Chapter 35 Heartbroken Bleeding
The farmers were poor and could not afford to raise too many chickens and ducks. Raising four or five was already the limit for each family. The forty chickens and ducks selected were collected from the hands of thirteen women and men who sold chickens and ducks.
Because the money was too scattered, each family did not get many copper coins, and it would be difficult to make change if we gave them silver.
So, I have to find a place to exchange copper coins.
The pig dealer next to him knew. He pointed to the north of the long street and said, "There is a pawnshop in front. When buying and selling livestock on this street, if there is a problem with the silver, they go to the pawnshop to change it."
Gu Tang thanked the pig dealer and handed a silver coin he had earned from selling the sheep to her father, asking her father to exchange it for copper coins while she stayed there.
Holding three taels of silver coins, Gu Lianshan hurried to the pawnshop.
After a while, he came back with a bag of copper coins wrapped in the hem of his clothes.
One tael of silver could be exchanged for one thousand wen, and three taels of silver could be exchanged for three thousand wen. They were strung together with a hemp rope, with one string for every thousand wen.
Three big strings of copper coins, this is a lot of money.
Gu Lianshan opened the copper coins and distributed the money to the thirteen women and men who were selling chickens and ducks.
Soon, only one string and two hundred coins were left out of the three large strings.
Gu Lianshan's heart ached as his eyes fell on the forty chickens and ducks. He kept comforting himself in his heart that his money was not wasted as he had bought so many chickens and ducks after all.
After dividing the copper coins, the father and daughter moved the chicken cages and duck cages containing chickens and ducks onto the ox cart.
These chicken and duck cages were given as gifts and are not valuable. Some are woven with mountain thorns, and some are woven with bamboo. Most farmers know how to make them, but some are good at weaving and some are bad.
But it does not affect your home use.
After packing the cage, the father and daughter quickly left the horse market and headed straight for the main street.
Gu Lianshan thought that buying so many chickens and ducks should be enough, but as soon as he arrived at the main street, Gu Tang started clamoring to go to the grain store to buy food.
Gu Lianshan couldn't resist and had to drive the ox cart to the grain store.
When they arrived at the grain store, Gu Tang pointed at the fine flour and white rice and asked for fifty kilograms of each.
Fine flour is white flour that has been passed through several sieves to remove some of the bran, and its color is yellow-white, which cannot be compared with the white flour produced by modern technology.
In addition to fine noodles, there are also coarse noodles.
Coarse flour is flour without the bran removed, and its color may appear yellowish-white at first glance, but it contains more yellow and less white.
The yellow part is wheat bran and the white part is flour. When the two are mixed together, they taste very rough and difficult to swallow.
According to Gu Tang's suggestion, we need about 200 to 300 kilograms each. After all, winter is long, and it is normal to be unable to go out for a month or two when the roads are blocked by heavy snow. It is always a good idea to prepare more.
But when the words came to her lips, she changed her mind.
The main reason was that she was afraid of scaring her father. After all, a pound of fine noodles cost thirty-five wen, and white rice was even more expensive, at eighty wen a pound of refined white rice, and sixty wen a pound of inferior white rice.
Bei'an City doesn't produce white rice. All this rice is shipped from the south and the price is ridiculously high!
Although she changed her words, the weight she blurted out still scared Gu Lianshan.
He pulled his daughter's clothes and whispered, "Are you planning to open a grain store in the village? Fifty kilograms of fine flour? More than fifty kilograms of rice? Even our whole village can't gather that much fine flour and rice!"
Gu Tang rolled his eyes and pulled back his own clothes: "You haven't eaten enough of that porridge? Anyway, I have eaten enough! If you think it's too expensive, you don't have to eat it later. I will eat it all by myself!"
Gu Lianshan: ...We can't keep this girl! She's even more of a spendthrift than I am!
"Young man, I didn't bring the bag of rice and flour. Can your family deliver it to you?" Gu Tang ignored her father and talked to the clerk in the grain shop with a smile.
