"Uh huh. Come, let's go have something to eat first."
"Little Sister, where did you get the money from? You must not do anything you shouldn't!"
"Don't worry! We'll sit down later and I'll tell you about it slowly."
Wunian took her sister's hand and led her to a restaurant. Juxiang whispered in Wunian's ear, "Little Sister, this place is very expensive. We…"
"Big Sister, don't you worry. I have money. Let's go!" Wunian held her sister's hand and entered the restaurant. "Waiter, find us a quiet private room."
Juxiang's eyes widened. Was this her sister?
The waiter looked at the two girls. Their garments added up to less than one tael of silver and they were asking for a private room? "Ladies, what do you want me to say? You wish to enter a private room wearing this! Are you crazy…"
Wunian took out ten taels of silver and slammed it on the table. "Open your arrogant eyes and look carefully. Don't judge a book by its cover."
"Yes, yes, yes. My two great aunts, no, my two ancestors, this way please, this way please. I will definitely arrange the best private room for you."
"That's more like it"
Juxiang felt that this must be an illusion. My sister used to be so cute, sensible, and timid…
"Let's go." Wunian pulled Juxiang along as they followed the waiter and entered a private room.
The waiter filled Juxiang's and Wunian's cups with tea and asked them for their order.
Wunian asked Juxiang to place the order but the elder girl gestured and said, "I wouldn't know how to place an order, I've never even been here."
Wunian said to the waiter, "Serve us some of your signature dishes!"
The waiter replied happily, "Yes, I'll make the arrangements. I guarantee that the two of you will be satisfied with the food. There's an attendant outside the private room. If you need anything, just yell and someone will come in to serve you!"
"Alright, I understand! You may go!"
The waiter grinned and went left, thinking to himself that he'd help them spend all ten taels of silver here.
Wunian didn't bother to guess what the waiter was thinking. She watched as her sister's tears fell.
"I know Little Sister must have been living a hard life all these years. Hurry up and tell Big Sister about it, ah!"
Wunian had no choice but to tell her. Of course, there were some things that she was not at liberty to speak about. "Big Sister, after you were sold, the Tian family started to ask me to take on the chores, threatening to starve me to death if I didn't do it. That year, other than washing the dishes, I also had to cut hogweed."
"What? Cut hogweed? You're only five years old! There were three big pigs. How were you able to handle it?"
"That's right! Every day, I wake up at dawn and spend all morning cutting hogweed even before I had anything to eat. And even then, it was only enough for feeding one meal to the three pigs. At noon, after washing the dishes I'd eat a little leftovers. Then, I had to cut hogweed again all afternoon. That would feed the three pigs for another meal at night. I could only eat after washing the dishes at night. Sometimes, I'd go hungry. When I was six and a half years old, Tian Weixin married Young Madam Wang using the silver that they got from selling you. She was heartbroken that Madam Wang was too tired from feeding the pigs. She convinced them that children had energy and wouldn't get tired, so she assigned the tasks of chopping hogweed and feeding the pigs to me as well. When I was seven years old, Young Madam Wang said that the water was too cold for her to be washing clothes. Weixin told Madam Wang that since I was already washing my own clothes, I might as well wash everyone's clothes. So before dawn, I had to wash the clothes of the entire family. This was how things were till I turned eight years old. Young Madam Wang accused me of pushing her to the ground because I was envious of her good life. Everyone became worried about the child in her womb and punished me by starving me for three days. Because I was starving and it was also in the middle of a very hot summer, I fainted. I have no idea who sent me home but in my half-consciousness I heard Madam Liu claiming that I was pretending to be sick, so they continued to starve me. I ran a fever that night and developed a rash. The family was worried that I might be infectious and threw me out. Fortunately, Master found me and saved my life. Last month, Master passed on and left me all her belongings. So now I don't lack any money. In fact I have lots of money!"
Wunian said all these things casually, but Juxiang could empathize with her.
Juxiang cried until she couldn't speak. When Wunian finished speaking, she hugged the girl and said, "My poor little sister, you've suffered so much. I've been a useless elder sister and couldn't protect you."
Wunian patted her elder sister's back and comforted her. "Big Sister, we've survived all these hardships. Fortunately, we're still alive."
"Yes, yes, yes. Fortunately, we're still alive. I'll take good care of you from now on."
"Uh huh! From now on, we won't be bullied again. We make those who bully us look up to us. But they'd never be good enough for us."
When Juxiang heard Wunian's inspiring words, she nodded and was filled with hope for the future.
At this point, someone knocked on the door. It was the waiter serving up food. After wiping her sister's tears, Wunian called out, "Come in!"
Damn. The waiter served up more than ten dishes at once.