Reborn as the Blissful Wife in the countryside
Chapter 79 - 079: Soybeans are a Treasure

Chapter 79: Chapter 079: Soybeans are a Treasure

Mrs. Chen immediately rushed up to Gu Jinli upon seeing her and said, "Xiao Yu, you sold those snakes for 2 taels and 800 copper coins? My goodness, how can a few worthless snakes be so valuable?"

She then blamed Gu Jinli, "Such valuable things, and you didn’t call your Aunt when you went to catch them. If Auntie had been there, surely I could have helped you catch dozens more."

Mrs. Chen felt so pained, wishing her family could have gotten a share of the money too.

Gu Jinli looked at her and said with a smile, "Alright, next time we go catch snakes, we’ll definitely invite Aunt Gui. But be warned, the snakes that sell for money are all extremely venomous, one bite could be fatal. If something happens then, Aunt Gui mustn’t blame me."

Afraid of death, Mrs. Chen’s face twitched upon hearing this, and she laughed awkwardly, "I... I will have to think it over carefully."

In the meantime, Uncle Tian and his son, along with Gu Dafu and Gu Dagui, carried goods back to the front of the grain shop.

Soon after, the Luo family also arrived at the grain shop after finishing their purchases.

The Luo family bought quite a lot of stuff, especially cotton fabrics which they bought in ample quantity. They were also responsible for ordering a few water jars: "A water jar is 500 copper coins. We ordered five. To have them delivered to the village, it would cost an extra 100 copper coins per jar. I didn’t opt for delivery; I’ve told the craftsman we will pick them up by the time of two hours tomorrow."

After the two-hour mark tomorrow, the shopkeeper and his family would be heading back to the countryside for the New Year and wouldn’t return until after the holidays.

"Alright, let’s finish our shopping quickly and head back so we can rest early. Before two hours tomorrow, we need to be in town to carry the water jars back." Third Grandpa finished speaking and led the group into the grain shop to purchase the most important commodity—grain.

The grain shop displayed several large pottery urns filled with various kinds of grains, with rice, flour, beans, and potatoes being the main items.

They also sold seeds, such as grain seeds, vegetable seeds, bean seeds, garlic bulbs, onions, and to her surprise, even dried chili peppers!

Upon seeing the chili peppers, Gu Jinli was genuinely amazed and pointed at them, asking the shopkeeper, "Uncle, what is this red thing?"

The shopkeeper glanced at her and ignored her, thinking she was foolish for not recognizing chili peppers.

Qin San Lang said, "These are chilis, similar to Zhu Ron and ginger, all spicy items. They were introduced from the regions beyond our borders during the former dynasty."

So, they were items that had been around since the former dynasty and came from beyond the borders, not across the seas.

Impressed by the diversity of Great Chu and seeing that Qin San Lang was knowledgeable, Gu Jinli asked him, "Are there potatoes or corn?" These were not in the original owner’s memory, who only knew about soybeans, sweet potatoes, and wild vegetables.

"Potatoes and corn? I haven’t heard of them; what are those?" Qin San Lang asked, furrowing his brow.

"They are two kinds of edible things I heard some old folks talk about during famine times; they probably grow in their mountains," explained Gu Jinli.

Worried that Qin San Lang would probe deeper, she quickly picked up a cloth bag and started picking out chilis, garlic bulbs, and onions, around one jin of each, and then went over to see how Gu Dashan and the others were selecting grains.

The items they bought the most were sweet potatoes and soybeans, both of which were cheap at three cents per jin, providing long-lasting sustenance when bought in large sacks.

Rice and flour were expensive, with new rice and new flour selling for thirty cents per jin; unpolished rice with husks was twenty cents a jin; millet was eighteen cents, while old rice was cheaper at fifteen cents per jin; there was also moldy rice, the cheapest at just five cents a jin.

Her family bought fifty jin of soybeans, fifty jin of sweet potatoes, twenty jin of old rice, ten jin of millet, and five jin of flour.

The Luo Family, Gu Damu’s family, and Gu Dafu’s family bought roughly the same as them.

Qin San Lang didn’t buy soybeans, purchasing only sweet potatoes, unpolished rice, and millet instead.

The Tian family only bought soybeans and sweet potatoes, along with one jin of old rice.

After paying with silver coins, they didn’t head back right away. Instead, each family left one person waiting in front of the grain shop while the others went to the butcher’s shops in town to buy meat. Meat was necessary for paying respects to their ancestors during the New Year.