Apart from delivering rice and flour to wealthy families, this was the first time that the clerk in the grain shop saw rural households buying so much rice and flour.
As for delivering bags of rice and flour, other guys cannot make the decision, but this one can.
He replied with a smile: "Yes, yes! I'll pick two thick ones for you!" Then he took out two bags from under the counter and showed them to Gu Tang.
Gu Tang touched it and nodded in satisfaction.
These two bags, one is a sack for rice, and the other is a bag of coarse cloth and linen for flour.
After opening the lids of the rice and flour jars, the waiter picked up a gourd-shaped ladle and scooped some rice and flour into the bags.
The guy was an old hand who had been doing this for many years. He stopped after filling half a bag, weighed it, and it weighed more than 50 kilograms.
Before Gu Tang could say anything, her father Gu Lianshan came forward before her and carefully identified the name, fearing that the waiter was trying to fool them.
After confirming that he was not fooled, Gu Lianshan looked disappointed. Now he had no excuse to say no.
The clerk found a rope and tied up the bags one by one. Then he took the abacus, moved the beads a few times, and quoted the price: "Thirty-five coins per catty of fine flour, sixty coins per catty of white rice, fifty catties of each, and I need to pay four ounces, seven hundred and fifty coins..."
"How much?!" Gu Lianshan was dumbfounded.
He had lived for decades and had never eaten fine noodles or white rice. He had only eaten the lowest grade brown rice a few times.
Therefore, today was the first time he knew the prices of these things.
The shop assistant smiled and repeated the price: "Four ounces, seven hundred and fifty coins."
Gu Lianshan's face changed drastically, and he immediately regretted it.
"Dad!" Gu Tang knew what he was going to do, so he took the initiative and pulled him behind him. "You load the rice and flour onto the ox cart, and I'll pay the money. Hurry up, it's almost dark!"
As she said this, she gently pushed her father and glared at him secretly.
Gu Lianshan was so angry!
But he was concerned about his daughter's face and couldn't say anything in front of the shop assistant. He could only load the rice and flour into the car angrily.
Gu Tang breathed a sigh of relief and pretended to take out silver from the secret pocket of his sleeve, but actually he took it out from the system backpack, and quickly handed a piece of silver to the waiter.
The clerk weighed the silver on a scale and found it weighed five taels.
After weighing it, he took a few bites of the silver, and two rows of tooth marks immediately appeared on the surface of the silver.
The waiter was very satisfied. It was pure silver. "I took five taels of pure silver from you. I should give you two hundred and fifty copper coins in change. Please wait a moment..."
He took out two small strings of copper coins from the money box, then counted out fifty of them and strung them together with a rope. He handed the last one to Gu Tang and asked her to count them before leaving.
There were two small strings of copper coins, each containing a hundred. Gu Tang counted them very quickly and soon he had counted them all. Then he put them away with a smile: "Not more, not less, exactly two hundred and fifty coins."
"Girl, can you read? You count the coins really fast!" the waiter complimented.
Gu Tang nodded: "I have a brother who studies at home, so I learned a few words from him."
The smile on the guy's face became more and more sincere.
I didn't expect that there was a scholar in the family. No wonder they bought so much rice and flour. I'm afraid it was prepared for the brothers at home.
When Gu Tang came out of the grain shop, she saw her father sitting on the ox cart with a sour face. He clearly saw her coming with the corner of his eye, but he just ignored her.
Gu Tang was not angry either. She climbed onto the ox cart and continued to order her father: "Go to the oil shop in front. You haven't bought the oil yet."
Hearing that he had to spend money again, Gu Lianshan no longer cared about being angry, and quickly turned around to argue with his daughter: "What kind of oil do you want to buy? Just buy some fatty pork, and when you get home, your father will make lard for you!"
It's on the shelves now. There's one more chapter to go. Those of you who think it's too late can read it tomorrow.
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