Chapter 3 Shopping: Yao Ruyi, who had helped out at the convenience store since childhood, had no other skills, so she decided to go back to her old job.
In the original owner's memory, the salaries of officials in the Song Dynasty were quite generous, including not only silver salaries but also in-kind subsidies such as official land, rice, and silk. Back when Grandpa Yao was still the Chancellor of the Imperial Academy, he received a monthly salary of 10 strings of cash, 10 shi of rice, 3 bolts of silk, and 20 bolts of cotton; a total of 50 strings of cash per year for fuel and charcoal (paid in winter to buy charcoal), horse-raising allowance (used to raise horses), and official travel allowance (travel expenses); in addition, he enjoyed 10 qing of official land, which yielded 300 strings of cash in rent annually; and he would receive rewards such as silk, wine, meat, and tea during major festivals, the value of which was uncertain.
Even without considering rewards, Grandpa Yao would still have an income of about forty strings of cash per month, amounting to more than four hundred and forty strings per year, even if he didn't take a single penny of "filial piety." Although buying a house outright in the capital would be somewhat difficult, he wouldn't need to buy rice, cloth, or charcoal, so his Engel coefficient would be extremely low. In the original owner's memory, there were still cooks, maids, and servants in the house, and life was quite comfortable.
He was in a terrible situation after being demoted.
A ninth-rank official was no different from a commoner clerk in the government office. Grandpa Yao's monthly salary plummeted to 1.5 strings of cash, 2 shi of rice, and 3 bolts of cotton. All his official land was returned to the court, and he received no more rent payments. His miscellaneous subsidies were also reduced to 10 strings of cash per year. With such a meager salary, let alone covering his monthly mortgage, even eating meat gradually became a luxury. [Note]
That makes sense. If these low-ranking officials relied solely on their salaries to make a living, they would probably end up like the famous Hai Rui. Yao Ruyi wasn't particularly knowledgeable about the history of the Ming Dynasty, but she had watched "Ming Dynasty 1566" several times with her grandmother and was greatly shocked by the shady dealings in officialdom.
Moreover, when she pieced together the original owner's memories, the original owner had witnessed her uncle Yao Ji engaging in shady dealings, abandoning his ideals and beliefs and betraying his original mission. He did it with a clear conscience and did not shy away from it at all, which shows that it was a common practice at that time.
However, Grandpa Yao was upright and stubborn by nature, and he had his own principles. He would rather eat chaff and wild vegetables than take ill-gotten gains, which led to the decline of his family fortune.
In the years since she was demoted, even the dowry money that Grandpa Yao had saved for the original owner has been almost completely depleted.
Yao Ruyi sighed. Although the salary of a ninth-rank official was meager, every little bit counted. Two or three strings of cash a month was better than nothing. Unfortunately, now that Grandpa Yao had suffered a stroke and carbon monoxide poisoning, he could no longer serve as a "university professor".
When Grandpa Yao suffered a stroke, Liu, the registrar of the Imperial Academy who was in charge of performance evaluation, hurriedly asked for sick leave for him. At that time, Liu, who looked like a short tree stump and had a pockmarked face, even hinted to the original owner: "Officials who ask for medical treatment due to illness are limited to 100 days. Those who do not recover within the time limit will be dismissed and their salaries suspended, regardless of the reason. You should think about it carefully."
As he spoke, he stroked his beard, his eyes gleaming, as if he couldn't wait to get Grandpa Yao to vacate the official position so that he could appoint his own confidant or sell the position for a price.
Yao Ruyi's legs went numb from squatting. When she returned to the courtyard, she heard a coughing sound coming from Grandpa Yao's house, so she hurried in to check on him.
The old man had a square face, thick, arched eyebrows, and a tall stature; one could tell he must have been a strong, tall man in his youth. But now, due to illness, he had lost a lot of weight, his cheekbones were prominent, and his eye sockets were sunken, making him look somewhat fierce. At this moment, he was leaning over the edge of the bed, coughing and dry heaving.
Yao Ruyi hurried over to pat his back and poured him some water from the table.