Meat was pricey, especially pork fat, which sold for thirty cents a jin, a full ten cents more expensive than streaky pork, whereas lean meat was ten cents cheaper than streaky pork.

Gu Jinli’s family bought one jin of pork fat and one jin of lean meat. Aside from the Tian family, the other families each bought two jins of meat.

After finishing their shopping, it was nearly afternoon, and the families didn’t linger, hurrying back with their goods in tow. Gu Jinli had to carry a wooden bucket, a pottery basin, and various household items because of the many things they had purchased.

As they passed by the farmers’ stalls, they bought some eggs and a few other inexpensive miscellaneous items.

After the purchases, they left the town non-stop, hurrying slowly, and finally returned to the village at dusk.

When they passed by the old earth house where they had stayed the night before, they saw a few villagers surrounding the courtyard of the old earth house, with He Sanlai cursing loudly at the house.

Elder Mo was so angry that he yelled at them, "You better scram, or I’ll go to the village chief and file a complaint against you!"

San Lai laughed and said, "File a complaint against us? For what, gathering around Da Feng Village’s old earth house and talking dirty? The house belongs to our Da Feng Village, not to your Mo Family. You stayed in our house without paying silver coin, and you still have the nerve to complain about us? Where did you get the face to do that!"

"If you don’t want to pay the silver coin, it’s fine too, just call your eldest granddaughter out, let us ’kiss and hug’ her, and we will acknowledge you as people from Da Feng Village." After saying that, He Sanlai and the villagers burst into malicious laughter, infuriating Elder Mo.

A woman’s voice came from the old earth house: "I told you earlier that we shouldn’t skimp on the silver coin, but you had to pinch pennies, and look where that got us now!"

Third Grandpa and his group didn’t stop, quickly walked past the old earth house, and returned to the house they rented at the edge of the village.

Third Grandma and the others were already anxious, and when they saw them returning, women and children from all the families ran out of their houses.

"Are you finally back? Did you finish buying everything?" Third Grandma asked.

Third Grandpa put down his load and rubbed his shoulders, saying, "Yes, we’ve bought everything, but there are still five water jars – we’ll go get those tomorrow morning. Did everything go well at home today?"

"All’s well at home; we gave the village our silver coin, and with Elder Qin and Er Lang guarding, the village rascals didn’t dare come close."

Seeing that they brought so much stuff back, all the kids from the families were excitedly clinging to the bundles and wouldn’t let go.

The adults had no choice but to carry the bundles while letting them cling on, chattering all the way home.

Gu Jinli’s house had bought so many things that it took them a whole two hours to put everything in its place.

Mrs. Cui saw the cotton and fabric and said with heartache, "Why did we buy so much fabric? We could just buy some coarse hemp clothes – those can be made into clothes too."

"Mum, we will work hard to earn money, you don’t need to be so frugal," Gu Jinli said. "It’s not good to wear coarse hemp clothes during the New Year’s celebration."

Coarse hemp clothes were also used as mourning clothes, worn by those in mourning. Their family still had some silver coin, and during the New Year’s celebration, there was no need for every piece of clothing to be made from coarse hemp.

Although Third Grandma was also pained by the cost, she loved her children and immediately supported: "Xiao Yu wants you all to dress a bit nicer. We’re new to the village and should wear decent clothes, otherwise wearing too poorly, we will be even more looked down upon by the villagers."

After hearing this, Mrs. Cui didn’t say more and carefully put away the cotton and the two bolts of cotton fabric.

After the family finished organizing everything, they quickly ate dinner and went to bed exhausted.

The next day, before dawn, the men from several families rushed to the town to carry the water jars they had ordered the previous day.

After Gu Jinli got up, she ran to the Luo and Tian families to discuss using the old millstone in their courtyard.

Gu Jinli wanted to make tofu, and among the rented courtyards, only the Luo and Tian families had a dirty old millstone.

The adults of the two families naturally agreed.

Gu Jinli carried a wooden bucket to fetch water and wash the millstone.

Luo Huiniang, who got along well with her, came over to help, "Xiao Yu, can soybeans really be made into that tofu thing?"

While scrubbing the millstone, Gu Jinli replied, "Yes, they can. Soybeans are treasures. Aside from tofu, a lot of other food can be made from them, like bean cake, which can be eaten both as staple food and as a dish."

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.