Yunling and Lu Yinghuai knew that Cui Yan'er was also present that day, so even if something happened to Pei Lin, someone would take care of him, and they weren't too worried.
Yunling hadn't expected Pei Linzhen to have those kinds of feelings for her. No, no, she had thought about it long ago, but now that she recalled it, every time she asked him, every time she spent with him, he denied it. So over time, those feelings faded away.
They are suitable to be close friends, but only as close friends.
Time flies, and spring is here in the blink of an eye.
Accompanied by Lu Yinghuai, Yunling went to the Bianxi Salt Bureau. The Salt Bureau covered a large area, but it was not as exquisite as Yunling had imagined. Most of the stalls were open-air. It was early spring and there was continuous drizzle. The dust could not be stirred up, but there were puddles of mud and water, making it very troublesome to walk.
"Second brother, look, walk like I do, so you won't splash mud and sand on your heels or get your shoes wet."
Yunling watched his gait and couldn't help but chuckle:
"I don't want to. If it gets dirty, I'll just wash it. You look like a toad that can waddle around like that. It's so ugly."
"A toad walking in a figure-eight pattern?"
Lu Yinghuai immediately stopped in his tracks, turned around, and frowned slightly, seemingly in disbelief.
“But Minniang taught me that walking like this is cool.”
Yunling burst into laughter at the thought that it was Lu Jiamin's doing. She never expected that Lu Jiamin would trick her own brother. But then she envied the relationship between the Lu siblings. However, she only envied them for a moment before thinking of Yun Chu. She had an older sister and she could be close to each other.
Seeing Yun Ling laugh, Lu Yinghuai was instantly infected by her smile and laughed along with her.
The two walked in laughing, their pants getting all dirty from the splashes of mud and sand, but they didn't care at all. They just kept looking left and right, and occasionally stealing glances at each other.
Despite the rainy weather, there were still quite a few merchants trading in the tax office, and they traded a wide variety of goods. In Yunling's eyes, it could be described as a "miniature Xiangguo Temple".
As her gaze swept outwards, she spotted a familiar face: Ma Mu, a merchant who traded with the Western Xia.
At the same time, Ma Mu, who had just finished his previous wool transaction, also had sharp eyes and spotted Yun Ling at a glance. He quickly called out to her:
"Hey, we meet again."
Because of her business acumen, Yunling always adhered to the saying, "Leave a way out for everything, so you can meet again in the future." Therefore, she greeted him warmly.
"Uncle Cai, you're here too."
When Ma Mu saw Yun Ling greeting him, he naturally became more friendly in return.
"Hey, didn't you say you wanted to buy wool last time? I have some new stock here, do you want to take a look?"
How much does it cost?
“Take a look. My wool is better than what other merchants in the tax office sell. This shepherd has a long-term cooperative relationship with me, and I get the wool directly from the source.”
Yunling nodded absentmindedly and asked again:
"How much is it? Six hundred cash a catty is really a bit much for me. I was thinking of coming to the tax office to take another look. If there are any good ones, I'll buy them right away."
Ma Mu rolled his eyes inwardly. He hadn't forgotten what Liu Erlang had said last time. This woman had 20,000 copper coins on her, so 600 coins a pound of wool was nothing to her.
Who would have thought she would be so calculating, finding the cost of six hundred coins per pound of wool too much? Tch, who are you trying to fool? Do you really think he's a three-year-old?
However, business people are always calculating. They often consider it a profit if they manage to cut a single coin in a discount, and they take pride in it. He understands, he understands.
Ma Mu rubbed his hands together. Although it was early spring, the weather was still a bit chilly in the mornings and evenings. He wanted to sell everything as soon as possible so he could get some rest.
"Well then, you're in business too, so you must know the principle of 'you get what you pay for.' If you find the wool at 600 cash a catty too much, why don't you take a look at these? They're 550 cash a catty, which is a low price for our customs office."
Yunling raised an eyebrow and leaned forward. As Ma Mu opened the wool bag, a strong smell of sheep dung wafted towards her.
Yunling felt a little embarrassed to cover her nose, so she had to hold her breath a little. She was quite sure that what she had just smelled was sheep dung, not the smell of sheep mutton or sheep grass.
It looks fine on the surface, and the wool is very clean and neat, but Yunling always felt that there was sheep droppings in the bag. Firstly, it could weigh the wool, and secondly, this kind of wool was cheaper to buy, which was a win-win situation.
She naturally looked down on him, but seeing that Ma Mu's attitude had cooled down as he bargained, Yunling didn't know why, but she felt it was inappropriate to keep refusing this kind of person, lest things really get ugly later and everyone would look bad.
Yunling was in a dilemma, regretting not bringing Gangzi along today. Just as she was thinking about how to get out of this predicament, Lu Yinghuai pulled her aside. His voice was very restrained, and his hand unconsciously brushed against his nose as he said:
"I saw Uncle Zhao."
Where?
Yunling immediately averted her gaze from the wool and looked in the direction Lu Yinghuai had indicated. She immediately spotted Zhao Huasheng, but she couldn't pretend she saw him, so she simply said:
"I can't see it, are you seeing things?"
Lu Yinghuai immediately understood Yunling's meaning. He grabbed Yunling's shoulder with one hand and pushed her forward, pointing ahead with the other and saying:
"Hey, isn't that Uncle Zhao?"
"No way, Uncle Zhao doesn't look like that."
"Well, I meant that one."
"..."
The two of them chatted back and forth, speaking slowly but moving quickly. In no time, they slipped away from Ma Mu's stall. By the time he realized what was happening, they were already far away.
Upon seeing Zhao Huasheng, Yunling excitedly exclaimed,
"Uncle Zhao, it's great to finally see you."
Zhao Huasheng scratched the back of his head, puzzled:
"I'm not that hard to find. Since we agreed to meet at the Salt Administration Office in the spring, you can come without worry. I promise you won't have made a wasted trip."
The moment Yunling saw Zhao Huasheng, her heart calmed down, and now, hearing his words, her heart finally felt at ease.
"Uncle Zhao is right. But where is the wool?"
"I don't know if you're really coming or not. I'll just leave you there. Go take a look now. If you think the wool is good, we can make a deal, and you can take the wool away today."
Yunling nodded repeatedly, like a chicken pecking at rice. She casually untied a bag of wool. The bag had a smell, but it wasn't unpleasant. She reached inside...
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