Chapter 41: Buying New Year’s Goods
In the blink of an eye, it was the twenty-fourth of the twelfth lunar month. Lin Shuang and Jiang Huaizhen discussed going to buy new year’s goods the next day and asked the old woman if she wanted to go.
Old Madam Jiang had already been on her last check-up and had no lingering desires. She was also afraid that if she went, she would be a burden and the two of them wouldn’t be able to shop properly. So she said, “It’s freezing outside. I’m not going to suffer the cold. Just buy whatever the family is missing.”
Seeing that she really didn’t want to go, the two of them had to give up and left without eating breakfast.
The weather was even colder today, with a few snowflakes falling. The pedestrians on the road were in a hurry, and there didn’t seem to be many of them. But when they entered the city, they found that the streets were full of people, and stalls were set up everywhere.
The two of them, each with a large basket on their back, weaved through the crowd.
There were so many people these few days. If their flatbread stall were still here, it would probably be sold out. Lin Shuang couldn’t help but sigh again. But she was afraid of making Jiang Huaizhen feel guilty, so she didn’t say it out loud and focused on looking at the various new year’s goods at the stalls.
They had already bought cloth last time, so this time, it was mainly to buy food for the new year.
Rice, flour, and grains were a must. They bought some various beans, which could be used to cook porridge and stew meat when they got back.
The grandmother and granddaughter in the family liked pasta, but there were still twenty or thirty catties of flour left at home, so they didn’t need to buy any more this time.
Lin Shuang also wanted to make some sweet dumplings for the new year, but they didn’t have a stone mill at home, so she bought over three catties of glutinous rice flour.
“Have you ever had sweet dumplings?” she asked.
Jiang Huaizhen replied, “I had them a few times when I was little.”
“Did they have filling?”
Jiang Huaizhen shook her head. “Glutinous rice balls with sugar water were already delicious. I didn’t know they could have filling inside.”
Lin Shuang smiled. “This new year, I’ll let you try sweet dumplings with peanut and sesame filling. I guarantee you’ll never forget it.”
With that, she bought a few taels of crushed peanuts and sesame seeds at the grain shop for the filling, and finally went to look at the sugar.
If it were before, they wouldn’t have even dared to enter such a shop. Now that they had money, they were more confident and dared to go into any shop for a look.
Maltose was more common in the Yizhou area and was cheaper. Rock sugar was a coarse cane sugar that had been introduced from the Western Regions in the early days, and only wealthy families could afford it. But in recent years, with the increasing cultivation of sugarcane in the south, although the price had not yet come down, some ordinary families could also afford it.
Lin Shuang bought half a catty of maltose and two taels of rock sugar. She also had the owner weigh out half a catty of candied fruit and melon seeds for snacks. Seeing that they were buying a lot, the owner couldn’t stop smiling. Before they left, he gave them two pieces of milk candy. “This is made with milk and spices. Only the officials and nobles can afford it. I didn’t dare to stock much, in case I couldn’t sell it and it went bad.”
Lin Shuang smiled and thanked him, then pulled Jiang Huaizhen out the door and went to the butcher’s stall.
They had bought rice, flour, and grains, and also snacks. Meat was also a must.
After having lamb noodles last time, Lin Shuang had made a dry pot dish when they got back, and since then, the old woman had been thinking about lamb. Since it was the new year, they naturally had to buy food that would please her. So, the first stall they went to was the lamb stall, where they bought three catties of lamb bones and two catties of lamb with skin.
Lamb was already more expensive than pork, and with the new year approaching, all prices were going up. Lin Shuang’s heart ached when she paid.
She also wanted to buy some beef, but unfortunately, none of the surrounding butcher shops sold it. She couldn’t help but be a little disappointed.
Jiang Huaizhen asked, “We have lamb. Why do you still want to buy beef?”
Lin Shuang glanced at her. “Have you forgotten what I said when we were building the kang at Doctor Xue’s house?”
At that time, seeing Jiang Huaizhen eat so happily, she had told her that when they had money, she would also make her stir-fried beef.
Only then did Jiang Huaizhen remember this.
