Chapter 67, Inn No. 67: Buying Persimmons to Make Dried Persimmons

The pomegranate flesh was very plump, with each seed covering the entire pomegranate. Yunyin peeled some and put it in her mouth. The juice was very sweet, just as the old man had said, very good.

Yunyin bought some pomegranates. Just then, another person came by, carrying a basket of oranges, and said to her, "Miss Yun, would you like some oranges?"

Long'an County is famous for its oranges, and almost every household grows them. Letao Village also grows them, but the oranges are still green and quite sour at this time, so Zheng Dong didn't send any to Yunyin.

Yunyin looked at the green oranges in his basket and raised an eyebrow, asking, "These oranges look very sour?"

"It's not sour at all, not sour at all, Miss Yun, you can try it."

Although Yunyin hesitated for a moment, she still picked up an orange and peeled it. Her white fingers were stained with yellow juice. She picked up a segment of orange flesh and ate it. As soon as she tasted it, she felt a sour taste. She stuck out her tongue and said, "This is too sour."

The person also tasted a slice, finished it with relish, and asked in confusion, "It's clearly not sour?"

Hearing this, others came over and tried a segment. The pomegranate seller said, "Old He, your oranges are too sour. How can you say they're not sour? Are these oranges grown by your family? You should wait until they turn yellow before selling them."

Old He frowned as he looked at the basket of oranges. "You all think they're sour? But my wife and I don't think green oranges are sour, so we picked them to sell some." He said dejectedly, "If we didn't need money at home, I would have waited until the oranges turned yellow before selling them."

Upon hearing this, Yunyin thought for a moment and said, "I'll introduce you to a client; they might need something." She gestured to Zheng Guilan, asking her to find Lin Yun's maid and have her come over to take a look.

Just then, another person came over with a basket of fruit. The man looked at Zheng Guilan's back and fell into confusion, but Yunyin's question interrupted his thoughts.

How much are your persimmons?

The man snapped out of his daze and said, "It's not expensive, three coins a pound. How much does Madam Yun want?"

Yunyin: "I'll take them all."

Seeing the persimmons reminded Yunyin of dried persimmons. These persimmons weren't crisp; when fully ripe, they were soft, juicy, and tender. These persimmons were dried into dried persimmons, which were sweet and soft, and could last until next year. Looking at the not-so-large basket of persimmons, she asked him, "Is this all? If there are any more, I'll take them all."

He said happily, "There's more, I'll bring it to you later." He chuckled and said, "I'm from Dazhu Village, not far from Lady Yun."

Dazhu Village? Yunyin remembered that Zheng Guilan's ex-husband was from this village. Just as she was thinking about it, Zheng Guilan came over with Lin Yun's maid. When the maid saw the green oranges, her eyes lit up. After tasting one, she nodded with satisfaction and said, "We'll take all these oranges. Name your price."

The man was surprised that Yunyin had actually found him a buyer, so he quickly quoted a price.

When Zheng Guilan arrived, she immediately saw Jiang Dalang and frowned, saying, "Jiang Dalang, what are you doing here?"

Jiang Dalang was helping Yunyin pack persimmons when he heard Zheng Guilan's voice. He looked up at her and said, "It really is you! I thought I had mistaken you for someone else. Why are you here? Was what others said true? Are you really working here?"

Zheng Guilan said coldly, "Whether I work here or not is none of your business."

Jiang Dalang shrugged and said, "It really has nothing to do with me, but for Yun Niangzi's sake, I'll still remind you that if the Fang family finds out about your current situation, they might come looking for trouble."

"What right do they have to come looking for me?" Zheng Guilan was even more furious. "They kicked my daughter and me out back then, and we barely survived. And they still want to cause me trouble?"

Jiang Dalang said helplessly, "It's no use telling me. You know how difficult the Fang family is. I'm just reminding you to make plans early."

After Jiang Dalang left, Yunyin asked Zheng Guilan, "What happened?"

Zheng Guilan took a deep breath and said, "It's nothing. He's from my ex-husband's village. My ex-husband's family is a bunch of scoundrels. They almost killed Ahe back then, so they're taking their anger out on my daughter and me because I couldn't give birth to a boy."

She watched Jiang Dalang's departing figure, her brows furrowing slightly. "Jiang Dalang is right. If they find out that Ahe has become your disciple, they will definitely cause trouble." She looked at Yunyin apologetically and said, "Yunniangzi, I have caused you trouble."

Yunyin shook her head and said, "What trouble is this? Do you think we don't exist? I want to see what kind of trouble they can cause."

It's not that Yunyin looks down on Zheng Guilan's ex-husband; she wouldn't even glance at someone who couldn't even protect his own wife and children.

After buying the fruit, Yunyin asked Ma Hao and the others for help, and they quickly carried the baskets of fruit back. She washed a few pomegranates and persimmons and brought them to Huo Yu and the others, saying, "You can also have some fresh fruit."

Lin Yun waved her hand and said, "I see that Liu'er also bought a lot of fruit. Lady Yun, you can keep it for yourself."

Yunyin smiled and said, "She only bought oranges and pomegranates. You can try these persimmons. I tasted them and they were quite sweet."

These persimmons are bright yellow, like little lanterns, with thin, translucent skin. When you look through them, you can almost see the soft flesh inside. Peel off the skin, and the crystal-clear flesh is revealed. Taking a bite is like eating honey.

Lin Yun couldn't resist eating one, and she nodded repeatedly, saying, "It is indeed very sweet, it's a pity I couldn't buy some."

Yunyin smiled and said, "If Madam Lin likes it, I can share some with you. They will send another batch later."

