Chapter 21 An Unexpected Joy Today was truly a fulfilling day.
The other street was quite far, and it took them about twenty minutes to walk there.
This market is basically the same as the previous one, with both shops and stalls. However, a separate area has been set up specifically for people to set up stalls, and there are people specifically assigned to clean it up.
Ray led Neil from the shop to the fenced-off area. Along the road leading to the entrance, older women were selling various bird eggs. There were common red rockbird eggs, as well as larger eggs of other kinds, some with bluish-green shells, resembling duck eggs but about the size of goose eggs.
"Auntie, how much are the scarlet tarantula eggs?"
The old woman selling eggs looked up at Lai and Neil, probably trying to estimate how many they would buy.
"Four copper coins each."
Can I get a discount if I buy more?
"Ray asked."
How many do you want to buy?
"Fifty."
"Fifty, huh?" The woman hesitated for a moment. "I can't offer a discount, but I can give you five more for free."
"What about the 150?"
"One hundred and fifty!"
The woman was somewhat surprised.
"Little friend, how many people are in your family if you buy so many bird eggs? You can't possibly eat them all in a short time. Bird eggs will spoil if left out for too long."
The older woman was quite honest; she didn't agree immediately but instead asked about Lai's family situation. She was worried that if the young man bought too much on his first shopping trip, he would get scolded by his parents when he got home.
"It's alright, I have a lot of family members, and they all love to eat bird eggs. Just sell them to me, auntie."
The woman secretly calculated how much it would cost at the original price: 150 bird eggs would cost 600 copper coins, or 6 silver coins. Her stall could only sell 200 to 300 red junglefowl eggs a day.
Most of these eggs were bought for three copper coins each, but some were laid by her own family. She and her husband raised fifty red rockbirds in the countryside.
Once they've collected enough, they'll send them to their eldest son's house in town, where his wife will help sell them. Today, the eldest daughter-in-law went back to her parents' home, so she came here to sell them, and unexpectedly, a big customer came right away.
The aunt hardened her heart and said.
"How about I charge you thirty copper coins less and give you ten green eggs as a bonus? These eggs are even more expensive than Red Wild Bird eggs!"
The green-skinned eggs are from our own geese, so the cost is low. I wouldn't mind giving away ten.
"OK."
After agreeing on the price, Lai handed the basket to the aunt.
She took the contents out of her basket, first laying down a roll of grass at the bottom, then a layer of chopped hay, and finally packing the 160 eggs in layers of bird eggs and hay.
"Auntie, let's leave the things here for now. My brother and I will wander around for a while longer and come back to pay and pick up the eggs when we leave."
"Okay, okay, I'll stay here selling eggs until dinner time and I won't leave."
The aunt promised to keep an eye on things, so Ray continued shopping with Neil.
There are many stalls selling fresh vegetables here, as well as stalls selling early-maturing potatoes.
The potatoes at home were planted late and grew slowly; they're only about the size of two bird eggs now, and it would be a waste to dig them up and eat them directly. To avoid crushing the eggs, Lai spent twenty copper coins to buy only eight.
If you keep walking, there's another stall selling edamame. Edamame is soybeans that haven't fully matured, commonly known as yellow soybeans.
I'd wash them at home, braise them in a big pot with spices—the flavor would be amazing, perfect with drinks. Add some braised peanuts, braised chicken feet, and spicy crayfish, and it'd be a perfect snack. It's just a shame I can only dream about it for now.
Rye bought a few pounds; they can be made into snacks, or they'd be great to give Hagrid some to have with his drinks.
Carrying the edamame, the two continued forward. Suddenly, a bright red color on a stall caught Lai's attention.
Isn't this the chili pepper he's been longing for?
Lei, in a calm and good mood, went to the chili pepper stall, picked one up and examined it closely.
The bright red chili peppers had a beautiful sheen on their skins, and their long, slightly twisted shapes were typical of long, thin peppers. A small pile of bird's eye chilies sat to the side; they looked somewhat like the small red chilies often sold in supermarkets, but they were not the same variety.
"Young master, this dish has a very strong flavor; it feels like my throat is on fire after eating it. Why don't you look at some other dishes?"
The stall owner meant well, seeing that Lai and Neil were young and worried that they wouldn't be able to eat it.
"Does this dish sell well?"
"Ray asked."
"Fortunately, orcs buy more of it. Some people like the taste and will buy some specifically to eat, but most people don't dare to try it."
Are there any green ones left?
"There are some, but they're not very good. You can get them for a cheaper price if you buy them."
The stall owner was being honest.
What is the name of this vegetable?
"It has no name; the orcs call it 'Red Fruit'."
"I think I've seen it in a book before, I think it was called something like chili pepper."
Lei, with a hint of his own opinion, said that anything he had seen in books was just made up.
"Chili pepper? That's a good name, and it's quite fitting."
The stall owner nodded as he spoke.
"How much do these two types of chili peppers cost?"
"The long ones are four copper coins a pound, and the short ones in the small pile are two copper coins a pound. The blue ones are also two copper coins a pound."
Because there are fewer buyers, and the chili peppers have a long fruiting period and produce a large harvest, they are relatively cheap.
"Pack the long ones with 15 pounds, the short ones with 5 pounds, and the blue ones with 3 pounds."
"Lay said. The stall owner, not wanting to miss this business, quickly packed the chilies, and Lay paid."
