Julie sat down at the table and saw the same dishes again: scrambled eggs, stir-fried bok choy, and a little salted vegetables. The main dish was corn porridge. She didn't say anything, just silently ate her meal.
She was really hungry; a small packet of biscuits earlier didn't fill her up.
She ate two bowls of corn porridge before putting her bowl down.
Mr. Leng couldn't sit at the table. He had to eat in the kitchen.
However, the food he ate was the same as what Julie had, just in a different place.
The host family ate at the table, while Mr. Leng, as the guard, was considered a servant.
This dynasty had a strict class system, with clear differences between the high and low classes. Servants couldn't sit at the same table as the host family unless the host insisted.
It was clear that Julie hadn't made such a request.
After finishing her meal, Julie took out a pouch from her pocket. It was one of the pouches that Bailee and his brothers had sewn before. There were five in total, and the idea was to take them to the embroidery shop to exchange for some copper coins.
But when Julie saw them, she didn't let them go.
She silently kept all of them.
Selling them wouldn't earn much money, and she didn't want to risk damaging her eyes from the work.
The pouch she took out was one that Bailee had sewn, with a bamboo branch embroidered on it. Julie didn't know much about the craftsmanship but thought it looked solid and durable.
To her, it didn't matter whether it looked nice, as long as it was useful.
Inside the pouch, she placed five ounces of silver and several copper coins.
She handed the pouch to Bailee.
When Julie saw the food, she suddenly remembered she hadn't given Bailee a single coin.
As the head of the family, she didn't have any money in hand.
Naturally, she would just make do with whatever food was left in the house.
Julie had never thought about handing over all her possessions to him.
She also hadn't planned on telling anyone about her private space.
This was a natural instinct for self-protection.
Julie wasn't going to change this mindset, nor did she want to.
She didn't know how other families managed their money, but in her family, the main amount of money was for her to handle, and the head of the family would take care of the food and daily expenses.
The other two husbands didn't need to be given money; whenever they went to the town, she would just buy whatever they needed.
There was a butcher in the village who sold pork and mutton.
Eggs could also be bought by exchanging with villagers who raised chickens.
Bailee was a bit confused when he received the pouch, not understanding what his wife meant.
Was she dissatisfied with the pouches he had embroidered?
Haven was the smartest and most capable of the three brothers.
"Brother, open it and see," Bailee thought his wife might be giving the money to the eldest brother to handle.
When Bailee opened the pouch and saw the silver, he was surprised, and some thoughts formed in his mind: "Wife, what is this?"
Julie didn't think this was hard to understand.
She was just giving him money; did he think it was too much?
"You are the head of the family, so you still need to keep some money, whether it's for buying food or for daily use. I had overlooked this before, but I'll be more mindful in the future. If you run out of money, just tell me. Of course, while I'm here, I'll handle the shopping, and if you need anything, just let me know. Sometimes when I go out, I can bring things back for you." She glanced at Haven and Lorrie.
Bailee's face turned a little red, feeling shy. He tightly held the pouch in his hand, touched by her thoughtfulness.
He truly didn't have a single coin on him.
So, every day, he had to make do with leftovers from the kitchen, trying to save enough for a few more days.
Before Julie came, it was good enough if they weren't asked for money.
It was impossible for them to have any money to give to Bailee, so they often went out to gather wild vegetables, sometimes eating one meal and sometimes going hungry.
Occasionally, they would take the embroidered pouches to the town's embroidery shop to exchange for copper coins, which would buy a few pounds of coarse grain, but even those were eaten up by the original head of the family.
Since Julie came, they rarely had wild vegetable soup anymore.
Julie also bought food for the house, and although the grain stocks were sufficient, the vegetables were running low.
Bailee wasn't the type to ask for help.
So, even when the vegetables ran out, he would just quietly worry about it.