Lin Yun smiled and said, "Then thank you very much, Lady Yun."

Yunyin gave some ripe persimmons to Lin Yun and kept some that weren't quite ripe to make dried persimmons.

Peel the persimmons, tie them with rope, and hang them along the corridor. Strings of bright red lanterns, like hanging curtains, are quite a beautiful sight. The remaining persimmon peels are washed clean and dried in the sun. Once the persimmons are dried, they are used to store dried persimmons.

Next to her hung raisins that were gradually drying out, and the warehouse was full of dried vegetables and pickled vegetables. Yunyin looked at the warehouse that was full of stockpiles and smiled with satisfaction.

Chestnuts can be dried and preserved, pomegranates can only be eaten now, Yunyin plans to juice some and use the rest to make wine.

Fortunately, the plum wine that Yunyin had made earlier could be used. The resulting pomegranate wine was clear and bright, sweet and sour, and both beautifying and good for the spleen. Drinking a little every day would be very satisfying.

Yunyin cleaned the wine jar thoroughly, sterilized it at high temperature, put rock sugar and washed pomegranates into the jar, poured in plum wine, sealed the jar for 100 days, then took out the pomegranate juice, sealed the jar again for 100 days, at which point the pomegranate wine was at its most flavorful.

She put the packaged pomegranate wine in the warehouse. When Lin Yun came out after finishing her meal, she saw the persimmons hanging in the corridor and murmured, "It's time to make persimmon cakes again."

When Yunyin came out and heard this, she asked in surprise, "Lady Lin, do you also make persimmon cakes?"

Lin Yun looked away and smiled, "Yes, didn't you know that we also produce a lot of persimmons here? Every year, every household makes dried persimmons. In years of famine, dried persimmons are a life-saving food for ordinary people."

Yunyin was surprised that she knew these things and asked curiously, "I remember that Lin Hui's family was in the silk business and was quite wealthy. Did they really need to make persimmon cakes as a life-saving food?"

Lin Yun: "That kid definitely doesn't know. I remember when I was a child, my family wasn't as well-off as it is now. In years of famine, we would store a lot of dried persimmons. My family still keeps this habit, but I really don't like to eat them. I ate too many when I was a child. But the young people like them. They can finish all the dried persimmons that my family makes every year."

As Yunyin listened to Lin Yun recount her childhood anecdotes, she gained a deeper understanding of them and learned a great deal about Song Shi's childhood.

Song Shi came in from outside and overheard Lin Yun's words. He said in a coquettish tone, "Auntie, you're talking about the embarrassing things I did when I was little again. They're really embarrassing."

Lin Yun laughed and said, "We actually think you were very cute when you were little." Seeing Song Shi's disheveled appearance, she asked in surprise, "What did you do? How did you get like this?"

Song Shi patted the dust off his sleeves and waved his hand, saying, "It's nothing, I'll just wander around." He didn't want his elders to know about this; if Lin Yun knew, his parents would definitely know too.

As they were chatting, a quarrel suddenly broke out inside the house. Yunyin and the others looked over and saw that Shen Rong and Xie Yan were arguing.

They were having a meal and chatting in a fairly harmonious atmosphere when suddenly Shen Rong and Xie Yan started talking about articles from school, which caused a disagreement between them, and they began arguing.

If it were just two people debating, that would be fine. But someone said something that sparked a debate between the two county schools. Now, not only Shen Rong and Xie Yan, but also Lin Hui and Wang Yu were arguing.

Seeing that they were red-faced and visibly angry from arguing, Yunyin was afraid that they would get into a fight. Fortunately, they were quite well-mannered and did not resort to violence even when the argument was intense.

Just then, one of the students from Jiangbei County said, "You students have a responsibility to admonish the magistrate of Long'an County for the mistakes he has made, yet you have remained indifferent and ignored these events. Now, they are even affecting our county. Isn't this your fault?"

Mentioning this matter, Wang Yu was somewhat discouraged. He said, "We were discussing academic matters, not politics. What can we do about things that happen in officialdom?"

Shen Rong disagreed, saying, "That's precisely why we should offer our advice; otherwise, what's the point of studying?"

Xie Yan agreed with Shen Rong on this matter, nodding and saying, "Shen Sanlang is right. We should indeed advise the emperor on this matter."

Yunyin asked curiously, "What happened in Long'an County?" She had been busy stockpiling food and developing new dishes, and hadn't really paid attention to what was happening in Long'an County.

Xie Yan: "Previously, the county magistrate wanted to build water conservancy projects, so he arrested a lot of displaced people and forced them to do the work. I heard that some of the displaced people rioted and fled to Beijiang County, causing a bad influence. Fortunately, the magistrate of Beijiang County acted decisively and arrested them in time, preventing a greater impact."

Shen Rong nodded and said, "Building water conservancy projects is indeed a good thing, but we can't do it so recklessly. I also heard that there was a bandit problem before, but thankfully it was resolved, otherwise we wouldn't be safe going out."

Yunyin was aware of the banditry before, but she didn't expect that a peasant uprising would occur later. She hadn't been to the county town for a long time and hadn't heard about this. None of the diners passing by mentioned it either. Yunyin looked at Huo Yu and asked, "Does Elder Huo know about this?"

Huo Yu nodded and said, "It happened not long ago. Because of this, I stayed in the county town to observe. I only came out after the county government resolved the matter."

Yunyin had heard Fu Wang mention before that this matter was caused by the county magistrate's desire for promotion. She was worried that it would affect the merchants coming and going, so she quickly asked, "How was this matter finally resolved?"