Walking into a small alley, Cheng Loanloan took out all the money and counted it. It totaled two hundred and seventy-seven *wen*, all of today’s income was here.
“Dashan, take twenty *wen* to buy peanuts. These are a secondary ingredient for ice jelly. Buy as many as you can.” She paused, then pushed out another thirty *wen*: “We’re also out of brown sugar at home, so buy some more brown sugar to bring back.”
Cheng Loanloan gave thirty *wen* to Zhao Sanniu: “Go to the butcher shop and see how much thirty *wen* can buy.”
Zhao Sanniu’s mouth watered automatically before he even saw the meat.
“After you’ve bought everything, you can wander around Hekou Town. We’ll meet back here in half an hour.”
Cheng Loanloan and her two sons divided the tasks. She still had nearly two hundred *wen* in her hand, enough for her to seize the opportunity to buy many things.
She left the alley and immediately entered the fabric shop.
Each of the six people in the family only had two sets of clothes for washing and changing, and their patched-up clothes had long since become unwearable. She had been wearing her tattered clothes for half a month and truly couldn’t bear it anymore. Especially since there was no underwear in ancient times, she needed to make herself a set of underwear. In the fabric shop, handmade cloth was placed on both sides of the door. The cloth was made from hemp fiber and was also the cheapest type of fabric. At a time when food prices were rising, fabric prices remained stable; two *wen* could buy one *chi*.
She calculated in her mind that an adult man needed about six or seven *chi* of fabric for a set of clothes, and a woman about five *chi*. She bought ten *chi* of gray handmade cloth, ten *chi* of blue handmade cloth, ten *chi* of purple, ten *chi* of black, and ten *chi* each of earthy yellow and light pink, totaling one hundred and twenty *wen*.
After leaving the fabric shop, she spent twenty *wen* at the market to buy four sets of undergarments. She and Wu Huiniang each got two, as if they had bought them at the fabric shop.
She wandered around the town and saw a chick vendor. Dozens of chicks in a cage looked listless, as if they wouldn’t live much longer. In another cage were ducklings, their light yellow feathers looking a little more energetic.
“Auntie, buying chicks? Six *wen* each!” The chick vendor’s saliva flew everywhere: “All my chicks are healthy, they’re all hens that can lay eggs. If they grow into roosters, just bring them back and I’ll refund your money. If they die, I can compensate you ten times over…”
Before the man finished speaking, a small chick in the cage collapsed.
Cheng Loanloan: “…”
The weather was too hot, and the chicks’ vitality was too weak.
Fortunately, Dahao Village didn’t lack water now, so she could buy ducklings to raise.
Ducklings were still six *wen* each. Cheng Loanloan picked twenty energetic ducklings and put them into a basket. The ducklings quacked, and her mood suddenly brightened.
Having just bought fabric and ducks, the two hundred *wen* in her hand were quickly spent.
Cheng Loanloan returned to the alley first, then went to the market to buy staple foods.
The last batch of food she had lied about buying with a silver hairpin had long since been eaten. If she hadn’t frequently replenished it, the whole family would probably have been starving long ago. Wu Huiniang had asked a few times why there was still food at home, but Cheng Loanloan had always found excuses to deceive her.
Fortunately, she had made some money today; otherwise, she really wouldn’t know how to continue deceiving her simple-minded eldest daughter-in-law.
She bought thirty *jin* of millet, twenty *jin* of white rice, and twenty *jin* of flour. There were also ten *jin* of buckwheat flour and cornmeal…
Cheng Luanluan also bought some pastries, a few bars of scented soap, a small wooden comb, and a pair of rustic-looking cloth shoes...
After Cheng Luanluan's illicit money was spent in this manner, she still had over one hundred and eighteen taels left.
When Zhao Dashan and Zhao Sanniu returned, they saw grain, cloth, and twenty quacking ducklings on the ground.