For a small matter related to herself to be remembered by someone was a very rare feeling for her. Her expression was slightly stunned for a moment, and finally, she pursed her lips and said, “We’ll see when it’s available in the future.”
That was the only way. Lin Shuang looked at the strings of cured meat hanging in front of the various butcher shops and suggested, “Why don’t we buy half a pig to cure? It can be kept for a long time, and we won’t have to go out whenever we want to eat meat in the future.”
The Jiang family had never successfully raised a pig, so they had never had the chance to cure their own meat. Only once, when she was little, Jiang Gui had brought back a catty of cured meat from somewhere. That night, the old woman had steamed it with rice, and the three of them had eaten until their mouths were greasy, still wanting more.
Jiang Huaizhen still remembered the taste to this day.
Now, hearing Lin Shuang say this, she was also a little moved.
“The two baskets are full. Why don’t we come back tomorrow to buy it?”
Lin Shuang said, “No need. On our way back, we can pass by Butcher Zhang’s house and order half a pig. We can have him deliver it to our house tomorrow.”
Butcher Zhang was from the next village and had a fixed stall in the city. He also had two children, a boy and a girl. His daughter and wife managed the stall in the city, while he and his son would go from village to village, selling meat.
If they ordered half a pig, Butcher Zhang would definitely deliver it to their door.
Hearing this, Jiang Huaizhen’s eyebrows relaxed. “That would be for the best.”
“If we’re curing meat, we’ll have to buy some more coarse salt. You have to use a lot of salt to cure meat,” Lin Shuang said.
So the two of them turned and went to the grocery store to buy a few catties of coarse salt.
But just as they came out of the grocery store, they ran into a young woman of about the same height. The person smiled. “Are you also here to buy new year’s goods today?”
The newcomer was Hu Guiying.
“Don’t you have to be on duty today?” Jiang Huaizhen asked.
“It’s the twenty-fourth of the twelfth lunar month today. It’s almost the new year. What’s there to be on duty for? Someone is on watch. If something happens, I’ll go over,” Hu Guiying looked at the baskets behind them. “You’ve bought a lot of things. Didn’t your grandmother come with you?”
Jiang Huaizhen shook her head. “It’s too cold. She doesn’t like to come out. Are you alone?”
“No, with my mother and my aunt, and two little rascals.”
Hu Guiying had two older brothers. The aunt she was talking about was Lu Qing’s wife, Wang Zhimei. The two families had come out to buy new year’s goods with their children.
As they were talking, her mother, Lu Erqiao, and her aunt, Wang Zhimei, also squeezed over. Seeing Jiang Huaizhen, Wang Zhimei was surprised. “Is this Zhen’er? You’ve grown so tall. A few years ago, when I saw you, you were like a little bean sprout. Now you’re so big.”
Wang Zhimei was Lu Qing’s wife. When their house had burned down, and she had just given birth to their second child, their eldest child was burned and was about to die. Her husband had gone everywhere to borrow money but had been turned away. In the end, it was Jiang Gui who had given him three taels of silver.
Since then, Wang Zhimei had always remembered Jiang Gui and had even gone to thank him in person, which was how she had met Jiang Huaizhen.
But the two families lived far apart, and Jiang Huaizhen was a distant person. After Jiang Gui’s death, she had not had any contact with them. Last year, when Jiang Huaizhen was at her wit’s end, she had gone to Lu Qing to borrow money, but she had not gone to the Lu residence, so the two of them had not met.
She didn’t expect to run into her here today.
The seventeen or eighteen-year-old Jiang Huaizhen had blossomed into a beautiful young woman, which really made her eyes light up.
Seeing her, Jiang Huaizhen also felt a sense of familiarity and called out, “Aunt Zhimei, Aunt Qiao.”
Wang Zhimei smiled. “Is your grandmother better?”
When Jiang Huaizhen had gone to the yamen to borrow money from her husband, her husband had told her when he came back, and she had only then learned that the old woman was sick. There were still two taels of silver at home. The couple felt that it was not enough, so they had borrowed another tael from someone else and had given the three taels to Jiang Huaizhen.
