It is better to go up the mountain early than late. Before dawn, Yang Donghu got up early to help Zhao Luochuan pack his things.
He packed all the freshly baked pancakes from yesterday and two large bowls of the fish he cooked yesterday, and asked Zhao Luochuan to take them to the mountain to eat.
Zhao Luochuan packed his tools, put on his bag, and prepared to set off under the cover of night.
Yang Donghu walked him to the gate of the yard and handed him a basket full of food.
A few insect chirps came from the grass, sounding particularly loud in the silent night.
Zhao Luochuan stepped out of the courtyard and looked back at Yang Donghu. He felt very uneasy and started to talk a little bit: "I have turned the land in the yard. I will find some vegetable seeds with my aunt and we can plant them. If you feel scared at night, go sleep with Fang Chu. I have already told my aunt. If we can sell the fish, we will sell it. If we can't, we will eat it ourselves. Also, when I brought you here, grandma gave me a small jade pendant and said it was your dowry. I put it under your pillow. Please put it away later."
Then he continued to talk about some trivial things, and finally paused for a moment and whispered, "Wait until I come back."
The more Yang Donghu listened, the more his nose sore. He nodded in agreement, and then, unable to hold back, he sniffed and said, "I know everything. Be careful on the road."
"I'll wait for you to come back."
Zhao Fangyu from next door also finished packing and came out.
Zhao Luochuan asked Yang Donghu to close the door and go back to sleep for a while, and then he left.
Yang Donghu returned to the house and lay back on the bed. There was a small jade pendant under the pillow. He picked it up and held it in his hand. Suddenly he thought of his grandmother and wondered how she was doing.
There was still some warmth left in the quilt. It had only been a few days, and he had already gotten used to Zhao Luochuan's presence.
He tossed and turned, unable to sleep, and wanted to find something to do so that he wouldn't seem so lonely. He simply got up, took a broom, and went to sweep the yard, then went to the kitchen and added some more fire to the pot.
He sat on the bench in front of the pot and stared quietly at the burning Fire God.
At dawn, the crowing of a rooster woke up the sleeping people, and wisps of smoke rose in groups above the village.
"Brother Dong, are you up?"
Zhao Fangchu stood outside the yard and shouted loudly.
Yang Donghu got up and went to the yard to open the door: "Fang Chu, what's wrong?"
"My mother has prepared breakfast for you to eat."
"Okay, I'll be right there."
Yang Donghu had already neatly stacked the fish in the pot into jars. The three of them had a simple breakfast and pulled a cart to the market.
The road on the avenue was flat and wide, and even pulling a cart was not difficult. Zhao He had injured his waist while working before, so he did not come along.
Zhu Cuilan was holding the front of the cart, while Yang Donghu and Zhao Fangchu stood on both sides of the cart, holding the jar in one hand and pushing the cart with the other.
In addition to the cooked fish, Yang Donghu also brought several large grass carps. He couldn't eat so many fish, and it would be a pity to let them go bad, so it would be better to sell them directly. There was a river behind the house, so he could just catch them whenever he wanted to eat them.
In order to find a good spot at the market, the three people arrived a little early on purpose. Several good spots that required paying stall fees already had fixed stall owners.
They moved slightly to the side and settled down in a slightly off-center position.
Zhu Cuilan opened the jar and shouted loudly: "Sweet and sour fish, delicious and inexpensive sweet and sour fish, if you pass by, take a look, sweet and sour fish."
The price had been agreed on on the way here: sweet and sour fish was 15 wen per piece and 20 wen for two, and large grass carp was 10 wen per pound.
She shouted very hard, and Yang Donghu imitated her and started shouting too, and passers-by were soon attracted.
A woman on the road curiously looked over, and Yang Donghu quickly greeted her, "Auntie, would you like to buy some fish? Fifteen cents for one, twenty cents for two."
"What kind of fish is sweet and sour fish? I've never seen it before. Can I try it?"
"Of course, auntie." Yang Donghu said to the auntie who asked the question, turned around, picked up a fish with chopsticks, put it on the oil paper, and shared it with the girls and aunties who gathered around him.
"Try it first, and buy it if it's delicious."
Several people nodded in agreement after eating it. It was sour with a hint of sweet, and not greasy or fishy.
It tastes good, but when buying things, you always have to bargain.
The woman who had asked the question wiped her mouth after finishing her meal and complained, "This fish is too small, not even as big as my hand. Fifteen cents a piece is too expensive. Can you make it cheaper, two for fifteen cents?"
Selling hawthorns is different from selling fish. Hawthorns are small, so you can give them a little more. But if you sell fish like this, you will be at a great disadvantage.
Yang Donghu was not very experienced in bargaining, so Zhu Cuilan gave him an example: "Sister, you're joking. Where can you buy two fish for fifteen cents? Our fish may not be big, but if you weigh them, they weigh about three or four taels. Besides, our fish are all cooked with animal oil, so they taste delicious. Fifteen cents for two fish is really not going to sell, so we have to make some money for the oil, right?"
The woman negotiated with Zhu Cuilan for a long time, and finally spent twenty cents to buy two. She picked and chose two that looked big in the jar.
Yang Donghu took the money, wrapped the fish in oil paper and handed it to her, saying softly, "Auntie, take it."
The few people who had tasted it just now also bought some food one after another. There was a young lady who was going to visit her relatives at her mother's house, so she not only bought two more sweet and sour fish, but also bought a big grass carp specially to save face.
A fish weighed about ten pounds, and ten cents per pound, so one fish cost more than a hundred cents. Zhu Cuilan, who weighed the fish high, rounded off the price and charged him a hundred cents.
In just a short while, they had earned about two hundred coins. The three of them had happy smiles on their faces. Following Zhu Cuilan's example, Yang Donghu also began to learn and apply it.
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