Chapter 22
The county town is undoubtedly prosperous, but this prosperity holds no appeal for people who have no money in their pockets.
After parting ways with her uncle and his son, Shu Wanxiu chose a lively alley and plunged into it.
"Dried fish for sale! Dried fish for sale! Dried small fish, dried small shrimp, all kinds! And fresh side dishes, winter amaranth, flat vegetables, spinach, chrysanthemum greens..."
After walking down the alley, Shu Wanxiu realized that to do business, you really have to be thick-skinned and quick-witted.
She started off quite well, but when people asked about prices, she became tongue-tied and couldn't speak coherently. People who were initially interested in her dishes would glance at her and walk away because of her poor communication skills.
After making a few deals, I developed a better speaking skills, and business became smoother and smoother.
She sells the first batch of greens for three coins a bunch, and dried fish and shrimp by the bowl. She brings a rice bowl with her, and sells a flat bowl for five coins, and a large bowl piled high with eight coins.
In less than an hour, all the vegetables were sold out, and only a small amount of dried fish and shrimp remained.
Shu Wanxiu was filled with excitement. She wandered around for a while longer and sold out the last of the small fish and shrimp.
Ten bunches of green vegetables yielded thirty coins, and a large bag of dried fish and shrimp sold for one hundred and sixty coins.
After living in poverty for so long, Shu Wanxiu suddenly had 190 coins in her pocket, and she almost needed to hold onto the wall to walk.
Before the appointed time arrived, she hurriedly went into the general store to buy needles and thread, and then went to the fabric shop to buy some scraps of cloth.
These cost a total of ten coins.
With some time still remaining before their meeting at the city gate, Shu Wanxiu lingered hesitantly at the market entrance.
She had intended to buy something for Shu Shouyi, but after leaving the cloth shop, the joy of earning money for the first time had already passed.
Winter is just around the corner, and a gust of cold wind can easily cause adults and children to catch a cold. If they get headaches, fevers, and feel weak all over, they will inevitably have to spend money to seek medical treatment.
This winter, we'll make do with clothes and blankets made from reed catkins, but we can't do that every year, can we? We need to get cotton blankets and clothes sooner rather than later.
In short, there are still many places in the family where money is needed, and who knows how many more rounds of selling the small fish and shrimp in the stream will be possible.
In the end, Shu Wanxiu hardened her heart and decided to save up money to buy a loom, so she really didn't buy anything for Shu Shouyi.
When she arrived at the city gate, Shu Yanrong was already there.
She was waiting for her cousin, and she brought up the matter she had been hesitating about, asking Shu Yanrong if her final decision was right.
Shu Yanrong replied without hesitation, "Of course it's right. You've been eating rabbit meat, fish, and eggs lately. You're living better than you did during the New Year in previous years, so you shouldn't waste money."
Upon receiving affirmation, Shu Wanxiu felt much more relaxed.
About fifteen minutes later, Shu Chenglin also came over carrying empty wooden buckets.
On the return journey, the three of them were in high spirits, but it was getting late. Shu Chenglin escorted Shu Wanxiu to the entrance of Wupai Village.
Two days passed in the blink of an eye. Shu Wanxiu finished mending the tattered clothes she and Shu Shouyi had worn, and then joined her uncle's family to collect their grain rations.
They had set off early enough, but they still kept encountering refugees from other villages who were going to collect relief food along the way.
Speeding up was useless; everyone was moving quite fast.
Upon arriving in the county town, they found that the line for receiving grain stretched all the way to the town gate.
I heard that some people stayed outside the city last night and rushed to collect their food rations as soon as the city gates opened this morning.
Those who get up so early to come here aren't really considered proactive.
Xu Zhen told Shu Wanxiu to hold Shu Shouyi and stand in front of their family. As the procession moved slowly, they gradually saw people leaving the city after receiving their grain.
The man in front of Shu Wanxiu's house anxiously grabbed a burly man with a full beard and asked, "Brother, what's the situation inside? How much food is left? Will there not be enough for us when it's our turn?"
Many households had the same questions and all pricked up their ears to listen.
“There’s enough food, but…” the bearded man looked at them with a mocking gaze, “those who come later won’t get any white rice.”
"What?!"
One stone stirs up a thousand waves.
Everyone immediately erupted in chaos.
"What do you mean we can't get white rice? What can we get then?"
"Hehe." The big man chuckled twice, as if watching a show. "Curious? Then skip the queue and go take a look at the county government office."
Anyone who couldn't sense the burly man's ill intentions would be a fool; even the man who had been holding onto the burly man to ask him a question let go.
Even though no one stepped out of the group to investigate, people's hearts began to stir.
An hour later, the slowly moving procession finally arrived at the entrance of the county government office.
Shu Wanxiu stood on tiptoe and looked out, and saw the family walking out with smiles on their faces.
"Luckily we arrived early; our family got the last portion of white rice."
Everyone who heard this felt their hearts sink.
It was the family in front of Shu Wanxiu who asked again, "May I ask, brother, what will be distributed after the white rice?"
"Unhulled rice, or soybeans, or wheat."
"Really?! Is this really true?!"
