Chapter 51 - The First Crock of Gold 6
“More than a hundred catties of rice? We can eat them for a long, long time,” Xiaobao said dazedly. The image of over a hundred catties of rice appeared in his mind, but he could not quite visualize it in his little head, so he made it up.
Qi Qingyao rubbed her chin calmly. “Two taels of silver seem pretty useful. Let’s sell the remaining meat at the market tomorrow then. We’re sure to earn a lot of money for it.”
The three toddlers looked at Qi Qingyao’s extreme composure and felt confused.
Dabao asked, “Aren’t you excited, Mommy?”
“Look at you three, silly kids!” Qi Qingyao put Xiaobao down and crouched down to look the three children in their eyes. Perfectly unfazed, she said, “I told you, right? We’re gonna buy a big house and then move to Qingzhou City one day! The houses there are really expensive. What’s two taels in the face of that? Think about it. If we get excited over two taels now, won’t you guys faint when we earn thousands and tens of thousands of taels in the future?”
“…” Thousands? Tens of thousands?
The three toddlers’ eyes widened as they looked at Qi Qingyao in disbelief.
“Someone’s here again.” Si Jin was about to clean up the remaining pork when he suddenly sensed something approaching. He looked up and glanced at it before turning around and informing Qi Qingyao.
Jiang Yeqian immediately looked up.
He saw a woman approaching from a faraway distance.
After that, his thoughtful gaze fell upon Si Jin.
Qi Qingyao happily ran to the fence to greet her newest customer. It seemed the woman was a widow from West Street who lived with two young children and her in-laws.
When the widow saw Qi Qingyao, she began haltingly,
“Eleventh Daughter, I-I don’t have money.” After a pause, she handed over a small bag of rice, saying awkwardly, “Can I give you some rice in exchange for the pork?”
“Sure, of course! No problem.” Qi Qingyao accepted the rice with a smile. There was a few catties’ worth.
She then asked Si Jin to cut the widow a catty of meat!
The widow left with the meat, grinning from ear to ear.
Qi Qingyao was feeling pretty good after obtaining the rice, too. She told the ones waiting in anticipation, “For lunch today, we’re having rice and braised meat!~”
“(＾－＾)V Yay!”
The triplets bounced around the yard happily.
They had rice to eat!
It was cold out, but everyone felt warm inside.
Qi Qingyao said they were having braised meat, but she had no spices or herbs in her kitchen at all. There was only salt!
It was fine for steaming fish, but braised meat would taste terrible without sugar and some simple spices…
She could not buy those in the village, and the town was too far away.
While Qi Qingyao was feeling troubled, someone else arrived. He leaned against the fence for a long time but did not come in, looking hesitant.
Qi Qingyao watched him for a long time before walking over to him in exasperation.
“Sir, are you loitering at my door because you want to steal something or buy some meat? Just tell me.”
“I-I… I’m not here to steal.”
“So you want to buy meat.”
“…But I don’t have money.”
“…”
Qi Qingyao fell silent for a moment, but then she had an idea.
“I can give you some meat even if you don’t have money, sir.”
“Ah, really?”
“You can exchange other things for it.”
“But I don’t have anything valuable at home.”
“I need some spices, like star anise and cassia bark. Oh, rock sugar, soy sauce, and yellow wine too. I don’t need too much, just a bit of each. If you have them, you can exchange those for the meat.”
“Okay, wait for me!”