Gu Fei's thoughts blurred as she drifted off to sleep.
She didn't know how long she'd been asleep when the rich aroma of chicken soup roused her.
Just then, the door creaked open. Li Chunhua came in and said with a smile, "Little Fei, you're awake. Mother's finished cooking. Are you able to get out of bed?"
Gu Fei nodded. "Sister-in-law, help me up." 'With chicken soup on the line, I'd crawl over there if I had to.'
Gu Fei was helped into the main room, where two young men ran over, overjoyed. "Little sister, you're finally back!"
"Second Brother, Third Brother," Gu Fei greeted them.
Just then, a little girl with two pigtails sticking straight up came pattering over and hugged Gu Fei's leg. "Auntie, you're finally back!"
Gu Fei looked down at Little Douding with a smile. This was Gu Qing's daughter, whose nickname was Little Cao. She was just over three years old.
Li Chunhua quickly pulled her away. "Your auntie is injured. Stay back a little."
Mrs. Chen placed a cushion on a chair before Li Chunhua helped Gu Fei sit down.
The rest of the family took their seats.
On the table sat a basin of chicken, a stack of cornmeal flatbreads, a bowl of pickled vegetables, and a bowl of green beans. This was a feast typically saved for the New Year.
Inhaling the aroma of the chicken soup, Gu Fei's eyes narrowed in pleasure.
Sitting in Li Chunhua's lap, Little Cao clapped her hands. "Yay, yay! We're having chicken! We're—"
"Well now, you've ransomed back some money-losing baggage and you're celebrating by killing a chicken?" Little Cao's cheerful chatter was cut short by a sharp voice. A sullen-faced, middle-aged woman in a long, dark-blue cotton dress walked in through the doorway.
Gu Zhang frowned. "Sister-in-law, my Little Fei is not 'money-losing baggage.' Watch your mouth."
"If she's not money-losing baggage, what is she?" Ms. Qian stormed in, jabbing a finger so close to Gu Fei's face that she had to quickly dodge.
"Is some slip of a girl worth twenty taels of silver? She'll work for a couple of years before getting married off, and then you'll have to cough up a dowry for her. Gu Zhang, I think you've lost your mind!"
Gu Zhang's face darkened as he stood up. "Sister-in-law, how much I'm willing to spend to ransom Little Fei is our family's affair and has nothing to do with you. Our households split up a long time ago!"
Ms. Qian spun around, pointing at Gu Zhang and spraying spittle as she yelled, "Nothing to do with you? Then why did you come to our house to borrow silver?"
"You waited until I was out to trick your gullible older brother into giving you one tael of silver. You think my money grows on trees?"
Hearing this, Gu Qing lowered his head. He was the one who had just gone to his eldest brother's house to borrow the money.
"Give me back the silver!" Ms. Qian demanded, holding out her hand palm-up.
Gu Qing looked toward Gu Zhang. He knew Gu Zhang still had two taels of silver.
Gu Zhang hesitated before saying, "Sister-in-law, I can't return the silver right now. In a couple of days, I'll go to the city with my brothers to find work. I promise we'll pay you back before the end of the year."
He still needed the two taels of silver in his possession. He had to go to the government office to have Little Fei's slave status officially removed and get her household registration transferred back. All of that required spending silver, and two taels might not even be enough.
"Pah!" Ms. Qian spat viciously. "Don't try to pull that on me. With the drought this year, there's no work in the fields. Everyone's gone to the city looking for a job. There must be hundreds of people waiting by the city walls for work. What makes you think you lot will get a turn?"
"I don't care! I want the silver now!"