The shopkeeper looked at the ginseng handed over by An Dashan, his eyes widened, and said, "Brother An, where did you find this ginseng? What a pity! If it had grown a few more years, it would be worth much more."
An Dashan smiled and said, "Boss, you know I'm a hunter and I often go into the mountains to hunt. I dug this up deep in the mountains. Please take a look and give me a price."
The shopkeeper hesitated for a moment and said, "Your ginseng is too young. I can only give you ten taels of silver per ginseng at most."
An Dashan was shocked. You know, he couldn't earn ten taels of silver a year. He didn't hesitate and nodded and said, "Okay, I trust the shopkeeper."
An Ning was standing beside him with a frown on her face, thinking that her father was too honest and she would have to have a good talk with him when she returned.
The shopkeeper smiled and asked the clerk to weigh the astragalus, while he put the ginseng away. The clerk quickly weighed out the astragalus, which was 12.8 jin in total. The shopkeeper was also very straightforward and paid the money according to 13 jin. An Dashan walked lightly with 30 liang of silver and 650 copper coins in his pocket.
After walking a distance, An Ning tugged at An Dashan's sleeve and said, "Dad, stop covering your chest. You're afraid that others won't know where you've hidden your money."
When An Dashan heard his daughter's words, he quickly took his hands off his chest, looked around and saw that no one was paying attention to him, then he breathed a sigh of relief.
Seeing this, An Ning smiled and said, "Dad, let's go buy some food! I want to eat white rice and white bread."
An Dashan waved his hand and said, "Let's go. Dad will buy you whatever you want to eat today." The two soon came to the grain store. An Dashan didn't want to buy more, so he only bought five catties of rice and five catties of white flour, and thirty catties of brown rice. The rice and white flour cost three hundred coins, and the brown rice cost two hundred and seventy coins, a total of five hundred coins. Looking at the copper coins he gave out, An Dashan felt distressed, but when he thought that it was his daughter who wanted to eat, he didn't feel so distressed.
The two went to the butcher shop again. The butcher saw them coming again and asked enthusiastically, "What would you like to buy today?"
An Dashan said, "Cut me a pound of meat, half fat and half lean this time."
The butcher quickly cut off a piece of meat that was half fat and half lean, put it on the scale and weighed it. It was exactly one pound. After handing the meat to An Dashan, he said, "The total is twenty-eight coins."
An Ning looked at the big bone on the chopping board and asked, "Boss, how much do you sell this bone for?"
There was not much meat on the bone, so the butcher usually took it home to feed the dog. When he saw someone wanted to buy it, he said, "If you want to buy it, just give me ten cents and take it away."
An Ning thought the price was reasonable, so she turned to look at An Dashan. An Dashan wanted to say that there was no meat on the bones, so he shouldn't buy it, but seeing his daughter's eyes full of desire, he nodded and said to the butcher: "I want all of these."
The butcher said, "Okay!" and deftly tied the meat and bones with a hemp rope and handed it to An Dashan.
An Dashan put the meat into the backpack, gave the butcher thirty-eight cents, and then took An Ning home.
On the way, An Dashan asked An Ning, "Daya, there is no meat on the bones, why did you buy it?"
An Ning smiled and said, "Dad, I'm going to make you a carrot and bone soup tonight. It's delicious and good for your health."
An Dashan thought about the pheasant stewed with mushrooms made by An Ning, and felt that his daughter's cooking skills were excellent, so he believed An Ning's words. The two of them didn't dare to stay any longer with the "huge sum" in their arms, and walked back home quickly. It was around 9:00 p.m. when they got home, and Gao hadn't come back yet.
An Dashan put the food and meat in the basket into the kitchen and went back to work. An Ning took a rest, drank some water, and then went to the kitchen to soak the bones in clean water, so that the blood could be soaked out before stewing the bones into soup.
Seeing An Dashan busying himself, An Ning quickly took out two pounds of rice and two pounds of flour from her space and put them together with the rice and flour she had just bought. She also took out half a pound of pork from her space. After doing all this, she started to knead the dough, planning to eat steamed buns and drink bone soup in the evening.
Just after she finished kneading the dough, Gao came back. An Ning heard Gao's voice and immediately came out of the kitchen. Gao saw An Ning and said in surprise: "Why did you come back so early today? Where is your father?" An Ning pulled Gao into the house and told her what happened today. Gao was so shocked that she opened her mouth wide and couldn't recover for a long time.
Seeing Gao's reaction, An Ning smiled and pulled her sleeve, saying, "Mom, come back to your senses. My dad bought white flour, meat and bones. We'll have buns and bone soup tonight."
Gao looked at the rice and flour in the bag and felt sad for a moment, but when she learned that her daughter wanted to eat them, she didn't say anything else. She washed her hands and started to help with cooking.
Gao cut some half-fat and half-lean meat, chopped it into minced meat, and then chopped half a cabbage and began to prepare the stuffing. An Ning started the fire, blanched the big bones first, then added hot water and started to stew. After stewing for about half an hour, she added the chopped big radish, added salt to taste, and then stewed for another quarter of an hour. At this time, Gao had already wrapped the buns, and An Ning poured out the bone soup and put it in a clay pot to keep it warm. Gao added water to the pot and started to steam the buns.
When the buns were almost out of the pot, An Dashan came back with a pheasant in his hand.
An Ning walked forward, took the pheasant from An Dashan's hand, and said with a smile: "Dad, you are so amazing. You managed to kill a pheasant in such a short time."
An Dashan scratched his head a little embarrassedly and said, "I don't know what happened. Just as I entered the mountain, a pheasant flew towards me. I didn't have time to think about it and shot it with an arrow. I didn't expect that I actually hit it."
At this time, Gao came over and said, "Don't sell this pheasant. Save it for my daughter's health tomorrow!"
An Dashan nodded and said, "Yeah, I think so too."
An Ning was very moved when she heard this. It was not easy for such a poor family to give her something that could be sold to nourish her body. She calmed down and said, "Dad, wash your hands quickly. The meal will be ready soon."
An Dashan nodded, walked to the well, fetched water to wash his hands, and after washing his hands, he went straight to the main room.
In the main room, An Ning and Gao had already placed white buns and a large bowl of bone soup on the table.
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