Chapter 2 — Steamed Buns and Clear-Broth Noodles

The next day, Chu An’an got up just as dawn was breaking.

The morning birdsong was crisp and clear, and the air still carried a slight chill.

He stood in the courtyard and began practicing Baduanjin. In his previous life, his greatest wish had been to have a healthy body. In this life, his body was exceptionally strong, and he was both satisfied with it and determined to cherish it.

The door to the room on the west side suddenly opened.

A man walked out, yawning as he went.

“An’an, you’re up so early? I checked the kitchen yesterday and there are still some leftovers. I’ll go heat them up. Don’t run around, okay? If you need anything, come find me in the kitchen.”

Chu An’an stopped what he was doing and tilted his head as he watched the man’s back.

He quickly remembered who he was.

His name was Zhou Run, a ge’er from the same village. Zhao Junyi had hired him to look after Chu An’an.

In the terms of his previous life, he was basically a live-in nanny.

In this life, he was a household servant.

Who would hire a servant when they live in a thatched cottage like this?

But there was no helping it.

Given Chu An’an’s circumstances, if nobody prepared his meals for him, he would probably starve to death.

Zhou Run was a decent person and genuinely attentive toward him. After spending some time together, Chu An’an had discovered that he only had one flaw.

Chu An’an looked at the food on the table and sighed.

The reheated leftovers were the stir-fried pork with green peppers and stir-fried baby bok choy Zhao Junyi had made yesterday.

His little face scrunched up as he took bite after bite.

The slices of meat were dry and shriveled, while the greens had barely any oil in them, leaving nothing but the bitter taste of vegetables.

The food might not have tasted great, but in another household, this would already have been considered an incredibly lavish meal.

Although Great Xia was prosperous, ordinary villagers living in frontier villages couldn’t possibly eat meat every day.

Being able to eat meat once a month was already pretty good.

Their family ate meat considerably more often.

Chu An’an wasn’t sure whether Zhao Junyi had always been so generous with his spending or whether he was doing it specifically for him.

Unfortunately, neither Zhao Junyi nor Zhou Run was any good at cooking.

They were practically wasting meat that cost 35 wen per jin.

Chu An’an let out another long sigh.

Zhou Run placed a piece of meat in his bowl and smiled.

“Eat more. What is a little kid like you sighing about?”

Zhou Run didn’t take advantage of Chu An’an simply because he thought he was foolish.

Quite the opposite.

He actually liked him.

It was the kind of liking one had for children.

Whenever he spoke to Chu An’an, his voice would automatically become softer and higher, as though he were coaxing a little child.

Perhaps it was because Zhou Run was a ge’er.

Unlike the previous life, Great Xia had three genders: men, women, and ge’er.

Ge’er were men, but they could bear children.

Perhaps that was why they tended to like children more as well.

After breakfast, Chu An’an tossed the two taels of silver from hand to hand.

“I want to go to the county town.”

“Okay.”

Zhou Run immediately agreed.

He turned around, went into the room, and brought out a length of rope, attempting to tie it around Chu An’an’s wrist.

His job wasn’t merely to cook for Chu An’an.

More importantly, he had to watch him throughout the entire day and make sure nobody took advantage of him.

After all, Chu An’an was extremely pretty, completely naive, and could easily be lured away by a bad person with nothing more than a piece of candy.

There would be even more people in the county town.

Zhou Run was worried that An’an, with his childlike nature, might see something interesting and run off without telling him.

To prevent any accidents, it was better to keep him tethered.

Chu An’an put his hands behind his back and frowned.

“I don’t want to wear this.”

“If you want to go outside, you have to wear it.”

When it came to safety, Zhou Run wouldn’t give an inch.

Chu An’an’s head began to ache.

It seemed he really needed to prove that he wasn’t foolish anymore.

Otherwise, even his freedom was going to be restricted.

The problem was that no matter how he explained it, Zhou Run simply wouldn’t believe that he had become intelligent.

In the end, he left the house with a rope around his wrist, being led along by Zhou Run.

Fine.

Let’s see how I’m going to perform today.

