Chapter 13 Buying Meat as a Medicinal Ingredient
"This is the remaining money."
Yao Xiaoyu shook the cloth bag in her hand and poured it onto the table amidst the gleaming eyes of the crowd. Apart from two silver coins, the remaining dozen or so were silver dollars.
"...Twelve, thirteen, Manager He gave so much too much?"
Yao Tianrui asked with some doubt. After copying, he also calculated according to the numbers given by Yao Xiaoyu. After deducting the fifty silver dollars and the five that had been withdrawn in advance, the remaining silver dollars should not exceed four, which is now more than three times the amount.
"Yes, Manager He is a good person. He should have given me the money based on the exchange rate of one hundred and ten copper coins for one silver coin."
Yao Xiaoyu used the total amount of money received to deduce that there was a reason why He Family Bookstore was becoming increasingly prosperous.
"But I guess this will only happen once. Next time it will probably still be 128 copper coins."
Zhen Chengshi's matter caused quite a stir, so the exchange price should be a discounted price given out of sympathy and friendship.
"It's already pretty good that we've managed to pay the rent for the house this time."
Yao Xiaoyu had calculated the bottom price in advance, and the Yao family was very open-minded about it—this money was an unexpected bonus!
"Grandma, let's calculate the expenses. If we still have enough money, how about we treat ourselves to something nice?"
Yao Xiaoyu enthusiastically suggested that expenses should be prepared in advance and debts should be repaid, but after drinking porridge for so many days, it was time to eat something proper.
There's no need to go to any restaurants. Just steam a pot of white rice, buy some meat, and stew it in an earthenware pot. You don't have an iron wok for stir-frying vegetables at home, but a big plate of stir-fried vegetables in a restaurant only costs one copper coin. You can pack two plates to get enough vitamins.
If you want to make vegetarian dishes at home, just buy two eggs and make soup with the vegetables; it'll be a very satisfying meal.
Yao Xiaoyu's suggestion was unanimously approved by the whole family, mainly because the Yao family had really had enough of porridge. When they finished the task of writing eight thousand words in the first two days, Wenrou cooked rice and steamed meat, but the three of them who were copying the porridge had no appetite to taste it. They were too busy writing so much that they either didn't have the strength to pick up the food or the food would fall off their chopsticks.
The father and his two daughters, whose hands were shaking so badly they were practically Parkinson's, worked like tigers, but their score was a mere 0.5. They finally managed to eat a few bites of meat by switching to a different spoon. However, their physical and mental exhaustion made even chewing a difficult task. So, after a day of adjustments, the separate meals were turned back into a pot of porridge.
Due to limited resources, Zhou Chunhua bought Mensa fish every day. Wenrou would pour the day's rice into a ceramic pot every morning, add the fish, and then mash the fish with a spoon after the rice had cooked into porridge. She would then add vegetables and stir it all together. When it was time to eat, she could just scoop it out.
Because of the heat, to prevent the porridge made in the morning from spoiling at night, Wenrou would always leave a piece of firewood to keep it warm. Sometimes when she opened it at night, it had turned into a mushy mess. After eating it for three meals a day, apart from the three people whose taste buds were half-closed due to exhaustion, the Yao family members were quite tired of it.
Of course, compared to the sweet potato porridge they ate before, they would still choose to eat this mixed stew. Although it has a strong fishy smell and the saltiness is hard to control, it is still much tastier than sweet potatoes that are hard to swallow and can get stuck in your teeth. Plus, you won't get hungry again soon after eating it.
"I have three silver dollars and thirty-two copper coins here."
Zhou Chunhua took out the remaining money. After delivering the first copied medical manual, she took five silver dollars from Manager He for daily expenses.
Fifty silver dollars.
Yao Xiaoyu, wary of being overheard, only mouthed the words, but all four understood.
The money was given by Yu Xianshu. When Yao Xiaoyu went home, she made a special trip to the Zhen family's silk shop. The belongings of the young child born to the concubine were nowhere to be found. Yu Xianshu's eldest son was dressed as the shopkeeper and chatting with customers with a smile inside.
"This money is a secret, and unless we make a fortune later or face a life-threatening situation, we'll just pretend we don't have it."
Yao Xiaoyu lowered her voice and said, "This money is not a small amount, but it is still pitifully small compared to the debt of six hundred silver dollars. Moreover, it cannot be exposed to the light of day. Taking it out will only bring trouble."
"I'll bury it later."
Zhou Chunhua stated directly that at this time, it was very popular for people to bury gold and silver underground. However, once buried, the money would never be dug up unless it was at a critical moment or on the deathbed when it was to be passed down to future generations.
Leaving aside this somewhat dangerous topic, Yao Xiaoyu focused her attention on the small amount of truly disposable income in front of her:
"We need to set aside money for next month's rent."
Zhou Chunhua took out six silver dollars and put them aside. More than a third of the shiny silver dollars were gone, which made everyone who saw it feel heartbroken.
"To prepare one and a half dan of rice, you'll need at least five yuan and forty cents."
Yao Xiaoyu originally wanted to buy two dan of rice, since most people in this era lacked protein and had a high carbohydrate intake. However, after roughly calculating the necessary expenses, she decided to buy one and a half dan instead.
Five silver dollars and two silver coins were removed, and the remaining two cents were the deposit for the pen.
"Vegetables and meat, and miscellaneous expenses."
Zhou Chunhua moved out a silver dollar, then thought for a moment and moved all the copper coins over, leaving four silver dollars on the table. Yao Xiaoyu didn't have mind-reading abilities, but she roughly understood their thoughts:
Money goes by quickly.
