"Brother Li, you don't need to clean it. Sister Yuying and I cleaned it yesterday. Come, I brought you some food. Eat something first."
She put the things on the table, went to the kitchen to get a set of bowls and chopsticks and a teacup, and poured him some hot tea.
"I just borrowed some tea from the carpenter's shop. Brother Li, please eat it quickly. The plaque will take more than an hour to be delivered!"
Shen Li took out a bun and handed it to her, "You didn't eat anything this morning, let's eat something together."
Lin Wanwan took the bun and felt like she was about to faint. She ate the bun in small bites. Hmm, today's bun is really sweet...
She ate two buns and drank a large bowl of tea, and finally felt calm.
Remembering that I had some unfinished work to do, I handed the big box to him.
"Brother Li, I have something else to do. Can you help me look after the shop here? If you are really bored, you can use the things in this box to kill time. I'm leaving now!"
Chen Li looked at her anxious back, smiled and shook his head. He opened the box and saw a book and four writing tools inside. Hmm, paper was missing. Did he want him to write on the table? He put the box on the table and took a look at the book. Qi Chong's Travels. Qi Chong? He knew that he had compiled many classics, but when did he write this travelogue? So he turned the pages with doubts and began to study.
Lin Wanwan went to the money shop to exchange for twenty taels of copper coins, then ran to the blacksmith shop and gave him the note and the copper coins.
"Manager Zhao, how much does it cost to make these eight copper pots?"
"You can give me five taels for these eight. Let's deduct these five taels from the share. You can give me eighteen strings of cash first. Prepare some more first. We can talk about it later if it's not enough."
"Okay, then I'll trouble Shopkeeper Zhao!"
She touched the remaining thirty or forty taels of silver in her arms and couldn't help but sigh. Alas, this money is really not worth spending. I had more than a hundred taels of silver on me yesterday, and I spent so much in just one day.
When she passed by the dental clinic, she went in.
The guy who had shown her the house before hurried over to greet her as soon as he saw her.
"Ms. Lin, do you still want to rent a room today?"
"Brother Wang, I don't want to look at houses today. I want to buy someone."
Wang Ergui understood and whispered, "Miss Lin, the boy is behind us. Come on, I'll take you there."
Lin Wanwan followed him out of the dental clinic and walked along the path next to it. After walking for a minute or two, a large open space appeared in front of them, surrounded by iron cages filled with people.
A sturdy man holding a mace came over and asked in a gruff voice, "Buy someone? Do you want a man or a woman?"
Lin Wanwan looked around and said, "I want to pick it myself, is that okay?"
The sturdy man nodded, "Okay, you pick it!"
Lin Wanwan took a look and saw that some people here were dressed neatly, while others had shifty eyes and it was obvious that they had tainted conduct.
She stopped in front of a man with knife wounds on his face and asked, "How did he get into this state? What did he do to be sold?"
The sturdy man snorted coldly and said, "He is a guard who knows some Kung Fu. He was betrayed by his master because he committed a crime. However, he has a strange temper and has injured several masters."
Lin Wanwan nodded and continued walking forward. She saw two women locked in cages. They looked to be in their thirties or forties.
Lin Wanwan asked, "Why were they sold?"
"These two were sold by their husbands. One was addicted to gambling, and the other was an alcoholic. They had no money to drink, so they sold their wives and children. But these two are a little special. If you want to buy them, you have to buy their children as well. Otherwise, they will never leave."
Lin Wanwan said to them, "Can you cook? Are you skillful?"
The two people who had been numb suddenly had a glimmer of light in their eyes. One of them climbed to the railing and stared at her closely.
"Girl, I can cook! I can also make snacks! I am also good at sewing! Please be kind and buy my daughter as well!"
"How old is your daughter?"
"She is... five years old... But don't worry! She eats little! She's not annoying! I will take good care of her..."
Lin Wanwan asked another woman, "How old is your son?"
"Eight years old..."
Lin Wanwan looked at the sturdy man, "Brother, how much do they cost?"
"Fifty taels, and seventy taels with two children!"
She frowned, "Seventy taels, a bit expensive, fifty taels, two adults and two children."
The sturdy man stared at her for a long while before he said in a deep voice, "Okay, fifty taels is fifty taels. If we can't sell them for a day, the four of them will have to eat our rice for a day! It's a money-losing thing!"
Lin Wanwan followed him to pay the money and get the contract. When she arrived in front of the iron cage where the scarred man was locked up, she stopped and asked, "Brother, how much is he?"
The strong man looked back and said, "Twenty taels. If you want to buy him, you must be prepared. If he beats you, we won't refund the money we collected!"
Lin Wanwan joked, "Then I have to lock him up at night. If locking him up doesn't work, then I'll accept it."
"Okay! Let's add him, right?"
As she walked, she saw a skinny old couple in their fifties or sixties. Lin Wanwan stopped and asked them, "Can you farm?"
The woman inside replied, "We were managing the farmland for the previous owner. Because the harvest was poor in the past few years, the owner was furious and sold us all out."
Lin Wanwan asked the strong man again, "How much do they sell it for?"
"Forty taels of silver."
"Were there any others who were sold together with them?"
The sturdy man pointed to the opposite side, where there were three other men locked up, who looked about the same age as the couple.
"Brother, how much are these five together?"
"One hundred taels!"
She saw a few skinny kids across from her staring at her with eyes full of longing.
Then, she pointed at the two children and said, "Counting the little ones, one hundred taels! A total of one hundred and seventy taels, okay?"
The veins on the sturdy man's forehead were throbbing, his hands were clenched into fists, and he pointed at Lin Wanwan and shouted angrily: "You little girl really don't want to suffer any loss!"
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