Chapter 25: Returning Home

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

When Wang Defu first saw Zhou Yu’s reaction, he felt a little strange. Now that a young lady had stepped forward to take charge, he was even more surprised and puzzled at it.

However, he quickly realized why it is so. It turned out that there was something wrong with her father. He could not help but feel a trace of sympathy for this little girl.

This young lady was not much older than his son. His son only knew how to be naughty and playful, but this young lady was already taking on the responsibility of caring for the family.

Zhou Xiaoli was naturally unaware of the shopkeeper’s thoughts. She smiled and continued, “Shopkeeper, there were originally two wild boars. However, the neighbors helped me greatly to carry these two wild boars down the mountain. Hence, I cut one and shared it with the neighbors but there’s still half of it. Do you want it as well?”

As she spoke, she lifted the white cloth on the pushcart and let the Innkeeper inspect the wild boars.

One and a half wild boar laid on the pushcart. The pigs’ hairs had been scraped clean which revealed its white skin. The pigs looked clean and delightful.

When he heard that there was an incomplete pig, Wang Fuhai wanted to refuse initially.

However, when he saw the wild boar for himself, he immediately had a good impression of it. He sighed and said, “Alright, seeing that you had cleaned it thoroughly, I would have saved myself a lot of trouble to clean it. Moreover, the meat is quite fresh. I’ll take them all!”

Zhou Xiaoli was overjoyed when she heard that he wanted it, as it saved her the trouble of going to different places to sell. She quickly thanked him, “Thank you, shopkeeper. You’re really kind.”

“Haha.” Wang Defu laughed. “Young lady, you flatter me. We’re businessmen. Isn’t it all about making friends?”

Wang Defu stroked the beard on his chin as he spoke. “Hmm, how about this? Since you were introduced by Chiyu, we are friends. I’ll give you a good price. How about 80 copper coins per kilogram?”

The current price of domestic pigs on the market ranged from 36 to 40 copper coins per kilogram.

Wild boars were usually twice as expensive as domestic pigs.

The price of 80 copper coins per kilogram was indeed very good.

Zhou Xiaoli naturally agreed to the price and thanked him.

Since the price was agreed on, the shopkeeper called a few waiters over to weigh it.

A wild boar and a half weighed a total of 284 kilograms, which would be 22 taels and 720 copper coins.

The shopkeeper took a look at the pig offal of the two pigs and decided to take it as well. He gave them 400 copper coins for it.

In this era, pig offal was worthless as rich families did not eat pig offal.

The market price of a kilogram of pig offal was only about 10 copper coins. Therefore, Zhou Xiaoli had no objections to the shopkeeper giving her 400 copper coins for it.

In total, it was 23 taels and 120 copper coins.

Wang Defu counted the money and handed it to Zhou Xiaoli. He smiled and said, “If you have any prey moving forward, you can send them to me.”

Zhou Xiaoli replied with a smile, “Of course, of course. You are an honest and kind person. Shopkeeper, your business will definitely become more and more popular.”

“Hahaha.” Everyone loves to hear flattering words, especially for those who do business. Wang Defu laughed when he heard her words. “Hey, Chiyu, this girl is much better at talking than you.”

Wei Chiyu nodded. “Yes, she has a sweet mouth.”

Zhou Xiaoli: “I’m telling the truth.”

Wang Defu: “Alright, alright. Thank you for your blessings.”

Zhou Xiaoli was telling the truth. She had come to this conclusion based on Wang Defu’s appearance. He was a man of riches and honor, especially after he reached middle age. He would have benefactors in his life.

As they spoke, the waiters had already carried the wild boars into the kitchen.

Wang Defu looked around and saw that there was no other prey, so he asked, “Hey, Chiyu, you don’t have any prey to sell today?”

Wei Chiyu shook his head. “Next time.”

Looking at Wang Defu’s attitude, Zhou Xiaoli couldn’t help but be curious. “Shopkeeper, you’ve collected so much prey already. Would you be unable to sell it?

Wang Defu waved his hand. “No, no. Game meat is easy to sell. The wild boar you sent over has already been reserved by Young Master Tan. There’s a wild boar banquet tonight.”

—-

After leaving First-Grade Restaurant, the three of them went to the leather shop. Wei Chiyu sold the fox skin and received twenty taels of silver.

Wei Chiyu often came to the county to do business, so he was very familiar with the county.

After selling the leather goods, Zhou Xiaoli asked Wei Chiyu to show her around the county.

They went to the pharmacy first where Zhou Xiaoli asked the doctor to take Zhou Yu’s pulse.

In fact, she had a rough understanding of Zhou Yu’s physical condition. However, in the eyes of outsiders, she did not have any medical skills.

Especially since with Wei Chiyu around, it would be better to follow normal procedure to avoid suspicions.

After the doctor took his pulse, Zhou Xiaoli asked, “Doctor, how is my father?”

The doctor sighed. “It’s not good. You have delayed it too long. There’s a blockage in the cranium and it has never cleared. Taking medicine alone would not solve the issue.”

Zhou Xiaoli was not surprised. She knew this, so she continued to ask, “Is there a cure?”

The doctor stroked his beard. “If we use acupuncture, we might be able to clear the clotted blood. However, we have to be very careful with the acupuncture and especially when hitting the cranial acupoint. If we’re not careful, it will make things worse.”

This was also the reason why Zhou Xiaoli brought Zhou Yu here. She was not very proficient in medicine, so she did not dare to do acupuncture directly.

Zhou Xiaoli asked, “Then, doctor, can you treat him?”

The doctor shook his head. “However, I know someone who should be able to treat it. It’s Master Yuan.”

“However, Master Yuan has not appeared since six years ago. No one knows where he is now.”

Zhou Xiaoli nodded and did not insist further. She only asked the doctor to help her keep an eye on any news regarding Master Yuan.

She also purchased some medicine for Zhang Lan. It was the same prescription that she wrote earlier, but with two new ingredients.

Zhang Lan needed to replenish her qi and blood. If she could include ginseng into her prescription, the effect would be even better.

However, the price of ginseng was too expensive. 30 taels of silver for 100 grams of ginseng and what’s more, this pricing is for ginseng of an inferior quality.

To get ginseng of a good quality, it would be 80 taels of silver for 100 grams of ginseng.

Zhang Lan needed 10 grams of ginseng a day and hence, they would need to spend three taels of silver a day just on ginseng.

However, ginseng could be replaced with astragalus and codonopsis. The effect of the two would be the same as ginseng. More importantly, the price would be much cheaper. One could get 100 grams of codonopsis for just seven and a half taels of silver.

She spent 11 taels of silver to get seven days’ worth of medicine. Coupled with the doctor’s consultation fee for Zhou Yu, they spent a total of 12 taels of silver.

After buying the medicine, Wei Chiyu led Zhou Xiaoli to the grain store. The price of grain in the county was slightly more expensive than in the market.

Rice was sold at 21 copper coins per hopper whereas wheat was sold at 15 copper coins per hopper.

In the end, they bought five hoppers of millet, 10 hoppers of rice, and 20 hoppers of wheat, as well as a few seasonings and dried goods. A total of one tael of silver.

After that, they went to the blacksmith shop and bought an iron wok, a kitchen knife, a pair of scissors, and a hoe. That came to two taels of silver.

After buying everything, the three of them bought four crispy biscuits for lunch, and returned home.

It was evening by the time they reached home.

It took them eight hours to make the entire trip and out of it, four hours were spent on walking. Their feet were sore.

This made Zhou Xiaoli extremely eager to get a carriage or at the very least, a donkey cart.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t afford it just yet…