Xiao Yanyue had never shown any desire for anything before, so her sudden request for two unattractive cotton-padded coats was quite unexpected for Shen Xingmian.

He wasn't a person with excessive compassion; he had seen many poor people along the way, but he hadn't said a word to them, except this time.

Could it be that he knows the woman who sells cotton-padded clothes?

Who else in this world could be related to him? Could it be the Crown Princess's family?

My mother told me that the Crown Princess's father was the Minister of Rites. Although he didn't have much real power, he was still a very prestigious noble family in the capital.

Later, he was framed and while his family was trying to help him, he committed suicide in prison...

It was quite strange that when the Crown Prince and Crown Princess got into trouble, all of her family members disappeared from the capital, and not a single one was even seen in the exile procession.

Could it be that...

Shen Xingmian tentatively asked, "Do you want to buy Daodao yourself, or do you need me to go with you?"

Fearing he might need to speak with that person alone, she considerately prepared to go somewhere else to wait. Just as she was about to take a step, she heard Xiao Yanyue say, "Of course we'll go together. Mianmian doesn't need to avoid anything I do."

Well, okay, since that's the case, she'll just watch along without hesitation.

She secretly observed Xiao Yanyue, wanting to see if his expression would change drastically, after all, there were very few people left in the world who were connected to him.

But it didn't happen.

Xiao Yanyue acted no differently than usual. When talking to that person, she didn't act like she knew him before. She even didn't give him any extra money when buying the cotton-padded coat.

They looked exactly like ordinary buyers.

Even after following him away and continuing forward, Shen Xingmian didn't notice anything amiss.

If I didn't know him so well, I would probably think that he just liked that very ordinary-looking cotton-padded jacket.

But how could that be?

There are plenty of clothes for him at home; we even gave him two sets of thermal underwear. He must be crazy to like this kind of outdated style.

However, Shen Xingmian did not ask any further questions. Instead, she continued walking forward as if nothing had happened, occasionally glancing at the small stalls on the side.

Although she has many gold and jade hair ornaments in her collection, she prefers wooden hairpins when going out in a low-key manner.

She then set her sights on the roadside hair accessory stalls, hoping to find something with a unique design, but after looking around, she still found them all to be quite ordinary.

Finally, they simply looked ahead without any resolution.

They were about to leave the city. Outside the city, there were villagers selling their wares. Shen Xingmian assumed they would only have things like radishes and cabbages, since the storage methods here were rather primitive and there couldn't be anything fresh.

Surprisingly, they discovered that someone was selling frozen pears.

That's amazing! So people already knew about frozen pears so early on.

She quickly pulled Xiao Yanyue to the deserted stall, pointed to the basket, and asked the stall owner, "Auntie, how much are these frozen pears?"

An elderly woman with gray hair had been waiting there for ages without selling a single pear. When someone finally asked, she exclaimed excitedly, "One coin a pound, and I can even give you a little extra!"

Shen Xingmian was utterly stunned. This was too cheap! It was almost like the prices of the 1980s! She had to buy it!

“Okay, I’ll take the whole basket. I’ll give you a few extra coins, and you can have the basket too,” Shen Xingmian said readily.

Actually, she didn't need to buy frozen pears at all; she could easily ripen them in her space. But she happened to come across one, and her desire to shop reached its peak at that moment.

She felt really bad if she didn't spend this little bit of money.

Just as she was getting excited, a woman's voice suddenly came from the side: "These pears are frozen and can't be eaten at all. You old woman tricked a naive young girl into buying them. That's really unethical!"

Seeing that everyone around her was drawn to her words, the old woman was immediately ashamed and wished she could abandon her basket and leave as soon as possible.

If her family hadn't been so desperate for food, she wouldn't have thought of walking such a long way through the mountains to carry out these frozen pears.

Under the condemning gazes of everyone, the old woman burst into tears.

She was just a simple, unsophisticated village woman; she had never seen anything like this before.

If the rest of the village saw this, she'd rather hang herself when she got back. Otherwise, how could she live with people gossiping and cursing her every day?

She opened her mouth, wanting to say something in her defense, but she had no idea what to say.

It was her fault; she was too excited and didn't think about how her family would scold the little girl for buying a basket of bad pears.

She lowered her head, silently bent down, and tried to carry the pear basket home.

Even if they couldn't get any money, they could still make do with what they had to eat, and their little grandson wouldn't starve to death.

well.

Shen Xingmian was about to speak up to explain for her, since it was her own idea to buy it, so how could it be considered a scam? But then the girl who had spoken grabbed her arm.

The little girl wore a pure white rabbit fur cloak, which stood out among the crowd of gray coats.

She was accompanied by a young maid, clearly a pampered young lady from a wealthy family.

Shen Xingmian was a little confused. How could there be a rich young lady in such a remote place? And she was the kind of person who would gladly help those in need.

It looks pretty good.

only……

She quickly explained, "Young lady, you've misunderstood. I was the one who took a liking to the frozen pears and wanted to buy them. The price this lady was asking for was very low, so there was no question of 'cheating' her."

Upon hearing this, the old woman looked up at her in disbelief, wiping away her tears with her sleeve, her eyes filled with excitement and gratitude.

Shen Xingmian smiled reassuringly at her, and then explained to the onlookers, "After these pears are frozen, they are soaked in cold water and slowly thawed. Once you bite into the skin, they are full of sweet juice and are very delicious."

She took a few dark pears from the pear basket and handed one to everyone who was close by, saying enthusiastically, "If you don't believe me, you can try it yourselves when you get home. They're really delicious."

After saying that, he weighed the basket in his hand, estimated its weight, gave the old woman more than twenty copper coins, and explained gently, "Old woman must know this way of eating pears, that's why she came out to sell them. Everyone, please disperse, it's quite cold outside."

After doing all that, she noticed that the righteous young girl was still there. Thinking that the girl didn't believe the frozen pear was delicious, she said warmly, "Thank you for speaking up for me earlier, young lady. Would you like to take a pear home and try it?"

She had already reached out her hand holding the frozen pear, but her hand was suddenly swatted away.

"Who wants to eat your broken pear? My daughter was kindly helping you, and you're ungrateful for it, treating this pile of junk like a treasure."

"Look at your shabby appearance, don't even think about getting close to my young lady!"