Chapter 553 A Dream of Youth 85

As Xie Qi joined in the fun, he reached out to touch the pheasant, only to be pecked. Although there was no blood, a red mark appeared, and the pain made him take three steps back, his eyes accusing, "Why doesn't this pheasant peck Bao'er, but only me?"

Xie Ning calmly withdrew his hand, somewhat curious, as the pheasant had indeed been unusually docile.

The stall owner, a young man in his twenties, smiled awkwardly upon hearing this and apologized ingratiatingly, "These pheasants are a bit wild and fierce. Young master, let me take a look at your injury. I have some medicated oil here that I can apply to it for you. It's very effective."

Xie Qi blew on his fingers and waved his hand dismissively, "It's okay, it'll be fine in a bit."

After all, it was his own fault for touching it, so how can you blame others? Even though it really hurt.

The stall owner breathed a sigh of relief. He had been busy negotiating prices with other customers and hadn't noticed when the two children touched him.

Looking around, the kittens and puppies were all huddled together sleeping in bamboo baskets, while the slightly larger ones were kept in cages.

Xie Ning wasn't very interested in any of these things. She wasn't thinking about getting a pet. She was just looking at the pheasant because she wondered if it would taste good. She planned to ask the kitchen to buy one for her to try in a few days.

Just as Xie Ning was pondering whether to stir-fry or steam/stew, a series of unwilling roars rang out from the front. Many people had gathered around, and the group of people curiously went over to investigate.

It turned out to be several wolf pups locked in a cage, with traces of blood on their bodies, howling at the people around them in a show of bravado.

Its fierce look was feigned; after all, it was still a cub.

"This wolf cub is nice, how much?" Quite a few people were interested, mostly from wealthy families, who were just curious about something new.

A wolf cub howled at Xie Ning, its eyes seemingly pleading, but Xie Ning didn't look at the wolf. Instead, she focused on applying medicine to Xie Qi with a small jar.

Xie Wangzhi and his men took one look and left. After all, his family would never waste money buying wolves. Wolves are wild and difficult to tame, and it would be bad if they hurt someone.

Continuing forward, at the second and third gates, there were stalls selling daily necessities. Several women loved browsing these stalls; the goods here were not only diverse but also reasonably priced, much cheaper than in stores.

Chen Wanniang led Xie Ning toward the stall selling hair ornaments, while Grandmother Xie and Xie Yun looked toward the porcelain stall.

Although there are many open-air stalls here, they are arranged very neatly and orderly, with colorful tents set up on them, creating a bustling scene at a glance.

Xie Qi's gaze was fixed on the bow and sword stall and couldn't be taken away. "Father, I want to buy a bow. Look, I've improved by five places in the archery competition this time. If I had a good bow, I'm sure I could improve even more!"

The bow and arrows are especially beautiful!

Xie Ning silently turned his head. Did Xie Qi's advancement of five places mean that he climbed from the bottom to the fifth from the bottom?

"This bow is no good. If you want a better one, your father will have it made for you." Xie Wangzhi couldn't bear to look at it. The bows on the stall, aside from being somewhat nice, would probably break after only a few arrows...

Showy but impractical!

Xie Qi looked dejected.

Xie Ning spotted Chen Yunsheng, who was selling cotton cloth at a stall with Deng Yin.

They were initially considering adding some brocade and gauze to their product line, but to maintain their uniqueness, they focused on selling cotton fabrics.

This also means not competing with others for business.

After all, there are quite a few people selling cotton cloth in this city. Recently, Chen Wanniang and Chen Yunsheng have been tentatively making connections with other cloth shops.

Xie Ning took out a small coin from her purse. It was a small ingot of silver, which was neither her red envelope money nor her allowance, because her parents had kept all her red envelope money, and her allowance was either in the hands of Granny Zhang or Qingli.

She got the money from massaging the back of an elderly woman who came to the pharmacy on the second floor. She was doing this as a learning activity, but the patient didn't appreciate it and insisted on giving her the money, so she quietly kept it.

But her family knew about it, yet they didn't ask her for the money. They just wanted to test whether Xie Ning could take the money herself.

"Sister Deng Yin, could you help me buy a small bow from that stall later?"

"good."

Deng Yin smiled and then gave Xie Ning a small bag of the candied fruit she had bought, saying, "These are candied fruit from Meng's shop; they're very delicious."

"Thank you, Sister Deng Yin."