Chapter 7: The First Pot of Gold
After seeing the women leave, Wu Yuetang and Wu Zhiyun stopped crying and patted the dust off their clothes. Wu Yuetang looked at the old man in front of her with a worried look on his face and bowed slightly.
"Thank you, Grandpa, Uncle, and Aunt. If my third brother and I hadn't run into you all, I don't know what we would have done."
Wu Yuetang's childish voice spoke words of thanks, and everyone was very happy to hear it. They had only heard that the youngest child of the Wu family was arrogant, but now they saw that this little mouth spoke so sweetly.
Wu Yuetang turned around and took out some sweet potatoes from Wu Zhiyun's backpack and gave one to each of the grandfathers, uncles and aunts.
"This is what my third brother and I dug up this morning. Thank you all for your help. This is our thank you gift."
Listening to what Wu Yuetang said, and looking at the sweet potato in his hand, it would be a lie to say that he was unhappy, but he really couldn't be happy if he said he was happy.
The mountains around here have been dug so many times. It's obvious that I can't find anything to eat by myself, but how come the two kids from the Wu family can find it just by going up the mountain?
Just when I was about to ask them in detail, the two kids had already walked away with their backpacks.
After walking for more than half an hour, they finally arrived at Qingshi Town. Wu Yuetang walked while looking for a clinic. Seeing a clinic called "Rendetang" in front of him, Wu Yuetang walked in without thinking.
She remembered a book mentioning this clinic, which was the most conscientious in town. Not only were their consultations cheap, but their prescriptions and medications were also very reasonable, practically selling at wholesale prices. The book didn't mention how the clinic made a profit, but it was definitely not profitable from the medical services alone.
I think the owner of this clinic must be a kind-hearted person.
Thinking of this, Wu Yuetang took his third brother into the clinic. As soon as they stepped in, an apprentice came up to them. He looked a few years older than him.
"Are you two here at the clinic to see a doctor or get medicine?"
The apprentice was quite respectful and did not look down on himself and his third brother because of their poor clothes.
"We're here to sell medicinal herbs. I wonder if you'll accept them?"
Wu Yuetang put down the backpack and opened the cloth covering it. The apprentice took a look and immediately turned around and shouted towards the inner room of the clinic.
"Master, someone is here to sell medicinal herbs. There are lacquer, dandelion and foxtail grass." After a while, an old man with a white beard walked over, looked at Wu Yuetang's nearly half basket of medicinal herbs, and said with a smile.
"Are you planning to sell all these?"
Wu Yuetang nodded, then took out all the herbs.
"Boss, please name a price. I want to sell all of these."
"Hmm... This zeqi is in good condition. The foxtail grass is a little dry, but that doesn't affect its medicinal use. The dandelion is about the same quality as the zeqi. How about this: I'll give you 15 wen per jin of zeqi, 10 wen per jin of dandelion, and 6 wen per jin of foxtail grass. What do you say?"
When the old man told him the price, Wu Zhiyun was stunned. He had never thought that the cat's eye grass, which everyone in the village avoided, could be sold for 15 cents per pound.
"Okay, okay. Please help me weigh it."
Wu Yuetang responded with a smile.
After saying that, the apprentice came out with a scale and weighed the three herbs separately.
"Three catties and a half of lacquer, two catties and a half of dandelion, and exactly two catties of foxtail grass. The total is eighty-five and a half coins."
After the apprentice packed the weighed herbs, he wrote down the list and handed it to the shopkeeper.
"Here are eighty-six coins, little ones. Keep them safe. You can use the extra half a coin to buy some steamed buns on your way back."
After the shopkeeper handed the money to Wu Yuetang, he touched their heads lovingly.
"Thank you, shopkeeper. I'll send you herbs next time I pick them."
Wu Yuetang put the copper coin in his pocket, thanked him with a smile, and pulled Wu Zhiyun out of the clinic.
"Third brother, what do you mean? Eighty-six cents, this trip wasn't in vain, was it?"
As soon as he walked out of the shop, Wu Yuetang looked at his third brother proudly. He was full of disbelief when he was on the mountain before, but now he was so shocked to see so many copper coins that he didn't say a word.
One look at Third Brother's wide-open eyes revealed that he had never seen so many copper coins before, and he sighed silently in his heart.
"Okay, let's go, I'll buy something and make you something delicious."
Wu Yuetang took Wu Zhiyun's arm and walked towards the market. They first went to the pork shop. It was not until the pork appeared in front of them that Wu Zhiyun came to his senses.
"Little sister, do you want to buy pork? Forget it. You can save this money to buy some food."
Hearing this, Wu Yuetang shook off his hand with an impatient look and looked at him seriously.
"Third brother, how long has it been since our family last had meat? Just eating brown rice and whole grains is not enough. Meat is rich in protein and must be eaten."
After saying that, he didn't care whether he understood or not, and turned to look at the uncle selling pork.
"Uncle, how much is this piece of pork belly?"
"Pork belly is 5 wen a pound, lean pork is 7 wen a pound, and spare ribs are 4 wen a pound. This pork fat is 12 wen a pound. Which one do you want to buy, little girl?"
The pork uncle directly quoted the prices of all the varieties available on the stall.
Wu Yuetang looked at the pork, thought about the people at home, and decided to buy some flour to make dumplings in the evening.
"Then give me five pounds of pork belly and one pound of pork fat."
Hearing that his younger sister bought so much meat at once, he would be lying if he said he wasn't greedy, but he was also really heartbroken about the money. He calmly tugged at Wu Yuetang's clothes from behind, and sure enough, he received a roll of the eyes from his younger sister.
"I earn my own money, so I can buy whatever I want."
Looking at Wu Yuetang's big round eyes, Wu Zhiyun finally did not speak.
The meat alone cost 37 coins, and only 49 coins were left of the 86 coins he had just earned. Wu Yuetang felt a little distressed when she saw that more than half of her copper coins were gone, but when she thought about having pork dumplings in the evening, she suddenly didn't feel the pain anymore.
After all, I can still pick more herbs to sell tomorrow and make more money. First of all, I have to fill my stomach so that I can have the strength to work.
Thinking of this, my heart suddenly became cheerful, and I walked towards the grain store.
As soon as I entered the shop, I saw the trough full of food, including rice, millet, brown rice, refined noodles, coarse noodles, and whole grain noodles of various kinds.
The waiter didn't want to serve these two poor kids. Just looking at the clothes they were wearing, he knew they didn't have much money.
Wu Yuetang acted as if she didn't notice the waiter's disgusted look. She walked to the trough and pointed at the noodles and asked.
"How much is this fine flour per pound?"
"This fine flour is not cheap, 46 coins per pound."
The waiter's tone was full of disgust, he didn't expect these two poor kids to buy anything at all.
“It’s so expensive.”
Wu Yuetang muttered to himself that he had studied the price of grain in ancient times when he was in college. The price of fine flour was basically 16-20 coins per catty. It was probably because of the famine years that the price of fine flour more than doubled.
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