her because Li Qinghe rarely came by. The last time they'd met had been ages ago, in her past life, so that was why she'd made the special trip today.
Hearing this, Li Qinghe rose. "It's getting late. I should be going back."
Ignoring Madam Xu's calls, she left. As she opened the door she ran into Mrs. Zhang. Li Qinghe greeted her, "Good day, Madam."
Mrs. Zhang glanced her over, paying particular attention to her hands and her clothing, and remarked, "Ah, Qinghe's come."
Li Qinghe nodded and looked at Zhou Chengkang. "Let's go home."