Early the next morning, Fan Changyu carried fresh pork and braised meat to her family’s butcher stall.

The morning market was already lively with hawkers calling out their wares. Elderly women wrapped in thick padded coats haggled at various stalls while carrying vegetable baskets.

After laying out the goods on the chopping block, Fan Changyu greeted the several butchers who had once been friendly with her father as usual.

But their responses sounded strangely stiff.

Just as Fan Changyu was wondering about it, an old woman shopping for vegetables caught sight of the still-steaming braised pig head meat on the stall. The rich aroma drifting through the air made her ask, “Is this braised pig head meat also a free bonus?”

Fan Changyu assumed the woman had heard about her earlier practice of giving away braised offal and replied awkwardly, “Auntie, this pig head meat isn’t cheap, and the spices cost money too. How could I possibly give it away?”

The old woman pursed her lips and glanced toward the braised offal beside it.

“Then the braised offal is free, right?”

Fan Changyu explained, “When I reopened the stall before, I gave it away for one day to celebrate. But I’m no longer giving it away now. If you want to buy some, it’s two copper coins per liang.”

The old woman’s expression changed instantly.

“The other meat stalls all give it away for free, yet you’re charging money?”

Fan Changyu felt even more puzzled.

“You mean all the butcher stalls on this street are giving away braised offal with purchases?”

The old woman replied, “Why would I lie to you? Just look for yourself!”

“Take care now!”

At that moment, a sale had just been completed at Butcher Guo’s stall across the street. His loud sales pitch drew Fan Changyu’s attention.

The woman buying meat from him carried not only fresh pork, but also a package of braised offal wrapped in oil paper.

When Butcher Guo noticed Fan Changyu staring at him, he immediately turned away and pretended to busy himself with the pork on his stall.

A large basin sat in the corner of his chopping block. From a distance it was impossible to see what was inside, but now Fan Changyu realized it must contain braised offal.

Her eyes widened.

That shameless old bastard!

When she first started giving away free extras, he had been so jealous he practically wanted to overturn her stall on the spot. He repeatedly warned her never to continue the practice.

Yet now he was using the exact same trick himself to attract business!

Looking around at the neighboring butcher stalls, she discovered that every single one of them also had basins of braised meat sitting beside their chopping blocks.

No wonder their expressions had seemed so strange earlier when she greeted them.

The old woman asked impatiently, “So are you giving it away or not? If not, I’ll buy from another stall!”

Fan Changyu immediately declared, “I am!”

After all, pig offal itself was cheap. The spices she bought were already being used for both the offal and the pig head meat anyway.

She might as well continue using the offal as free bonuses while simultaneously promoting the sale of her braised meats.

When everyone was just selling pork, some customers couldn’t tell which meat was better. But braised offal was different—the color and aroma couldn’t fool anyone!

This actually worked more in her favor.

The old woman had long since set her sights on the braised meats at Fan Changyu’s stall. The other stalls’ braised offal looked gray and unappetizing, without much aroma, while Fan Changyu’s gleamed with a rich reddish sheen that clearly signaled quality.

The moment she heard Fan Changyu would also give free extras, her face lit up with delight.

“Give me five jin of rump meat!”

Fan Changyu swiftly chopped five jin of pork rump, weighed it, handed it over, then cut five liang of braised offal for her as well.

The old woman sniffed the braised offal and immediately exclaimed over how fragrant it was.

Before leaving, she added, “Your free extras are really good. I’ll tell all my neighbors to buy meat from your stall too!”

Fan Changyu smiled and promised to give her even more extras next time.

The old woman happily departed carrying her purchases.

Seeing the old woman leave with both fresh pork and a packet of braised offal from Fan Changyu’s stall, others naturally became curious about the beautifully colored braised meat there and stepped forward to ask prices.

In the end, without exception, they all bought their meat from Fan Changyu.

When later customers saw the crowd gathered around her stall, they instinctively assumed her goods were better and squeezed over to take a look as well.

Before even half the morning market had passed, all the fresh pork and braised offal at Fan Changyu’s stall had sold out, leaving only half a braised pig head unsold.

