Chapter 6, The 6th Inn Sells Mushroom Sauce

As darkness fell, the two men still working could only be seen through the flickering firelight.

Yunyin stopped Zhang Lin, who was about to continue tamping the earth, and said, "Go wash your hands and feet first, and do it tomorrow."

She glanced at the sky; the moon was bright and the stars were twinkling. Tomorrow should be a clear day. She handed Zhang Lin a bamboo tube filled with hot water and said, "Tonight, go and rest by the roadside. If you see any traveling merchants staying overnight, ask them about the situation and see how much traffic is on this road."

"Hmm, I'll ask around. But this official road is the only one connecting Beijiang County and Long'an County, so the flow of people should be quite good." Zhang Lin held the warm bamboo tube, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Wife, what if people find out I'm a refugee? And what if the officials come to arrest me?"

“They caught us here last time, and they might send more people over.”

Yunyin: "Do you know what it means to have the most dangerous place as the safest place?"

"Besides, it's late at night, who's going to arrest you? Even the officers need to rest."

Yunyin glanced at his clothes and said, "But your clothes really need mending. Do you know how to sew?"

Zhang Lin quickly shook his head and said, "How could I know how to do that? My mother used to mend clothes for me. Later, when we were fleeing famine, we didn't care anymore. Everyone was dressed in tattered clothes, so as long as it could cover our bodies a little, that was enough."

"Alright, take it off and let me see." Yunyin took out the needle and thread she had bought today, took Zhang Lin's clothes, carefully measured them, and began to mend them.

Although Yunyin's sewing skills were mediocre, the clothes were still wearable. She returned the mended clothes to Zhang Lin and said, "I'll buy you clothes when I earn money."

Zhang Lin's tears flowed instantly. He wiped them away as he said, "Miss Yun, you are so good to me. My mother is no better than you."

Yunyin had no desire to be his mother. She praised him for giving him food and clothes. If Zhang Lin hadn't refused to be a lowly person, he would have been deceived and left with nothing.

She waved him away, saying, "Wash your face and then go to rest."

After Zhang Lin left, Yunyin continued tidying up, spread a layer of clean straw on the ground, washed up, and went to bed.

On the other side, Zhang Lin had just sat down in the thatched hut when he heard the sound of horses' hooves approaching. Zhang Lin got up and peeked around. A group of guards with swords at their waists surrounded a carriage that had stopped by the roadside.

The group had spotted Zhang Lin long ago, but seeing that he was alone and unarmed, they didn't pay him any attention. Only after everyone dismounted and lit a fire did one of them ask Zhang Lin, "Young man, are you going to town or back to your hometown?"

When Zhang Lin saw someone asking him a question, he quickly stepped forward and greeted them, saying, "My name is Zhang Lin. It's getting late, so let's rest here for a bit. Are you all heading to Long'an County?"

The person who spoke to him waved his hand and said, "No." But he didn't say where he was going.

While chatting with them, Zhang Lin took out the firewood he had prepared and helped add more, saying, "By the way, sir, I wanted to ask, how many people are usually on this road?"

"You don't know? This road is the fastest route from Chang'an to Mianzhou. You can imagine how crowded it is. Many people transport silk products from Mianzhou to Chang'an. There are usually a lot of people on the road. We're just too slow, otherwise we wouldn't be stuck here tonight."

Zhang Lin said he understood, chatted with him for a few more minutes, and then they went to bed separately.

The next day, just as dawn broke, the group of merchants left. Only after Zhang Lin and the others had gone some distance did they run back up the hillside and call out, "Miss Yun, Miss Yun."

Yunyin had just finished practicing her boxing when she heard Zhang Lin shouting loudly. She boiled a pot of water and then replied, "What are you shouting for so early in the morning?"

"I've made some inquiries, and indeed quite a few merchants pass through here, but only a very few caravans that miss their lodging stop here. Does Madam have any plans?"

Yunyin said, "I plan to open a food stall here and see how many people pass by."

She heard him mention that the caravan they were passing by had several dozen people, and she remembered that the caravan she had encountered yesterday also had several dozen people. She calculated that even if she only prepared breakfast and dinner, it would be enough.

After baking the flatbread, she said, "After you finish eating, go and build two stoves next to thatched hut, and also build a shed to shelter you from the wind and rain. I'm going to town. For lunch, catch a fish and I'll cook you something delicious for dinner."

"So, are we not going to build those thatched huts over here?" Zhang Lin asked while munching on a flatbread.

Yunyin carried the basket into the mountain and waved her hand, saying, "Build the stove over there first, and then build the houses here later."

She had already spent a night in the wild, and the weather wasn't too cold at night, so she could keep warm by lighting a fire. Although she had mushroom sauce to exchange for money, registering her household required two strings of cash, and she wasn't sure if that would be enough. Starting her food stall as soon as possible would at least bring her some income.

Yunyin found the place where she picked the Chinese toon tree yesterday, but the tree hadn't grown much overnight. She searched around for a while and found another Chinese toon tree, which was bigger than the previous one.

She picked some and gave them to Luo Man, keeping the rest to make some toon sauce for herself. This sauce is especially delicious when mixed with noodles.

After picking the toon and elm seeds, Yunyin carried a basket of mushroom sauce and told Zhang Lin to watch over the things before heading to Pingxi Town.

