Bab 7: Chapter 7 Buying Grain_1
After hesitating for a moment, Gougou still voiced his doubts, "Then why doesn't Mom just tell Grandpa Li Zheng directly? Grandpa Li Zheng is the kindest to Gougou."
"Of course, we will tell him, but just not now." Seeing Gougou's puzzled face, Nanzhi didn't elaborate any further, instead focusing on driving the donkey cart and hoping to get to the town sooner.
The journey went smoothly, and in less than half an hour, they had reached the town.
Nanzhi asked an elderly woman for directions to a larger restaurant in town, thanked her, and then continued on with Gougou.
The situation in the town was much better than in the village. Most families had only seen a decrease in their living standards, and they were not struggling for food like she and her son were.
When she saw some street vendors still in business, Nanzhi finally felt at ease. With people conducting business on the streets, she could sell her things without attracting undue attention.
It seemed she had been overthinking things. Tightening the straps of her basket, Nanzhi took Gougou to a larger restaurant.
The waiter looked to be only sixteen or seventeen years old, a young man with a round face.
Upon seeing Nanzhi and Gougou enter, he didn't mind their attire and greeted them with a smile.
"Please come inside."
Seeing the waiter approaching, Gougou became a bit nervous, gripping Nanzhi's hand tighter; he knew that they didn't have much money at home.
Nanzhi felt Gougou's nervousness, sighed, and then spoke up, "Young man, I'd like to speak with the person in charge of this restaurant."
Upon hearing Nanzhi's request, the waiter hesitated a bit but still invited them to have a seat while he went to notify their manager.
Watching the young man's hurried figure, Nanzhi touched Gougou's hand soothingly, silently comforting him.
The manager came quickly. Upon seeing Nanzhi and her son's attire, he was slightly taken aback, but he politely invited them to the back yard for a discussion.
"Please have a seat. My surname is Wang. Just call me Manager Wang," said the manager as he introduced himself. He then asked, "May I know what you would like to sell to our restaurant?"
People had been coming intermittently to the restaurant to sell their homegrown fruits and vegetables, so he could guess the intentions of the mother and son before him.
As it happened, there was a drought, so he was happy to buy any vegetables that the farmers were willing to sell.
"You are too kind, Manager Wang. Our family name is Shen, and today I have come to sell some chestnuts. We picked them from the mountain a few days ago, looking to exchange them for some grain," replied Nanzhi.
Nanzhi proceeded to uncover the wild vegetables on top of her basket, revealing the smooth chestnuts underneath.
Manager Wang called over a waiter to summon the head chef from the kitchen to inspect the goods and poured two cups of tea for Nanzhi and Gougou.
The three of them quietly drank their tea, waiting for the head chef to respond.
"Manager Wang, we'll take these chestnuts." The head chef's surname was Zhang, and on normal days everyone referred to him as Master Zhang.
After inspecting the chestnuts in the basket, he nodded in approval. Given the poor harvest that year, the restaurant didn't have many vegetables to sell, and although these chestnuts were on the smaller side, they were fresh.
"How much does Mrs. Shen want to sell them for?" asked Manager Wang.
"Five wen coin per pound," declared Nanzhi, not saying much more; in good years, wild chestnuts sold for three wen coin per pound.
Without any haggling, Manager Wang nodded in agreement and had the round-faced young waiter help to weigh the chestnuts.
"Since Manager Wang is so straightforward, I have some other things I'd like to sell as well."
After saying this, Nanzhi took a small bamboo basket from Gougou's arms.
Manager Wang was somewhat baffled as he looked at the small bamboo basket covered with wild vegetables.
Although people had come to his restaurant to sell wild vegetables, those had wilted long ago and were not suitable for cooking.
It wasn't until Nanzhi lifted the layer of wild vegetables that his eyes brightened.
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The basket was filled with fresh grass mushrooms that seemed to have been picked not long ago.
