Chapter 12 Buying and Selling, Spending Money Like Water

Zhou took her to the salt shop. The salt cost forty coins a pound, which made her gasp. The shopkeeper said, "Our salt is all transported from Sichuan. The journey is long and the transportation costs are not cheap. The salt is also top-quality salt."

Having seen the snow-white fine salt, Lin Chuntao didn't really see what was so special about that top-quality salt; perhaps it's just that current processing techniques can only reach this level.

"I'll buy one pound."

After she finished speaking, the shopkeeper reached out to her, only to realize that she needed a bag, which she didn't have, so she could only say, "Shopkeeper, please wait a moment." After saying that, she pulled Zhou Shi aside and said, "Fourth Aunt, let's go to the general store first, I'll buy an earthenware jar to store the salt."

Zhou followed beside her, sighing in her heart. This is what happens when a mother dies young and her child suffers. Even a small earthenware jar for salt has to be sold on the spot.

Upon entering the general store, one finds a dazzling array of small commodities: earthenware pots, copper pots, ceramic jars, ceramic bowls, burlap sacks, and rouge are all available for sale. For sixty coins, one can buy two earthenware jars, two earthenware pots, three large ceramic bowls, and five small ceramic bowls for eating.

Three or four items cost sixty coins. The salt, at forty coins a pound, seemed like only a tiny amount after being put into the earthenware jar.

She carefully put the lid on, placed it in the basket, and carried it on her back.

When they arrived at the butcher shop, the pork fat was sold out, and the remaining fatty meat was not cheap. Zhou felt that it was not worthwhile to render oil from fatty meat without the fat. The butcher's wife looked at Lin Chuntao and said, "Miss, if you like pork intestines, rendering oil from them is also a good option, and it's much cheaper."

Lin Chuntao likes to eat offal, but she can't stand the taste of pig intestines when rendering oil, as all the dishes will taste like intestines. In the end, she decided to buy a pound of fatty pork first.

The butcher's wife quoted a price: "Thirty coins a pound for pure fat."

Lin Chuntao nodded. The meat, weighing one pound, was tied with straw and consisted of only a small lump. The younger girls next to her stared at it intently, looking extremely hungry.

After buying the meat, I went to the stall to look at the steamer. It had a straw lid and a wooden lid, and the price was twenty coins.

Zhou negotiated with the shopkeeper eloquently and finally bought it for eighteen coins. Lin Chuntao looked at the water buckets next to her and asked about the price. She then learned that two water buckets plus a carrying pole would cost thirty-six coins.

Seeing that they thought it was too expensive, the shopkeeper said, "The buckets made by my family are guaranteed to last a lifetime without leaking. My husband's bucket-making skills are top-notch, and we've even coated them with tung oil. They're definitely worth the price."

Lin Chuntao did the math and realized that she only had thirty-nine copper coins left from selling mushrooms today.

No wonder Zhou said she would add more later. Her supplies were much worse, and she needed to save some money to buy food. If she bought two more water buckets, she would be out of money.

She thought for a moment and smiled, "Auntie, we'll come back another day to buy it."

Once they were a distance from the vendor, Zhou said, "The quality of her carrying buckets is indeed very good, but they're expensive. Chun Tao, you should save your earnings to buy grain first." After saying that, Zhou asked her, "Do you know where the grain shop is? Do you want me to take you there?"

Lin Chuntao nodded, and Zhou led them to the grain shop in the market.

Rice, wheat, paddy rice, soybeans, and buckwheat noodles are all available.

White rice and flour are relatively expensive, while paddy rice and wheat are relatively cheaper. However, Lin Chuntao calculated that there might be an extra labor cost between rice and paddy rice. She could buy paddy rice and grind it herself in the future. As for flour, with the current tools, she probably couldn't grind it as finely as others. After thinking for a while, she asked about the price of flour.

"Fine noodles cost 44 coins per dou, and buckwheat noodles cost 32 coins per dou." The fine noodles the shopkeeper mentioned were wheat flour, which was slightly yellow in color, but was already quite white compared to the buckwheat flour, which was somewhat grayish-white.

Lin Chuntao estimated that a dou (a unit of dry measure) weighed about twelve jin (a unit of weight), which wasn't actually very expensive, but they were just too poor.

"Shopkeeper, may I buy half a bushel?"

"Okay, what do you want?"

Lin Chuntao replied, "Half a peck of buckwheat noodles."

Since she hadn't brought any containers for storing the grain, Lin Chuntao simply had the shopkeeper fill her earthenware jars with it. One of the jars was one she had bought to store oil later; it was a bit on the larger side, and the six jin of buckwheat flour wasn't even full when she put it in—it was just the right size.

Zhou told her, "Go home and find someone in the village to make you two wooden boxes to carry the flour. When you buy flour, you can carry them with you so they won't spill."

Lin Chuntao obediently agreed, and the group left the grain shop to head back.

The market was bustling, and the aromas from various food stalls filled the air. The girls were hungry since they had been out since midnight. The younger sisters stared longingly at the food stalls as they passed by, but perhaps because they had spent too much money on food, even Lin Duo'er only looked on with longing and didn't ask for anything to eat.

Even though it was too expensive, Lin Chuntao felt heartbroken to spend the money. But when she heard the vendors calling out that a fried radish bun with pork cracklings was only three coins, she figured she could buy one to fill her stomach.

Thinking it over, he said to Zhou Shi, "Fourth Aunt, could you please keep an eye on my sister for me? I'll be back soon."

As she spoke, she ran towards the direction of the hawking sound.

"How many would you like to buy, young lady?" the shopkeeper asked as he lifted the steamer lid. White steam rose from the steamer, revealing bowl-sized buns.

