Chapter 17
Tang Town is inconspicuous in the entire Dazhao, but it is much more prosperous than Lujia Village, which is surrounded by mountains on three sides.
There are more than twenty villages around Tang Town. Most of the villagers have to go to the town for business. In addition, there are occasional passing merchants. Although the town is small, it has everything you need for food, clothing, housing and transportation.
As soon as you enter the town, you can see vendors along the street. If you want to go to restaurants, pubs, shops, etc., then continue walking in and pass the outermost circle of Tang Town, which is where the people in the town live.
But even this circle of vendors on the periphery was enough to make Lu Shang and Jiang Wanning dazzled.
It’s just that the curiosity of the two people did not come from the same source.
Lu Shang had never seen an ancient street market before, so everything he saw was hazy, and he unconsciously compared it with the ones he was familiar with.
Jiang Wanning had lived in the capital for more than ten years, the most prosperous place in the entire Dazhao. Everything she saw was good stuff. Even the jewelry stall set up by an old man outside the city was much more exquisite than those sold in the shops in Tang Town.
Even though she had experienced poverty during her exile, this was the first time she had been so close to the lives of ordinary people.
She could tell the fruits on the ground were fresh and that the pork bones at the butcher's stall were valuable, but she couldn't understand why a few girls on the street would fight endlessly over a crudely made butterfly hairpin. The hairpin vendor kept raising the price: "Ladies, now I want one tael of silver... now I want three taels..."
Seeing her looking back frequently, Lu Shang slowed down his pace. After seeing clearly what she was paying attention to, he couldn't help but ask, "Do you like it too?"
"Huh?" Jiang Wanning was stunned. After coming to her senses, she unconsciously expressed her confusion, "...I don't understand."
Lu Shang listened to her patiently without showing any impatience. Especially when he looked into her penetrating eyes, he found her even more adorable.
Lu Shang asked with a smile, "Then are the many jewellery you bought before worth that price?"
Jiang Wanning thought about it seriously: "If we only consider the workmanship and materials, it's not worth it. But if we add the reputation of the workshop, there will still be many people scrambling to buy it."
Lu Shang said, "That's right."
"Look at that hairpin. It's crudely made, but in the eyes of the people in Tang Town, it's already a rare and fine item. They can't get better quality products, and the butterfly hairpin that is so coveted is as famous in Tang Town as a workshop is in the capital."
Jiang Wanning seemed to be lost in thought, but after a moment she grabbed Lu Shang's sleeve.
"how?"
Jiang Wanning's eyes sparkled, with a smirk on her lips. She whispered, "I can also make hairpins and rings, and I'm much better than them. Once I become famous, can I also sell them for a lot of money?"
As she finished speaking, Lu Shang could no longer hold back and patted her shoulder while laughing out loud.
Passersby cast surprised glances at him. Jiang Wanning was even more afraid that he was ill, and a trace of worry appeared in her eyes: "Lu Shang..."
Until Lu Shang laughed enough, he wanted to pinch Jiang Wanning's face, but thinking of the difference between men and women, he had to endure it.
He praised her generously, "I underestimated Aning. She knows much more than I thought."
"Of course, I'll find the materials for you later. Do you want good wood, jade, or gold, silver, or something else? Once the jewelry is made, sooner or later, Aning's jewelry will become the most popular in Tang Town."
Jiang Wanning smiled sheepishly: "It doesn't have to be the most popular, as long as it can be sold..."
Lu Shang just smiled, but he couldn't help but sigh in his heart.
It was not until this moment that he clearly realized that although women in ancient times had many restrictions, they had learned and mastered far more than he had imagined. Even the fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl in front of him brought him too many surprises.
Lu Shang had only two purposes for this trip. One was to check out the stalls selling braised dishes, and the other was to learn about the profitable businesses in the town.
Now add another thing: go to the jewelry store to take a look at the popular styles in Tang Town, and buy a box of hand cream for Jiang Wanning.
As for what he said about buying paper and ink with his family, he had completely forgotten about it as soon as he got off the ox cart.
Lu Shang asked Jiang Wanning what she meant, "I was thinking of walking around town now, looking at all the streets, finding a place to eat at noon, and then buying some food to take home when it's not so hot in the afternoon. Is that okay?"
Jiang Wanning said obediently, "I will listen to my husband."
Lu Shang asked around and finally found out the location of the braised food stall.
But before he could go there, his attention was attracted by a letter-writing stall on the street.
It’s not entirely accurate to say it was a stall. It should be said that it was an old woman kneeling in front of the stall and begging.
The old woman had gray hair and her clothes were covered in patches. She clasped her hands together and kept bowing to the scholar in green behind the stall: "Master, please help me, please help me——"
Lu Shang listened attentively and realized that the old woman had been begging here for a long time.
Her old man was dying, and before he died he only asked to see his son who had gone far away to the north. They searched the whole house but only found eight cents. In desperation, she had to kneel down and beg, her voice hoarse from crying.
But the letter writer didn't even spare her a glance. He sat firmly behind the table, watching the crowd around him, and said, "Letter writing for me, one word, two cents."
Two cents for one character, and with the copper coins the old woman brought, she could only write four characters at most.
While Lu Shang was shocked by the price of the letter, his mind started working quickly.
Just as passersby were about to plead for the old woman, they heard a clear voice from the back of the crowd: "There's a cheap ghostwriting service here. Grandma, would you like to try it?"
The old woman paused in her crying and turned around slowly, with tears still on her face.
Lu Shang smiled and pointed at Jiang Wanning, "I'm a scholar from Lujia Village. I brought my wife to Tang Town today. It just so happens that my wife can read a few words. Grandma, why don't you try it with my wife?"
As soon as these words were spoken, the crowd around them suddenly became noisy.
Some people questioned his status as a scholar, and more people expressed their distrust of Jiang Wanning.
"That little girl? She looks so thin and small, not very old, how could she know how to read?"
"Grandma, don't be fooled. It's just a few cents, but what you wrote here is absolutely correct. If you give it to that girl, who knows what it will look like..."
"How can a woman read? Don't listen to his nonsense!"
Hearing the contemptuous words in her ears, Jiang Wanning's face turned pale.
Lu Shang felt uncomfortable listening to this, but he didn't argue with anyone in public. He just took a few steps forward and helped the stiff old woman up. "How about this, grandma, you can ask my wife to write a letter first. After you finish writing it, you can ask someone else to review it. If it's good, you can pay me. If you're not satisfied, I won't take a penny."
He looked clean and spoke slowly and steadily, which made people like him more easily. His behavior of writing first and paying later gave the old woman peace of mind.
At some point, the chatter in the crowd died down.
The old woman looked at Jiang Wanning from a distance. After a while, she said in a trembling voice, "Good girl, can you help me..."
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