Chapter 2: Sky-high Price of Salt
Gu Xiyue wanted to live, and seeing that the old woman was extremely disappointed that she didn't want to die, she wondered whether she should tell her the truth.
The truth is, suicide will not affect your family members in the capital.
But when she saw a group of disappointed men, women, young and old, she shuddered and quickly calmed down.
I can’t tell you. If I tell you, there might not be many people left here tomorrow.
Thinking of this, she nodded again and said, "Mother-in-law, I was depressed before, but now I have come to my senses. I can't die. If I die, what will happen to my family?"
After hearing this, the old woman's eyes flashed, as if she had a little more determination to persevere, but it quickly disappeared. She lowered her head, her face ashen, and slowly turned around and walked out of the yard.
The others, like my mother-in-law, turned around and walked out with pale faces.
How excited they were when they came, how lonely they were when they left.
The lonely thing is that you can't die, you have to grit your teeth and live!
There were children of a few years old in the crowd. What shocked Gu Xiyue was that the expressions on the children's faces were almost the same as those of adults. They had lost the courage to live at such a young age, which made people tremble with fear.
"Miss, do you think we will become like them in the future?"
Gu Xiyue shook her head and said, "No." Then he pulled her out of the yard and said, "Let's go get a bucket of water and cook."
When she walked out of the yard, she turned her head to look at the east room. The door was closed all the time. Even though there was such a loud noise outside, no one came out.
The only well in the Southern Wilderness is located at the easternmost end. The shortest way to get there is to walk along the seashore. If you walk along the road at the foot of the mountain, not only is the journey long, but you will also have to pass by every household.
Meixiang just went to the east to fetch water and walked towards the seaside.
This road by the sea was rarely traveled. The two of them walked to where the bucket had fallen. Meixiang happily picked up the bucket that was tilted on the ground and said, "Miss, no one took it away."
"They have no hope of survival, so naturally they are not in the mood to pick up other people's things."
The desperate looks of those people always appeared in Gu Xiyue's mind. Unfortunately, she could hardly protect herself now. If there was any way, she really wanted to help them.
As she walked along the road, Gu Xiyue looked at the wasteland on the left and the sandy beach on the right, and her mind became active. It would be nice if she could catch some seafood at the beach and cook it at home. Thinking of this, she called Meixiang and asked her and Shuitong to wait first. She picked up her skirt and ran to the beach.
The sand was soft and comfortable to walk on. She was in high spirits and ran while looking around. She soon reached the beach. But after just a quick look, she was disappointed. The sea water was a dark blue, which looked very deep.
If there is a wide shallow beach, you can go to the beach during low tide and get more food. But if you go directly to the deep sea, you will not even have the thought of going to the beach.
The two walked to the east for about a quarter of an hour.
When he arrived here, Gu Xiyue discovered that this place was indeed different from the west. There was a well here, five brick and tile houses, and the yard was paved with bluestone slabs. It was considered the most luxurious house in the entire Southern Wilderness.
Seeing that the young lady had been staring at the brick house, Meixiang whispered, "Young lady, we passed by here when we came here. Have you forgotten that the three rooms on the inside are where the military officer lives, and the other two rooms are shops?"
Gu Xiyue nodded and said calmly: "Let's go inside and take a look."
The east end of the Southern Wasteland is the only entrance and exit. At the west end is a cliff. People here can only pass through the east end if they want to leave the Southern Wasteland.
There are three military officers guarding this place all year round. Their main task is to count the number of suicides and report to the capital. One of them is also a doctor and provides free medical treatment to people on weekdays. If someone dies, he will also determine whether that person died of natural or abnormal causes.
It can be said that it completely cuts off people's thoughts of suicide.
The shop sells some simple daily necessities, including tea, rice, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar. On the other side there are also items such as cloth and needles. In the innermost part there are wooden barrels and basins, which are all necessities of life.
Gu Xiyue took a closer look and asked about the prices of some things. The price of salt scared her a little. A pound of salt cost fifty cents, while a pound of rice cost only one cent.
Meixiang whispered in her ear that salt in the capital only costs three or four cents per pound.
The shop owner, a soldier surnamed Jun, introduced Gu Xiyue in a lively tone. He saw that she was well dressed and had two hairpins in her hair, which looked worth a lot of money. The people in the Southern Wilderness were very poor and would only come here to buy oil, salt, sauce and vinegar once a year or two. Few people came here at other times.
"Mrs. Gu, since you're willing to live a good life, I'll charge you ninety-five coins for two pounds of salt. How about that?"
That tone, saving Gu Xiyue five cents was a great favor.
What Gu Xiyue didn't expect was that he actually knew about her suicide!
She laughed and shook her head, saying, "Thank you for your kindness, Master Jun. I'll come back to buy more salt when the salt in the house is finished."
Jun Ye nodded a little disappointedly and immediately lost his enthusiasm for the introduction, but when he saw her curious about a basin of black liquid, he became interested again.
