“Mother, you called me”, I asked fearing what the hell she had in mind for. Madam Ye looked at my honest performance and nodded “Yes, I want you to take 1000 pounds of rice and process it in the mill in Tu village, tomorrow morning ”. Yes ! Here comes my finally awaited chance to go to town. Tu village is the only mill in the surrounding villages. Tu village is a more rich village as it is only half an hour from the town. Tomorrow I could sell my paintings. I left the room in a happy mood.

Madam Ye is nearly 45 years old and she knew the character of her daughter-in-laws well, she knew that these ladies do stitching at home and would rush to town for every market day in the pretense of selling eggs, for actually selling their handiwork and buy some snacks for their family or save some private money. She still allows it because she considers her grandkids. But processing rice in the mill is an important task, she usually goes herself or sends the old man Ye to do it, but since this time they are busy, she thought of sending Hui Juan. Hui Juan is more honest than other daughter-in-laws and would not steal rice and sell it in town.

Next day morning, I fed the pigs early in the morning and left for Tu village in the ox cart. The original knew how to drive the cart and so I drove the cart without any problem. I reached the mill in Tu village in 2 hours, there were some other people already in front of me in the queue. It was my turn finally after waiting for 5 minutes. A slightly fat guy behind the desk looked at me. I said “1000 pounds of rice. How long should I wait.” He answered back in swift speed, “It would take 250 copper coins and would wait for 6 hours”. I nodded back handed over my rice. He gave me a slip with an unknown text. I saw two workers unload the rice bags and left with it inside the mill. I drove the cart into the town.

This is my first time seeing the town, there was a big arch and one should pay 2 copper coins to enter, that shrewd old lady only gave me exactly 250 copper coins. Good thing that I paid only the advance in mill or today’s journey would have been a waste. There was many small houses and shops and most of the houses facing the road had been converted into shops. There were also hawkers shouting at sides. Suddenly the freshly baked smell of buns wafted towards me. I unconsciously gulped and thought about buying one. But thinking of the small girl at home I gave up that thought. You know no matter how hard I tried I can’t enter the home with a bun without escaping the eyes of the scavengers in Ye family.

I drove to a moderately big hotel and covered my face with a shall I had made before only revealing my eyes. A waiter boy rushed towards me seeing that I came in an ox cart looking all mysterious. “Guest, come in, what would you like to have”, I walked in and replied “I would like to talk with your man incharge”. Seeing my pride get up and manner the waiter boy ran inside to call the owner. I entered and sat on the front chair like I own the place. You know I am putting up this get up because, to convince him that either I am the slave of a rich young lady who knew how to draw, because otherwise they are going to doubt that I stole these pictures. With all this dark skin and hand with callouses, no will never believe I am a scholar. Even though pictures have quite an ordinary look, here the people who knew to draw are only scholars. Rest of people might have never even holded brush and ink. Even in scholars, poor scholars would be busy studying and might not know how to draw and rich scholars have no need to sell their drawing. But there are still a set of poor scholars with good artistic talent and ability to draw, but most won’t sell thinking it would affect their reputation (because their friends might understand their style work of art and publisize that it is them who sold paintings and is considered to be disgracing for scholars). Some scholars at this time would not even teach children of merchants. They believe it is best to distance themselves from the merchents. So only few scholars with talent who had been pushed to that extent would do that and they would charge high price.

I saw the boy bringing the owner of the shop, the owner was slightly in good set cloth (doubt that is silk), seeing my manner and few sets of paper rolls in my hands he smiled warmly at me trying to avoid his confusion behind it. “Why did the guest officer ask to see me.” I opened those pictures for him to see. He approached me so fast and started staring at those pictures like mice seeing cheese. I asked “Are you interested in this, these are drawn by my young lady, if you are interested we could discuss the price”. Suddenly he came to being serious. “How about 1 for 250 copper coins”, this damn fox, he is clearly taking advantage of me but still I agreed.

The shopkeeper was so delighted seeing me agree without any bargain, he actually thought I would not agree at least for anything below 1 silver. He hurriedly became excited and said “Then could you please explain the symbolic meaning behind these pictures?” Damn, I am trapped, should we have meaning to draw pictures, this is a small drawing not some Picasso. Oh God, what am I gonna do? Ok let's all relax. You are a graduate and passed the entrance exam and semester exam, there is no theory that you can’t answer.

I saw the shop owner and waiter boy staring at me with wide eyes, especially the waiter boy’s expectation filled eyes were giving me the creeps. “Hem, hem” I cleared my throat. “Well this girl in red dress looking at the moon means the wedding night, that is the night before she enters the world of her husband. You see the moon in a sky filled with stars is her hope for her new life to shine as bright as the moon.” Ooh, somehow handled the first one. The excitement of the shopkeeper seems to have increased after hearing my explanation. “So what about this one, the red lotus in the blackriver”. Well, I didn't have blue ink, so I adjusted it with black. “Oh that one, that means universal truth. No matter how hard we try to hide the truth with lies, the truth will always emerge as the sun rises no matter how dark the night is.” Both were really interested in hearing this answer. This time the waiter boy showed me a picture with a round border in black and inside the circle are sunflowers (without leaves) and a sun shining, “Oh that one, that means the hope. It is the hope of our world towards living in a brighter future with no war and poverty”, I am getting better at this.

