Chapter 54 Chapter 54 Lingshui County.
There was a square structure surrounded by a wall, and a tall lacquered gate with the three characters "Dongshimen" written in large official script.
Judging from the people coming in and out of the door, it seems that this is the nearest city gate.
The city gate opens and closes on time every morning and evening. There are gatekeepers guarding the gateposts. Two of them are holding hands and chatting.
They followed the crowd in, and the two sisters were stunned.
There were many shops inside, including wine shops, meat shops, book shops, cloth and leather shops, hat shops, food shops, beef shops... and even lodging shops. There was everything you could think of. There were seven rows of shops on the north and south sides. The scale was much larger than that of a rural market. People came and went in front of the shops, and it was very lively.
There are long corridors connecting each row of shops, so you won’t get wet even if you go shopping on rainy days.
"Pepper wine, cypress wine! Buy one, get one free!"
"Tusu wine, take a look!"
The custom here on New Year's Day is that if conditions permit, people will gather with friends and family to drink pepper and cypress wine and eat sticky rice dumplings. Now that it is the twelfth lunar month, the wine shops have also started promotions.
"Sister, where are they selling glutinous rice dumplings?"
Ji Zhu pointed to a small shop in the corner with her little hand and saw a child standing on tiptoe, taking a stick of gummi dough from the old woman and licking it with his tongue.
Glue-tooth tart is a kind of malt candy made from malt. It is called Glue-tooth tart because it sticks to your teeth when you eat it.
It is only sold in the county, and because the price of wheat is high, a piece the size of a little finger sells for seven cents.
"Sister, don't buy it. Tsk tsk, it's made of gold so expensive that it can buy half a pound of meat." When Ji Feng heard the price, she pulled Ji Xu aside and said.
Although Ji Zhu was craving sweets, when she heard that it was so expensive, she was sensible and didn't say she wanted to eat it, but she still looked at it with a look of longing when she left.
Ji Xu said, "Since we are here, why not buy one and try it? It will be worth the long journey of thirty miles."
After that, he bought one piece for each of them. Since she didn't like sweet food, she bought herself a piece of bean cake.
Ji Feng felt that this thing was expensive, so he cherished it even more after eating it. He was reluctant to finish chewing it, and just licked the sweetness slowly.
"Sister, do you want to lick it?"
Holding up the mouth-watering, glistening gummi dough, Ji Xu shook his head and let them eat it themselves. He gave the money to the old woman and asked:
"Mother-in-law, your cakes are really good. Have you been in the city for many years?"
"Yes, don't look at my shop as small, it is my own shop after all, and I have been running this shop for most of my life." Due to the food price issue, several shops in the surrounding area closed down, but she managed to survive.
"I'd like to ask you something, old man. If I could rent this shop, what would it cost approximately?"
In a county like this, there are rows of shops everywhere. You can't see hawkers or street vendors. The gatekeepers and clerks will drive away the hawkers and not allow them to sell their goods around.
You need a shop to sell goods. For example, this shop selling dough and cakes is still a small shop after all, no matter how remote the location is.
The owners of these shops must be "city residents", that is, only those with city status can own a shop and run it.
However, among the four classes of people, namely scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans, merchants with city registration have the lowest status, which is completely inferior to ordinary registered citizens.
For example, the rule that “people with city registration are not allowed to be officials” means that people with city registration cannot be officials.
Even grandparents and parents who have had city citizenship within three generations cannot serve as officials. Once a city citizen is registered, the status is passed down from father to son and cannot be changed.
Whenever there was a construction project, such as building a city or a mausoleum, the government would conscript people for hard labor, and people with city status would be the first to bear the brunt.
Moreover, merchants in the city, in addition to the annual taxes and market taxes they have to pay for doing business, sometimes have to pass through checkpoints and the customs duties their goods have to pay are much heavier than those of ordinary people. This is what is meant by "heavy taxes and rents to humiliate them."
Compared with farmers, these people have a much lower social status even if they are rich.
Of course, these regulations also gave rise to many countermeasures. For example, some wealthy families, who did not register themselves as citizens but wanted to make a profit, would let their servants run their shops.
Alternatively, some registered residents would rent other people's shops to do business, while still maintaining their original place of origin.
