Chapter 200 Taiyuan County
Sui Yu didn't want to have her fortune told. She wandered around the fortune-telling shop and then left, standing under the eaves, watching the people passing by. Most of the people entering through Xuanping Gate wore short, coarse cloth jackets, though a few women wore sash-skirted gowns. One of them, a pretty young woman, wore a very elegant sash-skirted gown. The sleeves and collar were black, the rest of the gown was gray-brown linen. Her simple attire, paired with her slender figure, her small steps, the red hairband swaying slightly, perfectly matched Sui Yu's image of a court lady.
Song Xian walked out of the fortune-telling shop. She nudged Sui Yu and asked, "Don't you want to go in and have a fortune told?"
"Not really." Sui Yu retracted her gaze. She did not ask about the result of Song Xian's divination. She walked down the stairs and led her servants to follow the passers-by.
First go to the West Market. Sui Yu looks around as he walks. It's like a flea market with everything: farm vegetables, pots and pans, bamboo baskets and winnowing baskets, bamboo mats and straw mats, coarse linen spun by farmers themselves, or cracked pottery, etc. Anyway, after walking down a street, Sui Yu can find everything he needs in his daily life here.
"How much is a piece of linen?" Sui Yu asked, squatting down.
The peasant woman selling cloth noticed Sui Yu's accent was different, and seeing that she was accompanied by servants, she thought carefully and gave a normal price: "One hundred and thirty coins a piece."
Sui Yu was silent. This price was much cheaper than in Dunhuang, but she had to cross mountains and ridges. If she were a merchant, she felt that the profit from selling a piece of coarse cloth was too low.
"Boss, I'll go ask somewhere else," said Xiao Chunhong.
"Are you merchants?" The peasant woman was surprised, but it didn't concern her. She pulled Sui Yu aside and said, "If you buy more, I can give you another ten cents off."
"How much can you provide? We can only stay in Chang'an for two months at most." Sui Yu said.
"Twenty pieces at most. I'll find some villagers to weave with me."
Sui Yu picked up the cloth and took a look. The linen was rough and had a lot of loose threads, but fortunately it was thick and stiff, washable and durable, making it suitable for people who work.
"Let's go take a look somewhere else." Song Xian said.
"Okay." Sui Yu stood up and said to the peasant woman, "Auntie, let's go shopping again. If we can't find something suitable, we'll come back to you."
"Okay, I'll set up a stall here for the next few days."
Further along, Sui Yu encountered a merchant talking to a vendor selling cracked pottery. She approached him and pretended to pick out some flawed bowls. After the merchant left, she said, "Master Chen, I'd like to buy some pottery from you, too. Please sell it to me at the same price you just gave me."
Sui Yu's voice was soft, and even though her skin had darkened and her appearance had changed due to exposure to wind and sun, anyone who heard her speak could easily tell that she was a woman.
Carpenter Chen glanced at her and said, "I only have a small kiln and can't produce much pottery. I've already sold it to three sellers, so I can't sell any more to you."
"I still have two months before I leave." Sui Yu picked four cracked wine jugs from the stall. It would be no problem to take these things back and fill them with water.
"I bought these four wine jugs. How much are they?" she asked.
"It's not worth much. Two cents will be enough."
Gan Da handed over a hundred copper coins, but held on to the rope tightly. He asked again, "Can we get the pottery out of the kiln before September?"
"How much do you want?" Carpenter Chen asked Sui Yu.
"Forty pottery cauldrons, forty wash basins, one hundred oil cups, and two buckets of bowls." Sui Yu counted. "I don't want much."
Carpenter Chen nodded, did some calculations, and said, "According to the price the merchant just gave me, you'll pay 760 coins. You must come here on August 20th to pick them up. If you don't come by then, I'll sell these things to someone else."
Sui Yu nodded and asked whether he wanted to pay the deposit.
"Just give me a hundred coins. If you regret it halfway, I'll only refund you half."
Sui Yu signaled Gan Da to give the money. She pinched the cracked surface of the wine pot. Unlike the pottery from Dunhuang, the pottery from Chang'an had a smooth and delicate texture. It was easier to sell outside the Great Wall than the coarse pottery.
After deciding on the pottery, Sui Yu and Song Xian continued strolling around. Whenever they came across a cloth stall, they would ask about the price. After comparing several times, they found that the coarse cloth sold by the first peasant woman was the thickest.