As for the other butcher stalls, the few sales they managed only happened after Fan Changyu’s meat had completely sold out and customers settled for second-best.

At Butcher Guo’s stall, a customer had finally approached. Guo desperately promoted the pork on his chopping block.

“Take a look! Top-quality pork belly! I’m even giving away braised offal!”

The customer leaned over to glance at the dull gray offal in his basin and immediately curled her lips in disdain.

“The free extras at Fan’s butcher stall are glossy and richly colored. Yours looks like you just boiled it in water with some salt!”

“I’ll come earlier tomorrow and buy from the Fan stall instead!”

She put down the piece of pork she had been examining and left immediately.

Butcher Guo’s face turned incredibly ugly.

He looked at the pork on his stall, then at the basin of braised offal, and finally kicked over the stool beside him in rage while cursing viciously under his breath.

Naturally, the nearby shopkeepers all witnessed this scene.

Since the Fan family stall stood directly opposite Butcher Guo’s, Fan Changyu saw it too.

The wife of a butcher friendly with the Fan family quietly explained to her, “Truthfully, none of us wanted to bother with this whole free-extra business either.”

After all, when only one family offered free extras, business improved greatly. But once the entire street began doing it—and nobody’s braised offal tasted especially outstanding anymore—business returned to normal while everyone still had to give away free food.

The butcher’s wife continued, “But that surnamed Guo is sneakier than a honeycomb. A few days ago he repeatedly ordered you not to give away extras, but the very next day he started doing it himself without the slightest shame. Several of us confronted him about it, but he acted completely unreasonable. If anyone even touched him, he’d immediately flop onto the ground pretending to be injured. Plus, his uncle serves as an adviser to the county magistrate, so nobody can do anything to him. We couldn’t just watch him steal all the business using free extras, so eventually we all started giving away braised offal too.”

Fan Changyu knew the woman explained all this because she didn’t want Fan Changyu misunderstanding them.

“I understand, Auntie.”

Seeing Butcher Guo suffer today secretly delighted the butcher’s wife. She glanced toward his stall and could not help gloating softly.

“Good thing you came back, Changyu. Let’s see how many more days his salted-water boiled offal can keep attracting customers.”

Because of his relative working at the county office, Butcher Guo had always acted arrogant and overbearing. The vendors along this street had long despised him.

Back when Fan Changyu’s father was alive, he alone never feared Guo and constantly kept him in check.

After Fan Changyu’s parents died, Guo practically treated himself as the tyrant of the entire street, constantly barking orders and throwing his weight around.

Fan Changyu spared him no further attention.

After selling the final half of the braised pig head, she began counting the copper coins in her drawer.

The pig slaughtered today had weighed only a little over eighty jin, yet between the fresh pork and braised meats she had earned more than two strings and three hundred copper coins in total.

After subtracting the one-string cost of buying the pig, she still made a net profit of over one string and three hundred coins!

Fan Changyu threaded the copper coins onto string and weighed the heavy bundle in her hand, instantly feeling lighter in spirit.

Soon the property would be transferred successfully, and the butcher stall business was finally stabilizing.

Life for her and her younger sister would only continue improving!

Once she saved enough money, she would take Changning to the capital for medical treatment!

She had heard the best things in the world could all be found in the capital—including the finest doctors.

—

After cleaning up the stall, Fan Changyu headed to the marketplace with her earnings.

After buying medicine for the two “medicine jars” at home—one large and one small—along with spices for making braising broth, and setting aside one string of coins for tomorrow’s pig purchase, only a few hundred copper coins remained.

Fan Changyu sighed softly.

Only after running a household did one truly understand how expensive daily necessities were.

She carefully selected some New Year goods and started home.

Before she even entered the alley, she spotted a snow-white gyrfalcon soaring high into the sky from the direction of her house. It seemed to be the same one she had seen before.

Fan Changyu found it strange.

Did that gyrfalcon frequently come here looking for food?

If it came often… then there might be a chance to catch it, right?

