Chapter 10: Three Days Agreement

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Yu Wan was busy with her business and knew nothing about the chef from the White Jade Restaurant. When the ingredients were sold out, she found that the Yu brothers’s crucian carp hadn’t been sold yet. She walked over and asked the two brothers, “Big Brother, Second Brother, do you want to sell it at my stall?” Although their carps were a little small, they were still wild. They should be able to sell them quickly while she still had customers.

“No need.” Yu Song rejected her without thinking. His tone was not very good.

Yu Wan, however, didn’t seem angry. She smiled and said, “I’m going to wrap up now. There’s nothing else to do. Do you need my help here?”

Sold out? The two brothers were stunned. They looked towards Yu Wan’s stall and saw that her basket and wooden bucket were indeed completely empty. Compared to the ones on their side, the two brothers felt embarrassed. How could two grown men be inferior to a young lady?

“Go ahead and do what you need to do. Go back earlier after work.” Yu Feng did not want to stay with her.

“We left Mom at home. We really should go back earlier.” Yu Wan nodded and said to the two of them, “I’ll buy some things and return after I’m done.”

“Yeah,” Yu Feng replied indifferently. Someone had come to buy sweet potatoes, so he went to call for business and ignored Yu Wan.

Yu Wan seemed to be very used to his coldness. She didn’t disturb him and left with her usual expression.

Yu Feng received the money and passed the sweet potato to the person. He glanced at Yu Wan’s back from the corner of his eye and a complicated look flashed across his eyes.

…

Today’s harvest was not bad. Fifteen wild carp and more than twenty catties of winter bamboo shoots were sold for a total of five hundred and eleven copper coins. This was already half a tael of silver. Although it was not worth mentioning compared to the salary in her previous life, as the first bucket of gold in this world, Yu Wan was still quite satisfied.

Yu Wan tidied up the cooking utensils, put them into the big basket on her back, and brought Little Bruiser to the market.

There were many things she needed to buy. Most of them could be bought at the market, such as soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar. The brown sugar here was actually twice as expensive as white sugar. Thinking of Madam Jiang’s body, Yu Wan gritted her teeth and bought it. There were still some corn noodles at home, so Yu Wan bought five pounds of rice.

Yu Wan wanted to buy some meat for her family. She thought that lean meat was too expensive and it would be good if they could eat some fat. However, after asking, she realized that fat meat was not cheaper than lean meat.

“You buy two pounds of fat meat, and I’ll give you some lean meat,” The butcher said without hesitation.

Yu Wan : “…” Shouldn’t you be giving me fat meat if I buy lean meat?

In the end, Yu Wan still bought three pounds of fat meat, mainly not to satisfy her cravings, but to refine oil.

The only vegetable oil in this era was the sesame oil, which was the same as sesame oil from her previous life. It was commonly known as the sesame oil. The price of the sesame oil was too high, so a commoner like her could not afford it. Thinking about it this way, there was a reason why fat meat was expensive.

Salt was more expensive than oil.

Salt was not sold in the market, so she had to go to a salt shop to buy it.

Yu Wan asked around for the location of the salt shop. It was located on a street in Lotus Flower Town, and it took her less than five minutes to walk there.

After entering Lotus Flower Town, everything became orderly. There were no longer oilcloth huts or straw huts on both sides of the road. There were shops with green bricks and red tiles, smooth roads, and busy streets. Even the clothes of the pedestrians became classy.

“Wow! Wow! Wow…” Little Bruiser was so shocked that he couldn’t even be a chatterbox anymore.

“Osmanthus cake—fragrant and sweet osmanthus cake—” The vendor’s loud voice could be heard from the other side.

Little Bruiser had just eaten his fill, so he didn’t feel hungry. However, when he smelled the sweet fragrance, he couldn’t help but swallow his saliva.

Yu Wan smiled and said, “I’ll buy it for you later.”

“I… I… I don’t want to eat osmanthus cake!” Little Bruiser said, stamping his foot.

Yu Wan teased, “I didn’t say I was buying osmanthus cake for you.”

His little face blushed.

“We’re here,” Yu Wan said as she looked at the salt shop ahead.