The weather was pleasantly cool in the morning, so many villagers chose this time to head out to the fields.

That way, they could finish most of their work in the morning and stay home to rest during the hottest part of the afternoon.

Several villagers carrying hoes on their shoulders watched as Chu An’an and Zhou Run disappeared toward the entrance of the village.

“That’s the one from Qianhu Zhao’s household, right? I wondered why he would marry a fool. Turns out Qianhu Zhao only cares about looks. Girl, you can give up now.”

“I heard he’s actually a young master from the city. From the capital, no less.”

Someone suddenly lowered their voice.

“If he hadn’t been exiled here, even if he were a fool, someone like that wouldn’t be available to us country folk.”

“You can just say you’re not good enough for him. Why drag Qianhu Zhao into it?”

“Hey, girl, you’re still not giving up?”

Their village was called Ankang Village, under the jurisdiction of Jiangxin County.

It took half an hour to walk from Ankang Village to Jiangxin County.

In other words, about an hour.

The most prosperous area of Jiangxin County was a single main street that began at the county gate and stretched all the way to the county government office.

It was the widest street in the entire county town.

The road was paved with bricks and stones, wide enough for two carriages to travel side by side.

It was also known as the Main Street.

The Main Street was broad and straight.

Looking down it, the first shop beside the city gate was an inn, followed by a tea shop.

The shops in the middle section were relatively small and sold necessities for everyday life:

small restaurants, rice shops, sweet-drink stalls, general stores, incense shops, and so on.

At the far end stood the county government office, surrounded by larger businesses such as pharmacies, cloth shops, ready-made clothing stores, tea shops, and others.

It was still very early.

Most of these shops hadn’t opened yet.

But countless small vendors had already gathered outside them.

This was Chu An’an’s destination for the day—

the morning market.

The most common vendors at the morning market were small food carts selling steamed buns, mantou, soy milk, clear-broth noodles, botuo, hu bing, and other simple foods.

Zhao Junyi had bought all of these for him before.

A meat bun cost three wen each. Pork fat soaked through the bun wrapper, while the filling was rich and fragrant.

A bowl of clear-broth noodles cost five wen.

The broth seemed to have been simmered from a chicken carcass and carried a delicious chicken aroma.

They were all pretty tasty.

So even though he possessed a modern person’s soul, Chu An’an wasn’t arrogant enough to assume that the ancient people were all ignorant idiots.

If he wanted to make money, he needed to think carefully.

The food had to taste good, of course, but that wasn’t enough.

He also had to consider things like market demand.

“An’an, what do you want to eat?”

Zhou Run assumed that Chu An’an had specifically come to the county town to buy something delicious.

He was already preparing to pay.

He kept track of everything he spent, and at the end of the month, his employer, Zhao Junyi, would reimburse him in full.

“There’s nothing I particularly want. I’m just looking around.”

Chu An’an shook his head.

He was planning to start a business.

The two taels of silver in his pocket wouldn’t last long at all.

He had to spend it where it mattered.

Zhou Run hesitantly glanced at Chu An’an.

Could he really not be foolish anymore?

No, that had to be his imagination.

An’an had a clever-looking, beautiful face, but underneath it, he was still rather slow.

Then Zhou Run watched in astonishment as Chu An’an stopped a patrolling constable and asked him about the morning market’s opening hours, the stall rental fees, and how to obtain the necessary permits.

This land had been allocated by the county government.

Not only did vendors have to pay rent, they could only set up their stalls from the hour of Mao to the hour of Chen.

In other words, they had to pack up and leave by nine in the morning, because they weren’t allowed to interfere with the businesses operating in the shops afterward.

So just because the area had a huge amount of foot traffic didn’t mean people could simply set up stalls wherever they wanted.

Anyone who did would only get themselves in trouble.

Besides, villagers were generally intimidated whenever they saw constables.

Yet Chu An’an had spoken to the constable so naturally and fluently.

If he was a fool, then there was probably no such thing as a clever person in the world.

Chu An’an thanked the constable and turned around.

