novelraw Chapter 242 Don't tell anyone!
Chapter 242 Don't tell anyone!
Chapter 242 Don't tell anyone!
“You stay here and help me sell sheep. I’ll go buy things. You don’t know how to bargain, so I’m afraid you’ll overpay.”
Li Shunzi was even more confused: "I don't know how to bargain when buying things, and I don't know how to bargain when selling sheep either!"
"Mother has set the price for the sheep! Twenty copper coins a pound! No matter who asks, you sell them at this price."
"Twenty copper coins a pound?" Li Shunzi was extremely surprised. "This year's price is much cheaper than in previous years!"
"The lambs aren't good this year, so we have to sell them cheaply. Twenty copper coins is the lowest price. If we can't sell them, we'll keep them to slaughter and eat during the New Year. That's the price; it can be higher, but not lower!"
“Okay! I’ll do as you say!” Li Shunzi agreed, took the rope from his mother to tie the sheep, stood where his mother had been standing, and shouted out to sell sheep.
After handing the sheep to her son, Gao asked him for some copper coins: "Give the copper coins from your satchel to your mother, and she'll use them to buy things..."
As she spoke, she reached out with her right hand, intending to take the satchel from her son's chest.
Li Shunzi's expression changed, and he hurriedly covered the satchel hanging on his chest. "Mother! If you take the copper coins away, what if someone comes to buy a sheep later, and they only have silver and no copper coins? Where am I going to get copper coins to give them change?"
Gao paused for a moment, then agreed. If a customer came in and paid with silver, he would have to give them change, and it really wouldn't work without copper coins.
Madam Gao said, "Mother won't take it all. Give me half of the copper coins inside, and I'll go buy some things. We haven't bought many things yet, so we have to get everything we need today!"
Half a copper coin...
Li Shunzi's right hand trembled slightly as he reached into his satchel and felt for the copper coins inside.
When he came today, his mother gave him three hundred copper coins, and he secretly added another two hundred copper coins from his own savings.
However, he gave all two hundred copper coins he brought to Zhang, and used some of the copper coins his mother had given him to buy broken charcoal.
There are still two hundred copper coins left in the satchel.
Right now, his mother wants half of it, which he can afford, but what should he use to make up for the hundred copper coins he spent earlier?
Li Shunzi was extremely anxious, but he remained outwardly calm and pulled a string of copper coins from his satchel, telling his mother to take them and spend them first.
“You don’t have anything to hide copper coins on you, so take this string of copper coins for now. If it’s not enough, you can buy more things after you sell the sheep. I’ll keep more here, in case we don’t have enough change.”
Gao was naive when facing her son. She thought what her son said made sense, so she took the copper coins her son handed her, told her third uncle, and happily squeezed into the crowd.
Third Uncle also planned to leave with the siblings; they were going to buy mutton on East Street.
Just as he was about to take a step, Li Shunzi suddenly called out to him, "Uncle Gu, don't go yet... Nephew, there's something I want to tell you..."
Third Uncle looked puzzled: "What is it?"
"Just now, just now..." Li Shunzi stammered, his gaze somewhat unfocused, shifting to the side, not daring to meet the eyes of his third uncle.
Third Uncle waited patiently, not knowing what he wanted to say.
Suddenly, Gu Tang had a flash of inspiration and asked, "Uncle Shunzi, are you trying to talk about the charcoal you bought earlier?"
Li Shunzi's expression changed, and she glared at Gu Tang, her face stiffening: "Yes, yes... it's that matter..."
Gu Tang smiled at him: "You're really overthinking it. The three of us, grandfather, grandmother, and grandson, don't have very good memories. We forget everything after it's over."
We're not gossipy people; we never spread rumors in the village. Rest assured, my family and I won't gossip about your charcoal purchase.”
Hearing this, Li Shunzi felt inexplicably embarrassed, and her dislike for Gu Tang grew even stronger, finding the girl's sharp tongue extremely unpleasant.
If Gu Tang were alone, he would have given her a good scolding, but since his third uncle was also present, Li Shunzi could only suppress his dissatisfaction.
He said, "The charcoal was bought by an acquaintance, but my mother has always disliked me buying things for others, so I wanted to secretly keep it from her."
This was obviously a lie, so Gu Tang ignored him and lowered her eyes to play with the little yellow dog in her arms.
Li Shunzi's gaze was also drawn to the little yellow dog, and his face darkened for a moment.
This girl is truly cold-hearted and heartless!
Zhang, the mother, lived a hard life, eating only one meal a day. Her daughter, Zhang, bought two dogs without a second thought and never considered saving the money to send to her mother.
Li Shunzi's changing gaze wasn't concealed much, and Third Uncle saw it clearly, his brows furrowing and his face showing displeasure.