Ji Xu was thinking of the latter. First, she could maintain her current status; second, she could not afford to buy a shop, so she could only think of renting one.
The old woman made a deal, so she was in a good mood to chat with her.
"A good location near the city gate, with a spacious and bright room, can earn eight or nine thousand coins a month. A small, inconspicuous shop like mine can earn about two thousand coins.
Look, there's one place available for rent, the one with the closed door. It used to be a small restaurant, but because of the rising price of flour, they couldn't continue, so they said they wanted to rent it out to someone else, but it hasn't been rented out yet."
Ji Xu only had a thousand coins on her, so she couldn't afford to rent a shop. However, she came here today just to explore the environment. Not only did she have to consider the cost of renting a shop, she also had to consider the items to sell carefully.
After all, the price of flour is falling slowly nowadays and is still at a high level. If you want to rent a shop, the cost will be higher, not counting the rent, and the noodle business is becoming less and less profitable.
While eating and walking around, I found that there was a "West Market Gate" on the west-facing wall, and people were coming in and out.
"Girl, buy some peach and fish charms and shenshu, and hang them up on New Year's Day to ward off evil and misfortune."
An inconspicuous man came up to her and said.
Ji Xu was startled by surprise.
"I have this piece of beard too. It's the best to buy it home to ward off evil spirits. If you go to the streets, you'll see many people have it hanging."
He took out a beard carved from peach wood from his bosom. It had an ox nose and fangs, and was painted with exaggerated and symmetrical patterns in red, black and white. It was somewhat similar to the one worn by Tian Shufu during the La Ba Festival.
"What a wonderful craft! Let me take a look at your peach and fish talisman." Ji Xu took the beard and asked intentionally.
When the peddler heard that there was business to be done, he turned around and stared in the direction of the market clerk, then turned the backpack over to his chest, revealing the things he was selling.
Ji Xu then understood that there were peddlers in the market who were secretly selling goods, but they had to avoid the market officials in black uniforms.
"Which one do you think is better, Fengmei or Xiaozhu?" Ji Xu held a beard and a peach fish charm in each of his left and right hands.
Both of them pointed at the beard and said, "This is horrible."
Ji Xu spent some money to buy one, which was worth the important information. He could hang it on the door when he got home to suit the occasion and bring good luck.
He casually put the bearded man with a ghost face and fangs on his face, bent over and howled to scare Ji Zhu.
Ji Zhu was so frightened that she shrank back behind Ji Feng. Ji Feng was also frightened and said angrily:
"Sister, you are bad!"
Ji Xufang took it off with a smile, revealing a face that was as harmless as could be.
Clang, clang!
Hearing the clanging sound of iron hammering, Ji Xu and the other two entered the iron shop. After entering, they couldn't help but sigh in comfort at the warmth.
This government-run iron shop was much more spacious and displayed a variety of iron tools, such as hoes, sickles, hatchets, axes, cauldrons, pots, steamers, needles, spring shears, irons, candle clippers, ear spoons, nails, hooks, knives, fire sticks...
Behind the shelves, there is a shop where goods are stored. The men inside are bare-chested and backless, waving iron pestles, hitting the red-hot iron again and again. In the twelfth month of the year with a north wind, beads of sweat are still dripping from their bronze arms.
I heard a customer asking for help from someone in the outer room. A man stopped forging iron and came out of the shop. Selling goods was not something a blacksmith should do.
There was a small counter next to the door where a government clerk was selling goods. He had taken some time off to go out and sell wine. Cui Guangzong had just come out. He had just started his apprenticeship and had little experience, so he had to take care of both the inside and the outside.
I saw a quiet young woman in a blue jacket and a bun hanging down. She was weighing an iron knife. The gleam of the blade just reflected her smoky eyebrows and eyes. She asked:
"How much is this knife?"
He turned his body sideways as he turned around.
Cui Guangzong recognized the person and laughed loudly, "Xu Nu!"
"It's been a while, are you okay?"
Ji Xu raised his gaze from the knife and vaguely recognized the man in front of him, "Cui Guangzong?"
Yes, she remembered that Liao had spread the word that her eldest son, Cui Guangzong, was a blacksmith in the county.