At noon, Sui Yu and Song Xian took five servants out of the city gate to have dinner. After dinner, they did not rush back into the city. Instead, they walked around the towering city wall.
"According to what we inquired, this palace is Changle Palace, which is said to be where the Queen Mother lives." Song Xian looked at the magnificent eaves and tiles inside the city wall from afar. They were standing outside the city and could only see the roofs over the city wall.
"It would be great if we could go in and take a look. We walked to the foot of the Imperial City, but couldn't even get through the gate." Song Xian was daydreaming. She shook her head and said jokingly, "Is this how the royal family entertains distant guests? How petty."
Sui Yu slapped her and told her to stop talking nonsense.
After walking half a circle, Sui Yu arrived at the location of Jianzhang Palace. He could vaguely hear the sound of bells and drums from inside the city wall.
After walking around, it was dark, so Sui Yu and Song Xian returned to the farm where they were staying to rest.
The next day, Sui Yu and Song Xian took Qingshan, Zhang Shun and five others into the city and went to the East Market. The East Market had Duolefang, which was a place for dignitaries to enjoy themselves.
Passing by a teahouse, the aroma of tea filled the air, and Sui Yu suddenly thought of the caravan he met on the Nanshan Ancient Road. That caravan probably went to Shuzhong to transport tea.
A horse-drawn carriage came out of the gate, and people on the road all gave way. Sui Yu and Song Xian followed suit. They looked up only after the sound of the wheels faded away.
Song Xian suddenly felt that Chang'an was boring. Apart from people, it was all about power. It was not as free as Dunhuang.
"Are you planning to stay in Chang'an for the next two months?" Song Xian asked.
Sui Yu shook her head. "After I buy silk, cloth, pottery, and lacquerware, I want to go to a few nearby cities. I also want to buy some opera singers. I wonder if I can run into any of them."
"I'll go with you." Song Xian agreed.
This is the plan. Sui Yu has a lot to do. In addition to purchasing goods, she also needs to find out where the caravans coming from outside the pass sell their goods, so that she won't be wandering around like a headless fly next time.
After five days of wandering around the East Market, Sui Yu finally encountered a caravan delivering goods to a silk shop. This caravan came from the south, and Sui Yu was not familiar with them and had no connections to make. She bought six rolls of thin silk for one thousand coins each, which was much cheaper than the silk she bought in Dunhuang, nearly four hundred coins cheaper per roll.
"You made a loss on those two pieces of silk." Song Xian said.
"There's nothing I can do about it. I exchanged money for silk because I was worried about being robbed by bandits on the road. The money box was too heavy to carry, so I can carry the silk with me when I escape." Sui Yu comforted himself.
The cash box was almost empty, so the servants cleaned it out and planned to put the pottery in it before leaving.
The next day, Sui Yu went to the West Market again and ordered twenty rolls of coarse cloth from the peasant woman she had met before, for a total of 2,400 coins. She followed the peasant woman to the village and signed the contract with the village chief, with Sui Yu paying a deposit of 1,000 coins.
Now the only thing left to buy was lacquerware. Sui Yu went to the East Market and found that the painted pottery was very expensive, and the painted wooden products were also very expensive. She didn't like the cheaper ones, and she didn't dare to buy the expensive ones. In the end, she gave up.
With nothing to do for the rest of the time, Sui Yu led the camel caravan with his servants and continued eastward towards Taiyuan County.
"It seems like there's nothing fun to do in Chang'an." Song Xian said.
"Everything fun costs money. I asked you to treat me to the music hall, but you're reluctant to spend the money." Sui Yu complained, "Sister Song, I just realized you're a bit stingy."
"I'll keep the money and go to your teahouse to take care of the business later." Song Xian smiled.
"My teahouse is no match for the ones in Chang'an." Sui Yu tapped his camel's hump and said bitterly, "I can't even find any entertainers to sing operas, and there's no tea to be found. How can I run a teahouse?"
There was an official road from Chang'an to Taiyuan County. Sui Yu and his men followed the official road for seven days and arrived at Taiyuan County at noon.
There are many mulberry trees in Taiyuan, with fields connected to roads and mulberry seedlings growing into forests. It is the end of July, the season when mulberries are ripe. The wind is filled with a sweet smell, and the fallen berries on the ground have dyed the soil, leaving patches of red and purple marks on the black and yellow land.
"Kid, can I pick a bowl of mulberries to eat?" Xiao Chunhong asked the child guarding the tree.