As for the glass jars and books she packed yesterday, she had already hidden them in the mountains last night. The pots and pans left here, though not valuable, were all her belongings, so naturally someone needed to watch over them.

They arrived in town early, just as Luo Niangzi's restaurant opened. Yunyin followed Luo Niangzi to another room, put down her basket, and said to her, "Sister Aman, thank you for your trouble. I brought the mushroom sauce; please try it."

Yunyin opened a jar of vegetarian mushrooms and a jar of meat mushrooms for Luoman to try.

Even before opening it, Luo Man could vaguely smell a fragrance. After opening it, the fragrance became even stronger, lingering in her nose for a long time.

Luo Man put a little bit of each of the two mushroom sauces in a dish, and tasted one of each. She nodded repeatedly and said, "I knew I hadn't misjudged you, my wife. Your cooking skills are truly superb. The sauce is salty and savory with a hint of sweetness. It's an excellent sauce to eat with rice."

"I wonder how many wives you have."

Yunyin placed the basket on the table and said, "This is all I have for now. If Sister Aman needs more in the future, I can continue to make more."

Luo Man looked at the basket of sauces, and after considering it, said, "I'll take all of these. I wonder what price you'd like to sell them for, madam."

Yunyin had already decided on the price of the mushroom sauce. She had previously seen that the sauces at the general store cost 50 coins per dou, but her sauce contained meat, oil, and mushrooms, as well as soybean paste, making it especially delicious with rice. The price would definitely not be cheap.

“Sister Aman, to be frank, the cost of this sauce is not low, so the selling price will be higher.” She pointed to a jar of vegetarian sauce and said, “This jar of vegetarian sauce is about one jin, so it costs 50 wen. The meat sauce costs 70 wen. The price of meat is too expensive, so this price is already very reasonable.”

Luo Man looked at the sauce on the table and nodded, saying, "It's indeed not cheap. Most farmers really can't afford it. But fortunately, the people who can come to the restaurant are not poor, so this price is nothing to them."

"There are forty bottles of sauce in total. I'll give you 2600 coins. You can calculate it correctly, right?"

Yunyin shook her head and said, "Those two opened bottles are my gifts to Sister Aman. Just give me 2480 coins."

“If you call me ‘sister,’ I won’t let you suffer any losses.” Luo Man called someone over to take the sauces to the kitchen and asked her, “Do you want copper coins or silver coins?”

After the maid left, Yunyin asked Luoman, "Sister Aman, do you know whether the village headman accepts silver or copper coins when registering a household?"

"So, you want to register your household registration, huh?" Luo Man thought for a moment and said, "Then I'll give you official silver. This silver is valuable, and it will be more convenient for you to use it to register your household registration."

"Where does the girl plan to register her household registration?"

Yunyin described her location, asking, "Where does that area belong?"

"That's Linjiang Village. If you want to stay there, you need to go to Linjiang Village and find the village head. He manages both Linjiang Village and Pingjiang Village. He's currently living in Linjiang Village."

"Linjiang Village?" Yunyin put away the silver Luo Man gave her and said goodbye, "Thank you, Sister Aman. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have been able to register my household so quickly."

"Please don't refuse these Chinese toon and elm seeds. They're not worth much, so I hope you'll accept them."

Luo Man initially refused, but seeing her sincerity, she accepted it anyway. She didn't ask why an unmarried young woman wanted to register her household here, assuming it was something tragic. She simply smiled and said, "I wish you all the best."

"I won't keep you for dinner today. I'll feel at ease once you've settled your household registration. When you come to town next time, be sure to come find me, and I'll treat you to dinner."

Yunyin smiled and nodded, then bid farewell to Luoman and headed to Linjiang Village.

Linjiang Village is easy to find. It is named Linjiang Village because it is close to Pingjiang. The neighboring village had a large population, so it took the name Pingjiang Village.

Carrying a basket, Yunyin followed her sister-in-law's directions toward the best building in the village. Before she even entered, she heard a child's clear voice reciting: "Heaven and earth were dark and yellow, the universe was vast and boundless..."

Yunyin couldn't help but laugh as she listened to the familiar Thousand Character Classic. It seemed that even though this was not the Tang Dynasty, but a strange dynasty, it still had a great deal of Chinese cultural heritage.

As she was heading towards the main gate, she heard a woman say, "Husband, the market is in a couple of days. Let's exchange the eggs we've collected for some copper coins, and save up enough money to send Erlang to school."

"As you can see, he can already recite the Thousand Character Classic. This was taught to him by his eldest son every ten days when he came back. If he goes to school like his eldest son, he will definitely not be much worse than him."

“Alas, I also want to send Erlang to school, but you know our family doesn’t have enough money to send two children to school.” The man sighed. “Besides, very few people at the market accept copper coins, so it’s better to save up more and exchange them in the town across the street.”

“I also want to go to town, but it costs 3 coins to take a boat and it takes half an hour to walk. I have so many things to do at home, how can I have so much time to make this trip just for a basket of eggs?”

"Oh, if only Uncle Dazhu could help us, he goes to town all the time."

"Please don't!" the man quickly stopped him, glancing furtively outside and whispering, "If Dad finds out, he'll definitely beat me."

“Our dad is the village head, after all. Don’t even think about asking Uncle Dazhu to help sell eggs. If all else fails, I’ll go to town after the harvest season.”

Upon hearing this, Yunyin stopped listening and quickly went to the main gate, calling out, "Is Sun Li here?"