Although it sounds like I bought a lot, it actually doesn't weigh that much in the cloth bag. The chilies have a lot of moisture, so after drying them at home, they'll weigh at most four pounds.
I bought everything I needed and could afford, and then strolled around for another half hour. The chili peppers were definitely the biggest unexpected treat of this trip to town.
After paying the aunt and retrieving their baskets, they headed towards Black's Clinic to pick up Iru and go back together.
The medicine had been prepared long before they arrived. Iru was resting and drinking water on the second floor, with the wooden mask beside him.
"Let's go."
Iru put on the mask and followed Lai downstairs.
"These are golden pears and apples, which your brother specially left for you and Dr. Blake."
Neil handed the fruit to Jack.
"Thank you for the fruit."
Jack politely thanked him.
"Thanks, Ray and Neil."
"You're welcome!"
Neil replied.
Blake and Jack saw them to the door, and the group waved goodbye.
"Would you like to ride back with us in the oxcart?"
Lai asked Iru, but Iru waved his hand repeatedly.
"No, it's too risky. I've already rested well, and I'm fast enough to get home quickly."
Lai didn't insist. After putting the things on the oxcart, he saw Iru out of the city gate.
Ray and Neil sat under the tree waiting for the others to return, each eating half of a buttered bread. Neil insisted on giving his half to Ray, so Ray broke off a small piece and ate it with Neil.
After finishing their bread, the two ate some hard chewing biscuits. After waiting for a long time, everyone finally arrived, and they drove the oxcart back to the small mountain village, finally arriving home.
After a short rest, Lei got busy again.
He washed the red chilies with clean water, drained them, and selected those that were intact and not too damaged, placing them in a large wooden basin. Then he found a long needle and hemp rope, and threaded the needle through the stem of each chili, stringing the long chilies together, one on the left and one on the right. Neil followed Rye's example and strung the chilies together.
The two brothers worked for over an hour and finally finished skewering all the chilies. There were four large bunches of red chilies and two small bunches of bird's eye chilies.
Autumn brings warm weather and little rain, making it perfect for drying peppers in the sunny spot in the yard. Looking at the bright red peppers hanging in the yard, Neil felt a great sense of accomplishment.
After preparing the chilies, Lai started a fire to boil the salt water.
Unable to calculate the exact proportions, he added salt to the water little by little until the brine tasted somewhat bitter. After boiling, he poured it out and let it cool. He then cleaned the pot and continued to simmer the brine for pickling.
This time, he strictly followed the proportions when cooking. Using a bowl as a measuring tool, he poured water and vinegar into a pot in a 1:1 ratio and heated it. Only when small bubbles appeared in the vinegar water did he add half a packet of sugar, weighing about half a pound.
Once the water boils, remove the firewood and pour it into a clean container to cool.
Vinegar is a product of over-fermented alcohol. Since it's almost impossible to find baijiu (Chinese white liquor) on the market, the vinegar here is mostly dark in color, and the sweet and sour sauce made from it is naturally also a bit dark in color.
By this time, the room was filled with the pungent smell of vinegar.
Lai opened the window to let in fresh air, while Neil sat by the door washing the bird eggs. After washing them, he dried them with a clean cloth and carefully arranged them in a basin.
"Brother, do we need to wash the green-skinned eggs?"
"No need, just set them aside. Keep twenty bird eggs for daily consumption."
"Okay, brother."
"I'm going to dig some garlic in the garden. If you need anything, just call me in the garden."
"good."
Lai took a fork and went to the garden to dig garlic.
The weather is too hot and the soil is compacted, so the whole green garlic that used to be easy to pull out now requires a fork.
They dug up over a hundred garlic cloves before stopping. They took the green garlic to the edge of the garden, shook off the dirt, peeled off any bad outer skin, and chopped them into garlic cloves using a knife while placing them on a wooden board.
The garlic is a bit old at this point, but that's okay; it will still be successful if you pickle it for a little longer.
Lai didn't even spare the garlic scapes, peeling off the outer garlic leaves and leaving the tender parts of the scapes, then cutting them into several evenly sized sections.
After processing all the green garlic, including the garlic scapes, there was a whole big basin full.
After washing them clean, soak them in salt water. Change the salt water again before going to bed at night. Wash them with clean water the next afternoon, let them dry, and then they are ready to be used to pickle sweet and sour garlic.
After soaking the garlic shoots, Neil had washed and dried all the bird eggs. Before the brine had even cooled, Lai went to throw the unwanted garlic roots and leaves into the compost pit he had dug. He planned to dig them up and put them in the vegetable garden next spring to increase the soil's fertility.
Back inside, after washing his hands, Lai carried the bird eggs into the storage room, where the two ceramic jars he had bought last time were neatly placed next to the cabinet.
Lai carefully arranged the bird eggs in the jar. One jar wasn't enough; it only held eighty-five. He marked the remaining forty-five and put them in another jar, along with the leftover, pickled bird eggs. He poured the cooled brine into the jar, just enough to cover the eggs by a few centimeters.
After washing the empty earthenware jars, rinse the inside with boiling water to sterilize them, let them air dry, and keep them to pickle sweet and sour garlic tomorrow.
After working hard for half a day and finishing everything, I can finally take a good rest.
It was too hot, and I didn't have much of an appetite. For dinner, Lai only made two bowls of cold noodles, which Neil and I ate as is.
Today was a truly fulfilling day.
A note from the author:
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