When the three of them arrived home, Sun Mei was cooking in the kitchen. She was surprised to see that they had brought back a rabbit.
Afterward, Zhao Zhitong ran into the kitchen and recounted the story to Sun Mei.
Sun Mei nodded and fell silent for a moment, thinking about Wu Da’s situation. She was aware of the rumors about him, but she didn’t necessarily believe them. As far as she knew, Wu Da’s current mother was not his biological mother, but his stepmother. Just because of this, she had doubts about the rumors. However, they were not related and had no interactions, so it was none of her business. Still, since he had given their family a rabbit this time, Zhao Dong should go and give him the money for it another day.
She thought this, and that evening, she told Zhao Dong as much.
Zhao Dong immediately nodded, saying he would take the money to him the next day.
After finishing his work the next day, Zhao Dong took the money and a bag of flour to the burial ground at the foot of the back mountain. It was called a burial ground, but it was actually Mass Grave Hill, where nameless people were buried.
There was a dilapidated bamboo hut there, where Wu Da lived.
As he approached the bamboo hut, he saw that although it was rather dilapidated, it was kept quite tidy. Several rabbit pelts and a deerskin hung outside. The door was wide open, but there was no one inside.
He stood at the entrance and called out a few times, but there was no response from inside. Just as he thought no one was home, he suddenly heard footsteps behind him.
Zhao Dong turned around and saw Wu Da looking at him warily. Wu Da was holding a knife, and blood was still dripping from it.
To be honest, such a scene in this burial ground was quite frightening.
"What are you doing here?" Wu Da spoke first, his voice somewhat hoarse, as if from not having spoken to anyone for a long time.
Fearing a misunderstanding, Zhao Dong quickly smiled and explained his purpose.
"Thank you for the rabbit you gave my daughter yesterday. I’m not sure about the price of rabbits, so here’s some money and a bag of flour for you. Do you think this is enough?"
Wu Da, still holding the bloody knife with one hand, glanced at what Zhao Dong was holding. He thought for a moment, then wordlessly turned aside, put down the knife, washed the blood from his hands, and then walked towards the hut.
Zhao Dong watched as the other man remained silent, ignoring him and busying himself. He felt a bit awkward for a moment.
Just then, Wu Da came out of the hut. He was holding three animal pelts: one snow-white fox pelt and two gray rabbit pelts.
He came up to Zhao Dong and reached out to take the bag of flour, but he didn’t take the money pouch.
Then, he handed the three pelts to Zhao Dong.
Zhao Dong was stunned for a moment. He pointed at the pelts, then at himself. "For me?"
"Mhm," Wu Da grunted, pushing the pelts a bit closer to Zhao Dong.
Zhao Dong repeatedly waved his hands. "No, no, I can’t accept these. They’re too valuable."
Good heavens, these were real animal pelts! Especially that white fox pelt, it must be worth a lot of money.
However, Wu Da was stubborn. If Zhao Dong didn’t accept them, he just kept holding them out to him.
In the end, unable to refuse, Zhao Dong had to accept them. Wu Da wouldn’t take his money. Zhao Dong looked at the bag of flour he had brought and thought he would just bring him an extra bag of flour later.
When Zhao Dong returned home, Sun Mei was quite shocked. "Wait, didn’t you go to give him money? How come the money wasn’t given, and you brought back more things from him instead?"
Zhao Dong was also very helpless. That Wu Da was very stubborn; he wouldn’t even let him refuse the pelts.
After this, Zhao Dong’s family began to, intentionally or unintentionally, look after Wu Da a bit, occasionally sending him some grain.
Perhaps because he hadn’t eaten grains for a very long time, Wu Da really liked things like flour and rice. He wouldn’t accept anything else; he just liked grains.
However, their family also received quite a few pelts from Wu Da, bit by bit.
As autumn approached and the weather gradually cooled, Sun Mei used the pelts Wu Da had given them to make two pairs of knee guards. Zhao Dong took one pair to Wu Da, and Zhao Zhitong took the other pair to Scholar Meng on the Mid-Autumn Festival.
As for the remaining fox pelt, Sun Mei planned to make two capes for the two young girls in the family.
Time flew by, and soon it was late September. The construction of their courtyard house was proceeding very smoothly.
Meanwhile, Zhao Dong’s family also received the profits from the medicinal vegetables sent by Wang Fuhai. In one and a half months, their family had supplied Guang Ju Restaurant with vegetables three times—five cabbages and five radishes each time—and by today, they had earned over sixteen thousand silver taels!
When he received the money, Zhao Dong was completely stunned.
Wang Fuhai was beaming when he arrived, saying only that the medicinal vegetables had now become a red-hot item in the elite circles of Luoyang City.
The first time, they set the selling price at one thousand taels of silver per vegetable. At that time, everyone complained it was too expensive, and very few people came to buy.
However, Boss Feng was a marketing genius. After one free tasting event, the vegetables were instantly snatched up.
Afterward, as word continued to spread, the fame of the medicinal vegetables gradually grew in Luoyang City. Because they could strengthen the body and improve health, they were even hailed as being comparable to ginseng.
Later, because the quantity was limited, medicinal vegetables became a scarce commodity. The price soared, and eventually, they became something that even money couldn’t necessarily buy.
By today, the fame of the medicinal vegetables had already spread to the cities surrounding Luoyang City. Even on the streets of their own Anyang County, one could hear discussions about medicinal vegetables everywhere. However, because medicinal vegetables were currently only sold at Guang Ju Restaurant in Luoyang City, most people had only discussed them; not many had actually seen them.
The fifteenth and the end of each month were the sale days set by Guang Ju Restaurant for medicinal vegetables. As these two days approached, countless wealthy merchants and nobles would flock to Luoyang City.
After Wang Fuhai finished delivering the money to Zhao Dong, he was reluctant to leave. He insisted on staying for a meal at their house before happily taking a bundle of water spinach Zhao Dong gave him and departing.
Meanwhile, in Anyang County town, Lady Zhao and her family had finally found out the secret to Zhao Dong’s family’s wealth.
And so, she wrote a letter to her third brother overnight.
At that time, Zhao Chun was packing up his tavern, preparing to move to the county town, when he received the letter from his younger sister. Upon seeing it, he was completely stunned and exclaimed, "How is this possible!"
Xiao Wang was startled by her husband’s reaction and hurriedly asked what was wrong.
Zhao Chun took several deep breaths to calm himself before saying, "So, Second Brother made his fortune this way!"
As he said this, there was more than a hint of jealous, gritted-teeth resentment in his voice.
Then, looking at the bewildered Xiao Wang, he said, "Do you know about medicinal vegetables?"
Although Xiao Wang was a woman, medicinal vegetables were so hot right now that it was hard not to have heard of them. Therefore, she nodded. "They’re being discussed all over the streets. What’s wrong? What do medicinal vegetables have to do with Second Brother’s family?"
She would die before she connected medicinal vegetables with Second Brother’s impoverished family.
At this moment, Zhao Chun’s hands began to tremble. "Do you know that the medicinal vegetables were introduced by Guang Ju Restaurant?"