"What benefit would I get from lying to you? These are the words of the clerks who distributed the grain."
Shu Wanxiu turned around and met her uncle's gaze; both of them saw disbelief in his eyes.
I had guessed that things might change after the relief food was distributed, but I didn't expect it to turn out like this in just the second month.
It seems we need to be more careful with our food supplies.
...
Shu Wanxiu received rice with the husk intact, the same weight as the white rice distributed last month.
One pound of rice contains one ounce of bran, and bran doesn't taste good, so it's a losing proposition no matter how you look at it.
The constables were fairly polite. Every time a new batch of people came in, they would explain the reason: there were too many refugees, and the monthly relief grain was transferred from various places, so it was impossible to distribute so much high-quality grain to everyone. This continued every month: those who arrived first received the better grain, and those who arrived later received the worse grain, or a mixture of both.
Shu Yanrong's family also received rice. As expected of an elder uncle, after his family received their grain, he first grabbed a handful to examine its quality, and then picked up a grain and put it in his mouth to bite.
The moisture content of rice is easy to determine.
They were just harvested from the field, so the humidity is very high; you can tell at a glance.
I dried it a little in the sun, but it's not completely dry, so it's not crisp when you bite into it.
When the rice is dried out quite a bit, it snaps with a 'crunch' when you bite into it.
It's dried so thoroughly that it's difficult to bite through with your teeth.
The grain of rice that Shu Yanrong picked up snapped with a 'crack' as he bit down with his back teeth. He nodded to Shu Wanxiu, indicating that the quality was not bad, that it was newly harvested rice this year, and that it was dried fairly well without too much moisture to weigh it.
"Let's go to the grain store and ask about the price of rice," Shu Yanrong suggested on the street, and everyone followed him.
Shu Wanxiu, holding the rice bag in one hand and Shu Shouyi's hand in the other, followed along.
One shi of grain in the current dynasty was 60 kilograms. They asked three or four grain shops, and the prices they sold were not much different. Basically, one shi of grain could be bought for 150 wen.
"Phew~" After leaving the county town and getting away from the crowd, Shu Tingyi let out a long breath and complained in a voice that was neither too loud nor too soft: "We were already not getting enough to eat, and we will have to be even more careful with our food in the future."
Xu Zhen said, "This year has been the hardest. Once we get through it, everything will be alright."
Shu Chenglin: "Yeah, what else can we ask for when it's free relief food? Let's come and line up the night before next time."
"Fortunately, the imperial court exempted us from taxes for three years." This was the most fortunate thing for Shu Wanxiu besides being able to receive relief grain.
"Hoping for a good harvest in the next few years."
After discussing the relief grain, Shu Wanxiu asked her uncle if their new house had been completed.
"Yes, it was completed yesterday."
Xu Zhen knew that Chen Sanhe had helped clear their family's name entirely thanks to Shu Wanxiu, so when the topic of the new house came up, she couldn't help but warmly invite her: "Wanxiu, why don't you stay at our house tonight? There are four rooms in the new house, you and Shouyi can sleep with Tingyi."
There's no place like home, and unless absolutely necessary, Shu Wanxiu doesn't want to stay overnight at other people's homes.
Besides, she didn't even help build her uncle's house, so how could she have the nerve to freeload off their new home?
After politely declining, she changed the subject and asked if anyone knew about the custom in Fangyuan County of inviting villagers to eat rice cakes when they move into a new house.
"I know. I heard that the custom here is that the housewarming feast can be skipped, but the rice cakes must be distributed. We owe everyone, so we'll make rice cakes to thank everyone next year after the new harvest."
Shu Wanxiu: "My family is the same."
After such a lively and bustling journey, when they finally got home, Shu Wanxiu could still hear everyone's laughter and chatter in her ears.
She calmed herself down, ate and washed up, and then began to seriously consider where to hide the money.
She had 180 coins left, which, based on today's grain prices, was enough to buy more than a bushel of rice.
A few days ago, she took some scraps of fabric left over from mending clothes and sewed them into an ugly purse, which contained all the money in the house.
Where should she hide it? She clutched the cloth bag in her hand and looked around.
Looking up, is it the roof beams or the ceiling? There's no ladder to get up there.
Looking down, under the bed? There was nothing there; it was practically a blatant invitation to the thief, 'The money's here, come and steal it!'
Inside the grain sack? That's a way to send both grain and money to the thieves.
Even carrying it around isn't reliable; she goes into the mountains to collect firewood and fishes in the streams every day, and if she drops her purse anywhere, she's doomed.
Where is it hidden? Where exactly is it hidden?
Shu Shouyi was already fast asleep and snoring softly.
Let's divide it into two.
Half of it was wrapped in cloth and placed in the woodpile in the main room, while the other half was wrapped in lotus leaves and placed in the hearth that had been dug earlier in the wooden shed.
Since Xun Yi gave her the new iron pot, Shu Wanxiu returned the small pot that Aunt Chen had borrowed from her. Lately, she has been using the large stove to boil water and cook, and the hearth she dug when she first arrived is about to be unused.
Let it do its final job of protecting half of their family's wealth.
A note from the author:
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No updates tomorrow or the day after, need to revise the story [kissing emoji]
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