"It's me. Since you want to buy it, I'll ask Master for a favor and get 95% of the price for you!"
"It's not good to ask you to beg for mercy, so just keep the price as it is."
If I take advantage of this, I'm afraid the Liao family will not forgive me.
Ji Xu picked up another fire stick.
It is made of a bent flat iron bar and is used for daily fire making. It can be used to hold firewood or charcoal. We don’t have such a thing at home nowadays, so we just use our hands or wooden sticks.
I also bought spring scissors so that I don’t have to worry about thread ends getting bitten when mending clothes in the future, and I don’t have to borrow cloth from Chen’s family when cutting cloth.
The last thing he was thinking about was of course the iron cauldron, which cost three hundred coins each. It was not as light and thin as the ones in later generations, and was thicker and heavier, but it was also very good, and Ji Xu was very satisfied.
I spent a good portion of seven hundred coins to buy these things, but in return I got some solid iron tools, which was cheap and made me happy.
"Why should I be polite to you?"
Cui Guangzong received a message from Liao who asked someone to bring it to him, saying that she wanted to marry Xu Nu to him, so it seemed that the matter had been settled.
Now he thought that she was so polite because she was too shy, and he no longer used words to tease her on purpose like when they were little, so he gave her the iron that the old blacksmith had made for her to choose from and accepted the money.
Ji Xu took his two sisters Feng and Zhu with him, holding the iron cauldron which contained kitchen knives, fire sticks and spring scissors, and left the iron shop and went to a grocery store nearby.
The so-called sundry shop sells a wide variety of goods, including mats woven from cattails, sauce jars, dusters, stoves for warming fires, as well as stools, dove-shaped sticks, rice baskets, gourd ladles, stove brooms, kitchen spatulas, ear cups, etc.
"Sister, this pottery plate is really beautiful."
Ji Feng was dazzled by the sight, and finally her eyes fell on the things they were going to buy, and she took them out to show Ji Xu.
The pottery plate was simple and solid. When I turned it over, I saw various auspicious inscriptions on the bottom:
May your descendants be blessed, your descendants prosper, your wealth and happiness last forever, and your daily profits reach millions...
The price was reasonable. Ji Xu bought four plates, a large pottery bowl, and three bowls. He chose ones with inscriptions that were close to his heart and paid the shopkeeper a hundred coins for them.
Ji Feng held the basket tightly, afraid that it would fall. This was a brand new utensil in their family, and she treasured it very much.
In addition, I spent fifty coins to buy a warm stove, which is perfect for warming up by the fire when it snows.
"Shopkeeper, are you selling this stone mill?"
There was a small stone mill in the corner, covered with dust and some miscellaneous items piled on top. I didn't know how long it had been there.
The shopkeeper hurriedly said, "Sell it! Give me a hundred coins and go pick it up. It's in my way here."
While moving the debris away.
"There's a gap here." Ji Feng said sharply.
The stone mill must have been knocked while chiseling or transporting, so there are gaps on the edges. It doesn't affect its use, but it's not beautiful.
Ji Xu also said: "Sixty coins, I will buy it right away to make room for you."
The shopkeeper gritted his teeth and said, "You cut too hard, but I'm just making a profit from you!"
Ji Xu took someone with him and pretended to leave. The shopkeeper waved his hand and told them to move out.
"Well, take it! It's been sitting there for over half a year."
But this stone mill weighs over a hundred pounds, and it is definitely impossible to carry it back for thirty miles.
She then inquired, "Boss, is there anyone who can hire an ox cart around here?"
"Go out from Xishi Gate and head south. There are a lot of renters there!"
Nowadays, the person who drives a car to transport people and goods is called a "renter", and the freight paid to the driver is called "rental money".
When Ji Xu heard this, he temporarily left the millstone, stove, and plates in the shop and went with his sister to look for the place along the way. The districts in the county, including the city, were all square, so all the roads were straight, making it very easy to find the place.
Near the west city gate, under the green locust tree, there was a row of donkey carts and ox carts tied up. Most of the rented people were wearing gray robes with their sleeves rolled up. They were standing behind the wall of a sheltered house, with their backs turned, stamping their feet and talking.