"What Tang girl said is exactly what I wanted to say. Don't worry, I assure you, we will never tell anyone about your charcoal purchase!"
Hearing the assurance with his own ears, Li Shunzi finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He glanced at his third uncle and saw that the man was getting angry. He looked very embarrassed and tried to say something to make amends: "You..."
Just as he was about to utter a word, Gu Tang suddenly spoke again: "Uncle Shunzi, there's something I need to remind you of. When you bought the charcoal earlier, you might not have paid attention to your surroundings."
While you were 'negotiating' the price with the charcoal seller, not only did we witness that scene, but several other villagers also saw it.
They didn't come up to speak to you, they just glanced in your direction a few times, I don't know if they recognized you. If they did, I'm afraid there will be some gossip going around.
Li Shunzi was frightened by these words, her face turning pale and flustered.
Why are there other people here?!
He looked around several times but didn't see any familiar faces from his village.
"Are you kidding me? When I was buying charcoal, I kept everyone around me, and apart from you, there was no one else from the village!"
"Really? Then maybe I misread it." Gu Tang's reaction was quite unexpected; she didn't argue with Li Shunzi about it.
You're saying I saw it wrong?
Okay, then I guess I misread it.
Gu Tang's reaction not only failed to reassure Li Shunzi, but instead made him even more uneasy.
Could it be that this girl really saw people from the same village among the crowd around him?
Seeing that people were starting to have doubts, Gu Tang added fuel to the fire: "You know what kind of person my grandfather is. He always says what he means. When we get back, if there are any rumors about this in the village, I hope you won't misunderstand us. It would be best to ask the villagers how many people saw you buying charcoal."
Li Shunzi: ...This is getting scarier and scarier!
Gu Tang stopped looking at him and tugged at her third uncle's sleeve: "Grandpa, let's go. East Street isn't close to here. If we go too late, I'm afraid the mutton will be sold out."
"Alright, let's go." The third uncle responded and led the siblings eastward.
Li Shunzi wanted to ask Gu Tang again whether she had actually seen the villagers or was just pretending.
Seeing that the person had left, I wanted to go up and call them back to ask them what had happened.
Just then, a skinny man squeezed in front of Li Shunzi and asked him how much the sheep was worth.
After waiting for so long, Li Shunzi was both angry and happy to finally hear someone ask about the price.
What's infuriating is that Gu Tang spoke vaguely, leaving everyone hanging in suspense, unable to decide whether to go up or down, before she just walked away.
The good news is that someone has finally shown interest in these three lambs!
Li Shunzi temporarily suppressed his desire to pursue Gu Tang, smiled, and held up two fingers to the man: "Twenty copper coins a pound."
The man exclaimed in surprise, "Twenty copper coins a pound?! This sheep is skin and bones, and it still costs twenty copper coins a pound?" Li Shunzi nodded and kicked the three sheep beside him forward. "Don't be fooled by how thin these sheep are. They're dwarf sheep, and the meat is extremely delicious! Twenty copper coins is really not expensive!"
The man waved his hands repeatedly: "I know about short-legged sheep. Only when these sheep are fed until they are plump and fat will their meat taste delicious!"
"You're not feeding it properly. Look at its head, it'll only last three months at most. It'll have hardly any meat on its body. After you kill it, it'll taste no different from any other sheep."
After saying this, the man turned and left without looking back.
Li Shunzi felt a lump in his throat, looked down at his sheep, and looked embarrassed.
They weren't wrong; the sheep was indeed quite small, about three months old at most.
The ewe was poorly fed and had little milk, so the lamb was often hungry, which prevented it from growing big and meaty.
Li Shunzi was a little worried; he was afraid these three sheep wouldn't sell well.
Standing on tiptoe and looking east, Li Shunzi could no longer find the Gu family grandfather and grandson amidst the bustling crowd.
He was still preoccupied with what had just happened, feeling extremely uneasy. He wanted to catch up and ask him what had happened, but with these three sheep with him, he couldn't go anywhere.
Moreover, he was burdened with a "debt" of one hundred copper coins.
After much thought, he realized that the only way to pay off the debt was to sell all three sheep before his mother returned.
One sheep can easily be underreported by one or two pounds, and three sheep can cover up about five or six pounds.
One jin (a unit of weight) is worth twenty copper coins, so five jin is worth one hundred copper coins, which is just enough to make up for the one hundred copper coins.
Thinking of this, Li Shunzi became even more enthusiastic in his sales pitch, his mind filled with the desire to sell the sheep as quickly as possible.
……
Squeezing out of West Street, not far from Gu Tang's courtyard, the crowd here was noticeably smaller.
