"How heavy a mattress do you want? Some are available, some are not. It depends on how much it weighs."
Zhou thought for a moment and said, "I want a 4-jin bed or a 6-jin bed."
The woman went over it in her mind, "We have the 4-jin ones, but we don't have the 6-jin ones. We do have the 5-jin and 7-jin ones."
Zhou gritted her teeth and asked, "How much are the 4-jin and 7-jin beds?"
The woman called a young man over, and he clattered the beads on an abacus. "11 jin, 583 wen."
Chunxiao also thought about it in her mind and decided that this price was right.
"Boss, how about 560 Wen for us to buy two quilts?" Zhou bargained.
The woman waved her hands. "No, no, sister-in-law, you're already paying me back over 20 coins right out of the gate. How can that be? You must have inquired about the price of cotton. We're only making a small profit. If you want, I'll wipe out the 3 coins and charge you 580 coins."
Zhou naturally refused and bargained with the boss again. Finally, the price was set at 575 Wen and they agreed to pick it up when they left town.
"Mom, why did you buy two mattresses, and they are so thick, weighing 7 kilograms!" The two of them ordered the things and prepared to go back to the market.
"It's going to snow in a month or so. Winters are very cold, and you rely on quilts to keep warm. You're a girl who's already afraid of the cold, and you caught a cold not long ago. You can't get cold again. Put the 7-jin quilt underneath you. The 4-jin quilt plus your own bed should be warm enough. You can also use the 4-jin quilt on hot days. Do you understand?"
"You are so thoughtful, mother."
Hearing this, Zhou sighed again, "You don't have children. If you had children, you would think of everything. But it's okay if you don't have children. If you really had children, I'm afraid they would have stayed in the Zhou family and mother and child would have been separated. It's a blessing."
The two came to the market and found their own stalls. There were obviously more people setting up stalls now than before. "How is it? How much did you sell?" Zhou looked at Dashan.
"Mom, there are too many people selling eggs here, and they all sell at the same price. I've only sold 10 eggs in such a long time. No one wants dried radish either, and I only managed to sell some fresh vegetables from Aunt Fang's house." He took out 10 copper coins and said, "Here, the money is all here."
Zhou looked at Fang, then at the rising sun. "Let's go to Fuqiu Lane and try our luck."
"Have you bought all the things? Why haven't you brought anything back?" Fang saw that their backpacks were empty.
"I just ordered a pot and a quilt. I'll have to look around for other things later." Zhou looked at Dashan. "We'll take the things first. You just squat here and guard this spot. If it doesn't work out, we'll have to come back and set up shop. We paid for this place, so you must hold on to it."
After Zhou had given Dashan some instructions, she picked up her backpack and, along with Zhang, the four of them, left the market again. They walked down a main street, then around two residential buildings, before finally arriving at a residential alley.
"Is this Fuqi Lane?" Chunxiao had indeed never been here before. Dujuan beside her nodded at her, "It is Fuqi Lane."
The streets of this residential alley are very wide, the houses are neatly built, and the storefronts are large, which definitely indicates that it is a wealthy area. Horse-drawn carriages can be seen passing through from time to time. Horse-drawn carriages are very expensive means of transportation, and those who can use them are truly wealthy.
"Where are we going?" Every time she came here, Fang was a little panicked, always feeling out of place in this place.
"Let's go around and see which house has an open back door and then go ask. No one else will say anything if we ask." Zhou was not as calm as she appeared, but one of them had to make the decision.
They wandered the alley until they came across a shop with its back door open. They knocked on the door, and someone came in. They asked what they wanted. They learned they were selling eggs, but they said they didn't want any more and left. They continued their walk, and this time the shopkeeper wanted eggs, but only 20 for 30 coins. Seeing the vegetables in Fang's basket, they also became interested. Seeing that the shopkeeper wanted vegetables, Zhou gave the business to Fang. She then suggested they go their separate ways, and Fang agreed. Then, Zhou took Chunxiao to the other side of the alley.
Chunxiao saw a family with their door open chatting with an old man pulling a cart. "Mom, should we go over and ask?"
"Let's go." Zhou brought her closer.
The person inside the door saw them approaching and asked, "What's going on?"
Only then did Chunxiao see a cart full of charcoal on the cart outside the door.
"Manager, we are farmers from a nearby village. Our chickens have laid a lot of eggs. I would like to ask if you would like some?" Zhou said very politely.
The manager-like man glanced at them and said, "Wait a moment here. I'll collect the charcoal and then I'll take a look at your eggs."
"Okay, okay." Zhou was happy. "You go ahead and do your thing. We'll just wait."
The two men stood against the wall, and the old man began to bargain with the manager again. "Manager Liu, the price of charcoal has always been 60 coins per catty. Why did you suddenly charge 55? If you do this, I will lose half an ounce of silver for 100 catties."
"Our wife said that your charcoal is not as well-burned as last year's. Some of it is still smoking. We can only give you this price because of our past relationship. Just tell us whether you want to sell it or not. If you do, we will take it for 55 yuan. If you don't, we won't force you to sell it."
The old man sighed, "I've already pulled it here, do you think you're going to ask me to pull it back?"
"If you don't want to, you can go look around and see if other families have any."
Chunxiao could see that the manager was a kind person and not the kind of person who would bully others by taking advantage of his power. Perhaps the quality of the charcoal was really unsatisfactory.
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