HCB Chapter 26 3152
Chapter 26 3152
'斯'
Upon hearing Manager Liu's words, Song Jiaojiao heard another gasp behind her.
"Okay, deal." Upon hearing this, Song Jiaojiao quickly snapped out of her daze.
Hearing this, Manager Liu finally breathed a sigh of relief. Raising the price further would be beyond his control. "Alright, alright, alright, I'll go get the scale right away. Madam Song, please wait a moment."
Manager Liu cupped his hands in greeting and then left.
"Mother, did I hear that right? Thirty-five taels and one mace? Isn't it thirty-five coins and one mace?" Wang Hefan asked Song Jiaojiao hurriedly after seeing Manager Liu leave.
“Yes, yes, is this white fungus really that valuable? If we sold more, we would be rich!” Mu Xue quickly chimed in, her face full of excitement. Even the usually composed Mu Qing nodded in agreement.
Song Jiaojiao looked at the group and laughed, "It's not that easy. Things are valued for their rarity. If there's too much of anything, it becomes worthless. Besides, the growing environment for white fungus is extremely strict. We were just lucky to find it this time."
"Mother wasn't just lucky! Anyone else would have thought it was something worthless and ignored it," Wang Hefan said disapprovingly. He figured even if he saw this silver ear fungus on the mountain, he wouldn't have given it a second glance.
Song Jiaojiao thought so too. In such a backward place, how could they have ever seen such a thing? Even if they had, they wouldn't have touched it.
As soon as they finished speaking, Manager Liu came in with a scale, carefully weighed the white fungus, and even put it in a better box lined with soft cloth.
"Madam Song, look, it's exactly nine qian. According to our agreement, one qian equals thirty-five taels, so that's three hundred and fifteen taels. Would you like a silver note or silver?" Manager Liu showed the scale to Song Jiaojiao and asked.
"I'll use silver instead. Oh, and I also need to buy some medicinal herbs: star anise, cardamom, bay leaves, cinnamon, and cumin. Two coins' worth of each, please." Song Jiaojiao was thinking of buying some spices to make hot pot at home; yesterday's boiled pork slices just didn't taste quite right.
“We have the other things here, but what is cumin? I’ve never heard of it before. I’ll ask Madam Song about it later,” Manager Liu said after hearing Song Jiaojiao’s words.
"Then let's just have whatever we need." Song Jiaojiao thought that there was no cumin. Oh well, it's okay if there isn't any. Fortunately, the main ingredients are all there.
"Alright, Madam Song, please wait a moment. I'll have someone go and exchange the silver." Manager Liu cupped his hands in greeting, took the silver ear fungus, and excitedly went out.
He summoned the second manager to the main hall, took out three hundred taels of silver notes and told him to exchange them for silver. "Here, go and exchange them for four fifty-tael silver ingots, five ten-tael ingots, and fifty one-tael ingots of cash."
The second manager, seeing the box that Manager Liu was holding like a treasure and the silver notes in his hand, figured that Manager Liu had acquired another good item. He quickly flattered him, "Manager, you've acquired another good item! It's only been a few days since you got the He Shou Wu last time, and you've already got something good. It seems that you're not far from leaving for the capital. Don't forget your old friends when you do."
Manager Liu was secretly delighted by the second manager's flattery, but he didn't show it on his face. "Hurry up. You weren't here last time, but you saw me today. Next time you come, you'd better show me some respect. We can't afford to offend the God of Wealth."
"That's for sure, I'll be even more respectful than to my own father." The second manager laughed and flattered him before hurrying off to exchange the money.
Song Jiaojiao waited in the inner room for almost the time it takes to drink a cup of tea before she saw Manager Liu bring in a man carrying a box covered with a red cloth. "Madam Song, thank you for waiting. This is our shop's second manager," Manager Liu introduced the man behind him and placed the box in front of Song Jiaojiao.
"Here is three hundred and five taels. Thinking that Madam Song's family needed some change, I took the liberty of exchanging four fifty-taels, five ten-taels, and fifty one-tael silver coins. I will exchange the remaining five taels for copper coins for Madam Song. I have packed all the medicine that Madam Song needs, totaling ten taels and one hundred and fifty coins. I will round it down to ten taels for you."
Manager Liu showed the money in the box and also brought out the spices that Song Jiaojiao needed.
"Thank you for your consideration, Manager Liu. My family is preparing to build a house recently, and we do need some spare change," Song Jiaojiao said with a smile, looking at Manager Liu.
"Everything's taken care of, so we won't disturb Manager Liu's business any longer. We'll be leaving now," Song Jiaojiao said, standing up.
"I'll see you off, this way please." Manager Liu walked side by side with Song Jiaojiao, saying, "Madam Song, next time you have any good stuff, you must send it to Huichuntang. Our boss has opened Huichuntang stores all over the Great Jin Kingdom."
Song Jiaojiao replied with a smile, "Of course, of course."
As they reached the door, they bid farewell to Manager Liu. Before they had gone far, Wang Hefan tugged at Song Jiaojiao's sleeve, looking around cautiously and whispering, "Mom, let's go back quickly. We can buy the other things next time."
Seeing Wang Hefan's wary expression, Song Jiaojiao knew he was worried because he was carrying a huge sum of money. In fact, when she first took the box, Song Jiaojiao put the money inside into her spatial storage. Otherwise, carrying hundreds of taels of silver, Song Jiaojiao wouldn't have dared to wander around so openly.
"Yes, yes, Mom, I don't want wontons anymore, and I don't want to buy meat. Let's go home first!"
"It's alright, Mother knows what she's doing. Don't act like this; people will recognize you immediately, which will only make things more dangerous. Pretend nothing's wrong. Besides, judging by our clothes, we look like farmers, from a poor family. Thieves won't bother us," Song Jiaojiao said, looking at the nervous group.
Seeing that they couldn't persuade Song Jiaojiao to leave, and with people coming and going, they didn't dare to say anything more. They could only keep a vigilant eye on the passersby, not daring to relax their guard for a moment.
Looking at the group of people who were so nervous they were practically on edge, Song Jiaojiao shook her head, knowing that they wouldn't be able to adapt anytime soon, but things would get better once they had more money.
Song Jiaojiao first went to the general store and bought 100 jin of brown rice, 100 jin of corn flour, 50 jin of wheat flour, 1 jin of salt, and 10 jin of brown sugar. Seeing that soy sauce was for sale, she also bought 2 jin of soy sauce. She spent a total of 2 liang, 9 qian, and 50 wen and asked the shopkeeper to deliver it to Uncle Yu's oxcart at the town gate.
He saw a cloth stake again and bought a roll of cloth (about 300 meters long) and 100 catties of cotton, which cost exactly eight taels of silver.
Thinking that she didn't know when her period would come, and that there was no hygiene manual in ancient times, the original owner used to have menstrual belts sewn from cloth with wood ash inside. Now that there were better options, and no sanitary napkins, she had to use cotton instead.
Besides, Mu Qing is older now. She didn't eat well before, but she's been eating well lately, so we need to prepare for her in advance.
We're going to build a house soon, so two quilts definitely won't be enough. We'll need to prepare a few more quilts so we don't run out. Looks like we'll have to trouble Aunt Lin again.