The three generations of the family, who were squeezed together and were feeling quite uncomfortable, suddenly felt a sense of relief and gasped for breath.
After resting for a while, I planned to continue walking towards East Street.
But before that, we need to go back to the courtyard and take the two puppies back inside.
It was very inconvenient to carry them the whole way; they didn't look very big, but they were quite heavy to hold.
Turning back to the courtyard, the three of them—grandfather, grandfather, and grandson—did not enter the yard. They only opened one door, shoved the two puppies inside, and immediately closed and locked the door.
The puppies were whimpering softly behind the door, whether from the cold or because they were in an unfamiliar place.
Gu Tang was a little worried, so she simply asked Gu Ping'an to stay and watch over the puppies, and to find some things to build them a nest.
Gu Ping'an was unhappy with Gu Tang's arrangement; he was worried about the old man and the young man going to East Street.
Unfortunately, his words carried little weight, and he couldn't argue with Gu Tang. Gu Tang forcefully opened the door and pushed him into the courtyard.
Third Uncle watched this scene without saying a word, his face beaming with smiles.
After settling Gu Ping'an and the puppy, Gu Tang followed her third uncle to the butcher shop on East Street to buy mutton.
There are fewer people on East Street than on West Street, so you don't have to squeeze with other people while walking on the street.
Gu Tang often comes here, but she has never bought meat from the butcher shop.
Having traveled through time for so long, she only eats chicken or fish, never pork, because she finds the pork here too gamey.
I rarely eat mutton either, because I also dislike its strong smell!
They asked around on the way and found the nearest butcher shop.
The grandfather and grandson went over to the butcher shop and asked if they had dwarf sheep meat for sale.
"You've come to the right place. Today we're going to slaughter a dwarf sheep, weighing about forty pounds, and it's extremely plump!"
The price isn't cheap, and I haven't sold a single pound. I was planning to send them to a restaurant. If you had come any later, you might have missed out.
The butcher, a man in his early thirties, said this while turning around and going to the oxcart behind him to bring over a skinned and gutted sheep.
The butcher placed the sheep on the chopping board, looking quite pleased with himself, and invited the grandfather and grandson to smell the sheep.
"Just smell it. If there's even the slightest fishy or gamey smell, I won't take a single copper coin from you!"
Third Uncle knew that Gu Tang was very picky, so he stepped forward, bent down and sniffed carefully, then nodded with a smile: "Indeed, there is not a trace of fishy or muttony smell."
The butcher grinned even more smugly.
"Girl, come and smell it yourself." Third Uncle made room for Gu Tang so she could come forward and smell it herself.
Following her third uncle's actions, Gu Tang sniffed the meat carefully a few times and nodded in agreement: "This dwarf sheep is truly rare; it doesn't have the gamey smell of mutton."
"This sheep is unique to our area; you can't find it anywhere else!" the butcher said with great pride.
"How much is this mutton per pound?"
"Eighty copper coins a pound!"
what the hell!
Eighty copper coins a pound?!
Gu Tang clicked her tongue in amazement. This was way too expensive!
The butcher seemed to sense Gu Tang's thoughts and explained, "Everything has gone up in price this year, especially food and warm clothing. These two items have increased the most. These dwarf sheep, which used to cost seventy copper coins a pound, have jumped to eighty this year!"
In a couple of days, the price of meat will rise again! Everyone's talking about the snow disaster, and even the wealthy seem to believe it; I hear everyone's stockpiling food. When ordinary people see others doing this, they start stockpiling too. If this continues, I'm afraid chaos will ensue!
The grandfather and grandson looked at each other in disbelief; the snow disaster story was getting more and more outrageous.
Fortunately, they won't stay in Beian City forever; they'll soon be able to return to their village.
"How much mutton do you want? Which part do you want? I'll cut it for you!" The butcher took out his knife and gestured to the different parts of the sheep.
Third Uncle didn't dare to make the decision himself; he left it to Gu Tang.
Gu Tang pointed to the whole sheep and said, "We'll take the whole one. You just need to disassemble and pack it up, and then find someone to help us send it back. This sheep is too heavy for the two of us to carry."
Upon hearing this, the butcher grinned from ear to ear, thinking he was having a lucky day and had run into a big customer!
"Don't worry, I'll find a capable young man to carry it all the way to your home!"
The butcher found a hemp rope, tied it to the sheep, then brought a large scale specifically for weighing heavy objects, called over a helper, and the two of them worked together to hang the sheep on the scale.
As the weight continued to move backward, the weight was quickly determined.
"That's exactly forty-two jin!"
Eighty copper coins per catty, so forty-two catties would be three thousand three hundred and sixty copper coins, which is nearly three and a half taels of silver.