After finishing the drink, his cough finally stopped. Yao Qizhao panted for a while, then looked up and stared at her with his cloudy eyes. After a long while, he asked in a hoarse voice, "Who...who are you?"
Yao Ruyi said, "I am Ruyi."
Yao Qizhao stared at her for a long time, then slowly shook his head: "No, you are not Ruyi."
Yao Ruyi then remained silent.
He then raised his hand and gestured to his waist, saying, "Ruyi is only this tall."
Yao Ruyi sighed. This kind of conversation had actually happened several times before. A couple of days ago, after she felt better, she came to see Grandpa Yao, leaning against the wall, but by then he didn't recognize anyone. His symptoms were somewhat like Alzheimer's, but also seemed like a severe case of poisoning, resulting in mental damage.
In short, his memory is now mostly stuck in his granddaughter's childhood, and he is almost never lucid.
I don't know if this situation will improve in the future.
Yao Ruyi sighed heavily.
"Where did Ruyi go? She's so young, you need to take good care of her and not let her run around." Yao Qizhao suddenly changed his expression and solemnly instructed, "When you take her out to play, you have to be careful and not let her out of your sight for even a moment, understand?"
Well, they're treating her like a wet nurse.
"No need for that, I'll get you some porridge." Yao Ruyi didn't argue with the old man. She bent down to tuck the blanket around Yao Qizhao and went out to heat up the porridge. She didn't notice Yao Qizhao leaning against the bed, silently watching her back with a bewildered look in his eyes.
Once inside the kitchen, Yao Ruyi squatted down and skillfully started a fire. The original owner of this body naturally didn't know how to start a fire, but she did. In her previous life, her family was very poor. Her mother died unexpectedly when she was three years old. After her father remarried and had a son, he ignored her. Because her stepmother disliked her, she was sent to live with several of her aunts for more than three years.
Only her maternal grandmother still remembered her deceased daughter's daughter, and every winter vacation she would bring large bags and small packages and take a two-day hard-seat train ride to visit her.
That year, by sheer coincidence, her grandmother came to visit her again, only to find that she hadn't gone to school. It was winter, and she was still wearing her cousin's old Ultraman T-shirt and plastic sandals, shivering in the cold wind as she helped her aunt sell braised meat and cold dishes.
Grandma immediately flew into a rage, grabbed her and took her away. She argued with her father for three days, and finally gave him five thousand yuan before she could take her away.
My grandmother was actually very poor. Her family lived in a remote, impoverished mountain town. It took two hours of bumpy mountain roads to get to the county town by three-wheeled motorcycle. When she was little, her family used a wood-burning stove for two years before replacing it with a honeycomb briquette stove. Two years later, my grandmother was introduced to a job cooking at the town's middle school cafeteria. Seeing a business opportunity, she spent all her life savings to take over a small shop and started a small business. Only then did her family have a gas cylinder.
At that time, she had not yet fallen ill. Although her family did not have much money, the days when she and her grandmother depended on each other and worked hard to earn money to make a living were full of hope and happiness.
The fire in the stove gradually rose, casting flickering light on her face. She missed her grandmother, and then she thought about the current predicament of the Yao family. She thought that Grandpa Yao was definitely going to lose his official position, and she had to find a way to earn money as soon as possible, otherwise the two of them would probably soon be homeless.
The water in the pot boiled, so she put the porridge on the bamboo steamer to heat it up. When she looked up, she suddenly saw that there were still two eggs left in the bamboo basket hanging under the window. She tiptoed down and took them down, keeping one and beating the other into an egg mixture. She sprinkled some salt on it and made a bowl of steamed egg, which she put into the pot to supplement Grandpa Yao's nutrition.
Just then, the bell for the morning classes at the Imperial College rang out from outside. It rang very urgently, and many late students, like startled monkeys, ran past the Yao family's gate with shouts.
"Oh no, I'm going to be late!"
"It's Zhu Dabing's class again today, what bad luck!"
"I can't run anymore... Help me... I haven't even had breakfast yet..."
