Chapter 65: Buying Cornus officinalis + Rapeseed Oil + Rock Honey
Lin Shu snorted, "What did you say just now? Did you say you were my boss? Even if they took it seriously, so what? We don't know each other, and they don't know who I am."
Zhou Ye's expression was unusually serious. "If you only come here once or twice, then we won't know each other. But if you come to this market every episode to sell chicken mushroom sauce, then we'll get to know each other over time."
At this point, his thick eyebrows lowered, "Ah Shu, this will ruin your reputation."
Lin Shu was speechless, angry and amused.
Although she knew Zhou Ye was thinking about her, she was still very angry.
How could there be such a stupid person in the world!
If she had no feelings for him in that sense and was trying to avoid him, why would she go to the market with him and call herself his wife in front of outsiders?
He's such a big guy, why doesn't he use his brain more?
But Lin Shu would never tell Zhou Ye that she was interested in him. Why?
She immediately glared at him. "You're just saying that to save trouble. This kind of business only works for married women. Otherwise, selling things in a tangled environment is easy to gossip about. As for my reputation, don't worry about it. If it's bad, it's bad. I told Mother long ago that I won't marry. I just want to be her daughter for the rest of my life. If Father and Mother ever get worried about me, I can find a man I like and take her in as their son-in-law."
Zhou Ye's lips moved, but he finally stopped talking. For some reason, his tense heart relaxed, but at the same time, an indescribable bitterness emerged.
"Come to think of it, I was only thinking about myself. By saying this, am I also ruining your reputation? Aye, if you mind, I'll change my words." Lin Shu blinked, looking innocent.
"What else do you want to say? Say you're someone else's wife?" Zhou Ye lowered his lips slightly. "I don't mind. Just tell others like that."
Lin Shu looked at him with her bright black eyes, "You really don't mind? If you take a fancy to a girl in the future——"
"No." Zhou Ye rarely interrupted others mid-sentence. He was not good at speaking and was better at listening, but he didn't want Lin Shu to continue. Her words were always sweet, and he liked listening to her, but this time he didn't want to listen.
"I won't be interested in any girl," he said firmly.
Before Lin Shu could say anything else, Zhou Ye had already put on his backpack and was ready to go forward. "Do you want to go to Caoshi?"
Lin Shu let him go for the moment and replied cheerfully, "Aren't the most lively places in town the street market and the grass market? Of course we should go. They're close to each other anyway. Let's go to the grass market first. If we can buy things there, we don't need to come to the shops on the street market. The things in the shops are definitely more expensive."
Zhou Ye breathed a sigh of relief and asked her to go ahead, and they went to Caoshi together.
At this time, most of the people who go to Caoshi are ordinary people who are going to the market to buy things.
Lin Shu looked around and saw a sea of people. The stalls in the grass market had packed their straw huts completely, leaving no space at all. Regardless of what they were selling, every stall had people asking for prices. The busiest ones had seven or eight people, while the quietest ones had one or two.
After Lin Shu entered the grass market, she walked and stopped along the way, and unexpectedly she found someone selling dogwood.
In the past, when there were no peppers, what did you eat to enjoy the spicy taste? Eat dogwood!
There are several varieties of cornus officinalis. The one I'm talking about here is the edible cornus officinalis. Its leaves and fruits all have a spicy flavor, but compared to later chili peppers, this spiciness is also slightly bitter, which can affect the taste if handled improperly. Furthermore, edible cornus officinalis is difficult to cultivate and must be harvested from the wild, making it less widely available than later chili peppers. But for those who enjoy a spicy kick, this cornus officinalis is a great choice!
This year's fresh cornus has not yet borne fruit, so the stalls sell last year's dried cornus fruits and dried and ground cornus powder. If the freshly harvested cornus fruits are collected this year, the fruits are fresh and juicy, and the juice can be squeezed to make a kind of mugwort oil similar to chili oil.
Lin Shu asked the price. A large ceramic bowl of dried cornus fruit was 25 wen, which weighed about half a pound. A palm-sized ceramic jar of ground cornus powder was 20 wen. Considering that this thing was collected from the wild, she didn't think it was expensive. After all, a pound of dried cornus fruit was a lot.
"Dad, can you give me five cents off on these dogwood fruits? How about I buy a pound from you?" When the old man at the stall heard that Lin Shu wanted to buy a pound, he quickly agreed. "Of course, of course. Take the forty-five cents and I'll scoop you two big bowls! Don't worry, my girl. This ceramic bowl will hold nine ounces when it's full!"
The old man didn't have a scale. To weigh by weight, he would have to use a small scale, like the ones used to weigh herbs, spices, and even gold and silver. But it was expensive and he couldn't afford it.
When people come to buy dogwood fruit, if they buy by two, the old man will just grab it with his hands, no more, no less. If they buy by catty, this ceramic bowl of dogwood fruit is half a catty.
It was a rare sight to see such a generous young lady. The old man skillfully filled two large earthenware bowls with dogwood fruit, filling them to the brim. "A full pound!"
The old man wrapped the weighed cornus fruits in large grass leaves. When one leaf couldn't hold them all, he packed five or six together, tied them all together with grass stems, and handed them over, "Here you go."
Lin Shu brought a vegetable basket, and the weighed cornus officinalis fruits were placed right in the basket. She then covered them with floral cloth, and the spicy taste of the cornus officinalis fruits was barely covered up.
After walking some distance away from the stall, Zhou Ye finally spoke up, "Ah Shu, these dogwood fruits are too expensive. There are plenty in the mountains. If you like the taste of these dogwood fruits, I'll go pick some for you later."
