Ye Wenxue blinked: "Judging from your tone, does your family have other businesses?"
The clothing store owner chuckled and rubbed his hands together: "Young lady, would you like some pickled vegetables with sugar, salt, and soy sauce? I specially sourced these from the Sichuan region; I was thinking of opening a shop in Longxing Prefecture..."
He sighed again: "The shop is stuck with us, but we can't let the goods rot in the warehouse. If you really want to buy, I'll have someone deliver the bedding and clothes to your home."
Ye Wenxue has a clear understanding of her own cooking skills... She has to pickle sauerkraut several times to succeed, so instead of buying vegetables and cooking them separately, she might as well buy ready-made ones.
"I need to see the goods with my own eyes."
The clothing store owner hurriedly led Ye Wenxue to the shop next door.
Ye Wenxue picked up a handful of coarse salt and golden rock sugar, looked at them, put them down without saying anything, and turned to look at the sauce and pickled vegetables.
The shop has a wide variety of sauces, including various meat sauces, fish sauces, and several vegetable sauces. Ye Wenxue's favorite is a sauce with a slightly spicy flavor.
There are even more types of pickled vegetables, such as pickled cucumbers, pickled green beans, pickled eggplants, and even pickled meat.
Ye Wenxue bought several kinds of delicious sauces and pickles, along with ten catties of salt and sugar for each.
She paid the money and looked at the shopkeeper: "Can I leave it here for now and come back for it later?"
I have too much stuff; it's inconvenient to carry it around.
The clothing store owner, having received the money, naturally agreed and nodded immediately.
Ye Wenxue bought cloth shoes for summer and cotton shoes for winter, carried them away, and stuffed them into her spatial storage when no one was around.
I also bought a large vat of oil, ten catties of coarse flour, several large bags of brown rice, straw paper... and other odds and ends cost me a little over half my money.
Ye Wenxue was worried that the children would be too bored and restless if they couldn't leave the valley during the winter, so she bought two reams of paper, and each child also had their own set of writing materials.
Before she went down the mountain, she made a point of asking the children what toys they wanted. She bought bows and arrows and knives for Dazhuang and Shuangshuang, gauze and other medical necessities for Sanyuan, snacks for Siwang, and a round little peace lock...
She quietly put the things that were inconvenient to carry into her space, but there were too many things, so Ye Wenxue had to buy a modified wheelbarrow.
Even so, the things were still piled up very high, almost overflowing.
Ye Wenxue: I only regret that there isn't enough space.
There was smoked bacon at home, as well as two chickens, two sheep, and a litter of rabbits. There were also many wild fish in the lake. Ye Wenxue stopped after buying five ducks.
Just as Ye Wenxue was pushing her wheelbarrow to the clothing store to pick up her goods, someone suddenly darted up beside her and said in a low, humble voice:
"Madam, would you like me to deliver your goods to your door? No matter how far, it'll only cost two coins."
Ye Wenxue recognized his voice; when she looked up, both of them froze.
“Cheng… Widow Cheng?” Boss He looked at the mountain of various things, then at Ye Wenxue, a glint of greed flashing in his eyes.
Ye Wenxue looked at the disheveled He Laoda from head to toe, sneered, and pushed the handcart away.
Old He quickly stopped him, exchanging pleasantries with a slightly embarrassed air: "Where are you staying? Looks like you've been doing quite well lately."
Ye Wenxue suddenly remembered what Aunt Wang had said... to follow their family so that they could take advantage of their numbers to seize a place to stay?
She put down the handcart and dusted off her hands: "What, you're not doing well and you want to give me a few taels of silver for nothing?"
If that's the case, it wouldn't be wrong for her to say something negative.
Old Master He was even more embarrassed. Where would he get the spare money to give her? He didn't even have enough for himself!
Old He glanced at Ye Wenxue and said guiltily, "I didn't notice the commotion in the village that night, so it's understandable that you blame me, but..."
"Stop." Ye Wenxue said expressionlessly, "Is that all you wanted to say?"
Old He couldn't help but fix his gaze on the goods in the handcart once again.
The He family was large, but not particularly wealthy. After Ye Wenxue forcibly took back three taels of silver, several other families in the village cried and made a scene to get their silver back.
You should know that in order to escape the famine, their family went to town and bought a lot of things, such as a cart, water bags, coarse rice and meat, etc., spending almost all of the money that the people of Shanqing Village had paid.
What was taken back was the money that the He family had saved up from the smallest of their lives!
Later, when He Laowu was following Ye Wenxue, he somehow ended up in Qingxu Town. He was severely beaten for speaking too harshly. The village head went to argue with the disaster victims who had occupied the village, and he was also beaten.
The cost of finding doctors and buying medicine was a lot of money. After escaping to the mountains, they were robbed by bandits who threatened to kill them if they didn't pay. Most of their remaining money was gone.
Fearing another encounter with bandits, the village head led the people of Shanqing Village down the mountain overnight.
Originally, she planned to visit her relatives who had married into Longxing Prefecture, but the journey was too long and she didn't have much food, so she had to travel by begging.
But He Laowu refused to do it, saying he had never been a beggar in his life and wouldn't do it, regardless of his son Suibao who was crying until his voice was hoarse.
The village head couldn't abandon his youngest son, and several families from Shanqing Village didn't want to leave either, so they found a dilapidated house in this desolate place to settle down. They looked for work to save money for their journey, and exchanged some food to get by day by day.
Old He was sent by the village head to find work to do.
But there aren't many jobs in this run-down town. Old He works one day and then has no work the next, and he's almost driven crazy with worry.
In this situation, Old Man He suddenly forgot how Ye Wenxue's family escaped that night, only remembering that Widow Cheng was kind and easy to talk to.
He clenched his fists, symbolically forgetting past conflicts and contradictions, and awkwardly began to play the victim: "Widow Cheng, everyone from Shanqing Village is in town too. We haven't had enough to eat for days. Could you perhaps..."
"No, a good dog shouldn't block the way." Ye Wenxue coldly pushed the cart away.
Old He quickly followed up: "We're all from the same village, what's wrong with you helping everyone out? If you ever encounter any problems in the future, just call on us, and we'll all lend a hand. Think about it, you have five children, there will always be times when you can't manage them all..."
Ye Wenxue laughed in anger. Did they think she was a sucker?
Should we help them out?
Believe it or not, if she lends a hand, the people of Shanqing Village, especially the He family, will flock to her like bloodsuckers, and they won't leave until they've drained her of all her money.
Want them to help? That's just wishful thinking.
Ye Wenxue had been away from the valley for too long and was worried about her children at home. She was too lazy to pay attention to He Laoda anymore, so she kicked him far away and went to the clothing store by herself.
"You! You just wait!" After being kicked, Boss He was traumatized and dared not continue to harass Ye Wenxue. He left in a panic after uttering a harsh threat.
Ye Wenxue went to the clothing store to pick up her things, tied them securely to the handcart, declined the help from the clothing store clerk, and pushed the cart up the mountain alone.
Boss He hid in the shadows of the corner, watching the few thugs sneaking around behind Ye Wenxue. After hesitating for a while, he quickly followed them.
If we can't get meat, drinking some soup or broth is fine too.
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