The child nodded. He was busy climbing the tree to pick mulberry leaves.
Xiao Chunhong quickly climbed up a mulberry tree. The mulberries on the tree were ripe and rotten, and they broke into pieces when they were pinched.
Sui Yu sent Zhang Shun to inquire about a place to stay. She walked under the mulberry tree and looked up. The mulberries in the lower part had all been picked.
"Kid, how much are the mulberries?" she suddenly asked.
"No, we're not selling them. We're going to make wine with our mulberries. Just pick a few to quench your thirst." The child jumped down from the tree. He lifted the black cloth covering the basket and poured all the mulberry leaves in his pocket into it.
Sui Yu leaned in to take a look and saw that the basket was full of white silkworms, each one entangled and wriggling. Just one look gave her goose bumps.
The black cloth was put up again, and the child continued to climb the tree to pick mulberry leaves with an empty bag.
"How many silkworms do you have at home?" Sui Yu asked.
"I can't count them all. There are three baskets and four winnowing baskets," the child boasted. He looked at the people under the tree and asked, "Are you here to buy raw silk or wine?"
"Buy them all. Do you have any at home?"
Xiao Chunhong handed over a bowl of mulberries. Sui Yu grabbed a few and fed them into his mouth. They tasted sweet. After he finished eating, he saw that his fingers and tongue were stained.
"The kid will definitely like this. I'm going to dry a can of dried mulberries for him to take back." Sui Yu said to Song Xian.
"Can they be dried? I want to take some back for my kids too." Song Xian squatted down and asked, "Child, can the mulberry seedlings survive in Dunhuang?"
"He died on the way." The child jumped down from the tree again and said to Sui Yu, "Uncle, my parents are at home. If you want to buy mulberry wine and raw silk, go ask them."
Sui Yu told Song Xian something, and she took Gan Da and Gan Er and the child back to the village.
There are sheds in the yards of every household in the village. Under the sheds are wooden racks, and on the racks are round bamboo baskets, which contain white silkworms that eat mulberry leaves.
"Dad, someone wants to buy mulberry wine and raw silk." The child took Sui Yu home and ran away again.
"Brother and sister-in-law, we came from Dunhuang. We first went to Chang'an and then came here." Sui Yuxian introduced herself and took out the "pass" document as proof to avoid suspicion.
Upon hearing this, Qi Sheng and his wife relaxed their guard. Realizing that Sui Yu was a girl, they did not say anything to expose her.
Qi Sheng took out two jars of mulberry wine from his home and said, "The silkworms haven't spun silk yet this year, and last year's silk has all been sold. I'll take you to other families later to ask. These two jars of wine were brewed last year, and this year's mulberry wine hasn't tasted good yet. You came at the wrong time."
Sui Yu suddenly realized that it was no wonder that they had not encountered any caravans along the way.
Qi Sheng opened the jar of wine and let Sui Yu see its quality. The wine was purple-red with a hint of black, and its aroma was mixed with sweetness. Sui Yu took a sip and found it tasted better than the Tusu wine or sorghum wine she had drunk in Dunhuang.
"How much is a can of wine?" Sui Yu asked.
"A jar of wine contains three dou, and one dou costs twenty coins," said Qi Sheng.
His price was rather high because this year's new wine had not yet been brewed, but last year's aged wine was particularly popular, hence the high price.
Sui Yu did not bargain. The most throat-spicy sorghum wine in Dunhuang was more expensive than this. She happily bought two cans of mulberry wine for 120 coins.
Zhang Shun heard the noise and came over. He found a place to stay in the village.
"Do you know who still has mulberry wine?" Sui Yu asked Qi Sheng.
"Yes, there will be dew tomorrow morning so you can't pick mulberry leaves. Come find me then and I'll take you there," said Qi Sheng.
Sui Yu thanked him and looked at the squirming white silkworms under the shed. She pleaded, "Brother, could you sell me ten silkworms and a few mulberry saplings? I have a child at home who has never seen these."
"It's just ten silkworms. I'm giving them to you. Come and get them when you leave." Qi Sheng's wife said, "I have a lot of mulberry trees at home. You can dig up a few seedlings when the time comes."
Sui Yu was happy. Later, she sent someone to deliver the four cracked wine jugs she bought in Chang'an. Although the wine jugs had cracks on them, they did not leak water and would not break as long as they were not knocked or dropped.
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