“Then let’s go in quickly!” Little Bruiser, who knew that he would be able to eat osmanthus cake soon, excitedly grabbed his sister’s hand and jumped into the shop!

This salt shop was an official shop. The main hall was very extravagant. Other than salt, there were no other goods.

“What’s wrong with you guys? The salt delivered is getting worse each time. How are our customers going to eat such inferior salt?”

“Miss Bai has wronged us. We have always been selling salt from the same place. The salt that we send to you is all top-quality salt. I have never sold any inferior salt!”

“Do you think I believe you?!” The girl in the yellow dress and veil was so angry that she threw a bag of salt on the counter.

To dare to be so arrogant in the official store, the young girl’s background was not simple. Yu Wan did not step forward to get into trouble. She held her brother’s hand and quietly looked at the salt beside her.

The girl argued with the shopkeeper for a while more, but she didn’t take the bag of salt with her. “I don’t care! I don’t want this salt! Do as you see fit!” With that, the young girl left angrily. When she brushed past Yu Wan, she stopped in her tracks and reminded grumpily, “The salt here is terrible. If I were you, I would go to the Capital to buy it!”

No one knew who she was talking to.

Yu Wan shook her head. She was a village girl who could not even afford to eat plain rice and had no choice but to earn a living herself. Would she care whether the taste of salt was good or bad? Even if the girl was making a raft, she shouldn’t have looked for someone as unsightly as her. This girl couldn’t keep her cool and didn’t have good judgment.

The old shopkeeper changed the fawning expression in front of the young girl and casually tapped the abacus on the counter. “Second-class salt is thirty copper coins, first-class salt is sixty copper coins.”

“How much?” Yu Wan asked.

The old shopkeeper did not even lift his eyelids as he tapped the small bowl on the counter.

Yu Wan took a quick look. It wasn’t even half a pound. She could finish it in a month, and she had to eat sparingly. And the quality of this salt was indeed as the girl had said. It was so bad that it was outrageous.

However, there was nothing she could do about it. After all, the salt transportation was firmly in the hands of the government. The most fine salt was naturally sent to the high-ranking officials and nobles. The salt that was left to the commoners was of inferior quality but not of equal value.

After Yu Wan bought two pounds of second-class salt, she only had about four hundred copper coins left.

Then, Yu Wan bought two pairs of cotton shoes for Little Bruiser and Madam Jiang and spent a hundred copper coins.

Yu Wan planned to use the remaining copper coins to purchase some hunting tools. Just as she was passing by a pharmacy with Little Bruiser, she heard Yu Feng’s voice.

“I only have this much with me for the time being. Can you let me take the medicine back first and pay you another day? I’m a regular of your shop, you don’t have to worry about me reneging on my debt…”

The medicine boy rudely said, “That won’t do! You guys haven’t even paid back the debt from last time, and you want to put it on credit again! How can there be such a good thing? It’s the end of the year, you guys should quickly settle the bill!”

Yu Feng clenched his fists. “But my father is waiting…”

“You don’t have to say anything! I won’t give you any more credit!”

“My father is really…”

The medicine boy interrupted Yu Feng impatiently: “And I’m really not selling!” As soon as he finished speaking, a young girl’s delicate hand reached over and unhurriedly poured out a bag of copper coins.

“Are these enough?” She poured it out without missing a beat.

Yu Feng and Yu Song looked at her simultaneously. Yu Feng’s face turned slightly red.

The medicine boy counted the copper coins on the table and smacked his lips. “Today’s medicine is enough, but the previous credit…”

“Then prepare today’s medicine first. I’ll give it to you in three days.”

“Aiya, I can’t…”

“With interest.”

The medicine boy looked at Yu Wan.

Yu Wan was sized up from head to toe, but she did not show any signs of panic. She said calmly, “I will give you the capital, and I will also give you the interest. If I don’t give you the money in three days, I will go to the authorities with you.”

“You’re crazy!” Yu Feng grabbed her arm. “Do you know how much that is?”

Yu Wan did not answer him. Instead, she smiled faintly and asked, “Then can Uncle’s medicine be stopped?”

Yu Feng clenched his fists tightly.