Call Me Daddy

“Master, Young Miss.”

As soon as the father and daughter entered the house, a plainly dressed woman with a kind face emerged from inside. By this time, Jiang Zheng, the guard who had accompanied them, had already parked the carriage in the stable in the backyard.

“This is the Aunt Lin I mentioned to you earlier,” Jiang Zheng said, pointing to the woman who appeared to be in her early forties.

She was a pitiful soul; years ago, due to poverty, she went to work as a wet nurse for a wealthy family not long after giving birth. She worked hard, saving money to send back home, only to find out that her husband had taken up with a young widow from the village.

The two had an affair in their home, putting her infant child in the next room. The baby woke up and crawled around, eventually falling off the bed. The loud cries didn’t prompt the adulterous couple to check on the child, and by the time they finished, the baby had already stopped breathing.

At first, her husband’s family helped cover up the incident, but the truth eventually came out. She had a strong character and, despite her husband’s family’s attempts to keep her, and her own family’s advice to stay, she divorced the scoundrel. In the end, her family even blamed her for being too aggressive, saying she had tarnished the reputation of the other girls in the family.

Angry, she decided to remain single and stayed with the family where she had worked as a wet nurse.

That family had some connections to the family of Marquis of Shou’an’s Heir. Since they wanted to make Second Su’s connection to Marquis Shou’an public, they naturally found someone from a related household to care for him.

This woman had severed all ties with her own family and her ex-husband’s family. She was alone, with a simple background. She was reliable in her work and had experience caring for young masters, making her a perfect choice to help look after Second Su’s only daughter.

“The rooms have already been set up, but I don’t know Master and the Young Miss’s preferences. If there’s anything you’d like to change, I’ll call someone to handle it immediately,” Aunt Lin said, quickly glancing at the father and daughter before her.

Master’s size was indeed intimidating. During her time on this street, she had seen several soldiers returning home from the barracks, some even in armor. Among ordinary people, those soldiers were tall and imposing, but compared to this man, they were like eagles standing next to chicks.

However, despite his burly and fierce appearance, the man’s face wasn’t frightening. His eyes were gentle, and he seemed to have a simple, honest demeanor.

It was said that he had been an ordinary farmer, but after saving the most influential backer of the family she had worked for; the Marquis of Shou’an’s Heir, he was rewarded with this military position.

Aunt Lin thought to herself that when nobles travel, they always bring a group of guards and servants. In such a situation, if this farmer had managed to help the Heir, it meant he had real skills.

So, she wouldn’t look down on this newly promoted Officer just because she had served as a trusted nanny in a noble household for a few years.

Aunt Lin glanced again at the small girl who appeared even more delicate next to the burly man. She knew that in the future, she would likely depend on this young girl for her own retirement, so she was determined to be meticulous and loyal in her service.

“You should be aware of my situation. While I’m at the barracks, I’ll need you to take care of my daughter,” Su Aobai said, feeling quite satisfied with Aunt Lin, though he knew time would tell how reliable she truly was.

“I will certainly take good care of the Young Miss,” Aunt Lin replied, smiling kindly at Er Niang.

Su Aobai had been strengthening his body every night, and Er Niang had benefited greatly from it. Her once dark and yellowed skin had transformed over the past month into a fair complexion. Her skin had previously been rough due to the harsh summer sun and winter winds, with chapped patches on her cheeks. Although she hadn’t quite achieved baby-soft skin, she now looked no different from the pampered daughters of well-off families.

The Su family’s features weren’t bad, and with her now fair complexion, Er Niang appeared to be a delicate and pretty little girl. The spiritual energy she had absorbed also gave her a special, lively aura and a unique temperament.

However, her hands, hardened by years of labor, were still calloused. Although the spiritual energy had softened them somewhat, it would take years of careful care to fully restore them. But it was clear that Er Niang, who was still eager to raise pigs, chickens, and plant date trees, wouldn’t allow her hands much rest.

Feeling a bit shy and unsure in the face of Aunt Lin’s kindness, Er Niang remembered what her father had told her on the journey.

He had mentioned that while he was training in the barracks, a maid would stay with her at home, taking care of all the household chores. If she had any requests, she could ask the maid to handle them. Her father had also instructed her not to confront the maid if she turned out to be unpleasant, but to wait until he returned from the barracks to tell him.

In the environment where Er Niang had grown up, there were no such servants, and the village women she knew were often quite fierce. So, on the way here, she had been a bit worried. But now, seeing how kind this maid seemed, she couldn’t help but lower her guard.

Er Niang was the most excited of all.

She had never lived in such a nice house before. The houses in this alley were all similar in design, with uniform blue bricks and gray tiles. The wooden doors had been coated with Tung oil, giving them a glossy, bright red finish that looked very grand.

