The grain store had already been surrounded by people, and Qian Chunhua watched from afar. It looked like it would be impossible to squeeze in.
Before Qian Chunhua could squeeze into the crowd, the county yamen runners arrived and shouted, "Make way, make way."
The yamen runners drove all the people out of the grain store and posted a notice in front of the store.
A voice was heard, and it turned out to be a literate scholar reading the contents of the notice, but the voice was too loud for Qian Chunhua to hear.
"What? Limit on grain purchases?" a middle-aged man next to the scholar shouted. "You can only buy 10 kilograms of grain per person with a household registration card."
Qian Chunhua heard these words clearly and expected it to be true. The rush to buy food was so crazy that the county government could not have remained silent, unless the county magistrate had also fled.
Another voice came: "Great, limit the increase in food prices, rice is 20 yuan per catty, millet is 18 yuan per catty, chestnuts and corn are 13 yuan per catty, black flour is 20 yuan per catty, and dark flour is 13 yuan per catty."
This price was only three to five cents higher than the day before. The county magistrate of Nanzhou County was a good man. Qian Chunhua had a good impression of this official whom he had never met before.
The yamen runners began to maintain order and required everyone to line up in two lines. Those without household registration cards had to go home to get one. In an instant, more than half of the people were gone.
Qian Chunhua took a look and did not go to queue up. There was not much silver in the space to begin with, only two hundred and thirty taels. After spending it in the past few days, only two hundred and eighteen taels were left.
Anyway, there is food in the space, and Qian Chunhua tries not to use the silver if he can avoid it.
After leaving the grain store, Qian Chunhua came to the bookstore. The three children would go to school tomorrow, and Qian Chunhua needed to prepare books, pens, ink, paper and inkstone for them in advance.
The clerk in the bookstore was nice and did not look down on others. Although Qian Chunhua bought some cotton and cloth to take home, she had been running around in the past few days and had not had time to make clothes. She was still wearing the patched jacket.
"Excuse me, do you have the three books, Three Character Classic, Hundred Family Names, and Thousand Character Classic?" Qian Chunhua could read, but his father himself was illiterate. In order to avoid being seen by familiar people, Qian Chunhua had to pretend to be illiterate and asked the clerk in the bookstore.
The young waiter was surprised for a moment, then immediately reacted and said, "Yes, yes, ma'am, I'll take you there."
The waiter was walking in front and leading the way, feeling extremely surprised. He thought that one should not judge a person by his appearance. This ordinary old woman, wearing patched clothes from head to toe, actually came to buy enlightenment books for children.
When the clerk found the three books and handed them to Qian Chunhua, Qian Chunhua flipped through them and found that the first few chapters of the Three Character Classic were still familiar to him, except that the font was the traditional Chinese characters of ancient times. Qian Chunhua recognized them even by guessing.
"How much is it?" Qian Chunhua asked after he was sure that it was the book he wanted to buy.
Master Qian asked me to prepare these three books for use tomorrow.
The clerk was stunned again. He was so straightforward to the book buyer. "One tael of silver per book."
The waiter spoke in a low voice. He was a little worried that after hearing the price, the woman in front of him would scold him for being cruel and asking for an exorbitant price.
Qian Chunhua nodded. He had expected the price of the books, so he was not shocked. He then said to the clerk, "Give me three sets of these three books."
The guy was completely confused. "More... How much? Three sets? Nine books?"
Qian Chunhua nodded: "Yes, one copy for each kind, nine copies for each of the three kinds."
The waiter was unsure whether the woman in front of him was teasing him or not, so he quickly confirmed, "Madam, do you really want nine books? One hundred and ninety taels of silver?"
Qian Chunhua smiled. She knew what the waiter was thinking. Seeing that the waiter did not look down on her, Qian Chunhua took out the silver.
"Okay, I'll give you ten taels of silver."
When the clerk took the heavy silver in his hand, he finally believed that this unremarkable woman in front of him really came to buy books and was not teasing him.
However, her clothes were not ordinary, and could be said to be quite tattered, yet she was willing to spend nine taels of silver to buy three sets of enlightenment books for her children.
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