The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 275 - 264: High Price

Chapter 275: Chapter 264: High Price

Old Zhou glanced at the time and said to Ms. Feng, "Go check on Zhou Hu’s family and ask if your mother is coming back for dinner."

Ms. Feng acknowledged with a sound.

Ms. Qian had many children. Though she wasn’t a midwife, whenever someone in the village was giving birth, they liked having her sit in the yard, even if she did nothing, chatting with the woman in labor was good enough.

Ms. Feng came back quickly and said, "It won’t be so soon; the labor just started. It would be good if she can give birth by tonight."

So, everyone stopped waiting for her and began to pick up their bowls and chopsticks to eat. After dinner, Ms. Feng and a few others helped to collect all the dishes and take them to the kitchen. Today, it was Zhou Xi’s turn to wash the dishes.

Then, the adults moved their chairs and stools into the courtyard to sit and summarize the day’s work, while the children ran around playing. The older ones took burnt sticks to write and draw in the yard, all practicing the characters that Manbao had taught them.

Manbao taught them another piece from The Analects. It wasn’t long, just three sentences. She used a stick to write the characters clearly on the ground, taught them to recite it twice, and then dropped the stick to go listen to Second Brother.

Zhou Erlang took out the earnings from their trip to the city, and everyone couldn’t help but fixate because there were four well-strung strings of copper coins and a large pile of unstrung ones, seemingly amounting to fifty or sixty wen.

Zhou Erlang cheerfully said, "Dad, tofu and vegetables are cheap, but small profits add up. The wild mushrooms we brought sold well too. There were fewer people selling wild mushrooms this year, and those wealthy families are willing to spend."

Old Zhou was impatient. They had sold these things before and knew the prices. This wasn’t what he really wanted to know, so he went straight to the point, "Just tell me how much you sold the China root for."

The smile on Zhou Erlang’s face was irrepressible, "You definitely wouldn’t guess. The China root, still covered with soil, was all taken by Manager Zheng, weighed with the rind and all, at eighty wen per pound. The two pieces I brought totaled three and a half pounds, so I sold them for two hundred and eighty wen."

Just those two pieces of China root sold for as much as a basket of wild mushrooms, two baskets of vegetables, and two buckets of tofu that he took to the city.

Without that basket of wild mushrooms, we would probably have to add another basket of vegetables and a bucket of tofu to match the price of those two pieces of China root.

Old Zhou was also surprised, asking, "Is this stuff so expensive? Even more than privet seeds?"

Indeed, Zhou Erlang continued, "Manager Zheng said that some families’ elderly ladies and young mistresses like to use China root to make pastries and desserts, claiming it’s a magical beauty product, not at all inferior to cubilose. Hence a small box of China root can sell for two to ten taels."

Zhou Erlang still felt a bit regretful, "Our China root is large, and the flesh is white, which is considered top-quality. After processing, a box can easily sell for five taels. I have seen their boxes for the China root, definitely not enough to fit a pound, perhaps only about seven or eight taels."

Old Zhou started to do the math, "Should we cut it and dry it? Then our family can dry it ourselves..."

"Dad, don’t even think about it," Zhou Erlang interjected, "It’s not that simple. It has to be processed, and the China root is not like privet seeds, which only need to be scalded in hot water and dried. I heard there are several different methods, and each method yields a different type of China root, treating different ailments. There is one called something cinnabar processing, very difficult, I just can’t remember."

Old Zhou then looked towards Manbao.

Everyone else’s gaze also shifted towards her.

Manbao was listening with great interest. Seeing everyone looking at her, she blinked and asked, "What’s up?"

Old Zhou asked eagerly, "Manbao, did you see any books on processing medicinal herbs at Mr. Zhuang’s or Bai Shanbao’s house?"

Manbao thought for a moment and replied, "There seems to be a thin volume at Mr. Zhuang’s place."

Old Zhou’s eyes shone expectantly, "Can you understand it if you read it?"

Manbao knew what her father was getting at and said, "Dad, don’t even think about it, processing medicinal materials can easily fail. We don’t have any experts, we would have to buy cinnabar, and if the heat isn’t controlled properly, ruining it with a single error, not only would the cinnabar be wasted, but the China root too, such a waste."

How could this rare item be wasted like this?

With that, Zhou Erlang also came to his senses, saying, "Dad, just one pound of China root is worth eighty wen, even caked with mud and skin."

Manbao couldn’t help but say, "Second Brother, China root skin is also medicinal, of course, it needs to be sold with the skin."

"Oh, even the skin is medicinal?"

Zhou Erlang became even more reluctant to waste it, saying, "Dad, the skin needs processing too, even if Manbao could teach, we probably wouldn’t be able to learn."

Zhou Silang nodded fiercely, "Dad, this stuff isn’t easy to find."

Old Zhou sighed disappointingly, "Fine, then we’ll just keep looking for China root to sell."

But as he faced the prospect of losing so much money, Old Zhou still felt a pang in his heart and glared at his sons with disappointment, "Look at you all, grown up so tall, but can’t even process a single medicinal material."

The brothers: ...If you can, why don’t you do it yourself.

Actually, Zhou Dalang and the others felt they were already quite capable. When they were young, which of the things they do now did their father ever do?

Back then, their father only knew how to work in the fields, just not going hungry all year was enough, and the clothes for the brothers all came from their uncle’s family, passed down one after another.

Manbao, like her brothers, was easily satisfied. Her mentor had taught her and Bai Shan more than once to slow down, not to run forward as soon as she learned to walk, and certainly not to dream of flying to the sky as soon as she could run.

The former would fall hard and feel a lot of pain, which would pass after a while, but the latter could fall from the sky to the ground and die. Of course, these consequences were deduced by Manbao and Keke after a thorough discussion.

So, although she was always full of confidence, to some extent, she felt she was still very humble and self-aware.

Keke: As if!

Old Zhou asked Manbao to take out the account book and record the money Zhou Erlang had brought back that day. Then he began to take all the money; after thinking for a bit, he took ten wen from the loose change and gave it to him, saying, "Since you can get a price for the vegetables and tofu, go to the county town again tomorrow. Isn’t it mentioned that the veggies in Little Bay can be harvested now?"

"They can be harvested, but they are too tender. They’re tasty, but selling them now seems a bit of a loss for us."

"Then send the veggies from the vegetable garden again tomorrow, and in two or three days, the ones from Little Bay will be just right. Eldest’s family, go soak the beans now so you can make tofu early tomorrow morning."

Junior Ms. Qian acknowledged promptly.

Zhou Erlang took the ten wen, sighing sadly, thinking that it would be nice if his mother was at home. He knew that now his earnings from going to the city had to be handed over; he didn’t get a share for himself, so every time he went to the city, his mother would give him fifteen wen.

Apart from the travel expenses and protection money, he could save about five wen or so, enough to buy a bowl of hot soup to go with his dry rations in the county town, or occasionally indulge in a luxury like eating a steamed bun.

But today his father had only given him ten wen.

Manbao also felt that her father was being stingy and sympathetically glanced at Second Brother, then patted her butt and went to check on her nephews and nieces writing. Having bathed and changed her clothes, she couldn’t go out to play today.