Jiang Wanwan went to the rice shop and bought over a hundred catties of rice, fifty catties of millet, fifty catties of mixed grains and beans, and fifty catties each of fine and coarse flour.
These grains cost about five taels of silver.
Uncle Jiang once tried to persuade Jiang Wanwan to buy less, save more money, and not spend money recklessly.
But in the end, he held back.
He also realized that his eldest niece was more shrewd than him; she knew exactly how to spend the money and how much to spend.
In the end, he'll get a share of the food she bought anyway.
The more my niece buys, the more often we can eat rice at home.
Just thinking about the fragrant, soft rice made Uncle Jiang's mouth water.
Because she bought a lot of grain, the shopkeeper was very happy and even asked her if she needed it delivered to a specific place.
Jiang Wanwan naturally didn't stand on ceremony with the rice shop owner and directly arranged a time for the rice shop to deliver the purchased rice to the big tree next to the city gate at five quarters past 3 PM.
After leaving the rice shop, Jiang Wanwan went to the bookstore and bought two calligraphy brushes and a large stack of paper for Jiang Jialin.
It's no exaggeration to say that studying in ancient times was a luxury. A small, poor-quality writing brush cost 120 coins, a good quality pig bristle brush cost 150 coins, a rabbit hair brush cost 160 coins, and a brush made of wolf hair was ridiculously expensive.
The cheapest, worst calligraphy brush you can buy is enough to buy six kilograms of rice!
And Xuan paper, a ream of it costs one tael of silver!
She noticed a copy of the Three Character Classic on the bookshelf and, out of curiosity, took the book to ask the shopkeeper.
You wouldn't know unless you asked, and what I found was quite a shock.
The Three Character Classic, which costs ten yuan a copy in modern times, cost one and a half taels of silver in ancient times!
No wonder that in ancient times, it took the entire family's resources to support a scholar.
Paper, ink, brushes, inkstones, and books alone were already beyond the reach of ordinary families, not to mention that the monthly tuition alone cost two taels of silver.
Jiang Wanwan opened the floating panel in front of her, switched the interface to the store page, and then searched for the word "calligraphy brush". She found that she could buy ten good quality calligraphy brushes for nine yuan.
Unfortunately, the book category wasn't available yet, so she didn't have permission to buy calligraphy brushes and books. Otherwise, she would have definitely bought a batch of calligraphy brushes on a certain online marketplace and resold them to bookstores, making a hefty profit.
She felt a little regretful; it seemed that once the mosquito coil business stabilized, she could focus on increasing the balance in the online store.
Finally, Jiang Wanwan bought Jiang Jialin two rabbit hair brushes and two reams of Xuan paper, totaling two taels of silver and three hundred and twenty coins.
Then, Jiang Wanwan took her second uncle to buy five catties of pork belly, five catties of spare ribs, and a pig's stomach, spending a total of two hundred and thirty coins.
By this time, the sun was already setting in the west. The clouds on the horizon were tinged with a brilliant orange-red and golden-yellow hue.
Uncle Jiang looked at the sun and urged, "Wan'er, let's hurry to the city gate, or we'll be in trouble if we miss the oxcart."
Jiang Wanwan said with a smile, "It doesn't matter if we can't catch the oxcart, we'll go buy one right now."
Uncle Jiang's eyes widened in disbelief, thinking he had misheard. He stared at Jiang Wanwan and asked, "Niece, what did you say you wanted to buy? A cow, an oxcart? Did I hear that right?"
"You heard me right, I want to buy an oxcart!" Jiang Wanwan continued walking towards the place that specializes in selling oxcarts.
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