"Miss Gu, I see you're very pretty. If you get bit by a mosquito on your face, it's best to buy some of this black water and apply it. It's guaranteed to leave no scars and also repel mosquitoes. This is specially brewed by Doctor Wang."
The basin of black water was dark in color, and when you smelled it up close, you could smell a strange odor. Gu Xiyue was completely repulsed by the thought of applying this thing on her face, but out of curiosity she still asked about the price of the black water.
A small bottle of black water costs twenty cents. Gu Xiyue looked at the small porcelain bottle of black water placed next to her. It was really small. A bottle would probably be gone after ten or so uses. It was still too expensive.
After all, a pound of rice only costs four cents.
Gu Xiyue felt that one cent here was equivalent to one dollar in his time. From this perspective, a pound of salt cost fifty dollars and a small bottle of mosquito repellent cost twenty cents, which was really unreasonable.
Thinking of this, I became even more worried. People in the Southern Wilderness couldn't even get enough food to eat, so who could afford these things? But these things were exactly what people needed. These military officers were simply trying to squeeze the blood and sweat out of people.
They are not only starving to death but also not full, and they also suffer from all kinds of natural torture.
Moreover, she knew that the original person had silver on him when he came. After all, Xiao Heng was the crown prince before. The emperor deposed him and ordered him to be exiled, making him live in a place worse than death, which was the greatest humiliation. Therefore, he did not confiscate all his property, but left him not much.
The total money of the two of them was just over three hundred taels.
Don't spend money indiscriminately.
At this moment, an old woman walked in tremblingly. Gu Xiyue recognized her at a glance. It was the old woman who asked him why he didn't die at the door.
As soon as the military officer saw her, he asked with concern: "Grandma Liu, why are you here? Are you feeling unwell? Do you want me to ask Lao Wang to take a look at you?"
Granny Liu waved her hand and fumbled in her sleeves for a long time. She took out a lump wrapped in a blue-gray cloth and put it on the table.
"Master Xu, please count and see if there are fifty coins. This is the money I have saved for a year. To be honest, I haven't eaten salt for a month."
Gu Xiyue was secretly shocked.
Xu Junye carefully counted the money in the cloth bag. When he counted to the end, he frowned and said, "Grandma Liu, there are only forty-six coins here. We are still short of four coins. Why don't you come back when you have enough?"
Granny Liu had a dull expression. She turned her head to look at the white salt on the counter inside, then smacked her lips and sighed.
"That's all..."
"Wait a moment!"
Before Granny Liu could finish her words, Gu Xiyue stepped forward and said, "Master Xu, you just said you would give me two kilograms of salt for ninety-five coins. I plan to buy it now."
After saying that, he asked Meixiang to pay.
Gu Xiyue remembered that her original self always let the maid take care of the purse.
After she finished speaking, Meixiang reminded her in a low voice, "Miss, on the way here, the virtuous king gave you some money and you kept it for yourself. You spent a lot along the way, and now there probably isn't much left."
Gu Xiyue's face was embarrassed, and he pretended to be calm as he felt in his sleeves, but found nothing. He then felt in his chest and finally took out a purse. After opening it, he saw a few scattered silver coins inside.
He gritted his teeth, took out the largest piece and put it on the counter.
"Give me two packages."
Mr. Xu picked up the silver coins with a smile, looked at them carefully in front of his eyes, weighed them, turned around with a smile, packed two kilograms of salt, handed them to Gu Xiyue, and counted out a handful of copper coins from the box behind him and put them on the counter.
"Mrs. Gu, take the salt. Here's your change of 310 copper coins. Take it!"
Gu Xiyue stuffed all the copper coins into her purse, picked up a bag of salt, turned around, grabbed Granny Liu, and stuffed the salt into her hand.
"Grandma Liu, I'll buy you this pound of salt. No matter what, you must take good care of yourself."
After saying that, she asked Meixiang to put Grandma Liu's wallet into Grandma Liu's hands.
Granny Liu stared at Gu Xiyue in a daze, her lips trembling as she forgot to thank him. Every time she met Jun Ye before, they were always kind and asked her to take care of herself, but none of them moved her as much as Gu Xiyue did.
She had been living a life worse than death before, but now there was someone who really told her to take care of herself.
She choked up and said, "Thank you, young lady! Young lady, don't mind what I said before. Life here is too hard. If you can die early, it will be a relief!"
Gu Xiyue could only pat her to comfort her.
Granny Liu wiped away her tears and smiled, looking a little kind. "I'll go back first and share some of this salt with Madam Li and Madam Liu. They haven't had salt for a month. The adults are fine, but their children can't stand it."
Gu Xiyue was deeply shocked. After listening to Granny Liu's words, she turned her head and glanced at Mr. Xu. She saw that although his expression was a little moved, the attitude in his eyes was still firm.
Although he clearly sympathized with Granny Liu, he refused to give her any concessions.
Gu Xiyue suddenly felt angry.
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