At last I sold 5 different pictures there and sold the rest in different shops. The reason why the shopkeeper was so excited is because usually only big shops where scholars attend have pictures and they are mainly done by big scholars for others to praise or display his work of art. Small scholars would gather in groups to discuss the paintings in the shop which would increase the shop’s sales as these scholars have no consideration of money. The reason why I sold it for such a small amount is that those pictures are mostly painted with vegetable juice, even though I have added two or three coats they are not going to last a month, those paintings would blur or fade. Well don't call me black hearted, this is how the world works. If those shopkeepers are capable they could earn more in this month.

So now I have a grand total of 2 silver and 500 copper coins. I resisted my heart for shopping and walked around in the town. I also entered the book stall in the town with my face covered. After checking that no one I knew was in it, I entered the stall . I asked the book boy at the counter, “Sir is there red ink here”. Seeing that I am a lady in rural clothes he said with a face full of disgust “No, there is not. You people can’t enter here, get out.” What the hell, I came here to buy things, not borrow money from him. “Hm, is it, I thought this was a place for humans to enter, not for dogs. Sorry this is my mistake, I didn’t see you when I was entering.” The book boy reacted only when I left. By the time he reacted I already walked away from the shop.

There are only 2 bookshops in the town. I moved my cart to the other bookstore. I saw a man in particularly neat clothes writing in a stand near the plaza and some aunties crowding him. As I walked towards him I understood that he was writing letters for those aunts and those aunts telling him what to write. He might be a poor scholar who had lost his dream to pass the exam. Otherwise he will not do these kinds of jobs. Those aunties gave him 10 copper coins for one letter. After those ladies left I walked towards him and asked him to write a letter. He looked at me and smiled. “For 1 page (little lesser than A4 size) letter it is 10 copper, if the size increases 1 page you should pay additional 10 for every other page.” This is reasonable considering the price of paper. For 1 page one, the price of paper is 5 copper. I nodded to say I agreed. “Then tell me the contents you wish to write.”

“Dear Husband, how are you? I hope you are alright. Since you left for the army it had been 6 years, after 2 months you left, I fainted and the village doctor said I was pregnant. Now we have a beautiful 6 year old daughter. From the day you left your family had been treating me as slaves, sometimes they would starve me and daughter unnecessarily. One month back your mother tried to kill me by pushing me into the river in her fit of anger. I don’t know how long I am going to survive. If something happens to me they are going to starve our daughter. We are waiting for you with hope to come back to us safely. With love your wife Hui Juan.”

I saw the guy writing the letter was now staring wide eyed at me. He had seen people complaining about in-laws in houses. But this is the first time he had seen someone complaining about in-laws by spending 10 coins. “What are you staring at for? write fast. Do you want me to repeat?” The guy woke up from his stupor and shaped his head “No madam, I got it”

After paying him 10 copper coins. I asked him in a sweet voice, “Brother could you help me? I actually wanted to buy some paper and ink from that shop, but I think that shopkeeper may dislike me entering the shop, could you help me buy it. I would give you 5 copper coins as a thank you.” The writer, what me the ex scholar had been demoted to be an errand boy now, well there are still 5 copper coins. He agreed, telling me to tell him the list. “Well 3 rolls of paper, a brush, a piece of ink stone, black and red. If there is any other color it would be good.” He left for the shop after receiving 1 silver coin from me, leaving his stand for me to guard. After some time he came back from the store. “There is no red or colour ink. There is only black ink in that shop. The book boy in the shop said maybe if you inquire in some whole sale shops which sell the red envelope you might find red ink, or try searching in the Ping city. Some scholars buy colour ink from traders of ping city for painting.” Ping city is a big city which is five times as big as Shanto Town (current town). It also has a big port. Many rich merchants and big families settle there. It takes about 14 hours to travel from Yanjia to there (in the opposite direction from town).

I took the balance from him after counting the amount was right. “Well do you know how to send the letter to people in the war”, I asked him. He thought for a while and said “there is, if you go to the southern corner of town you can see the postal cavalry which usually brings the messages to and from the war site”. I paid him the 5 copper and left after thanking him for help. Now I am truly hungry, as the witch at home didn’t let me eat breakfast thinking that I would be late. I entered a small hotel which was sparsely populated as the time is now near 11 am and ate noodles and a vegetable bun. I didn’t have the heart to buy any meat dish after thinking about the little cute spirit at home. I paid 5 copper coins and left. The food industry is really hard compared with the scholar who wrote letters. He gained 5 coins for simply writing a few words where the people from the food industry worked really hard in the kitchen and still can't gain that much from me.

From there I moved towards the postal cavalry and paid 100 copper coins to send the letter. Then I checked with shops for red ink, but I couldn’t find any. Well let's be satisfied with what we have. I collected the processed rice and hurried back home to reach before the dinner. Now I have a grand total of 2 silver and 15 copper coins.