Seeing that her face suddenly turned red, Zhou asked, "What's wrong with you? Why did your face suddenly change color?" Then she touched her head with her hand, "Don't scare me. Are you feeling unwell again?" Zhou looked nervous.
Chunxiao was inexplicably excited at this moment, "It's okay, Mom, I suddenly thought of something. What should we do with these dried radishes?" She quickly changed the subject.
Seeing that she was fine, Zhou was relieved. "Let's go around and see if anyone wants it. We can also look for your Aunt Fang to see if they have sold out."
They didn't find a buyer for their dried radish, but they ran into Fang on the way. She smiled and said, "We've sold out. How about you?"
"We've sold all our eggs, and we have some dried radishes left, but they're hard to sell. Rich people like fresh vegetables, so we should go back to the market." Zhou looked at Fang and her mother-in-law. "Since you've finished shopping, you can go back first. I still have a lot of things to buy, so I can't go back for a while."
"Okay, then we'll go back first. Come find me next time you want to sell eggs."
"I understand. Go back."
Fang left with her daughter-in-law Dujuan.
"Mom, are we going back to the market?"
"Look around a little more, if it doesn't work, go back to the market." Zhou took her to a few more places and asked a few households, but the things still didn't sell. They had no choice but to go back to the market again.
Yan Dashan was chatting with a man who was setting up a stall nearby. When he saw them come back, he asked, "How's it going? Did you sell anything?"
Zhou placed the basket in front of him and said, "The eggs are sold, but no one wants the dried radish. So, you can just sell the dried radish here. Or, as I said before, your sister and I will go get the things and come back to see you before the market closes. How about that?"
"You guys go ahead." He didn't know how to bargain, and he wasn't good at buying things either.
Zhou leaned close to his ear and told him that there was money from selling eggs under the backpack, and asked him to be careful. Yan Dashan agreed and asked them to be careful with the money they had on them.
Zhou then took Chunxiao away, and each of them carried an empty backpack.
"Mom, what should we buy?" Now all the money is with the old lady, and she can only watch. However, with her mother buying things for her, she saves a lot of trouble. It would be embarrassing for her to bargain with those people.
"Let's go to the cloth shop first. Now that we have the mattress, we need to make sheets and quilt covers. We have many children at home and don't have much old cloth, so we have to buy all these."
Chunxiao followed Zhou to the cloth shop. The family hadn't bought cloth in a long time. When they asked the price, they found that coarse cotton cloth was 800 wen per piece, and fine cotton cloth was 1.4 liang per piece. It was really expensive. Chunxiao looked at the cloth on the shelf. The width was about 1.2 meters. There were many colors. The coarse cloth was mostly dark, and the fine cloth was mostly light, mostly red and blue.
While Chunxiao was looking, Zhou was also looking. The sheets and quilt covers would require at least 6 meters of cloth, so she had to buy half a piece. She bargained with the cloth shop owner, but the owner refused to give in and was only willing to give them a few pieces of cloth at most.
There was no other way, Zhou could only pay 400 coins to buy half a piece of coarse cotton cloth and a few small scraps of cloth. "Look, I spent two or three taels of silver on just these few things. I really couldn't afford to buy more. When I have enough money in the future, it's better to make another set as a backup, otherwise it will be useless if it is not washed and dried." Putting the cloth in the backpack, the two of them left the cloth shop. When they passed by a street stall, Zhou spent another 10 coins to buy her a wooden comb.
Then they went to a porcelain shop and bought three cheap bowls. Porcelain has always been expensive, and even the cheapest one cost 15 wen. They also went to a grocery store to buy essential cooking seasonings such as oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, as well as lamp oil, pottery jars and other items. For future convenience, they bought several large and small pottery jars. In total, they spent about 300 wen at the grocery store.
Chunxiao thought she had finished shopping, but Zhou took her to the grain store again. "Mother knows you don't like eating the wheat bran dumplings at home. We have fine noodles at home, but not much. During the previous harvest, someone went to the village to collect grain and sold some. As a family, we all save as much as possible on food, so I can't give it all to you. I thought I'd buy some for you to keep at home, and you can cook it yourself when you want."
Unexpectedly, Zhou saw some of her behaviors.
Fine flour was 14 wen a jin, so Zhou bought 20 jin. Rice was 15 wen a jin, so Zhou also bought 20 jin. She put the two bags of grain into Chunxiao's backpack and said, "Don't tell me about this when we get home."
Both of their backpacks are now full.
"Mom, there's probably nothing to buy."
Zhou thought about it carefully, "There's one more thing I almost forgot. The lock on your front door is from your parents' house. Now that no one at home needs it, you still need to buy a lock yourself. I want to ask you, are you in a hurry to go out? If not, then don't buy it yet. This lock is not cheap."
Chun Xiao thought about it and decided to buy the lock. "Mom, buy it. It's a must-have."
The two of them came to the lock shop again and asked the price. They found that the locks were really not cheap. The cheapest small one cost 300 wen, and the one that Chunxiao and the others wanted to use to hang on the gate cost 700 wen.
"How come your thing is so expensive when it's so big?" Zhou was a little hesitant, mainly because it was beyond her budget.
"Sister-in-law, these things of mine aren't big, but they're made of exquisite craftsmanship. You can't judge their price based on their size. Without them, if things get stolen, it's not worth it. They're made of top-quality black copper, so they're very sturdy." The locksmith showed them a few locks. "A connoisseur will know the quality of the locks. What's the point of buying a cheap lock that breaks in just two days?"
"Chunxiao, should we buy it?" Zhou thought that if it wasn't possible, she would just use what she had at home first, as she was short of money right now.
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