Reborn as the Blissful Wife in the countryside
Chapter 78 - 078 The Noble Sauce

Chapter 78: Chapter 078 The Noble Sauce

After Doctor Du left, they walked around to the back street to purchase a cast iron pot from the iron shop there.

Gu Jinli’s family didn’t have a cast iron pot; only Third Grandpa’s family had one, which was inconvenient to use for cooking, making dishes, and boiling water over the past few days.

Clang, clang, clang –

As soon as they entered the blacksmith shop, a piercing sound of hammering on iron rang out.

The blacksmith saw them and pointed to a row of iron pots of different sizes on the ground, saying, "Pick whatever pot you want to buy by yourself."

Then he asked them, "Did you bring your household registration? You cannot buy ironware without it."

In ancient times, iron was used to make weapons, and it was regulated by the court; farmers needed to bring their household registration to purchase ironware, or they would not be able to buy it.

"We brought it." Gu Dashan came to the row of iron pots and took out a grass rope, measured with it against the pots, and selected an iron pot that was equal in size to their home’s earthen stove. After tapping and listening to the sound and feeling the surfaces for a half-quarter of an hour, he finally made his choice.

He asked the blacksmith, "Master, how much for this pot?"

"Recently, everywhere is in chaos, and iron is expensive. It’s two hundred cents more than last year. This pot will cost you three taels and two hundred cents."

A cast iron pot is a very important possession for a farmer; wherever they go, they carry the pot with them.

Gu Dashan felt a bit pained by the price, but he still bought it. In his old hometown, buying a large cast iron pot like this would cost about the same. Their place was in the Northwest, where wars were frequent, and ironware was very expensive and not easy to purchase.

Qin San Lang also spent the same amount of Silver Coin to buy a large cast iron pot.

They handed over the silver and showed their household registration to the blacksmith, confirmed everything, and then left the iron shop with their iron pots.

After leaving the iron shop, they headed back to the main street and went to the grocery store.

The grocery store was quite large, with a dazzling array of items including wooden barrels, baskets, carrying poles, thick ropes, salt, sugar, vinegar, sauce, alcohol, needles and thread, and so on.

The grocery store was more crowded than the cloth shop, mostly with people coming to buy sugar and alcohol for the New Year.

Third Grandpa and his group looked around and purchased three pairs of Mu Tong, one jin of salt, a pack of caramel, a pot of vinegar, a pot of alcohol, and more than ten pottery vessels. They also bought needles and threads for the women at home, as well as a bundle of coarse hemp cloth.

This coarse hemp cloth was the cheapest fabric, seldom sold in cloth shops. Even if cloth shops did sell it, it would be more expensive than outside. Farmers who wanted to buy it usually went to grocery stores, where the price was two to three cents cheaper than cloth shops.

Upon seeing that they hadn’t bought any sauce, Gu Jinli pointed to a few bottles of sauce on the shelf and said, "Dad, let’s buy a bottle of soy sauce. It makes the dishes taste better."

Their home didn’t have condiment sauces, and the meals they had been eating in recent days had only salt. The meat they had last night was only seasoned with salt, ginger, and the fennel and cinnamon she found on the road.

Gu Dashan, hearing this, quickly shook his head and said, "We can’t buy it, we can’t buy it. Hai Xian Sauce is something rich households eat. We farmers don’t eat this."

"Hai Xian Sauce?" Gu Jinli was somewhat puzzled.

Qin San Lang explained, "It’s a type of sauce made with meat, which can make the dishes taste very delicious when added. But it’s quite expensive—a pot of Hai Xian Sauce costs a tael of silver."

Gu Jinli thought back for a moment in her head before she realized that the Hai Xian Sauce they mentioned was the vinegar sauce she read about in history books.

Before the Han dynasty, there was no soy sauce made from soybeans, only a kind of sauce called "Hai," which was made by marinating meat for a hundred days, similar to the method of making fish sauce. However, this meat-based vinegar sauce was very expensive, and only the rich and powerful nobles could afford it. Ordinary people couldn’t afford it.

When Gu Jinli heard that the sauce cost one tael of silver, she gave up the idea of buying it. However, she kept in mind that there was no soy sauce made from beans in Great Chu.

After paying with silver coins, the group secured their items and left the sundry shop.