As Yao Ruyi listened to the series of mournful cries that flew over the wall, she secretly opened the door a crack and peeked out. She only saw the backs of several students panting and looking disheveled as they rushed into the doorway.
A hint of interest gradually appeared in her eyes: What a familiar voice, so warm and friendly. Speaking of which, the Yao family's "school district house" has such a uniquely advantageous location, isn't it a blessing from heaven?
Yao Ruyi, who had no other skills besides helping out at the convenience store and earning a living at the hospital, might as well go back to her old ways.
However... she doesn't have much capital to purchase goods right now, and there's no room for error, so it's better to start by selling some simple, low-cost items to test the waters.
She looked down at the red-skinned egg in her palm, and an idea popped into her head.
After returning to the room, she watched as Yao Qizhao ate the hot porridge and egg custard and took his medicine for the day. Then she sat by the bed and patiently answered his rambling and repetitive questions one by one. Finally, when his eyelids started to droop, he finally drifted off to sleep.
Wu added a lot of calming ingredients to the herbal medicine she got from the clinic. Grandpa Yao was still recovering from a serious illness and his energy was not fully restored, so he spent most of the day sleeping on his bed.
Yao Ruyi also saw another prescription that said she should go to the clinic every half month for acupuncture and medicinal baths to clear the blocked blood vessels in her brain after the stroke.
She had been in this world for over ten days, and judging by the time it was about two more days, she would be taking Grandpa Yao for acupuncture and massage. Madam Wu had taken Grandpa Yao there before, and she had even paid for the medicine herself.
Yao Ruyi kept this matter in mind and planned to pay it back when she earned money in the future.
As Grandpa Yao's breathing became soft and steady, she dragged two chairs to the front of the bed to act as a railing before preparing to go out—she needed to buy quite a few things.
They rummaged through the messy storage room and pulled out a handcart with loose wheels, dragging it out along with the billowing dust, which made Yao Ruyi cough repeatedly.
She had seen the dirt cart when she was sweeping the ground. Although it was a bit old, it was fortunate that it hadn't fallen apart yet. Yao Ruyi squatted there and fiddled with it for a long time before finally managing to tighten the wheel again, wipe it clean, and then nostalgically gripped the handlebars. With a push, she pushed it out of the yard.
My grandmother used to have one of these little cars too.
When she was little, she would go to the countryside with her grandmother to harvest peanuts. When they returned home, her grandmother would put her and the peanuts into a big basket and push it home in a two-wheeled cart.
She sat with her legs crossed in the peanut pile, enjoying the breeze from the fields, peeling and eating peanuts along the way.
Thinking of the past, she pushed her cart out the door.
As soon as he stepped out the door, a tall woman, about thirty-seven or thirty-eight years old, came towards him. She had a brown headscarf wrapped around her head, a bamboo basket on her arm, and her short shirt and skirt were neatly arranged. Her two armbands were wrapped around her shoulders, and her cuffs were rolled up and tied tightly.
Yao Ruyi tried hard to recognize the person from the original owner's fragmented memories—she should be the widow Cheng Niangzi who lived in the tailor shop at the end of the alley... right? Because she wasn't quite sure, Yao Ruyi didn't dare to greet her first.
However, the other party didn't seem to notice anything amiss. It seemed that the original owner of this body had always been this kind of person who didn't say a word to people. She smiled and said, "Isn't this Ruyi? Is your health much better now?"
Yao Ruyi quickly parked the car and lowered her head, adopting the shy demeanor that the original owner of the body was used to: "Thank you for your concern, Sister-in-law Cheng. I'm all better now."
Madam Cheng was immediately surprised: "Oh my, you actually answered my question today!"
Yao Ruyi: "..."
I never expected that this would expose a flaw.
Fortunately, Madam Cheng didn't think much of it. Seeing the woman's embarrassed expression, she changed the subject, looked at the cart in her hand, and said gently, "Having walked through the gates of hell, I feel you've grown up quite a bit. Now you know how to manage household affairs. That's good. From now on, Dr. Yao will have to rely on you. Where are you going with that cart? I happen to be going to the market to buy groceries. Would you like to come along?"
