Choosing a servant often required a particular affinity, and Nan Feng conducted her search according to this rule, surveying the crowd until she spotted a father and daughter by a tree. There was a quiet calm about them, they were neither squabbling nor jostling, their subdued demeanor speaking volumes of their resignation to fate.
Nan Feng approached the daughter, a girl of about thirteen years old, dressed in over-sized clothes patched all over yet impeccably clean. Nan Feng found herself inclined towards the girl for that reason.
The girl had large eyes that yet bore a skittish gaze. Spotting Nan Feng, she hesitantly drew back.
“What’s your name?” Nan Feng squatted to ask her.
The girl’s voice was barely a whisper, “Fe…Feng Gu.”
Alongside them, Feng Gu’s father wore a cautious expression, “Lady, be it known in advance, if by any chance you are from a brothel, I wouldn’t be handing over my daughter to you. My daughter isn’t for sale.”
Nan Feng had no fondness for parents who abandoned their children, for she herself was an orphan in her previous life.
So, somewhat annoyed, she asked the father, “You are well aware that once sold, you have no say over your daughter’s future, yet why do you intend to sell her?”
The father immediately broke down in tears, “We have no choice. Her brother is of marriageable age, but the girl’s family demands a high dowry. If we don’t pay, he won’t be able to get a wife, and our Wang family line will end… the only way I can afford his wife is by selling my daughter.”
“Nonsense,” she sneered, “If your son can’t find a wife, it’s because he lacks the ability. What does it have to do with you?” Nan Feng roared, silencing the weeping father.
Both father and daughter stared at her in bewilderment, probably finding Nan Feng an oddity. They might have thought- she was here to buy a servant, why was she lecturing others? Besides, marriage was traditionally arranged by the parents, if the son couldn’t find a wife, surely, the fault lay with the father, not the son?
“Forget it, let’s not get into that. I run a shop in the city, looking for a bright and observant girl to help me out. Your name is Feng Gu, right? What skills do you have?”
Knowing that she wouldn’t end up in a brothel, Feng Gu appeared bolder, her words no longer a stammer, “I can cook, chop wood, embroider, and even read a little.”
“You can read?” Nan Feng was more impressed by Feng Gu. She appreciated a bit of literacy.
The father nearby said, “Her mother taught her. Her mother used to work for a wealthy mistress and accompanied her in her studies, so she picked up a bit. If her mother hadn’t died early, she would’ve taught her more.”
A girl without a mother, Nan Feng couldn’t help but feel a certain kinship to Feng Gu. She said, “I am not buying you and I don’t need any indentured servitude agreement. You just need to come with me and help in the shop. I’ll pay you monthly, how does that sound?”
The father asked, puzzled, “You won’t be buying her? How many copper coins will she earn in a month?”
“Not much, just one tael of silver,” Nan Feng said. One tael of silver was equivalent to a thousand copper coins. The area’s living cost was two copper coins for a bread bun, amounting to an equivalent of five hundred bread buns.
But for a thirteen-year-old girl earning a tael of silver in a month was spectacular. The father and daughter were thrilled.
“Er… lady, could you advance her five months of wages? That’s precisely the dowry we need for her brother,” begged the father.
Nan Feng was slightly incensed, “I’m sorry, there’s no such rule.”
“If you can’t… I can’t sell Feng Gu to you. She is a good worker and can read. If I were to sell her, I could fetch ten taels of silver.”
Nan Feng turned to leave.
However, whether it was a bond of affinity or something else, among the crowd that day, Nan Feng was drawn to Feng Gu. She seemed pure and innocent.
As Nan Feng completed her round of the place and glanced back at Feng Gu, she saw Feng Gu looking at her eagerly, uttering timidly, “Sister, why don’t you go ahead and buy me?”
Nan Feng was torn for a while, then finally, took out five taels of silver from her purse and gave them to Feng Gu’s father: “Here is the money, but you need to come back with me and sign an employment contract, and give me a receipt. There will be no wages for the next five months, only room and board. If Feng Gu doesn’t meet the job requirements, I will dismiss her and reclaim my five taels of silver!”
Including room and board?
Father and daughter immediately bowed in gratitude to Nan Feng and kept thanking her.
…