Chapter 201 Return with a Full Load
The house rented to the outsider is located at the end of the village. There are three old courtyards. The outer wall of one courtyard is already dilapidated, but the mulberry tree in the courtyard is growing quite well, with a trunk as thick as a bowl, umbrella-like branches, dense green mulberry leaves, and mulberry fruits in a variety of green, red and purple colors. Each tree revitalizes a courtyard, and this old and dilapidated courtyard has regained its vitality.
"A few caravans came to stay for a while in the spring. Since they left, no one has lived here. There's dust in the house. Please clean it up." The owner said to Sui Yu, and then asked, "How long have you been living here?"
"I'll be staying for four or five days and then leaving." Sui Yu took a quick look around and asked, "How much is it per night?"
"One cent, one courtyard, three rooms. How many courtyards do you want to rent?"
Sui Yu raised three fingers, indicating that Gan Dan should take the money.
"Pay five days' rent first. If you don't leave after five days, I'll ask someone to deliver the rent to you." Sui Yu said.
The homeowner took the money and left, saying before leaving: "You can eat as many mulberries as you want in the yard. You can only pick the fruits, not break the branches."
"My lady, please sit under the tree and take a rest. We will go into the house to wipe the dust." Sancao pulled a rag off the camel's back.
The male servants unloaded the silk and wooden boxes from the camels, the female servants wrapped their headscarves around their heads and went to clean the house, and Song Xian asked her servants to go out and fetch water. It was already past noon, and everyone was still hungry.
Sui Yu walked to the mulberry tree to pick mulberries. It was an old mulberry tree, and the fruits were big and sweet. With a gentle pinch, the purple-red juice flowed down the fingertips to the palm, leaving a dark mark.
Song Xian pinched mulberries and painted her nails, then suddenly said, "Mulberry juice can also be used to dye cloth."
"Well, haven't you noticed that this village grows a lot of hemp? And the woman just now, her linen skirt is bright light purple. They must be weaving, dyeing and sewing the cloth themselves." Sui Yu was tired of looking up, so she leaned against the tree with a bowl full of mulberries to rest.
"The people in this village live a prosperous life. Women wear silk skirts, children wear shoes, and men rarely go shirtless." Song Xian blew on her nails and continued, "West of Nanshan, including the four counties west of Hexi, there are many barefoot children. Women cut trousers to make it easier to work and save cloth."
Sui Yu nodded.
"The interior of the country is still rich." Song Xian sighed.
When smoke rose from the kitchen, the male servants took the camels out to graze. Xiao Chunhong called two people to come and clean the yard, as there was camel shit in the yard.
After the yard was cleaned, Sui Yu took out six wooden boards and laid them on the ground, then covered them with linen. She placed the picked mulberries on them one by one to dry in the sun.
"I don't know if it can be dried after five days of sun exposure." Sui Yu muttered.
"It can be dried in the sun. Even if a person stands in the sun for five days without eating or drinking on a hot day, it will still dry up." Song Xian looked at her fingertips carefully and said unsatisfiedly, "Mulberry juice doesn't look good on nails. The color is too dark."
Sui Yu glanced at her hand, then continued picking mulberries with the bowl in hand.
When the meal was ready, Sui Yu jumped down from the tree and carefully placed the mulberries, each as big as a fingertip, on the linen cloth.
Song Xian looked at it and shook her head. She tilted her head and said to Xiao Chunhong, "Look at your wife. She's so meticulous. She doesn't even take this much care of her own food and drink."
"My wife misses her little one," said Xiao Chunhong. "Won't you bring some mulberry fruits back home for the child?"
"I have your wife here. When she dries it, just give me a bag."
"None of them are yours. They are all for my children." Sui Yu immediately refused, "If you want them, pick them and dry them yourself."
Song Xian made a "tsk" sound.
A bowl of mulberries was neatly arranged, and Sui Yu took the bowl to the kitchen to get some rice.
"Let's go to the village and buy two chickens in the afternoon. We'll stew a pot of chicken in the evening and I'll treat you to a meat dish." Song Xian said to Sui Yu.
"Even if I eat the chicken, I won't give you even a single dried mulberry." Sui Yu was very alert.
Song Xian rolled her eyes.
"Mr. Song, I'll help you pick and dry the mulberries." Xiao Chunhong looked flattering.
Song Xian waved her hand and said, "Forget it, I'll do it myself so I don't get outdone by others."
Sui Yu curled the corners of his mouth.
After a meal that was neither noon nor late, the servants went out to collect firewood and grass. Sui Yu and Song Xian took four servants to guard the house. There were silks and money boxes in the house, so they dared not leave.
