Walking into a small alley, Cheng Loanloan took out all the money and counted it. It was a total of two hundred and seventy-seven *wen*, all of today’s income.
"Dashan, take twenty *wen* to buy peanuts. These are a secondary ingredient for ice jelly. Buy as much as you can." She paused, then pushed out another thirty *wen*: "We're also out of brown sugar at home. Buy some more brown sugar on your way back."
Cheng Loanloan gave thirty *wen* to Zhao Sanniu: "Go to the butcher shop and see how much meat thirty *wen* can buy."
Zhao Sanniu hadn't even seen the meat yet, but his mouth was already watering.
"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 went into the fabric shop.
Each of the six people in the family only had two sets of clothes for washing and changing. Their patched-up clothes had long since become unwearable. She had been wearing her tattered clothes for half a month and truly couldn't stand it anymore. Especially since there was no underwear in ancient times, she needed to make a set of underwear for herself. In the fabric shop, handmade fabrics were placed on both sides of the door. The fabric made from hemp fibers was also the cheapest kind. At a time when food prices were soaring, fabric prices remained stable; two *wen* could buy one *chi*.
She calculated in her mind that an adult man would need 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 fabric, ten *chi* of blue handmade fabric, 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 seller. 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 seller's spittle flew everywhere: "All my chicks are healthy, they're all hens that can lay eggs. If they grow up to be roosters, bring them back and I'll refund your money. If they die, I can compensate you ten times over..."
Before the man could finish speaking, a small chick in the cage collapsed.
Cheng Loanloan: "..."
The weather was too hot, and the chicks' vitality was too weak.
Fortunately, Dahai Village didn't lack water now, so she could buy ducklings to raise.
Ducklings were still six *wen* each. Cheng Loanloan chose 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 been eaten. If she hadn't frequently replenished it, the whole family would probably have long since been drinking the northwest wind. 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 Loan Loan also bought some snacks, a few bars of scented soap, a small wooden comb, and a pair of rustic-looking cloth shoes...
After Cheng Loan Loan's illicit money was spent like that, she still had over one hundred and eighteen taels left.
When Zhao Dashan and Zhao Sanniu returned, they saw food, cloth, and twenty quacking ducklings on the ground. Hexiaokou Town was half an hour from Ping'an Town.
Ping'an Town was over an hour from Daha Village.
The mother and her two sons couldn't hail an ox cart, so they walked for nearly two hours before seeing the familiar large mountains.
By this time, the sun was almost setting, twilight enveloped Daha Village, and the tangerine-colored evening sky reflected on the rice paddies, quiet and beautiful.
"Dashan's mother, you're back so late?"
"Sister-in-law Zhao, I heard you went to town today to sell food. How was business?"
A group of women chatting under a large pagoda tree watched the mother and her two sons approach, gathering around to ask questions.
Cheng Loan Loan gestured for her two sons to pack up their things and go ahead. She smiled and said, "I made a little food, and thankfully, it finally sold. I earned a few silver coins, enough to buy the children over half a catty of meat for some savory food."
"After the price of grain in town went up, the price of meat also soared. Last time I asked, it was twenty-five *wen* per *jin*, so expensive it's deadly."
"Dashan's mother can even afford meat at twenty-five *wen* per *jin*. It seems you really earned a lot."
"Tell us, how much silver did you actually earn from your business?"
The women were naturally nosy, and a group of them widened their eyes, waiting for an answer.
"Today, meat is thirty-five *wen*." Cheng Loan Loan sighed, "It cost thirty-five *wen* to buy just that much. There are six people at home, so each person can have a little taste. All the remaining silver was used to buy ducks. Isn't there water now? Raising a few ducks for eggs to sell is better than working so hard to make food."
Someone who was good at calculations quickly figured it out: pork at thirty-five *wen*, twenty ducks at least one hundred *wen*. In other words, Dashan's mother earned over one hundred *wen* from one day's business.
The women's eyes lit up: "Dashan's mother, what kind of food did you make?"
Cheng Loan Loan continued to sigh: "It's just the *caolongdeng* that I asked the children to pick a few days ago. It looks like it costs nothing, but when you make it, you realize how troublesome it is. The main thing is that it needs a lot of sugar. Everyone knows how expensive sugar is, forty or fifty *wen* per *jin*. Every day, I have to buy a large bag of sugar to boil into syrup and add it, and also add peanuts. It's crispy and crunchy when you eat it..."
The expressions of the women present became complex. A bowl of plain water with red sugar added could make people drool.
Any food, as long as red sugar was added, would taste better.
But red sugar was very expensive. Asking them to use red sugar to make sweets to sell in town, they really didn't dare to gamble. What if it didn't sell?
"Today, I bought a *jin* of red sugar on credit from the store. Tomorrow, I'll have to continue selling food to pay off the debt."
Cheng Loan Loan said, "I'll continue to buy *caolongdeng* from the mountain, two *wen* per *jin*. I'd appreciate your help, sisters-in-law."
Aunt Wang clapped her thigh: "Of course, this is fine. While it's not completely dark yet, I'll take Dama to the mountain to pick some and bring it back."
Another woman said, "I'll also tell my son to go pick some and bring it back. If it's seven or eight *jin*, does Dashan's mother still need it?"
Cheng Luanluan smiled and said, "Of course, this stuff needs to be used a lot. Take as much as you can get." The group of women who had been chatting immediately dispersed, afraid that if they went up the mountain too late, all the lantern grass would be picked by others.
Cheng Luanluan slowly walked home.
She was making money while also giving these gossipy women in the village something to do, so they wouldn't be jealous of her.
She entered the house. Wu Huiniang was processing pork, preparing to make braised pork according to the previous method. Her movements were quick and nimble; in just a moment, she had put the meat on the stove to steam.
Zhao Dashan was busy scrubbing and cleaning the stone flower seeds. Cheng Luanluan told him to go to the main house to work. No matter the era, core techniques could not be exposed. In the future, all steps for making ice jelly would have to be done in the inner room.