"These are grass mushrooms?" Steward Wang's voice was not soft, drawing the attention of the cashier and Master Zhang, who both turned their heads to look over.
"Do you know how many more there are? We'll take as many as you have."
Seeing Steward Wang's eyes shining as he stared at her, Nanzhi could only say, "Steward Wang, please don't misunderstand. It was just my luck that I was able to pick these, and there are no more."
Upon hearing this, the excitement in Steward Wang's heart felt like it was doused with cold water, calming down. It had been half a year without rain, and that Lady Shen was able to pick these mushrooms was probably indeed due to luck—he had thought too much of it.
"Lady Shen, we'll take these grass mushrooms. How does sixty wen per pound sound to you?"
Nanzhi did not immediately agree, but after a moment of thought, she nodded.
Watching Steward Wang's face quickly light up with a pleased expression after she nodded, Nanzhi looked away.
She had not expected that these grass mushrooms could fetch a price of sixty wen per pound—her anticipated price was only thirty wen. Now it had doubled.
"Steward Wang, there are forty-three pounds of chestnuts and four pounds and two taels of grass mushrooms in total, adding up to four hundred and sixty-seven wen," the cashier weighed and announced.
Steward Wang waved his hand to the cashier, "Go get the silver."
He then invited Nanzhi and Gougou to sit and have some tea, while he followed Master Zhang to the kitchen.
"Mother, did we sell all our goods?" Gougou tugged on Nanzhi's sleeve, a curious look on his face.
"Yes, everything's sold. In a bit, Mother will take you to buy some grain."
Having not sat for long, the cashier returned to the backyard and handed the strung copper coins to Nanzhi: "Lady Shen, here are four hundred and sixty-seven wen in total."
Nanzhi nodded, just about to shoulder her basket and leave with Gougou, when she heard Steward Wang's voice from behind.
"Lady Shen, wait a moment," Steward Wang said as he handed over a package wrapped in oil paper, "If the lady has any more wild goods in the future, I hope she would sell them to our restaurant."
Without hesitation, Nanzhi took the package and simply nodded, "Certainly."
After leaving the restaurant, Nanzhi drove the donkey cart to the Grain and Oil Shop, now with a total of five hundred and sixty-two wen in her possession.
From her memory, old rice was three wen per pound, new rice was five wen per pound, white flour was six wen per pound, brown flour was two wen per pound, salt was twenty wen per pound, and bean oil was ten wen per pound.
Only it was uncertain how much the grain price had risen now.
"Mother, shall we buy sweet potatoes and potatoes?" Gougou looked at the sparsely set up stalls along the street, lifted his little head to look at Nanzhi.
"Yes."
Nanzhi also glanced at the sparsely laid out stalls on both sides of the street, most of which were set up by people from the village selling some of their own rice and grains. They looked like old rice from last year, probably because there wasn't enough food at home and they wanted to sell the finer grains to exchange for sweet potatoes and the like, to make ends meet.
Even now, with no rain for half a year, most people were still hoping to get by and were reluctant to use the silver at home.
Wasn't the original owner of her body thinking the same way? In fact, if she had been willing to drop her pride and return to her parents' house, she would not have starved to death at home, leaving Gougou, a three-and-a-half-year-old child, behind.
Yet it was that sliver of false hope that, in these not yet harsh conditions, led to the starvation of so many people.
What use were those silvers after people had starved to death?
As Nanzhi arrived at the Grain Shop and parked the donkey cart, just as she was getting Gougou off the cart, she saw several women enter the shop.
Nanzhi wasn't in a rush to enter, instead standing outside to check the grain prices. Although she had anticipated that the grain prices would have risen, she was still startled by the current prices.
The old rice, originally at three wen per pound, had already risen to eight wen. New rice had gone up to sixteen wen per pound, white flour was fifteen wen, brown flour five wen, salt had gone up to fifty wen per pound, and oil to forty wen per pound.
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