Chapter 18: 18. Give me rice
Two days later they came closer to the Lanning's harbour.
Even from far, Kendra could see that this city must be quite bigger than the one they came from as even harbour could contain a few dozen ships.
She waited that the crows got off the ship before she left as well. Right before she left she saw Cook Tao and Captain Chen. ''Good morning miss Bai.'' They greeted her with a slight bow.
She smiled at them cutely. ''Good morning Uncle Tao, good morning Captain Chen.''
Captain Chen blinked at her then at his brother. ''How come you call him uncle and me captain?''
She shrugged. ''You are the captain and he is like and good-natured uncle. Of course, I would call you as given.''
Cook Tao patted her head in passing. ''Good child. You have a pair of good eyes. Don't listen to his nonsense. What are you planning to buy, maybe I can help?''
Shu Ya stopped. ''Uncle Tao, I am going to my family in the north. But I can't go empty-handed. I heard winters in the north are heavy and rice was rare. So I wanted to buy a bunch of rice for them and seeds and stuff like new warm rolls of cloth. Things that are needed in the north. Medicine as well.''
He was stunned for a moment. ''You have put much thought in it. You are lucky then that the ship is not full. Good. Then come with me. I will bring you to a friend of mine that has good quality rice with proper prices and he doesn't cheat and mix old rice and new.''
She smiled brightly at him then turned her eyes towards Captain Chen. ''Captain. After all, you will earn more money for me. I plan to stuff a bunch of rice into your ship. Is it possible to find people to repair the leaks before we come back? I have no wish to let my rice become completely wet.''
She looked at him with big shiny eyes, almost beggingly. He rolled his eyes and laughed. ''Child, I would have done that anyway. I have no wish to swim with fishes if I don't take care of it.''
She jumped and clapped her hands in delight. ''You are amazing Captain. You see. You are worthy of your name... Captain.''
They left the baffled man on a ship that took long after to snap out daze. ''I start the reasons she calls me Captain. As she sees Captain in me?'' He scratched his head as he had no idea how the brain in this child's head worked.
As they walked out the harbour a huge market opened up in front of their eyes. The market was between the city and the harbour so people could always come off the ship and buy things they needed before they leave again.
Cook Tao saw her looking here and there but without that childish excitement, normal children had. ''Are you not happy to travel around and see new things?''
Shu Ya shrugged. ''Same things everywhere. Just some places are bigger some smaller. But basically I really do not care. I am looking only around to see if there is something I might be able to use.'' She was realistic and just walked fast through the market.
Cook Tao followed her and after she almost saw the whole market in just a short time he shook his head. ''What about sweets?''
She chuckled. ''You make better ones.''
He started laughing. ''Fine. I will make some snacks when we come back. Come let's go to my friend's store.''
But she stopped him. ''Uncle Tao, before we go there you have to tell me what is really needed on the north. I mean from food and clothes. Hearing the prices here, it seems this market is cheaper than my previous town but I do not think that these things will be cheap on the north.''
He chuckled. ''You are right. We will have only one more stop in one of the smaller towns and the prices there are already tenfold then here. So buying in Lanning is not a bad idea. There are many cities that are even cheaper but they are far away so this city is your best option for all of us. Let's see. You need rice, salt, oil, seasonings...'' He started recounting many things and saw her calmly nodding to all of it. How rich is this child?
Shu Ya looked at him. ''Then how about transportation to the ship? And how much space do we have?''
He thought about it for a moment. ''I think have space to handle thousands of bags of rice. If that makes any sense to you. And stores have their own service, they will send your merchandise straight to the ship.''
She nodded. ''Then let's get in.''
The store was right in front of them and was filled with a crowd of people. One man behind the counter smiled brightly as he saw Cook Tao. ''Tao, my old friend, I haven't seen you for years.'' Then he saw a small girl standing by his side and smiled. ''Your daughter?''
Tao shook his head. ''This is miss Bai and she wants to buy few things. Could we go to the side room?''
The man nodded and opened the door to the small room that had just a table and a few chairs. As they sat down he took a piece of paper and looked at her. ''So miss Bai tell me what you need.''
Shu Ya sat down as well and smiled at him. ''Uncle I need few informations before buying anything. How many rice sorts do you have? The prices and what do you do with last year's rice? What else do you sell?''
''We have seven rice sorts and from three seasons. The best rice costs one small silver a bag and cheapest is last years as it is ten begs for one small silver.'' He first told her about rice sorts and she nodded.
''Then what about sort of rice from the last year?'' Her face became serious and he knew hat she was hinting at.
''From fist class rice from last year, I have only about thousand bags left. That would be a hundred small pieces of silver or ten big ones.'' He calmly looked at the book he opened to see the amount.
''Then I want all that rice, but mark it so we will know. From this year's first-class rice I will take another thousand bags and about four thousand bags of middle quality. What about other things?'' She could see him writing her order and looked at Cook Tao that nodded his head. ''Don't worry, you can buy much more.''
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