"Mother, you don't need to worry about the money. Don't I have some savings of my own?" Zhen Wanwan confidently assured her.
Old Mrs. Li was displeased: "That's your stingy money, meant to be saved for raising two children, you..."
Zhen Wanwan didn't want to listen to Grandma Li's endless nagging, so she picked up the two children and pulled Grandma Li outside.
"Oh, we don't necessarily have to buy anything. We'll just go out and browse around. If we don't have enough money, I won't buy anything."
Grandma Li thought it made sense, and decided it was better to let her daughter experience the consequences, which might change her mind about buying a car.
Moreover, even for an ordinary family, buying an oxcart was a remarkable feat.
Horse-drawn carriages...that's something only the wealthy can afford.
Grandma Li called Zhen Fugui to go out together again. At this time, he followed his mother and sister, who were turning left and right, completely confused.
If he heard correctly, his sister was asking a passerby where Niuma City was, right?
Why are Mother and Sister asking about this? Could it be that they want to get another animal?
Impossible! Absolutely impossible!
He was not optimistic about his family's financial situation, and thought that his mother and sister might just be there to watch the excitement.
"Hey, didn't Auntie say this way would get us there? Why is it a dead end?"
Grandma Li muttered a few words: "Are you sure you didn't hear me go the wrong way?"
"Absolutely not!"
......
Zhen Fugui followed closely behind the two, wanting to say something, but was always interrupted.
Finally, he couldn't hold back any longer: "Mother, little sister, is this the entrance?"
Zhen Fugui pointed to the opposite.
Zhen Wanwan asked uncertainly, "If it's in the southeast, then it should be..."
"Sigh." Old Mrs. Li said irritably, "I had forgotten that you have a bad sense of direction, just like your aunt."
Zhen Wanwan smiled awkwardly, then asked with some curiosity, "Mom, I've almost forgotten what Aunt looks like. What's her temperament like?"
Upon hearing Zhen Wanwan's question, Old Lady Li fell silent.
After a while, he sighed and said, "Your aunt is very proud. Your father and I arranged a marriage for her before, but she refused to marry him no matter what."
"In the end, she forced us to break off the engagement and went to work as a maid in the county. Unexpectedly, she got engaged herself and married into the county."
Fortunately, the family she went to was kind, and the family she married into was favored by them, so they specially released your aunt and uncle, and the two returned to Qing Shi Town to do some small business.
This was the first time Zhen Wanwan had heard about her aunt's experiences, whom she had never met. She was instantly filled with admiration for her, truly turning a bad hand into a winning one!
All she knew in her memory was that her father and aunt fled to Lijia Village to escape famine, and that her father and mother eventually married and had her and her siblings.
She had hardly heard anything about her aunt's experiences.
However, there was one thing that puzzled her, so she took the opportunity to ask Old Lady Li: "I remember when we were in Li Family Village, Zhang Ergou's mother came to cause trouble."
Finally, Zhang Ergou came to our house and said that since Auntie left, no one is there to support us anymore. What's going on?
And he also has connections with the county magistrate...
Upon hearing this, Old Lady Li awkwardly explained, "Because your cousin married the county magistrate's only son, with that connection, no one in the village dares to mess with our family."
Wow, that's awesome! My aunt is awesome, but my cousin is even more awesome!
One was a woman fleeing famine who married a wealthy man; the other was the daughter of a servant who married the son of an official.
Zhen Wanwan couldn't help but applaud and cheer for them, after all, for women in ancient times, marrying well was the ultimate goal.
Her aunt and cousin are considered exemplary women who "married the right person".
Although she doesn't want to get rich by relying on men, she also doesn't discriminate against women who use marriage as a means to climb the social ladder.
Zhen Wanwan wanted to gossip about her cousin's love story with the son of an official, but she was glared at by Old Lady Li and the matter ended there.
"Didn't you want to see the carriage? Hurry up and go inside."
Before they knew it, they had arrived at Niuma City.
Sure enough, the difference between the prefectural city and remote towns is enormous. Compared to the small and dilapidated cattle and horse market in Qingshi Town, the cattle and horse market in Leling Prefecture is much more upscale.
Zhen Wanwan and the others passed through a gate that could only accommodate one carriage at a time, and inside was an open space resembling a plaza.
The open space was estimated to be about the size of a football field in a school. A high wall was built around the outermost edge, and small huts were built around the open space to keep cattle and horses.
Each cabin had a clearly marked price, and a brief description of the horses was provided.
When many people take a fancy to a particular cow or mule, they will go to the vendor in charge of the cattle and horse market to bargain for the price.
This approach not only reduced the workload of vendors but also saved customers time.
Zhen Wanwan even suspected that the owner of this cattle and horse market might have traveled from the modern era, as the management style was far too advanced.
Because there were quite a few people, Zhen Wanwan carefully protected the child, making sure that passersby wouldn't bump into him.
Grandma Li looked at the child with heartache and complained a few times, "Look at this stench that's making my precious baby sick!"
Zhen Wanwan glanced at the old lady in Li's arms and said with a smile, "At an age when she can't even hold her pee, she's still so fastidious. I wonder who she took after!"
At this moment, the little boy didn't want to pay attention to his mother's teasing; he was disgusted by the overwhelming stench of feces.
Zhen Wanwan didn't feel anything; this smell was much better than the smell of the latrine.
"Brother, the horses are over there, let's go take a look."
Zhen Fugui led the way for the two of them, and when he saw the direction Zhen Wanwan was pointing, he nodded in agreement.
"OK!"
Looking at the rows of exorbitant prices, Zhen Wanwan's confident head unconsciously lowered a bit, and her pace quickened considerably.
Old Mrs. Li was illiterate and could only extract useful information from the words of others.
"My God, what's the difference between this and robbery?" Old Lady Li was terrified when she heard that the horses cost at least twenty taels of silver.
Basically, whenever they walked past a stable, Old Lady Li would exclaim in surprise, "They're robbing us!"
Needless to say, Zhen Fugui didn't even dare to glance at the stables, for fear of being blinded by the exorbitant sum of silver.
"Wanwan, why don't we go back?" Old Mrs. Li had already been scared off by the exorbitant price of the horses.
Zhen Wanwan estimated that the silver in her hand, plus the jade pendant, was worth at most twenty taels of silver.
It seems a bit wasteful to use all the money to buy a carriage, but she really wants to buy one!
Otherwise, I could secretly sell a few bags of grain, and I could also exchange the chickens, ducks, fish and meat in my space for some silver.
Thinking of this, Zhen Wanwan's legs trembled, but her heart calmed down.
She patted Grandma Li's hand comfortingly, "Mom, I'm here for you. Do you still need to worry?"
Seeing Zhen Wanwan winking and looking so confident, Old Lady Li hesitated.
Could it be that her daughter has been hiding money from her?
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