But Jiang Huaizhen did not know about this.
But she still remembered Lu Qing’s kindness in her time of need.
“She’s much better now. She can get out of bed and walk, and she can also cook at home. It’s just too cold today, so she didn’t want to come out. Otherwise, you would have been able to see her.”
“Good, good,” Wang Zhimei patted her on the shoulder. “It’s good that she’s better. You don’t have to work so hard anymore.”
Only then did Jiang Huaizhen introduce Lin Shuang to the two of them.
Hu Guiying’s mother, Lu Erqiao, said, “We all know that you were selling flatbreads at the market a few days ago. Those damn vixens, they had to go and ruin it, ruining a perfectly good business. If we had known that would happen, Zhimei and I would have come to support you, and we wouldn’t have let those bitches get away with it.”
She had a fiery personality and was outspoken. She couldn’t keep anything to herself.
Lin Shuang smiled. “These people can only use Huaizhen’s identity to make a fuss. But even if it weren’t for them, when other vendors see us earning money in the future, they will inevitably be envious and cause trouble. It’s much quieter for us to set up a stall on the official road, and we don’t have to worry about someone coming to cause trouble one day.”
“That’s true, but those Ma sisters are too evil. If I run into them another day, I’ll have to tear their mouths off,” Lu Erqiao was still indignant.
“It’s a pity about those flatbreads. If you were selling them at the market on a day like this, you would have been sold out.”
Everyone was full of regret.
Jiang Huaizhen was rarely with so many people. Looking at the few little ones behind Wang Zhimei, she said, “Auntie, it’s almost noon. Let’s go and have a bowl of noodles together.”
Wang Zhimei quickly waved her hand. “No, no. We ate at home before we came.”
Going to the market, if it weren’t for being poor, who would have eaten at home before coming?
Lin Shuang looked at the few children whose eyes were shining at the mention of noodles and smiled. “No matter how full you are at home, after half a day on the road, you’ll be starving, won’t you?”
Hearing this, the two children shyly hid behind Wang Zhimei.
Hu Guiying looked at her two cousins’ greedy expressions and was embarrassed. “Huaizhen, Sister Shuang, that’s alright. You go on with your business. I’ll take them for a walk.”
A bowl of noodles, even if it were plain noodles, would cost five or six copper coins. It wouldn’t be right to just have plain noodles. There were five of them, so it would be at least fifty or sixty copper coins, which was a large expense.
She only earned a few hundred copper coins a month at the yamen. A meal like this would be very painful.
It was better to finish their shopping quickly and go home to have porridge.
But Jiang Huaizhen didn’t reply to her. Instead, she looked at Lin Shuang. “I’ll go to the noodle shop and order the noodles first. You can bring them over slowly.”
Lin Shuang nodded, feeling a sense of intimacy between the two of them in front of outsiders.
Wang Zhimei quickly called out, “Hey, you child. We said we’re not eating. What are you ordering noodles for? A bowl of noodles is over a dozen copper coins. Your money didn’t come from the wind. You still have to pay for your grandmother’s medical treatment—”
Before she could finish, Jiang Huaizhen’s tall figure had already walked away.
She stomped her foot in frustration.
Lin Shuang smiled. “Let’s go. Although there are fewer people on the official road, we can still earn some. A bowl of noodles is not a burden.”
The few of them hesitated for a moment, then pulled each other along and followed Lin Shuang to the noodle shop.
But Hu Guiying was embarrassed and made an excuse. “Sister Shuang, I have something to do at the yamen. I’ll go back to the yamen first. I’ll come and find my mother and the others later.”
Lin Shuang grabbed her sleeve. “No matter what you have to do, you have to eat your noodles before you go. Huaizhen has already ordered. Can she leave you out? If you don’t go, your portion will be wasted.”
Hu Guiying’s ears turned red. “Then you can share it…”
“No sharing. Let’s go.”
Seeing this, Wang Zhimei had no choice but to say, “Let’s go, Third Aunt. Since Huaizhen is set on treating us to noodles, we’ll take advantage of her this once and treat her back another day.”
Hu Guiying had no choice but to follow everyone to the noodle shop.
