When Gao came back from washing the dishes, she saw An Ning still sitting in the main room. She asked in confusion, "Daya, why don't you go back and rest? Is there something wrong?"
An Ning looked at An Dashan and Gao and said, "Dad, Mom, I want to go to town with Dad tomorrow."
Gao said with some concern: "Daya, it's not that I don't want you to go, but your injury hasn't healed yet, and I'm afraid you'll be too tired."
An Ning looked at Gao earnestly and said, "Mom, I'm much better now. I don't feel any pain anymore."
Seeing that Gao was a little shaken, An Ning shook Gao's arm and said, "Mom, I haven't been to town for a long time. Please promise me!"
Gao looked at her daughter who was acting like a spoiled child, and said helplessly, "Well, don't run around tomorrow, stay with your dad, or you'll regret it too late if you get taken away by a beggar."
When An Ning heard that Gao agreed, she said happily, "Thank you, mother. You are the best."
An Dashan, who had been silent, spoke up at this time and said, "Daya, how is your mother? I will take you to town tomorrow."
An Ning looked at her father who was jealous because of such a small matter and said, "Dad is the best. Both dad and mom are good."
An Dashan was satisfied and said, "That's good enough. It's getting late. Go to bed! You have to get up early tomorrow. If you can't get out of bed, I won't wait for you!"
An Ning heard this and quickly got up to wash up. Gao looked at the interaction between the father and daughter and shook her head helplessly. Her husband usually didn't like to talk much, but he started to talk more when he saw his daughter. This was completely different from other families that favored boys over girls.
An Ning simply washed up and went back to her room to rest.
The next morning, just after daybreak, Gao got up to make breakfast. After she finished making breakfast, she called An Ning to get up and eat breakfast.
After breakfast, An Dashan carried the two rabbits in a backpack and took An Ning to the town. Since Huaishu Village, where An Ning lived, was quite remote, it took them more than half an hour to get to the town.
By the time they reached the town, An Ning's legs felt like they were filled with lead. Seeing that An Ning was tired, An Dashan found a big rock and asked her to sit down and rest. An Ning didn't try to show off, so she sat on the rock and rested.
An Dashan took out the boiled water prepared by Gao from his backpack and handed it to An Ning. An Ning was thirsty and hungry at the moment. The light porridge she had eaten in the morning had long been digested. She took the water and drank it up in big gulps.
After resting for a while, An Ning followed An Dashan to the only restaurant in the town. Since they were old acquaintances, the shopkeeper did not bargain and directly gave 80 coins for one rabbit, and sold two rabbits for 160 coins.
After coming out of the restaurant, the father and daughter went straight to the grain store. When they entered the grain store, the clerk saw that the two did not look like rich people, so he asked calmly: "What do you want to buy?"
This was the only grain store in the town, so An Dashan did not turn around and leave just because of the clerk's cold face. Instead, he asked, "How much is a pound of brown rice now?"
The clerk said, "Now is the time when there is a shortage of food, and the price of brown rice has increased by another penny. It is now nine pennies per pound."
After hearing what the waiter said, An Dashan's expression changed. He gritted his teeth and said, "Weigh five kilograms for me first!"
The clerk responded, weighed out five catties of brown rice with both hands, handed it to An Dashan, and said, "The total is forty-five coins."
An Dashan counted out forty-five copper coins from his purse, handed them to the waiter, and then took the bag of rice from the waiter.
While An Dashan was talking to the waiter, An Ning took a general look at the food in the store and found that except for brown rice and black flour, which were relatively cheap and could be barely afforded by ordinary people, the price of refined rice and white flour was as high as thirty or forty coins per pound, which frightened An Ning. From this, it can be seen that the grain production in this dynasty is not high. It seems that if you want to have enough food, you must replace the seeds at home with seeds in the space before planting next year.
After leaving the grain store, the two went to the grocery store. Gao asked An Dashan to buy some thread because the family had not made winter shoes yet. When they arrived at the grocery store, they found that it was noisy and crowded. An Ning squeezed in and found that the price of salt had risen again. It was now 40 coins per catty. In An Ning's opinion, this was simply a sky-high price.
As far as An Ning knew, there was a mountain behind their Huaishu Village. There was a kind of salty stone on the mountain, and animals often licked it. The villagers found it and took the stone home to soak it in water and use it as salt. However, people who drank the salt water soaked in the stone would get all kinds of strange diseases, and people were so scared that they dared not dig that kind of stone anymore.
An Ning knew that the stone should contain a lot of rock salt, but there were too many minerals in it for people to eat directly. But An Ning had learned how to extract rock salt, so she would try it when she got home.
An Dashan walked past the noisy crowd, bought some thread and took An Ning out of the grocery store. The two of them walked on the street and saw a store selling steamed buns not far away. Smelling the fragrance of the steamed buns, An Ning's stomach growled.
An Dashan looked at the 115 coins left in his hand, gritted his teeth and was about to go to sell the buns.
An Ning held onto An Dashan tightly and said, "Dad, let's go home. Mom will definitely make chicken soup for us today, so we don't need to buy buns."
An Dashan looked at his sensible daughter and nodded helplessly. It was all his fault that he had no ability and his daughter couldn't even afford to buy a bun. Seeing An Dashan's low mood, An Ning quickly comforted him, "Dad, we just had eggs yesterday. I don't want to eat buns at all now. Let's go back!"
Although An Dashan didn't buy buns for An Ning, he turned around and walked towards the butcher's shop. The butcher looked at An Dashan and his daughter, forced a smile on his fat face, and asked, "Do you want to buy fat or thin ones?"
An Dashan pointed at the pile of fat meat and asked, "How much is this fat meat per pound?"
The butcher said, "The fat ones are thirty cents a pound, and the lean ones are twenty-five cents a pound."
An Dashan gritted his teeth and said, "Then weigh me a pound of fat!" An Ning knew that there was no vegetable oil in ancient times and people could only eat lard, so fat meat was more expensive than lean meat.
The butcher cut off a piece of fat, weighed it on a scale, and handed it to An Dashan, saying, "It's one catty and one cent in total. I'll give you one catty."
An Dashan counted out thirty copper coins and handed them to the butcher, saying, "Thank you. I'll come to you next time to buy meat."
The big man laughed when he heard this and said, "Okay, don't worry, the meat in our house is absolutely fresh." After buying the meat, seeing that the sun had risen very high, the father and daughter walked home.
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