Zhou knew that Chunxiao got up early in the morning to go to the town to buy New Year's goods, and originally wanted to follow her, but Chunxiao slipped away when she was not paying attention.
If Zhou came with her, she might not be able to buy many things. Last night, she was still talking about the money needed to dig a well, and advised her not to buy any New Year's goods, saying that they had been living a tight life every year, and this year they had so much meat, which was already a good year.
Chunxiao agreed verbally but she still wanted to have a good New Year in her heart. In fact, it wouldn't cost much even if she bought things, especially since she was a greedy person. Although it was not yet bright outside, she could tell from the smell of the air that it was going to be another sunny day. The ground beside the fields was covered with white frost. There were probably no sweet potatoes in that era. She had eaten sweet potatoes from her classmates' homes before, and they said that they were especially sweet after being frosted. Now, thinking about the delicious roasted sweet potatoes, she felt greedy.
She felt particularly happy while humming songs along the way. The sky soon brightened. There were many people like her who were on their way early, all from the surrounding villages. She also met one or two people from Yanjia Village, who were carrying baskets on their backs and were probably going to the market to sell things. Everyone was in a hurry and they didn't know each other, so they all went their own way.
Chunxiao finally arrived at the town when she was feeling hot from walking in her coat. She was here to shop today, so she was in an unusually relaxed mood. It was still early and not many people were selling things in the market, so she planned to go shopping in the shops on the town streets first.
First, she went to the cloth shop. There was no extra cloth at home, and she had to make spring clothes in the spring, so she only needed to buy what she needed. Before, her family was not well off, so she took on a lot of things. Now that every family has money, it would not be good for her to take on too much. If she bought clothes for her parents, it would embarrass her brothers, so she only needed to give them money as a filial gift during the New Year.
She went to the cloth shop and bought half a bolt of white fine cotton. She also took half a bolt of moon-yellow coarse cotton, half a bolt of bright red coarse cotton, and half a bolt of blue coarse cotton. She would use the light-colored one for a coat and the dark-colored one for pants. She could also ask her mother to make two pairs of cloth shoes later. After buying these, the shopkeeper also gave her a lot of yarn of the same color.
After leaving the cloth shop, she went to the porcelain shop. After looking around, she finally bought a simple teapot with six teacups for 300 wen. With it, she could drink water more conveniently and no longer had to drink raw water all the time. The teapot was not expensive, and it came in a wooden box, which Chunxiao thought was very nice.
After carefully placing the things in her backpack, she went to the medicine store again. The ginger at home was almost gone, so she had to buy some more. So she bought another two pounds of ginger at the medicine store. Thinking that braised meat was indispensable for the New Year, she also bought cinnamon, star anise, sweet pine, fennel, white angelica, tsaoko, and peppercorns from the medicine store. These were the only ingredients available. However, these were usually used as medicine in medicine stores, not for eating, so the prices were really expensive. She bought about two pounds of each and added two pounds of ginger, which cost her more than two taels of silver. If Zhou knew about this, she would probably scold her for a year.
After visiting the medicine shop, she went to the liquor store. Her father wanted to drink some wine so the family could have a drink during the New Year. She spent 90 wen on a jar of wine weighing about two kilograms. She didn't know if it was good or not, but the owner praised it highly. After selling these, she went to the dim sum shop.
There are quite a few kinds of pastries, such as fried fruits with frosting, mung bean cakes, rice cakes, and crispy cakes, but the prices are not very attractive. The cheapest ones are 30 wen per catty, and the most expensive ones are 1 liang and 2 qian. They are a kind of flaky pastry, and it is still not appropriate to be too extravagant nowadays. She bought two catties of fried fruits, two catties of rice cakes, and two catties of crispy cakes, and spent another 260 wen at the pastry shop.
Finally, I went to the grocery store and bought a jar of soy sauce.
After visiting most of the shops, the only thing left was to go to the market. On the way to the market, she met a man selling candied haws with straw baskets. Each one cost 4 cents and contained 8 fruits. She bought 10 candied haws.
Perhaps because it was the Little New Year, there weren't many people selling things at the market today. Instead, there were more people strolling around. Chunxiao looked around and saw someone selling old tofu. She suddenly remembered her plan to make compost. Seeing that the woman selling tofu was free at the moment, she squatted down in front of her and asked, "Sister, how much are you selling this tofu?"
Seeing the business coming, the woman greeted them warmly, "5 cents a piece, one piece is almost a pound. My tofu is delicious, sister, would you like to have a piece?"
Chunxiao weighed it and found it was indeed large enough. She bent down and sniffed it, and it had a bean fragrance. "I want to buy a few more, but I don't have a bucket with me, so I'm afraid it will be difficult to carry."
"I have some dried taro leaves here. I can put them in your backpack and then cover it with it." When the woman heard that I wanted to buy a few more pieces, she became more attentive.
"Sister, is this tofu made by your family?"
"It's made at home. We start grinding beans and making tofu before dawn every day. The tofu is made that day and is very fresh. Don't worry, sister."
"Tofu is made from soybeans, right? If you make it every day, there will be a lot of soybean dregs. Do you want them or not?"
The woman smiled and said, "Of course I do. After drying, I can make bean cakes. At worst, it's great for feeding our chickens and pigs."
Chunxiao nodded. "My family also raises pigs, but they haven't been eating much lately. I heard that soybean dregs are good, so I wanted to buy some to try. I wonder if you would sell them to me, big sister?"
The woman looked at her and said, "You can eat this soybean dregs pork, but not too much. How much do you want, young lady? What's the price?"
Chunxiao calculated that 40 to 50 kilograms should be enough. "Sister, please give me a price. I'll buy it if it's suitable."
"Do you still want this tofu?"
"I want tofu too, but I have to wait until I buy everything else at the market, otherwise it will be hard to fit it in my backpack. I want 10 yuan for the tofu."
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