Chapter 180 Chapter 180 Update.
This day was the day when Ping An Restaurant was reopened, and there were some spectators gathered there. When the shopkeeper Hu saw him coming, he greeted him with a smile.
"Sixth Master Yang, I heard you made a fortune selling cloth. I've had some good wine and delicious food prepared. After you've enjoyed your meal, please tell me about your business secrets."
As he said this, he invited the person upstairs and accompanied him for a while in a friendly manner. Yang Liu was in high spirits and said in a comfortable mood:
"No wonder they say Shopkeeper Hu is a sweet talker and that Manxianglou is the best restaurant in the world. It's true, it's true. Drink, let's drink more!"
The drunk man was carried to the carriage by the waiters and sent away. The waiter weighed the silver cake in his hand and thought, Yang Liu has really become rich.
However, his hands were sticky, which was all from the things that had gotten on Yang Liu when he was helping him up.
He glanced at his arm inside his sleeve, and saw that it was covered with red lumps of flesh, some of which were even ulcerated.
It's so dirty! If Yang Liu wasn't rich, he wouldn't serve him. He wiped it on his sleeve in disgust.
Mulberry Lane,
Ji Xu had been stockpiling Atractylodes macrocephala and grain these days, and was planning to stockpile some firewood, so he ordered Wufu Liugu to bring back twenty carts of it.
Firewood in this season is not as expensive as in winter and spring. One cart can carry ten loads, and one load costs ten coins. Twenty carts cost a total of two taels of silver. I use my own ox cart to pull the firewood, which saves me some rent.
Nowadays, the weather is very hot and there is no need to heat the kang. In order to save firewood, they will place a large jar in the yard to dry water for washing, and only carry firewood to cook.
Sidou at home has learned how to make fire. He knows how to stack firewood and start a big fire instead of just stuffing firewood into the stove and wasting it. With these twenty carts of firewood, it will be no problem to keep it burning until winter.
After bringing back the Five Blessings and Six Grains, they sorted them into different categories in the woodshed and piled them in rows so that they could be taken away later.
He also bought some essential daily necessities such as salt, bean paste, soapberry, etc., and used up five taels of them, which he also stored in the west room. They would last for a long time.
After hoarding all these, there were still fourteen taels of silver left in the house. She gave Jindou two taels and asked her to go and get some realgar wine.
Realgar is a medicine that is also used to make wine. Eating it can detoxify and improve health.
Although realgar is expensive as a medicinal material, it is somewhat toxic and should not be consumed in excess. Its content in wine is not high, about a ratio of one to thirty, so ordinary people can still afford this wine.
There is a custom of drinking realgar wine on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month every year. This year, her family drank realgar wine on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month and sprinkled realgar powder in the four corners of the house to ward off snakes.
"Daughter, two liters of realgar wine only costs one hundred coins. What are you going to do with two taels of silver?"
"Realgar wine can also dispel poison and prevent epidemics, so I bought some and drank it myself."
Nowadays, realgar wine costs five hundred coins per dou.
At that time, one dou was ten liters, but one liter in the Western Han Dynasty was only equivalent to 200 milliliters in later generations. Therefore, one dou was not much, and was about the equivalent of three large cups of milk tea in later generations.
"There are many people in the family, and the four dou are all used up, so I gave her two taels of silver."
"That's just right. I'm going to buy a needle, Jindou. I'll go with you."
In fact, he was just worried about spending money. The plague was something that happened outside the Great Wall. It was okay to buy some food and salt, which could be eaten. But medicinal herbs, realgar wine, and the Wuling were nowhere to be found, so it was a waste of money to buy them.
She was worried about the tax, so she wanted to go with them. She asked Jindou to buy only two liters, and when he came back she said that the realgar wine was gone.
**
Yang Liu went to Manxianglou twice more and gradually stopped going out. It was not because he didn't want to go out and have fun, but because many blemishes and gangrene appeared on his body, even on his face, which was very ugly. He also had a high fever and vomiting.
Miao Niang prescribed two doses of medicine for him, but he didn't get better. So she changed the prescription and went to a different pharmacy. The clerk at Wuchen's pharmacy kindly said:
"I heard there were several cases of plague outside the Great Wall. Your husband's symptoms are very similar. Has he left the Great Wall recently? Has he seen anyone infected with the plague?"
"Pah, pah, pah! He just drank too much and is feeling unwell. Your medicine didn't work, so you cursed him and gave him the plague. That's why you got the plague!"
He took the medicine and left cursing all the way. When he got home, he called Yang Liu, but there was no response.
"Rokuro, Rokuro, Roku..."
When they pushed the door open, they saw Yang Liu's body twitching and his sweat soaking the mat. Miao Niang went to help him but he slipped like a loach and it took him a while to calm down. He just lay there like a corpse and couldn't say a word.
Even when taking medicine, she had to force his teeth open to force it in. After this, Miao Niang's hands were covered with the fluid from his rashes.
"Miao Niang, your Yang Liu made a lot of money, but he got sick?"
The neighbors on Mapo Street saw her come out to dump the medicine residue again, so they asked her, and Miao Niang said:
"Yes, I drank too much and got hurt."
He was about to go in, but after a moment's thought, he asked:
"Have you heard about the plague outside the Great Wall? What are the symptoms of those who have been infected?"
"He had gangrene and rashes all over his body. He was a beggar slave from Lingnan. These were all black and rotten. Someone saw him and reported him to the authorities."
"And then?"
"He was captured by Yulinlang. I don't know if he's dead or alive. I heard that all the beggars who had interacted with him on the street were captured and locked up. No one is watching them until now."
“Why were those people also imprisoned?”
"That's a plague, it can spread to people. If someone gets infected, won't it spread to the interior of the country?"