"Let’s go to the grain shop," Third Grandpa said. "We need to buy grain." Buying grain was their most important task on this trip to the town.

By the time they reached the grain shop, Uncle Tian and his sons, Gu Damu and Gu Dalin brothers, were already waiting there.

Gu Dalin was the first to see them and smiled as he greeted, "Uncle Tian, Brother Dashan, you’ve bought quite a lot of things."

The load on their backs nearly obscured them from view.

"It’s cold, all necessary items," Third Grandpa said, turning to Uncle Tian. Seeing that his basket was empty, he frowned and asked, "How come you didn’t buy any cotton or fabric? In this freezing weather, if you don’t buy cotton to make clothes and quilts, how will you survive the winter?" Elder Qin had lent money to the Tian Family. Why hadn’t they purchased anything to keep warm?

Upon hearing this, Gu Dalin explained to Third Grandpa, "Uncle Tian, we already told him when we were at the cloth shop, but he just refused to buy. He insisted that they have enough warm clothing and quilts at home, and there’s no need to buy more. Enough? Those are only warm clothes. How can they withstand the cold? The quilt they have is an old damp one provided by the government; it’s only one, and sleeping under it could freeze someone to death."

The Tian family went with Gu Damu and Gu Dalin brothers to buy items, but while Gu Damu’s and Gu Dalin’s family bought their items, the Tian family father and sons just watched and bought nothing, despite how much they were persuaded.

Uncle Tian slightly bowed his head and said, "Uncle Tian, rest assured, we have those warm clothes and old quilts, and we keep the fire alive in the house. We don’t get cold sleeping near the fire at night. It’s fine."

They still had debts and couldn’t afford to spend money on purchases.

Hearing this made Third Grandpa so angry he wanted to hit someone: "Saving money is not like this! Do you want to freeze to death?!" Although it was not as cold here as in the eastern part of Yangji Prefecture, the water would still freeze over.

Gu Jinli knew that the Tian Family’s issues were due to lack of money. She took out the money from selling the snakes and said to Uncle Tian, "Uncle Tian, we sold the snakes we caught yesterday and made quite a sum—two taels and eight hundred copper coins. This silver includes Er Qiang’s and Xiao Hua’s shares, and each of them can get four hundred and sixty-seven copper coins."

Tian Erqiang, who had been drooping his head, perked up upon hearing Gu Jinli’s words and excitedly asked her, "Xiao Yu, are you serious? Our snake really sold for two taels and eight hundred copper coins, and Xiao Hua and I can each get more than four hundred copper coins? Each of us?"

Gu Dashan said, "Xiao Yu isn’t lying to you. Your snake really sold for two taels and eight hundred copper coins. We all saw it ourselves."

Gu Jinli opened the money bag and gave Tian Erqiang one tael of broken silver, saying, "You and Xiao Hua together make nine hundred and thirty-four copper coins. You need to give us sixty-six copper coins back."

Tian Erqiang took the silver, tears streaming down his face, lifting the silver to Uncle Tian: "Dad, this is our family’s silver, earned by me and Xiao Hua. We can earn money now. There’s no need for you and mom to keep skimping; our family will surely get by."

Uncle Tian’s eyes turned red with emotion. He hadn’t expected that the children could earn so much money in just one day up in the mountains—earned, not borrowed, and that was more important than anything else.

He took the silver with shaking hands, carefully stowing it into his inner pocket, and counted out sixty-six copper coins to give to Gu Jinli: "Xiao Yu, my whole family owes you our thanks."

Gu Jinli received the money with a smile and said, "What’s there to thank for? This is the money that Er Qiang and Xiao Hua earned. Now that they can earn, Uncle Tian, you don’t need to skimp like this anymore. Hurry and buy some cotton; it’s important. Better than getting sick from the cold and having to spend money on medicine."

With the nine hundred and thirty-four copper coins, Uncle Tian seemed to come to life. This was money they had earned, not borrowed, proving they could survive on their own hands.

"Okay, Er Qiang and I will go buy cotton and fabric now." They couldn’t afford to get sick from the cold; staying fit was essential to earn money and support the family.

Uncle Tian and Tian Erqiang took their baskets and went to the cloth shop to buy cotton and fabric.

When they returned, they were followed by brothers Gu Dafu and Gu Dagui, as well as Mrs. Chen.

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