Lin Shu knew she could get it cheaper, but seeing the old man's hands were rough and covered in scratches, she bought it anyway. The old man wasn't asking for an exorbitant price, so why would she be so fussy?
"I have a feeling that my dogwood fruit will be used up very quickly, so it's no big deal. Even if it's more expensive, it's only a few cents more." Lin Shu spoke in a light tone, without a trace of regret on her face for having spent extra money.
"When the fresh dogwood fruits in the mountains are ripe this year, Aye, pick more for me so we don't have to buy them."
Zhou Ye glanced at her and nodded, "Okay."
The variety of goods in the Grass Market was truly vast; Lin Shu could find almost anything she wanted. She didn't have to go to the grain shops in the street market to buy grains, soy sauces, vinegars, and oils, or even sugar. The vendors who sold these goods were mostly peddlers, whose market days varied from town to town, so they likely went wherever there was a market.
In fact, there are often peddlers from the surrounding villages carrying loads to sell things, mostly soy sauce, vinegar and oil. After all, no matter how poor the villagers are, soy sauce, vinegar and oil, especially oil, are necessities, and they can always be sold whether they buy a little or a lot. It's just that Tianshui Village is too remote, and even the oil sellers rarely go there.
The prices of these oil sellers are usually one or two cents cheaper than those of the oil shops in town.
Lin Shu looked at the rapeseed oil sold by the oil vendor. It was packed in two large wooden barrels and looked very fresh. Several women were queuing up with clay pots to draw oil. The oil in one barrel was almost empty, and the oil vendor had quickly opened the lid of the second barrel.
At this rate, the second barrel of oil will soon be empty!
Lin Shu hurried to the back of the line and asked Zhou Ye to buy a clay pot. She thought that she would put the oil used to fry the chicken mushrooms in a separate pot, so she would need a new pot at home. So she didn't bring the oil pot with her this time.
There were vendors selling pottery jars in the grass market, and when Zhou Ye came over after buying a pottery jar, it was Lin Shu's turn.
"Fill this jar for me."
As soon as Lin Shu said this, not only the oil seller, but also the women standing behind her looked at her several times.
It was not uncommon for people to fill their oil cans with oil, but it was quite rare to see someone like Lin Shu, who was wearing coarse linen clothes and whose family was obviously living in poverty, and who would actually ask to fill the oil cans.
Village girls and women dressed like her usually only weigh a pound or half a pound, but if her clay pot is full, it must weigh four or five pounds!
A pound of oil costs forty coins, and five pounds costs a full two hundred coins! Even the people in the town would feel bad if they had to spend two hundred coins to buy oil at once, but this young lady was quite straightforward.
Lin Shu smiled shyly, "Several families in our village share this can of oil. Our village is far away, so I'm running errands for the uncles and aunts."
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone immediately had an expression of "I see".
"I come to Caoshi often. You look unfamiliar to me, little sister. But is this your first time here?" asked a woman standing behind her.
Lin Shu nodded. "My mother said I was beautiful and told me to stay out of the house because she was afraid that something might happen. But now—"
She glanced shyly at the tall and strong man standing beside her, "Now that I'm married and have my husband by my side, no one dares to bully me."
The woman who asked the question glanced at the man who was following silently beside her, and met the man's gaze that seemed to be looking down at her, and couldn't help but laugh dryly.
She thought to herself: That's right, with such a strong man protecting her, who would dare to take a second look?
She had just seen the young couple from a distance. Both of them were indeed very outstanding. The young lady was outstanding for her pretty face and good figure that could not be concealed even by her coarse linen clothes. As for the man, he was outstanding for his exceptionally tall and strong physique.
At a distance, she was just sighing, but when she got closer, the sense of oppression came right over her. She was short, and she had to look up to see this man!
The oil vendor ignored the gossip. Business was good and he looked very happy. He placed the oil funnel on the mouth of the clay pot and scooped oil from the oil barrel, filling it up and pouring it steadily into the oil funnel.
His oil scoop held half a pound of oil, and he had to scoop it nine times before the pottery jar was filled with oil.
"Four and a half pounds, that's one hundred and eighty wen. Sir, hold on tight!"
Zhou Ye, who was called "husband", paused for a moment before reaching out to hold the pottery jar.
Lin Shu counted out 180 copper coins and gave them to the stall owner.
The oil seller took the money with a smile and said casually, "Goodbye, my lady and your husband. Come back next time after you finish your meal!"
Zhou Ye followed Lin Shu silently. Even though more people thought he was Lin Shu's man this time, he didn't say anything.
On her way to leave, Lin Shu glanced at the candy stall she had just passed by, and her eyes could not be taken away.
This sugar stall sells granulated sugar and rock sugar. The granulated sugar is a dull yellow-brown, and the rock sugar is a beautiful orange-yellow. A large lump of it sits on the cutting board, a bit like rock sugar, but with more impurities.
Granulated sugar can be weighed directly, but if a customer wants to buy rock honey, the vendor has to knock off a piece with a small hammer first.
When rock honey is weighed, any piece weighs several taels, and that amount is enough for Lin Shu to make a meal of braised pork.
So greedy, so greedy, so greedy.
I don't want to eat candy, but I want to eat all kinds of meat dishes made with candy. Braised pork, braised chicken, sweet and sour pork, sweet and sour spareribs, sweet and sour fish...
Granulated sugar is a little cheaper. Would you like to buy some?
Forget it, I’ll buy it when I make money in the future.
Just as Lin Shu was about to leave the candy stall, Zhou Ye suddenly stopped and asked the vendor, "Can I get a good price for this rock honey if I buy more?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