The shopkeeper introduced, "Girls, feel free to buy our pork crackling stir-fried radish. Everyone who has tried it says it's delicious."

"Give me five." She took out her money and handed it over. After the shopkeeper accepted the money, Lin Chuntao said, "Could you please cut two of them in half before packing them?"

The shopkeeper's wife turned around and glanced at her, then readily nodded: "Okay."

As she spoke, she took a knife, picked out two steamed buns, cut them neatly in the middle, and wrapped them in oil paper.

Lin Chuntao took the steamed buns, thanked her with a smile, and returned with the hot buns in her arms.

She first handed one to Zhou Shi and one to Xu Tianzhu, saying, "Thank you for today, Fourth Uncle and Fourth Aunt."

The two hurriedly refused, but Zhou said, "You child, there's no need to thank me for such a small thing. Why buy these buns? Your fourth uncle and I aren't hungry. You two eat."

Lin Chuntao didn't allow them to refuse, and stuffed the food directly into their hands. "We bought some for ourselves too. We still have a long walk back, so we'll eat a little bit to fill our stomachs." As she spoke, she turned around and distributed the food to her younger sisters.

The couple looked at the buns in their hands. Zhou quickly packed the bun tightly and stuffed it into Lin Chuntao's basket, saying, "Your fourth uncle and I will eat one, and you can take this one back."

Lin Chuntao wanted to put down her basket and take it out, but Zhou Shi wouldn't allow it and held the basket up for her, not letting her put it down.

"If you keep doing this, we won't eat this either."

Lin Chuntao had no choice but to give up, and the six of them each ate half a radish bun.

The shopkeeper said it was filled with pork cracklings and radish. I didn't taste any pork cracklings, but the radish was very juicy, so I could tell that some pork fat was indeed added. The main thing was that it wasn't pungent. I wonder how the shopkeeper processed the radish.

They traveled a long way back to the village from the county town, and Zhou asked Xu Tianzhu to carry their baskets the whole way.

When it was time to part, I returned the basket to them and told the sisters that I would visit my cousins ​​at home when I had time, but they were all at home.

Lin Chuntao readily agreed.

After they parted, Xu Tianzhu complained about the radish buns, "This girl, even in this state, still can't save money. A few radish buns cost more than ten coins, enough to buy half a bushel of buckwheat flour."

Zhou glared at him angrily, "Even eating can't shut your rotten mouth. That's because Chun Tao is polite and knows how to behave. You should learn from her! When you get back, tell Tian Lin and the others that we can't let them bully us just because Xiu Niang is gone. The Lin family is really shameless, young and old alike!"

Xu Tianzhu sighed: "We should go and say something, but it depends on what Tianlin and the other guys say."

When Lin Chuntao and the others arrived home, the doors and windows of the other room had also been completed. During the day, the two green bamboo doors and the old walls looked quite mismatched, but it was undeniably full of the spirit of spring.

She approached the door to push it open, only to find that there was a lock on the outside of the room where she had stayed the night before.

Pei Ying wasn't home. There were many newly cut bamboos piled up in the yard. Lin Chuntao thought he must have gone to cut bamboo. She squatted down, put the basket on the wall, and turned to Chunxing, saying, "Chunxing, watch the things. I'll go call your brother-in-law to come back and open the door."

Lin Chunxing nodded, and Lin Chuntao walked towards the bamboo grove.

She heard the sound of sickles cutting bamboo before she even entered the woods, so she went straight in and only then could she see Pei Ying's figure clearly.

Pei Yinggang cut down a bamboo stalk to continue, when he inadvertently saw Lin Chuntao behind him.

"You're back? Did you find any mushrooms today?"

Lin Chuntao smiled and said, "I found a whole basket of pine mushrooms." Then she looked at the bamboo on the ground and asked, "Have you cut enough?"

Pei Ying thought of the locked door and nodded, "That's about enough, let's carry it back first."

"Let me get some," Lin Chuntao said, bending down to get some, but Pei Ying stopped her: "This bundle of bamboo isn't heavy, I can carry it. You hold the sickle for me."

Lin Chuntao took the sickle, and Pei Ying bent down, picked up the bundle of bamboo with one hand, and dragged it out of the bamboo forest.

"Have you had breakfast?" Lin Chuntao asked.

Pei Ying said, "I'm not hungry yet."

Lin Chuntao frowned slightly. The door was finished, and bamboo had been cut, so it seemed that this person had gotten up to work not long after they left.

They were hungry in the city, and Pei Ying said it would be a miracle if they weren't.

Lin Chuntao sensed from day one that Pei Ying seemed to have a good sense of propriety.

The two walked side by side. Pei Ying was a little unsure what to say to her, so Lin Chuntao took the initiative to tell her about her encounter with Zhou Shi and Xu Tianzhu that day.

"I never expected it to be our cousin. He took care of us the whole way after hearing that we had been kicked out. My fourth aunt is a very kind-hearted person."

Pei Ying listened quietly as Lin Chuntao talked about everything from buying mushrooms to what Zhou had taken them to buy, how much it cost, and then about buying radish buns.

"I brought you one, I don't know if it's still hot, I'll check it in a bit and steam it in a steamer if it gets cold."

Pei Ying was somewhat surprised that he hadn't gone to Lin Chuntao to buy steamed buns but instead brought one back for him.

"Thanks."

Lin Chuntao smiled and said, "We're all family, no need to thank me." After saying that, he asked Pei Ying, "Is that lock on the door yours?"

"Yes, there are only two keys. I'll give you one in a bit."

The two returned with bamboo, and the three sisters in front of the house all turned around and called out, "Brother-in-law!"

Lin Duo'er said to Pei Ying, as if to show off, "Sister brought you steamed buns, they were delicious."