20 Preparation before leaving
Early the next morning, the family of three arrived at their grandfather's house in He Village.
Wan Changsheng discussed the matter with his father-in-law and elder brother-in-law in the main hall.
They were both excited that their daughter had encountered such a good thing.
"Father-in-law, big brother, Mei Niang and I will go and confirm with the eldest master today and change the donkey cart to a mule cart, otherwise we won't be able to move our belongings.
Ping'an knows a lot of medicinal herbs, so I asked him to take the brothers up the mountain to identify them. Normally, he can earn at least two taels of silver a month. If he encounters more precious ones, the income will be higher. To be honest, Ping'an and I have earned a lot this month.
But there is one thing I must say first. You all don't have much skills, so you can only collect herbs in the shallow mountains. You must never go into the deep mountains.
There are snakes and insects in spring, so you have to tie your trouser legs tightly. I brought all the snake and insect medicines from home, which is quite a lot.
In autumn, my wife and I will come over and teach you how to identify autumn medicines."
He Zilin was delighted: "Then we will just bear with it. It's good to earn an extra pound a month. My father and I, three of us, don't have any skills, so this is like having skills."
Old Man He nodded and said, "Just go to the county town. If you leave early, you can pick a mule first. Don't worry, I will never tell anyone about this."
Wan Changsheng also meant the same thing. He hurriedly called his wife over and gave Ping'an some detailed instructions. No matter how steady the child was, he still felt a little uneasy if he didn't follow him.
After Changsheng and his wife left the house, He Zilin, his son and his two sons quickly ate a bowl of rice, each carrying a backpack, and walked towards the back mountain with Xiao Ping'an.
Ping An can only teach for two days, and the time is really not enough.
Speaking of Wan Changsheng, he arrived at the county town an hour and a half later, and the first thing he did was to go to the market to exchange his donkey cart for a mule cart.
Mei Niang was reluctant to go with them as she also had a lot of things to make, so the two of them agreed that no matter who finished first, they would just wait at the market entrance and try to keep it within an hour because they still had to go to Baicaotang.
The couple hurriedly parted ways, and Mei Niang went directly to the clothing store. She had two new sets of summer shirts for her son, but she only had one good set of spring and autumn jackets, which was made for her wedding. Now it was too late to make one for herself, so she had to at least buy another set, which she had to wash and change.
She didn't plan to buy cotton clothes. When she arrived at the village, she had nothing to do except growing vegetables, so she made some autumn and winter clothes for her family of three.
Now she is debt-free and has her husband to support her family. She is no longer an orphan and a widow living in misery. She does not want her family of three to be in rags anymore. Many people in the world respect the clothes first and then look at the person, and she does not want to lose face.
The most important thing is that her husband gave all the money to her and repeatedly told her not to save too much money. Now, not counting his son's money, they have 80 taels of savings.
But today it might cost more than fifteen taels.
The moment she stepped into the clothing shop, Mei Niang was slightly startled.
This clothing shop is not small, with three storefronts. One side sells ready-made clothes, and the other side sells cloth. It is much larger than the cloth shop in town.
As soon as the female shopkeeper saw someone coming in, she greeted them warmly. There has been little business since the store opened today, and she was already a little anxious.
"Does this sister want to buy some cloth?"
Mei Niang said openly, "Well, I want to buy a jacket for my son. He will be eight years old soon. Is there any shopkeeper? How is the price of thick winter cloth now? If it is cheaper, I will buy two pieces and make it slowly in advance. If it is more expensive, I will not buy it for the time being.
Thick cloth is generally much more expensive than thin cloth in winter. It’s already the end of April, and some stocks are cleared out at this time every year.
The shopkeeper smiled and said, "Sister, look, these are boys' jackets. I'm going to collect them in a few days and sell them in the fall. A set of jackets for a boy of seven or eight years old costs half a bolt of cloth, plus the labor cost, 240 coins per set. I'll give you 20 coins off, how about 220 coins?"
Mei Niang touched the clothes carefully and found that two hundred and twenty wen was indeed a bargain. A piece of fine cotton cloth cost three hundred wen, and a child would not need half a piece of cloth for a set of clothes. However, the padded jacket had two layers of cloth, which was a waste of material.
Think about it, she picked out two sets for her son, one for autumn and the other one which is much larger and can be worn over a cotton coat in winter, as the winters here are still very cold.
After choosing the clothes, he asked for two pairs of shoes. The child followed the master and would definitely run around, so it would be inconvenient to ask the master to buy them.
After selecting these, she asked the shopkeeper how much the thick cloth sold for.
The female shopkeeper smiled before she spoke: "Look, the thick cloth is all here. My cloth is good. I sold it for 400 coins a piece before. You can give me 350 coins. I am really losing money at this price."
Mei Niang smiled but said nothing. She would not lose anything, she would just make less money. In the past, when she bought thick cloth, she could bargain for the price. Usually, one piece was around three hundred and eighty coins.
Since it’s three hundred and fifty coins, let’s get two horses.
The price of cotton is a bit low at this time. The new cotton will be out in August. The cotton production in the Zhou Dynasty is not high. The price of cotton is almost two hundred coins per catty, so most people buy as little as possible. It is also possible to dismantle and refurbish old cotton clothes, but the warmth retention is much worse.
Today cotton costs 150 cents, so she simply asked for 20 kilograms, enough for the three of them. She will also make a set for her parents in the second half of the year.
The shopkeeper's smile became even more genuine. It was surprising that a country lady like her could actually be so generous when it came to buying things.
"Let me do the math for you. The clothes are 440 wen, the shoes are 80 wen, the cloth is 700 wen, and the cotton is 3 liang. The total is 4 liang, 220 wen. If I sell these scraps of cloth, they can still be worth 20 wen. I'll give them to you today. You can go back and mend them."
While Mei Niang was picking things out, she pulled out a bag of cloth from under the counter. She thought that people who could buy so many things at one time could be given some small benefits.
Mei Niang was delighted when she saw it, as she thought that this big bag of cloth could be used to do many things.
She is not very good at embroidery, but she is okay at needlework and is good at making clothes and shoes.
She paid the money and thanked the female shopkeeper. She had a lot of things in her hands and didn't plan to buy anything else. She felt a pang in her heart when she paid the bill just now.
It's more than four taels, and many families can't afford to save that much in a year. Before in Changjia Village, she and her son could only pay off two taels of debt a year.
It took a lot of time to buy these things, so she simply carried the things to the market entrance.
On this side, Wan Changsheng had just completed a transaction. He sold the mule and the cart for ten taels, which was a very good price. He also picked out a three-year-old mule.
The mule had just reached adulthood and would be useful for at least a dozen years. He was satisfied with every aspect of the process. The only thing that made him dissatisfied was that the mule weighed twenty-two taels, and a better carriage would weigh twenty-five taels.
They took twenty taels of silver with them when they went out today, and his wife put five taels on her, so he had fifteen taels of silver, so there was not a penny left.
After much persuasion from Wan Changsheng, the other party only agreed to give him a whip, which normally cost less than a hundred coins.
He felt unhappy because he didn't get a good price, but time didn't allow him to take his time to choose, as he had to take everything in the house with him the day after tomorrow.
Quarter of an hour later, Wan Changsheng drove a brand new mule cart out of the market gate. By then, Mei Niang had been waiting for a while.
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