Most of their cows are rented, but most of their donkeys are their own. They are mostly complaining about the recent increase in food prices, and the increase in the price of renting cows and carts as well.
"Fortunately, the grain price case has been solved. Let it quickly fall back to where it was before! Otherwise, we won't be able to live like this." White mist came out of his mouth as he spoke.
"You are the best. The ox cart is your own." Some people patted others on the shoulder in envy.
The other party said, "Very good, very good. My family has an ox cart, and I have to pay an extra 120 suanxian coins a year. My heart is bleeding."
"Hey, a guest is coming! Luo Shuangniang! A guest is coming!"
When the tenants gathered together saw Ji Xu coming, they shouted to a small house nearby.
There are rules for renting people to take jobs. They come in order. Those who come back from picking up customers are put at the end of the line and then take the next turn. The ox cart currently at the front is the one rented by Luo Shuangniang to take the job.
Luo Shuangniang came out of the house hurriedly, patting the crying girl in her arms, and asked politely with a smile:
"Miss, you want to hire an ox cart? As for the rent, here we charge by the li, one li for one li. It depends on how far you are going. If the load on the cart exceeds 25 hu, there will be an additional weight charge."
The stone mill plus three people could not possibly exceed this weight. Ji Xu said:
"Let's go to Benguli. But I have a millstone in the city. I'd probably have to ask you to drive to the city gate so we can move it here together."
The men behind were all listening intently, and one of them interrupted and said:
"Stone mill? Luo Shuangniang, you alone can't move it! Wait a moment, I'll take over this trip."
Benguli is thirty miles away, which is far away. It is much better than waiting in line for half a day and getting a short job wandering around the county.
"Go away! I can do it!"
Luo Shuangniang spat, put the crying girl with a runny nose in the back of the car, untied the reins, turned around, and waved warmly,
"Hurry up and sit down, girl. I'll go get your millstone from the city. Don't worry, I'm strong enough. I don't need your help. It won't be a problem at all."
He also carried the youngest, Ji Zhu, into the car first, for fear that she would be intercepted.
When moving the millstone, Luo Shuangniang pushed Ji Xu's hand to help lift it.
"Don't dirty the girl's clothes, just watch, I can do it alone."
After saying this, he gritted his teeth, picked up the millstone, and walked out.
The shopkeeper exclaimed, "Wow! What a fierce woman!"
Ji Xu was also startled, but he saw that the stone mill was placed steadily behind the cart. Luo Shuangniang jumped on the cart, pulled them and the things they had bought, and went to Benguli.
In the car, the little girl was still crying. Ji Zhu quietly asked Ji Feng:
"Why is she crying while riding in a bullock cart?"
Ji Zhu was very curious. This was her first time riding in an ox cart. She held on to Ji Xu's legs tightly, fearing that she would fall off. When the wheels started to move, she became more and more excited.
"The car is moving! It's shaking like it's in water!"
When I turned around and saw that the girl was still crying, I became confused.
Ji Feng was also puzzled. This ox cart was so comfortable. She saw a girl who looked about three or four years old. She was dressed in thick clothes and sat there like a fat radish, with tears streaming down her face.
She whispered to Ji Zhu, staring at her.
"Perhaps her mother beat and scolded her."
When she was a child, she was wild and never came home. Her mother spanked her and she would cry even if she was spanked hard.
"Xiaozhu, do you want me to wipe her tears with a handkerchief?" Ji Xu asked as he took out a handkerchief from his sleeve and handed it to Ji Zhu.
Jizhu hesitated and asked, "Will she bite me?"
Ji Feng said: "She is a human, not a puppy."
Ji Xu said: "Second sister is right."
Ji Zhu, who was always shy, bravely wiped the girl's tears. After a while, she said curiously, "She's not crying anymore! Look!"
"She likes Xiaozhu. Xiaozhu asked her what her name is?" Ji Xu said.
Jizhu imitated him and said, "What's your name?"
The girl said nothing. Luo Shuangniang, who was driving the cart in front, said, "Tell the sisters, her name is Douzi. She just now insisted on playing with the water in the water jar. She got her clothes wet and had no change. So we hit her a few times, and she cried her heart out. Now she's mad at me and won't talk."
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