Just as he’d hoped, Zhou Run’s face was filled with absolute shock.

Chu An’an gave him a mischievous smile.

“That’s what happened. I fell down once and suddenly became smart.”

After all, explaining ten thousand times that he wasn’t foolish anymore wasn’t nearly as effective as simply letting people see it for themselves.

Zhou Run was indeed stunned.

Chu An’an, meanwhile, stood there observing the morning market.

He stayed until the market ended, watching the small vendors push their food carts away while the larger shops behind them gradually opened their doors.

Since they had already come all the way to the county town, he figured he might as well buy some things before heading home.

He walked into a general store and bought seeds for scallions, greens, Chinese cabbage, green onions, radishes, eggplants, and several other vegetables.

He bought only a tiny amount of each.

When it came time to pay, he casually blurted out,

“Fifty-five wen.”

The shopkeeper spent quite a while tapping away at his abacus.

He was extremely surprised.

Chu An’an had calculated the total without even touching the abacus.

Now that’s impressive.

Zhou Run was even more shocked than the shopkeeper.

After all, Chu An’an had still been foolish just two days ago.

Now Zhou Run was completely convinced that he wasn’t foolish anymore.

Not only was he no longer foolish, he was considerably smarter than the average person.

Zhou Run seemed to suddenly think of a possible reason why Chu An’an had pretended to be foolish.

But out of respect for his privacy, he didn’t ask.

When they returned to the village, Chu An’an said to him,

“You can go home now. You’ve seen for yourself that I don’t need anyone looking after me anymore. Thank you for taking care of me these past few days.”

Zhou Run shook his head.

“Your husband already paid me this month’s wages.”

Chu An’an thought that was the only reason.

He smiled.

“That’s fine. I’m not asking you to give the money back.”

He was genuinely thinking about Zhou Run.

Sleeping at his employer’s house was probably less comfortable than sleeping at his own home.

And being able to stay home for most of the month while still getting paid?

Who would turn down a deal that good?

But Zhou Run still shook his head.

“I’ll go back once everyone in the village knows that you’re not foolish anymore.”

Then he gave a teasing smile.

“Your husband is very worried about your safety. He practically wanted me to tie you to my belt and keep you with me at all times.”

Chu An’an tilted his head as though thinking it over.

He immediately understood Zhao Junyi’s intention.

Normally, Zhou Run didn’t just cook for him.

He also lived in the house.

Chu An’an might only have the intelligence of a five-year-old, but he didn’t wander around at night.

So why had Zhao Junyi insisted on having Zhou Run stay overnight?

And Zhou Run happened to be an exceptionally strong man.

Oh.

Chu An’an wasn’t the sort of person to get hung up on whether Zhao Junyi trusted him or not.

He wasn’t going to stubbornly insist, “Don’t you trust me? I’ll prove that I can take care of myself!”

Instead, he stopped trying to send Zhou Run away.

He rolled up his sleeves.

“All right. I’ll make lunch today. I’ll let you taste my cooking.”

He had suffered long enough because of these two people’s cooking.

Today, he was going to show them what real food tasted like!

Zhou Run’s mouth fell open in surprise.

He was willing to admit that Chu An’an wasn’t foolish anymore.

But cooking?

That was still a little hard to believe.

Just look at those delicate fingertips.

They were obviously the hands of someone who had never done any household work.

And when Chu An’an tried carrying firewood, he was clearly unfamiliar with it.

He would pick up several pieces, only to drop several more.

Zhou Run’s unease reached its peak.

“Um… An’an, why don’t I cook instead?”

Notes & Fun Facts

• Baduanjin (八段錦): A traditional Chinese exercise consisting of eight simple movements, often practiced for health and fitness.
• Ge’er (哥兒): A fictional male gender category in this setting. Ge’er are male but can bear children.
• Qianhu (千戶): A military rank roughly equivalent to a commander of a thousand soldiers.
• Mao hour (卯時): Approximately 5–7 AM.
• Chen hour (辰時): Approximately 7–9 AM.
• Wen (文): A basic unit of currency used in historical Chinese settings.