inspire-indiana Chapter 175 Drinking
Chapter 175 Drinking
"Gulp!" The young man swallowed his saliva, his eyes wide open, "It's so delicious? I didn't know I had to use badger oil, and I couldn't wash it. Oh, why didn't I find this way of eating before? I ate it in vain all those years!"
Zhou Guo smiled, "Not only that, if you can't finish these right away, you can cut them into strips and fry them in oil, then use badger oil to make them dry, seal them in a jar, and they won't go bad for a year. When you eat rice, noodles, or cakes, take them out and mix them with them. They are more delicious than anything else."
"Oh, this is the best way to eat it, with a sandwich. Let's take it all, brother, let's take it all, ok? I don't want to eat that dry food anymore. It would be nice to have some vegetables. If I had known it would be like this, I would have prepared more delicious food."
The man next to him looked helpless and nodded to Zhou Guo, saying, "We want them all at 40 cents a pound."
Zhou Guo nodded readily without bargaining, "Deal."
Li was stunned. She didn't say a word, and her daughter sold all four sacks of pine mushrooms at 40 wen per catty. She had never seen any wild mushrooms sold at 40 wen per catty. Even in their place, the small flower mushrooms picked up in the mountains in winter were only 20 wen per catty. This was a full doubling of the price.
Zhou Guo took out his small scale and looked at it. How many times would it take to weigh it?
"Your scale is so small, we have a big scale here." The young man turned around and took out a large scale from the car, "This time it can weigh 150 kilograms, use ours."
"That's best."
She hung the scale hook on the sack, and gently lifted it with her left hand. The sack of matsutake mushrooms was lifted up, and the weight was moved back directly until the scale bar was parallel, and then she put it down.
The two men were shocked.
The young man was stunned. He tried to lift it up with one hand, but it didn't work. He used both hands to lift it up. Then he put it down with a snap. He smiled awkwardly and said to Zhou Guo, "I didn't realize you were so strong at such a young age. No wonder you started a business at such a young age."
Zhou Guo smiled and said, "My family is poor, and I only have this bit of strength left, just enough to make a living."
The man looked at her clothes and suddenly had an idea: "Hey, why don't you come with us? We will give you two taels of silver a month, so that you can use the money to support your family. How about that?"
The more the young man thought about it, the better he felt that this was a good idea. If he was strong, he could beat five or six others. What did they fear most when traveling for business? Wasn't it that they were afraid of being robbed?
Zhou Guo waved his hand, "No, no, you guys will be gone for a year or so, and I still have to take care of the family. Our family can't live without me."
"Oh, so that's the case. But it doesn't matter. You're so strong, you'll never have to worry about food wherever you go." The man was a little disappointed.
Zhou Guo weighed the remaining three sacks and said, "There are 384 kilograms here, which is 15,360 coins in total. This is a good number, six in a row."
The older man nodded, gave her two silver ingots weighing five taels each, and paid the rest with copper coins.
Zhou Guo happily took it. His family had a lot of silver, so copper coins were more practical for daily transactions. He told the young man, "Remember, badger oil tastes much better than lard when fried."
Li carried bags of goods one by one and put them into their car.
"I'll remember it. I'll definitely try it. Let's go first."
Seeing that everyone had left, Zhou Guo took out two silver ingots and gave them to Li, "Mom, keep these ten taels. They are needed to build the house at home. I will take the rest back to Master. Half of them were picked up by him." He put the remaining copper coins into the bag in front of him.
Li waved her hand and said, "I still have some. These are all earned by you in the mountains. Divide them all."
"How can we divide it all? The money spent on building the house is for everyone, and everyone has to contribute. You take it. After this winter, we will build a blue brick and tile house next year, which will cost a lot. We also have to pay tuition to the master every year, buy clothes, shoes, socks and wine for him, and send my brothers to school. All these things cost money."
Zhou Guo unknowingly revealed his entire plan.
"What? Send them to school? How can our family afford it? It costs a lot of money to send them to school." Li was shocked. How could she not know that the children were going to school?
In the early years when the family was well off, it was not possible to send all the children there. Among so many children, only Sanlang and Zhou Gu studied for two years and then returned. Zhou Mai and Zhou Mi never went there for a single day. Sanlang was responsible for teaching them after school.
After so many years, some people are afraid that they may have forgotten everything they learned.
Zhou Guo didn't know that his uncle and elder brother had been to school for two years. "Then I'll go back and ask them. It'd be best if I could go."
She wanted to go with them, but the school did not accept female students, so she could only study at home with her brothers. If she could not read, she would be useless.
"Let's go, mother. Let's use this money to buy wine for the master. I brought two gourds with me. If they are both full, it should be enough for him to drink for a while. You can take it with you when you go into the mountains every day."
Li smiled and said, "Then we have to get some better wine for the old man."
The two walked to the wine shop, and Zhou Guo placed two gourds on the counter and said, "Boss, buy me two pots of wine."
The shopkeeper looked at the two gourds, then at her clothes, and asked with a smile, "What kind of wine would you like, sir? I want you to know that different wines have different prices."
"What kind of wine do you have?" Zhou Guo doesn't drink, so he doesn't know what kind of wine is good.
"The cheapest wine here is 30 wen per jin, which is the most popular. In addition, there are 45 wen per jin, 50 wen per jin, 60 wen per jin, and 80 wen per jin. The most expensive one is sold by the pot, 150 wen per pot. Which one would you like, sir?"
Zhou Guo thought about it and realized that he couldn't give his master the cheapest one. "How big is the pot that costs 150 wen?"
The shopkeeper saw that she asked about the most expensive one right away, so he didn't care. He turned around and took down a ceramic blue and white wine pot from the treasure rack behind him, the most common kind, and said, "This is a pot."
Zhou Guo took a look at it. This wine pot is similar to the ones he often sees. "How much is this pot?"
"About five taels."
It's only five taels, and one catty costs four hundred and eighty wen, nearly five hundred wen. This wine is really expensive!
She looked at her gourd, which could hold about two kilograms of wine and one tael of silver.
But she had to give her master something good to eat. After all, this was her first time buying wine, and she had sold all his beloved pine mushrooms to earn the money. With this in mind, she pointed at the two gourds and said generously, "One hundred and fifty coins for a pot of wine. Fill both gourds for me!"