Yao Ruyi secretly breathed a sigh of relief. The original owner of this body had always lived a secluded life, and the description of the location in the book was vague. She was just worried about not being able to find a way out, but this time it was like a pillow for her when she was sleepy.
She lowered her eyes and acted coy, still speaking softly, "My aunt has been taking care of everything since Grandpa fell ill. Now that she's gone, we've run out of rice, grain, and vegetables. I'm clumsy and have broken quite a few pottery vessels. We need to buy new ones, so I was thinking of going out to buy some so I can make some easy-to-digest food for Grandpa."
“It’s wonderful that you think that way! With you by my side to take care of me, and seeing that you can stand up again, your grandfather’s illness will surely get better quickly.” Madam Cheng said with relief, smiling as she waved the empty basket on her arm: “What a coincidence, then it’s perfect to go with you, sister-in-law.”
Yao Ruyi nodded shyly.
The two walked out of the alley together. Many houses on both sides of the alley had pine, cypress or willow trees in front of them. Although the leaves were sparse and desolate in autumn, they still cast dappled shadows along the way.
The alleyways of the Imperial College were still considered part of the Imperial College. There were guard posts and posts of the local militia on both sides of the alley entrance. Outsiders were not allowed to enter or leave at will, and students were not allowed to run around on non-holidays.
Yao Ruyi and Cheng Niangzi stepped out, their shadows scattering across the ground. The old guard, who was sitting by the window of the duty room, with his legs crossed and picking his teeth, even stuck his head out to look at them. Seeing that they were familiar faces and not truant students, he scratched his messy hair, licked his teeth, and then shrank back inside.
Stepping out felt like entering a bustling new world. My ears were immediately filled with all sorts of noises, and the surroundings were as lively as a boiling pot. Everywhere I looked, there were people carrying loads and setting up stalls. The streets were crowded together, selling all kinds of things, making it impossible to take my eyes off them.
As Yao Ruyi passed by Jinliang Bridge, she couldn't resist her curiosity and secretly looked around, searching for the small noodle shop that the heroine, Shen Niangzi, opened after earning her first pot of gold from setting up a stall in the book.
But Yao Ruyi only glanced at it from afar while pushing the cart.
It seems she arrived in this world quite late in time. Yao Ruyi remembered that the year title mentioned in the book should be either "Baoyuan 3rd year" or "Baoyuan 4th year," but today when she was cleaning, she saw that the "Almanac" hanging on the wall said "Baoyuan 8th year calendar promulgated." In other words, the heroine of the book, Shen Niangzi, had already built her business empire by this time. She not only opened a shop in Bianjing City, but also became an imperial merchant and opened branches of Shenji in neighboring prefectures.
It seems she transmigrated to the afterlife? Yao Ruyi pondered.
No wonder, the Shenji she saw now was no longer the small noodle shop that appeared at the beginning of the book.
This old shop now specializes in roast duck.
The storefront has been expanded to two rooms, with a golden plaque bestowed by the emperor that reads "The Number One Duck Shop in the World" hanging above it. Diners throng the front door, carrying oily paper bags in and out. Looking further into the distance, on the opposite bank of the Bian River, the five-bay connected Chenji Restaurant also stands majestically.
Before walking away, Yao Ruyi looked back at the plaque again, almost bursting into laughter, but thankfully she managed to hold it in.
The original owner's temperament and behavior were completely different from hers, so Yao Ruyi had to slowly change to avoid arousing suspicion from the neighbors due to the drastic changes. However, she did not want to blindly imitate the original owner's personality.
Now that "Grandpa is sick and monks are coming to collect debts, forcing him to have a profound awakening," the opportunity is perfect, and Yao Ruyi decides to make good use of it.
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[Heart] Three chapters today!
Starting tomorrow, I will update regularly at noon every day.
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Note: The salaries of Song Dynasty officials were much more generous than described in this article. The salary difference between fifth-rank and ninth-rank officials mentioned in the article is a fictional design.
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