The gyrfalcon disappeared into the sky within moments, but Fan Changyu had already begun calculating how much money she could get for selling it at the market.

When she reached home and pushed open the courtyard gate, the first thing she saw was the half-open window of the man’s room.

Draped in a black robe, he sat before the desk with his long hair loose around him, expression calm and focused. His slender scarred fingers held a writing brush as he concentrated on writing something.

Outside the window stood a red plum tree her father had once planted for her mother.

Perhaps even the plum tree understood that its owner was gone now.

Since winter began, it had produced only a single blossom bud.

Among branches covered in frost and snow, that lone spot of red should have been eye-catching.

Yet somehow, it still paled beside even one-tenth of the beauty of the man sitting indoors.

Snowflakes drifted through the open window and settled upon his hair.

Against the backdrop of black hair, his features looked cold, refined, and exquisitely delicate.

Fan Changyu’s breathing unconsciously faltered slightly.

When the man lifted his eyes toward her, she made no effort to look away. Instead, she openly continued staring while asking, “Aren’t you cold sitting by the open window?”

Meeting her gaze, Xie Zheng noticed that she continued looking at him without the slightest intention of avoiding eye contact.

His brows furrowed almost imperceptibly as he looked away first.

“The room is too dim. Opening the window gives better light.”

His voice remained as cold and clear as ever.

Fan Changyu responded with an “oh,” then carried her things into the main room before checking on her younger sister taking an afternoon nap.

Only afterward did she bring him a brazier.

Perhaps because the window had remained open the entire time, the room felt almost as cold as outside.

Glancing at the many pages already covered in writing scattered across the desk, she could not help asking, “What are you writing?”

He had written so much already.

Hadn’t he been freezing all morning? Did he really not feel cold?

Xie Zheng finished the final character and set down the brush. Since there was no brush rest, he could only wedge the ink-covered brush into the chipped edge of the inkstone.

“Current affairs essays.”

Fan Changyu knew what those were.

Song Yan used to scrimp and save just to buy them, and a single scroll cost three hundred copper coins.

Surprised, she asked, “You know how to write current affairs essays too?”

Xie Zheng repeated the same explanation he had given Carpenter Zhao.

“I’ve traveled widely and seen many things. Small-town bookstores sell all kinds of mediocre writings anyway. As long as something sounds convincing enough, they’ll buy it.”

Fan Changyu nearly choked hearing that.

Those poor scholars buying essays were truly unlucky.

Then she remembered Song Yan spending money on such essays before, and suddenly she felt strangely delighted.

Coughing lightly, she finally remembered his injuries.

“The roads are slippery when it snows. Even if the snow is cleared away, there might still be ice underneath. Your wounds only reopened yesterday, so using crutches and going outside recklessly is far too dangerous…”

She rattled on continuously like a string of firecrackers.

Was she… worried about him?

Xie Zheng looked slightly stunned before lowering his gaze again.

“I asked the old carpenter next door to take them for me.”

Fan Changyu’s expression improved somewhat, but remembering why he had written the essays in the first place, she still pressed her lips together.

“You already agreed to the fake marriage, and I promised to let you recover properly. We’re only short on money now because the property hasn’t been transferred yet. You… really didn’t need to do this.”

Watching a severely injured man endure the freezing wind while exhausting himself writing essays to help support the household made Fan Changyu feel deeply guilty.

Cold wind blew into the room, stirring Xie Zheng’s unbound hair.

Looking at the woman before him with her brows tightly knitted in concern, a trace of complexity entered his normally indifferent expression.

Not wanting her to misunderstand, he explained, “I was bored and merely writing essays to pass the time. It’s not what you think.”

The more he said this, however, the more convinced Fan Changyu became of her own assumptions.

After all, who would sit in freezing weather writing essays for amusement?

Her emotions instantly grew even more complicated.

Pressing her lips tightly together, she declared, “Don’t worry about me being poor. I can afford to support you!”

After saying that, she immediately left the room.

Left alone at the desk, Xie Zheng raised a slender hand to press against his brow. His eyes darkened with complicated emotions, as though he were contemplating something giving him an extraordinary headache.