As evening approached, Old Man Ye and his son finally returned.
The two men were covered in sweat and their brows were furrowed with worry.
When Grandma Ye saw that Ye Daquan was still carrying the bag of rice, she was stunned: "Can't it be returned?"
"Hmm," Old Man Ye replied listlessly.
He sat down on a small stool, taking off his shoes as he spoke, "The female manager of the rouge shop is kind-hearted; she gave us a refund. But the grain shop..."
"Hmph, they said we dirtied the rice and wouldn't give us a refund. We offered to exchange it for brown rice, but they wouldn't agree either," Ye Daquan said angrily.
Grandma Ye and Madam Wei were devastated. They almost cried when they realized they only had enough food for about ten days.
In that case, I won't be able to pay back the money! A month later, I'll have to pay back an extra 120 coins!
This white rice tastes good, but it doesn't keep you full for long!
Grandma Ye wanted to scold Ye Daquan, but then she remembered that it was all because of Ye Caiping, and that scolding her daughter would make her lose face, so she kept quiet.
The entire Ye family was suddenly shrouded in sorrow.
Ye Caiping stepped forward and said, "Today is August 21st, and the Double Ninth Festival is just half a month away. At that time, every household will offer some white rice to their ancestors. If we lower the price by one coin and ask every household, even the poorest people will buy one or two ounces of white rice."
Upon hearing this, the eyes of everyone in the Ye family lit up.
Ye Daquan said, "My little sister is the smartest."
Ye Erquan thought for a moment: "Aren't prices going up during the holidays? Do we have to lower them by a penny? Why don't we wait half a month, and when the price of rice goes up, we can raise it by a few pennies before we sell?"
Ye Caiping laughed in exasperation: "You're going to raise the price? How much can you raise it? At most, it'll go up by three or four coins per pound, but then we won't be able to pay back the money. With an interest of four coins a day, that's 60 coins in half a month. You only have 13 pounds of white rice here, I'm afraid you won't even earn 60 coins."
Everyone agreed that it made sense.
Ye Erquan was still counting on his fingers when Old Man Ye said, "Don't cause any trouble. Let's hurry up and sell all the rice. Paying off the debt tomorrow is the right thing to do."
“Exactly.” Ye Daquan glared at Erquan.
Old Man Ye put his mud-covered shoes back on, turned around, and left the house.
...
Old Man Ye borrowed a small scale from Ye Lizheng and, following Ye Caiping's method, went door to door asking.
It's okay if people don't eat well during the holidays, but white rice is a must when paying respects to our ancestors.
The villagers knew that rice prices would rise during the festival, but now that they heard Old Man Ye say it would be cheaper by one cent, they were all willing to buy it.
Some curious villagers asked, "Why did you suddenly buy more than ten kilograms of white rice? You bought it and kept it, why are you selling it now? And it's even cheaper by one cent."
Old Man Ye looked embarrassed: "In this year, who can afford white rice? But as everyone knows, Caiping was injured, and the doctor told her to eat better. So we bought about ten catties."
"But she recovered quickly and said she didn't need to eat anymore, insisting that we sell it."
The villager was surprised: "Caiping is so sensible?"
Ye Caiping is well-known throughout the village.
Old Man Ye looked embarrassed and didn't say much. He weighed out two ounces of rice for the villager.
One family bought two liang (100 grams), some bought three or four liang, and some even bought one or two jin (500 grams). Soon, in less than an hour, thirteen jin of white rice were sold out.
The last two jin were bought by Ye Lizheng when they returned the scale.
Ye Lizheng had just paid the money, but then put the bag of white rice on the table and pushed it in front of Old Man Ye.
"Village head, what is this...?" Old Man Ye was taken aback.
“Isn’t Caiping injured? Take this rice back for her to eat; it will help her recover,” Ye Lizheng said.
Old Man Ye was both grateful and helpless, and said with a wry smile, "No need. The family already owes you enough. Besides, today's incident was all because of the rice."
Then, Old Man Ye recounted the whole story.
Ye Lizheng was speechless for a moment: "This complete encyclopedia... sigh."
"A woman's health cannot be compromised." At this moment, the village head's wife came out of the room.
“If you take this rice back, I’m afraid it will cause trouble again. How about this, I’ll cook a bowl of rice porridge for Fu Bao every morning to soothe her stomach. I’ll also cook an extra bowl, and you can have Cai Ping come to eat it around Chen Shi (7-9 AM) every day.”
Ye Li, with a pipe in his mouth, nodded.
Fu Bao is their only grandson. He has a weak stomach, and the doctor instructed him to eat a bowl of white rice porridge every morning to nourish him.
Old Man Ye's eyes reddened slightly: "This... we haven't paid back the money we owe you yet."
"Alright, alright, we're brothers, why bother with all this?" Ye Lizheng waved his hand. "You're all hardworking people, you'll be able to pay it back eventually."
Old Man Ye was filled with shame, but thinking of his daughter's injuries, he nodded and said, "Thank you for your trouble."
...
Back home, Old Man Ye and his family began counting the copper coins.
Thirteen catties of white rice, after the price reduction, is 19 wen per catty, for a total of 247 wen.
Rouge costs 120 coins, for a total of 367 coins.
Because of two osmanthus candies and a shortage of one coin per pound of white rice, they were short 33 coins.
Old Mrs. Ye said, "There's still the 4 copper coins of interest for today, so we're still short 37 copper coins."
Old Man Ye said, "If I sell a couple of pieces of firewood tomorrow, I can make up for it."
Ye Caiping clicked her tongue in surprise. This white rice was so expensive! It cost 20 coins per pound!
However, considering the low yield per mu in ancient times, coupled with this year being a year of disaster, it is understandable that grain prices are high.
And that was white rice. Ordinary people's staple food was brown rice, while white rice, also called refined rice, was the food of wealthy families.
"Caiping, tomorrow take your household registration certificate to the village head's house and change the registration." Old Man Ye looked at her. "Go at Chenshi (7-9 AM)! They'll be free then."
"good."
Perfect timing, she had some questions for the village head.
At this moment, the three Ye brothers returned. Ye Yong and Ye Xuan each carried a small bundle of firewood, while Ye Peng only had half a bundle.
As the weather turns cold, villagers scramble to collect firewood, either to burn themselves or to sell for money, as there isn't enough dry firewood on the mountain to go around.
Wei and Yinhua quickly set out the meal.
It was radish and rice porridge again, just like at noon.
Grandma Ye was in charge of distributing the porridge. She ladled a large, thick bowl of brown rice porridge for Ye Caiping, while the porridge for the others was so thin you could see your reflection in it.
"Caiping is recovering from her illness, so she needs to eat more," Grandma Ye added.
No one objected, except for Ye Jinhua who gave a soft snort.
Ye Caiping didn't say anything, after all, she was really injured and needed nutrition.
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