After all the mulberries on the old mulberry tree were picked, half of the yard was spread out to dry. The first bowl of mulberries dried had already wilted and shrunk a lot in size.
When the sun set, before the dew fell, Sui Yu took out his money and went out to the village to buy a piece of undyed white linen to cover the mulberries.
"What's the price?" Song Xian asked.
"One hundred and twenty coins, the same price as cloth in Chang'an."
"It's still cheaper. You bought a lot of cloth in Chang'an, so she only gave you 120 coins per piece."
Sui Yu nodded and said, "Next time I come, I'll go directly to Taiyuan County to buy cloth. By the way, when I went to buy cloth, I saw that the woman was still weaving silk. It was very shiny. Would you like to buy a few feet for your daughter to make handkerchiefs or underwear?"
Song Xian lowered her eyes and sipped it, then asked, "Do you want to buy it?"
Sui Yu nodded. The silk was delicate and smooth, thin and breathable, perfect for making inner clothes. Besides, it was only worn indoors, so no one else would know about it except family members.
"Okay, we'll go buy it together then."
"Boss, we're back." Gan Da came in carrying firewood, a bundle of leeks and three big radishes in his hands.
"Where did it come from?" Sui Yu asked.
"It was given to me by the kid I met when I entered the village. I think his family asked them to deliver it."
With radishes and leeks, along with two large roosters Song Xian had paid for, Sui Yu cooked a pot of radish and chicken. He also chopped up leeks and wrapped them into forty pancakes, flattened them, and steamed them on top of the chicken. He steamed two batches in a row, and by the time the second batch of pancakes was cooked, the chicken had dried out, and the meat and radishes were stewed to a tender tang.
Each person had a piece of bread and two spoons of vegetables. After eating, they boiled water and cooked a pot of fried rice, some dry and some liquid. After eating, they found a place to sleep.
Sui Yu woke up in the middle of the night. She woke up Song Xian and Xiao Chunhong, then went to the next room to call Gan Da and Gan Er. The five of them walked out of the yard with axe in hand and took a walk.
The two men guarding the camel immediately opened their eyes and sat up when they heard footsteps.
"Nothing happening?" Gan Da asked.
"No." Erhei said.
"Be careful. If you feel sleepy, change shifts. Don't doze off while on night watch." Sui Yu reminded.
Erhei agreed and stood up with another person.
After a walk, Sui Yu and Song Xian took everyone back to the house to sleep. They slept through the second half of the night and woke up at dawn.
The millet porridge was already cooked. Sui Yu drank a bowl of it in one gulp, put down the bowl, and took his men to look for Qi Sheng, carrying the cash box.
When they arrived, Qi Sheng's family had just finished their meal. Seeing Sui Yu coming, they didn't say anything and directly took people to the village to ask every household if anyone still had aged mulberry wine.
The older generation had a heavy accent, and Sui Yu couldn't understand many of what they said, so she had to rely on Qi Sheng to explain everything to them.
When the sun rose, Qi Sheng wanted to go home to pick mulberry leaves to feed the silkworms. Sui Yu said, "We have nothing to do these days. I'll ask my people to help you pick mulberry leaves to feed the silkworms."
Qi Sheng hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said, "Okay, you can have your people work at my house, and I'll run errands for you to buy mulberry wine."
Sui Yu didn't mean that. She just felt that she deserved some compensation for her trouble, and since she didn't have anything good to offer, she could only provide labor. Qi Sheng had obviously misunderstood, and Sui Yu didn't explain. She asked Zhang Shun to take someone to send the mulberry wine back. He sent a message to Xiao Chunhong and the others to help at Qi Sheng's house, and then he would bring someone to find her.
Qi Sheng and Sui Yu went door to door in Xiaoqi Village and asked, but they could only buy nine cans of aged wine. However, Xiao Chunhong, Liu Ya and nine others not only picked enough mulberry leaves to feed the silkworms in one day, but also helped pick mulberries from ten mulberry trees, and even picked out the mulberry leaf stems and broken leaves in the silkworm feces.
"Tomorrow I will take you to my wife's parents' home. My father-in-law lives in the mountains. The mulberries ripen late, and the mulberry wine he brews every year cannot be sold out." Qi Sheng said to Sui Yu.
Sui Yu readily agreed.
The next day, Sui Yu took away twenty-two male servants, and Song Xian took her servants and Xiao Chunhong and others to stay in Xiaoqi Village to guard the camel caravan.
Perhaps because there were so many people, or perhaps because the guide was reliable, Sui Yu led everyone to follow Qi Sheng up the mountain, bought mulberry wine and silk, and spent the night on the mountain. Nothing unexpected happened, and the group came down together.
