Letter

Wet Nurse Zhou's Private Ledger

Day 5: Two skeins of blue-green embroidery thread, four coins. Malt candy for the young lady, two coins. Day 8: About two feet of coarse cloth, fifteen coins. Made the young lady's calming decoction. About two grams short of cinnamon twig. Buy more tomorrow. Heard the servants calling my young lady stupid again today. Nasty tongues, the lot of them. She doesn't say much, that's all. She understands perfectly well. The other day, I couldn't make sense of this ledger. There were a dozen or so coins I couldn't account for. The young lady took one look and told me what I'd bought and on which day. When I asked, she could even remember every expense in the ledger I'd filled up the month before. And that's nothing compared to all the books she remembers. What do those gossips know? Once she's seen something, it stays in her head. She doesn't forget a thing. How many children can do that? I tried telling them, but they said I was just an ignorant village woman. Oh, well. I'll look after the young lady and hope she grows up safe and well. Perhaps being so clever only brings trouble... If they don't understand, let them be.