After walking around for a while, there wasn't much to buy. There weren't many fresh vegetables available this season; everyone was just selling cabbages and radishes. She went into a general store that sold various seasonings and vegetables. Several kinds of vegetables were displayed outside, while various kinds of produce were on display inside. She looked around; the owner was a middle-aged man with a small mustache, clearly a shrewd businessman. When he saw Tian Yu come in, he just glanced at her and continued calculating her bill. Tian Yu didn't mind. She was quite poor anyway and hadn't planned to buy anything; she just wanted to look around, and if the price was reasonable, she'd buy something. If the owner was too enthusiastic, she'd feel embarrassed to haggle.
"Boss, how much are these dried chilies?" Tian Yu asked, grabbing the sack of dried chilies.
"Twenty cash a tael," the shopkeeper replied without even looking up.
"That's so expensive, what about this kind?" Tian Yu asked, pointing to a bag next to her.
That one is ten coins cheaper.
After buying the steamed buns, she roughly knew the exchange rate for RMB here. Cheaper buns were usually 50 cents or a dollar each; those buns, in her opinion, were around 50 cents each, or two coins each, so one coin was 20 or 30 cents. The dried chili peppers were only three or four dollars a pound, quite cheap, but since she didn't have any money, she could only complain about the price. Putting down the chili peppers, Tian Yu went to the pepper stall and asked the vendor, "How much is this?"
"Fifty coins per tael"
How much does Sichuan peppercorn cost?
"Fifty coins"
Where's the ginger?
Forty coins per pound
Where's the garlic?
"Are you going to buy it or not? If not, don't ask anymore," the shopkeeper said irritably, seemingly annoyed by Tian Yu's questions.
"Sure, let me ask the price first?" Tian Yu replied with a grin.
"Garlic? I bought everything you asked me about before, so I'll give it to you."
"Give it to me? Boss, isn't that a bit unfair?" Tian Yu looked at the garlic cloves that had already sprouted and shriveled. It seemed the boss couldn't sell them, so he was offering them to her at a low price.
"What's wrong with that? If you buy a lot, I'll definitely give you a discount."
"Give me one of everything, and good quality dried chili peppers. I'll have one pound each of chili peppers and ginger, and one ounce of each of the other ingredients."
"Okay, please wait a moment, I'll weigh it for you right away." The boss smiled immediately when he saw that there was business, and his tone was not so rude anymore. He called his assistant to help weigh it and then wrapped it in grease.
"Mommy, why are we buying all this?" Tangyuan, who had been silently following Tian Yu, couldn't help but ask curiously.
I'll make you some steamed buns.
"Can Mommy make steamed buns?"
"Of course, I'll make it for you when we get home, but we need to buy the necessary items first," Tian Yu said, pinching Tangyuan's nose.
Tangyuan nodded happily, feeling that his mother had become increasingly capable and kinder to him since waking up from her coma. In his heart, he hoped that his mother would always be like this.
The waiter had already packed the food and brought it to the counter to pay, while the owner started calculating on the abacus.
"That's 160 coins in total, here's the money," Tian Yu had already calculated and counted the money, placing it on the counter.
The shopkeeper glanced at Tian Yu with disbelief, then looked at the price he had calculated. For the first time, he looked up at Tian Yu incredulously, never expecting that such a down-on-her-luck woman could do math. He had misjudged her. His attitude immediately changed, and he said with a smile:
"Yes, that's 160 coins in total. Everything is packed, madam. Here, I'll put the garlic in the basket for you."
"Okay, thank you for your help, boss." Tian Yu was confused by the boss's attitude, but it was good to have someone help her, so she didn't refuse.
The young shop assistant helped load all the goods into bamboo baskets. Tian Yu carried the baskets and pulled Tangyuan to the store entrance. She saw a small bag of potatoes by the door that had already sprouted and shriveled.
"Boss, how much is this?"
"Oh, you can't eat that after it sprouts. What do you want it for? It's poisonous."
"If you don't want it, give it to me."
"That won't do. This stuff was very expensive when it came in. These were the last few we hadn't sold before they sprouted, that's why we didn't sell them. If you want them, you can pay five coins."
"Five coins? You're ripping me off, boss! This is spoiled. I was just trying to take it home to feed my chickens, and I don't even know if they'll eat it."
"Four coins will do, that's already very cheap."
"No, one penny. I didn't haggle with you when I bought all those things earlier."
"One penny is far too little."
"Just one coin, will you sell it or not? If not, I'm leaving." With that, she grabbed Tangyuan and started to walk away.
"Wait, wait, one coin it is. If I hadn't misplaced it, how could I have bought it from you so cheaply?"
"That's more like it. Here's the money. Please put it in my basket." Tian Yu took out another copper coin and gave it to the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper put the potatoes into Tian Yu's bamboo basket, making it suddenly much heavier. Tang Yuan nervously asked Tian Yu if she could carry it, and if she should carry it herself. But no way, Tian Yu patted Tang Yuan to reassure him that she could carry this much.
After leaving the general store, they bought a pound of soybean oil for fifty coins, a pound of soy sauce for thirty coins, half a pound of lamp oil for one hundred coins, and another one hundred coins for a packet of salt and baking soda for leavening dough. Finally, they went to the rice shop and bought half a bag of rice and half a bag of flour for one tael of silver, which is one thousand coins—and that wasn't even the best rice and flour. Watching the silver flow out, Tian Yu sighed, realizing that grain was still very expensive in ancient times. After buying the rice and flour, Tian Yu could no longer carry the bamboo basket. Tang Yuan didn't stop either; he took everything he could carry, his hands full. Tian Yu told him to put the basket down by the roadside to rest for a while. Just as he was thinking about whether to find a cart for help, he saw a tall figure walking towards them from the crowd. It was Chen Chong. He had obviously already seen them. He walked up to them in a few steps, squatted down, picked up the things on the ground, and put them into the bamboo basket. Tangyuan was overjoyed to see Chen Chong, but Tianyu, seeing him like this, didn't know what to do and quickly stepped in to stop him, saying, "Wait a minute, what are you doing?"
This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