Jiang Huaizhen had ordered a total of seven bowls of lamb noodles, each with a portion of lamb’s blood. She had also added lamb offal for the adults, and each bowl of noodles was full to the brim.
Wang Zhimei looked at the thick layer of oil floating on top and couldn’t help but be happy. “This shop is really honest, unlike others, which are just clear soup and water.”
The two children had already impatiently picked up their chopsticks, but since the adults hadn’t started, they didn’t dare to eat.
Lin Shuang looked at them and smiled. “Go on, eat while it’s hot.”
Everyone stopped being reserved and began to eat.
The noodles were chewy, the lamb soup was fresh, and the meat slices and lamb offal, mixed with the red oil, made them sweat and exclaim in delight.
The adults drank all the soup, and the two children’s bowls were also left with only half a bowl of soup. They ate until their stomachs were round.
Wang Zhimei said with embarrassment, “Thanks to you two nieces, our little ones were able to have a good meal.”
Hu Guiying, having eaten her fill, leaned against the wall with her foot on a nearby chair, not at all like a lady.
“It’s just a bowl of noodles. It’s not a big deal. You’re too polite, Auntie,” Lin Shuang said, making small talk with the two of them. “What do you two aunts usually do at home?”
Lu Erqiao sighed and replied, “We just take care of the three mu of land at home. It’s not spring yet, so we’re idle at home. We do some embroidery to sell in the city, but every household does embroidery and sews shoes, so it’s not easy to sell.”
Hu Guiying suddenly said, “What, are you going to ask my mother and aunt to sell flatbreads?”
Hearing this, Lu Erqiao raised her hand to slap her. “What nonsense are you talking about? Your mouth is always running.”
She had eaten the sauce flatbreads made by the two of them. No stall in all of Changping County could compare to the taste. Even if they weren’t doing it in the city now, they could still sell on the official road. If she went and stuck to them, wouldn’t she be a nuisance?
Lin Shuang smiled. “What’s wrong with that?”
Seeing the few of them look over, she glanced at Jiang Huaizhen, who was also looking at her, her eyes a little bright.
For someone who could lend money to Huaizhen and introduce her to a job, how could they be bad people?
She smiled. “That’s exactly what I was thinking.”
“Huaizhen and I are selling on the official road now, but there are only a few people there in the autumn. On other days, we can wait all day and not sell a few flatbreads. It can’t compare to the city.”
“But these people in the city don’t want to see us do well. But if someone else sells it, then it’s different.”
Lu Erqiao’s eyes widened. “Are you really thinking of letting us help you sell flatbreads?”
Lin Shuang nodded.
“But we don’t know how to make flatbreads,” Wang Zhimei said.
“It’s alright. I can teach you.”
“That won’t do,” Lu Erqiao shook her head. “That flatbread is your secret recipe. We shouldn’t know it.”
Wang Zhimei also shook her head in agreement.
Lin Shuang smiled. “You just need to make the flatbreads. Huaizhen and I will prepare the ingredients. When you sell them, after deducting the cost, we’ll split the profits.”
The two of them looked at each other. Wang Zhimei thought for a moment and said, “If you’re really looking for someone to help you sell flatbreads, we can do it. But we don’t want to split the profits. Just give us wages.”
They couldn’t find any other work outside. To find a job that paid twenty copper coins a day was the best they could hope for. The flatbreads could be sold because of their secret recipe. How could they dare to think of splitting the profits?
Lin Shuang said, “We’re not just looking for someone to help us sell flatbreads. Huaizhen and I are looking for partners. If you two aunts are willing to do it, then we can discuss the split slowly.”
“If this business is really going to be done, even if we don’t find you, we’ll have to find someone else.”
Hearing that they would find someone else, Wang Zhimei quickly said, “In that case, we’re willing to do it.”
Lin Shuang smiled. She had long thought of expanding the flatbread business. She and Huaizhen would move to the background, so they wouldn’t have to face those people themselves, which would save a lot of trouble.
She hadn’t found a suitable person before, so she had been putting it off. Now, seeing these two, she felt that the opportunity had come.