Miao Niang closed the door and they didn't need to shout outside. They all muttered that Miao Niang was with Yang Liu's lover and not his original wife.
Miao Niang didn't want to listen to these gossips and walked around in the yard.
Yang Liu had been out of Hangu Pass a while ago, and the silk cloth he sold was brought in from outside the pass. I heard he said it was produced in Lingnan.
Thinking of this, she felt her body began to itch, just like Yang Liu at the beginning, who also said that her body felt inexplicably itchy. She rolled up her sleeves to look, but there was no rash.
"Miao Niang...Miao Niang..."
Yang Liu on the bed called out weakly, but she had no intention of responding. She searched through the boxes and crates for gold and silver jewelry, all of which Yang Liu had earned from selling goods a while ago, and packed up her bag.
When she was leaving the house, she ran into Wang'er, who was writing in his room and just opened the door. She said:
"Go find your mother, don't stay here."
After saying this, she hid from her neighbors, left Mapo Street, and ran to an unknown place. Wang'er watched her leave.
"Whore...whore..."
Hearing a loud noise from the next room, he slowly went to push the door open and saw that Yang Liu had fallen to the ground after struggling. He saw Wang Er calling out to him again, asking him to serve him, and said with a cough:
"You are my son, you must respect..."
On the kitchen stove, there was still the medicine that Miao Niang had boiled before she left. It was now boiling, and the sizzling sound of the medicine pouring on the fire attracted Wang'er over.
He burned him with his hands, then found a rag to wrap the medicine, poured it into a bowl, and gave it to Yang Liu to eat.
Yang Liu grabbed his hand and said tremblingly:
"Good son, good son, you can't go anywhere..."
Fearing that he would die here without anyone to take care of him, he showed him where some of his belongings were hidden and told him to take them so that he could get medicine for him later.
One day, Wang'er went out to get medicine. A few boys were playing Cuju on the street. He watched from the side. The ball happened to fall on his side, so he picked it up and gave it to the boy.
Those people took the ball away and said with disgust:
"Your face is full of pimples and looks dirty."
"This is terrible, this is terrible! They say Yang Liu and his son from Mapo Street have the plague.
Oh, his son is Wang'er, who used to live in our Sangshu Lane. He was found by a neighbor on the same street, and now he has been taken away by the Yulinlang who is in charge of this matter. No one is allowed to pass through that street!"
When Tian heard about this, she was at the wine shop. She took the two taels of silver from Jindou and asked the waiter to make her two liters of realgar wine, saying:
"Go back and tell them there's no realgar wine for sale at this time of year."
The lady asked her to lie to the young lady again. Jindou was feeling awkward when she heard the conversation begin. Tian asked:
"Did you hear it carefully? It's Qiu Gu's son?"
"Yes, what a good child."
The vendor said.
Tian was terrified and quickly gave the two taels of silver she had embezzled to the waiter in the wine shop, asking him to make four dou of realgar wine.
"Ten more fights, no, twenty more fights."
Jindou was just about to say that he didn't have so much money with him. At five hundred coins per dou, if he could win twenty dou, he would get ten taels of silver. But then he saw Tian take out her hairpin, pick open the bags that were sewn shut in her left and right sleeves, and take out ten taels of silver.
This money was exactly what she got from selling the goods at the dock, and she had kept it hidden until now.
Her daughter kept asking her for it, but she either said she didn't remember where she put it, or that it fell outside and someone picked it up. If she asked too many questions, she would pretend to have a headache.
Because her daughter said that the money was dirty, she didn't give it to her for fear that she would get used to it and steal again in the future. She was also afraid that if she gave it to her daughter, she would be asked to give alms to a poor person one day, and her heart would be broken.
Nowadays, everyone buys realgar wine, at least to use on themselves.
In just a short while, many people came in succession. They all heard about the plague in Mapo Street and wanted to buy realgar wine.
"This is terrible! Our Anling County is also suffering from plague! Give me a bushel of medicine."
"I want two bushels."
When I asked again later, the waiter said it was out of stock. It was not popular to drink realgar wine at that time of year, and the wine shops were still selling old wine that was not sold on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.
Tian felt even more that she had made the right purchase. After all, her daughter had foresight. When she returned, she saw a cloth shop crowded with people. From a distance, she could hear the clerk shouting:
"Silk, the finest silk, the kind worn by princesses and noble ladies, for sale at a low price!"
Those buyers came out with a piece of silk cloth in their arms. Tian looked at what they had in their hands and found that it was indeed good cloth with bright colors. Her daughter Erfeng loved it very much. It was a pity that she had no money, otherwise she should have bought a piece of silk cloth to take back.
"Ma'am, we should go back."
Jindou said that she remembered Ji Xu's words and told her not to hang out with other people and to go back after buying things. Seeing that Tian was watching her, she was afraid that she would go into the cloth shop to join in the fun, so she called out.
Tian then left. Ji Zhi saw the bustle of the cloth shop and ran to the rice stall and said to Jin:
"Mother, the silk cloth there is cheap. Let's buy some for our family. We haven't had a new set of clothes made since summer."
"You silly girl, our family still owes money to Wuyan, how can we have that kind of spare money?"
Even when she heard people say that buying realgar wine could ward off epidemics, she was reluctant to spend it. Ji Huhai was making meat soup for someone and heard someone say:
"Second sister, I will buy it for you when I grow up and make money."
"How long will I wait for you?"
Ji Zhi finally understood the family situation and did not mention the purchase of silk and cloth.
Tian and Jindou came into the house carrying wine. Ji Xu saw them and said:
"You just said you bought four dou, why did you bring back such a big jar?"
Tian wiped her sweat and said, "There are 24 dou here. I heard there was an epidemic in Mapo Street, so I hurriedly asked for another 20 dou."
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