"Dad wants to buy a fountain pen, which costs one yuan and fifty cents."
Yao Xiaoyu was initially dazzled by the dozen or so silver dollars and was thinking of spending more money on a fountain pen, such as buying a two-dollar model. Now... the cheapest one is just fine; the cap is only cracked, not broken.
He still had two dollars and fifty cents of silver dollars at his disposal, but he also needed to set aside some for a deposit on handicrafts and for the car rental business. Even with fifty silver dollars in hand, he didn't need to save any more, and he could only use two silver dollars.
But this is already quite a lot of money. A pound of pork costs only sixteen copper coins, two copper coins can feed the whole family, and a large egg costs one copper coin. With a budget of one silver coin, the whole family can eat very well.
"Let's go all out today and have a good meal!"
Two flames burned in Zhou Chunhua's eyes, and her words indeed surprised everyone except Yao Xiaoyu:
"We'll each eat a pound of meat today!"
The Yao couple and Yao Tianrui gasped in shock.
...
"Grandma, do you really want to..."
Before Yao Tianrui could finish speaking, Zhou Chunhua interrupted him:
"Give me six pounds of meat, cut into chunks."
Zhou Chunhua pointed to the pork, which was 20% fat and 80% lean, and said to the butcher. The butcher paused as he reached for the Dongyang fish, his eyes, which had been shrunk by the meat, widened for the first time.
"The Yao family has become rich? They bought so much meat at once."
Someone voiced what the butcher was thinking, and some servants who came to buy vegetables also strained their ears, afraid of missing any excitement—the Yao family still owed debts, so why weren't they paying them back and instead buying meat to eat?
"Where is there any money?"
At home, Zhou Chunhua was beaming with joy, but outside she changed her expression completely. No one knew how she did it; it was clearly the same face, but by turning her mouth down and drooping her eyebrows, she looked quite distressed.
“I just gave Zhen Chengshi fifty silver dollars to let my granddaughter go. If it weren’t for Manager He’s kindness, we wouldn’t even be able to pay the rent, and we would be homeless tomorrow.”
Zhou Chunhua's sighs and lamentations drew many sympathetic glances, but some people didn't believe her and shouted in the crowd:
"Then why are you still buying meat?"
Zhou Chunhua sighed again and asked the butcher to cut the meat into smaller pieces.
"This is not meat, it's a medicinal ingredient."
Zhou Chunhua patted Yao Tianrui's head, then patted Yao Xiaoyu's head. Yao Xiaoyu swayed her body in response, drawing most people's attention to her and Yao Tianrui's much thinner faces.
In this era, it is common to see children so thin that only their eyes remain, but Yao Xiaoyu and Yao Tianrui are children that everyone has watched grow up, so their weight is naturally different from that of strangers, and they look quite pitiful.
"After Ping An finished copying the book and learned that the money had been returned, he couldn't get out of bed."
Even when using Yao Ping'an as an excuse, Zhou Chunhua wouldn't say anything like he was sick and about to die. She would just throw out some ambiguous sentences for others to fill in the blanks. It was true that Yao Ping'an couldn't get up after copying the book, but that was just because he was too tired and fell asleep. It had nothing to do with being sick, but in everyone's eyes...
“Our family can’t afford a doctor, but fortunately we gave the itinerant doctor a bowl of water. He gave us a folk remedy, saying that if he could wake up after drinking it for three days, it would be God’s mercy.”
At this time, there were itinerant doctors, also known as bell doctors, because they often carried a stick taller than a person with a bell hanging from the top. They would ring the bell with every step they took, traveling in all directions. In some places, they would not want to stay but needed to resupply, so they would plug the bell. The Yao family was fortunate to encounter them.
However, Zhen Chengshi was truly despicable. For fifty silver dollars, he actually tried to drive Yao Daniu's only son to his death. Fortunately, his son was of good character and different from him.
"No wonder this medicinal ingredient is so strange; it actually requires meat."
"What's so strange about it? I have an uncle who's sick. Do you know what the doctor prescribed as the key ingredient in his medicine?"
What is it?
"The molars of an old sow that has given birth seven times must be extracted, then roasted over a fire, and finally ground into powder and drunk."
"That's quite a dilemma."
"That's right, we went out and searched for the old sow in the dead of winter, it was quite a hassle."
"What's that compared to the medicinal ingredients I used to be looking for?"
What are you looking for?
“A pair of crickets, perfectly matched!”[1]
"...How can you tell if a cricket is its original mate? What if the crickets separated and found new partners?"
"So we went around catching them, and then showed them to the doctor."
...
The group, whose logic was consistent, began to talk about the medicinal ingredients they had encountered and heard about. This time, it was Yao Xiaoyu's turn to prick up her ears and eavesdrop. Some of them sounded normal enough, while others were so strange that even a modern pseudo-human wouldn't be able to figure out the connection between them. Yao Xiaoyu listened with great interest, and a short essay had already formed in her mind: "On the Grand View of the Strange Medicinal Ingredients I Have Seen and Heard Over the Years".
Six catties of meat is a large portion. The vendor used a lot of lotus leaves to prepare it, like a medicine packet. While everyone was discussing it enthusiastically, Zhou Chunhua quietly slipped away with her granddaughter and grandson.
A note from the author:
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[1] The original cricket is from Lu Xun's work. The original text is the original cricket.
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There are all sorts of strange medicinal ingredients, but some are really effective. When I was a child, I ate dried and ground banana peels. Have you ever seen or heard of any strange medicinal ingredients?
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