Time passed slowly, and the oxcart gradually arrived outside the town.
There are officials guarding the city gate; you need to queue to enter.
Fortunately, there weren't many people at that time, and the two of them were able to get in after only ten minutes of waiting.
This town is called Shuangqiao Town. As the name suggests, the town is connected by two long bridges, and people sell things on the bridges every day, making it very lively.
In town, you have to cross these two bridges to get anywhere.
Therefore, setting up stalls on the bridge requires paying a stall fee, and the area is under the jurisdiction of the government.
Yan Xia told Zhao Dali to wait at the bridgehead with the oxcart and wild boar while she went to find a buyer, so the oxcart wouldn't be inconvenient to follow.
After crossing the long bridge, she saw a particularly grand mansion, which must belong to a wealthy family. So she walked to the back door of the mansion and knocked on the door.
Who is it?
Someone inside the door responded.
"I sell wild game. I wonder if the master of your household would be interested?"
Upon hearing this, the back door opened from the inside.
A middle-aged man with a small mustache sized her up.
"What kind of wild game is it?"
"Reporting to your master, it is a wild boar, a male wild boar, weighing at least 300 catties. This is the king of wild boars, so the taste of the meat must be absolutely wonderful. This is a once-in-a-century occurrence. Moreover, it was only killed an hour ago, so it is still fresh. I wonder if your master would like it? If so, I will bring the wild boar over right away."
Sure enough, when the man with the mustache heard about the 300-pound wild boar king, his squinty eyes lit up. You see, wild boars are rare, and most of the wild boars that can be hunted weigh only 100 or 200 pounds. A 300-pound wild boar? Good heavens, he had never seen one in his entire life.
"Just call me Steward Wang. I can't make this decision myself. Wait a moment, I'll go ask Madam."
"Yes, yes, thank you for your trouble, Steward Wang. I'll be waiting here."
Yan Xia waited for more than ten minutes before Butler Wang returned.
"Go and call someone to bring it over. Madam said to leave it here. I want to check on the goods first."
Yan Xia readily agreed, and she returned to Changqiao and brought Zhao Dali over.
When Steward Wang saw how enormous the wild boar on the oxcart was, he was truly shocked. It seemed the woman hadn't lied to him; it really was the King of Wild Boars.
"The items are good, but I wonder about the price?"
Yan Xia thought for a moment. She originally planned to ask for fifteen taels, but she was afraid of being taken advantage of, since she didn't know how much this thing was worth.
They simply passed the buck to Butler Wang.
“This wild boar was originally going to be transported to a restaurant in the next town. We have a long-term partnership with them and supply them with wild game. But my daughter-in-law is giving birth today, and I’m really worried about her. I don’t have time to travel that far. Butler Wang, please name your price. I’ll sell it to you no matter how much. Consider it making friends. If there’s any wild game in the future, I’ll definitely send you the best first.”
A string of nice words made Butler Wang nod in satisfaction.
However, he wasn't one to take advantage of others; when helping his master purchase things, he naturally gave him exactly what was due.
This also concerns the reputation of the master's family.
"In that case, I'll congratulate you in advance on the birth of your great grandson, and I'll accept the 30 taels of silver."
Yan Xia gasped.
It was twice as expensive as she had imagined.
Thank goodness she didn't say anything.
She then suppressed her excitement, went into the house, exchanged money and goods with Steward Wang, and even got a cup of herbal tea.
In just over twenty minutes, Yan Xia sold the wild boar.
She got into the oxcart and asked Zhao Dali to take her to the most bustling street.
"Xia, when did you get a daughter-in-law? How come I didn't know?"
He thought he just heard Yan Xia talking to the housekeeper about her daughter-in-law giving birth. Did he miss something?
Has Jin Fu gotten married?
"Oh, I just made that up. Anyway, he doesn't know me, hahaha."
Yan Xia could lie without batting an eye.
Zhao Dali was speechless. He found that Yan Xia was completely different from before. When they met at the beginning of the year, he greeted Yan Xia, but she only responded once and then ran away quickly. Her voice was no different from that of a mosquito.
Unlike now, he laughs loudly, oblivious to everyone around him, his voice like a landmine.
Soon, the two arrived on the street.
Yan Xia jumped off the oxcart and headed straight for the grain shop.
She looked at the price.
Here, a pound of brown rice costs 3 coins, a pound of old rice costs 10 coins, polished rice costs 15 coins, ash flour costs 3 coins, and refined flour costs 10 coins...
The price is almost exactly the same as the price of grain in the space.
She had a total of 65 taels of silver on her, plus some copper coins, which was about 4 strings of cash.
Yan Xia took out 400 copper coins and bought 100 catties of brown rice and 10 catties of old rice.
She doesn't like eating pure brown rice, so she plans to mix these ten pounds of rice with brown rice.
After leaving the grain store, Yan Xia went to buy salt, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, and so on.
The seasonings here are quite complete; they even have dried chili peppers and chili powder, though it's not ground very finely.
Yan Xia bought everything, but when she checked out, she almost felt heartbroken.
Condiments are more expensive than grains!
These cost her a full two taels of silver.
It seems money doesn't last long. No wonder the villagers' cooking is bland and tasteless. Buying a few seasonings is enough to feed a whole family for a year.
That's true. If you can't even fill your stomach, why care about the taste?
Yan Xia went to the butcher shop again and bought a large piece of pork ribs, a piece of pork belly and a lot of pork fat. Passing by a vegetable stall, she saw someone selling winter melons. They were not very big, probably because they ripened too early.
So he bought the whole thing.
Then she bought some needles and thread, and bought two sets of fabric for herself and her children, as well as six meat buns.
I also bought a bag of pastries.
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