Time Travel: Female Cannon Fodder of the Republic of China

In the dim light from the window, Nanny Lin first placed the tray on the table, then took out a stand with five candles and lit them.

"Princess, the western food you requested is ready, eat it while it's hot."

"You've eaten up half a month's worth of our food budget for this western meal. If you eat a few more meals, Madam won't be able to support you."

Ai Shutong bit into a sandwich while thinking to herself, she heard from Nanny Lin last time that the Prince's Mansion gives thirty taels of silver per month for expenses.

I have never used silver, so I don't know the current prices, but it seems that it is impossible to live a comfortable life relying solely on these thirty taels of silver.

Money, money, money. I need money to run away. This won’t work. I have to find a way to make money.

The days passed quickly and the weather became warmer and warmer. By March, Ai Shutong changed her thick coat and put on a lighter pink cheongsam.

"Mammy, I'm already this old, but I've never been out of the house. I want to go out and take a look."

Some time ago, Ai Shutong toured the house from front to back.

The front yard is bigger and wider than the back yard. There are eight regular rooms in the north, and three rooms in the east and west wing rooms. In addition to the main gate on the south side, there is a small house on each side of the gate, where the gatekeeper, Old Li, lives.

She also learned that the kitchen was located in a small courtyard in the east, and the people who cooked were a mother and daughter. The daughter was called Shen Xiaorui, and the mother had no name, so everyone called her Shen.

I heard that Shen Xiaorui's father had died. Shen was a widow and was kicked out by her husband's family because she had no son.

Ai Shutong couldn't accept this. Her husband was dead and her husband's family didn't acknowledge her as mother and daughter. Why did she still have to call herself Shen? Was it so difficult to give herself a new name?

She insisted on being a widow, making herself look pitiful and causing people to lament and pity her.

what's the point?

She also saw Sang Ren, wearing a gray coat and sweeping the yard with a broom.

Now she can only do some cleaning work in the front yard, or help out in the kitchen in the east courtyard. She is not allowed to enter the backyard.

"I know you don't like her, so I asked Xiao Rui to keep an eye on her and not let her enter the backyard."

Nanny Lin said as she combed Ai Shutong's hair.

"Okay. Nowadays, all the young girls walking around outside are dressed like this."

Ai Shutong looked at herself in the mirror. She was wearing a blue cloth jacket, a black skirt, and a pair of black leather shoes. She looked like a typical student girl in the Republic of China.

She nodded with satisfaction and stretched out her hand to Nanny Lin, who patted her hand in confusion, "What are you doing?"

Ai Shutong: "Where's the handbag? You always have one when you go out, why don't I have one?"

Nanny Lin tapped her nose in amusement, took out a big red handbag from the cabinet, and put two dollars in it.

Ai Shutong wrinkled her nose in dissatisfaction, "Two yuan is too little, give me more."

Nanny Lin: "Princess, two dollars is not a small amount. Now in our house, the daily vegetable expenses are only fifty cents. Even if we go to a restaurant to have a bowl of beef noodles, ten cents is enough."

"Think about it, with these two dollars, you can buy 20 bowls of beef noodles. Is that too much?"

Ai Shutong shook her head, "I don't eat beef noodles, I eat Western food."

This sentence almost choked Nanny Lin to death.

The sun was almost at its zenith when people came out. Ai Shutong didn't know what time it was. There was no clock here, and she didn't know how to tell the time by looking at the sun, which was very troublesome.

Nanny Lin first gave a few instructions to Old Li, asking him to take good care of Sang Sen and not let her go out. Only then did she feel at ease and called a rickshaw and took Ai Shutong to Xidan.

Xidan is a very prosperous place in Beijing. It has not only new-style cake shops, Western-style cake shops, and Southeast Asian curry rice, but also shopping malls and cinemas.

When Nanny Lin was learning how to cook Western food, she often came here.

The rickshaw stopped in front of the cinema. After Nanny Lin helped Ai Shutong get off the rickshaw, she looked around and saw someone buying tickets in front of a small house. She pulled Ai Shutong over.

The ticket was very expensive, only 40 cents per ticket. Aunt Lin paid for two tickets with a painful heart.

Ai Shutong muttered, "Eight bowls of beef noodles are gone."

Nanny Lin glanced at her unhappily and said, "Can you please stop mentioning beef noodles? I just mentioned it and you won't give in. How are you going to make friends when you go out in the future if you are so petty?"

Ai Shutong pouted unconvincedly, "He looks down on me, and I don't want to be friends with him."

This cinema was originally a playhouse, but later on no one came to watch plays, so the owner's overseas-educated son converted it into a cinema.

After entering, I was facing the curtain on the stage. There were not many people inside, and there was no such thing as seat reservation.

Nanny Lin took Ai Shutong and found a corner to sit down.

Ai Shutong asked curiously: "The middle is so good, why don't you sit in the middle?"

Nanny Lin: "That would be very conspicuous. And you can see that the people sitting in the middle are all men, not even a woman. If we sit there, we will be too conspicuous."

When Ai Shutong heard this, she sighed deeply. Although the status of women in the Republic of China was better than that in the Qing Dynasty, it was not much better.

The lights in the hall went out at this moment, and the whole place was suddenly dark, interrupting Ai Shutong's thoughts.

Two or three seconds later, a beam of light was projected onto the screen. Nanny Lin pulled her arm, signaling her to stop talking and watch carefully.

I saw lines of traditional Chinese characters appearing on the subtitles, which described the main plot of the film. After the introduction, the shadow of the picture appeared.

This is a martial arts drama where a woman with two swords fights a man with a knife.

There is no sound. While watching, you can guess the plot based on the subtitles at the beginning.

Ai Shutong sighed helplessly in her heart. It seems that learning traditional Chinese characters should be put on the agenda.

The subtitles were displayed neither fast nor slow, but she was not familiar with traditional Chinese characters, so the subtitles passed by before she finished reading.

The film was very short, only about forty to fifty minutes. After watching it, the lights in the hall came on again.

Nanny Lin helped Ai Shutong stand up and walked towards the aisle on the right. As soon as they got there, someone stepped on their leather shoes.

Ai Shutong looked up and saw a thin and handsome young man in a suit who immediately bowed his head and apologized, "I'm sorry, ma'am, you go first."

Ai Shutong stamped her feet, looked at her leather shoes, and found that it was not a big problem. She glared at the man and walked towards the entrance of the cinema first.

After leaving the cinema, Ai Shutong noticed that Nanny Lin’s eyes were bigger than bells, as if she was shocked by something.

Ai Shutong stretched out her hand and waved it in front of her eyes. Nanny Lin grabbed her hand and said, "Princess, you are a girl. How can you stomp your feet? And you stomped your feet several times in a row. This is really outrageous."

Nanny Lin calls herself the nanny who raises Ai Shutong. She thinks that Ai Shutong is pitiful enough without a mother to take care of her, and she should not be left without a good upbringing.

Ai Shutong was dumbfounded. What? Someone would care if I stomped my feet?