Chapter 9: Prices are really high
Towards evening, Old Man Ye and his son finally returned.
The two men were sweating and had worried looks on their brows.
Old Mrs. Ye was stunned when she saw Ye Daquan still holding the bag of rice: "Can't return it?"
"Yeah." Old man Ye responded sullenly.
He sat on a small stool, taking off his shoes and saying, "The female shopkeeper of the rouge shop was kind-hearted and gave us a refund. But the grain shop..."
"Humph, they said we made the rice dirty and refused to return it. We asked to switch to brown rice, but they were unwilling to do so," Ye Daquan said angrily.
Old Mrs. Ye, Mrs. Wei and others were so depressed that they almost cried when they thought that there were only ten days of food left at home.
In this way, I won’t be able to pay back the money! One month later, I have to pay back an extra 120 cents!
This white rice is delicious, but it’s not filling enough to satisfy your hunger!
Old Mrs. Ye wanted to blame Ye Daquan, but when she thought that this was all caused by Ye Caiping, she would be ashamed if she scolded her daughter, so she kept silent.
The entire Ye family was suddenly shrouded in sorrow.
Ye Caiping stepped forward and said, "Today is August 21st, and it will be the Double Ninth Festival in half a month. At that time, every household will use some white rice to pay tribute to their ancestors. Let's reduce the price by one cent and ask every household. I believe that no matter how poor, everyone will buy one or two taels of white rice."
As soon as these words were spoken, the eyes of everyone in the Ye family lit up.
Ye Daquan said: "My little sister is still smart."
Ye Erquan thought for a moment, "Aren't prices going to go up during the festival? Why don't we lower the price by a penny? Why don't we wait for half a month, when the price of rice has gone up, and then raise the price by a few pennies?"
Ye Caiping was so angry that she laughed: "If I ask you to raise the price, how much can you raise it? At most, it can be three or four cents per catty, but then we won't be able to pay it back. The interest of four cents a day is 60 cents in half a month. You only have 13 catties of rice here, I'm afraid you can't even make 60 cents."
When everyone heard this, they thought it made sense.
Ye Erquan was still counting on his fingers, and Old Man Ye said, "Stop making trouble. Let's sell all the rice quickly. It's the right thing to do to pay off the debt tomorrow."
"That's right." Ye Daquan glared at Erquan.
Old Man Ye put on his muddy shoes again and turned to leave the house.
…
Old Man Ye asked Ye Lizheng to borrow a small scale, and followed Ye Caiping's method to ask each household.
It doesn’t matter if everyone doesn’t eat well during the festival, but white rice is a must to honor our ancestors.
The villagers also knew that the price of rice would go up during the festival, and now when they heard Old Man Ye say that it would be one cent cheaper, they were all willing to buy it.
A curious villager asked, "Why did your family suddenly buy more than ten kilograms of rice? You kept it after buying it, why are you selling it now? And you're even selling it for a penny less."
Old Man Ye looked embarrassed: "Who can afford to eat white rice in this year. But as everyone knows, Caiping was injured, and the doctor asked her to eat better. We will buy ten kilograms of rice."
"But she recovered so quickly that she said she didn't want to eat it anymore and insisted that we sell it."
The villager was surprised when he heard this: "Cai Ping is so sensible?"
Ye Caiping's work is famous throughout the village.
Old man Ye looked embarrassed and said nothing more. He weighed out two taels of rice and gave it to the villager.
Each family bought two taels, some bought three or four taels, or even one or two catties. Soon, in less than an hour, the thirteen catties of rice were sold out.
The last two kilograms were bought by Ye Lizheng when the scale was returned.
Ye Lizheng had just paid the money, but he put the bag of rice on the table and pushed it in front of Old Man Ye.
"Village head, what are you doing..." Old man Ye was stunned.
"Isn't Caiping injured? Take this rice back and let her eat it to replenish her body." Ye Lizheng said.
Old Man Ye was both grateful and helpless, and said with a wry smile: "No need. The family already owes you enough. And what happened today was all because of Bai Mi."
As he spoke, Old Man Ye explained the whole story.
Ye Lizheng was speechless for a moment: "This encyclopedia... Alas."
"A woman's body cannot be damaged." At this time, the headman's wife came out of the room.
"If you take this rice back, I'm afraid it will cause trouble again. How about this, I will make a bowl of rice porridge for Fubao every morning to nourish his stomach. I will also make an extra bowl, and you can ask Caiping to come and eat it around noon every day."
Ye Li, holding a pipe in his mouth, nodded.
Fubao is their only grandson. He has a bad stomach. The doctor has told him that he must eat a bowl of rice porridge every morning to keep himself healthy.
Old Man Ye's eyes were slightly red: "This... our family hasn't paid you back the money we owe you."
"Alright, alright, we're brothers, why bother with so much?" Ye Lizheng waved his hand, "You're all hardworking people, you can always pay it back."
Old Man Ye was filled with shame, but thinking of his daughter who was still injured, he nodded: "Thank you for your help."
…
After returning home, Old Man Ye and his family began to count copper coins.
Thirteen pounds of white rice, after the price reduction, is 19 wen per pound, a total of 247 wen.
Rouge costs 120 wen, for a total of 367 wen.
Because of two sweet-scented osmanthus candies and one cent less per pound of white rice, he was short of 33 cents.
Old Lady Ye said, "There is still today's interest of 4 wen, and I still need 37 wen."
Old Man Ye said, "We can make up for it tomorrow by selling the firewood."
Ye Caiping secretly smacked her lips in amazement. This white rice is so expensive? It costs 20 cents per pound!
However, considering that the per-acre yield was low in ancient times and that this year is a disaster year, the high grain prices are understandable.
And that was white rice. The staple food for ordinary people is brown rice, while white rice, also called polished rice, is the food of rich people.
"Cai Ping, take your household registration book to the village head's house tomorrow to change your household registration." Old Man Ye looked at her, "Go at 7:00 p.m.! They are free then."
"good."
It just so happened that she had something to ask the head of the village.
At this time, the three Ye Yong brothers came back. Ye Yong and Ye Xuan each carried a small bundle of firewood, while Ye Peng only had half a bundle.
As the weather turns cooler, villagers rush to collect firewood to burn themselves or sell for money. There is not enough dry firewood on the mountain.
Wei and Yinhua quickly set the table.
It’s still the radish and rice bran porridge for lunch.
Old Mrs. Ye is in charge of the distribution. She scooped a big bowl of thick brown rice porridge for Ye Caiping, while the porridge for the rest of the people was so thin that you could see your reflection in it.
"Caiping is recuperating from illness, so she needs to eat more." Old Mrs. Ye added.
No one had any objection, except Ye Jinhua who snorted.
Ye Caiping didn't say anything. After all, she was really a wounded person and needed nutrition.
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