It was already afternoon when they returned to Xiaoqi Village. Song Xian was turning over and drying mulberries in the yard. When she heard Sui Yu's voice, she strode out to greet him.
"Nothing happened?"
"No." Sui Yu smiled, "But I spent all my money after going up the mountain."
"Have you all bought mulberry wine?" Song Xian asked.
Sui Yu shook her head. She pulled Song Xian back to the house and showed her the silk she had bought. The silk cloth was thin and translucent, with a warm color, like the bright white moonlight.
Song Xian touched it once and immediately withdrew her hand because the calluses on her hands would rub the silk cloth into lint.
"Looks good, doesn't it?" Sui Yu pulled the silk cloth over her body and said, "It will definitely keep you cool in the summer."
"How much is one?" Song Xian was more concerned about the price.
"Four hundred and thirty coins a piece, and four hundred and eighty coins a piece of dyed ones. I'll buy four pieces of each," said Sui Yu.
"Cheaper than satin."
"This is plain. Silk has patterns and different weaving methods, so it must be more valuable." Sui Yu rolled up the silk cloth and said, "If you want to buy silk cloth, go buy it today. We will leave tomorrow."
"So urgent? Your mulberries aren't completely dry yet." Song Xian walked out and said, "I'll go ask in the village. I helped a family pick mulberries yesterday. They were a nice family. I'll go ask them if they have any silk cloth."
Sui Yu went out to arrange things. She sent Zhang Shun and two other people to the village to buy bamboo baskets and hay, and Qingshan took people to the village to buy millet and flour.
After dividing the last half box of money, Sui Yu took Xiao Chunhong to find Qi Sheng's wife to dig up mulberry seedlings and ten white silkworms.
The woman sent her son to dig up mulberry trees. She picked out ten large white silkworms, placed them in a broken clay pot, and handed it to Sui Yu, saying, "These are summer silkworms. They'll spin cocoons in about ten days. Don't worry about them while they're spinning. Put a piece of cloth in the pot, and when the moths emerge, they'll lay their eggs. Wait until next spring... I don't know if it's cold where you are, but the mulberry trees will sprout. Hold the silkworm eggs between your body and cover yourself with warmth. The silkworms will hatch."
Sui Yu understood. She had also raised silkworms when she was a child, but when she grew up, she thought silkworms looked scary, so she never touched them again.
Qi Sheng's son also came back. This child was very generous. He dug up four mulberry seedlings that were taller than him and thoughtfully planted them in broken jars filled with soil.
"Next time I come, I'll bring you a wolfskin hat." Sui Yu touched the child's head and promised, "If I hunt a wild wolf, I'll bring you dried wolf meat and a wolfskin coat."
The child's eyes lit up, and he turned around and tried to run out again: "I'll dig two more big trees for you."
"That's enough!" Sui Yu called out to him. Seeing the child continued walking, she quickly shouted, "We can't carry the tree away. It's too heavy."
The child stopped outside the yard.
"Sister-in-law, we are leaving. Come over next time and I will visit you again." Sui Yu said goodbye.
The woman smiled and saw him off as they walked out of the yard. She stood on the road holding her child and watched Sui Yu and his men walk towards the end of the village, holding the mulberry tree.
…
The next morning, the servants tied the bamboo basket they had bought to the camel, padded the basket with hay, and then put the wine jar into the basket.
One camel carried two jars of wine. The first twenty camels carried wine, and the following twenty camels carried empty money boxes, silk, cloth and dry food. They all came on camels, and when they went back, they had goods, so they could only walk.
"We only stayed here for three nights, can the rent be refunded?" Xiao Chunhong suddenly thought of this.
"It's returned. I'll go and get it back." Gan Da continued.
"Is it not difficult for you?" Sui Yu asked.
"No, I used the rent refund to buy four dou of millet from her." Gan laughed.
"Not bad." Sui Yu praised.
It took only seven days to get there and ten days to return. After rushing as fast as they could, at noon on August 20th, Sui Yu led his men into Chang'an City, carrying baskets and exchanging silk for pottery.
As for the twenty pieces of coarse cloth, since the peasant woman refused to exchange silk for cloth, Sui Yu went to the silk shop to sell one and a half pieces of silk, and carried the money box to exchange for the twenty pieces of coarse cloth.
Twenty pieces of coarse cloth could be carried by four camels. Among the nearly two hundred pieces of pottery, the oil cups and pottery bowls did not take up space and could be accommodated in bamboo baskets for wine jars. The remaining forty pottery cauldrons and forty wash basins were tied to the remaining camels.
The return journey became increasingly cold, so Sui Yu asked everyone to carry a large bundle of hay. When everything was ready, she led the team back and set out on the journey home.
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