Knowing that the young master was a girl, Aunt Lin had even asked a carpenter to make a dressing table and two large wardrobes for her room.

Back home, only Fu Bao had ever received such treatment. Er Niang, now admiring her beautiful room and the carved patterns on the dressing table, was reluctant to leave.

The young girl began moving her luggage from the carriage into her room, carefully arranging her belongings one by one.

These were her treasures; the silk flowers and red ribbons that her father had bought for her, and the beautiful hairpin made of tiny millet beads that he had purchased at the market before they left.

On the dressing table was an especially delicate jewelry box, with small drawers that could hold many hairpins and accessories. But Er Niang didn’t have that many treasures; each of her items occupied a single drawer, leaving several drawers still empty.

She wasn’t greedy, wanting to fill up those empty spaces. Instead, she played a game, pulling out one drawer to look at the hairpin inside, then closing it and opening another drawer.

She played this game for a long time, never getting tired of it.

It wasn’t until Aunt Lin came to the door and said there were guests that Er Niang reluctantly stopped her game.

***

The visitors were the families of a few Officers who lived next to the Su family.

One was Liu Shi, the wife of Officer Yang Yong, and the other was the mother and sister-in-law of Officer Xu Dazhu. These two families lived to the left of the Su family and across from them, and both Yang Yong and Xu Dazhu served under the same commander as Su Aobai.

Besides these two families, there was also Wang Shi, the wife of Officer Xu, who lived to the right of the Su family. The three families had apparently decided to visit together, and since it was nearly lunchtime, they each brought a dish they had prepared.

Being an Officer wasn’t a high-ranking position, so these families lived just slightly better than ordinary households. As such, there weren’t many formalities, and it wasn’t considered improper to bring a dish when visiting new neighbors.

The awkward part was that the Su family didn’t have a woman in charge of the household; only Su Aobai, a big man, and his young daughter, Er Niang. This made hosting guests a bit inappropriate.

“This must be Officer Su’s daughter. What a lovely little girl,” one of the women said as Er Niang walked into the main room. The speaker was a plump, round-faced woman who waved her over.

“My family name is Yang. You can just call me Aunt Yang.”

This plump woman was Yang Yong’s wife, and she looked like a straightforward, lively person.

“I’ve always wanted a daughter, but unfortunately, my body doesn’t cooperate, and I’ve only given birth to a bunch of rowdy boys who always get on my nerves. A daughter would be so much better; sweet and lovable. You should come visit me when you have time, keep me company, and I’ll make you some osmanthus cakes.”

Liu Shi took a liking to the new neighbor’s daughter, finding the pretty and well-behaved girl very much to her taste. Since the new Officer would be her husband’s colleague, it was also convenient for her husband to build a good relationship with him if she got along well with the child.

“Humph.”

A woman sitting next to Liu Shi scoffed, her expression full of disdain and mockery.

This was Wang Shi, the wife of Officer Xu. She appeared somewhat thin and wasn’t very tall.

Wang Shi thought Liu Yinghua was just too much, always eager to let everyone know she could bear sons. The thought made Wang Shi feel a bit sour inside.

Liu Yinghua was well-known in this alley, not just because of her straightforward personality that made her popular with most of the military wives, but also because she could bear sons; seven of them, in fact, whom she named Da Wu, Er Wu, San Wu, and so on up to Qi Wu.

(T/N: Her name is Liu Yinghua; ‘Liu Shi’/ ‘Yang Liu Shi’ is a term of address that means “Yang woman that’s from the Liu family”. Her son’s names are based on birth order.)

Each time she was pregnant, Liu Yinghua would proudly declare that she would definitely have a daughter this time, but when the child was born, it was yet another son.

It wasn’t until she had Qi Wu that she gave up, saying that if she had any more children, she wouldn’t be able to afford to raise them. The youngest, Qi Wu, was about the same age as Er Niang and was the most rambunctious boy in the alley.

In contrast, Wang Shi had a much harder time having a son. Her precious little boy came after she had given birth to five daughters. She and Liu Yinghua had married their husbands around the same time, and coincidentally, their pregnancies often aligned. So, whenever Liu Yinghua gave birth to a son while she had another daughter, Wang Shi would be so upset that it would affect her milk supply.

Because of that, whenever Liu Yinghua mentioned wanting a daughter, Wang Shi felt she was bragging. She even convinced herself that Liu Yinghua’s constant talk about wanting a daughter had confused the goddess who brings children, leading her to send daughters to Wang Shi’s womb instead. She blamed Liu Yinghua for giving her five ‘money-losing’ daughters.

Seeing Liu Yinghua fawning over the new Officer’s daughter, Wang Shi felt particularly disdainful.

If she truly liked girls that much, why didn’t she ever get close to my own five daughters?